The Final Frontier 8

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Text File | 1994-08-07 | 22.8 KB | 555 lines

TF01 3,I Locutus - Part 5 4,by Ryan Nicol Part Five here, after that long delay. I'm sorry about that, but at least now I'll have a new part posted every two days; maybe even every day, on occasion. At any rate, enjoy: Ryan. I, LOCUTUS ------------ by Ryan Nicol --------------- PART FIVE The Borg were everywhere. And more were still on their way, dissecting the Federations most prized vessel, taking it apart and adapting it to their own specifications. The Borg had a plan, no doubt, but whatever it was, it eluded the very upset Klingon Security Chief as he stared down at the engineering section, below him, swarming with Borg soldiers. He and the five security officers he had taken with him, armed to the teeth with phasers, had assigned themselves the task of re-taking engineering, getting to the warp reactor, and destroying the ship, hopefully taking a large part of the Borg ship with them. Worf knew that whether it was through his doing or through the Borg's, the Enterprise was doomed. And he preferred if it was through his doing. The Klingon security officer considered his next actions, then after a pause, stood up and began to move forward, towards the elevator that would take him to engineering. No spoken words were needed, and his security team followed right behind him. As the elevator doors closed behind them, Worf turned to the officers before him. "No one is to fire until I order it." He said quietly, but almost menacingly. "We will make our way towards the warp core reactors, and from there start the self-destruct program." "And if they've removed that from the memory banks?" One of the officers spoke up. That would be almost impossible to do, but when it came to the Borg, Worf knew all impossibilities had to be considered. "With or without the self-destruct, we will find a way to destroy the ship." As the elevator came to a halt, Worf quickly ordered the doors not to be opened. As if appreciating the Klingon's superiority, the computer acceded to his wishes, and they remained secure within the confines of the turbo-lift. "Ready..." He began, setting his phaser at the highest setting. "...and..." His hand hovered over the small handle that would allow the doors to be open when pressed. The ship rocked violently, throwing all the officers to the floor of the elevator, on top of each other. Worf managed to hold onto the side of the lift, but after another buffeting, he too joined his team in the assortment of arms and legs on the floor. Worf reached up for the handle once more, and as the Enterprise shook again, managed to open the doors and crawl out, phaser in hand, wondering about who would be attacking his ship. * * * * * * * * "The Borg are powering up their weapons, Captain." The lieutenant spoke from his station. Shelby continued to stare at the viewscreen, at the cube-shaped ship and the galaxy-class starship that hung together in space, orbitting the Earth. As if in response to the Lieutenant's warning, a powerful beam of energy lashed out from the side of the Borg ship. "Shields down by 90 percent... 80..." "Fire phasers and take out that beam." Shelby ordered, not taking her eyes from the image before her. "Firing phasers." Twin beams of energy lanced out from the USS Garrett, striking the Borg ship at the origin of its weapon. "We got through their shields, captain, but they are undamaged." "Prepare to fire anti-matter spread in..." "Captain! the Borg ship is increasing its power to its shields, covering the Enterprise with it, to protect it." The lieutenant called out. So it had been co-opted, Shelby thought. She wondered about Will Riker.... * * * * * * * * Worf turned to the tall security officer that stood beside him, at the engineering console near the warp reactor coils. "Mr DeMont, you will remain here. If you do not hear from me within half an hours time, you must drop the seal." Worf stared at him, calmly, searching the others face to see that he understood. "Aye, sir." DeMont responded. He knew that would be the death-knell for the Enterprise - dropping the seal that housed the anti-matter was like dropping a lit match in a vat of TNT; even more impressive. "And the Borg?" Worf glanced over DeMont's shoulder to see if they had been seen. So far, so lucky. "From all our previous encounters, the Borg have only reacted to our presence when we posed a visible threat." He replied. "So long as you don't do anything, they shouldn't be a problem. But, just in case, do your best not to be seen." DeMont nodded, then turned to seat himself behind the engineering console. Worf turned to join the rest of the security team at the turbo-lift. So the Borg had covered the Enterprise within its shields, he thought. That gave him a little latitude, and the chance to get the Enterprise to do more than a little damage to the Borg ship when it destructed. All he had to do was get to the Borg ship - now possible that they were in their shields - and disrupt the Borg consciousness, weaken them. After that, there was plenty of time in which to die. * * * * * * * * Riker froze. There had been a noise, he was sure. As he stood in the gloom of one of the long, winding tunnels in the labyrinth that was the Borg ship, he listened out for the remotest sound. And then he heard it; the sound of distant footsteps clanging on the steel gangway on which he was standing. The vibrations from those unseen beings' movements shot up Riker's leg. And he was sure they were coming for him. He was still linked to the Borg; he was sure of it. There was a part of him that was in touch with the Whole. They knew where he was and what he was doing, but he also knew their directives, sensed their group effort and that which they were trying to achieve. Part of it was Data; he had sensed that when he stood over Data's remains; he had known what had to be done. But a part of their objectives were also to stop him - he was a threat, something which could undermine the Borg. And that, he knew, could not be tolerated. The nightmare of what he had just escaped, and the nightmare of which he was now living sent his mind reeling in panic. The memory of all those faces lying on those tables, soulless, refused to leave his mind's eye. He remembered the face of Goshevon. It was the husk he had seen, that outer layer of meat, with nothing on the inside except circuitry and an artificialness that chilled him. He looked down at that mechanical arm that he held out before him, then turned quickly to escape. The vibrations had increased greatly now, as those that caused them neared. Riker broke into a run. It wasn't much of one, however, as he was still incredibly weak. But the thought of returning to that table drove him on and kept him moving as fast as his strength would allow. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough. Riker stopped dead in his tracks as he spotted the Borg soldier standing before him, a feeling of dread, and a strange notion of distant kinship - as vile as it seemed - crept into his mind. One and the same. A part of him was still... that. He turned to retrace his steps, but halted. Five Borg soldiers were nearing him from the other side, trapping him. Frantically, he looked at the two options which faced him - charge the one or be taken; for him, the latter was not even an option. Riker ran head-long towards the one Borg. The sound of a phaser screamed past him, accompanied by a beam of pure energy, and the Borg before him crumpled. Its place was replaced by a team of security men, led by Worf. "Commander....!" Worf yelled, as he hesitated, his weapon trained on the charging Borg. Then quickly, he ordered: "Hold your fire!" Riker reached the group, and turned to face the oncoming Borg. Seeing more Borg soldiers lumbering towards them, the security detail needed no stimulation to fire. Within seconds, and after changing the frequencies of their phasers twice, all five Borg were lying in a heap metres away from them. Worf looked at Will Riker. "It's good to see you, Mr Worf." Riker said, grimly. At Worf's look, he added: "I'm fine." "No, you're not, Commander." Worf replied. Riker nodded. The Borg had made him part of the whole. They had taken his soul, but had supplied him with knowledge. It's about damn time to use that knowledge against them, he thought. * * * * * * * * They were getting closer. It was only a matter of time before they had him, and Data knew it. He could only delude the consciousness for a brief period; throw only so many false leads in their trail that they would fall for. He didn't even have seconds before they had him, before they rooted him from their lair, like pulling a thorn embedded in flesh. And yet Will Riker was linked into the Borg consciousness. That gave him an edge.... * * * * * * * * Worf moved alongside Riker, slowing down his pace so as to allow the Enterprise's First Officer to take the lead, guiding them down the maze of passage-ways and steel corridors. He still held his phaser in his hand, ready to shoot. Klingons were always on guard, and when Worf was to be led down the enemy's ship by a friend who may have been compromised - even when that friend was a superior - he was not willing to leave things to chance. That was not the mark of a good Security Chief. "How much further?" Worf asked. He still was unsure of how much of Riker's story to believe - that Data was working inside the Borg consciousness, supplying him with the necessary information that was needed to render the Borg helpless, if that was indeed possible. "We're almost there." Riker answered, then pointed to a level above them, where a gang-plank extended out of the vast wall towering above them. "Data was fed into the Borg whole somewhere along here." "Commander!" Worf yelled, lifting his phaser to shoot the two oncoming Borg, who had appeared out of nowhere. "Phasers at maximum!" "No!" Riker countermanded, eliciting a sharp look from the Security Chief. "Fire to stun." The security team hesitated for a second, unsure of whose order to follow, then aimed and fired. The two Borg soldiers dropped. "Commander?" Worf looked at Riker, as if expecting an explanation. Riker didn't answer. Instead, he moved forward towards the two Borg. Worf followed, then looked down. The face of Ard'rian Mackenzie stared up at them; her eyes vacant, her head shaven, with an assortment of circuitry covering the left- half of her head. "Data alerted me to her presence." He said, then moved on. Worf turned to two of the security guards and nodded. The two picked up the Borg's body and carried it, not without a little difficulty, as they hurried after Riker and Worf. * * * * * * * * "Jean-Luc?" Beverly Crusher walked into the small room, a Borg soldier at her side. She had no idea why she had been taken to see Picard, but she was happy nevertheless. No one had seen the captain for quite some time. The Borg made sure no one neared him. But now that all had changed, and she had no idea why. The Borg soldier turned and left, leaving her alone with the alien, yet so familiar, figure before her. "That being no longer exists." Bev Crusher felt a chill run up her spine, as Jean-Luc Picard moved out of the shadows, towards her. It was him alright, but the way he looked at her, with that cold intensity as if he were studying a gnat.... "You are the Doctor." "Who are you?" She didn't want to know, but somehow it seemed insanely appropriate to ask. "I am Locutus of Borg." It responded. "We have reached the culmination of our plans. Earth has been assimilated; we now require my presence to speak for the rest of the colonies and worlds of the Federation. The process that resulted in my rebirth have proven successful. That is why you are here." Crusher hesitated, not sure what this creature wanted with her, but hoping for a sign of some glimmer of Picard, a side she could appeal to. But there was none. "You will aid the Borg in the assimilation of those on this vessel. You will help the Borg transmit the virus into those who will join us." "I refuse." She said, realising the futility of the statement. "Your refusal is irrelevant. You will comply with all the demands of the Borg." Locutus replied. "Once you have been assimilated into the Borg, you will aid us in all avenues open to you." With that, he lifted a device that he held in his hand. It looked like a syringe, not quite like a hypospray. "You will be one with the Borg." It said, moving with slow determination towards her. * * * * * * * * "Can we not order them to self-destruct?" Worf asked, curiously, as he and Riker stood before the vast array of terminals. Riker shook his head, and replied: "According to Data, the Borg have altered their command structure, so any command that could compromise them in the slightest has to be unequivocally agreed to by all the Borg. We can't supply them with the idea to go to sleep again, either." "What is there left to tell them besides this?" Worf asked in frustration, holding his phaser. "Not much." Agreed Riker, then turned back to the terminal in front of which he was standing. "But the Borg are spread over the entire ship, and in order to run their operation smoothly with as little damage to the Whole if one section is destroyed, the have to have certain distribution points, which they can cut off when one or a few of the Borg members have been compromised." "Such as when they self-destruct?" Worf asked, remembering the Borg soldier he had shot in the engineering section when Q had flung them into battle with the Borg. Riker nodded. "According to Data, that can also be done on a group level, where whole sections can be destroyed if they are compromised." "Such decisions could not be made by unanimously." Worf caught on. "They could not rely on the compromised section to agree to their own destruction." "Naturally." Riker concurred. "A section that was compromised could allow those who compromised them access to stop them from being destroyed." "Commander!" It was one of the security officers. "My tricorder reads over forty Borg soldiers moving in this direction. Others are also on their way!" So they had cottoned on to their plan, Riker thought grimly. That didn't leave him much time, but with Data's help, supplying him with the necessary information to operate these terminals.... A phaser whined behind him, and Worf turned, his own phaser in his hand and ready to fire. "Give me some time!" Riker yelled to Worf, above the noise of the phaser beams. To Worf it seemed as if the entire Borg ship had come alive. They were coming in from all directions, swarming in on them, without mercy. He fired, felling several Borg, but never enough. The Borg kept coming, walking over their fallen comrades with little if any care, with one purpose in mind. From the corner of his eye, he saw a Borg reach one of his security team members, smashing the officers body against a large terminal. He fired again, but this time the Borg had adapted.... "More time!" Riker yelled from the terminal at which he was working. The Borg were within metres of them, as the rest of his team fell back, closing themselves around their security chief and first officer. They continued to dispense their phasers' energy supplies, tossing the powerless ones aside and reaching to their belts for others. And still the Borg came. "A few more minutes!" Riker shouted above the raucous. "Minutes!" Worf shot a horrified glance at his First Officer. "Commander, we don't have seconds!" The white faces surrounded them, straight from the crypts of their individual slots in the Borg walls. Their large mechanical arms reached out before them, their targets in their sights.... "Commander!" "Just a few...!" The Borg soldiers, all of them, fell. In their pile of metal and flesh, they lay there unmoving, staring off into space ahead of them, eyes unseeing. "Commander?" Worf looked at the Borg soldiers surrounding them, as lifeless as the bodies on the table. "Their distribution points have been cut off." Riker explained, after a slight sigh. "Each section can no longer communicate with each other." "Not a moment too soon." Worf muttered, looking at the comatose Borg soldiers stretching all around them as far as the eye could see. * * * * * * * * "Captain, the Borg ship has powered down totally! Shields, weapons, everything!" The Lieutenant next to Shelby said, totally aghast. Shelby moved over beside him, staring at the instruments and their readings. "And the Enterprise?" She asked. The Lieutenant checked his sensors, then said, not without a little surprise in his voice: "Sir, the Enterprise shields are up, but she is reading a far larger amount of power than she should have any rights to have!" Shelby stared at her viewscreen for a moment. There the Enterprise and the large cube-shaped ship hung in space, orbitting the almost- destroyed Earth. Decisions. "Mr Felmers, you'll take an Away Team over there; see what the hell is going on." The Lieutenant looked up, a look of worry crossing his face. "Over... there?" "That's right, Lieutenant. So move it." As Felmers exited the Bridge, Shelby wondered what rabbit Picard had managed to pull out of the hat this time. * * * * * * * * Locutus stared out at the stars from the window before him. They were on their way, he knew. After all, he was in contact with them. Their recent loss was merely a slight setback in the master-plan. They were on their way, this time in force, and they wouldn't be stopped. And this Galaxy-class ship, the pride of the Federation, was to lead it to its grave. * * * * * * * * Beverly Crusher watched the Borg standing over her, making sure she did not leave Sickbay; not that she was going to. Locutus had injected her with the virus, and she was well on her way to becoming a Borg. Already the process had been set into motion; she realised this after she performed a quick brain scan on herself. Sure enough, her individual brain cells were being overridden; supplemented with those suitable for a Borg; a soulless creature. Nor did the Borg have to be connected to the whole through mechanical means anymore. This "bug", as Locutus had explained it to her, formed their own links to the Borg whole without the necessary machinery and distribution nodules. That was why the Borg on the Enterprise, all of whom had been injected with the virus before being beamed to the starship, still functioned with their mothership shut down. Naturally, Locutus had said, they would still be assimilated into the whole, connected to machines and certain body parts being supplanted with mechanical features - that improved functioning; the thought of "mechanical features" being attached to her pushed her on. There's no way in Hell I'm becoming one of you, she thought, studying the inner workings of the virus. A weak link, somewhere. Somewhere.... * * * * * * * * Riker felt the familiar, reassuring feeling of a transporter beam envelop him. The last time he had felt that was on Beta Auriquae V, in a Borg transporter beam - it seemed so long ago.... "Will!" He looked up to see himself staring into the eyes of Captain Elizabeth Shelby. Obviously, she hadn't been expecting her Away Team to be bringing back... this. "Captain." He said, forcing a smile. "Even the position of first officer isn't enough, huh?" Only then he noticed Worf's arm holding onto his, propping him up. "Get him to Sickbay." Shelby said, turning to the medics who had just entered with a mobile diagnostic bed. Gently, he was placed on the bed, and rushed out of the transporter room. "Captain!" A voice over the intercom boomed. "This ship is more busy than the Enterprise." She muttered to Worf, then called out: "What is it, Mr Granger?" "Sensors are picking up two ships, heading this way... at Warp nine. Readings indicate they are Borg." * * * * * * * * Riker stared across the Sickbay area to the diagnostic bed where doctors were working. Every now and then, he caught a glimpse of Ard'rian Mackenzie's pale face, staring upwards into nowhere. He could have been like that, if it hadn't been for Data. Data... He had been left alone on the Borg ship, his body pieces having been brought with them to the USS Garrett. But his consciousness.... "How are you feeling, Commander?" Shelby looked over from him, catching him off-guard. He looked away from where Ard'rian Mackenzie lay, and up at the red- headed captain. "What Captain Picard felt when he went through it. What he's feeling now..." "You know?" Shelby looked slightly flustered. "Worf told me while we were on the Borg ship." Riker whispered, then asked: "And you?" "I heard from Admiral Ranklin, in other words Starfleet command." Riker frowned. "How is that possible? We only found out..." Shelby nodded, slowly. "They knew, Will. That's why they stopped offering commands to you after that incident at Wolf 359, even when we needed good captains to make up for the ones we'd lost." She sighed, but from the look on Riker's face, continued: "They knew about it from Captain Picard's medical files, but kept it quiet. I think those who knew thought they could use it to get at the Borg again, once the Borg had set the virus off and he became Locutus. It seems to have backfired completely, though." "They knew?" Riker repeated, not quite comprehending what he had just heard. All that time since Wolf 359, he had never been offered another post. To keep him on the Enterprise, to be at hand in case something happened to Picard, no doubt, to be able to use the situation as he had previously. But that hadn't worked. The Borg got him first. "We're all pawns, Will." Shelby muttered. "And when it comes to survival, and the Borg, Starfleet also plays dirty." Worlds apart, yes. But Riker wondered how much lowering of ones own standards it would take to defeat the Borg. Starfleet had lowered itself below any moral decency, and it had backfired all the way back to Earth. END OF PART FIVE