GreenSlugg - Science, Reason, Faith

The Voyager

G.S. Muse

Copyright Information: This piece is fan fiction. While some of the characters and Alien Races are original works, most of the content here comes from the Star Trek franchise, and Voyager in particular. This piece is published as fan art with no intention to sell this story, and is published in good faith that all of the content within is covered under fair use. Other franchises include references to Doctor Who, and Stargate, as well as to generalized science fiction themes not included in the canon Star Trek universe.

The Voyager, Part 1

The woman’s voice called out in the darkness “Doctor… Doctor”

I opened my heavy eyes. The blonde woman looked at me through youthful blue eyes.

“Kes?” I asked

She smiled. “That was my grandmother’s name.”

My eyes adjusted. The young woman looked like she had some Ocampan ancestry, but she certainly wasn’t Kes.

“Doctor, if you are feeling okay, the captain would like to see you on the bridge.”

By “Doctor” I realized she was referring to me!

“My name is Ensign Harry Kim.”

She looked at me, smiling again.

“You haven’t been an ensign in many years Doctor.”

She gently pulled my hand, and I followed. The doors of the sickbay opened automatically as we walked through.

The halls were filled with unfamiliar faces, all terrified, and wearing a form of StarFleet uniform I had never seen before.

We rushed past a wall with an orange and yellow holographic mural of Tom Paris. I stared, a knot growing in my stomach.

Within minutes we walked through another set of doors, and stepped out onto the bridge.

A blonde woman with her back to me said “Good evening Doctor.” in a commanding and authoritative voice. I recognized that voice.

“Seven?” I asked.

The woman stood up and turned to me. A white streak on the side of her hair complimented her blonde features. Her face was slightly worn, but still strong, and graceful.

A young woman approached her, dark skin, and pointed ears, with slight cranial ridges, suggestive of some Klingon ancestry.

“Captain, I made those adjustments you suggested to the shield generators, but we were unable to implement the plasma charges into the new bioneural circuitry sensors.”

Seven took the pad from her hand, and looked at the display. I looked around the room as the two discussed the situation. The faces around the room were from several alien races, some I recognized, and some I did not. There were Vulcans, Humans, Klingons, a Denobulan, and most surprisingly, a Vidian - free of the Phage that had once plagued their people, along with faces from other races.

One of the Vulcans turned and walked towards me staring at a pad, and I realized he had a mild ridge on his forehead. My mouth slightly opened with the realization that he was half Romulan.

The woman they were all calling “Captain” turned to me.

“Seven?” I asked once again, confused.

She smiled, “Doctor, thank you for coming.”

The young Ocampan woman lead me to a seat off towards the right of the Captain’s chair, just out of range of the camera’s that would relay viewscreen communication.

The dark-skinned Klingon woman announced “We’re coming up to the target, we’re within range.” Her voice was shaking. To say that she had fear in her voice would have been a great understatement.

Stars appeared on the view screen, and we came out of warp - if it could have been called warp.

The image on the view screen panned and a planet came into view. The planet was red with large tracts of green veins with an unnatural glow.

New stars began to appear in the sky all around us. They were moving. These were ships.

“Captain!” The young Klingon woman alerted

“I see them Ensign.” Seven announced

“Commander Uhura, you may fire when ready.”

“Understood Captain.” Responded a very large Klingon man. At a command station behind her.

“Have we loaded the nanite grenade?” Asked Seven

“Yes Captain.” Responded the young man with the Romulan and Vulcan features.

“Fire!” She ordered

A burst of green light emitted in the viewscreen, with a diagram of a small object in the lower right hand corner.

The ship shook violently.

“Report!” Ordered the Captain

“We’re taking fire. Our shields won’t last much more than two minutes.” Reported the half Romulan

“That’s not going to be enough time to confirm contact with the surface!” Objected a human female.

“Pull us back, full impulse!” Ordered the Captain

Seven decided not to go to warp, suggesting that she had a plan, and was trying a tactical strategy to circle back around.

The ship shook violently with repeated jolts.

“Captain, two dozen Borg ships just dropped out of warp.”

My heart sank. The green veins on the planet - the realization dawned on me. We were attacking a Borg world!

“Activate the bioneural auto-defense relays, and fire at every ship within range.”

She turned in her chair.

“Lieutenant, how long before we can reactivate the slipstream drive?”

“It’s going to be another three minutes before our engines are charged, and if we go to warp before we can activate the slipstream drive, we’re going to lose at least forty percent of our shields.”

“Maintain our tactical maneuvers, and activate the slipstream drive as soon as Voyager can make the jump!”

There was a dim flickering in the lighting in the room, and then another. A faint red whirlpool appeared in space. Borg ships of all types began to appear, exiting the newly formed wormhole.

Voices echoed around the ship, and I realized quickly that they were coming from inside my head - the sounds of the Collective.

“Oh my God, it’s her!” Said the young Klingon woman.

“Ensign Tuvok, report!” Ordered Seven

“Twenty three Borg ships emerged, all elite Jade-Empress class vessels.” responded the Klingon woman.

Ensign Tuvok? I thought immediately about the mural to Tom, and the aged features on Seven’s face. How much time was I missing? I looked intently at the Klingon woman and realized that her features were a combination of Lietenant Tuvok, and B'elanna Torres.

Tom, what happened to you? What happened to Voyager?

Fear was growing inside me. What were Jade-Empress class vessels, and why were we invading Borg space?

These thoughts passed through my mind in mere seconds, before I was interrupted with another voice.

“Why do you resist me Seven?”

I knew that voice! I’d heard it everyday of my life since the day I was assigned to Voyager and stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

“She’s sending in her ships.” Announced a human male in his early twenties with a tan complexion and dark facial tattoos.

The image on the viewscreen began to distort, and a three dimensional hologram began to take shape.

“I can’t keep her out!” Yelled one of the vulcan females in a terrified voice.

“Dear God, please keep her out!” She added

“T’Pel” The image said “Don’t you know that I am the Empress herself? I am God!”

The image of Captain Janeway fully formed in the hologram in front of us, only this was no longer Captain Janeway. She wore a black body suit with green patterns stretching throughout, and had long brown hair resting on her shoulders. Above her left eye rested an ocular implant, like Seven’s, and from her right jaw grew elegant tendrils stretched across her face in a graceful pattern, but I could not tell if they were living or machine.

She smiled, an inviting, dark smile, and widened her arms, the ship jolting from the impacts.

“Seven, I’ve always been a mother to you, and my how you’ve aged. We’ve missed you greatly. Won’t you come back to us?”

The image of Seven’s mother and father appeared beside Janeway, each of them with Borg implants, and each of them, smiling, and looking longingly out from the hologram.

“Continue your ordered tasks. Ignore her. She’s trying to manipulate us and get inside our heads.” Seven ordered

“And young ones,” She looked at Ensign Tuvok, as well as the young Ocampan woman, and several others. “there is nothing to fear, our family is big enough for all.”

The image of several more people joined her, including a Borg-assimilated form of B'elanna Torres.

“YOU MONSTER! WHAT DID YOU DO!” Demanded Ensign Tuvok

“Ignore her Ensign!” Seven Ordered

“That’s my mother!” The Klingon woman screamed

Seven turned to the Vulcan woman “T’Pel,” The ship shook violently “She’s trying to get into your head. You need to resist her!”

“Resistance is futile, my lovely child.” Janeway consoled

Then she turned to me. My heart was racing. Surely she could not see me, I was out of range of the viewscreen cameras!

But she did! She made direct eye contact with me, and I could not look away.

“My Harry. You’ve always been like a son to me. I know how much Libby meant to you. She’s here with me, along with your family, and they want you to join us.”

That made me feel sick to my stomach. Had Libby really been assimilated? Had she really taken my family? Was Earth conquered by the Borg?

I jumped from my seat, screaming as hard as any man had ever screamed since our first days in the caves “YOU’LL DIE FOR THIS!” And I lunged towards the hologram, grabbing nothing but air, and falling to the floor.

“Captain, we’re ready to go to slipstream.” T’Pel announced with heavy breathing

“Do it!” She ordered.

The image of the Janeway Borg Queen faded, and the jolts ceased.

“Damage report.” Ordered the Captain

Terrified Starfleet voices began giving reports, one after the other.

The Ocampan woman helped me to my feet. My head was reeling. Why was I unable to remember anything, and how was I able to hear the Collective?

The Voyager, Part 2

The Ocampan woman helped me to find my balance. I ran my hand across my forehead, nursing my headache.

“We’re coming out of slipstream captain.” T’Pel announced

I looked up, terrified. We’d only escaped the Borg a few moments before. If we’d lost our ability to go faster than light after only a few moments, we’d be attacked like a bleeding rabbit running through a large pack of wolves.

But instead of Borg cubes, a planet appeared on the screen in front of us. It was blue and green, with ivory cities. Streaks of red across the forests complimented the green vegetation, especially towards the North, and two brilliant moons with shades of red gracing their mountains and landscapes hung in the sky.

I turned to Seven.

“This is Nahor” She said, referring to the planet in the holoscreen

“The Borg!?” I asked

The Ocampan Woman responded “Nahor is in the heart of the Beta Quadrant, seventy thousand light years from the Borg world you saw a few moments ago.”

I was stunned. I looked around the room, in shock. Men and women were working at their stations, as if nothing unusual had happened.

I looked at the Ocampan Woman.

“Seventy thousand light years in two minutes?” I asked

“That’s right.” She said, unperturbed. “The Borg can’t reach us here.”

My head began throbbing again.

“Let’s get you back to sickbay.” She said

I followed her, looking back at Seven for a moment and those who were serving aboard the bridge of the ship.

I saw faces on the way back to sickbay, some I recognized, most I did not.

We emerged inside the sickbay. It was larger than I’d remembered.

“What’s your name?” I asked the Ocampan woman.

“Sarah” She responded.

I sat on one of the bio beds. She bent over, pulling out a drawer with a series of medical tricorders, and when she did, a small necklace, a gold cross fell out from the front of her uniform.

This was a rare sight, even on Earth, where Christianity had originated.

“Can I help you Doctor?”

There was an unspoken implication that I’d been looking down the front of her shirt. Immediately I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

“I … uhm ...I”

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before doctor. You’ve given me my monthly and quarterly physicals since I was a little girl.”

“No! That’s not … where did you get that necklace?”

She looked at me, eyeing me with suspicion.

“It was my grandmother’s. She gave it to me when I turned one.”

Just then Seven entered the room.

“Harry, how are you doing?”

I hesitated.

“I’m … I’m not really sure.”

“What do you remember?”

I thought for a minute.

“I remember getting stuck in the Delta Quadrant. I remember Neelix’s cooking. I remember you being Liberated from the Collective, but beyond that my memory is in patches.”

Seven nodded “That was twenty one years ago. Do you remember the upgrades you just received?”

I shook my head.

What did she mean by upgrades?

“Your brain is still adjusting to the implant. Your memories will return soon. It’s a normal part of the process.”

“What process?” I asked, demanding an answer

“Doctor, perhaps it would be easier for both of us, if we start at the beginning, and that will help your memory to recover more naturally.”

I sighed, and reluctantly nodded.

“Sarah will fill you in, but keep in mind that your memory will not recover all at once. It will take time.”

“Okay” I said, sighing deeply, not really wanting to wait for whatever time it would take for my memories to recover.

Seven left to attend her duties as ship’s captain.

Sarah offered me a cup of tea. I declined. She set it aside, and sat on the bed across from me.

“Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant after seven years of being lost in deep space. The Borg suffered severe loss with Voyager’s destruction of the transwarp conduit, but the Alpha Quadrant had already been devastated by the war. Hundreds of worlds lost throughout the quadrant.”

“Earth?” I asked

“Earth was still intact, but the crew was immediately ordered to StarFleet headquarters upon returning from their long journey.”

A beeping noise came from a nearby console. Sarah stopped talking.

“Do you mind walking with me Doctor?”

“I’d prefer if you’d call me Harry.”

“Okay, … Harry.”

I followed her down the corridor to a nearby crew quarters. She knocked on the door, and waited for an answer before giving a voice command to enter.

“Augustine, are you here?”

Sarah walked around in the dark room. I followed her.

“Augustine?”

My heart jumped at the sight of a man sitting in the dark, silently.

“Computer, turn up the lights by one quarter.”

The lighting increased.

I was surprised to see the Doctor, the real Doctor, sitting in a corner, not even looking in our direction.

“Augustine, can you hear me?” Sarah asked, with the same gentleness of her grandmother.

The Doctor looked at us.

“Captain Janeway and I are going to play a game of golf this afternoon.”

He smiled.

Of all the things I’d seen, this more than anything broke my heart.

Sarah held the Doctor’s hand, and turned back to me.

“When Voyager returned to Earth, Kes suggested sharing the technology that Voyager had collected with the rest of the Federation, and with other Alpha Quadrant species.”

“Kes?” I asked

Sarah nodded “She’d returned twice to Voyager, once in anger, believing the Voyager Crew had betrayed her, and once to return as a full member of the crew.”

Sarah continued “Her most controversial proposal was to violate the Prime Directive and share technology with every species that would agree to help to resist the Borg, including those who had not yet achieved warp drive.”

My eyes widened. The Federation was seriously entertaining the notion of violating one of our most deeply held principles, and not just in a moment of mercy, but in a complete reversal and intentional onslaught against the core of everything we once held dear.

I didn’t know how to take this in.

“Tensions grew high within the Federation ranks, but in less than two years it became clear that the Federation had no choice. The Alpha Quadrant was already shattered by war, and then the Borg attacked.”

Kes stood up.

“Captain Janeway agreed to lead Voyager, in an onslaught against the Borg invasion, by sharing Federation and Borg technology with anyone who would agree to resist.”

“My implant?” I asked, pointing to my head

Sarah nodded.

“Captain Janeway and I are going to play golf.” The Doctor said

“That’s right Augustine!” Sarah assured

“Your implants assist your higher brain functions. They connect with the ship’s computer, and allow you instantaneous access to the medical databases.”

Sarah exchanged nicities with the Doctor, before we left.

“Are you saying that the only thing that qualifies me as a ‘doctor’ is a glorified Borg implant!?”

Sarah shook her head, as we walked down the hall passing various crew members.

“You studied under the highest minds at Denobula’s most renowned medical university.”

“Then why don’t I remember ANY of this!?” I asked the last part in a loud tone, that caused a few people to stop and stare.

Sarah’s tone changed “Once your brain adjusts to the upgraded implant, the connections to your memory engrams will reform around the device.”

I closed my eyes, holding back tears. “And what if they don’t?”

“Then we will figure out what needs to be done, like we always do, Doctor.”

She looked at those around us before looking at me and adding “We will adapt.”

We entered the mess hall where a crew of Ferengi in white robes wiped down tables, and were preparing a meal.

“Is there anything I can get for you my friend?” Asked a young Ferengi woman in a soft and gentle voice.

“I could use some tea, I guess.” I said, rubbing my right temple.

She gave a slight bow, and walked away towards the kitchen.

We sat down at a table by the window, the jewel of a planet hanging in space above us.

“Tell me what happened next.”

Sarah looked out towards the planet.

“The Federation agreed to send out ships, scarab class. Inspired by the Delta Flyer, these small vessels would transport small crews and allow them to share our technology across the Alpha Quadrant. But after the Rochester Revival, tensions rose. Missionaries requested passage aboard these ships, and the Federation reluctantly agreed, as long as these missionaries agreed to share our technology, and to not convert any native by force.”

Our conversation was put on a brief pause as the Ferengi woman brought us two cups of green tea, and to my surprise, placed a small rice bowl in front of me, along with a platter of stir fry vegetables mixed with slices of pork, beef and chicken.

I looked at the Ferengi woman.

“Please Doctor, you must eat. You need your strength.”

My stomach was in knots, but the smell of the meal filled my nose and crept inside my mouth.

I picked up a pair of chopsticks, and before I realized what was happening, I greedily shoveled large portions of rice, vegetables, and slices of meat dripping with sauce into my mouth.

I realized the young woman was still standing next to me, quietly.

I looked at her, feeling awkward.

“Is there anything else I can do for you Doctor?”

“No thank you.” I responded

The woman, gave a slight bow and left.

“You act like you've never seen a Ferengi before.” Sarah observed

She stirred the contents of her small teacup.

“You said that we shared our technology with pre warp civilizations? What happened after that?”

Sarah took a sip of her tea.

“Most races have begun to adapt. Many excelled well beyond our expectations. The Han were dismissed as a race of primitive cave dwellers, far too early in their evolution to contribute anything to Federation society. Starfleet was reluctant to spare even a small ship.”

“Did they?” I asked

“Four years after the missionary Josiah West landed on their world, the Hann developed a working stimulation of the slipstream drive that now powers Voyager.”

I stopped eating for a moment, forgetting entirely about the food in front of me.

She reaffirmed “The Han did all of this having never seen a warp drive before the missionary’s arrival. Now they are one of our greatest allies in our fight against the Borg. They teach at our greatest universities, and lead centers of science and economics. They also serve as some of our greatest philosophers and theologians.”

A bright light shone through the window. Glowing red streaks the color of hot metal stretched around the planet like long fingers. The mess hall fell silent. The planet fell apart like a cracked egg, and molten continents flew into space in all directions. A bright white wave flew in our direction.

There was no time to run, no time to panic, and no warning. The wave hit the window of the mess hall shattering metal and glass. The air was sucked out of the ship, men and women screaming as they were pulled into space.

I managed to grab a twisted metal bar that was jutting out of the side of the hull. My lungs ached at the loss of air pressure, feeling like they had been punched from the inside.

I looked down in terror. The side of the ship was gone, nothing between the mess hall and empty space. The planet was gone, replaced by a violent field of debris, and a ship was approaching us. I recognized it. It was a ship from Species 8472, a wormhole from fluidic space growing behind, but the ship was embedded with the green and black upgrades of a BORG vessel.

The red and orange walls of a slipstream gateway grew around Voyager, and soon the nightmare hybrid ship was gone.

A force field formed around Voyager, and I was pulled back into the mess hall by the artificial gravity. I could breathe again, even though the wall was still damaged.

I struggled to catch my breath.

“Doctor are you okay?” Seven’s voice echoed inside my head.

It was some sort of com in my Borg implant.

“I - I … they’re dead! Sucked out into space!”

“Doctor, I need you to focus, save the patients you can, don’t waste time on those you can’t. I’m arranging a site-to-site transport.”

Large, solid metalic gold rings appeared around me making a mechanical noise.

The mess hall dissolved around me and was replaced by the inside of sickbay. Patients were being rushed to the biobeds. Some wore civilian clothes, others wore Starfleet uniforms, and a few wore uniforms that I did not recognize.

The back wall opened up revealing rows of rooms with basic biobeds. The ships was rearranging its internal structure, creating extensions for the patients being flooded into sickbay, an ability Voyager had been upgraded with. The makeshift biobeds being created by the ship were not as advanced as those built into Sickbay, but they were going to be enough to save lives.

Medical knowledge came flooding back to me. Treatments and procedures from thousands of cultures were resurfacing in my mind.

Amidst the screams of panicking voices I managed to collect my thoughts. “Computer, can we put any of the patients into medical suspended animation for the time being?”

A gentle female voice responded “Negative, ship’s systems are damaged. Medical suspended animation not possible at this time.”

“Can we use a transport beam and save any of the patients?”

“Negative, all transport buffers are at full capacity.”

A young man, was carried through the doors, his left arm was hanging around another crewman, and with his right he was holding the contents of his stomach inside his body. A three foot piece of metal shrapnel protruding from his stomach.

“Unless you are dying, or have medical experience, everyone out!” I yelled.

Several people with broken arms or legs began exiting the sickbay.

I looked at the patient. I grabbed a pair of medical scissors, and cut off his uniform shirt. The shrapnel wasn’t coming out of his back. I lifted him, the patient screaming, and placed him on his back on one of the biobeds. Apparently the Borg implants gave me enhanced strength as well.

“I need an auto suture, we need to stop this bleeding.” A crewwoman handed me the small device.

I held the device over the patient. Blue light beams began closing blood vessels around the jagged metal. I was almost finished when blood started pouring out of the patient’s mouth, coughing sounds and bubbles of blood spewing four feet into the air.

“We’re losing him!” I called out

I thought of what Seven said, of the other dying patients. The transports and suspended animation were out of commission, and I wasn’t willing to lose so many lives.

A memory came flooding back! The image of a vial with two metal tubes inside in the shape of a double helix. I ran towards the center of sickbay, feeling like I was moving through molasses.

I pushed the button, entered the pass code, and the vial slowly emerged from it’s storage container.

I grabbed the vial, and ran towards the patient, injecting the nanites directly into his heart. The patient screamed, blood pouring everywhere, but within a minute, he was breathing normally.

I looked at the other patients, more than fifty lives in my hands, dying. Some were missing an arm or a leg, one man was only half a body, and unconscious. I ran to each of them, injecting the nanites from the vial, injecting the patients in the worst condition first.

While injecting a patient I put in a command to the computer to make a ship-wide announcement “Attention all hands. This is the Doctor. If there are any patients requiring immediate treatment for life-threatening injuries, please report to sickbay immediately.”

I stopped before adding “And if there are any bodies of recently deceased crew or passengers, please bring them immediately to sickbay as well. … I may be able to save them.”

Part 3

The holographic image of a young woman with short, dark, rose-red hair flickered in the sickbay.

“Emergency Medical Hologram activated” She said in a gentle voice.

“Doctor, what’s happening?” She said as she ran over to a patient, and began treating her.

“A planet was just destroyed and the ship took heavy damage.” I responded

“Who attacked us?”

“It was Species 8472, but they looked different.”

“Different how?” She asked, suturing the screaming patient.

“They looked like they’d been assimilated by the Borg.”

The hologram looked at me, terrified.

“God help us!” She said

“I’m activating the biobeds in both Sickbay and the expansion.” She said “I can treat the patients directly from inside their pods.”

Glass pods formed around each of the biobeds.

“I can treat the patients from...” She hesitated “Doctor ... what did you do?”

“I used the nanites.” I said

“Doctor!” She said, in a voice that expressed pain and disbelief.

A patient, the man with the shrapnel still sticking out from his stomach began screaming again. Blood began streaming from his eyes and his ears. It took me a moment before I noticed the metallic glint behind the red.

One by one the rest of the patients in Sickbay began to scream, blood coming from every opening in their bodies.

“Doctor, you need to go, there are patients on the ship who need you!”

“What about -”

“I’m a hologram Doctor, with the most sophisticated computer processors in the Federation, I can treat any number of patients simultaneously. But my emitters are down on decks D through G, and I can’t sense anything on the Bridge. Go!”

I looked at my vial, there were still enough nanites to treat more patients.

“It’s your call Doctor” The EMH said in a tone that was submissive, but urging me to reconsider.

I ran towards the bridge stopping periodically to save critically injured crewmen with the nanoprobe injector. As long as their brain was mostly intact, the nanoprobes could still save them.

I had to pry the doors to the bridge open with my bare hands. The room was dark except for the flickering lights and stray flames. Shattered glass scattered across the floor, along with chunks of metal and wires. Blood pooled on the floor, and sprayed up the walls and ceiling. I stepped over the debris, looking for bodies, looking for anyone I could help.

I noticed an open door to a small hallway, lights on in one of the rooms. I walked closer.

Bridge personnel were adapting computer stations. The layout of the room was shifting creating a new, temporary bridge. Biobeds grew out off the walls, surrounded by glass pods. Sarah, Kes’s granddaughter, slept in one of them.

I ran over to her, pulling up her medical charts in a holographic projection. She’d been exposed to the vacuum of space, and had massive internal bleeding, but someone had treated her internal wounds.

“Doctor, can I speak with you for a moment?” I turned around. Seven was standing in the middle of the new bridge.

“I need to treat her!” I objected

“She’s in stable condition. I need to speak with you now Doctor.”

I stalled, checking Sarah’s vitals. She would be okay for now.

“Doctor, this is an order.”

I pressed my com badge “Doctor to the EMH. How long before your systems are back online, and you are able to access the rest of the ship?”

The EMH responded “It may be awhile before we are able to repair all of the holo emitters, however all critically injured crewmen are now in biobeds, and are in stable condition for now.”

“Understood.” I said

I followed Seven, reluctantly.

Once we were alone, I objected. “In matters of medical urgency, I outrank you Captain.”

Seven turned to me “You think the life of one crewman outweighs the entire galaxy? Do you think her life outweighs the value of the entire Creation? This is bigger than one crewman Doctor!”

I looked at her gritting my teeth “What is it Captain?”

Seven walked towards a consol. A holographic display of the world we’d just left came on, filling an entire wall. The red moons, and red streaks of vegetation were just as clear as the moment I’d looked out the window onto this world for the first time.

“Over seven billion lives lost in a single moment.”

Seven’s words hung in the air.

“Seven?”

She didn’t answer.

I tried to reassure her “There is nothing you could have done. Those ships came out of nowhere, and destroyed that world with weapons that we could not have hoped to resist.”

“So resistance is futile? The enemy comes to our doorstep and we just keep running?”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

No one spoke for a moment.

“The Federation has raised up thousands of races, spreading warp technology to the four corners of the galaxy, sharing weapons, and knowledge with all who were willing to take up arms against the Borg, but at what cost?”

Seven pulled up a small holographic screen, and looked at it momentarily before swiping it away.

“Two sentient races were native to this this world, the Nekki and the Frell. Like any cultures, they had their flaws, but war was rare for them. Then we came to them, and shared our technology, dragging them into our war, and making them a target for the Borg and their dogs!”

“What are you saying? Should we have left them without technology? Should we have left them without the ability to defend themselves? Should we have hoped that the Borg would have left them to their primitive ways, until the Borg had consumed the galaxy and darkened every world, until one day remembering this pathetic little world and swallowing it whole?”

Seven turned to me “What right did we have to interfere with the natural development of other cultures? What right did we have to create other civilizations in our own image?”

Seven lowered her voice “Perhaps we aren’t even meant to be out here. Maybe our races should have remained in the caves or gardens from which we came.”

At that moment, Sarah hobbled into the room, barely able to walk, leaning her weight against the wall with sweat dripping from her pale face.

What was she doing out of the biobed? I ran over to her, holding her up.

“Captain! I’m sensing a distress call!” She was breathing heavily, barely able to stand.

I looked at a holographic terminal. “Nothing has come through the ship’s logs, you’re confused Sarah, you have to lay down.”

“NO! … Captain, you have to listen to me. I am receiving a telepathic message from an Ocampan ship twenty light years from here.

“Computer, scan this region of space for all vessels, and report the number of Ocampan vessels in the area.” Seven ordered

The feminine voice of the computer said softly “There is one Ocampan vessel, twenty point three light years from Voyager’s current location.”

Seven tapped a few icons on a holographic screen.

“Get her back to the biobed!” She ordered me.

I walked Sarah back towards the hallway, while Seven gave the order to the holographic screen.

“Ensign, I need you to plot a course to this location.”

Seven tapped on the holographic display.

I turned my face back towards her. “Annika - these people died bravely, in battle against a ruthless enemy. If there is anything like a Sto'Vo'Kor, her halls will be filled with great warriors tonight.”

Seven turned to me “Bravery and honor are irrelevant if the stars are drowned in blood, and green ships of the living damned eternally sail in a sea of red.”

I didn’t know what to say. With that I carried Sarah to sickbay, hoping, with regret, that one of the primary biobeds would now be free to use.

The doors to SickBay opened with ease. The EMH, the holographic woman with the short red hair, displayed a full avatar of herself treating each patient. From an outsider’s point of view, she looked like an army of identical women each treating her own patient, but she was more than that. She was a single mind moving in multiple holographic bodies independent of one another, and yet still fully capable of treating each patient as if they were the only one.

Most of the patients laid in their beds, unconscious, but with metallic flakes glinting from their skin.

That’s when the screaming started. It was just one patient at first, unconscious one minute, and the next screaming with thin yellow liquid with flecks of glinting metal oozing from his eyes, mouth, nose, and every wound on his body. The nanites were taking effect, and they were unmerciful. Pain was irrelevant, only saving their host mattered to them.

I ran over, administering anesthetic, but it was no use. The nanites adapted to every treatment I could come up with.

Soon dozens of patients joined in the chorus, screaming as nanites repaired every cell in their bodies, cold and indifferent to their pain.

“Doctor … Doctor!” Called a woman’s voice from behind me.

I turned around.

“Doctor there is nothing you can do!” Said the female EMH

Blood and yellow fluid poured from every opening in the patients’ bodies. The screams of pain were like a scene from the lowest Hell in the worst nightmare ever dreamt in the universe.

Hours passed. There was nothing I could do to save them, nothing to heal their pain. The nanites would be relentless, attempting to heal their hosts as long as any part of them remained alive!

I turned to the EMH, my whole body shaking.

“I should have just let them die.”

She did not respond to what I’d just said. She did not affirm what I said, but she did not deny it either.

“The Captain just informed me that she needs you on the bridge sir.”

I wiped my forehead.

“Computer, site to site transport.”

“Destination?” Came the soft female voice in response

“The bridge.”

Metalic gold rings formed around me. The humming noise accompanied the bright blue light, and I found myself standing on a bridge; the captain and the full crew on board.

The bridge layout was different from what I remembered. It was larger than the secondary bridge I’d seen before, but it wasn’t the original bridge. A new room had been molded, and retrofitted with consoles, and workstations.

A holographic viewscreen at the front of the room displayed a planet. The oceans were blue and a massive supercontinent with green and purple vegetation was emerging into the sunlight out of the planet’s twilight shadow.

“Hail them” The captain ordered

An Ocampan woman appeared on the holographic screen, her face heavy with desperation.

“Did you read my message?” She asked

“Yes” Seven responded “That’s why we came.”

“They’re going to destroy the planet. Every man, woman, and child will be slaughtered, like animals. No one will be left alive.”

“What’s left of the native fleet?”

“Nothing. They were all destroyed in less than an hour. A few ships broke through, mostly civilian, but ships also broke away from the attacking armada and are already in pursuit. They -”

The Ocampan woman stopped, trying to gather her words.

“Captain, they plan to wipe the entire race from existence.”

“Put them through.” Seven said

The Ocampan woman hit a few keys on her ship, and the face of a Klingon warrior on another ship appeared in a screen next to her.

The Klingon was decked out in the finest military armor, with a bridge displaying traditional Klingon codes of arms, meant to represent the honor of the Klingon people. Beside him sat a Vulcan woman, wearing a robe of purple, blue and green. Her features were flawless and without age, as is the case with many Vulcan females even late into their life cycles. Yet her eyes were fierce, and indicated someone of great understanding.

“Good evening admiral.” Seven said, moving a little forward in her seat.

“Captain, I regret that we have to meet under these circumstances.” The Klingon man returned

“Likewise Admiral, but I cannot allow you to destroy this world.”

“Captain, these people, the Gairth, are devoid of honor. They shed innocent blood, and are covenant breakers. The United Federation of Planets chose to raise these people up, and in turn they would seek to help others, and help us to defeat the Borg. Instead they’ve already slaughtered three races, and have attacked well over a dozen other worlds unprovoked.”

The Ocampan woman objected “Would you kill the innocent along with the guilty? Should every man woman and child on this world be destroyed for the actions of a few?”

The Klingon man broke in “Captain, this world has a communications network connecting every computer and communications device on their planet, and if that wasn’t enough, they have a telepathic field connecting every mind on this world. There are no secrets here. Yet there is not a single voice of opposition. Not one voice that has cried out and said ‘This is wrong!’”

“Naarah, is there any evidence of any dissention on this world, any dissention at all?” Seven asked the Ocampan woman on the screen

The Ocampan woman hesitated.

The room was silent, no one spoke as we waited for a response.

“No … no there isn’t. But we cannot simply let these people be destroyed. Do we commit genocide? I thought we’d grown beyond that Captain! I thought all of our peoples had grown beyond that!”

The Klingon man responded “Captain. Our peoples both have histories that were less than honorable. But the Gairth kill without compassion or remorse. We raised them up, but they betrayed us. This is the only way. If we do not destroy them, other races will surely die by their hand, and if we do not send a message that covenant breakers and cowards will never see the light of day, others will see our weakness in our hand of justice, and will not be afraid to cut open the bellies of pregnant women, and feast on the flesh of their enemies.”

“You cannot destroy an entire people.” The Ocapan woman objected.

The Klingon man again responded “Captain, if we allow this kind of evil to spread through the galaxy, then we will have no hope of defeating the Borg, and when word gets out that this injustice was tolerated, the alliances between worlds will be shattered.”

The Ocampan woman tapped a few holographic symbols on her consol. An image appeared in her place of a creature. It walked on two legs and was covered in green scales. The overall shape was humanoid, but it had large black eyes, black claws, and webbing between it’s toes and fingers.

“They are an aquatic race?” Seven asked

“Yes” The Ocampan woman responded “They are semi-amphibious, but they prefer to be in their freshwater oceans. Captain, these are a proud people with a rich heritage. It’s possible that we raised them up too early. It’s possible that these people never had a chance to experience the horrors of war and famine on their own world. It’s possible that they simply never had the chance to collectively suffer, and learn in their suffering to have empathy and compassion for others. Perhaps we are the ones who should have taught them morality, before raising them up before their time, in our obsession with defeating the Borg.”

The Klingon man seemed unimpressed. “Captain, we can make excuses for this race all day long, but the truth of the matter is that they are the ones who have chosen to shed innocent blood. We should not make excuses for other races, they are not children. Of all people, the Ocampa should respect that.”

Before anything else could be said, Seven quickly jumped in. “Admiral Kahless, you have been a great leader to your people. Although you are young, you have served with great honor. Stories of your accomplishments have abounded across the galaxy, how you search out a matter until you find the truth. Is there no other alternative here today? Is there no way that the Gairth people cannot be spared?”

The Vulcan woman and the Klingon man beside her turned to face one another. They were obviously having a telepathic conversation.

After several moments the Klingon man turned back to the screen, along with his wife.

“Captain, we will think about this, and as you suggested, we will seek out a wise alternative, but may I remind you that while your ship may be powerful, it cannot stand against our Armada. You were wise to seek an alternative. Stovokor may one day receive you after such an honorable life, but let that day not be today.”

“How long until we reconvene?” Asked the Ocampan woman

“One hour.” replied the Klingon “But note that any attempt to save the Gairth, and any attempt by them to leave their world will be met with the full power of my armada.”

Each of the leaders nodded in agreement, and their holograms vanished.

“Doctor, can you come with me?” Seven asked

I stood up from my chair and followed her through the automatic doors behind the bridge.

Seven lead me to another deck with a small room that said “Engineering” on the outside. The door opened automatically, and we walked inside.

The crewmen inside all looked up from their workstations, obviously surprised to see me. One man stared at me. He was tall, with broad shoulders, skin the color of an African native, but with slightly luminescent green patterns in his skin, pointed ears, and large wings growing out of his back that were both bird like and insect like. I did not recognize his race, or the various races of several of the faces that were looking at me.

In the middle of the room, where there should have been a warp core, was a large metal sphere.

“Harry, I trust that you will not share anything that you see here with anyone.”

“Seven, what is this?”

Seven paused for a moment, looking directly at me. “It’s an Omega core.”

At that moment, it was like the world was spinning around me. This wasn’t possible. What was she saying? Was I dreaming all of this?

“You have to be joking Seven.”

“That would seem unlikely.” She responded

Memories flooded my mind of the Omega Directive. Starfleet captains were told that if they ever encountered Omega they were to destroy the threat by any means necessary. It superseded the Prime Directive, and any and all laws that the Federation had chosen to abide by.

Omega was a molecule with the power of a warp drive. Yet this power was unstable, and had the potential to destroy subspace, forever ending the ability for ships to go to warp. If it’s destructive power were left unchecked, space-faring civilization as we knew it would be over.

“How is this possible?”

“When the Han developed the slipstream drive that powers Voyager, they needed a way to power the ship.”

My eyes widened in realization.

Seven continued “In less than a generation, the Han went from being a race of primitives smashing one stone against another, to developing slipstream drive, and stable Omega molecules.”

“How is that possible? No one has ever even come close to creating stable Omega particles.”

“And yet the Han did.” Seven answered

“Who else knows about this?” I asked

Seven gestured around the room. “Admiral Pike has chosen not to ask questions that he knows he doesn’t want to hear the answers to.”

We were sitting on a potential weapon that could destroy subspace across the entire galaxy, and no one but the few people here knew about it.

“What is our end goal?” I asked

Seven shrugged “If it comes down to it, if we cannot win this war, we will launch the Omega particles into the heart of Borg space, tearing subspace apart, and ending the ability of the Borg to go to warp. It may fracture subspace to the point where ships outside Borg space can begin mounting an assault on the edge of Borg territory, while crippling the ability of the Borg Empire to advance.”

I looked at Seven, unable to entirely process this new reality.

“Those cubes in Borg space … they’d be free from the Collective?” I asked

“The fractures in subspace would sever the connection to the Collective. All ships and Borg worlds would be cut off from the rest of the Hive Mind.”

I thought for a moment “That world we found. Voyager encountered a colony of former drones early in her time in the Delta Quadrant that was freed from the Collective.”

Seven promptly answered “We don’t know if the Collective would reassert itself, or if random collections of individuals from hundreds of varying species would survive the sudden transition to individuality. Unity in diversity is not formed easily, neither the Borg nor the Federation were able to achieve unity overnight, and it remains to be seen if either will maintain it.”

Seven turned to one of the crew, a Vulcan male “How are we coming along?”

The crewmember, apparently pulled up the relevant data on a pad, and handed it to her. Seven looked at the pad, scrolled through some of the data, and handed it back to the crewman, before heading back out the door.

I decided to return to SickBay for the time being.

The patients were all calm, all sleeping. The EMH walked around, doing her duties. She did not say a word to me, did not seem to think a word was needed.

As I walked around, one of the patients regained consciousness.

“Doctor” He said in a soft, raspy voice, looking in my general direction.

I came over to his bedside.

“You saved me.” He said in that slow, raspy voice.

“I put you through Hell.” I said, a bit more anger in my voice than I would have liked.

His body was little more than a head, two shoulders, and the left half of his torso with a partial left arm when I’d found him. Now the nanites were regenerating what was lost in a pool of blue liquid.

“No Doctor.” He moved his head slightly, trying to adjust his position.

“Please try to lay still, the nanites are still repairing you.”

“There was fire Doctor, fire everywhere, it was burning me, but my flesh was not consumed.”

“You had a traumatic experience. The ship was attacked by enemy vessels. You suffered severe burns, but you are recover-”

“I am not talking about the attack on the ship Doctor.”

I paused, listening.

He took a few breaths, and then continued “There was fire, fire as far as the eye could see, and there were people there, people I’d known in life, and people I’d never seen before, men and women. They were screaming in pain, all screaming.”

“I don’t understand.” I said

The patient looked directly at me, making eye contact. “I was dead Doctor. I was dead, and you brought me back.”

I hesitated.

“Sometimes” I said “The brain plays tricks on us when we are close to dying.”

The patient shut his eyes, seemingly in pain “This was no hallucination Doctor. This was … even if a man should rise from the dead, they will not believe.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant, but the EMH came over to me. “Doctor, as a reminder, the Captain will need you back on board the bridge in five minutes.”

I looked back at the patient. He was obviously delirious, possibly due to lack of oxygen, and the injuries he’d sustained, combined with the process of the nanites reconstructing parts of his brain.

Part 4

I returned to the bridge to find Seven speaking with the Ocampan and Klingon ships.

“We are willing to propose a compromise.” The Klingon man said

“I’m listening.” Seven replied

“The actions of this people cannot go unpunished, and they have no indication of turning away from their ways. We will destroy half the planet, and those who live will be spared.”

The Ocampan woman leapt from her seat in the view screen and shouted “This is unacceptable! You want to kill half the people on that planet because of the actions of a few!”

The Klingon man looked sternly into the camera. “Young one, we have no intention of sparing half the people on that rock. We said we would destroy half the planet, and that’s what we intend to do. Our weapons will cut through the core of the planet, cutting it in half, and destroying everything on one half of that world.”

The lip of the Ocampan woman quivered. Tears formed in her eyes “Captain, this is genocide. We cannot allow them to destroy an entire race! Those living on the other half will die and there will be none left of this race.”

Seven, turned toward the Klingon man, logically.

Before she could say a thing the Klingon man interjected “This people will not go extinct if we destroy half their planet. As it is, they already have several cities in subterranean pockets around their planet. Some of them may survive, while others may not.”

The Ocampan woman was beyond agitated at this point “And when the other races that they’ve terrorized come back for revenge, then are you going to sit back and watch the Gairth race become extinct?”

She adjusted her hair with her left hand and looked back into the camera.

“Captain, every race has had periods of history where they have committed unspeakable crimes. You yourself are descended from a nation that killed over twelve million innocent people in an event that gave us the word Holocaust! The Klingons for years committed unspeakable crimes against other races, including the Federation.”

She took a breath. “Yet we gave the Gairth warp technology in order to help us win this war. Who were we to think we could decide the fate of worlds that were not ready for first contact? If we destroy them now, we are no better than the NAZIs of Earth, or the Klingons of Generations past.”

She closed her eyes “ Should an entire race die because of the sins of the past when all races have committed their own acts of injustice?”

Seven raised her hand in a gesture telling the others to pause, and both of the other parties fell silent.

“I think we can all see the dilemma posed here.” Seven suggested

She paused, drawing the attention of those on the viewscreen; the Klingon Admiral, his Vulcan wife, and the Ocampan woman.

“The Gairth are guilty of a great crime. A crime that must come with a great punishment. We cannot allow it to be known that such a crime was carried out with no punishment given.”

The Captain looked at the Klingon “Admiral, if you would allow us a few hours to go and collect some of the Gairth people, along with some food and supplies, so that we can relocate them to another part of space, would this be acceptable to you?”

“You want to show these creatures mercy?” The Admiral said, skeptically

“Captain, we can’t.” The Ocampan woman objected softly

Seven turned to her “You and I are only two ships against ten thousand, would you have us sacrifice ourselves and lose two ships in the fight against the Borg, or would you rather live so that we can preserve a small remnant of a race that is on the verge of being erased from history?”

The Ocampan woman flinched, hesitating, but she did not say anything back.

A moment passed before the Klingon man responded “I find your proposal acceptable Captain. We will give you an hour to collect what needs to be collected, and will allow you to take the Gairth remnant away from this region of space.”

The Klingon man sighed reluctantly “And we will also destroy only half the planet, that way those living underground may still have some opportunity to survive on what is left of their homeworld.”

Seven nodded, while the Ocampan woman looked down saying nothing.

“It is agreed.” Seven said.

“I look forward to meeting with you again Captain, under better circumstances than these.”

The Klingon’s image disappeared from the viewscreen, while the image of the Ocampan woman remained.

She shook her head, clearly angered by what had transpired “You have brought down blood on all our heads this day Captain. If we survive this war, may history remember you as the murderer you are.”

“First we must survive this war. Will you help me transport a few remaining Gairth away from this region of space? If we combine our efforts, we will give the Gairth a greater chance, bringing them far away from here. You going in one direction, and Voyager the other.”

“I will comply.” The Ocampan woman said, never trying to hide her contempt for Seven as being just like the Borg.

Both ships loaded their cargo bays, and any other part of the ship that could be converted to an aquatic environment, and the Gairth, a people who saw other members of their own race as something to be tolerated, were cramped into tiny spaces with one another, in a hopeful effort to save just a few more lives if possible.

Three days later, we stood on the shores of a planet who’s name was unpronounceable by any human tongue. The people wore white clothes, and lived in unassuming buildings that were incredibly white.

Although their lifestyles seemed simple by any standards, they were technologically a highly advanced people with a loosely connected empire than spread through that region of space.

Their skin was pale with minor forehead patterns like many humanoid species.

They agreed to allow the Gairth remnant to share this colony world with them, but cautioned that they would provide neither slavery nor welfare. The Gairth would have to provide for themselves, and would be welcome to freely trade with the people of that world. If in time they chose to leave, and to go to other worlds, they would not be forced to stay.

Some of the Gairth protested, but gave no alternative to where they would like to be dropped off, so the Captain informed them that this was their stop, and if they chose not to leave, she would allow them to starve to death in a corner of the ship, but would not be making another stop for them.

The Gairth quickly complied with her ultimatum.

An officer, a black man with bright red eyes whom otherwise looked very human gave a final speech to the Gairth settlers

“To the Gairth people. This is your new home. The customs of the people here will be different from the world you came from, but keep in mind that that world no longer exists. All that remains is a cloud of dust, and a few of your people clinging to a rock that probably will not survive. You can never go back home.

It is in your best interest, and in the best interest of your children, and your grandchildren that you put your old ways behind you. You will not be allowed to savagely slaughter innocent people here, or use your government and might to take from others what is not yours.

Here you are one tribe, on one planet, in a mighty empire, and while they are willing to keep you here with them, I suggest you treat them with honor and respect.

Your race is all but wiped out in a sea of stars, and were it not for the Captain’s plea, you would not be alive at this moment. Don’t waste this second chance at existence, lest the name ‘Gairth’ be forgotten to all people to come.”

Part 5

Three months passed and the war with the Borg was getting worse. New races were raised up, and not without conflict, but none dared repeat the fate of the Gairth.

I got out of bed, the clock reading 0’ 400, 4am. My shift did not start for another three hours, but I’d been awoken by terrifying nightmares that I could not fully remember. Something about a man with no eyes staring at me through an empty skull.

I walked over to my dresser, to look in the mirror, the silky carpet cushioning my bare feet.

“Computer, lights, full illumination!”

The lights came on, hurting my eyes, but I didn’t care, the quicker I turned on the lights, the quicker the nightmares would go away, or so I’d hoped.

A gold wedding ring sat on the Starfleet issue dresser. An item with no attached memory, or at least one that my mind had not yet been willing to recall.

“Computer, state our current location and destination.”

The computer responded “We are currently in orbit around Bajor, and will be arriving in Vulcan space in twelve hours.”

“Has there been any success with contacting the Voth?”

“Attempts to contact the Voth have not resulted in successful contact at this time.”

My heart sank. I could only hope that the Voth had not been destroyed or assimilated by the Borg.

The Voth were a race of saurians that lived in the Delta Quadrant, and were thought by our scientists to be descended from a race of hadrosaurs that had lived on Earth millions of years ago. Although now a few StarFleet scientists were beginning to reexamine this belief, and consider that the history of this race was far more complex than either StarFleet or the Voth had previously imagined.

Wherever they’d come from, the Voth were one of the most sophisticated races StarFleet had ever encountered, and it was our hope that an alliance with this race would help lead to the defeat of the Borg.

By 1700 ship time we arrived in orbit around Vulcan.

One of the orbiting space stations hailed us, and we were greeted by a Klingon man wearing a Vulcan military uniform.

“I am Lieutenant Kor of the Vulcan Imperial Fleet. State your designation and purpose for being in Vulcan space.”

“You know who we are Lieutenant, and you know why we are here.” Seven responded

The Klingon man looked like he was in his mid thirties, and looked very strong, even for a Klingon.

Several Vulcans worked at stations around him, ignoring our presence.

“I’m transferring our credentials to you now Lieutenant.” Seven said

The Klingon man picked up a tablet in front of him, and began scrolling through something on the screen.

“I have dozens of ships to process. You are going to have to wait in line.”

“Lieutenant Kor, I am sure you are a fine young officer,” Seven said rising to her feet “but the Vulcan High Council expects us on the surface within the hour.”

“Captain, I am responsible for the safety of Vulcan and her people. -”

At that moment we were hailed with a message displaying the Seal of Vulcan.

“Put it through.” Seven ordered Ensign Tuvok

The young woman hit a few icons on the screen in front of her. The image of the elderly Vulcan came on screen.

“Ambassador Spock” Seven greeted the old Vulcan warmly, as if greeting an old friend

“Seven!” The man replied, in the cheery voice of an old man

“How was your trip to Romulus?” Seven asked

“It was a beautiful ceremony. It’s been many years since deploying the red matter into the supernova, but the Romulans are rebuilding, and their economy is recovering.”

Seven smiled “Had you not arrived when you had, Romulus could have been destroyed.”

Spock grinned in response to the praise “It was all thanks to Kes. If it were not for her calculations we might not have received the warning when we had, and Romulus might have been lost.”

The Klingon man, who was on the Left side of the split screen looked visibly disturbed.

“Lieutenant Kor was just telling us that it might be several hours before we can get permission to beam down to the surface, however once the paperwork is completed, I would love to join you for a glass of Andorian ale.”

“Go ahead and let them through.” Spock said to the officer

“Sir, there are protocols in place. Even Voyager is not above-”

“Those protocols can wait. I expect Voyager’s entire crew to be approved to beam down to the surface, and to be on the ground within ten minutes. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Ambassador.” The Klingon man relented

The Klingon man tapped a few icons on his screen, and about five minutes later, we’d arrived on the surface. Only a skeleton crew remained behind to pilot Voyager.

The streets were crowded, and the buildings were all coated in a brown-red dust. Representatives from over 6,000 worlds wandered the streets. Old blood feuds did not seem to matter anymore. Members of virtually every people from this region of space were here.

I saw Klingons embracing Andorians in a ceremonial gesture reserved for only one’s closest brother. I saw young Horta, the silicon based sentient lifeforms first encountered in the early days of the Federation by Kirk and Spock, playing in the streets with human and Vulcan children, soon joined by Andorian, and Klingon children, and a group of green reptilian children who’s race I did not recognize.

I saw tears in the eyes of a young Venusian woman. Her pale green skin contrasting her traditional ceremonial red and purple robes. She and those with her listened intently to a story being told to them by a group of Elven lords. One of the Elven women put her hand on the green woman’s shoulder consoling her.

Soon it was time to hear the first speaker. It was a black man, with red eyes. He was the same race as the man who had given the final warning to the Gairth. Holograms all over the city displayed the image of him standing in front of the silver podium in dark robes lined with red. He spoke with a mild accent.

“Brothers and sisters, thank you for being here today. The tragedy we have witnessed in this long, long war has been beyond anything that any of our worlds have ever seen. Many of our worlds have stories of great tragedy. On my world we have a story of a deep and ancient past where the Creator sent an Earthquake tearing the world apart into five continents. The Xindi talk about a time when mountains fell from the sky on their ancient homeworld. And human cultures almost universally talk of a Flood that covered their entire planet, destroying every member of their race, save one small tribe.”

The man stopped, taking a breath, and recollecting himself.

“But less than a week ago the Borg attacked, leaving devastation and death on every world they touched. Billions lay dead here on Vulcan, no one but the desert to bury them. The same is true on my world, along with Risa, Janus Six, Betazed, Earth, and countless others.”

Heavy breathing could be heard in the crowds all around us. Both men and women were weeping, openly mourning the dead. Countless billions were dead, and everyone was mourning the death of someone they knew.

A Klingon general who could no longer stand sat on a nearby stone bench, flanked on either side by young Klingon warriors whom I took to be his sons.

The voice of the man speaking faded into the background, but the collective thought in every person’s mind did not have to be said. The Borg would not win, we would prevail.

Five days later we were on the bridge and received an expected hail from Admiral Pike.

“Admiral” Seven greeted

“Let’s spare the formalities for now captain.” He responded

Seven rose from her chair, listening.

“I want you to rendezvous with a Silurian scientist here in orbit around Earth. He has made several discoveries, and thinks he may be able to help us to make contact with the Voth.”

The admiral hesitated.

“Is there something I should know Admiral?” Seven asked

“I was going to wait for you to get here, but our scientists discovered a pyramid in a cavern deep beneath the Earth’s crust. We are having difficulty deciphering the hieroglyphs but one artifact seems to shed light on the destruction of the Q.”

Seven raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Admiral Pike continued “Our scientists will study the artifact for now, but we are hoping to transport it to P'Jem to be preserved at the Q Memorial Shrine. There is a research team there lead by a top Vulcan and a top Andorian scientist.”

Nothing was said for a moment, but after several seconds had passed, Seven broke the silence.

“Admiral, we will see to it that the Borg do not destroy the Federation as they did the Q Continuum, nor will they assimilate us. We will prevail, and we will defeat the Borg Empire.”

“I just hope you are right.” Admiral Pike said, before ending the transmission

Nothing else needed to be said.

“T’Pel, activate the slipstream drive. Bring us to Earth.”

“Yes Captain” The young Vulcan woman responded

Minutes later we were in orbit around Earth, the blue and green world glowing below us, with a white moon dotted with cities hanging in the sky above our heads.

“How long until he arrives?” A Xindi-Arboreal crewman asked

“The admiral did not give us that information. It is likely that he is avoiding sharing that information even over secure channels.”

Just then we received a hail.

The holographic viewscreen displayed the image of an older human woman with features common to the Indian subcontinent.

“It’s good to see you captain.” The woman said with a generically American accent. “I am Dr. Walsh, Dr. Malohkeh’s colleague. He will be joining us momentarily.”

“It’s good to meet you Doctor.” Seven said “I am told you have something for me?”

“Yes” the woman on the viewscreen said nodding

She turned to a young man who was maybe 17 years old. “Have you compiled the data?”

The young man nodded. He had features that were distinctly Vulcan mixed with subtle features that suggested Betazoid heritage.

“Captain!” T’Pel cried out. But before Seven had the chance to acknowledge her, she announced “A Borg cube just warped into the solar system.”

“Red alert!” The Captain ordered

She looked intently at the screen “I will have to reconvene with you -”

“Captain, three more Borg Cubes just warped in. They are within Lunar orbit.”

The Klingon man, Commander Uhura, announced “A sphere just left one of the cubes, and is headed this way.”

“Dr. Walsh, there is no time. I am beaming you and your crew on board Voyager now.”

Dr. Walsh turned to the young man in the room with her “Grab the data crystals! I’m setting the ship to self destruct.”

Moments later, gold rings appeared in the space around the two people in the viewscreen, and they disappeared from the image.

“I’ve got them Captain.” A human woman announced

T’Pel then added “Captain, eight more cubes have just warped into the system, and the Borg have launched a weapon at the planet.”

“On screen” Seven ordered

An explosion went off somewhere in the Pacific ocean, sending a shock wave that was building into a massive tidal wave.

“Projected casualties?” The captain requested

The Xindi crewman answered “Initial casualties projected at over two billion in South East Asia, and tens of millions in North America, with major cities in South America and Australia projected to be destroyed.”

“Captain, I see no way to win this battle.” The Klingon man said

His words hung in the air for a moment. One Borg cube was capable of taking on hundreds of the Federation’s best warships. There was no way to win.

A Borg ship warped in, filling the space in the sky above Voyager. It’s massive form dwarfed Voyager’s in it’s shadow.

“Prepare for multiple slipstream jumps. Target Voyager’s last known contact with the Voth, and prepare a data bouyie. We’re going into the heart of Borg space.”

The crew on the bridge began tapping on the consols and holographic projections in front of them, and the slipstream gateway began forming around us.

Echoes of voices reached out to my mind “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated…”

The echoes faded into oblivion as the ship entered into the slipstream tunnel.

“Bring our guests to the bridge.” the captain ordered

Seven then tapped a few icons on her terminal.

“Attention all hands, this is your captain. As you have probably realized, Earth is under assault by the Borg. We have entered slipstream, and will be arriving at our destination in a matter of moments. But we are not abandoning Earth, or leaving her to fight alone. We are making one last attempt to contact the Voth in the hopes that they will join us in our final battle for our existence, before jumping directly into the heart of Borg space.

We will be in the last known region of Voth territory for only a matter of moments before making our final jump. And barring a miracle of some god greater than the Q, we will not survive this battle. I suggest that each of you take this time to record a brief message to be sent out in a data buoy telling your families and anyone close to you that you love them one last time.

Captain Seven of Nine out”

The captain tapped an icon ending the transmission.

The crewmen on the bridge each recorded a brief transmission at their terminals.

Dr. Walsh and Dr. Malohkeh’s soon joined us on the bridge. Dr. Malohkeh looked like most Silurians with green scales, and a mostly human looking face with three ridges on top of his head.

They mapped several paths for a handful of data buoys to travel through known Voth territory. All of this took a matter of minutes, before the captain ordered the launch of the buoys and reopened the ship-wide com.

“Voyager Crew, this is your captain. We are about to make the final jump into Borg territory. I have been proud to serve with you all, and I have been honored to serve as your captain. If there is anything on the other side of life, I hope to see you there”

Seven paused momentarily before finishing “Godspeed. This is your captain, out.”

The slipstream tunnel began to form in front of us, and quickly engulfed the ship.

My heart pounded, and my mind raced. I thought about everything I’d seen in my life, and everything I’d seen since reawakening on Voyager. I thought of all the peoples who had been at war for centuries or even millennia finally coming together. I thought of all the new races I’d seen. I thought of Seven, commanding the ship. But the one person who kept coming to my mind was Sarah. Her smile that reminded me of Kes, and the little glint in her eyes when she spoke. There was no one like her, and there never would be. Why had I waited for this moment, before my death before finally realizing that I truly wanted to spend the rest of my life with her?

The slipstream tunnel around us dissolved, and we entered into a gaseous region of space filled with stars. Everyone was quiet. There were no ships attacking us, and no indication that the Borg even knew we were here.

“Ensign Tuvok, have the crew prepare to launch the nanite grenades, and scan for the nearest inhabited planets.”

Ensign Tuvok responded “The nanite grenades are ready to launch now captain, and the nearest inhabited planet is only twelve light years away.”

“Set a course, maximum warp.”

“Captain, I may be able to create a partial slipstream jump to get us there quicker, but if I do, we will not be able to jump again anytime soon if attacked.”

“Do it” The Captain ordered

The tendrils of the slipstream gateway surrounded us, and within minutes we reentered normal space with a single world hanging in the space in front of us. Borg vessels that looked like arrowheads orbited this planet, but these vessels and the cities on the planet below glowed with a deep blue light, instead of the typical eerie green normally associated with the Borg.

“I am detecting twelve billion humanoid lifesigns, all Borg.” Announced one of the crewmen

“Mars help us.” uttered one of the Vulcan women

“Fire the grenade when ready.” Seven ordered

“Firing now” Ensign Tuvok confirmed

The flash of green light in the hologram flew towards the planet at high speed before hitting the planet in what was represented as a burst of green light.

“Direct hit captain. Shall I prepare to launch another?”

“Wait” Seven said, holding her hand up

Several minutes passed and the voices of screaming filled my head. Hundreds, and then thousands, followed by what must have been countless millions of men, women and children, were screaming into my mind.

I grabbed the sides of my head “What is this?” I begged

I wasn’t expecting a response, but Seven’s voice answered “The nanite cloud is severing their connection to the collective. Yet they are still able to project their thoughts into subspace.

As Seven spoke, ships began warping into the space all around us.

Their collective minds pushed in on ours “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated-”

“I demand to speak with the Jade Empress.” Seven said

There was a pause. What I took to be a moment of surprise and confusion. No one dared approach the Borg, let alone demand an audience with the Jade Empress.

“Resistance is futile.” The Borg began, when Seven hit a series of icons on her console, launching another grenade into a swarm of nearby ships.

Dozens of smaller vessels one by one joined in the chorus of screaming as the nanite cloud severed each drone’s connection to the Collective.

These ships jumped away from the nanite cloud, but their efforts were irrelevant. Once the nanites were inside the ships, they would spread from drone to drone, and resistance to the nanites was futile. They would merely spread the nanites, until larger vessels with superior shielding hunted them down, and destroyed them.

“Ensign, do you detect any more inhabited worlds?”

The ensign tapped a few more icons, and then paused. “Captain, if these readings are correct, there is a world merely two light years from here with well over three hundred billion drones.”

“Bring it on screen.”

The planet came in fuzzy, but even with the grainy image, it was clear that this was a world covered in massive skyscrapers that glowed a deep blue, with patterns of what looked like red wire threading their way around the whole planet, possibly some kind of interconnected network.

“Lock on to that target, and engage maximum warp!”

We jumped to warp immediately.

“Captain, we are prepared to launch nanite grenades at any Borg ships behind us.” Ensign Tuvok announced

“How many Borg ships are in pursuit?” The Captain asked

“None Captain.” The Klingon man announced

The Captain turned to him confused

“I detect no Borg ships in pursuite Captain.” He confirmed

Seven turned back towards the viewscreen.

“They must know where we are going.” The captain reasoned “When we emerge from warp be prepared to launch a nanite grenade at any world we come in contact with. We don’t want to give the Borg any chance to raise their shields or to adapt.”

We soon arrived at our destination, the Borg planet suspended in space in front of us, orbiting a red giant. The computer displayed a three-dimensional map of the system in front of us. It was a vast trinary star system with at least 60 different worlds, and thousands of ships in space.

A grenade was launched immediately at the planet in front of us. It’s green light was travelling at incredible speeds, and then it was just gone, vanished.

“What happened?” one of the crewmen asked

“Borg shields. They knew we were coming.” Seven responded

Borg ships began warping in all around us.

The Klingon man announced “I am detecting twenty four Borg cubes and sixty three smaller Borg vessels.”

Two living ships warped in on either side of us. They looked vaguely like massive whales with glowing red bodies, and long tentacles. Luminescent green cybernetic implants were embedded across their vast bodies. Either one of these creatures dwarfed a Borg cube, and could doubtlessly take on a fleet of Federation starships.

These were soon followed by a massive vessel, larger than either of the whales. It was black, like pure obsidian with red spires pointing out into space, and intricate green patterns spreading across it’s incredible hull.

We were a small mouse facing a vast dragon.

“Welcome Seven” The voice pushed into our minds “I’m glad you’ve come.”

“Fire!” Seven ordered

Ten grenades were launched from the ship, targeting the three ships in front of us, and seven of the smaller ships that had warped in before them.

We all held our breath, but one by one each of the green lights on screen vanished.

The familiar voice laughed with darkness inside our heads. “Did you really think you could defeat me? The Voyager, one small ship against an empire.”

A billion voices echoed in unison “Join us. Resistance is futile. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own.”

Janeway appeared in the holographic viewscreen in front of us. She turned to Sarah, right as Sarah walked onto the bridge.

Janeway tilted her head slightly “Young one.”

Sarah froze at the sight of the image. “There’s no need to be afraid.”

Janeway looked down. “I see in your mind. The jewel you wear around your neck. Does it comfort you? I can bring you more. I can bring you all things.”

In a moment, in a flash, Janeway projected the images of countless races, and countless empires across the galaxy.

“You need not fear death, you can have all things in me.”

“Do not let her get to you. She will try to get into your head, but you have to resist.” Seven urged

Janeway continued “I remember when your Grandmother -”

“Attack pattern Beta” Seven ordered

Three grenades were fired at three of the cubes, followed by phasers. One of the grenades managed to penetrate the shields.

The voices, screaming into space soon followed. First a few, and then hundreds, and then thousands.

“Hail them” Seven ordered

“Borg Cube. Your link to the Collective has been severed, but if you transport to other Borg vessels, they may be able to help restore your connection to the Hive Mind.”

Perhaps the drones knew that it was a lie, but even if they did a drone’s instinct to live when severed from the Collective was high, and their drive to rejoin the Collective was even higher than their instinct to live.

Soon voices from ships all around us joined in the fray.

“Borg drones” Seven began to announce, but was immediately cut off by phaser beams wider than small ships firing into space from the black monster in front of us, destroying infected vessels.

The Klingon man announced “Seventeen Borg vessels have been destroyed, including three Brogs Cubes, and nine spheres.”

“Why do you resist us?” Janeway sneered

“Leave Terran space! Withdraw your attack on the Federation and all non-Borg Worlds.”

But before Seven could say anything else, the the bridge shook violently. Purple beams of light appeared in hologram in front of us.

"We are caught in a tractor beam captain.” T’Pel announced

“Launch photonic torpedos, and fire the phasers!”

“Weapons have been disabled Captain.” The Klingon man responded

Ten Borg drones transported onto the bridge. Immediately crewmen began firing phasers, but they had no effect.

A drone grabbed T’Pel, and Seven jumped from her seat.

The Klingon man went hand-to-hand with another drone, but he was soon joined by two other drones. Several of the crew attempted to resist the Borg directly, while others pounded away on terminals in front of them. I tried to grab a drone that was coming after Sarah.

“Run!” I yelled to her

“Voyager, this is your Captain. Resist the Borg drones at all cost. Lieutenant Icheb, you know what to do!”

I wrapped my arms around the drone, but he just picked me up, and threw me across the bridge. I heard a snap, and a sharp pain shot up from my leg.

Sarah turned and ran, but the drone bolted after her. Seconds later, I heard her screaming from the corridors.

“Sarah!” I tried to get up, but I couldn’t put any weight on my left leg. I hobbled on my right leg, leaning on the consols, as I tried to make my way towards the doorway.

The sounds of phasers tore through the corridors, and were soon followed by a strong looking man in his thirties with a small metallic implant above his left eye, and a ridge running from his nose up through his forehead.

It took several seconds for me to recognize Icheb, the young man who had been freed from the Borg Collective as a teenager, and who was now a grown man.

He pulled out a grenade, and threw it in the middle of the room, before turning and running back through the doorway.

The grenade released a metallic cloud that soon filled the bridge. I choked, breathing in the dust, that made it nearly impossible to get enough air.

The Borg drones stopped what they were doing, and began their silent screams. Crewmen fired phasers at each of the drones, silencing them one at a time. I was not sure if their phasers were set to stun or kill.

Icheb soon returned to the room carrying Sarah. Her neck was inflamed at the injection sites where the Borg tubules had injected the nanoprobes.

“Breathe Sarah!” He ordered

My heart sank at the sight of this. He was able to rescue her. I was not.

“Dad!” She pleaded

“I’m here sweetheart” Icheb replied

T’Pel yelled from one side of the room “Their voices! I can hear them!”

“Resist them!” Seven commanded “The nanites will help you resist, but you have to fight them.”

“There’s so many of them!” Sarah said

“Sarah, T’Pel, push into their thoughts. Don’t just resist, fight them. Give them everything that you have, and don’t stop fighting, don’t give in!” Seven then turned to the rest of the crew “And that goes for all of you. I expect every one of you to fight until the Borg have taken the very last breath from your body, and then you fight some more!”

Seven turned to the Klingon man “Do we have weapons back online?”

“Negative captain.” He said, nursing the bleeding wounds on the side of his neck.

Just then a group of three Borg drones, larger, and more heavily armored than any I’d ever seen before appeared on the bridge. Their armor was black, with luminescent purple implants, and faces intent on battle.

Phasers fired at them.

“Captain! The nanites!”  T’Pel shouted

“They’ve adapted!” Seven announced

“Resistance is futile. Surrender your ship. You will be assimilated.”

“I will not comply!” Seven responded, throwing her first towards the lead drone, her tubules extended.

She managed to land one blow, before the drone adapted, and Seven was soon punching a shield.

The drone lifted her up, and threw her back before any of the crew running towards her could reach her.

“My name is Seven of Nine, Captain of The Federation Starship Voyager, and you will not take me back!”

Even now, even when the Borg had won, and we were about to be assimilated into the Collective, Seven refused to give up, knowing that resistance was futile.

“Captain!” Sarah yelled out

“Fight them, reach your thoughts into the Hive Mind!” Seven called back

“Captain! They’re here!” Sarah shouted

“I am detecting over a dozen ships that just arrived captain.” A Ferengi woman announced turning towards us “They’re coming in through a transwarp tunnel.”

Images of hundreds of ships began appearing in the holographic image in front of us.

The three drones in front of us grabbed the sides of their heads, and screamed, both audibly and into the mind of the Collective. Soon they were joined by countless others.

“They’re hailing us captain.” The Ferengi woman said

“On screen.” Seven ordered, rising from the floor

“I hope we didn’t miss the party captain.” said the Ocampan woman we’d encountered in orbit around the Gairth homeworld

“Captain, I’m detecting over ten thousand ships.” The Ferengi woman said

Seven turned to the holographic image in horror “You cannot hope to win this.”

The Ocampan woman smiled “We found your buoy captain. The one that was supposed to contact the Voth. Once the Hirogen Fleet agreed to join us, the Kazan were soon to follow, along with ships from hundreds of other worlds. We may not be the Voth captain, but Voyager has a lot of friends in the Delta Quadrant, and we’ll be damned if we allow you to fight this battle alone.”

“The Borg are merciless. Their ships are without number, and they are more powerful. The best you can hope for from the Borg is death!” Seven said to the Ocampan woman

“Then we will meet our Maker together captain.”

The countless voices of screaming Borg grew louder.

“What is this?” Seven asked

“We brought along the Gairth survivors we saved from destruction. They chose to be stationed aboard the Hirojen vessels, scattered across the fleet. Their telepathic field can disrupt communications within the Hive Mind. When combined with Ocampan telepathic abilities, they proven themselves to be a powerful weapon.”

The Captain did not seem to know what to say to that.

Phasers fired in space, Borg and Allied ships destroyed one another.

The Ocampan woman’s image shook.

“I have to go for now captain. This is the New Dawn, out.”

Her image disappeared from the screen.

“Everyone” Seven ordered at the top of her lungs “Fire everything you have, target as many ships with nanites as you can. Focus on ships that are taking fire where communication with the Collective is down!”

The battle raged for nearly 45 minutes, while we were still caught in the tractor beam, but for every Borg ship that was destroyed, three more joined the battle. They truly were without limit, and we were badly losing.

The tractor beam of the lead ship flickered, and it hesitated firing it’s phasers missing several targets.

Seven glared at the image in front of us.

“Status” She ordered

The Klingon man responded, his breath heavy “Slipstream is still disabled along with warp drive, and we are out of grenades, and photonic torpedos, but impulse engines are back online.”

“Order the crew to evacuate! Everyone get to the escape pods!”

“Captain?” The Ferengi woman said with confusion on her face

“I will join you soon. I am going to program the ship to overload the slipstream drive and destroy that abomination.” Seven said, gesturing towards the black nightmare on the viewscreen in front of us.

“Seven?” Icheb asked

“Now lieutenant!” Seven commanded

We all ran through the corridors dodging broken bulkheads and conduits, until we finally reached the escape pods.

We strapped into the white leather seats as the doors closed. The small vessel seating eight people shook hard as we launched away from the ship into space.

The walls of the ship became transparent, revealing the battle in the sea of stars all around us. Explosions filled the black sky above and below us.

The planet seemed to turn away from us as our engines prepared for warp.

The warp nacelles on Voyager began to light up in an eerie red. The ship still trapped in the tractor beam.

“No!” Sarah screamed, sitting across from me, tears running down her face.

“It’s okay, Sweetie, you will be okay.” Iched tried to consol his daughter.

“No! No! It’s not okay! The Captain’s still on board!”

We all turned towards Voyager in horror. She’d lied to us.

All of space was soon filled with a voice “Seven, you’ve finally come home. You cannot resist us.”

Another voice, echoing across tens of thousands of minds responded “My name is Seven of Nine, and I resisted!”

Voyager’s engines let out a bright red light, and soon Voyager was nothing more than a streak in space, and the Empress’s ship was consumed in a blue and white explosion.

Our escape pod shook, violently with the shock wave.

“Everyone hold on!” The pilot announced “We’re going to have to ride it out!”

Soon a wave of red, blue, purple, and green tore through space, and we became trapped in it’s tide. There was nothing to see outside but patterns and waves of various glowing colors, pulling the ship along like a dandelion seed trapped in a tidal wave.

“Structural integrity is failing. Compensating with shields.” The copilot yelled to his superior

For more than two and a half hours, we were trapped in the tidal wave, until we finally emerged in normal space.

“Where are we?” Icheb asked, looking out at the stars.

“Still scanning sir.” The pilot responded

After tapping a few icons he stopped.

“What is it crewman?” Icheb demanded

“I don’t believe this sir, but it says here we’ve been thrown thirty thousand light years from where we were.”

“Location?” Icheb ordered

The pilot tapped a few icons “On the far side of Borg space in the Gamma Quadrant.”

He tapped a few more icons.

“I’m detecting an M-class planet in this system, sparsely populated with vegetation. Sensors predict periodic extreme weather patterns. Hardly the first choice for a resort, but we can set the ship down there.”

“Do it! Any other ships in the vicinity?” Icheb asked

As expected he tapped some icons bringing up a menu.

“Again, I don’t believe this Captain, but it looks like nearly every escape vessel from Voyager arrived within four light years of our current location, along with several hundred Allied vessels.”

Icheb smiled

“Set her down.”

A few hours later we safely landed on the planet. Other ships soon followed.

A Denobulan man had a holographic display which he used to explain the situation to us.

He explained that with the Borg significantly weakened by the Allied ships, it allowed the Gairth and Ocampa to attack the Hive Mind directly, disrupting the Collective network. This in turn made the Borg more vulnerable to attack.

But when the Empress’s ship was weakened, the Captain of Voyager saw an opportunity to strike. She ordered her crew to the escape pods, and launched Voyager into the Jade Empress’s vessel. This in turn destabilized the Omega Molecules creating a growing storm in subspace.

“Will the Borg still be able to attack us?” One woman asked

It took me a moment, but I recognized her. She was Miral Paris, the daughter of Tom and B'Elanna.

The Denobulan man smiled the typical smile of a Denobulan teacher endeared to his students, and bowed slightly, turning the floor over to a Vulcan woman with implants not so different from Seven’s.

“There is a small Borg vessel that crash landed on the other side of the planet. A handful of drones are detected to have survived. But these drones have had their links to the Collective severed by the subspace storm.”

The woman gestured to the hologram “We project that the storms will continue to grow in intensity, covering an area well beyond the Galactic Rim. This will mean that ships will no longer be able to travel at warp, or be able to achieve slipstream or transwarp speeds. Subspace communication will also be completely cut off.”

“Are you telling us that we will never be able to see our families again.” A Venusian man asked

The Vulcan woman looked intently at the audience “We project that the storms will last for several decades, making all faster than light travel in the Galaxy impossible. But we will adapt. Systems across the Galaxy will be isolated from one another, but this will allow us to rebuild.”

The Vulcan woman continued “There is no way to tell if the Borg will reemerge after the storms dissipate, but it’s likely that countless billions who have been assimilated into the Borg Collective will begin to regain their individuality. With their links to the Collective severed by the storm former drones without number will finally have hope once again. This includes millions of ships, and thousands of Worlds that were once enslaved to the Collective.”

The implications were breathtaking. Mere hours ago, the Borg had won the war, and had functionally achieved their goal of conquering the Galaxy, but thanks to the ships that formed an Alliance and came to join us, and thanks to Seven’s ultimate sacrifice, the Galaxy had been saved from the Borg.

I joined Sarah about twenty minutes later on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the deep blue ocean of this world. At sunset the waves were almost purple, and large whale-like creatures played in the surf off in the distance.

Augustine, Voyager’s former holographic Doctor stood next to her, his mobile emitter on his arm. Sarah had brought it with her in her pocket when we’d left Voyager.

“Captain Janeway will be happy to see these landscapes.” Augustine remarked

Sarah smiled at me.

“Did you bring it with you?” She asked

“Bring what?” I asked

“Try your left pocket.” She said

I reached inside, reluctantly pulling out the ring.

“You know she truly loved you?” Sarah said

I looked at her confused “When Guinan told her that she did not believe Seven would survive this war, she asked the EMH to wire your new implant around the memories of your years together, and ordered us to never speak a word of it to you.”

Sarah tilted her head “But I sense that on some level, you knew that, and that even now, your memories are finally starting to resurface.”

I nodded, tears stinging the backs of my eyes.

Sarah threw her arms around me “At least now you’re here with me.”

I held her close, embracing her, and kissing her for the first time on the edge of that cliff overlooking the ocean of the world that would come to be known as Providence.

THE END

Notes:

The Nekki and the Frell - the two sentient races that were native to the planet with the red moons.

Gairth - Race of aquatics that become violent towards other races after the Federation shares technolgy with them.

Female EMH - Described as a woman with short, dark, rose-red hair, but able to be in many places at once.

Inspiration:

Inspiration for this story came a few months ago when I was Googling images of the Borg for a friend who is producing a sci-fi short film involving cyborgs when I came across this image of Janeway as a Borg Queen. Immediately the idea for this story flooded my head, and I could not resist the urge to write. Although at the time of producing this story I was still working on my novel, it helped to be able to take a break and write some fan fiction for creative exercise. To me this meant that the stakes were not as high, and I did not have to worry about being perfect. This ended up resulting in a story where not only could I bring my game to the fullest extent without worry, it also meant that I had an already existing world to build on, and because Star Trek is already well-known in pop-culture, it made it possible to subvert expectations. Unfortunately, my soft-spot for subversion becomes all but impossible to exercise unless writing fan fiction or writing a new twist on an old fairy tale, the later which has even now become cliche.

Thank you for taking the time to read this story! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it! If you are interested in more of my work, I have a YouTube channel that deals primarily with Christian apologetics, and I have an author page on Amazon. My first full-length novel will ideally be out by the end of 2017!

I can also be found at a number of places online.

My main website and blog:

GreenSlugg.com

My YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GreenSlugg

My Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/G.S.-Muse/e/B074DPZ8PZ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Muh Twitters:
https://twitter.com/GSMuse1

Patreon - for those of you who want to donate to my work.
https://www.patreon.com/GreenSlugg

And last but not least, my author profile on FabeBook:
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The original image that inspired this story. Click the link to view the author’s profile.http://g672.deviantart.com/art/Borg-Queen-Janeway-201900456

Other images:

A picture presumably of some fan art. The artist who created this image is unknown.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/17/1e/ff171ec646809cbe486f073e4351ff1e.jpg

http://www.startrek.com/database_article/endgame-part-ii

A landscape reminiscent of the planet Providence. Not 100% exactly what I was picturing, but still amazing, and close enough!

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/01/23/23/54/landscape-1158269_1280.jpg