A New Adventure
Part X: The Hand in the Darkness
--------------------
*We both knew the dangers,*
*We both accepted the odds.*
*But we never imagined,*
*We’d fight on opposite sides...*
--------------------
-Risa Sector, 0.17 Light-years away from the Gamma Orionis Transwarp Conduit-“If this is a Devidian attack on the ship, Commander, then what’s with the Thalaron weaponry?” Cherrosk asked as the duo rode a finally functioning turbolift towards the deck hosting Main Engineering. Reaver looked toward him via his peripheral vision, and then refocused on the lift’s doors. “Or, if this is a Tal Shiar attack, why would they use the Devidians? Their Thalaron weaponry is dangerous enough, even if they are lacking in force of size.”
The turbolift suddenly stopped with a jolt. Reaver looked to the control panel and saw that they had come to a halt a mere deck above Main Engineering. He inputted commands but the turbolift would no longer move. “Looks like this is our stop. Come on Cherrosk.” Reaver spoke as he began to pry open the doors. As they pulled the sliders open, a mist began to seep into the turbolift. “What in the…” The pair held the doors open for each other as they exited out onto the corridor, only to be met with confusion, shock, and horror. Reaver’s eyes were wide open, as was his mouth as he looked around the corridor. “This… This makes no sense…”
Cherrosk could not even mutter a word; the shock was too great for him to process. Reave had to pull at his arm to get them back and away from the intruders. The two retreated into the turbolift and let out a heavy breath as the doors slid close. “Reaver to the bridge. Captain can you hear me?”
“Just barely Number One, there is a lot of interference with our link.”
“I know why Captain. We have been boarded by the Borg.”
“Say again Reaver… Confirm, boarded by the Borg?”
“Affirmative Sir. It is the Borg.”
Suddenly the turbolift lit up with the red alert.
Narciso stood up as the turbolift lit up, however was taken back when the red alert began. He began to pull at the doors again. Before he could get anywhere, however, the turbolift suddenly began to move downwards. He jumped back with caution and then looked to the controls. He tried to override the commands, but nothing he could think of would work. Then he finally saw the destination of the turbolift: Main Engineering.
Within a minute the doors slide open and a thick mist seeped in and swirled around his legs. “What? This is…” As he looked down to the mist he saw red laser lights, those from scopes, appear as dots on his legs and torso. His head shot up and he saw their origin: Borg drones. They began to reach into the turbolift and out of survival instinct Narciso gave a high kick to a drones’ chest and reached for the turbolift controls, trying to close the doors. The Borg arms reached and grasped Narciso’s clothes. They pulled but the counselor fought back. His clothes ripped at the right shoulder and they tore off the right sleeve. One Borg Hand grabbed Narciso by the neck and pulled. Physically superior to the counselor, the Borg drone was able to easily lift and carry Narciso away, no matter how much he kicked and tore at the drone’s implants.
The drone threw the counselor onto a console table harshly, causing the young man to groan out as his back made contact to the hard surface. He rolled onto his side and noticed that the Borg had yet to assimilate the consoles, or any other equipment within Engineering. Narciso then thought of his science lab and the technology he was developing to fight the Borg. ‘I can’t be assimilated.’ He thought to himself. Drones began to encircle the table, medical drones by the look of their arm attachments. Seeming to calm down, the drones spoke out their notorious words. “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”
Heavy phaser fire suddenly struck the gathered group of Borg, knocking them to the floor. Narciso’s eyes shot to the origin point of the weapon fire and the sight made him beyond relieved. Marietta and Theo were laying down suppressing fire while Reaver was running towards Narciso. More Borg began to beam right into Main Engineering, but most were met with direct hits from Marietta.
“Hurry Cherrosk! Get those damn shields back online!” Marietta shouted over the firing of her weapon.
“I’m working on it! Knowing that it’s Borg technology that’s draining our shields makes it slightly easier to fix.”
“Then what’s taking so long!?”
“I said SLIGHTLY God dammit!” Cherrosk shouted back as he worked the main console. “It’s still the Borg!”
“Point taken!” Theo shouted, “But hurry!”
Reaver finally reached the table, Smashing the drones with the blunt handle of his phaser rifle due to their adapting to quickly. He took hold of Narciso’s bare right arm and pulled him up to his feet. A large group suddenly beamed precisely around them and grabbed hold of the two.
“Kenneth!”
“Narciso! NO!”
The young counselor struggled as best as he could to get free, but the tactical drone holding him down was far stronger. Kenneth had to be held by two of the drones, and even then he had managed to send one of them crashing to the ground. Marietta and Theo managed to rotate their weapon frequencies and began firing again, killing drone after drone. The tactical drone holding Narciso was shot in his cranial ridges, an assimilated Klingon, and he fell to the floor. Narciso made a mad-tackle on the second drone fighting Reaver. Both clashed and fell to the floor. Reaver picked up Narciso and they began a run toward the others. Narciso suddenly tripped, falling face first to the floor. He looked back and saw the drones hit by phaser fire were still active and had grasped his ankles. Reaver stopped to help him up, but was bashed in the back of his skull by a swift and powerful blow from a newly transported Borg. He landed next to Narciso, unconscious. Narciso managed to kick off the hands of the weakened Borg and crawled to Reaver. He hastily placed himself at Reaver’s head and hooked his arms under Reaver’s armpits and pulled him up. Reaver was too heavy for Narciso to carry; he was too tired to lift him up all the way. He dragged Reaver until his back hit the wall. Narciso slid down, Reaver’s unconscious body between his legs, both facing out to the Borg. Narciso lifted Reaver up enough for his head to rest on the counselor’s chest. Narciso wrapped his arms around Reaver’s shoulders and planted a kiss on the back of his head, smelling the nice scent of his hair deeply. His eyes looked out at the massive swarm of Borg that continuously transported in. He could just barely see Marietta and Theo at the opposite side of the gigantic room, past the warp core in the center. The Borg moved toward them, slowly almost as if purposely making this nightmare last longer. Narciso reached for Reaver’s belt and drew his standard issue phaser. He fired at the Borg, killing only a few before they adapted. He lowered the weapon, knowing what would happen next.
Narciso looked down, a tear in his eyes. “I’m not leaving you, I don’t care what you say Kenneth… I know you would yell at me to run… And I know you’ll curse me for staying… I love you, I always have and I always will… I don’t blame you for what happened, for the years we lost… But… Is this the last time I’ll miss you, Imzadi?” Narciso looked up at the last second and saw the Borg hand as it grabbed his neck and turned his head. The Drone then pierced his neck with its’ assimilation tubules, injecting the nanoprobes directly into his bloodstream. His eyes looked down as he saw the same happening to the unconscious Reaver. “I’m Glad… You’re not awake, my love…” The last thing Narciso heard before falling unconscious himself was Marietta screaming at the top of her lungs and the smack she delivered to Cherrosk.
The Borg suddenly began to beam out, trying to take Reaver and Narciso with them. “Block their signal!” Marietta shouted as she moved to the console to assist Cherrosk. Theo followed, no longer having a target to shoot at. “Try to Jam their signal Cherrosk! I’m trying to hack into their beam and get them back! Dammit Theo! Use that Borg know-how!”
“I’m trying! But I don’t know the origin of their transporter beam!” Cherrosk shouted as his hands flew across the console in a blur.
“Just try a modified dampening field here in Engineering! That should interfere with their beam enough for Marietta to hack into their beam!”
“Hurry we’re losing them! We’re losing them!” Marietta shouted as the Borg began to disappear one by one.
“I’m almost there!” Cherrosk shouted.
Theo looked towards Raver and Narciso, seeing the beam take them completely. “It’s too late… they’re gone.”
“Damn it! Just restore shields!” Marietta shouted, and then tapped her combadge. “Captain! The Borg have left the ship! They’ve assimilated and taken Commander Reaver and Counselor Heliree. We have to go after them!”
“I agree. But right now we must restore our ship. We’ve found a way to cut out of this chaotic anomaly. We’re trying it now. Work with Cherrosk to get our systems back at full power.”
The Odyssey’s Shields manifested and began to push against the anomaly, a constant struggle with power levels made it difficult, but they managed to cope. This allowed power to be restored to the other subsystems. With energy flowing to the deflector array once more, the Captain gave the order and they shot out a modified reverse tachyon beam. The chaotic anomaly suddenly began a violent chemical reaction resulting in widespread explosions. The Pallas Helena was bombarded from all sides, but managed to withstand the assault. The reaction cleared up the anomaly and a Borg Sphere could be seen directly to the bow of the ship. It had taken damage, slightly, from the explosions but was more than functional.
“Captain! Combadge signals of both Commander Reaver and Counselor Heliree have been picked up within the sphere!”
“Sir, the sphere is retreating! It is going to warp!” Hal shouted. “Do we pursue!?”
“Negative! Tag that sphere. We are in no shape to fight. We’ll find them once we have made repairs… I’ll be in my ready room. Tell all stations to report in damages and casualties.”
“Destination sir?” Hal asked, furious that they weren’t giving chase, but understanding why.
“Set course to the Fleet Starbase. Notify me before we arrive. Send a message to the Task force. Tell them we’re going to be late. We still need to figure out what the Hell happened.”
“Aye sir. Course laid in for Fleet Starbase: Stonewall.”
-To Be Continued-