Omoikane 57 - Teestra 1
Galaglan walked into the conference room. I was there with Captain Lorra. “Hello,” He said, “I haven’t met one of your species before.”
**Yes, you have,** Galaglan said
“Please sit down, Commander,” I said.
She sat down on the opposite side of the table, **You’re going to owe me some radishes, too, Captain.**
“Radishes?” Lorra asked
“An Earth vegetable. The Ane love them. It’s a running joke that you can bribe the Ane to do things by offering radishes. Note, here, that I’m being held up for literally tons of radishes.”
Lorra said, “I notice some tension, Commander, what have I done to give offense?”
Galaglan stared at him **Your empire built a colony on our homeworld. They didn’t ask. When we reminded them of polite behavior, they laughed and blew us off.**
“I don’t recall…. Wait, you said the Ane. You meant the Ane Ane?”
“Yes,” I said.
“The Ane are animals native the El-Nanth system. They’re psionic mirrors. They reflect back to you what you’re thinking. Or what you’re afraid of hearing. They’re not sentient.”
I leaned back in my chair. I was picturing how much storage space I’d have to devote to radishes. “Captain Lorra. You’re in error here. The Ane designed this ship. They’re a founding member of the Federation. Galaglan, here is my chief engineer. She’s an Ane.”
“We must not be talking about the same species. The Ane of the El-Nanth system are 4-legged herbivores.”
I blinked at him.
**I think we can dock container pods under each wing if we keep it symmetrical,** Galglan pictured herself diving into a bin of radishes like Scrooge McDuck.
“Would you ask Tippalan to come join us?” I asked Galaglan.
**She doesn’t want to. She wants to kick Lorra in the face.**
“It’ll help drive the point home. Besides. Imagine his face when it comes home.”
“What are you talking about?” Lorra asked
“Your people made a terrible mistake and then doubled down on it. Now you need help, and the person perfectly placed to help you is blocked by that mistake,” I said.
**You implied that I’m not an Ane,** Galaglan said. **Take it back and apologize.**
“Galaglan is part of a subtype of Ane mostly found on Oz,” I said, “but mentally they’re identical to the Ane you know from El-Nanth.”
“I wonder if we’re in some alternate timeline?” Lorra said.
“That wouldn’t explain why the Ane are mad at you,” I said.
Lorra thought about that and didn’t like it.
Tippalan entered the Conference room. Her ears were back against her skull. “This is Tippalan. She’s an Ane Healer and mental health professional.” I introduced.
Lorra blinked. “Oh, Gods.”
**Apologize.**
Lorra, to his credit, got it. “We were wrong, the whole time. Dr. Tippalan. I humbly apologize.”
Tippalan’s ears flipped up. **You used my title.**
“I’d like to know more here. Obviously ,what I was told was dead wrong.”
**You were there, Lorra. We remember you.**
“I only ever saw the Ane on El Nanth at a distance. I was told they psionically reflected our own nightmares back to us to try to scare us away.”
**By then, we were tired of trying to talk to your people. Your people were like arguing with a Kipling poem.**
“I wish I had known.”
Tippalan said **You didn’t ask.**
It was every Ane’s favorite line.
“Captain Lorra, the Ane are still put out by the Second Empire’s colony on their homeworld. I don’t know if they’ll make each El-Aurian apologize individually, but your people need help with this transition.”
**I won’t punish the injured for being injured. Just tell your crew that we are, indeed, people, and I’ll do what I can. If one of your people refuses to accept that we’re people, then we’ll turn our backs on them.**
“Acknowledged, Ma’am,” Lorra said
**How many radishes do you want?** Galaglan asked
“Oh, you can have all mine,” I said.
“Why were you betting these radish things?”
**Captain Lorra, you’re not the first El-Aurian from the Second Empire to have this explained to him. You’re rare in that you’ve adjusted your mental image, and you understand where your Empire was in error. Most people from your era doubled down or started making excuses about bringing the wonders of technological civilization to the Ane.**
“That’s all in the past now, isn’t it?” He said sadly
**No. But now we can start building a different future.**
“Okay,” I said, “Now I have to go talk to the Lefyt.”
“Is it going to be like this discussion?”
“Similar, but maybe worse.”
-*-
Zekaran glared at the Damyip worker units. They stood still and looked back, their mechanical faces holding no expression whatever.
“You want me to turn my ship over to the Damyip,” I said. I was suggesting blasphemy. Sin. Wrongness.
“They can safely drive it back to the Lefyt system without worries about life support or supplies holding out, or worrying about anything happening while you’re in hibernation.”
“And in exchange, we ride home on this luxury liner.”
“It’s not an exchange. You can ride home with us no matter what you decide here.”
Peggera said, “They’re cute little guys, in a way.”
ZeKaran and Makolo glared at him. One of the worker units blinked its eyes and made cute noises at him. They were kind of cute when they put their minds to it.
“They’re the fucking toasters,” Zekaran said sharply.
“Please, Let’s try to avoid prejudicial language,” I said.
“We’ve been called worse, Captain,” Lotara said.
“Terms like that are useful when fighting,” I said, “But they make peace more difficult. We want to lean into peace.”
“We could destroy the Rebkali,” Zekaran said.
Mokala didn’t like that idea. Peggera was surprised by it “Why?” He asked.
“To keep it out of … Damyip hands.”
Lotrara said, “As military technology, your ship is obsolete. As history, it will have great meaning to the Lefyt. Please reconsider.”
“Is that why you want the Rebkali?” ZeKaran asked, “Because it would mean something to the Lefyt?”
“We’re not seeking to steal her from you. We’re offering to drive her home for you,” Lotara said “You and the Rebkali will mean something to the Lefyt. Building and keeping a good relationship with the Lefyt is important to us.”
“Explain why keeping a good relationship with the Lefyt is important, please,” I said
Lotara looked at me and visibly gathered her thoughts.
“During your period of time, the Damyip understood the Lefyt poorly and incompletely. My… ancestors, for lack of a better term, fought to protect the people the Federation calls the Ur-Damyip. Protecting the Ur-Damyip is everything to us. “
Zekaran scoffed “We posed no threat to your makers.”
“At the time, we saw it differently. Now we understand better. The way to assure that you mean no danger and pose no danger is to build bonds of friendship.”
“That sounds like a children’s story!”
“For you, it’s simple. It’s built into your nature. We had to learn it through trial and error.”
Peggera said, “So… That’s your motivation? Make love, not war.”
“Once we decided on this strategy, we pursued it aggressively. We will be your friends the way we fought you. Implacably.”
The Lefyt crew looked at each other. They weren’t sure if that was better or worse than the old way.
“This is why preserving your ship, your records, and your stories is important for us. It will make our Lefyt friends happier,” Lotara explained.
Zekaran said, “Hypothetically. If we ran into a batch of Damyip from our time. On the attack and out for blood. Would you fight the old Damyip to protect us?”
Lotara made a thoughtful face “I wouldn’t have to. My programming is more recent and more competent than these hypothetical old Damyip. I could communicate with them and change their minds, However, there is a deeper question. Will I stand by you when danger threatens? Absolutely. It’s easier for us than it is for you. If it comes up, I will stand in the breach, weapons in hand to cover your escape.”
“What makes it easier for you?” Pegera said
“Death isn’t the same for me as it is for you. I will live on.”
“What?”
“You can get into the technical details later, I said. It’s interesting and brings up a lot of interesting questions. For our part, I think Starfleet would not like to slide into using Damyip as disposable guards or automated crew units. That would damage us, philosophically and morally. I welcome Damyip compatriots and partners.”
“Utopian,” ZeKaran said “But how practical is that?”
“Indeed, you often use utopian language when describing your Federation,” Lorra added
“My ancestors fought back from a nuclear armageddon,” I said “All the founders except the Ane had something like that in their past. We’re utopians because that’s the world we want to live in. You have to choose it and consciously pursue it consciously. That’s one of the tenets of Starfleet.
“And that’s what we’re signing up for?”
“We help distressed travelers get to safety. You’re under no obligation for that. Once you’re on solid ground, you’ll have to make that decision for yourselves.”
Zekaran rubbed his chin. “Once I’m here and you activate your warp drives, then I’m a passenger. I’ve given up command of the Rebkali and any freedom of action that entails.”
“I honestly don’t think she’ll be your last command.”
“How much pull do you have with the Lefyt Council?”
“Approximately zero. But I know that competent people are at a premium. High demand.”
Zekaran stared at the Damyip workers. And then he looked at Lotara.
“I place my fate in the hands of the Old Gods,” He said “Take us home, Captain.”
-*-
Captain Rixza called us “Starfleet, I got a mystery for you to work out.”
“What’s that?”
“We got to the Teestra, and they said they never saw the Scalloped Blade, Captain Zeecha, or any of his people. We talked to a few patrons and customers. They saw people who looked like Zeecha and his crew, but no one saw them leave. We’re getting out of here. I hope you can figure it out.”
I blinked “Okay. We’re on our way.”
Rixza shook her head “Just like that, huh?”
“Yup. Remember who your friends are.”
“Fuck you,” She explained.
Rixza cut the channel.
“Alright, set course to intercept the Teestra.”
“Laid in, Captain.”
“Engage.”
Omoikane The Teestra
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1578
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane The Teestra
Omoikane 58 - Teestra 2
The SS Teestra was a large, flying X-rated mall in space. It favored a dark green color scheme, but on top of that there were lights, holograms, signs and decorations.
It was more than a collection of strip clubs and brothels, but you had to look willfully past the titillating images. And the weird ones. Humanoids were not the only sets of genitals they were advertising towards.
We gratefully ducked into a no-kidding book shop. Books of all shapes and sizes in every language you could imagine and more. Most of them used, some new.
An old humanoid man manned the desk. He was golden in color. Looked Orionish. His hair was white and wanted to wave in nonexistent breezes. “Can I help you find something?” He asked.
“We’re explorers. We’re out looking for worlds and people who are new to us.”
“That’s awfully broad. Are you looking for hard copy or electronic information?”
“Both, any.”
Stephanie picked up a coffee table book about energy weapons. Unknown language. But nice images of polaron pistols and tetryon assault weapons.
The old man held up a PADD. It had listings in a language I didn’t know. There was a row of buttons along the bottom and one of them was marked “Standard” in Federation Standard. So I pressed that button. The list was rewritten and I started to drool.
The Federation has its Public Access Database. We loaded up all the information we were willing to share about ourselves. It was a monster.
I saw 4 different collections of a similar size about groups of people we knew nothing about.
I quickly started ordering all of them.
“Get what you want, or what’s interesting. We’re dumping most of our money here,” I said.
Stephanie, Li’ira, and Galaglan fanned out in the book shop.
Li’ira asked, “Do you have music?”
The shop keeper handed her another tablet. From her expression, I could tell they had music riches like I was discovering cultural ones.
“You’re spending pretty freely,” The shop keeper grinned “Are you sure you don’t want to leave some aside for … other stops?”
I smiled back “What’s your name, sir? We might owe you a medal for all this.”
He chuckled “I’m Goral. It’s fun to meet people who value the same things.”
-*-
We carried overloaded bags. The electronic data was on odd media. I made sure each member of the party had one of the data… card/things.
We’d just made a serious dent in the Omoikane’s anti-matter supplies. But it was worth it.
Galaglan stopped and looked around
“What is it?” I asked
**I’m…. I’m sort of hearing something.**
“What?”
**I don’t know. But I don’t like it.**
I felt the transporter grab me. It wrapped us in a forcefield to prevent unwanted atoms and molecules from being exchanged in transport.
Then it stuttered and quit.
My communicator sputtered
“Capt…..erncy…..scans……Borg.” I heard through the crackle
Then my communicator went all static.
I looked around “Welp. That’s not good.”
Stephanie had her phaser one out and was reassembling it. A lot of weight for a little cricket phaser to carry.
A man who looked for all the world like a Tellarite/Klingon hybrid staggered out of a strip club “My… my… my comms are down. Can’t pay da girlie.”
“Let’s start looking for the emergency exit,” I said.
Li’ira pointed “There,”
A door with absolutely no signage or decoration. No attention called to it at all. Perfect for accessing service areas behind the mall.
As we walked briskly toward the door. I saw 3 humanoid women in some sort black leather-like get up grab the Klingon/Tellarite guy. “What? What are you doing?” He yelled.
I turned toward him. “Excuse me! Hi! Is there a problem?” I said brightly.
“I think they’re mad because I’m cut off from my account,” The T/K guy said.
“Mister Kurgard has a special appointment,” the lead lady said She was big, about 6 foot 6. Looked athletic. Humanoid, but not human. I’d have loved to have gotten a good scan of her.
Kurgard looked around confused “I haven’t contracted for any of that sort of thing. I’m looking just the right lady, y’know.”
“Oh, I think you’ll enjoy this lady. Captain’s compliments,” The big woman said. In the strange lighting, her skin looked unhealthy.
“I think we can get him sorted out,” I smiled “Obviously just a minor tech issue.”
The floor of the mall started vibrating. We were moving.
“Is this ship going somewhere?” I asked.
“Just adjusting our orbit. Nothing to be concerned about.”
Pretending not to be concerned was becoming a challenge.
“Sure. So Let’s get Mister Kurgard back to his ship and we can sort out the tech issue and get you all paid,” Just a dumb human guy. Mister fix it. We try to fix everything.
“Captain JayHailey, Your appointment is next, don’t worry. We take special care of our guests.”
“Thanks Starfleet!” Kurgard said “Always good for a rescue. But this ain’t that kind of place, y’know? I’ll go take care of these ladies, and it’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yup! I got this.”
The leather-clad women led the mixed-race space trader away.
Galaglan had her ear pinned flat back. **We have to get out of here now.**
Li’ira said “Door.”
We turned back to the access door. While I was being goofy and clueless at the women, Li’ira opened the door. We slipped through, Li’ira closed it and messed with the locking mechanism on the other side “This is unknown technology to me. I hope this will hold them for a while.”
“Me, too,” I said “Let’s look for the outer hull.”
We set off into the back areas of the mall.
-*-
The wall had holes in it. They were ovals about the right size. There were signs in bright colors. The language and color layout were alien, but the intent was clear, if it was hard to see or you weren’t clear on things, look here.
Li’ira overrode the lock on one of the oval hatches. As soon as the door was open, Galaglan was inside **Shit!** She yelled.
I looked after her. It was an impulse power unit. Some sort of auxiliary power station. It replaced the escape pods that should have been behind the signs and hatches. I tapped at a control board. The control layout was all circles with gradients on them. It turned red and said in standard “Someone will be with you shortly. Please stand by.”
“Ah, fuck, they’re tracking us.”
The floor and walls shuddered a little.
“I really don’t like that,” I said.
“I don’t like any of this,” Stephanie hissed.
Galaglan took several components out of the auxiliary reactor, and it shut down.
“Time to be elsewhere,” Li’ira said.
We ran.
-*-
Another squad of leather-clad women entered the store room where we were hiding.
We stunned them quickly.
Li’ira and I checked their weapons. Clubs. Decent fighting clubs, with a spiky fork on the end and an energy discharge. Stun clubs. A particularly blunt force and brutal format of the kind.
“No ranged weapons?” Stephanie asked.
I turned over the third woman. A green orion. Had I seen her face before?
“Li’ira, have we seen this one before?” I asked
Li’ira gave me a look and scanned the woman. “It’s hard to tell. Who was the last Green Orion besides me that you saw?”
“On the Scalloped Blade’s Bridge,” I said
“Oh Shit,” Li’ira said “I think you might be right.”
She showed me her scan
The Orion woman was heavily infested with nanotechnology.
Stephaine said, “We should move.”
“Yup, let’s go,” I said
Galaglan was shrunk back into the corner of the store room. **They were screaming,**
“What?” I asked
**They were screaming INSIDE.** Galaglan said, **Even stunned I can hear them moaning and struggling.**
“Galaglan, we have to MOVE,” I said.
**Where?** Galaglan said **WHERE!?**
“I don’t know, we’ll figure something out,”
Everyone looked at me with varying degrees of “I don’t like that answer.”
“If anyone has a better idea, I’d love to hear it.”
We left the store room and ran. Down. We were making our way into the bowels of the SS Teetsra.
-*-
We were in a power junction. It looked… scary. I could see different equipment from different technologies arranged to work together. I couldn’t imagine how that was happening.
I poked at the network control node. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It looked like dark dark green plastic infused with metal flakes. I scanned it. Nanotech connected devices in a strange configuration.
A squad of women appeared at the end of the hallway. “Captain JayHailey, you have an appointment with our Captain.”
“No thank you! We’re just looking!” I said
We stunned them.
Stephanie checked our six and fired her small phaser again.
I turned to see the stun beam just washing off another trio of leather-clad women. They approached us ignoring the stun beams
“They’ve adapted. Change your phaser frequencies.”
“Like the Borg?” Stephanie asked.
“These are the Borg,” I said.
Li’ira finished resetting her phaser and stunned the group,
“We have to keep going,” I said
We ran to a ladder and climbed down
-*-
The Gallery ran along a large bay. The Teestra, some old bulk carrier had huge cargo bays in her belly.
There were bright lights in random places making odd shadows and bright spots. The dark green of the hull and walls enhanced the effect.
We ran aft along the gallery.
“I thought the Borg were gone,” Stephanie said
“I thought so, too,” I said.
“That phaser trick won’t last long,” Li’ira said.
I nodded and kept jogging.
**THERE WILL BE A VINICULUM, THE DEVICE THAT CONTROLS THE BORG NETWORK!** Galaglan yelled
She was yelling over something only she could hear.
I felt the psi-shield on my head and was grateful for it.
We ducked into an anteroom off the gallery.
-*-
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered.
There was Captain Zeecha and some of his crew. They were standing in little techno-alcoves. Tubes and wires ran into their bodies. It looked like half life-support, half computer network. It looked very Borg.
I grabbed Zeecha. “Zeecha! Wake up!”
His eyes fluttered. He moved in a disorganized way, “B..b…brains!” He mumbled “Muh muh BRAINS!”
He started to weakly grab at the wires and tubes in his body. I started to help him.
Li’ira grabbed my arm “That’s life support. This isn’t like the Borg we were trained on. This is more primitive.”
“If it were you, what would you want me to do?” I hissed.
“We can kill them and put them out of their misery now, or we can keep running and try to rescue them in the future.”
Some faint hope of rescue or an end to torment now?
“We’ll try to come back for you!” I said
And we ran.
-*-
The next gallery aft showed a bay with the Orion Light Raider in it. It was at the beginning stages of being disassembled.
It would have materials. Tools.
“That way,” I pointed.
-*-
The neo-borg disassembling the Orion ship were both men and women. All in that same black leather-looking outfit. We stunned our way into the ship. But we had to reset our phasers a number of times. The effects didn’t last as long and they were becoming resistant even so.
Stephanie stopped and dug a set of weapons out of an armory. Disruptors, sonic blasters, particle beam guns and phasers made by the Cardassians and Ferengi.
We armed ourselves with varied weapons. Then our shooting became much more effective.
Down and aft. Through the narrow corridors of the Orion ship. It looked more like an old submarine than a modern ship. The lighting was part original, and part fucked up neo-borg lighting.
Adrenaline meant when I stubbed my toes or mashed my shins on a hatchway, I didn’t feel it as much.
We found main engineering.
The warp core was on idle stand-by. It still had hot plasma in it. But the main control panel was disassembled and half filled with neo-borg gear. All someone else’s stuff with the weird metallic flake plastic connecting it.
I hissed. I was hoping enough of this stuff would be intact enough for us to try and commandeer the Orion ship and shoot our way free.
It was not. We weren’t going to ride to safety on the hulk of an Orion ship.
Galaglan started ripping neo-borg stuff out of the control computers and panels.
Li’ira thought about it “I need your tricorders and for you to cover me.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked
“I’m going to try and hack this Borg network,”
I looked at Stephanie and we had the same thought. This was optimistic at best. But it was all we had going on.
I handed my stuff over to Li’ira
I went to Galaglan “What are you doing?”
She kept working, as if she couldn’t hear me.
I touched her shoulder.
Suddenly, I could hear what she heard
Thousands of voices screamed, babbled, moaned and begged for help. They prayed and cried. Galaglan was as focused as hell to work coherently amid all the chaos and suffering
**What are we doing?** I asked her
She looked at me. I could see how strange the Ane Mind was compared to the human mind. Part of her was almost incoherent in fear. Part was watching and noting everything with detached interest.
Way, way in the back, past all the screaming, I could see The All, watching us in horror.
Galaglan was building a bomb. She could charge up the warp core and then detonate it. Not only would it fuck over the Teestra, it would be a very effective method to prevent assimilation. Nano-tech can’t assimilate plasma.
I had an idea. I reached through Galaglan’s mind. **Tippalan! What’s happening?**
I could see it through Tippalan’s eyes. The Omoikane was fighting. As soon as the Teestra’s cover was broken, she raised Borg-like shields and started firing Borg-like weapons. The Omoikane was trapped in a tractor beam that drained shields in moments. Engines were roaring, phasers and ion cannon were firing. But they couldn’t use the quantum torpedoes because we were in here.
**I can’t teleport to you!** Tippalan cried **We’re moving too much and there’s too much weapons fire! If we hold still enough for me to reach you, they’ll kill the Omoikane before I can get you back!**
**If you see a warp core detonation in here, that was us. Light them up with everything you have following that.**
Tippalan gasped and far far in the back, I could hear Gensilan screaming.
**That’s the last option. I’ll try to find something else.**
Galaglan looked at me I could see her determination not to become one of the tormented, screaming souls trapped in this horror show.
**Me, too,** I said **But we have to try everything else first.**
I pulled out of Galaglan’s mind. I felt deaf without the screaming.
Stephanie finished securing the doors to the engineering compartment.
I went to the tool locker and found an old plasma cutter. I’d used one like it when I was a kid. I set it to a very specific set of settings and began to burn the neo-borg plastic shit off all the gear I could.
A few minutes later we heard clunks and bangs as the neo-borg tried to break through the doors.
Li’ira sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t get it.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Not unless you can piece together a supercomputer out of this stuff. Their programming keeps rewriting itself. It’s slower than the original Borg, but still too fast for the gear I have here.” She looked up and forward “I can point you right to the viniculumn, but I can’t access it. I can’t disable it from here.”
I looked around. I could assemble a decent computer from the stuff in this room. There was a lot of stuff in here. But nothing like a hacking rig Li’ira needed.
But…
I ran two laps around the orion warp core looking. Yeah, we had the parts.
“Galaglan, I need your bomb!”
**NO! I CAN’T LET THEM HAVE ME!**
“We have a shot, here! We can do this!”
**IF IT DOESN’T WORK, I GET ASSIMILATED! WE ALL DO!**
I grabbed Galaglans face **Name three things humans are good at!**
Together we ran through the math. It looked better than I thought, really.
Galaglan turned to The All **ENJOY THE SHOW!**
This was greeted by more screaming from The All and from the tortured souls surrounding us
We got to work
-*-
The forward door got burned through and fell on the deck with a resounding thump.
“Li’ira can you set us up an isolation field?”
“On it.”
Neo-borg drones stepped through the opening. Some of them had weapons, but they didn’t fire.
They fanned out and another one came through the door. A woman. I think. It was the head and shoulders of a woman on a technological skeleton. She moved wrong. She was really hitting my uncanny valley.
We felt a small pop as the isolation field snapped into place. Stephanie and Galaglan kept working.
The Skeleton woman approached “Jay. The last memory I have of you is that you were a Commander in San Francisco. You’ve aged well.”
“I don’t suppose we could talk about this?”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I kind of do.”
“You’re only delaying the inevitable. You will be Borg. You will serve me.”
I squinted at her “Queen of the Borg? You know that defeats the whole point, right?”
She looked at me with theatrical pity “You think you understand the Borg.”
“The whole idea of one Borg being any different from any other is not the Borg. They subsumed everyone into the whole. All were one, all were equal.”
“We were beautiful. We were perfect. We will be again. I am the rebirth of the Borg.”
“You did it again.”
“You’re becoming tiresome.”
“We can leave.”
“Will, you though? Or will you come back later with a shiny white Starfleet Taskforce?”
“I’m sure that task force is being assembled now.”
“Well, then I’ll need someone versed in Federation tactics to show me how to escape from them.”
“This whole sensual assimilation thing is amazingly creepy.”
She laughed. Genuine joy. “Excellent! You really get me, Jay. What are your friends doing over there?”
“We’re preparing to jump-start the warp core so we can shoot our way out of your bay, here and escape.”
She squinted at Stephanie and Galaglan “Do you really think that’ll work?”
“You’d be surprised what ships like this can do when you’re not going to use them again.”
“You value your little lives so much. Squabbling, fighting, disagreeing. Misunderstanding. Missing out on all those things you thought you were going to do. I’m giving you the chance to be part of something bigger. Something truer. Something eternal. You’d live on with us forever.”
“Who are you really?” I asked, “Who were you before you got assimilated?”
“No one. That’s the point. If I had one of your little lives before I became part of The Collective, I forgot it. Eagerly.”
“Wow.”
“You don’t know what it’s like.”
“We have a telepath. I’ve heard your victims.”
She sighed “Minor discomfort. Once I get more of the collective back, I’ll be able to soothe them. They’ll see how to enjoy the experience.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“I will bring back the Collective, Jay. You can’t stop me. We have your starship handled. By the time searchers come, we’ll be long gone, with your ship and your fuel as part of my collective.”
“I can’t decide who I hate more, the real Borg who exterminated individuality, or a hopeless Borg fangirl who can’t stop making it about herself.”
She got angry “Hate is irrelevant. Whatever you feel is irrelevant. You will be Borg. You will join me.”
“We’re hot!” Stephanie shouted.
“Ook, ook, bitch,” I snarled at the Borg Queen “HIT ‘EM!”
The isolation field came down and suddenly I was in the middle of a lightning bolt. I was blind. I was deafened. I was burning all over. I can’t tell if I screamed or not. Not that it mattered much.
I felt myself hit the deck. It seemed to be tilted. I rolled for a bit. I struggled to get up and move. It’s harder than it sounds when you’re blind, deaf, and burned all over. But this was our only chance. I had to make something happen.
I felt something tug my jacket and suddenly, hands were all over me. I struggled. They carried me to a flat surface and started cutting away my uniform. Strong arms held me down. It was very scary and very bad. The restraints activated. I was about to be assimilated. I fought it as hard as I could.
Tippalan was there **Calm Down. You’re in Sickbay.”
**How are the others? How’s the ship? That thing’s a fucking BORG!** I thought I thought that at Tippalan. Actually, I was shouting it raggedly in the sickbay.
She replied **It looks like you’ve disabled the Teestra. You’re burned. You’ll need treatment. Li’ira, Stephanie and Galaglan are back now, too. They’re not burned as badly as you are. But you’re all blind and deaf. You uncorked a warp core and fired it through a hose. You’re lucky to be alive.**
**I’m luckier,** I said **I’m not a Borg.**
**The Omoikane is fine. We were getting ahead of the Teestra slowly, but the whole thing shut down when you fired that horrible thing. The plasma went through the whole ship and out the top.** Tippalan showed me what it looked like from the Omoikane’s point of view. If I wasn’t so busy being injured, I’d have felt bad. The casualties must have been heavy.
**You’re off duty until Dr. Hobolisk and I certify you. Sleep now.**
**But… but…** Images of the people locked into their own heads screaming for help played in front of my mind.
**”We’ll do what we can,** Tippalan said, **Your task now is to heal.**
Yeah. Yeah. That’s what having a great crew is about. You can trust them to handle business.
Something changed and I felt floaty and happy. Some wonderful neural induction thing took the pain away
Eventually, I fell asleep.
-*-
I looked like a Bolian sort of. My upper third had been burned by the weapon firing. So I was hairless and my temporary skin was blue. In time it would fall away and reveal normal skin underneath. Then my hair would start to regrow.
But for the next two weeks, I was going to be hairless and blue. They were able to restore my hearing and vision to factory specs.
Li’ire looked horrible. She’d put her hands over her face. So she was bald and blue, but with a splotchy green face. I didn’t mention anything about it. I was just glad she made it through.
Stephanie looked like a blue racoon. She’d put her arm over her eyes.
Galaglan was almost completely healed. Tippalan had some sort of psionic healing ability. Stephanie was next on the list. Then Li’ira.
“Time, Captain,” Varupuchu said from the bridge. The ships Starfleet sent to relieve us on this patrol would be here, shortly. Afterwards, straight back to base, with no detours.
I leaned away from Li’ira. It took us both a bit of time to get to trust the new blue temporary skin. But together we did some touch therapy to make sure things were regenerating properly.
But now it was time to put on the uniform and go meet the new guys.
The SS Teestra was a large, flying X-rated mall in space. It favored a dark green color scheme, but on top of that there were lights, holograms, signs and decorations.
It was more than a collection of strip clubs and brothels, but you had to look willfully past the titillating images. And the weird ones. Humanoids were not the only sets of genitals they were advertising towards.
We gratefully ducked into a no-kidding book shop. Books of all shapes and sizes in every language you could imagine and more. Most of them used, some new.
An old humanoid man manned the desk. He was golden in color. Looked Orionish. His hair was white and wanted to wave in nonexistent breezes. “Can I help you find something?” He asked.
“We’re explorers. We’re out looking for worlds and people who are new to us.”
“That’s awfully broad. Are you looking for hard copy or electronic information?”
“Both, any.”
Stephanie picked up a coffee table book about energy weapons. Unknown language. But nice images of polaron pistols and tetryon assault weapons.
The old man held up a PADD. It had listings in a language I didn’t know. There was a row of buttons along the bottom and one of them was marked “Standard” in Federation Standard. So I pressed that button. The list was rewritten and I started to drool.
The Federation has its Public Access Database. We loaded up all the information we were willing to share about ourselves. It was a monster.
I saw 4 different collections of a similar size about groups of people we knew nothing about.
I quickly started ordering all of them.
“Get what you want, or what’s interesting. We’re dumping most of our money here,” I said.
Stephanie, Li’ira, and Galaglan fanned out in the book shop.
Li’ira asked, “Do you have music?”
The shop keeper handed her another tablet. From her expression, I could tell they had music riches like I was discovering cultural ones.
“You’re spending pretty freely,” The shop keeper grinned “Are you sure you don’t want to leave some aside for … other stops?”
I smiled back “What’s your name, sir? We might owe you a medal for all this.”
He chuckled “I’m Goral. It’s fun to meet people who value the same things.”
-*-
We carried overloaded bags. The electronic data was on odd media. I made sure each member of the party had one of the data… card/things.
We’d just made a serious dent in the Omoikane’s anti-matter supplies. But it was worth it.
Galaglan stopped and looked around
“What is it?” I asked
**I’m…. I’m sort of hearing something.**
“What?”
**I don’t know. But I don’t like it.**
I felt the transporter grab me. It wrapped us in a forcefield to prevent unwanted atoms and molecules from being exchanged in transport.
Then it stuttered and quit.
My communicator sputtered
“Capt…..erncy…..scans……Borg.” I heard through the crackle
Then my communicator went all static.
I looked around “Welp. That’s not good.”
Stephanie had her phaser one out and was reassembling it. A lot of weight for a little cricket phaser to carry.
A man who looked for all the world like a Tellarite/Klingon hybrid staggered out of a strip club “My… my… my comms are down. Can’t pay da girlie.”
“Let’s start looking for the emergency exit,” I said.
Li’ira pointed “There,”
A door with absolutely no signage or decoration. No attention called to it at all. Perfect for accessing service areas behind the mall.
As we walked briskly toward the door. I saw 3 humanoid women in some sort black leather-like get up grab the Klingon/Tellarite guy. “What? What are you doing?” He yelled.
I turned toward him. “Excuse me! Hi! Is there a problem?” I said brightly.
“I think they’re mad because I’m cut off from my account,” The T/K guy said.
“Mister Kurgard has a special appointment,” the lead lady said She was big, about 6 foot 6. Looked athletic. Humanoid, but not human. I’d have loved to have gotten a good scan of her.
Kurgard looked around confused “I haven’t contracted for any of that sort of thing. I’m looking just the right lady, y’know.”
“Oh, I think you’ll enjoy this lady. Captain’s compliments,” The big woman said. In the strange lighting, her skin looked unhealthy.
“I think we can get him sorted out,” I smiled “Obviously just a minor tech issue.”
The floor of the mall started vibrating. We were moving.
“Is this ship going somewhere?” I asked.
“Just adjusting our orbit. Nothing to be concerned about.”
Pretending not to be concerned was becoming a challenge.
“Sure. So Let’s get Mister Kurgard back to his ship and we can sort out the tech issue and get you all paid,” Just a dumb human guy. Mister fix it. We try to fix everything.
“Captain JayHailey, Your appointment is next, don’t worry. We take special care of our guests.”
“Thanks Starfleet!” Kurgard said “Always good for a rescue. But this ain’t that kind of place, y’know? I’ll go take care of these ladies, and it’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yup! I got this.”
The leather-clad women led the mixed-race space trader away.
Galaglan had her ear pinned flat back. **We have to get out of here now.**
Li’ira said “Door.”
We turned back to the access door. While I was being goofy and clueless at the women, Li’ira opened the door. We slipped through, Li’ira closed it and messed with the locking mechanism on the other side “This is unknown technology to me. I hope this will hold them for a while.”
“Me, too,” I said “Let’s look for the outer hull.”
We set off into the back areas of the mall.
-*-
The wall had holes in it. They were ovals about the right size. There were signs in bright colors. The language and color layout were alien, but the intent was clear, if it was hard to see or you weren’t clear on things, look here.
Li’ira overrode the lock on one of the oval hatches. As soon as the door was open, Galaglan was inside **Shit!** She yelled.
I looked after her. It was an impulse power unit. Some sort of auxiliary power station. It replaced the escape pods that should have been behind the signs and hatches. I tapped at a control board. The control layout was all circles with gradients on them. It turned red and said in standard “Someone will be with you shortly. Please stand by.”
“Ah, fuck, they’re tracking us.”
The floor and walls shuddered a little.
“I really don’t like that,” I said.
“I don’t like any of this,” Stephanie hissed.
Galaglan took several components out of the auxiliary reactor, and it shut down.
“Time to be elsewhere,” Li’ira said.
We ran.
-*-
Another squad of leather-clad women entered the store room where we were hiding.
We stunned them quickly.
Li’ira and I checked their weapons. Clubs. Decent fighting clubs, with a spiky fork on the end and an energy discharge. Stun clubs. A particularly blunt force and brutal format of the kind.
“No ranged weapons?” Stephanie asked.
I turned over the third woman. A green orion. Had I seen her face before?
“Li’ira, have we seen this one before?” I asked
Li’ira gave me a look and scanned the woman. “It’s hard to tell. Who was the last Green Orion besides me that you saw?”
“On the Scalloped Blade’s Bridge,” I said
“Oh Shit,” Li’ira said “I think you might be right.”
She showed me her scan
The Orion woman was heavily infested with nanotechnology.
Stephaine said, “We should move.”
“Yup, let’s go,” I said
Galaglan was shrunk back into the corner of the store room. **They were screaming,**
“What?” I asked
**They were screaming INSIDE.** Galaglan said, **Even stunned I can hear them moaning and struggling.**
“Galaglan, we have to MOVE,” I said.
**Where?** Galaglan said **WHERE!?**
“I don’t know, we’ll figure something out,”
Everyone looked at me with varying degrees of “I don’t like that answer.”
“If anyone has a better idea, I’d love to hear it.”
We left the store room and ran. Down. We were making our way into the bowels of the SS Teetsra.
-*-
We were in a power junction. It looked… scary. I could see different equipment from different technologies arranged to work together. I couldn’t imagine how that was happening.
I poked at the network control node. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It looked like dark dark green plastic infused with metal flakes. I scanned it. Nanotech connected devices in a strange configuration.
A squad of women appeared at the end of the hallway. “Captain JayHailey, you have an appointment with our Captain.”
“No thank you! We’re just looking!” I said
We stunned them.
Stephanie checked our six and fired her small phaser again.
I turned to see the stun beam just washing off another trio of leather-clad women. They approached us ignoring the stun beams
“They’ve adapted. Change your phaser frequencies.”
“Like the Borg?” Stephanie asked.
“These are the Borg,” I said.
Li’ira finished resetting her phaser and stunned the group,
“We have to keep going,” I said
We ran to a ladder and climbed down
-*-
The Gallery ran along a large bay. The Teestra, some old bulk carrier had huge cargo bays in her belly.
There were bright lights in random places making odd shadows and bright spots. The dark green of the hull and walls enhanced the effect.
We ran aft along the gallery.
“I thought the Borg were gone,” Stephanie said
“I thought so, too,” I said.
“That phaser trick won’t last long,” Li’ira said.
I nodded and kept jogging.
**THERE WILL BE A VINICULUM, THE DEVICE THAT CONTROLS THE BORG NETWORK!** Galaglan yelled
She was yelling over something only she could hear.
I felt the psi-shield on my head and was grateful for it.
We ducked into an anteroom off the gallery.
-*-
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered.
There was Captain Zeecha and some of his crew. They were standing in little techno-alcoves. Tubes and wires ran into their bodies. It looked like half life-support, half computer network. It looked very Borg.
I grabbed Zeecha. “Zeecha! Wake up!”
His eyes fluttered. He moved in a disorganized way, “B..b…brains!” He mumbled “Muh muh BRAINS!”
He started to weakly grab at the wires and tubes in his body. I started to help him.
Li’ira grabbed my arm “That’s life support. This isn’t like the Borg we were trained on. This is more primitive.”
“If it were you, what would you want me to do?” I hissed.
“We can kill them and put them out of their misery now, or we can keep running and try to rescue them in the future.”
Some faint hope of rescue or an end to torment now?
“We’ll try to come back for you!” I said
And we ran.
-*-
The next gallery aft showed a bay with the Orion Light Raider in it. It was at the beginning stages of being disassembled.
It would have materials. Tools.
“That way,” I pointed.
-*-
The neo-borg disassembling the Orion ship were both men and women. All in that same black leather-looking outfit. We stunned our way into the ship. But we had to reset our phasers a number of times. The effects didn’t last as long and they were becoming resistant even so.
Stephanie stopped and dug a set of weapons out of an armory. Disruptors, sonic blasters, particle beam guns and phasers made by the Cardassians and Ferengi.
We armed ourselves with varied weapons. Then our shooting became much more effective.
Down and aft. Through the narrow corridors of the Orion ship. It looked more like an old submarine than a modern ship. The lighting was part original, and part fucked up neo-borg lighting.
Adrenaline meant when I stubbed my toes or mashed my shins on a hatchway, I didn’t feel it as much.
We found main engineering.
The warp core was on idle stand-by. It still had hot plasma in it. But the main control panel was disassembled and half filled with neo-borg gear. All someone else’s stuff with the weird metallic flake plastic connecting it.
I hissed. I was hoping enough of this stuff would be intact enough for us to try and commandeer the Orion ship and shoot our way free.
It was not. We weren’t going to ride to safety on the hulk of an Orion ship.
Galaglan started ripping neo-borg stuff out of the control computers and panels.
Li’ira thought about it “I need your tricorders and for you to cover me.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked
“I’m going to try and hack this Borg network,”
I looked at Stephanie and we had the same thought. This was optimistic at best. But it was all we had going on.
I handed my stuff over to Li’ira
I went to Galaglan “What are you doing?”
She kept working, as if she couldn’t hear me.
I touched her shoulder.
Suddenly, I could hear what she heard
Thousands of voices screamed, babbled, moaned and begged for help. They prayed and cried. Galaglan was as focused as hell to work coherently amid all the chaos and suffering
**What are we doing?** I asked her
She looked at me. I could see how strange the Ane Mind was compared to the human mind. Part of her was almost incoherent in fear. Part was watching and noting everything with detached interest.
Way, way in the back, past all the screaming, I could see The All, watching us in horror.
Galaglan was building a bomb. She could charge up the warp core and then detonate it. Not only would it fuck over the Teestra, it would be a very effective method to prevent assimilation. Nano-tech can’t assimilate plasma.
I had an idea. I reached through Galaglan’s mind. **Tippalan! What’s happening?**
I could see it through Tippalan’s eyes. The Omoikane was fighting. As soon as the Teestra’s cover was broken, she raised Borg-like shields and started firing Borg-like weapons. The Omoikane was trapped in a tractor beam that drained shields in moments. Engines were roaring, phasers and ion cannon were firing. But they couldn’t use the quantum torpedoes because we were in here.
**I can’t teleport to you!** Tippalan cried **We’re moving too much and there’s too much weapons fire! If we hold still enough for me to reach you, they’ll kill the Omoikane before I can get you back!**
**If you see a warp core detonation in here, that was us. Light them up with everything you have following that.**
Tippalan gasped and far far in the back, I could hear Gensilan screaming.
**That’s the last option. I’ll try to find something else.**
Galaglan looked at me I could see her determination not to become one of the tormented, screaming souls trapped in this horror show.
**Me, too,** I said **But we have to try everything else first.**
I pulled out of Galaglan’s mind. I felt deaf without the screaming.
Stephanie finished securing the doors to the engineering compartment.
I went to the tool locker and found an old plasma cutter. I’d used one like it when I was a kid. I set it to a very specific set of settings and began to burn the neo-borg plastic shit off all the gear I could.
A few minutes later we heard clunks and bangs as the neo-borg tried to break through the doors.
Li’ira sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t get it.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Not unless you can piece together a supercomputer out of this stuff. Their programming keeps rewriting itself. It’s slower than the original Borg, but still too fast for the gear I have here.” She looked up and forward “I can point you right to the viniculumn, but I can’t access it. I can’t disable it from here.”
I looked around. I could assemble a decent computer from the stuff in this room. There was a lot of stuff in here. But nothing like a hacking rig Li’ira needed.
But…
I ran two laps around the orion warp core looking. Yeah, we had the parts.
“Galaglan, I need your bomb!”
**NO! I CAN’T LET THEM HAVE ME!**
“We have a shot, here! We can do this!”
**IF IT DOESN’T WORK, I GET ASSIMILATED! WE ALL DO!**
I grabbed Galaglans face **Name three things humans are good at!**
Together we ran through the math. It looked better than I thought, really.
Galaglan turned to The All **ENJOY THE SHOW!**
This was greeted by more screaming from The All and from the tortured souls surrounding us
We got to work
-*-
The forward door got burned through and fell on the deck with a resounding thump.
“Li’ira can you set us up an isolation field?”
“On it.”
Neo-borg drones stepped through the opening. Some of them had weapons, but they didn’t fire.
They fanned out and another one came through the door. A woman. I think. It was the head and shoulders of a woman on a technological skeleton. She moved wrong. She was really hitting my uncanny valley.
We felt a small pop as the isolation field snapped into place. Stephanie and Galaglan kept working.
The Skeleton woman approached “Jay. The last memory I have of you is that you were a Commander in San Francisco. You’ve aged well.”
“I don’t suppose we could talk about this?”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I kind of do.”
“You’re only delaying the inevitable. You will be Borg. You will serve me.”
I squinted at her “Queen of the Borg? You know that defeats the whole point, right?”
She looked at me with theatrical pity “You think you understand the Borg.”
“The whole idea of one Borg being any different from any other is not the Borg. They subsumed everyone into the whole. All were one, all were equal.”
“We were beautiful. We were perfect. We will be again. I am the rebirth of the Borg.”
“You did it again.”
“You’re becoming tiresome.”
“We can leave.”
“Will, you though? Or will you come back later with a shiny white Starfleet Taskforce?”
“I’m sure that task force is being assembled now.”
“Well, then I’ll need someone versed in Federation tactics to show me how to escape from them.”
“This whole sensual assimilation thing is amazingly creepy.”
She laughed. Genuine joy. “Excellent! You really get me, Jay. What are your friends doing over there?”
“We’re preparing to jump-start the warp core so we can shoot our way out of your bay, here and escape.”
She squinted at Stephanie and Galaglan “Do you really think that’ll work?”
“You’d be surprised what ships like this can do when you’re not going to use them again.”
“You value your little lives so much. Squabbling, fighting, disagreeing. Misunderstanding. Missing out on all those things you thought you were going to do. I’m giving you the chance to be part of something bigger. Something truer. Something eternal. You’d live on with us forever.”
“Who are you really?” I asked, “Who were you before you got assimilated?”
“No one. That’s the point. If I had one of your little lives before I became part of The Collective, I forgot it. Eagerly.”
“Wow.”
“You don’t know what it’s like.”
“We have a telepath. I’ve heard your victims.”
She sighed “Minor discomfort. Once I get more of the collective back, I’ll be able to soothe them. They’ll see how to enjoy the experience.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“I will bring back the Collective, Jay. You can’t stop me. We have your starship handled. By the time searchers come, we’ll be long gone, with your ship and your fuel as part of my collective.”
“I can’t decide who I hate more, the real Borg who exterminated individuality, or a hopeless Borg fangirl who can’t stop making it about herself.”
She got angry “Hate is irrelevant. Whatever you feel is irrelevant. You will be Borg. You will join me.”
“We’re hot!” Stephanie shouted.
“Ook, ook, bitch,” I snarled at the Borg Queen “HIT ‘EM!”
The isolation field came down and suddenly I was in the middle of a lightning bolt. I was blind. I was deafened. I was burning all over. I can’t tell if I screamed or not. Not that it mattered much.
I felt myself hit the deck. It seemed to be tilted. I rolled for a bit. I struggled to get up and move. It’s harder than it sounds when you’re blind, deaf, and burned all over. But this was our only chance. I had to make something happen.
I felt something tug my jacket and suddenly, hands were all over me. I struggled. They carried me to a flat surface and started cutting away my uniform. Strong arms held me down. It was very scary and very bad. The restraints activated. I was about to be assimilated. I fought it as hard as I could.
Tippalan was there **Calm Down. You’re in Sickbay.”
**How are the others? How’s the ship? That thing’s a fucking BORG!** I thought I thought that at Tippalan. Actually, I was shouting it raggedly in the sickbay.
She replied **It looks like you’ve disabled the Teestra. You’re burned. You’ll need treatment. Li’ira, Stephanie and Galaglan are back now, too. They’re not burned as badly as you are. But you’re all blind and deaf. You uncorked a warp core and fired it through a hose. You’re lucky to be alive.**
**I’m luckier,** I said **I’m not a Borg.**
**The Omoikane is fine. We were getting ahead of the Teestra slowly, but the whole thing shut down when you fired that horrible thing. The plasma went through the whole ship and out the top.** Tippalan showed me what it looked like from the Omoikane’s point of view. If I wasn’t so busy being injured, I’d have felt bad. The casualties must have been heavy.
**You’re off duty until Dr. Hobolisk and I certify you. Sleep now.**
**But… but…** Images of the people locked into their own heads screaming for help played in front of my mind.
**”We’ll do what we can,** Tippalan said, **Your task now is to heal.**
Yeah. Yeah. That’s what having a great crew is about. You can trust them to handle business.
Something changed and I felt floaty and happy. Some wonderful neural induction thing took the pain away
Eventually, I fell asleep.
-*-
I looked like a Bolian sort of. My upper third had been burned by the weapon firing. So I was hairless and my temporary skin was blue. In time it would fall away and reveal normal skin underneath. Then my hair would start to regrow.
But for the next two weeks, I was going to be hairless and blue. They were able to restore my hearing and vision to factory specs.
Li’ire looked horrible. She’d put her hands over her face. So she was bald and blue, but with a splotchy green face. I didn’t mention anything about it. I was just glad she made it through.
Stephanie looked like a blue racoon. She’d put her arm over her eyes.
Galaglan was almost completely healed. Tippalan had some sort of psionic healing ability. Stephanie was next on the list. Then Li’ira.
“Time, Captain,” Varupuchu said from the bridge. The ships Starfleet sent to relieve us on this patrol would be here, shortly. Afterwards, straight back to base, with no detours.
I leaned away from Li’ira. It took us both a bit of time to get to trust the new blue temporary skin. But together we did some touch therapy to make sure things were regenerating properly.
But now it was time to put on the uniform and go meet the new guys.