Star Trek Outwardly Mobile
The Bogey
by
Jay P Hailey

Elsewhere in the ST-OM Universe....

 

Liko knew that Tejal was the best Borg hunter in the fleet. Never the less, Liko found Tejal crazy.

The group commander seemed to hold onto a fiery, vengeful anger at the Borg. he enjoyed not just killing the ones he found, but doing it as painfully and as thoroughly as he could.

Liko sat in his command chair and carefully considered this thought.

Killing the Borg was their job. It was the reason that his ship was built and the reason for his mission.

Liko thought that he might, personally decide to let some of the former Borg go. After all, they were *trying* to rejoin galactic society.

As bad as Tejal's trauma was, being on a ship that was attacked and partially assimilated by the Borg, Liko imagined that being kidnapped, mutilated and mind controlled was worse.

It was probably not wise to voice such thoughts near Tejal. Tejal killed them all. Even Borg who'd been children before their assimilation.

And he did it with a sadistic streak a mile wide.

Liko sighed. His world's government having lost a fleet, a base and several colonies to the Borg enthusiastically joined the anti-Borg Coalition. Their thought and the official line was that the collective's disappearance was not permanent. That all free Borg had to be killed and all Borg ships, weapons and installation had to be destroyed before the collective reasserted itself.

Liko was willing to do his duty and kill Borg. Many of the freed drones became little better than high technology bandits and pirates. But he was tired of killing. He wanted to exterminate the ship they pursued and have done with it.

The cramped attack ship was 200 meters long and packed with what the scientists of the coalition assured was technology to enable them to confront and defeat the Borg.

Liko personally doubted that. Whenever the Free Borg had a serious military ship and time to upgrade it, it usually took a serious effort on the part of the coalition to put an end to it. This also took a lot of casualties.

But for the odd pirate or bandit group the four ship squadron did alright.

Liko was used to the close smell, the smell of the bodies and the metallic smell of a hull that seemed newly carved from asteroidal ore that week. Parts of it were.

The ship was a weapons platform with after thoughts for crew support. Extra air, food and water storage were crammed almost willy-nilly into all dead spaces. It had none of the grace of the pre-Borg explorers and scouts his people built.

But those graceful and beautiful ships proved pathetic against the Borg.


Liko wondered, was he growing combat fatigued? He quirked his lips at the thought. He was combat fatigued after his first engagement.

Liko pulled himself out of his reverie. They were on the hunt and attention was vital.

The small Borg scout ship was operating as a part time pirate and part time mercenary. The crew vacillated between isolation and brutality. It was a common feature of the Free Borg.

Their ship design was a Kreegal scout, with a very different engine signature and upgraded weapons. It was fortunate that the hull itself would only tolerate so much borg technology.

Liko private called it Post-Borg technology. Many of the Free Borg retained their full technical prowess, which was frightening in and of itself. However in a post collective state, they expressed their knowledge of technology individually. It made them frighteningly unpredictable and variable.

But they'd engaged the Borg/Kreegal scout. Liko felt confident that he knew what it could do. One attack ship by itself would have it's hands full. That's why they flew in groups of four or more.

The Free Borg fled. Liko tried to think like they did. They'd try to use the static and primitve nature of his ship's technology against him.

It didn't matter. Tejal had the scent and he wouldn't let it go. They were heading for the wehrnal vortex, a nebula containing several unpleasant stellar objects. Apparently the Free Borg hoped to loose the attack group in the vortex.

“What in the galaxy is that?” The sensor officer wondered.

Liko waited a moment and then said. “Explain, please.”

His sensor officer turned towards him. “There is a zone of blackness ahead of us. Very little stellar radiation is showing there, and what there is is badly distorted, Sir.”

Liko sat up. “Continue scanning. Is it some sort of camouflage field?”

Orla, the sensor officer shook her head. “It's over 500 astronomical units wide.” That was as wide as their own home solar system.

Liko sat back and thought about it. That Kreegal scout ship could never generate that much energy.

Tejal appeared on the screen. His dark green coverall had the minimum amount of rank and decoration that would allow him to function as fleet commander. It looked rumpled, as though Tejal had slept restlessly in it.

His eyes held a sharp gleam. “All ships. This Borg trick won't work. We'll penetrate the zone of darkness.”

Liko felt his hair rise on the back of his neck. “Commander, I do not feel this is a Borg generated phenomenon.”

“Nonsense! What are the odds of this thing happening right on the same course those damned Borg used to escape?” Tejal said. “Form up on me. We're going in.”

“All stop.” Liko said. He felt his ship begin to slow.

“Damnit, Liko! Form up! We have these Borg at our mercy!” Tejal Yelled. “Grena, you too!”

Liko didn't smile at the thought of a second ship following his lead. It simply meant more controversy and more heads on the chopping block at Coalition Command.

“We'll just stay out here and watch you two.” Liko said “And try to figure out just what this thing is.”

“This is cowardice in the face of the enemy, Liko! This is mutiny! I ORDER you to form up!” Tejal said. “Don't make this mistake. You'll be court martialed and spend the rest of your days in a penal colony.”

That actually sounded like a nice vacation to Liko. He didn't mention this. “Go ahead Tejal. I'll accept full responsibility once this is done.”

“Damn you!” The screen went blank.

“Sir, Grena is suggesting that we establish a ten thousand kilometer seperation and link sensors.” Orla said.

“Can these ships even do that?” Liko wondered. It was an old scout maneuver.

Orla smiled. “I think we can make it work out.”

“Then make it so.”

As they separated Orla reported. “Tejas and Fenna are loosing warp speed, drastically.”

As they achieved seperation, and began to link sensor readings together Orla reported “Tejas and Fenna have lost warp velocity altogether. They are reporting severe weakening of their shields, and loss of power reserve. Their communication signals are weakening and becoming corrupted.”

Liko could hear the sensor officer on Grena's ship as he reported. “Picking up a faint transmission. It's a broad frequency transmission. It's from inside the zone of Darkness.”

“Play it for us.” Grena said.

Liko's screen repeated what Grena's showed. The picture on the view screens was faint and scratchy. Interference kept interrupting it.

The face of a free Borg drone spoke intently “Flee, you fools! Warn them, warn them all. This thing could kill us all! It's ALIVE! Attaching-”

“That's all we could recover, Commander. There was more and data channel as well but it it was too badly corrupted to read.” Grena's Sensor oficer said.

Liko spoke quickly “Hail Tejas.”

The image of the Borg hunter appeared on the screen. Liko didn't even wait “Retreat, Tejas! Get out of there NOW!”

Tejas looked oddly gray and deflated. “Major power loss, Liko. This thing has some sort of directed gravity effect. Maybe some sort of Borg super weapon. You were right, Retreat and inform Coalition Command.”

Liko was horrified to see the same sort of interference and signal loss on Tejas' transmission.

“Tejas, don't give up so easily!” Liko yelled “Keep fighting! We'll find a way!”

Tejas' grin was grim indeed. “Don't worry, Liko. The bastards won't assimilate us. I'll make sure of that.” as his finished his statement his signal faded away entirely leaving only static.

Liko sat back.

“Sensors have record two possible explosions, sir.” Orla said, miserably.

-*-

On the way back to Coalition Command to report the disaster, Orla came to see Liko in his office. It was more of a nook really. It seemed an after thought.

“We have two new pieces of information, Liko.” She said.

“Go ahead.”

“We recovered enough of the Free Borg scans to see this.” She handed him a PADD. It displayed a grainy image.

Liko peered at it intently. “It looks like a bad picture of a single celled organism.”

Orla nodded “But it's over seventeen thousand kilometers in daimeter. It's moving. It's on a heading for Lijonis Prime.” Orla said.

Liko sucked his breath. “How many people on Lijonis Prime?”

“Over four billion.” Orla said. “It will be there in about twenty-four days.”

Liko nodded “We have that long to find out what this thing is and find a solution.”

Orla looked at him. “Do you think we can?”

He smiled at her grimly. “If we try and fail, how is that different from the current situation?”

Orla grinned back. “We'll figure something out.”

Liko didn't say it, but a nice long sentence in a prison colony sounded like heaven.

-end-

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.

This story posted by permission of the author. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Jay P. Hailey

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