New Life
PG-13
Chapters 19-21
Chapter Nineteen
“I’m not staying pinned in this corral only to be assimilated!” Growled a man on the Promenade. “I’m going to get out of here. Who’s with me?”
“You have to be patient,” Deanna attempted to calm everyone, even though she was also tense and nervous about the situation. “I’m sure they will figure out a plan to get us out of here soon.”
“Well, I guess my report’s going to be about being trapped on the Promenade with the threat of being assimilated by the Borg,” Jake whined. “I don’t think I’ll ever get to see that baby much less make a report on it.”
“We mustn’t be fatalistic about this, Jake,” Deanna encouraged. “I’m sure we will all get out here soon.”
“Yeah, as Borg!” Exclaimed another man.
“Now, this woman has a point,” Garak stated. “We can’t get anywhere if we don’t have some sort of order and the only way we are going to do that is to wait on everyone in Ops to contact us with their plan.”
“Yeah, to tell us that the Borg are coming to assimilate us!”
“What other ideas do you have then?” Garak asked the group of riotous people.
“I say, we don’t listen to this traitor,” a third man sneered. “I say, we find a way to disable the force fields around the Promenade and just get the hell off this station ourselves!”
“Gentlemen!” Deanna shouted. “You have to calm down!”
“My husband, as well as others, are out there trying to keep all of you safe,” Kasidy explained. “Meanwhile, we are reasonably safe here while they figure out how to get us off the station.”
“Yeah, right! We are caged here like cattle waiting to go to slaughter!”
“Hey, I have an idea!” Nog attempted to help calm the group. “Why don’t we all sit here and sing songs. It could ease our nerves and help us pass the time more calmly.”
“Oh, this from a Starfleet officer!” Quark sarcastically exclaimed as he rolled his eyes.
“We’re sitting ducks here!” Someone else shouted. “What good is a damn force field going to do to hold the Borg back?”
“It’s not and you are all right,” A burly Klingon pushed his way through the crowd to address them all. “We are pinned up here like cattle. No force field can hold a Borg back. They can walk through that force field as though it didn’t exist. I’ve seen it before and I say we come up with our own plan of action.”
“Alright,” Deanna said in an irritated tone. “If you want to believe that no one is going to get us out of here before the Borg come up here that’s fine. I, for one, am going to trust they will get us all out of here before the Borg arrive here. I‘m sure we are one of their first priorities.”
“One of, but not THE first priority.” Someone else stated.
“I say we figure out how to get through that force field and get the hell out of here before we’re assimilated!” The first man angrily suggested.
“Yeah!” Several others agreed and they began to trying to find a way out of the Promenade.
“Troi-Riker to Ops.”
*Ops here,* Came O’Brien’s voice.
“Several of the people down here have gotten very restless and are trying to find their own way off the station.”
*Counselor Riker,* Deanna heard Janeway enter the conversation. *We think we have a plan, but we have to have everyone’s cooperation to do it, because it will take some time.*
“I’m sure these people are ready for anything,” Deanna informed Janeway. “If it is a quick solution.”
*See if you can get them to listen to you and explain our plan to them. We’re going to beam everyone to the escape pods and send everyone to Bajor.*
“A Borg ship is out there,” Deanna said with concern. “We could still be in trouble if they notice the escape pods.”
*It’s better than having over three hundred people stuck on the Promenade.* Janeway told Deanna.
“OK, I’ll let everyone know the plan. Troi-Riker out.”
Picard managed to get to Ops with Tuvok and Worf with only a few problems along the way. The problems were not so much the Borg themselves as it was Picard's own personal struggles with the Borg. With the current situation with the Borg, he could not help but to remember the time that he was assimilated and turned into Locutus of Borg. As Locutus, he could hear their every thought and at times, he still could he could hear their thoughts, even now.
That was the part that secretly frightened him most. Hearing the Borg caused him to fear the possibility that they might still have an influence on him. He did not want to become one of them again nor did he want them to control him again. It was for this reason he hated them even more. He even hated knowing everything about them.
However, it was Hugh that helped make the Neo-Borg more tolerable to him and gave him the ability to want to help them. It was not so much the Neo-Borg making him rethink his decision as it was this new factor, with the Borg Collective. The Borg’s arrival stirred up nightmares from the past for him and because of his struggles he was beginning to rethink his decision to assist any Borg. He just wanted it to end even if it meant fighting them to the death. He was not going to back down when it came to destroying the Borg. All he wanted to do was draw the line and not back down to the Borg’s demands.
As they entered Ops, Picard struggled to return to his present surroundings. He spotted O'Brien and began asking him questions.
“Has the beam over to the escape pods begun for the people in the Promenade?”
“Yes Sir,” O’Brien informed him. “We’ve just started.”
“Good. Have you found Riker’s group and contacted them?”
“Yes, Sir and they are on their way, barring any problems.”
“Very good.“ Then he turned to Janeway, “Admiral Janeway, may I see you in the captain’s office?”
“Yes,” she replied quizzically and followed him into the captain’s office.
Once inside, Picard began to speak to her, “Admiral, as you know, I had my doubts about Neo-Borg and apparently I should have stuck with my doubts. Instead, I agreed to try and help them become free of the Borg. I’m regretting that decision now.”
“Would you have rather not helped them become free of the Borg?” Janeway asked.
“I listened to you and went along with Riker’s desire to help the Neo-Borg and look what it got us!”
“Six people who are no longer Borg,” Janeway pointed out to him.
“And a station full of Borg!” Picard exclaimed. “Ever since you got back from the delta quadrant, you have been trying to convince everyone that people can be saved from the Borg. Well, they can’t!”
“I beg to differ,” Janeway stated. “Admiral Picard, we’ve both been assimilated by the Borg and we’ve both been rescued from the Borg.”
“Yes, but you went in there willingly,” Picard reminded her. “I did not. You infected them with a virus and I was used by the Borg.”
“When it comes to the Borg, does it really make a difference as to how and why we were assimilated?” She probed him.
“You have no fear of the Borg,” Picard accused angrily. “You’d sooner rehabilitate them than to kill them.”
“That’s not quite true,” Janeway said defensively. “I have infected them, more than once, with a virus that destroyed their cube.”
“And they still keep coming!” Picard nearly shouted. “If you had not tried to convince people that it was possible to rehabilitate the Borg, we would not be stuck with a Borg Cube on our doorstep and over fifty Borg on this station!”
“And we would not have rescued six adults and a baby from the Borg,” she staidly reminded him.
“What is so damn important about that baby that you and Sisko have to risk everyone’s lives?” Picard aggressively demanded as he open handedly slammed the wall directly behind Janeway and brought his face right in front of hers.
“If I remember correctly, Riker agreed to help the Neo-Borg with this baby and you agreed to bring the doctors that could deal with the Borg physiology,” Janeway recalled as she tried hard not to react to Picard’s wrath towards the Borg, but his close presence made it very difficult. “I was the one dragged into this because of my doctor having knowledge about the Borg. Now, if you don‘t mind?”
“And it was your ideas that started this mess!” Picard angrily accused as he backed away from her. It was her stern request that made him realize just how intimidatingly close he was to her.
“My ideas?” She protested. “Riker was the one who answered the distress call and by Federation rules he has to assist.”
“Ah, but only if he responds to it,” Picard counter. “Any other ship in the area could have responded to their distress signal.”
“Riker was there.”
They stared at each other in angry silence for a few seconds. Both were trying hard to collect their thoughts and emotions. It was Janeway who finally broke the silence between them.
“What happened to you as Locutus that you have become so contemptuous of anyone who is assimilated?” Janeway gently probed.
He did not answer her. His facial expression even went blank. It was as though he had mentally shut down.
“It wasn’t your fault that the Borg assimilated you. It’s not anyone’s fault when they become assimilated,” Janeway continued.
“Unless they volunteer themselves to be assimilated,” Picard sneered.
“Touché, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t fight back while you’re there playing their game,” she replied. “And it doesn’t mean being assimilated, voluntarily or otherwise, can not be undone. Sometimes, the best defense is a good offence.”
“That is precisely the attitude that will get you killed by the Borg,” Picard harshly predicted.
Memories of her senior self flashed through her mind. Her older self ended up dying by the hands of the Borg or rather from her infecting the Borg with a virus that was meant to kill them. She had allowed herself to be assimilated and in the end, she sacrificed herself so that Voyager could get home sooner.
It was something this Janeway did not care to remember. The thought of allowing herself to be assimilated in order to infect the Borg with a virus was a little disturbing to her, but she knew that if it helped Voyager to get home sooner, she would do it again.
“You know, this argument is not going to get us anywhere,” Janeway tightly stated. Then with a final release of anger she laid on heavy sarcasm as she continued to speak. “Why don’t we continue this delightful conversation another time. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to fight this out when we get back to Federation Headquarters. I know I’ll enjoy the banter. It’ll kill the boredom of pencil pushing paper work. Plus, it would be far better to drive a wedge between two admirals back home than out here with all the Borg around us.” Then her tone became deadly serious, “Especially since we have almost four hundred people we need to protect and several Borg to deal with.”
“You’re right,” Picard conceded as he nodded his head. “We don’t have time for this argument.”
While the two of them were arguing about how to deal with the Borg, the doctors were checking on their patients. They had been conscious for a while and seemed to be making a good start on recovery.
“Allow us to assist you,” Korok insisted. “We can help you outsmart them and get rid of them since we know how they think.”
“You’re not fully recovered,” Beverly replied.
“We can help,” Hugh persisted.
Sarah finally had her baby back in her arms and was feeding him replicated formula. “I’m sure there is some way we could help.”
“You are not physically capable right now,” Beverly insisted. “You need rest.”
“Bob died because of them,” Sarah persisted. “If they had not started attacking us because they wanted us back in the hive, he would not be dead now. I want to help!”
The baby began to fuss as it heard the emotional tone of his mother.
“I agree with Doctor Picard,” Bashir stated as he slid his finger into the baby‘s hand allowing him to grasp it. “You would be putting too much of a strain on yourselves, especially if you had to run from the Borg. That, and your baby could end up with no parents at all.”
“I’m curious,” the EMH asked. “Why are the Borg also interested in this baby?”
“I do not know,” Hugh curiously stated. “Maybe, since the baby was born of two people who were Borg at the time, they feel he is a part of the Collective.”
“That would be the logical conclusion,” Tuvok agreed.
“That’s not the reason,” Sisko suddenly informed the group as he turned to faced the group. He had been leaning against a bulkhead as he looked out the portal at the Borg cube, while he listened to everyone discuss the current situation.
“Then why do they want this child so badly?” Bashir queried.
“I don‘t know,” Sisko stated seriously. “But I do know we can‘t be certain it is the baby they want and if they do want the baby, it has nothing to do with whether or not he was part of the Collective. It‘s something else.”
“They aren’t invading Bajor,” Bashir pointed out to Sisko. “In fact, they are ignoring Bajor. Plus, the first place the original Borg went was where they last heard the baby was going to be before everyone went to surgery.”
“The baby would seem like a logical conclusion,” Tuvok informed.
“Alright, let’s suppose the baby is what the Borg are wanting right now,” Sisko theorized. “Why haven’t they told us? Plus, if it is the baby they want, what special reason would they have to want just the baby?”
“I don’t know,” Kira replied. “There is also another question. Why did the Borg on the station only go after the groups with Bajorans in them?”
“I’m not sure I understand your question, Kira,” Sisko told her.
“Well, the Borg went directly to the deck my quarters are on after they left the surgical room,” Kira explained. “Then apparently Sanders was following me or at least had some idea of where I was heading.”
“Yes, but he didn’t make any attempt to attack you from what I understood,” Bashir pointed out to Kira. “He just prevented you from leaving the turbo lift.”
“Maybe he still had some of his humanity at that point,” Beverly suggested. “And he was struggling between the Borg instructions and his human side.”
“He was a doctor,” Odo agreeably added with a nod.
“And he took his oath very seriously,” Beverly informed everyone.
“Well, that might explain Sanders,” Kira said with uncertainty. “But then there’s Ro. They assimilated everyone in her group and when she had joined Janeway’s group they went after them, just as they had Sisko’s when I joined his group. Riker and Picard‘s group made it up to Ops with very few problems from the Borg. Ro did not have the baby, so why were the Borg trying to attack Ro’s group and then Janeway‘s group after Ro joined her group?”
“OK,” Sisko said thoughtfully. “That is a very good question. With many possible answers. However, if they wanted Bajorans, then they would be attacking and invading Bajor. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Unless they thought Ro would know where the baby was,” Odo surmised. “Then all they had to do was assimilate her and everyone with her to get the information they wanted.”
“Which takes us back to the baby,” Tuvok pondered. “The baby is the only logical conclusion.”
“Why haven’t they fired on us?” Geordi asked. “Or like you said, contacted us?”
“It would be illogical to attack someone, when doing so could endanger the very thing you want,” Tuvok stated flatly.
“Why don’t we contact them?” Deanna suggested.
“Humm,” Worf groaned thoughtfully. “That seems like a reasonable move at this point.”
“Contacting them would not do us any good,” Chakotay stated. “We‘ll just get the same answer that they usually give.”
“What if this time they don’t give the same answer,” Geordi pondered. “There has to be some reason for them acting as they are.”
“And if it is the baby they want?” Beverly asked.
“I don’t know,” Sisko stated with frustration. “But I do know, we can not let them have the baby.”
“There is still the question as to why they want the baby,” Doctor Mark reminded them. “There is nothing special about this baby unless it is his nanoprobes.”
“We’re still not sure if they do want the baby,” Sisko stated again and then turned to observe the Borg ship again. “But there is one way to find out.”
Sisko was scheming his own plan of action as the others talked among themselves. He knew that somehow all of this related back to what the prophets tried to tell him, but he just was not sure what he needed to do.
“If I could get to my lab, I could test a sample of the baby’s nanoprobes to see if there is anything there that the Borg would be interested in.” Bashir told everyone.
“But Doctor Mark neutralized the baby’s nanoprobes,” Ro reminded Bashir.
“I neutralize them,” Doctor Mark agreed. “But they are still there. We could still take a sample and try to find out if there is anything special about them.”
“I agree,” Seven flatly concurred. “I am willing to contribute a sample of my nanoprobes for comparison, if need be.”
Suddenly, the doors to Ops opened almost violently and startled the group of people in the room. Riker, Torres, Paris and Kim rushed into the room. Then the doors closed quickly behind them.
“It’s hell out there!” Riker exclaimed. “O’Brien, where is Deanna?”
“She’s still on the Promenade,” O’Brien told him.
“Get her out of there now!” Riker urgently demanded.
“What’s going on down there?” Sisko asked with concern.
“They’ve started rioting and Borg are quickly heading that way,” Riker informed them all. “We have to get everyone out of there.”
“If the Borg continue their current behaviour,” Chakotay stated thoughtfully. “They will more than likely ignore almost everyone there and then they will be heading here next.”
“See if you can lock onto Kasidy and Jake too,” Sisko anxiously requested. “Beam all three of them up here, if you can.”
“Who’s going to keep control of the evacuation process if we bring Counselor Riker up here?” LaForge asked.
“What control?” Riker sneered.
It was about this time that Picard and Janeway walked out of the Captain’s office. Their expressions gave very little clue of the intense conversation that transpired in the captain’s office. Instead, they both had their previous expressions of command position and professionalism.
“Report!” Picard ordered.
Will informed Picard and Janeway what he had just told the others.
“Damn it!” Picard exclaimed angrily.
“I have a lock on them now,” O’Brien informed Sisko and Riker.
Within seconds, Deanna, Jake, and Kasidy were in Ops.
“How many people are still on the Promenade?” Picard asked.
“Almost half as many as there were to begin with,” O’Brien told them.
“Not good enough, Damn it!” Picard exclaimed vehemently.
“I’m beaming them out and into the escape pods as fast as I can, Sir,” O’Brien told him. “But with the rest being unruly and all, I can’t get a lock on them to beam them over to the escape pods very fast.”
“Rom is still down there,” Odo reminded O’Brien. “I don’t know if anyone will listen to him, but it’s worth a try at this point just to get them off the station.”
“We can’t do much until all those people are off the Promenade,” Sisko insisted. “Contact Rom.”
“Let’s get as many of our officers back on their ships and prepare to move the ships out of the docking bay,” Riker instructed. “Let’s see what the Borg do when we make a move.”
“Initiate a damping field around the station,” Janeway ordered.
“But Starfleet won’t be able to contact us?” O’Brien reminded her. “We will be completely cut off from all outside contact.”
“Nor will we be able to contact our ships,” Chakotay reminded the group. “or even the Borg Cube for that matter.”
“That is exactly the point,” Janeway stated enthusiastically. “The Borg on the station won‘t be able to, either.”
Chapter Twenty
After the dampening field was in place, Janeway waited a few minutes before saying anything. She wanted facts and not assumptions, just as much as everyone else did, but it was obvious the Borg were not going to initiate contact. She also knew, they were not going to just get rid of the Borg that were on board, unless they made a move. She had to do something and making an attempt to get information was her first goal.
“Where are they located on the station now?” Janeway asked as she stood beside O‘Brien at his station. She was looking at the information he was getting on his com.
“Several of them have made their way back to Surgical,” O’Brien informed her. “There’s more that seem to be heading there now.”
“They’re regrouping,” Picard surmised.
“I’ve had enough of this cat and mouse game!” Janeway proclaimed as she began to head for a med kit. “They should be disconnected from the hive by now. B’Elanna, you’re with me. Tuvok, Seven, and Paris, I want you three to beam back to Voyager. Have the ships pull out of the docking bay and prepare to get rid of that Borg Cube!”
B’Elanna knew what Janeway had in mind and she dreaded it. Going to talk with the Borg, severed from the hive or not, was not her idea of fun. Capturing a Borg was also not her idea of fun. She made a mental note to resign from Starfleet when they got back and become a full-time mother.
“Admiral, what do you have in mind?” Picard inquired as he watched Janeway rushing about Ops to gather a few items.
“I’m going to get me a Borg,” Janeway announced deviously. “And hopefully get some information. All I need is a phaser-rifle and some hypos.”
“You do realize that you are going into a hornet’s nest don’t you?” Picard asked her.
“I realize that,” Janeway acknowledged. “Hopefully, I can capture one of them without going into Surgical.”
“Need I remind you my position on people who are assimilated?” Picard threatened ominously.
“I haven’t forgotten,” Janeway assured him. “And like I said, I’ll be sure not to get myself assimilated.”
Then she left Ops with a begrudging B’Elanna following her. Picard was not very happy with her technique in dealing with the Borg and he could not believe she was going into the Borg’s place of operation on DS9.
“Damn it! I don’t like this one bit!” Picard disgruntlingly exclaimed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was crazy. Riker. Chakotay. You‘re with me.”
“You’re not thinking about trying to stop her, Sir?” Chakotay asked curiously.
“No, I’ve worked with her long enough to know when she makes a decision, there’s no stopping her,” Picard replied frustratingly to Chakotay. “But there’s safety in numbers, especially with the Borg. Captain LaForge, I suggest making the Enterprise ready to follow Voyager and inform Commander Semaj of our plan.”
“Jean-Luc…” Beverly began to plead.
“Beverly, I promise you I will do my best not to get assimilated again,” Jean-Luc reassured her as he began to leave Ops. “I always do.”
“We wish to go with you,” Korok suddenly announced, causing Picard to pause briefly before exiting.
“It’s against medical advice,” Beverly stated firmly.
“I agree,” Bashir added just as firmly. “They have not recovered enough for that kind of strenuous activity.”
Picard knew the Klingon mindset very well, but he really did not have time to discuss going into battle with him. “Maybe next time you can help fight the battle. For now, let‘s follow the doctor’s advice.”
Then Picard hurried after Janeway’s team. Riker and Chakotay were close behind him.
There were fifty people left in the habitat ring and they were all huddled fearfully in Quark’s Bar. They had seen the Borg enter the Surgical room across from the bar and became very nervous as they wondered if they were going to end up assimilated.
They were no longer riotous. The anger left quickly when they saw the black-suited lifeless automatons walk into the habitat ring. The emotions were replaced by a purely instinctual hunger for self-preservation.
“Oh!” Quark whined with anxiety. “I should have left when I had the chance! Now I’m going to be an assimilated Ferengi! They’ll probably cut off my lobes!”
“Shut up, Ferengi!” The Klingon growled.
“Well, you don’t have to be so mean about it,” Quark continued to whine.
*O’Brien to Rom.*
“Rom here,” his voice shaking with fear.
*We’re going to beam off the next group. Just stay where you are and I’ll try to lock on to as many as I can.*
“Whatever you do make it fast,” Rom demandingly requested.
*I’ll do my best.*
“Janeway, remind me never to face the Borg Queen with you,” Picard taunted as they walked down the dimly lit corridor searching for Borg.
“What? You don’t have the balls to stand up the woman?” She goaded.
“No, I just don’t trust you not to get us into a ship load of trouble.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” B’Elanna mumbled.
The banter between the two admirals was a bit of a stress reliever. At least for the two of them. B’Elanna was not too thrilled by the gibes Picard and Janeway were passing back and forth. She preferred to be wrapped up in the tension that confronting Borg gave a person, so that she would be ready for combat. The last thing she wanted was to be caught off guard by the Borg.
“What’s that, B’Elanna?” Janeway quizzically asked.
“Nothing,” B’Elanna denied. “Just a little anxious. That’s all.”
Janeway had a feeling B‘Elanna was not too happy about the facetious conversation between her and Picard. So she tried to reassure her, “Just relieving stress, B‘Elanna.”
“Personally, I thought you were very witty, Admiral,” Riker teased Janeway as he moved the light he was holding to look around the area. “I don’t think I could come up with some of the things you do under these circumstances.”
“She can be a whole lot better when she’s bantering with me,” Chakotay informed them jovially, but deep down he knew Janeway and Picard were having some sort of command disagreement. One he preferred not to get in the middle of at the moment. Even so, he finished his thought. “Then again, I can come up with some pretty snappy come backs too.”
“Don’t flat…” Janeway stopped in mid-sentence when she noticed something like a Borg walking down the walkway that crossed their path.
They approached in silence as they neared the corner. When they reached the end of the hall, they leaned their backs against the wall. Janeway looked around the corner very cautiously.
“Well, I guess it’s time to crash the party,” Janeway stated sarcastically.
“Uh, oh! We’ve got trouble!” O’Brien announced.
“What now?” Sisko asked with irritation in his voice.
“It seems two Borg boarded the lift sometime after Janeway and them got off of it.”
“Damn!” Sisko excitedly exclaimed. “Lock the Turbo-lift doors and prepare to evacuate now!”
Sisko rushed over to an access tunnel and opened it quickly. Then he gestured to everyone to hurry into the tunnel. The three doctors, Deanna, Kasidy, six patients, and the crew of DS9 obeyed and hurried to evacuate Ops. Sisko and Jadzia decided to enter the crawl space last with their phasers ready in case the Borg made their way into Ops.
Suddenly, Sarah handed Tov to Beverly as she quickly turned back to jump out of the tunnel. She pushed past Sisko and Jadzia, before they could climb in or even stop her.
“The bottle! I have to get it!” She hurriedly exclaimed.
“Forget it!” Beverly tried to stop her. Beverly’s heart pounded as the young woman made a mad dash for the baby’s bottle.
The door to Ops was slowly giving away as the Borg persistently attempted to enter the room. Huge dents had formed in the door and it was obvious it was about to give way, thus allowing the Borg access to Ops.
Sisko motioned for Jadzia to get into the passageway. As soon as she was inside, Sisko swiftly climbed into the old Cardassian escape route.
“The Borg Cube is moving!” Tom informed everyone on Voyager excitedly. “And it’s proceeding this way!”
“Evasive maneuvers,” Tuvok instructed. “Is the Enterprise noticing them also?”
“Looks like they are,” Tom surmised.
Tuvok nodded his approval and then ordered, “Initiate the deflector array.”
“Deflector array initiated.”
“Deflector array initiated,” Commander Ro announced on the Enterprise.
“Now, Evasive maneuvers,” Semaj commanded.
Back in Ops, the Borg were viciously pounding on the doors until the doors finally surrendered to their force and fell to the floor. The Borg then walked into Ops as though they were zombies. They were ready to claim anything that they coveted.
Sarah had just grabbed the bottle as three Borg knocked down the door on the turbo lift. When she saw the door collapse, she tried to make a mad dash for the tunnel, but she was too late. A Borg had suddenly grabbed her and she screamed in terror.
“No! Let me go! Beverly! Help me! Please!” She shouted as she fought the Borg who held her in his grasp.
It was to no avail and Sisko knew that. He felt very helpless concerning Sarah’s plight. Just as a Borg’s sharp claws entered Sarah’s neck, Sisko quickly shut the door to their escape route. He knew there was no way they could retrieve her from the Borg now. He only hoped they could rescue her later.
“Please! No!” She hysterically cried as she continued her struggle against the Borg. “Help me!“
She now regretted trying to get her baby’s bottle and was wishing that she had listened to Beverly. Her screams continued as a Borg dragged her out the door of Ops. The other Borg remained in Ops to take control of it.
Inside the escape tunnel, Beverly and Deanna could hear Sarah’s cries, but could do nothing to help her. Both of the women felt heartbroken, because Sarah had just gained her freedom and now she once again was a part of the Collective.
“Let’s move!” Sisko demanded.
Beverly and Deanna tried to shake off the sound of Sarah’s horrifying screams as they echoed in their minds. They began to mournfully crawl down the tunnel with the baby still safely in their custody.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Borg held Sarah tightly as they rode down the turbo lift to the habitat ring. Sarah was trying hard to fight off the hypnotic effects of the nanoprobes that were newly induced into her system. She refused to surrender herself to the Borg again, if she could help it.
As the turbo lift doors opened to the Promenade, Sarah continued to scream and squirm out of the Borg’s clutches. She was running strictly on adrenaline as she protested being retaken by the Borg. However, the nanoprobes were quickly taking over her body and her ability to move as she wished was becoming more and more difficult.
The five officers became alarmed as they heard Sarah’s cries of protest as the Borg carried her off the turbo lift. The sounds of the Borg’s approaching footsteps and Sarah’s screams came closer causing them to feel very uneasy. The zombie-like creature seemed to have taken no notice of them as he passed by them with Sarah.
As B’Elanna gave a sigh of relief when the Borg went around the corner, Picard had other ideas. He quickly moved to the end of the corridor and raised his rifle to prepare to fire.
“Picard, no!” Janeway demandingly shouted. Then she angrily thought, ‘if he kills Sarah…’
Picard hesitated for a brief second as he rethought his plan. Then he fired his rifle in Sarah’s direction.
Just outside the station three Federation ships were battling the Borg Cube. They were no longer trying to evade the Borg ship. They had given that maneuver up long since and had gone into defensive maneuvers.
“Fire torpedoes!” Semaj demanded. He was trying hard to keep his Vulcan composure, but his face had begun to contort from stress as the Borg made another sweeping hit on the Titan.
Semaj saw the Enterprise and Voyager fire on the Borg at the same time their torpedo had launched. Even though all three torpedoes hit the enemy ship at the same time, Semaj felt no relief, for their nemesis was still capable of fighting back.
The Enterprise shook from the Borg firing upon them. Everyone on board tried hard to hang onto the most stable item they could grasp. Some held tightly to their consoles and some to their chairs.
The last two attacks from the Borg made Geordi very thankful that the Federation had finally installed seatbelts in the chairs. Still, he was being tossed about in his chair as the Borg continued to attack.
“Fire at will!” Geordi ordered.
Voyager was not doing much better as the Borg took on all three ships. It shook violently with every torpedo the Borg threw at them, but Voyager was throwing just as much back at them.
Tuvok was barking out orders as fast as he could. Directing his crew in their every move.
Tuvok was getting rather tired of directing his crew that he finally gave in and also said, “Fire at will!”
‘I’ll kill him!’ Janeway fumed to herself as she ran to the end of hall to see what Picard had done.
When she had turned the corner she saw Picard trying to dig a neuro-processor out of the Borg’s chest. Janeway then noticed Sarah was lying unconscious on the floor near the Borg. The nanoprobes had begun colouring her skin grey, but she was still breathing and was alive.
Janeway gave a loud sigh of relief. Then with a hint of anger in her voice she addressed Picard. “You were going to shoot her, weren’t you?”
“Their in Ops,” Picard ignored Janeway’s question as he stated the obvious and slid the neuro-processor into a tricorder.
“Obviously,” Janeway sneered. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”
Picard still refused to answer her as he continued to read the information from the neuro-processor.
“You hesitated,” Janeway continued to push. “Which just goes to show that you are not that stringent in your rule of don’t ask questions, just kill them.”
“Alright!” Picard angrily snapped back at her. “Maybe I was going to put her out of her misery, but I changed my mind and went for the bigger threat.”
“Whatever you say, Admiral,” Janeway replied as she somehow doubted his words.
“Look, you want a Borg,” Picard angrily accused. “You’ve got one! Sarah’s your responsibility. Meanwhile, we have to get back to Ops.”
Picard roughly handed the tricorder to Janeway and then pushed past her to head back to Ops. He was in no mood to argue tactics with her or anyone else.
Riker saw Picard heading back to Ops and followed him without saying a word. He knew the man well enough not speak to him during moments like this.
Janeway glanced down at the readings. “We were right,” she worriedly told the others. “They do want the baby. Chakotay, we‘re going to have to carry Sarah with us.”
Janeway knew without a doubt, that everyone in Ops was in big trouble. She stop reading the information on the tricorder and headed after Picard. B’Elanna quickly fell in behind her as Chakotay picked up Sarah and headed back to the turbo lift.