Prologue
Fire works. The confused mind of Capt. Jean Luc Picard imprisoned in Locutus body dreams of fire works at the summer festival on his native town so long ago and far away.
The energy flows trough the regeneration station where he was put to to recharge and prepare for the final assault on sector 001.
It is time, he tries to think, to do something, but he can’t resist. The collective is too strong, resistance is futile.
Around him space is lit up, not by fire works but by the exploding ships, phasers and photon torpedoes as an entire fleet is decimated by the powerful cube in a moment engraved in history with blood as the battle of Wolf 359.
From Delta to Alfa quadrants, species 5618 known as human has always been one of the most difficult to assimilate in spite of their lower cranial capability.
Worlds, technologies and civilizations have been conquered, still these ones resist. But why ? Assimilation is perfection, resistance is therefore illogical, but it is also futile. They will heel.
With these thoughts Locutus is back on battle. “I am Locutus of Borg, you will surrender! We will add your distinctiveness to our own, resistance is futile...”
-----
-“Riker to Enterprise
-“Enterprise
-“Mr. Data, I don’t care if you have to put on a bikini and dance the hula for diversion! Just do it now!”
-“Dance the hula Sir??”
-“Never mind Data. Another time”, said Geordi La Forge, “Bring them in!”
The android’s fingers fly over the console like a maestro’s trough the piano, at speeds almost imperceptible for human eyes. For Comdr. William Riker though, seconds seem like days as he waits helpless with Worf, holding an inanimate Borg drone that once was his Captain.
The shuttlecraft they used to rescue Capt. Picard from the Borg cube is already falling apart under their feet, as Riker starts to feel the tingling sensation of the transporter effect. And he welcomes it.
Sleep…sleep… One by one the crew follows the order encrypted on the collective by the Enterprise
The remaining Federation forces deploy an attack still with enough strength to mortally damage the Borg cube.
“We are Borg. The collective will prevail. We are many, we travel trough all quadrants, we assimilate…”
The startled thoughts of the Borg reach out in deep space like a subconscious pledge for help reaching another ship on an unknown location. The collective is still powerful, instinctively, as one, they change course to sector 001.
“We are Borg, we will add your distinctiveness to our own, resistance is…CHAOS!”
Chaos, panic and confusion invade the Borg ship due to the immeasurably impact the destruction of the cube at Wolf 359 has on the entire collective.
Unable to control anything from ships navigation to simple drone coordination, the gigantic vessel on route to earth, plunges trough the universe adrift at warp 10.
The Borg is not used or prepared for such despair, so the struggling cube is severed from the collective completely annihilating any chance of surviving. Finally with all systems down, driven only by momentum, the asteroid field is unavoidable.
At least the chaos is over…
U.S.S. Nautilus, Captain James Winetree commanding, late 2379
“Captain’s log supplemental:
Finally the crew is going home. For the past year we’ve been doing geological surveys in this part of the system. Planet after planet, most of them barren and bare, apparently useless lumps of rock! One whole year, sometimes pushing 24 hour shifts without one day of shore leave!
Everybody is beaten, including me…and for what?
The aftermath of the Dominion war, the Romulan unstable political situation and the Klingons unending bloodwar, all this going on, and I’m here studying the Jurassic period on hell’s ass!”
“Still I guess I should be proud being the Captain of the oldest ship currently on service. The Nautilus was built 80 years ago and refitted twice.
Let’s face it; the old girl is past her time. I remember learning in the academy of the “Genesis Device affair” where another Miranda class ship, the Reliant, was hijacked by the criminal Khan only to be defeated by Capt. James T. Kirk’s and the first Enterprise. Those must have been the days!”
“Anyway, upon our arrival on Earth it will be decommissioned. What about me? Shall I go on? I’m tired of this deep space wandering around…would a pushing-pencil job at Starfleet HQ be too humiliating?”
The chirping sound of the communicator brought Winetree back to real life as the voice of the very attractive female navigator followed:
-“Bridge to captain, we are approaching an asteroid field.”
-“I’m on my way ensign”
As the turbolift doors opened on the bridge, any nostalgic thoughts were immediately erased from the captain’s head. The view of the broad star field always did that to him,
And before taking his chair he was already darting:
-“On screen, full magnification factor, what are we looking at?”
-“It is an uncharted asteroid field Sir”, said the navigator.
It troubled Wine-tree he remembered her forms rather than her name. It really must be the lack of shore leave-”Analysis?”
-“The field is on direct course of Planet Y-404, our next stop. It is mostly composed of geological and mineral debris” said the very efficient science officer. “High density though.”
“Couldn’t they at least give these Planets names?” he thought. -“Mr. Coffey, can we go around it?”
-“Negative Sir, that would lead us directly to that plasma storm we have been avoiding for days. I believe we have enough space to go trough it, just barely anyway. ” Again very efficient.
-“Ok then, shields and deflectors up, get us in on impulse, and prepare for a bumpy road!”
As the Nautilus pulled out of the asteroid field and assumed standard orbit around Y-404, the captain was starting to relax on his chair…
-“Sir, we are picking up some kind of beacon from the planet!” said Tellara at communications.
-“You mean from this Planet? Isn’t it supposed to be uninhabited? You told me the atmosphere was incapable of supporting life… ” he said getting up and approaching the science station.
-“Yes Sir”, said Coffey.” And I do not pick up any life forms whatsoever, just the beacon…”
-“You mean some kind of machine is responsible?”
-“Apparently Sir!” Efficiency gave up to puzzlement on the science officer expression.
-“Do a full sensor sweep on the planet. Maximum sensibility on scanners”.
-“Doing it right now! Sir, I have some organic traces on scanner, but not living tissue. In fact they’re dated approximately 10 years old!”
-“Well, here is something new!” said Winetree. “Tellara, see if you can identify the beacon…”
-“I can Sir”. She looked scared “It’s Borg!”
The bridge was silent. Most of the crew as never seen battle since they got onboard after the Battle of Betazed. The captain’s voice soothed them:
-“Calm down everyone. If the Borg were looking for them, they would have found them by now, isn’t that right Mr. Coffey?”
-“Indeed Captain. The fact that they are all dead 10 years ago seems to indicate the regenerative systems are damaged, or simply disconnected…”
-“Witch means possible for the collective itself being responsible, sort of amputate them like a damaged limb…” The captain completed.
-“My guess would be the Borg collective preferred to let them go than suffer whatever impact they might cause on the whole.” Coffey continued, “The beacon would start automatically, but as the link was broken, it never reached the community or they ignored it. It will shut off when power runs out.”
-“In that case it should be safe to investigate…”
-“I believe so Sir.”
Winetree tapped his communicator: “Captain to sickbay. Dr. Hamilton, please report to transporter room, we will be beaming down. Full environmental suit.”
-“On my way Sir.” The veteran doctor replied.
Five minutes later the two men climbed up the transport pads. Dr. Hamilton was one of the oldest Starfleet medical officers on active duty, he was around the Nautilus when the Captain arrived. Upon returning to Earth, he had decided, he would stand down in order to dedicate himself to his family especially his newborn grandson. Maybe they would offer him a tutorial assignment on Starfleet medical university.
-“You know James” he grunted, “this damn suit totally blows my elegance away, and I really am getting too old for these tricks!”
-“Well, if you feel more comfortable, I can always replace you with that young intern of yours…”
-“What! That hard headed fool hearted, hot shot kid? I might have to teach him how to shave yet!
Don’t you dare doing something….”He was cut off by the transporter but as they materialized on the surfaced he continued:
-“…Like that to me! Years I’ve gave Starfleet to be…”This time it was the Captain.
-“
Ok Dr
, I get the point. And as I thought, you’ll die without these little adventures. Lets go, we have one mile to go.”Ok Dr
-“You mean I’ll die in one of these gigs! That’s more likely.”
The mumbling continued just as the two men walked through the heavy terrain.
About a mile after, the vision was monumental. It was clearly part of a typical cubical Borg ship, but it was completely ravished on the outside. The strong winds and bloody purple sky made it a pretty hellish sight.
Inside, the sound of silence.
As Captain Winetree and Dr. Hamilton entered the tight corridors they could almost hear it.
The sound of hundreds of Borg drones falling and screaming as they crumbled upon each other disoriented, minds emptied and wasted as the collective severed the link between them.
The bodies spread all over the place positioned in such an awkwardly fashion that reminded puppets on strings.
The smell of rotting flesh was gone though, after 10 years of exposure to this environment. ”Thank God…” the men thought instantly.
-“Doctor, please check your tricorder readings as I search for the energy source. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.” The Captain said drifting away.” This place gives me the creeps!”
Following his own tricorder, he reached what it seemed a sealed chamber where the gravity center of the ship would have been. With no time to waste he used a hand phaser to cut trough the heavy bulkhead. Bingo, He had reached the control center.
“ My God! Everything is working down here. The energy reserves must have kept this thing going, this is where the beacon is coming from. What kind of energy has so much power to last this long?”
“What’s this? It looks like all databanks of the ship are stored here intact! I may have found an entire Borg array fully functional. And no Borg around! ”
Meanwhile, Dr Hamilton entered the Chamber.
-“Well Captain, Mr. Coffey was quite right, everybody is pretty much dead and the 10 years would be a fair judgment…Wow! Where are we?” He asked in awe.
-“Doctor, welcome to the Borg chamber of secrets!”
The Captain continued still absorbed in what he was seeing.
-” I’m glad they don’t care much about some prime directive, or we would never have this chance. This could be a damn textbook to their technology!
-“I can’t imagine the light this would shed on those implants of them, how it works, the procedures involved, I think you’d better call someone else down here.”
-“Your right. Captain to Nautilus!”
-“Coffey here Sir, is everything alright?”
-“Get a full science team and join us Mr. Coffey. Beam down to these exact coordinates. I think you’ll enjoy this. Winetree out.”
About 10 minutes after, Lt. Coffey was smiling broadly next to his companions.
-“This is really amazing Captain. The database itself is too large and complex for us to directly download it to the Nautilus. With your permission I would like to start a plan to beam this entire structure out of here.”
-“I sympathize with your enthusiasm Lt, but I have to get Starfleet clearance on that first. Never the less, as I beam up with the good Doctor here, your team can stay and study all you want.”
For the first time in a long time James Wine-tree was feeling alive. The true nature of all Starfleet Captains was to explore, to discover, and experiences like today, he realized, were one in a million. In fact this could be history in the making, and he was in the center of it.
After a blessed shower, seeping one very hot cup of coffee, he sat on his quarters waiting for the secure channel to SFHQ.
-“Captain, you have an incoming message from Starfleet.” Tellara said.
-“Put it trough here Lt.”
At that exact moment Admiral Hawkins stern face appeared on the screen.
-“ Hello Captain good to hear from you. For what I’ve been told, I expect you to be as excited as I am.”
-“Yes Sir you have no idea. Did you have time to read the full report?”
-“Indeed Capt., and I’m still quite stunned to tell you the truth. Do you think it’s possible for the Nautilus cargo bays to uphold the challenge?”
-“At the expenses of our power reserves, we’ve planned to create a gravitational field around the debris to ease its weight and therefore the pressure on the bays. I think it’s possible. Depending on your approval, of course.”
-“Got it! We need you back on Earth as soon as possible Captain. This is top priority!”
-“Very well Sir. The procedures will be ready by tomorrow, after that I’ve scheduled a routine shield check on star base XS-347, and we’ll be on our way.”
-“Negative Captain, you will proceed directly to sector 001!”
-“But Admiral”, Winetree tried to stay calm, “as I told you, the gravitational field will feed on our energy supplies. To maintain proper speed the shields could be largely affected, Sir! We need to...”
-“ Captain! This subject is not open to discussion, you have the responsibility…”
-“…For the well being of my crew Admiral!” He cut off the senior officer. ”You can’t ask me to jeopardize that. Besides, that would leave us vulnerable to any attack! What good will all of this do if it falls into the wrong hands?”
-“James, I respect your feelings, I really do. But you have to understand the urgency of the matter. That’s exactly why we can’t risk any outside contact.” Hawkins showed real compassion. ”Look, as soon as the Nautilus is in range two heavy cruisers will escort you to Earth.
C’mon let’s face it, that part of space is not very crowded is it? Besides, that ship has been around for so long, it won’t fail us now. I believe that, and most of all, I believe you and the men and women aboard!”
The Captain stood between his crew and his duty. But this was what Captaincy was all about. A decision had to be made:
-“Alright Admiral, you win. As soon as I get near enough you better be on board one of those cruisers.” He didn’t say anything else though he wish he could.
-“You bet I will, and James, so will you! Hawkins out.”
As the transmission ended, Winetree walked to the turbo lift and took it to the bridge. This time the star field on the view screen didn’t calm him, it frightened him. And he prayed to the universe he had made the right decision.
--------
However, as the Nautilus warped home at best possible speed, it was intercepted by a Ferengi Cruiser who had ventured into that region of space in search of an easy deal. Curious of the operations they’ve witnessed around Y-404, they claimed rights to any salvage on that planet upon entering the system first.
After negotiations failed, conflict was inevitable and due to the precarious status of the shields and weapons, Nautilus took heavy damage. Although the Ferengi were ultimately destroyed and the ship’s precious cargo saved, there were 15 dead and 23 wounded. All precious lives, but one especially dear to the Captain…
---------
“Captain’s personal log:
I am on my way to sick bay to witness the last moments of one of my dearest friends. Dr. Marcus Hamilton’s quarters were on the most badly hit deck, he was taken a break to freshen up after 12 consecutive hours taking care of the fallen in battle.
The Ferengi disruptor spread ravaged trough that deck. He is beyond help and insisted to be left alone before he died. But I must go to him. Tell him I’m sorry…”
-“You’re sorry??! James, you did what a damn good Captain should do! You protected your ship and your mission. You gave the starboard flank to enemy fire because you knew there are no vital systems in those decks. Those are personnel quarters and they were all empty anyway!”
-“Except for you Doc.!” He found it hard to articulate any other word.
-“You can’t be blamed for my ego. I thought I had too much blood on my clothes I like to feel clean and look good. So what?”
-“Bullshit Marcus!” his eyes started to swell with tears of rage. “You were completely busted by 12 hours of hard work. I should have known, I should have checked…”
-“Don’t you bullshit me young man! And if I ever guess you feel sorry for yourself, I will come down straight from hell and haunt your sorry ass! And don’t make me yell at you like this cause it hurts so damn much!”
He still had humor. Winetree couldn’t help thinking about the strength on this man.
“Listen kid,” Hamilton said almost father like. “Every single Starfleet officer knows the risk involved in any mission. It is the loyalty and sense of duty on each one of them that helps dealing with it. But what really keeps them going is the strength and courage of their Captain. In this case you.”
Casualties like we’ve had here today, it’s a hard bargain for an inexperienced crew like this one. And it is you, not that escort of fancy cruisers out there, who’s responsible for getting this ship home. They trust you, don’t let them down.” Winetree tried to speak but Hamilton
” I know you won’t.”
The pain on the Doctor’s face was gone. His last breath was of friendship, confidence and humanity. James Winetree didn’t care any longer if the tears now streamed down his face. He felt they were adequate to honor his friend.
A few moments later, alone with the Doctor in the morgue, he activated the log.
“Captains log, supplemental:
I wish to be noted all casualties on today’s incident will be proposed by me to the highest commendation of honor and valor in the line of duty. In addition, all of them will be promoted one rank up, survivors or not.”
The communicator chirped, it was Science officer Coffey:
“-Sir, the Captains of the cruisers are hailing us. They offered to tow us in to star base.”
-“Mr. Coffey, as a friend just told me, I wouldn’t trust those fancy cruisers out there with my toothbrush. This ship will navigate on her own.
“They can tag along if they want. Is that clear?”
-“Uh, yes Sir”
-“Good, I’ll join you on the bridge in a few moments. I will supervise this myself. Ask engineering for a full damage report as well as present engine status. Let’s leave this forsaken place.”
-“Yes Sir!” The efficiency on the officer’s voice was back.
As the Captain of The U.S.S. Nautilus left the morgue the lights automatically dimmed. He glanced at his friend one last time and turned away. His soul was heavy, but his heart was full of hope.
Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, months later
It was a lot more sympathetic Admiral Hawkins that received Captain Winetree, comparing to the first time they met trough the viewscreen of the former Starship Nautilus.
-“Hello Captain, I’m honored to be here with you today. Please seat down, would you care for some drink?”
-“No thank you Admiral. I’m the one who should be honored with this opportunity. I’ve never been to Starfleet Intelligence Strategic Command before. What can I do for you Sir?”
-“It’s more what I can do for you actually…”
-“I’m sorry Sir, now you’ve lost me…”
-“Captain, do you understand that anything you’ll hear here is top secret, and it will be denied by us if called upon?”
-“Yes Sir” he said seriously
-“And do I have your Vow of silence on this?”
-“Admiral, with due respect, if you thought otherwise I would not be here in the first place. Surely”
-“Your right Captain,” Hawkins said gravely.” Lets go then…”
The Admiral took a deep breath that pumped adrenalin trough Wine-tree’s heart.
-“Captain, Starfleet is well aware of the tragic circumstances of your last mission. You all suffered immensely and paid dearly with your own blood. For that we are deeply grateful, and so you can go on knowing nothing was in vain we decided to let you in on this. Please accept it in the name of all your crew, especially the fallen ones.”
-“Admiral, I sure wasn’t expecting this, and it is I who will be grateful. Not that it is essential; after all we were only doing our job.”
-“Never the less, you deserve it”. He then started:
-“As you know, the essential systems of the Borg wreck you found were mostly intact revealing to us secrets and information we would ever slightly grasp otherwise.
The concept of cyber implants and how they work, their compatibility with living tissue, the benefits from it, and dangers of course. All of that we have you to thank for.”
-“But most of all, within an encrypted code even your bright engineer couldn’t break we found information about the most well kept secrets and technologies of mainly every race that thing encountered.”
Now, he really caught the Captain’s attention.
-“Yes Captain, I can see you to can understand the strategic leverage such thing would give us…”
-“Not that too much imagination is needed to do that Admiral…”
-“Yes off course. Anyway, we intend to put it to use but some obstacles prevent us from that…”
“Genetic manipulation is forbidden by law, and some treaties with other worlds makes it impossible to have some kind of technology in our ships. Like cloak and stealth devices for example.
These restrictions emerged from past errors and judgments; therefore we must be absolutely sure such errors won’t be recreated”.
“At any cost we must prevent military advantages built on innocent lives.”
-“Then, why pursue it?”
-“Because we just got out of a war barely alive, and millions of lives in the Alfa quadrant could have been saved if we had these possibilities. And not just human lives! We must never be caught off-guard again like this! And there are some big threats out there…“
Hawkins stern expression was back. “It was a very tough call but higher stakes are involved, it could mean the whole Federation’s survival.”
-“I can understand that Sir,” Said Winetree, “But how can we ensure that the same problems won’t happen again?”
-“Because the Borg data you retrieved gives us basic principles that have been well proven upon, and because we vowed all experiments will be made in a controlled environment, with no living specimens used unless it proves 100% flawless of course.”
-“Just exactly where do living specimens fit in all this?”
-“James, the project consists on a completely new type of Starship, a powerful warship with full stealth capabilities and manned by a complete crew of enhanced humans.”
-“Enhanced what!?” The Captain was startled…
-“Once again, if and only if it should prove safe, we will create a complete crew of men and women who will be genetically enhanced trough the Borg implants principles witch will allow us to maximize their performance mentally as well as physically.
Do not be troubled, we are not seeking to build an army of Frankensteins, everything will be done at the nano-cellular level.”
James Winetree felt a little uneasy with that sort of thing but he couldn’t help feeling some logic around the subject. If it ever comes to war again, this kind of edge would be invaluable.
And he did felt pride on him and his crew for making it possible. In spite all the suffering they went trough.
But as he looked at the Admiral’s eyes he felt this wasn’t the end of it. There was more to tell.
-“Please continue Sir.” He said.
-“You do not miss much do you? Anyway, this is the part I believe you’ll find least troubling.” The Admiral seemed sincerely pleased with himself. “If such project ever sees the light of day, as tribute to you and your valiant crew, Starfleet has decided the new ship shall maintain the name and numbering of the late U.S.S. Nautilus!”
-“Admiral, I really don’t know what to say.” Once again pride filed his chest and the eyes swallowed with repressed tears for the men and women of the Nautilus, especially the lost ones.
-“Some things are better left unsaid don’t you think? Now walk with me to the lower level were all the questions you have about this shall be answered.” With this, the two men walked trough the corridors and spent over two hours speaking of the new Nautilus and stories of the old one.
Back at the Admiral’s desk, the end of the visit was near, and they prepared for the farewell:
-“Once again Admiral, I am profoundly touched by Starfleet’s position in all of this. Please rest assured everything I heard here today will go to my grave. I’ll not discuss it with anyone, family, crew or friends!”
-“We know our officers well, I assure you Captain. Tell me, would you be opened to help us at the strategic command on this?”
-“Admiral, a few months ago I would take your offer instantly, but now, I realize there is much to be seen out there. The universe needs my crew, and frankly I do to. Just give me a starship Sir.”
-“Very well. Captain, you are to report to us the day after tomorrow at Utopia Planitia fleet yards.”
-“So soon? What about my crew?”
-“Just be there captain. You won’t regret it…”
-“Yes Sir, but how did you know I would accept a new commission?”
-“Like I said, we know our officers well captain.”
After the two men parted James Winetree took the path to San Francisco
The calm tide bathed the Bay, seagulls flied higher over the sunset, he felt as free as them and anticipated the next voyage…
------
Utopia Planitia fleet yards are a strategic facility for Starfleet. The most advanced starships sail from here for their first mission. Captain Winetree’s expectations are high off course. After years on the Nautilus the prospect of embracing a fully capable state of the art starship makes him feel absolutely thrilled and anxious. After meeting with Admiral Hawkins they entered a small type 15 shuttlecraft on an oddly dark shuttle bay and headed to the far side of the yards.
After a few moments the unknown silhouette of a not very large but very slick ship appeared at his port side. No markings yet whatsoever, the vessel was undoubtedly still under construction, it caught his attention.
Winetree’s heart raced forward like a warp engine as he slowly turned his head to the far end dock, the only one with a ship. At first the confused array of the dry dock made it impossible to discern anything about the starship in it, but as the shuttle made a sharp right turn and entered on a shallow angle beneath the big warp nacelles, he was overwhelmed.”
It was a galaxy class refit. It measured over 640 m in length and 465 m in width, spreading over 42 decks with a crew compliment of over a 1000 people. The nacelles pylons were marked NCC-28470 and as the shuttle slowly turned upward toward the immense saucer section he could read for the first time the name of his new vessel: U.S.S Hayabusa.
In that moment Admiral Hawkins turned and solemnly said:
-“Captain, welcome to the Hayabusa, your new ship!”
-“Thank you Sir. I assure you it will be put to a good use. It is an honor for the crew to serve in Starfleet. I hope we’ll be worth it.”
-“I’m sure you are Captain. You Know, the name “Hayabusa” means “Peregrine falcon” in Japanese, the fastest, and one of the most beautiful and noble birds.”
The shuttle hovered over the main bridge on top of the saucer and continued aft until the hangar doors opened. Once inside it gently landed.
As the captain stepped down and turned back he saw for the first time the name of the shuttle that delivered him. He felt home because it read “Hamilton
After the usual farewells with Admiral Hawkins, Winetree entered the turbolift and commanded “bridge”. In a few seconds the doors opened and the star field was there where he left it, waiting, welcoming and embracing him.
There to meet him was the crew: Mr. Coffey, now commander and first officer, Lt. Commander Tellara at communications, the still very attractive Lt Hickman and others.
-”Captain Winetree, welcome back Sir.” Said Coffey getting of the commanding chair and taking his place at the Captain’s right.
-“Thank you. It is good to be back.” He assumed the center chair and turned to the men and women. “I would like to say it is an honor to command such a crew. For me, you are the finest in Starfleet ever, and I couldn’t wish for anyone else as companions in my voyages.”
-“Now, Lt Hickman take us out on impulse; let’s see what’s out there!”
-“Yes sir!”
As the Hayabusa left the dry dock behind her, Commander Coffey said:
-“You know Captain, in spite all this I miss our old ship, our past expiriences with her made us all grow as human beings and now is scrap.”
-“That’s true Mr. Coffey, but I suspect we haven’t heard the last of the name Nautilus…”
NEXT: Assembled
Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
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