CHAPTER FOUR:
THE FALLEN
"Fire hyperphasers!" cried Jim as he jumped to his feet.
"No effect, Captain," said Telsia. "They've adapted."
"Try to deploy armor," he replied, fear coursing through his body.
"Armor deployed," she replied.
"Senior staff to the conference room," he said, willing his voice not to quiver. "Bridge to sickbay."
"Go ahead, Captain," replied Quinn.
"I want you and Julian in the conference room," he said. "Bring your pathogen."
"Understood," said Quinn.
Jim sighed as he made his way to the conference room. He couldn't believe they'd been so stupid. Why hadn't they kept moving? Sure they wouldn't have been able to repair the armor but at least the members of the crew that had been working on the generators would still be there.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now at the end of our time," he said as he stood at the head of the table. "The Borg have already captured members of the crew and it won't be long before they figure out how to get through our armor. Suggestions?"
"We could destroy the Cube," said Voyager's Munro.
"But how long will we be able to do that before we completely deplete our compliment of torpedoes?" asked Austin. "We have to figure out a way to kill them all or get the time travel device to work and get out of here."
"There is another option," said Julian Bashir. All eyes turned to him and he looked at Jim.
"We've developed a pathogen that we're sure will wipe out the Borg if it is assimilated," said Quinn breaking into the silence. "Once it is assimilated it will spread through the hive like a virus, infecting every drone until it reaches the Queen."
"We have people over there," said Telsia. "Are we just going to let them die with the rest of the Borg?"
"We can't save them, Telsia," said Jim. "They're gone."
"So who is going to transport to the Cube?" Julian asked.
As he spoke Commander Munro of the Voyager crew, Seven of Nine, Quinn and Donatra disappeared. Jim blinked in confusion for a second before he turned and looked at Chad. He saw fear in Chad's eyes that likely matched his own. They'd adapted to the armor.
* * *
Quinn looked around at the drones on the Cube and silently cursed. He had the pathogen in his hand. He hadn't intended to be the sacrifice but it seemed that fate had stepped in. They would assimilate him at any moment. He didn't have much time. He put the hypospray to his neck and administered the pathogen into his blood.
"I love you, Jim," he said as a drone stepped in front of him.
* * *
"Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01," a voice said in her head. She flinched at the sound of it. There were so many voices and for the first time since she'd been assimilated as a child those voices were not in harmony.
She didn't understand what that meant to the collective. How could the voices of the hive mind not be in complete harmony? It made no sense. She couldn't focus her mind on any single voice other than that of the Queen. She was calling to her from somewhere not on the Cube.
"Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01," said the voice of the Queen in her head. "You must stop the resistance."
The resistance. There was a resistance inside the Borg? She couldn't fathom it. The Queen had to be talking about Lexus. But what resistance could they pose to the entire collective? She couldn't get her mind to quiet. She couldn't think.
"Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01," said the Queen. "Come back to us."
"You will not listen to that voice," said a man's voice. It was a voice she'd heard before. She stared in horror as Locutus of Borg stepped from an alcove and walked toward her.
* * *
Alex stood trapped in a corridor on the Cube. He held his phaser in his hand and quickly set it to a alternating modulation setting. Drones were all around him and he couldn't kill them all. He knew that even with the remodulation of the phaser they would adapt very quickly. He would be assimilated. The very thought sickened him to his bones.
A drone advanced toward him and he fired, killing it instantly. He had a moment of joyous relief as the drone fell to the floor of the corridor. Then another advanced. He fired and killed it as yet another drone advanced. This time when he fired the pulse was absorbed and the drone kept advancing. He waited, muscles tensed, for it to come close enough. He reached behind him and yanked a spike from the wall. When the drone was close enough he drove the spike into the top of its head, screaming in fury as he did it.
* * *
Donatra opened her eyes and looked around her. She'd been hit over the head by something when she'd been transported off Lexus. Now she was on the floor of a corridor on the Borg Cube. Why hadn't she been assimilated? The thought kept running through her mind as she got to her feet. She winced from the pain in her head as she stood upright.
All around her drones were doing their jobs. They were completely ignoring her. She didn't know if she should be thankful for that or if it should terrify her. She dared not move for fear of drawing their attention. She had to think. There had to be a way to get back to the Lexus.
"Donatra!" called the voice of Rekar not far from her.
She turned to the left and saw him lying on the floor of the corridor. Assimilation had begun for him. His face was covered with the dark veins as the nanoprobes made their way to his brain. There was no help for him.
"Donatra, help!" he cried as the drones carried him away.
* * *
Alex closed his eyes as more and more drones became aware of him and walked toward him. There was no escape. He was trapped. He silently prayed that a miracle would happen and he would be spared assimilation.
"Resistance is futile," said a drone just before injecting his assimilation nodules into Alex's neck.
He screamed as he felt the nanoprobes enter his jugular vein. He could feel them changing him. It was horrifying. Then the voices began inside his head and he thought he would be driven mad. One voice became billions and he fell to his knees, gripping his head in his hands.
* * *
"Do not fear me, Seven of Nine," said Locutus as he came to stand before her.
"How is this possible?" she demanded, trying hard to shut the chaos of voices in her head.
"A resistance began inside the Borg," said Locutus. "I am its leader. You will help me to destroy the Queen."
He reached out his arm and injected his assimilation nodules into her neck and all at once the voices quieted. She felt the nanoprobes begin to change her back to the drone she'd once been. She could hear them now. The unified voices of the resistance. They were calling to her. She resisted with all of her might but in the end her mind responded to those voices and she surrendered her individuality once again.
* * *
"You were Q at one time," said the Queen as she sauntered through the large room that Quinn had been taken to. They still hadn't assimilated him and he didn't understand why.
"I was," he replied. His voice was thick with fatigue. The pathogen was working. They had to assimilate him before it killed him.
"Your knowledge is vast," she said, smiling at him. "You will be an invaluable asset to the collective. We'll stomp out the resistance and the Borg will be whole once more."
She injected her assimilation nodules into his neck and he sighed. It was happening. He could feel the nanoprobes going to work. They would be infected and the infection would trace back to her. She would die and the Borg would die with her.
* * *
"Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01," said Locutus as drones worked to install her new cybernetic implants. "You will be my general. Together we will destroy the Queen and her drones. We will remake the collective."
He stopped and looked around the room at nothing. His body jerked as the voices in his head changed once again. He could hear them crying out for help. Someone had infected the Queen! He could feel her dying. That tiny part of his mind that was still part of her collective reached out for her but it was too late.
"They've infected her," moaned Seven. "We'll die."
"We will not," said Locutus. "We are not part of her collective. Our link to her hive is weak, too weak to absorb the pathogen. We will thrive."
"Let Lexus go," she moaned, desperate for them to escape.
"I have no interest in the humans on that ship," he said. "My war is with the Queen."
* * *
"Captain, something is happening on the Queen's Yacht," said Telsia.
"On screen," he said, sick with fear for Quinn. Had they assimilated him? The thought chilled him.
On the main viewscreen confusion was displayed. The Cube in front of them began to move off but the Queen's Yacht was suffering explosions all over it's hull. Was someone firing on the vessel? He didn't understand.
"Captain, sensors show vast explosions within the Yacht," said Telsia. "No sign of Quinn or the others."
They watched as the Yacht exploded in space. Several of the Cubes that had come with it exploded moments later. The others remained untouched by whatever it was that was destroying them. Jim's heart clenched as he wondered which Cube his people were on.
"Starfleet Vessel," said the voice of Jean-Luc Picard and then the viewscreen switched to show Locutus of Borg. "You will be spared."
"Oh, God!" hissed Chakotay as they all saw Seven of Nine. She'd been assimilated and the drones were working to install cybernetic enhancements on her face and head.
"The pathogen you administered to the Queen has ended our war," said Locutus. "As a show of peace I'm sending one of your people back to your ship."
Donatra was transported back to the bridge and she gasped as she looked around, her phaser pointed at the ready. She relaxed only slightly when she realized where she was. The horror that she'd seen was still too firm in her mind for her to relax completely.
"Where are the others?" Jim asked her, standing.
"I only saw Rekar," she said. "He was assimilated."
She gasped as Jim disappeared. In his place was a potted fern from Earth. Commander Munro jumped to his feet. Everyone looked around them in confusion until a voice shattered the silence.
"You've finally done it," said the voice of Q as he materialized just in front of the captain's chair. "My son was killed on that Yacht, Kirk."
He snapped his fingers and Quinn was standing on the bridge. He looked around at everyone in confusion for a second, shaking his head. Then his eyes focused on his father and the plant in front of him.
"What have you done?" he demanded, coming to stand behind his father.
"I've taught him a lesson, Junior," said Q as he turned to face his son. "He got you killed!"
"I got myself killed!" cried Quinn. "Change him back!"
"And if I don't?" Q asked with a smug look on his face.
Quinn snapped his fingers and Q was changed into a child. The others watched in morbid fascination as the battle between father and son continued. Q snapped his own fingers and was an adult again and Quinn screamed at him.
"Change him back!"
"Why should I?" Q asked. "You're a Q again. You don't need him or this crew."
"I don't want to be a Q!" cried Quinn. "I want him back. I'm in love with him."
"That shall pass," said Q dismissively. "You will get over him in time."
"Change him back!" cried Quinn. "If you don't I'll destroy everything in existence until I've completely undone the Continuum!"
"He would," said a female voice as another Q materialized on the bridge.
"You!" cried Q in fury. "What are you doing here?"
"I've come to help my son," she said. The plant instantly transformed into Jim again and he sat there looking stunned.
"You won't get away with this," said Q.
"Mother, I want to be human," said Quinn. "I love Jim and I want to be with him."
"I know, Dear," she said, glaring at Q. "This is your fault. You're the one who decided to play God and punish him by turning him human. All of this is your fault. If you had left Voyager alone none of this would have happened.
"Instead you had to play your stupid little games and make the Lexus real," she seethed. "Then you sent them to Andromeda. I watched while you hurled them into one dangerous event after another. Then our son decided to help them and you did the unthinkable!"
"I taught him a lesson," he insisted.
"Yes," she said, smiling coldly. "The lesson of love. Even we can't break a bond as strong as that."
"He'll get over him," said Q.
"He won't," she said. "I blame you for the loss of our son!"
Q snapped his fingers and nothing happened. He snapped them again and again as he glared at his mate. She'd taken his powers! He was outraged. He screamed at her to give them back but she only glared back at him.
"You've meddled in the lives of humans for the last time, Q," she said coldly. "The Continuum has decided your fate. I'm just the lucky one who gets to administer their decision."
"What are you going to do?" he demanded.
"I'm going to send you to a place where you can't hurt anyone," she said, smiling coldly. She snapped her fingers and he was gone.
"Where did you send him?" Quinn asked softly.
"To a galaxy on the other side of Andromeda," she replied. "He's on an M Class planet so he'll survive. The civilization there is primitive. They've only just learned to make fire."
"Mother," he said. "I don't want to be a Q anymore. I'm sorry, but I'm in love with Jim and I can't be with him if I'm a Q."
"I know that, son," she said, smiling at him sadly. "You're human again and I promise to leave you that way. The Continuum is very proud of you, Quinn."
"Thank you, Mother," he said, smiling radiantly at her.
"I have one last thing to do for you," she said, snapping her fingers.
Captain's Log Stardate 59280.2
We were returned to the timeline we'd come from. The device still didn't work, so the crew of Voyager is stuck here with us. A year had passed in our absence but I have decided that is acceptable. We all mourn the loss of the members of both crews who didn't make it back to the right timeline.
We were debriefed for a month at Starfleet Command. They were fascinated to learn that the Borg of that timeline were in a state of civil war. Quinn told them all he had learned when the Queen had assimilated him. I was just happy to have him back.
His mother pops in from time to time to check on us, but she hasn't went back on her word. Quinn is human and we'll be married soon. She says she wouldn't miss the wedding for all of the cosmos. I'm happy for Quinn that she'll be there and a bit nervous about it at the same time. My experiences with the Q have left me weary of their motives.
Senator Donatra was debriefed longer than any of us but in the end Starfleet found the information she gave them to be invaluable. She moved with both crews to Alta Venus. She feared that she wouldn't be accepted on Earth. We accept her. She's one of us now.
The device was left in the hands of Starfleet. They are working to understand it, promising not to activate it if they learn how. I suppose we have to trust them.
THE LEXUS CHRONICLES