StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I have the second chapter half written as well, but I thought I'd post this one now to get some feedback, it's a bit tricky trying to write from a preexisting visual scene, but we'll see. Writing won't be regular, as it depends on workload and if I can get all the details worked out, so if this crashes and goes nowhere, then I'm very sorry...

Any other thought and critiques welcome, I want to nip any problems in the bud as soon as possible, I know it's not a very long chapter compared to Starcrossed or anything, but I'm not sure if I have the energy in me to try and produce an epic, think I'll just go for a relatively short story.



Tentatively titled:

The Time That is Given to Us.


Chapter One: Sleep

The voices were surrounding him, enveloping him, a cacophony of unity, a cold enveloping mass of noise, he could hear them in his mind, and in every ounce of his being.

…Sub-level 214, readjust assimilation chamber 345, power level fluctuation within chamber n…
…Hull fluctuations within lower bow quarter, levels 24, 25, and 27 receiving minor damage from engaging starsh…
…Primary weapon systems at 94% efficiency, Shield matrix at 98%, enemy shield grid terminated, prepare dock 2, redirect power from assimilation matrix to…
… Estimated threat posed by Galaxy starship, USS Enterprise is 0.1%, assimilation chambers at 97% efficiency…
…Assimilation of primary target will commence when secondary threat is neutralised…
…Sensor grid 34 detects high levels of impulse activity on primary target…

Thousands of images flashed through his mind, sensor displays of alien worlds pierced by brilliant green bolts of torpedo fire, sinister cubes shifting into position before disappearing in a barely perceptible flash of light, and yet, running through all of this, through his mind, and the mind of the entire collective was a single note, a rhythm, almost like a heartbeat, impossibily, at the centre of it all, a single mind, or at least, it seemed that way, a single will or thought, but distant. As if focusing on a thousand things across thousands of worlds, and then a single spike which reached out for a fraction of a second and flashed across his mind…

This war was over, the Borg had won, and Earth would fall.

Resistance was futile.

No.

A despairing rage took hold of him, blotting out the voices in his mind, and scattering the images of destruction like leaves in the wind and only one image survived that terrible grief and anger.

A pale faced being with golden eyes, alien for a moment, but then a familiar voice burst through the reeling chaos of his rage.

“I am unable to penetrate defence system’s subcommand structure, Captain…”

Captain?

The thought would not connect for a second, the voices of the thousands crashing on the walls of his mind like the heaviest ocean tides, but now he knew how to weather that storm…

“Acknowledged, attempting new power subcommand path…”

Data, Riker… the Enterprise…

He focused again, the thoughts becoming clearer this time, the images sharpened.

“I cannot penetrate Borg power subcommand structure, all critical sub commands are protected, Captain.”

He was standing in a laboratory. Data’s laboratory. On the Enterprise. Someone was speaking over the comm. A voice, he couldn’t quite place the voice.

“Then it’s over.”

“Mr Crusher,” Riker… “Ready a collision course with the Borg ship… …you heard me, a collision course…”

“Yes, sir.”

That voice was distant and subdued. Wesley.

Dimly, pride surged through his ruined body at the young man who would do his duty to the last, as his father had done, and as Picard would have done in his place. The pride gave way to shame, as he watched his crew resisting to the last, as he should have done.

“Mr La Forge, prepare to go warp power.”

“Aye, sir.”

He should have been able to stop them. But he couldn’t. He wasn’t strong enough. He couldn’t make the difference.

The images flashed in front of his eyes, beams of green fire stabbing out at the Melbourne, the Saratoga, and the cutting beams slicing deep into the heart of the Kyushu, as the lights dimmed for a second, and then a bright ball of fire, as the core breached, and the shattered remains of the New Orleans class spiralled away to join the graveyard of her sister ships, scattered across the Wolf system.

He did that, he had killed thousands of men, women and children. His mind’s eye watched as men and women of different species fell to their death in the vacuum of space, or were incinerated in the weapons fire and antimatter explosions, or whose voices would join the cacophony in his mind.

All because of him.

Never again.

He had to reach them, he had to tell them, he tried to moved, but the waters of the collective enveloped him once more. In his mind, the voices grew in power, and he saw his arm… what used to be his arm… activate the release mechanism, hurling the ensign who tried to stop him, and then Data was there, tearing the monstrosity from his body, and casting it on the floor.

The waters subsided, and Jean Luc Picard reached out, and grasped the arm of the android standing before him. With an immense burst of strength and will power, he forced out a single word.

‘Sleep.’

Doctor Crusher looked at her padd, and spoke with a hint of wonder in her voice,

“He’s regaining consciousness.”

He spoke again with more force behind his words, desperate to make them understand.

“Sleep.”

Troi gasped,

“It’s Captain Picard speaking, not Locutus.”

A brief anger and frustration surged through him, of course it was him, why couldn’t they understand? He looked at Data, willing him to make the leap, to see what had to be done.

“Sleep, Data.”

“He’s exhausted,” whispered Crusher.

Realization dawned on the android’s face.

‘Yes Doctor, but if I may make a supposition, his message was not intended to express fatigue, but to suggest a course of action.”

Suddenly, the ship shook as the Borg cutting beam lanced forward once more, slicing deep into the engineering hull, the hull shrieked as the beam began to slice through into the inner hull.

Data slapped his comm badge,

“Data to Bridge, standby…”
“I am attempting to penetrate the Borg regenerative subcommand path. It is a low priority system and may be accessible.”

A warning sounded across the suddenly silent laboratory, the outer hull had been breached, the inner hull was failing. On the bridge, Riker prepared for his last command,

“Mr. Data report.”

“Standby…”

“I can’t, Mr. Data.”

“Warning, inner hull failure imminent on decks 24 and 25, decompression danger.”

Suddenly, the shaking ceased. The beam cut off, and the ghostly tractor beam holding the ship in place stopped. The bridge crew looked on in disbelief, as the Borg ship powered down, across the sensor displays, weapon systems, shield grids and assimilation matrixes went into standby mode.

Riker exchanged a bewildered glance with Commander Shelby, then spoke into the comm.,

“Mr Data, what the hell just happened?”

“I successfully planted a command into the Borg collective consciousness, it must directed them to believe it was time to regenerate,”

He looked at the ragged figure of Picard, still staring into his eyes, barely moving, only the gentle blips and sweeps of the monitors gave any indication that he was still human under the cold, oppressive machinery.

“In effect, I put them all to sleep.”

“To sleep?”

“Yes, sir.”

A triumphant smile spread across Commander Shelley’s face, hope in his eyes, Riker turned to the large Klingon at the tactical station,

“Status of Borg power drive?”

Worf looked down at his board and shook his head,

“Minimal power.”

“Electromagnetic field?”

“Non existant.”

There was a hint of bemusement in the klingon’s voice.

“Commander Shelby, take an away team, and confirm that the Borg are asleep…”

“Delighted, sir. Mr Worf?”

The Klingon and the Commander strode from the bridge, the turbolift doors hissing shut behind them.




On the outer edge of Borg space, a small fleet of Borg cubes was conducting a planetary assimilation. The cubes swept over the planet like a storm of locusts, searing everything, leaving none remaining and leaving no resource unharvested or untainted by the touch of the Collective.

Then, something happened that they did not expect, in a last desperate bid to survive, an orbital trade platform made a final defiant gesture to the sinister glowing cubes which advanced towards it. Ships sprayed from all docking ports, impulse drives at full power as they scattered from the approaching foe, each one fleeing into warp as soon as they cleared the planet’s helpless defence network. The brave, or the foolish, launched a last torpedo salvo before engaging their warp drive, but the torpedo fire rippled over the surface of the lead cube and did no more damage. Abroad the stricken station, four engineers worked at the failing reactor, it had been the pride and the fall of their civilisation. A reactor which harnessed it’s energy not from the crude interactions of matter and antimatter, but on the changing eddies in the space-time continuum, on the energy of a single quantum fissure, where the rules which governed each reality broke down, and everything which could happen, did happen. It was this technology which had brought the Borg, but perhaps, it was this technology which could drive them away.

What did they have to lose?

Over the communication system, they heard the harsh resonating voice of the collective.

…lower your shields and surrender your station, your efforts will not prevent the assimilation of your world, your struggle is irrelevant, you will be assimilated. We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own, your culture will adapt to service ours. Resistance is futile…

The chief engineer looked over at his reactor specialist, she nodded, a soft smile playing across her lips as she rested her finger on the activation panel, bracing herself for the inevitable. The four engineers looked at each other, saying so much with out words, reaching out to each other as the reactor specialist closer her eyes, and triggered the panel.

Had anyone been staring into the heavens from the surface of the besieged planet, they would have seen a flash like a supernova, and watched a rippling wave of energy flash through space, slamming into the invading vessels, obliterating them in a blinding surge of an impossible energy. But no-one was watching, for none were left to watch.

It was only a small change, as changes go, barely relevant in the grand scheme, a slight imbalance in the fourth dedicated transwarp entry calculation system, an error overlooked with the energy wave racing towards the final cube as it spun on it’s axis and flashed into the opening conduit, and away from the deadly explosion.

But it was enough. The sudden pulse of the warp field as the conduit collapsed raced outward, finding the quantum fissure at the heart of the expanding fireball of quantum energies, and, as the blossoming fireball swept over the spot where the cube had been only a second before, the warp field breached the quantum fissure.




“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I said, are you alright, Guinan? You seem a little distracted?”

She looked over at her companion, he was looking at her with concern in his eyes.

“I’m…

She stopped, taking in her surroundings, she was sitting behind the bar, the cocktail she had been pouring evaporating in front of her, but, this wasn’t her bar. This wasn’t right. She looked out of the viewport, outside, a Nebula class starship was slowly pulling into the main refit dock of Starbase 74. Behind her, a wild cheer burst out, looking round, she saw the Utopia Planetia sensor displays on the main screen. The lights on the Borg cube had faded and the cutting beam that had been slicing deep into the heart of the Federation flagship had cut off. All around her, drinks were raised and the name of Enterprise was toasted across a hundred systems.

But the feeling would not go away, a cold chill had settled across her heart and all she could do was stare at the frozen picture on the screen.







Notes: Based on the universe seen in TNG Episode Parallels, and I know that the opening chapter relies on a bit of technobabble ish stuff, but there wasnt much option, I wanted to show the divergance between the realities.

this looks really damn cool, I want more.

And, Chapter Two (really supposed to be Chapter One, but I didnt want to commit myself to writing massive chapters since I wasnt entirely sure I could keep them going. These two chapters have more or less written themselves, but the fact that these two are written now is no guarantee of speedy writing of the next one. So there.

As before, any comments or criticisms are more than welcome.

And yes, it's just an excuse for me to indulge my armageddon tendancies, so sue me...

Chapter Two: The Rout of Civilisation

It was done, it had worked. The jubilant cry within his mind became a victory shout to the now distant voices of the collective. But that victory shout froze in his mind, as he felt that familiar spike reach out, across thousands of light years, to touch the silent cube once again.

He felt that touch on his mind, felt a cold presence, almost sneering and scornful, as the nearest voices, whose silence had been victory, began to murmur softly, growing in strength as the systems began to come back online.




“Sir?”

The ensign who had replaced Lieutenant Worf was ashen faced as the Captain turned to face him.

“What is it, ensign?”

“The Borg cube, sir, I’m detecting power spikes beginning in the power systems sir…”

“What?”

“Bridge, this is Transporter Room 3, sir, I’m having trouble beaming them in, there’s some kind of dampening field, I’m having trouble initialising the pattern flow.”

“Sir! Borg weapon systems back online, the electromagnetic shield has gone back up, the Borg have gone active, sir!”

Dread settled on Riker once more. He turned to face the view screen.

“Then that’s it, then. Mr. Crusher…”

Wesley focused on his board, knowing the order that was to come.





The faces were frozen in place, the cheers that had flooded Star Fleet tactical as the cube had halted, had been silenced just as suddenly as they had started. Fleet markers and tactical displays blinked across the emergency room, starship squadrons and wings returning to Earth as fast as possible, readouts from defence stations along the neutral zones, but all eyes were fixed on the main tactical display, as the lights on the Borg cube began to glow, and the power systems activated once more.

The Commander in Chief snapped out of the horror that had enveloped the emergency room. He turned to the communications officer.

“Send the signal, all frequencies, the Borg have penetrated the final defence, send to all refugee ships, take on everyone you can and try to break atmosphere on the opposite side of the planet.”

“Aye, sir.”

The order came back crisp and sharp, eye’s were returning to their boards, he fought to keep the tear from his eye, they would do their duty to the bitter end.

“Sir, key personnel transports awaiting clearance to make their run. Starbase 1 awaiting orders to open bay doors, she’s holding position on the opposite side of the planet. Evacuation of Federation council and members is finished and awaiting launch, evacuation of major cities is 17% complete, but the freighter group London reports that they do not have enough ships to take any more than 23%.”

“Acknowledged, send to all Earth citizens, abandon planet, take only what you need and get to your nearest shuttle port, set course for the nearest starbase as soon as you break orbit. Get me the Enterprise.”

“Patching you through.”

“Captain Riker, your Federation is proud of you, but we must ask for one last favour.”

“Collision course is plotted in, sir.”

“And will that stop them? Your own reports tell us that the Cube can function even if eighty percent of it’s mass is destroyed. No, captain, we need you to draw their fire so the evacuation ships can escape, do whatever it takes, but the Federation council must be saved.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

“Show them what the Federation flagship can do, Captain, we’ll do everything we can, but I doubt that it will be enough. Godspeed, Captain.”




Captain Riker turned from the viewscreen.

“All hands to battlestations, senior staff to key postions, Dr Crusher to sick bay, Deanna, go with her, Data, disconnect from the collective, we need you at the helm.”

“But, Captain,”

”That’s an order, Mr Data, we have to buy those ships more time, and we need you to do it.”

“Acknowledged, sir.”

“Geordie, I need those shields back online, and all the power you can muster, mister.”

“You got it, Captain. Just don’t give me too many knocks.”




The Enterprise impulse engines flared to life, gas escaping from the hull damage and all power routed to the engines, shields and weapons, she swung her prow around and arced across the surface of the cube, with a grace and speed that belied the heavy damage that scarred her surface. The phaser strips fired rapidly, never focusing on a single area, a flurry of energy designed to force the cube to bring it’s weapons to bear. Photon torpedoes slammed into the side of the cube, doing negligible damage. Impulse engines screaming under the strain, the Enterprise shrugged off the Borg tractor beams as they tried to gain a lock once more.

The eyes of the quadrant were on that battle, even the Klingons watched and muttered of Federation honour as the Enterprise wove a desperate path, trying to draw the cube away from Earth, but both sides knew that the battle was over.

The commander in chief dragged his eyes from the screen,

“Give the clearance codes for evacuation. All ships make their run now. Signal Starfleet Memory Banks, they are to transfer as much data as they can to the evacuation ships, and then trigger the auto-destruct. Authorisation code 000 Destruct 0. Inform surface defences to begin torpedo launching as soon as the Borg ship comes back into range, and give Starbase One clearance to launch all ships, complete or otherwise. They are to beam whatever and whoever they can aboard and set course for Starbase 74 at maximum warp.”

Across the planet, a kind of numb horror had gripped the world, never before in Earth’s history had there been such a terror, and the air was filled with scrambled communications, and the hum of impulse engines, as one, a cloud of shuttlecraft burst through the atmosphere, flashing into warp as soon as they dared. Enormous trade freighters lifted off the ground, engines straining with the weight of thousands of people, every ship on the planet was climbing out of the atmosphere on the far side of the planet, before engaging their warp drives. A handful of Starfleet vessels maintained an escort pattern as each ship vanished with in a flash of light, but never daring to stray too far in to Borg tracking range.

Borg torpedo fire lanced forth, striking the Enterprise clean across her starboard nacelle, plasma poured from the ruptured nacelle wall, but the ship held together, fire suppression teams racing to the scene and engineers shunting power away from the nacelle and into the fragile shield grid.

“Shield power at four percent, hull integrity compromised on decks seven, twenty three and twenty four, aft torpedo launcher has been disable sir.”

Riker gritted his teeth as Data put the ship into a hard banking turn which swept them in low over the surface of the Borg ship, phaser fire sweeping harmlessly over the colossal arrays of pipes, plating and alien machinery that made up the surface of the cube.

“Status of the evacuating ships?”




…detecting escaping federation vessels, probability of key assimilation targets on board…
…unable to target, vessels engaging warp drive…
…remaining population percentage for assimilation, eighty nine percent…
… fifty federation evacuation ships have escaped weapons range…
… reroute power from assimilation subsystems to weapons, attacking federation ship must be neutralised before planetary assault may begin…

Picard watched the viewscreen from behind the forcefield holding him in place.

He could only watch and listen.




Somewhere, down below, an old man watched the flashes in the night with a hard expression on his face, he looked back down to his task, the vines had become infested with some sort of Martian strain of virus, he sighed, and reached down to pick up his pruning shears.

“Robert, please…”

“No, Marie, I will not leave my home, not for you, not for him, not for Starfleet, and not for those overgrown locusts up there.”

“Damn you, Robert, will you not go, even for your son?”

The old man’s looked down, and he did not look up when he spoke.

“And what would I do, Marie? Would I join Starfleet and fight to retake my vines? Do the Borg appreciate the full bodied flavour of a 41 Chateau Picard? Or would I return to find my vines buried underneath the cold oppression of their technology? I am too old to fight for my planet now, Marie, but I will defend my small vineyard until those technological terrors tear the ground from under my feet. Let the boy go, let him join Starfleet in a hopeless fight, my father and his father died in these fields. I shall die in these fields.

He looked up at the flashes of light once again.

“And my brother died above them.”
Marie looked at Robert for along time, and then she turned and ran back to the farmhouse. Robert blinked, as a single tear rolled down his face.

“Take care of him,” he whispered to the stars.

Marie ran to the farmhouse, snatching up her bag and running out to the lane where the emergency transporter pad was set up, Renée was waiting for her,

“Where is Papa?”

“He’ll be along later, dear, off you go, quickly, the Exeter’s making it’s run in a few minutes, go quickly.”

She looked at her son, and then back at the farm. A tear started in her eye.

“Renée, I hope you can forgive me one day. I love you, and so does your father. Always.”

“Mama? What do yo-“

“Exeter, one to beam up…”




Above the vineyards, the Enterprise continued it’s warlike ballet with the Cube, but more and more frequently, the Cube’s fire was hitting it’s mark, the impulse engines were straining and Geordie was doing all he could to hold the warp core together. Reactor coolant was seeping into main engineering, it was a miracle that the core hadn’t breached, but the conditions were rapidly becoming more toxic, personnel were diving for the breathing masks and then plunging back into the toxic cloud, fighting for the survival of the evacuating ships. The phaser banks were beginning to run into the red, and the photon torpedo tubes were failing.

“Captain, I’m not sure how much longer I can hold the ship together, the magnetic interlocks aren’t going to take much more of this, and the fire suppression system is failing.”

“Hold her together, Geordie, we have to hold them here…”

“Aye sir.”

“Mr Worf, get me Starfleet Command.”

“Channel open, sir.”

The organised chaos of the emergency room filled the viewscreen as the Enterprise went into a deep dive to avoid a rapid-fire torpedo barrage, the turn was just a shade too slow. The last of the salvo exploded against the saucer section, penetrating the shields and slamming straight through the hull. The ship shook as the shockwave passed through each deck. Consoles exploded on the bridge and the structural integrity field groaned alarmingly.

“Enterprise, we’ve got the last of the key personnel out, it’s civilian transports only now, but it won’t be enough, the Hood and her task force are on their way, they’ll be here within…”

The comm. was severed as the communications array exploded as the Borg cutting beam found it’s mark once more, the tractor beams tried to regain their grip on the struggling Galaxy class.

“Mr Worf, any sign of ships on long range sensors?”

“Sir, long range sensors are down, the only ships on my scope are those leaving Earth,”

He paused and looked down as the sensor panel flashed with a warning light,

“Captain, I am detecting a freighter group emerging from the atmosphere on this side of the planet.”

“What? Onscreen. Keep us moving, Mr Data, get us in between them and the Borg.”

The view screen shifted, showing a small group of old ore freighters escorted by a squadron of shuttlecraft, flitting about the convoy, never holding position for a second. Riker stared at them for a second… there was no way that they could end up on the wrong side of the planet by simple navigational error, and why were the shuttles shifting position so much?

“Mr Worf, keep the Borg distracted, I don’t care how you do it, if you have to push the torpedoes out of the tubes by hand, keep the Borg from scanning that ship.”

“Aye, aye sir.”

Riker smiled briefly at his enthusiasm, the fire of battle was in his veins, even if all it could do was push buttons on a console, but his smile changed to a grimace as Data put the Enterprise through a manoeuvre that would have made even the toughest squadron pilot close his eyes. The Enterprise bore hard to port, moving smoothly across the flight path of the freighter, all phaser arcs firing, and the forward torpedo launcher in rapid fire mode, but this time, the Borg tractor beams found their target, the Enterprise was pinned, and the cutting beam continued in it’s relentless search for the warp reactor, burrowing deeper and deeper into the secondary hull.

Smoke and flame billowed, Main Engineering was burning deuterium, and the fire suppression system had failed, the bulk heads creaked and groaned, and the deck heaved with each attempt to break free of the tractor beam. On the main display, power systems winked on and off, life support on deck seventeen, artificial gravity on deck twelve, forcefields were rupturing across the board…

A display next to the reactor panel showed the Borg cutting beam as it slowly ate it’s way towards the reactor, and as the Enterprise strained to escape.

“Warning, hull failure in main engineering in 35 seconds.”

Geordi pulled himself out of the Jefferies tube, slight plasma burns scarring his face and hands, and slapped his hand against the evacuation panel. Instantly, the barriers began to raise, and as one, the crew in main engineering began to transfer power to the auxiliary controls and dived underneath the slowly sinking bulkhead door.

With a roar of noise and an explosion of metal, the cutting beam pierced main engineering, the beam sliced through the bulkhead doors, passed effortlessly through the containment fields surrounding the reactor room, and penetrated the warp core in an all engulfing matter/antimatter annihilation.

Or at least it would have done, had it been there. Gasping for air as the atmosphere drained away, Geordi’s slumped against the core ejection system panel, and drifted into unconsciousness.

On the bridge, Captain Riker watched as the lights flickered briefly and auxiliary power took hold, but it didn’t matter…

“Transfer all power to the structural integrity field, all of it, now Data, hurry.”




Outside the helpless Galaxy class ship, the shuttles broke formation, and as one, the entire formation scattered, clearing the freighter’s flight path, and, with a flicker of light from the ageing nacelles, the ship’s tiny Warp 5 engine activated for the last time. Unable to breach the warp barrier before impact, the ageing craft crashed into the Borg cube at near super luminal speed, and with it, went every scrap of antimatter Starfleet could get it’s hands on…

The explosion was staggering, a flash of light brighter than any solar oddity seen by that planet since it’s creation, the shockwave battered the Enterprise and sent it reeling from the blast, had the ship been under it’s own power and had the warp core been running, the shockwave would probably have triggered it’s own core breach, annihilating the ship as the fireball added the ships antimatter supplies to it’s own. But as it was, the ship was tossed like a yacht in a hurricane, but rode the shockwave until it’s energies were spent.

When the fireball faded, and the viewscreen flickered back online as the auxiliaries kicked in. The last blow of Starfleet command had been struck, but the cube still stood there, impossible and unmovable, but a gaping hole had been left in the side of the cube, and beyond that, green light flickered and small plasma fires burnt within the venting atmosphere of the cube.

Riker groaned, and righted himself in his chair. The atmosphere was thin and acrid smoke hung in the air, bringing tears to his eyes. He waited for the environmental subsystems to come back online, but the smoke remained, consoles sparked brightening the dim gloom of the bridge emergency lights. Systems were down across the ship; life support systems were barely functioning; artificial gravity was strained and inoperable below Deck Twelve; the impulse engines were destroyed and the manoeuvring thrusters were at 30%. He felt the ship begin to sink, as the gravity well it had escaped as it pulled out of McKinley station in it’s maiden voyage, rose up to claim it back once more.





Picard watched through the debris and flames which had engulfed Data’s laboratory, the display was flickering, and barely functional, but he did not need it. He could see it in his mind, as the first of the assimilation beams began to slice through the atmosphere, he could hear the screaming voices, the cries and the collective voice growing louder in his mind. He saw the flag of the Federation being torn from the ground as the first resources of Earth were claimed by the Borg. He saw the frightened faces of the women and children as the first drones advanced upon them, and imprisoned within the cold metal shell of the collective consciousness, he wept.





Down on the surface of the planet, in a calm and peaceful vineyard, an old man and his wife tended to the grapes, as they had for countless years.

Oh shit this is great.

More!