Star Crossed Fanfic

[Dartzap]

If you read it carefully, just after the Pre-collective spirits talk to Archer, there is a sentence which says he is having a flashback to when Seven first transported onto the Defiant

[Junghalli]

The thing is, that planet was as covered as Coruscant was. The borg planets never seemed developed to that degree.

The only Borg planet we ever see is assimilated Earth. That would have been a relatively new hive (less than three hundred years old), and more than half a galaxy away from the Borg's main holdings. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the oldest hives are as built up as Coruscant or even moreso (don't we see the Prime Unimatrix in this very fanfic, and it's been converted into city right down to its molten core?).

[Kartr_Kana]

Stravo your payments to Jabba and his organization are late. This is friendly /hefts EE-3 reminder from your lenient master. If you do not hurry up I may pay a return visit and you do not want that! now do you?

[Trytostaydead]

Stravo your payments to Jabba and his organization are late. This is friendly /hefts EE-3 reminder from your lenient master. If you do not hurry up I may pay a return visit and you do not want that! now do you?

I'm not sure if that was cute or I should just go ahead and beat your brains out into making us think there was a new chapter..

[Col. Crackpot]

Stravo your payments to Jabba and his organization are late. This is friendly /hefts EE-3 reminder from your lenient master. If you do not hurry up I may pay a return visit and you do not want that! now do you?

DIE N00B!!!!

[darthdavid]

FUCKING ASSHOLE!!! I THOUGHT THERE WAS NEW STUFF. GO DIE NOW N00B!!!

[Captain Cyran]

Stravo your payments to Jabba and his organization are late. This is friendly /hefts EE-3 reminder from your lenient master. If you do not hurry up I may pay a return visit and you do not want that! now do you?

You are going to die and go to hell, and I'm going to be the one to send you there. Oh yes... I'm sending you there...

[Rogue 9]

[Darth Fanboy]

This is why you people should all check the COMPLETED OR CLEANED fanfics section and not the fanfics section. Mr. Stravo has been very good about getting his new chapters into that thread.

As for Teh Noob, well my aunt would use the word "cute".

[desertjedi]

This is why you people should all check the COMPLETED OR CLEANED fanfics section and not the fanfics section. Mr. Stravo has been very good about getting his new chapters into that thread.

As for Teh Noob, well my aunt would use the word "cute".

Hey! If we wanted calm and rational common sense... we wouldn't be here...

[Kartr_Kana]

Whos the noob, teh noob or the ones reply to teh noob.
There are alterantives to fighting. - Old Ben

[Jason von Evil]

Whos the noob, teh noob or the ones reply to teh noob.
There are alterantives to fighting. - Old Ben

Goddammit, stop spamming in this thread. You're making everyone think Stravo posted a new chapter.

[NecronLord]

This thread is large enough without spam. Stravo is aware that he is a reprobate who should be chained to the desk and forced to write with a Klingon painstick. He doesn't need any of us to remind him.

[Darth Fanboy]

This thread is large enough without spam. Stravo is aware that he is a reprobate who should be chained to the desk and forced to write with a Klingon painstick. He doesn't need any of us to remind him.

[sarcasm]How is he going to write with a Klingon painstick? I would think a pen, or perhaps a word processor would be more adequate.[/sarcasm]

[darthdavid]

This thread is large enough without spam. Stravo is aware that he is a reprobate who should be chained to the desk and forced to write with a Klingon painstick. He doesn't need any of us to remind him.

[sarcasm]How is he going to write with a Klingon painstick? I would think a pen, or perhaps a word processor would be more adequate.[/sarcasm]

STOP FUCKING POSTING UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING RELEVANT TO SAY OR STRAVO'S POSTED A NEW GODDAMN CHAPTER.

[Darth Fanboy]

Easy killer.

[Agent Fisher]

I laugh at you people!

[Stravo]

This chapter is LONG but damn if it wasn't worth it to tie up one loose end. I didn't want to break it up any further for pacing and dramatic tension reasons. Anyway, the Borg subplot comes to an end here - but as usual introduces something different.

Oh yeah, writing to please post a new chapter ASAP does not make it happen any faster and I don't usually respond for fear of a 10 poster pileup caused by my appearance in this thread. Please keep posts in this thread relevant to the commentary, criticism, etc.


Chapter 83: The Iron Trinity



Picard gasped as he fell to his knees and doubled over in pain. The nano probes were tearing through his blood stream and converting his tissue to Borg circuitry. The Queen smiled coldly as she watched him writhing in pain.

“It will all be over soon Locutus.” She promised.

She walked over slowly to him and ran a hand along his cheek as Picard grunted in pain, sweat beading his brow.

“Endure for me Locutus and all will be yours. In there, in that orb lies the new Collective. All that we ever were and will be is encoded in that matrix and as soon as Seven steps through we will have a new template for our drones, then you will wait as I enter the sphere and give birth to our new Collective.” Her eyes were alight with the possibilities that waited as she leaned in closer to him, smoothly touching his lips. “Stronger, faster, with the merest hint of independence - all of Seven’s gifts and initiative under our control. Then we will see this Imperium crushed under the weight of our consensus.” She whispered like a lover in the dark.

A phaser bolt struck her hip and the kinetic energy of the blast spun her away from Picard and backwards in a half spin. Her personal force field flared up in a brilliant flash of white light deflecting the energy of the blast away from her.

She looked up sharply and Archer smiled as he lowered the phaser rifle.

“You still have to face us your highness. And we don’t intend to lose.”

“How quaint. Perhaps I’ll allow you to live long enough to see Seven assimilated and then have her remove your heart at my bidding.”

“You have to take me first and I will never join you!” Seven shouted as she took a phaser from R-7’s utility belt and fired a long arcing burst that slashed down towards the Queen’s torso. The Queen cart wheeled away from the blast and disappeared behind a bank of machines.

Picard groaned softly and slid down to the floor writhing in agony, eyes wide with horror as he saw the flesh of his arms slowly muting into a dull gray tone.

“The Queen’s nano probe injector must have only been able to inject a significantly smaller does of nanoprobes than usual if Captain Picard has not been assimilated yet.” R-7 noted. “We must help him.” He added.

Archer eyed the android for a heartbeat, surprised by the emotion behind his assertion the nodded.

“You’re right, R-7 you have away to help the Captain?”

“The Shadowfleet suspected that a large enough electromagnetic pulse directed at the still developing nano probes would either slow their progress or halt it entirely. The problem arose with the speed at which these nano probes assimilate their hosts.”

“Anika?”

Seven blinked. He was using her real name for a reason. He would not give her up to her Borg past, not even her name. There was an odd flutter in her stomach at this realization.

“Yes, theory is sound, but where do we generate a pulse?”

R-7 held up his right arm.

“I will reconfigure my systems to deliver the pulse.”

“Good, Anika and I will stalk this bitch and put her out of our misery.”

“Acknowledged.” R-7 nodded and immediately raced for the prone figure of Captain Picard.

Archer checked his phaser rifle and smiled softly.

“You and I together at last. I guess if there was a way to go it would be this way.”

“I’m not sure why you are so happy. The Queen has completely adapted her defenses to your phaser rifle and it is unlikely my pistol will do anymore damage. She can still infect you and I with nanoprobes. Time is on her side and she knows this laboratory far better than we do. She seems to have all the advantages.” Seven replied grimly.

Archer looked into her eyes.

“We’re together and that must count for something.”

“It counts for everything in this battle.” A soft whisper on the wind drifted into Seven’s ears. She looked around sharply and saw only shadows dancing in the ruins of the laboratory, the lights frantically winking on and off in a staccato beat. The ancient vessel was hanging down onto the floor, jutting out from the armored windows in the side of the mountain.

The only steady source of light was the spinning sphere in the center of the lab. It was beginning to hum lowly so that the back of her teeth were vibrating in her jaw. The sphere was ringed by several liquid metal silver bars. She was in awe of the sphere. It was here that the Collective began. Thousands of worlds, trillions of drones all began here in this simple sphere.

“Let’s go.” Archer urged and began stalking through the veritable forest of consoles and banks of machines.

She followed after him uncertainly. There was an odd electricity in the air.

“Our hour has nearly come round at last.” The spectral woman whispered to Archer.

“And then?”

“We all meet our fates.” The male specter replied.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Archer whispered as he snapped around the corner of one large machine and aimed his rifle. There was no sign of his prey.

“Who are you speaking to?” Seven asked him sharply.

“No one.” Archer replied softly as he crouched down on one knee and peered down looking for the Queen’s feet under some of the machinery and computer consoles.

“I’ve been hearing voices.” Seven confided in him.

Archer paused and slowly looked up at her.

“Really? What do they say?”

“You will never know.” The Queen vowed as he hand thrust out from between data terminals and gripped Archer’s throat, savagely pulling him into the gap and banging his head against the terminals.

“Stop!” Seven shouted and pointed the phaser at the Queen’s head. She smiled coldly as she tightened her grip[ on the gasping Archer.

“What will you do, Seven of Nine? Will you fire at this range and risk killing the man you think you love?”

“You have not had time to adapt to this phaser. At this range I cannot miss.” Seven replied coolly aiming clearly for the Queen’s face.

“And if I have? The android’s phaser riffle never struck me before yet I am perfectly adapted to it? Do you think my defensive matrix is as limited as a drone’s my errant little messenger?”

Seven said nothing maintaining her aim on the Queen. Archer began thrashing his legs as he tried to gain leverage on the vise like grip on his throat. His lungs were beginning to burn.




R-7 skid to a halt beside Picard. He placed an arm under Picard’s head.

“Captain, you must listen very closely.” R-7 began as a panel on his right arm flipped open. “I am going to initiate an intense electromagnetic pulse. I am bereft of a tricorder. Can you direct me to the highest concentration of nanoprobes?”

Picard gasped loudly and looked up at the android’s emotionless face.

“How?” he asked desperately.

“Where is your pain the most intense? That will be where the nanoprobes are concentrated at the moment.”

“My chest…god R-7…my heart, I can feel them accessing my artificial heart…” Picard gasped and reached out grabbing R-7’s free hand.

“Hold on sir. You will be free of this infestation in a moment.”

“If it doesn’t work…”

“I calculate an extremely confident level of success with this procedure.”

“R-7, if this fails you know what to do.” Picard grunted in pain as he felt the nanoprobes begin to move again like tiny knives in his blood hacking their way through vitals.

“Hurry! They’re moving.”

R-7 held his right arm over Picard’s chest.

“Brace yourself sir.” R-7 said evenly then activated the built up electromagnetic charge in his arm.

Picard arched his back and screamed in agony as the small whirling knives in his bloodstream all seemed to explode at once in a frenzy of slashing and whirling movement. The chords in his neck stood out against his flesh as he flailed his arms as he leaned backwards and mouth wide open as the pain flared through him like a wildfire.

The pain vanished suddenly and he found himself lying still in R-7’s arms. The lights around him were dim and the sound muted.

“You are Locutus of Borg.”

“No, I am Jean Luc Picard.” He replied weakly.

“You were and always have been Locutus of Borg.” The male voice asserted.

“I am Captain Jean Luc Picard.” Picard snapped angrily now.

“You were part of the Collective and you shall be part of the Collective again. It has always been your destiny. The more you fight it the more it will pain you in the end.”

“I will not surrender. I will not give in.”

“No one is asking you to.”

“We merely point out that when the time comes you will be one with the chorus again and you will achieve what needs to be done. In your hands is the fate dealing blow for you have been seen by us from the very start of the treachery.”

“You are Locutus the Breaker of Treason.”

“Why did she choose the name?”

“Why did she choose you from all those trillions of souls?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” he stammered. “You’re some sort of delusion brought on by the EMP.”

“She did not choose you.”

“We chose you.”

“She cannot act without consequences.”

“And you are our response.”

Picard caught his breath and glanced around sharply. The lab was still, R-7b seemed frozen in place and the mad blinking lights no longer even so much as flickered.

“What is happening?”

He saw the briefest hint of two shadows, figures one female the other male. He saw more shadows gathering at the entrance of the lab, they stood still as statues but the light from the sphere seemed to give them weight and substance.

“We are preparing for the coming of the Iron Trinity.”

“The way it always was meant to be.”

“Who are you?” Picard asked softly, eyes drilling into the male shade with the faintest sense of recognition. He had seen him before, like a half remembered childhood dream. “Where have I seen you before?”

The male shade slowly reached out and touched Picard’s breast, right over the heart.

“The ship…” Picard breathed in realization. His memory swept back into the green lit bowels of the Borg ship as he lay prone waiting for his flesh to conform to the Borg implants as he was inexorably assimilated. There was a presence there with him in the room. A calm quite shadow that whispered to him to be calm, to relax, that fate would have its way not matter what.

“And when the time came for me to be assimilated I was given a designation. And you whispered it to the drone.” The male shade nodded slowly. “I thought I was imagining all of it.” Picard looked deeper into the shade’s hooded eyes. “You whispered ‘Locutus of Borg.’ And now I know don’t I – Locutus?” Picard asked.

The male shade nodded.

“I was Locutus of Borg, the last defender of our people and the last one to fall to the machinations of the Great Traitor. In you I saw the potential to finally destroy the usurper. Now, it falls to you Locutus. The very nano probes coursing through your blood will give you the strength you need to throw her down.”

“Archer and Seven?”

“They have another destiny.”

“What destiny?”

“The three must become one as it was always meant to be.” The male shade replied sternly.

“Never a Collective with one unifying voice. Always the divine union of machine and man to seal the breach between our races.” The female shade intoned as if she were reciting an ancient oath.

“Three?” Picard pressed.

The male and female shade exchanged glances.

“We are running out of time.” The female warned.

“We will be with you when the hammer stroke falls.” Locutus promised.

Picard watched them fade away and suddenly the world came back into painful focus.

“Are you feeling well sir?” R-7 asked.

Picard felt his chest. The pain of the small knives tearing through his flesh and blood had subsided.

“Captain Archer and Seven, we need to get to them now.”

R-7 nodded and helped Picard up.

“And you would risk anything including physical harm to help them?” R-7 asked curiously. Picard paused as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. They were still stiff and numb.

“Of course, R-7. That’s what friendship and duty is all about.” Picard replied quickly. He searched for the others through the haze and flickering lights.

R-7 watched Picard for a long moment, his yellow eyes softening slightly as he could see the human was still in pain. His eyes drifted down to Picard’s limbs and his eyes narrowed.

“It appears we were not entirely successful.”

Picard looked back at R-7 then down to his arms immediately noting with concern the grayness of his skin along his arms. Tendrils of gray crept slowly along his forearms in a slow but methodical march.

“So we only managed to dramatically slow the assimilation process.”

“I am truly sorry Captain Picard.” R-7 stated simply.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned R-7 in my time in this world is that all good things must come to an end.” Picard sighed and tried his best to smile for the android. He looked more closely at R-7.

“You’ve come a long way from the simple war automaton the Shadowfleet thought they had haven’t you?”

R-7 cocked his head to one side before replying.

“I have discovered this much sir. That I would risk even bodily harm for someone who saw in me more than a simple war automaton.” R-7 replied.

Picard reached out and gripped R-7’s shoulder.

“Data would have been proud to know that his humanity is inherent in all of his progeny.”

“It would have been interesting to meet him sir but unfortunately that is not to be.” R-7 replied and suddenly stumbled backwards.

“What’s the matter?!” Picard exclaimed. He rushed forward to help R-7. The android steadied himself.

“The EMP was a risk.” R-7’s voice had a weak distorted

“My god, you weren’t properly shielded were you?”

“No. My neural net is experiencing severe degradation. Internal systems are failing. Data would have easily survived such an effect but my simplistic nature that made me such an asset proved to be my downfall.”

“There is nothing simple about you R-7. In a matter of weeks you have gone from a soulless cog in a machine to a friend.” Picard urged.

R-7 looked into Picard’s eyes.

“What is it you said sir? All good things…” R-7 stopped in mid-sentence, words trailing into a squawk of feed back and white noise. His eyes continued looking straight ahead and like an old clock winding down the android ran down.

Picard watched him and slowly raised his hand to touch his face. He noticed the first tendril of gray molting crawling up his middle finger, the rest crawling up along his wrist.

“I don’t have much time.”

“We never did.” The male shade whispered into his ear.

“But thanks to you R-7 I’ll have just enough time to put some ghosts to rest.”

“And then?” the female shade asked.

“Yes, and then?” he asked Locutus.

“Something wonderful will happen.” He vowed.




“Choose soon Seven. I’m afraid your little toy may be about to draw its last breath.” The Queen said coldly and spared a glance down at Archer as his thrashing legs weakened and his eyes began rolling into the back of his head. She did not see his fingers methodically punching buttons on his phaser rifle.

“I wonder if you will regret never having had the chance to say goodbye. Humans are such a virulently emotional species. Always clinging to what it cannot have much like how you have clung to your notion of independence and freedom.” She looked up at Seven with a triumphant gaze. “Everything you are you owe to me, everything you have ever been you owe to me. You are Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 01 because I chose to make you so. You are the end product of my designs. How dare you think you are more than what I made you.”

Seven’s eyes bore into the Queen’s, her phaser steadily held in firing position trained on the Queen’s face.

“You took a frightened little girl and made her into a soulless machine. You stole everything I could be and was meant to have and replaced it with a waking nightmare. Now that I’m free of you I have learned that I will do anything to hold onto the humanity I have earned. You failed your highness, I’m not a template for your new Borg drones. I am the one who will end this madness forever.”

Seven squared up and fired.

The angry crimson beam from her phaser lanced out and struck the Queen’s face. The impact caused her personal defense field to flare up and the beam ricocheted back to the left, exploding out of sight.

“Such pretty words for such a lost cause.” The Queen sneered and squeezed one last time on Archer’s throat.

A high pitched whine followed her final effort to crush the life out of Archer. Her eyes widened as she looked sharply down at her seemingly helpless opponent. Archer brandished the phaser rifle like a talisman. The overload lights were lit and blinking ominously faster with each passing moment as the whine grew louder.

“Let’s see your field deal with this bitch!” Archer spat triumphantly, eyes bloodshot from broken capillaries.

“Worm!” She roared and lifted Archer bodily with one hand and flung him clear from her. Archer landed with a bone jarring impact and rolled along the floor towards the pulsating spinning sphere. Archer lost his grip on the phaser rifle and it skidded out of his grip and under the ringed structural supports surrounding the spinning sphere.

He tried to get up gasping desperately for air. His eyes darting about frantically looking for the rifle as the whine grew dangerously louder.

Seven aimed again but the Queen did not hesitate as she exploded out from between the computer terminals and rammed into Seven, throwing her aside with ease like a rag doll. Seven landed on her back and the Queen was on top of her in a heartbeat, right foot firmly planted on Seven’s throat, left foot kicking Seven’s phaser free from her hand brutally shattering several fingers in the process.

She sneered down at her.

“Seven, this was all so futile. Do you feel it was worth it in the end? To know freedom, independence, even love and have it snatched away from you at a whim?”

Seven clawed at the foot eyes blazing with furious passion at the Queen, throat constricted and unable to speak she focused all her strength on getting the Borg Queen’s foot loose from her.

“How disappointing Seven, that you have no last words to throw back at me now in my moment of triumph.” The Queen smirked and leisurely reached down and injected Seven’s hand with her nano probes. Seven’s eyes widened and she tried to scream as she felt the pain of the nanoprobes flooding through her bloodstream. Tendrils of gray exploded outward along the skin from the point of injection.

“Fire in the hole!” Archer shouted as he flung himself away from the sphere once he caught sight of the phaser rifle lodged firmly beneath one of the silver support rings and simultaneously hearing the last second warning wail of the overloaded power battery.

The Queen looked over sharply and her eyes widened.

“You fool!! What have you do---”

The phaser rifle exploded drowning out the Queen’s words and sending her spinning away into the darkness. The blast whipped through the nearest terminals igniting them and blasting the debris into a sharp hissing field of daggers.

Seven rolled over on the floor pulling herself into a fetal position as she cried out in agony.

A loud shriek of tortured metal quickly followed the roar of the explosion and the liquid metal rings came apart snapping like broken elastic bands. Rent chunks of silver spun madly through the flickering darkness and crashing into the walls of the lab or through the armored view ports.

The spinning sphere hummed loudly as it began to roll forward, absorbing the debris scattered along the floor as it went leaving behind a clean trail in its wake, even the surface of the floor was washed away. As the sphere rolled into a terminal it vanished into the sphere in a flash of light and explosive sucking sound.

The Queen quickly rose to her feet and watched the sphere with wide eyes.

“It is time Seven! This chaos will not deter me from my hour of triumph.” The Queen hissed as she sprinted over to Seven and reached down to grasp her by the arm.

A fist connected with the Queen’s cheek snapping her head to the left, a foot connected with her midsection doubling her over with an explosive exhalation. She stumbled backwards in shock.

Picard stepped forward, hauling Seven up with one arm while picking up an errant pipe from the debris scattered along the floor, pointing it to the Queen like a sword. Tendrils of gray were clearly crawling up his neck and the first hints of Borg implants were clearly visible along his chest.

“Where are your jibes now?” Picard snapped angrily.

“Locutus, this is not the time for your false nobility.” She snarled at him.

“Oh no, it is precisely the time. Now more than ever, at the moment of you trying to birth this foul abomination into the world once again now is the only time to make a stand to say that this far no and no further. There will be no more falling back, no more retreats. This is our final battle Zarabeth.”

The queen blinked.

“Who told you that designation?” She whispered suddenly very aware that she did not feel alone. The shadows were closing in around them and despite the shrieks of falling metal and the suction of the sphere there was the barest hint of whispers in the air.

Picard smiled grimly.

“I am not alone.”

“Give her to me or I will kill you.”

“Simple as that? No threats, promises, seduction?”

The Queen smiled coldly.

“I can kill you and bring you back Locutus. Once I have reestablished the Collective there will be nothing beyond my power. Now. Give her to me.”

Picard held Seven’s hand tightly and turned his head to look in her panic stricken eyes as she watched the rapidly advancing gray that was turning her flesh.

“Listen to me Seven. Find Jonathan.”

She looked up at him.

“I am being assimilated.” She whispered in horror, tears welling in her eyes. It all was ending too damned soon.

“Find Captain Archer and then embrace your destiny.”

She looked confused.

Picard looked over to the sphere meaningfully. The Queen caught the look and her eyes narrowed on Picard.

“What are you doing Locutus?” She hissed.

“Go NOW!” Picard roared and shoved Seven back towards the center of the phaser rifle blast as he swept the pipe in front of him and readied a swing.

“She cannot go in the matrix unprepared. Not with HIM.”

“So you know then? You knew all along what was supposed to be?” Picard pressed as he blocked the Queen’s movement after Seven.

“I know that what you are planning will surely mean the death of her and Archer.”

“Liar!” Picard spat and swung the pipe into her midsection. The Queen sidestepped the blow and brought both hands down against Picard’s shoulder. He grunted and stepped away from her.

“You are running out of time Locutus.” She noted caustically as the gray was now sweeping over his cheeks and down the last of his fingers.

“More than enough time to end our little dance.” Picard replied and attacked again with a grunt of effort and determination.




“Jonathan!” Seven called out desperately as she stumbled through the wreckage. The gray was rapidly rising over her chest and up her neck.

“Anika.” Archer called out weakly.

Seven zeroed in on his voice and found Archer entangled in the ruined remains of a control console and some of the silver metal of the restraints that held the sphere. She immediately saw that one of the silver shards had passed right through his left leg and most of his upper thigh was meaty mass of blood and gore.

“Oh no.”

Archer struggled to sit up.

“Anika. There’s not much time.”

“What am I supposed to do?” She implored.

“Go to him.” The female shade urged.

“It is your destiny.” Locutus added softly.

Seven stumbled over to him and began helping him up. The sphere slowed to rest near the shattered panels and the half buried ancient vessel jutting into the laboratory. She noted that and hefted him up to rest against her hip and shoulder.

“We don’t have much time.”

“No we don’t.” Archer replied with a weak smile. His vision was blurring and the undeniable chill of signaling the onset of shock was overwhelming him.

Seven grit her teeth and began walking as fast a she could working past the painful stiffening of her limbs as nano probes worked to convert her body into a more suitable host for Borg implants.

They both stumbled/walked towards the spinning sphere, the silver light washing over them like moonlight.




“You owe me much Zarabeth.” Picard grunted and smiled as he connected with the Queen’s left leg just below the knee. She winced and half spun her elbow into Picard’s chest.

“You have no right to call me by that designation Locutus.” She snapped and caught hold of the pipe by the middle. Picard and her wrestled over the pipe, each one pushing against the other in a tug of war.

“You owe me for making me feel responsible for the death of thousands of Starfleet personnel,” he shoved her into a data terminal. “For losing my very soul on your ship.” She shoved him back and swung him around towards a sharp end of a twisted support beam. “For the anger and impotent rage all these years.” He growled as he stopped himself short and pulled on one end of the pipe sending her spinning out of their tug of war. He swung the pipe high for her head. She began to duck but saw too late that the blow was a feint and Picard discarded the pipe in mid-swing to tackle the Queen to the ground.

He immediately wrapped his hands around her throat and began to throttle her as hard as he could. He banged her head backwards into the grated floor as he brought his strength and weight to bear on her throat. In his mind came the memories of the Borg ship, of lying helpless on the surgical bed as he calmly offered his arm for implantation and did not fight the commands given to him as his body was sculpted to her desires.

He remembered watching the starships relentlessly slaughtered at Wolf 359, many were friends who met their deaths at his hands. Starfleet battle tactics were effortlessly picked from his mind while the cube cut a bloody swath through Earth’s final defenses. Captain Tramok prefers to put distance between himself and his target, standard torpedo reload times for an Excelsior class starship was 15 seconds, Admiral Hanson was a by the book strategist all this and so much more he gave to the Borg as they slowly cut him to pieces.

“Damn you!! You took my very soul!” Picard screamed into her face as he slammed her head back into the floor again.

The Queen’s eyes darkened and she placed her hands firmly against Picard’s chest. She shoved hard and Picard was catapulted up into the air and arced back down hard to the floor, landing on his shoulder with a loud wet crack as bone and tendon gave way.

She kipped up in a frenzy and turned to face Seven and Archer as they stopped and stood before the sphere.

“Get away from there! That is not meant for you!”

Picard groggily got to his feet.

“How could you betray them? How could you destroy the last hope of peace among your people and the machines?”

“Because I knew better than they did what was needed to ensure our survival. The united voice they planned would have destroyed me. There would be nothing left of me.”

Picard shook his head in disbelief and wiped blood from his mouth.

“All of this disaster, this waking nightmare that has plunged two quadrants into fear and apprehension was caused because you feared losing your own individuality?” He replied aghast.

“I was the greatest of our scientist. I alone amongst my peers fully understood the implications of the Collective they planned. I adjusted the programming to allow me to be the guiding voice of the Collective.”

“I’m sure that’s what you have convinced yourself after all there years, Zarabeth but all you have managed to do is betray your people and enslave billions.”

“I tire of this Locutus.” The Queen replied in a whisper and was suddenly upon Picard. Picard was shocked by the speed and fury of her attack and she drove him back towards the jagged pointed end of the support beam. It gleamed hungrily in the low flickering light and she pushed him right to the tip of the pointed end. He could feel the cold hard steel cutting into his back. His legs stiffened and his arms tangled with hers, neck taut with effort as he held her at bay.

They stood poised over the pointed end, grunting with effort, sweat dripping off his brow their eyes locked in death.





“And this is it isn’t it?” Archer whispered, eyes fluttering weakly as his legs sagged out from beneath him under his own weight.

“Jonathan. I’m afraid.” Seven said simply as they stared at the pulsating silver liquid metal surface of the spinning sphere. The humming that was shaking the very foundations of the lab was slowly crytsalizing into a soft chorus of sound. It sounded suspiciously like a half buried memory of a lullaby her mother would sing to her. The tune was inviting and comforting yet somehow alien.

Archer gripped Seven’s hand.

“If we do this together then there is nothing to be afraid of?” He looked into her eyes. “Is there?”

“No.” She answered without hesitation and returned his gaze. Shadows coalesced around them like a chorus.

“The Iron Trinity is nearly complete. You are beginning to understand the mystery aren’t you?” Locutus asked Archer. He nodded.

“It is the union of man and machine. Save that man is not a singular being, he is a union of man and woman to form the complete whole.” He looked back at Seven. “I understood this when she was apart from me and I no longer felt…”

“Complete.” Seven finished.

The female shade nodded.

“But we lack the machine component. This will fail as surely as the Queen’s initial Collective.” Seven lamented as she felt Archer weaken in her arms and the pain of the Borg nanoprobes completing their work.

“We need a machine but not just any machine.”

“No, you need a machine with a soul.” The female shade cautioned.

Archer nodded.

“A machine willing to fight by our side even though there wasn’t any real logical reason to.” Archer gasped.

“A machine that gave its life to protect its friend.” Seven added, comprehension dawning in her eyes and she quickly searched the ruins, stopping sort as she caught sight of R-7 slumped down in a seated position several meters away.

“R-7?” Archer whispered.

“There is no one else. He was meant to be here as surely as the rest of us were.”

“Fate always finds her way.” Locutus nodded.

Seven gingerly placed Archer on the ground and limped quickly over to the fallen android. Her limbs were growing stiff and heavy, her breathing labored as the advancing gray sheen covered most of her face. She quickly slipped her arms underneath R-7’s armpits and pulled with all her strength, dragging the heavy android to the sphere.

“Hurry Anika, please, I can’t hold on much longer.” Archer pleaded, the blood pooling beneath him from his ruined leg. Blissful sleep was lulling him into sweet unconsciousness. Seven was growing blurry and indistinct in his sight.




“Resistance…is…futile…Locutus.” The Queen grunted out the words as she pushed against Picard, sending the sharp end of the beam an inch into his flesh. He was throwing every ounce of his weight and all his strength against her, legs digging into the ground, thighs taut like steel cable, chords jutting out along his neck, nostrils flaring. His eyes bore into hers.

“For once, Zarabeth, you are absolutely correct.” Picard grunted and smiled sadly.

“What are you---”

Picard stopped resisting.

He grabbed a firm hold of the Queen and pulled her to him as her strength and weight carried him backwards right into the sharp beam. Its jagged point effortlessly punched through him and exploded out of his midsection continuing into the Queen’s chest and jutted out of her back. Her defensive field put up a pathetically useless resistance to the kinetic attack, flaring up in a display of light and sound drowned out by the Queen’s scream of pain and frustration.

“No!!!!!!”

Picard did not hesitate as he reached out for her neck and snapped it to the side with his remaining strength rewarded with a loud wet crack. The Queen’s head lolled to one side but her eyes blazed into his with a fury that would have burned worlds.

A bitter laugh escaped her lips as Picard slumped forward into the beam gasping his last breaths, blood flecking his lips.

“It is finished.” He breathed.

“Never…Locutus. You should…know…by now…that I…cannot die. I escaped you before…it remains child’s play now. Your sacrifice…was useless.”

Her eyes dimmed and she lay still.

Picard smiled triumphantly.

“And he piled upon the whale's white hump, the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.” He whispered weakly.

“And now we must do our part.” Locutus stated proudly beside Picard.





Seven grunted with a last bit of effort and placed R-7 at Archer’s feet. She knelt beside him and touched his cheek. Archer’s eyes fluttered open.

“I’m so cold Anika.”

“This is almost over.” She looked up at the assembled shadows while cradling Archer’s head to her chest. “We are here. We are willing. What must we do now?”

“Simply state the words as I tell them to you child of the Borg.” The female replied.

Seven nodded as she heard the words. She turned to the sphere as electricity built in the air. The shadows were humming in time with the sphere.

“Matrix 01. Activate assimilation procedure password Theta Epsilon 1701-1138.” She stated loudly. The sphere suddenly stopped spinning and pulsated strongly in place, growing larger with each pulse. The sphere rapidly expanded towards them, wisps of silver light reaching out for them.

Seven took hold of Archer’s hand and squeezed them gently. Archer looked over to her, eyes barely open.

“I love you, Anika.” He breathed.

“I love you Jonathan Archer.” She replied and leaned her face forward while reaching out and taking R-7’s hand.

They kissed long and deep and as they did so the sphere expanded enveloping Seven, Archer and R-7. They vanished into the swirling light. The sphere spun faster and faster before vanishing in a blast of incandescence. Then there was only flickering darkness and stubborn silence.



The Queen chuckled darkly.

“Foolish little man. To think I could be vanquished so easily. I have ruled over the Borg for millennia this is a simple setback.”

The darkness was palpable in the barren subspace domain. Her consciousness had fled her broken body as it had done many times before. Now it would be a simple matter of downloading into another body within range and terminating the farce that was under way in the laboratory.

She cast her senses out to search for a new body when she felt the sudden presence in her domain.

“Who dares?” She snapped angrily and turned to face the newcomer. She stopped short.

“Locutus?”

“Yes, Zarabeth. Did you forget where you were? Did you think you could enter this domain and not face your final retribution here in this place.” He asked.

“Locutus. You fool this was your plan wasn’t it?”

“My plan, but fate was the final arbiter.” He said coolly.

“And he is not alone.” The female shade appeared beside him.

“Jocasta.” The Queen sneered. “You were the proponent of the final peace and you stand here and dare accuse me of treason?”

“There will be no trial, Zarabeth. The decision was made millennia ago when we discovered what you had done to all of us, damning us to this soulless state.”

“Locutus, can you feel that? You have to let me go. The Matrix has been activated.”

“And a new dawn is coming.”

The Queen stared wild eyed as hundreds of shadows slowly moved in around her, pressing in hungrily. She moved backwards and looked back to Locutus.

“You said you loved me once, Locutus.” She said softly.

“I did love you, Zarabeth. To my everlasting shame and our race’s doom. It is time for another race to start fresh and bring forth the Borg as they were always meant to be.”

“It cannot end like this.” She shouted in anger.

“But it has.” Jocasta replied grimly. “They have all been promised a piece of you, Zarabeth. I hope you feel a tenth of what we felt during this exile.”

“Stay away from me! I am the Queen of the Borg! I am the guiding voice, the --”

The Queen vanished under the swarm of shadows as they fell upon her, screaming in rage and gnashing of teeth. Her hand erupted out from beneath the shadows, frantically reaching for the light. Locutus watched her hand slowly vanish beneath the broiling shadows.

He placed and arm around Jocasta as the darkness of the domain faded into oblivion.




Picard slowly raised his head. Blood trickled from his mouth down to his chest. The gray sheen covered his entire face and he could feel his consciousness fading away. Vision dimming he searched for any sign of Archer or Seven. The laboratory was dark and quiet, no sign of life remained.

Could it have truly ended like this in darkness?

“I am so sorry my friends.” Picard whispered as his vision darkened and he no longer had the strength to lift his head. As he dropped his head in darkness he lay still and his final breaths came rattling and wet from his lungs.

A warm light touched his face.

He could not lift his head but the light burned through the darkness in his eyes. He felt comforted and the pain slowly vanished from his gaping wound.

“Who…who…is…there?” He asked breathlessly.

A warm hand wreathed in golden light reached out and cupped his chin, slowly and gently lifting his head like a mother would for a child.

“Picard of Earth, we are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be honored by our own.” A voice with the power of a male voice, the warmth of a female voice and the cold precision of a machine spoke.

Picard looked up into the warm golden light and it was as if he were looking into the sun on a warm Spring day. He smiled. Outside the armored windows of the lab, the city flared up to life, the pale green light flared up into a golden shine. The light illuminated the Golden figure that smiled down warmly at Picard.

“It is…wonderful.”

[Soontir C'boath]

Stick.

Edit: Wow a chapter, that's actually focused in one place.

The voices, voices, ALL AROUND! AHHH.

[NecronLord]

First... Errr... Second post.

[Crayz9000]

Uh... er... wow.

Though I do have a minor nitpick, Stravo. Seven's implants were merely deactivated, as she still had nanoprobes flooding her bloodstream. All the Queen would need to do is reactivate them, not add a new batch of them I'd think.

[NecronLord]

That was interesting. Ever so slightly parallels the end of TMP in a way, but with better pacing. Very curious.

Here's my nitpick. The torpedo reload time of an Excelsior is closer to 1.5 seconds.

[Trytostaydead]

oh my lord, how beautiful. Now when are they going to get blown up again?

[Jadeite]

Sixth post!

[Captain Cyran]

SON OF A BITCH! *Looks at the book he has to read to do his report due tomorrow, looks at the new chapter.* Oh man this isn't fair... *goes back to his book.*