431 Smorgas-Borg
We arrived at Ohniaka III and I ordered the activation of the transwarp conduit. A subspace distortion opened in space to everyone's surprise except mine. “Red alert. Shields up. Armor on full.” I ordered and the lights changed to red as my orders were followed. “Wesley, take us in.”
“Aye, sir.” Wesley responded and flew the ship inside.
“Ops, keep the sensors going. I want a map of this end of the tunnel if possible.”
“Yes, sir. Changing passive scanners to active.” Chappel responded.
I sat back on my chair and waited as the viewscreen showed a blueish tunnel.
“You're preparing for something.” Beverly whispered.
“I just have a feeling.” I whispered back. “We're a little ahead of the timeline with this visit, so I'm hoping to stop the attacks on two nearby systems that are about 65 light years from where we just were.”
“65 light years? That's almost 24 days of travel at high warp.” Beverly said back.
“Yes, and the regonfigured Borg ship has been using it to strike at various outposts along the Federation border to draw the Enterprise in.” I said back.
Beverly sighed. “It's really Lore controlling them to get Data to join him?”
“Unfortunately, because it actually works. Data betrays Starfleet and flees to join Lore to gain access to emotions that overwhelm his neural net.”
“Because he's a less sophisticated version and can't handle it.” Beverly said with a nod.
“I'm glad we don't suffer that limitation.” Commander Chappel commented and looked at me. “Why didn't you offer to adjust Data in the same way?”
I smiled as I glanced at Beverly, then I looked at Chappel. “I had more important things to do.”
We didn't have to look to see Beverly's blush.
“Sir, the transwarp conduit is about to end.” Ops said and her console beeped. The ship shimmied slightly and then we were back in normal space.
“I'm detecting a huge energy signature between our current position and the nearby star system.” Tactical stated.
“Sensors indicate the system is an advanced civilization, as is the next one. Populations are approximately 2 billion and 1.5 billion.” Ops said and hit another button. “They've detected the Borg ship and planetary defenses are firing.” She waited a moment. “They had no effect.”
“Wesley, get us over there.” I ordered. “Tactical, disable that ship.”
“Aye, sir.” Both of them responded and the ship jumped to full Impulse.
“Sir, the Borg are charging weapons!”
“Anytime now, Tactical.” I prompted.
“They'll be within long range weapons in three... two... trageting scanners locked... firing!” Tactical exclaimed and six transphasic quantum torpedoes flew across the distance.
Since they travelled much faster than the ship, the glowing weapons on the Borg ship were hit nearly instantly and then exploded, as did the exposed torpedo launchers and the energy signature that should have been their transwarp drive. They disappeared from the sensors and Chappel let out a little shout.
“Yes! Direct hits on five of the six targets. The last one only grazed their warp signature and knocked their power core out of alignment.” Tactical informed us. “Phasers are ready to engage as soon as we're in range.”
“We're there in less than 60 seconds.” Wesley said as the weirdly shaped Borg ship turned to face us.
“Evasive manoeuvres!” Beverly ordered. “Tactical, light them up and take out their secondary weapons array, too.”
“Aye, sir.” Tactical said and phasers cut across the space as the ship rolled to the side and avoided ten weaker phasers from the Borg ship and then two large tractor beams tried to grab the nimble little ship.
“Oh, no you don't!” Wesley and Tactical said at the same time.
“A corkscrew roll, loop, and barrel roll coming up!” Wesley said and the ship lurched, even with the inertial dampeners on full.
“Firing phasers!” Tactical almost shouted. “Auto adjusting frequency to stop them from adapting!”
The USS Retaliation gave the Borg ship a class on how a fast little ship handled as it rolled around and looped them, the phasers cutting out all of their tractor beam emitters and two more torpedoes were embedded into the ship and exploded their power distribution network as the barrel roll finished and Wesley levelled the ship out and came back around for another pass.
It wasn't necessary, though. The Borg ship's power visibly flickered and then went completely dark. The bridge crew cheered and I let the celebrate for a few seconds.
“Nice work, people.” I praised them. “Ops, check the sensors and see if any of them beamed down to the planet's surface or if they have any shuttlecraft.”
“You don't need to worry about that, Admiral.” The Chappel at Tactical said with a smile. “Thanks to Wesley's awesome flying, I buried two torpedoes right into their hangar bay and wrecked everything.”
Wesley grinned at her and went back to flying the ship.
“Then bring us alongside and prepare a boarding party. Beverly, you better head to sickbay. We're going to reclaim the Borg and save them from their mechanization.” I said and stood.
Beverly gave me a look full of love and desire.
“You can thank me later, I promise.” I whispered and she nodded. “Commander Chappel, you have the bridge.”
“I have the bridge.” Commander Chappel said. “Good hunting, sir.”
I nodded and Beverly and I left the bridge at a fast walk. The turbolift stopped on the deck with sickbak Beverly gave me a quick kiss before she jogged out. I stared at her ass for a moment and told the turbolift to continue to the armory.
The door opened and I strode down the hallway and met several Chappels. They were strapping on armored vests and portable shield belts and I grabbed one of each for myself. None of us talked as we prepared for a boarding action on a hostile ship and donned helmets and elbow and knee pads.
I pretended to hand out air breathers, just so we could keep up the ruse that the Chappels needed them and the Borg would underestimate them. “Disable first, if they resist, deactivate them with prejudice. We can easily rebuild them if they're damaged and Beverly will have fun growing them new parts.”
“Aye, sir. We'll enjoy ourselves, too.” The closest Chappel said and the other nine nodded.
I chuckled. “Move out.”
We trotted down the hallway to the transporter room and Transporter Chief Chappel saluted them, waited for them to gather on the larger transporter pad, then energized.
*
The Borg didn't know what hit them. One moment, they were following Lore's orders to attack a human colony to wipe them out, the next they were being bombarded by weaponry they had no record of and they devastated their systems. Most of their weapons were lost almost right away and then the rest were lost before repairs could begin and then main power went down.
Hugh felt relief that he didn't need to breath very much to keep his organics alive as he sealed the rupture and air flowed back into the cargo bay next to the hangar. He didn't know why they needed a shuttlecraft in the first place, since their transporters could cut through most energy shields without trouble. Those that they couldn't, they would cut through with their weapons and then transport through.
He turned around to rush over to the hangar bay to start working on the mobile forcefield emitter to close off the huge breach of their hull and came to a stop as a group of ten people teleported in and his onboard sensors picked up another just appearing with them.
“Hugh! Old buddy! It's nice to see you!” The sole male said and then Hugh felt his manipulator arm disappear before the butt of a phaser rifle smashed into his ocular implant and a minimal phaser shot shut down his electronic systems.
*
I felt a little bad about taking the first independent Borg that existed out, then remembered he had already killed thousands of people under Lore's orders. I thought about ending him outright and sighed, because he was just following orders to not be experimented on himself.
“It's all right, Admiral. Once he's human again, we can try him for his crimes against humanity and we'll see how he defends his actions. Or if he can.” Chappel said and patted my arm.
“Right, we need to sweep the rest of the ship to clean up the rest of them before making any moral judgments.” I said and knelt to put a marker on him, then I tapped my comm badge. “Riker to Transporter Chief Chappel. One marker to transport directly to sickbay.”
“Energizing.” Chappel said and Hugh disappeared in a swirl of teleportation energy.
“Thanks. Riker out.” I said and tapped my badge again. “Let's move out.”
The Chappels nodded and we moved like an efficient machine as we went room to room and took down each and every Borg we encountered. Some developed shields and tried to stop us from stunning them, only to fail, since our weapons automatically shifted frequencies to stop them from adapting to them.
Of course, shooting their mechanical arms off first to eliminate their main offensive weapon and stop them from using it, worked each time. Smashing their ocular implants also jarred them enough that they barely put up any kind of fight. They were sent to the Retaliation's sickbay for Beverly and the Chappels there to work on them.
We eventually reached what could be classed as the bridge of the ship and found the instigator of this whole mess. He was the being that found the Borg Cube exiled from the collective because it had been infected with individuality, thanks to Captain Picard and Hugh, and he twisted them to his own purpose.
“Hello, Lore.” I said when I and my hunting squad stepped onto the bridge.
“Huh? Who're you?” Lore asked and raised a hand phaser and shot at me.
My belt shield activated and blocked it easily.
“You're not even going to talk and gloat? For shame.” I said and motioned at the Chappels. “Ladies? Take him down and you don't have to be gentle about it. Just keep his head mostly intact.”
“With pleasure.” All the Chappels said as one and changed their weapons to beams and opened fire.
“Ohhh, shiii...” Lore started to say as he tried to lunge out of the way.
Ten phaser rifle beams carved him up like a Thanksgiving turkey while he was in the air and his forcibly disassembled parts dropped to the floor into a scattered pile. The only thing untouched was his neck and his head.
“Nice shot with hitting his off switch, Chappel.” I praised.
“Thank you, sir.” Chappel said and the others patted her shoulders and congratulated her, too.
I took out a portable computer base that was similar to the one used as her portable holomatrix emitter. “Get this hooked up to the ship's computer core and find out where their base is. I don't have those coordinates.” I said and two of the Chappels picked it up and went to the closest console and went to work. “They should have a record of their transwarp tunnels as well. If they do, check for any linkages to a transwarp hub. With luck, we can delay the Borg's assault into Federation space by a few years.”
“We'll cut off any external signals first, just in case the ship is automatically reporting back to either the base or to the Borg Collective.” One of the Chappels said.
“If it is, it must have already reported being damaged.” I said and tapped my comm badge. “Riker to Commander Chappel. The Borg ship might have sent out a distress call already, so be on the lookout for any transwarp conduits opening.”
“Thanks for the warning, Tom. We're already scanning for that and using one of the array's filtering programs for non-Federation ships and energy signatures.” Commander Chappel responded. “There is nothing in the next three sectors.”
“What about the planet? How are they reacting to their attacker suddenly stopping?” I asked.
“According to Chappel at Ops, the locals are celebrating and have declared today a holiday.” Commander Chappel answered. “They even managed to take a picture of our ship for it.”
I chuckled. “What's their civilization's warp status?”
“Marginal.” The Chappel at Ops said. “Another five to ten years and they will be at Zekram Cochrane's level.”
“Then mark both systems in the database for a follow-up in a couple of years.” I said. Travelling out here won't be that much of a burden when its time.”
“Aye, sir. Both are marked and noted.” Chappel said.
“Sir!” One of the Chappels working on the computers gained my attention. “We have the coordinates of the transwarp conduit to head to the planet the Borg took over as a base.”
“Send the details to the Chappel at Navigation and finish stripping the computer. We'll light the place up before we leave on the ship and then we'll take care of the rest of the Borg at their base, assuming they left someone behind while they were out raiding.” I ordered.
“Yes, sir. We're nearly done.” The other Chappel working on the computer said.
“We're almost done here, Commander Chappel. Prepare for excursion team extraction.” I ordered.
“Yes, sir. The transporter room is standing by and waiting on your orders.” Commander Chappel responded.
“Thank you. Riker out.” I said and tapped my badge.
I thought about standng there and waiting, then had an idea that Lore might have indulged in more aspects of raiding than just murdering people. I checked the next console for a map and saw Lore's quarters. I nodded at two Chappels and they followed me down the hallway to the room indicated on the map.
We entered the room and one of the Chappels whistled. Lore was apparently like a magpie and took anything shiny his eyes landed on, because the place was filled with precious metals, gems, pieces of technology, and more Borg parts than should be possible.
I tapped my comm badge. “Riker to Main Cargo Bay.”
“Ensign Chappel here. Go ahead, Admiral.”
“I'm dropping a marker on a pile of... everything. Adjust the transporter beam for a wide array of items and be prepared for overflow and piles of things falling over.” I said.
“Understood, sir. I'll have the others ready to catch anything that might fall.” Chappel responded.
I dropped a marker and waved the two Chappels out of the room and stepped back myself. “Go ahead and energize.”
The entire room was covered in the telltale transporter energy and I heard several squawks of surprise over the comm signal. The two Chappels with me let out little laughs.
“I did warn you.” I said with a smile. “Riker out.”
The three of us went back to the bridge and the portable computer was being detached.
“We're ready, sir.” A Chappel said and they all gathered together.
I tapped my comm badge. “Transporter room? Beam us back.”
“Aye, sir. Energizing.” Chappel said and I stepped from there to the troop transporter.
I tapped my badge again. “Riker to Bridge. We're aboard.”
“Aye, sir.” Commander Chappel responded. “Tactical, have fun.”
“Yessir!” Chappel said and the ship shook slightly as the much larger Borg ship exploded in a spectacular show that could be seen from the planet's surface.
“Take us where we need to go, Commander Chappel. We have some more cleaning up to do. Riker out.” I said and tapped my comm badge to end the call. “Bring the computer base to the lab. We need to go over it and see what we have to work with.”
“If we're as lucky as you hope we are, we'll get the coordinates to one of the main transwarp hubs and we can start slowly whittling the Borg down like we did last time.” A Chappel said and we left the transporter room.
“We can only hope.” I said with a smile. Even with only one ship to work with, we were going to make a huge dent in the Borg Collective and they would never know it was us.
*
The Borg base didn't know what hit it. One moment, the remaining drones were minding their own business standing around and doing nothing, then they were assaulted out of nowhere and deactivated. Their base was then raided of all the materials they had procured to expand their new independent Borg Collective.
If they had been conscious, they would have despaired at the loss. As it was, Beverly and the Chappels were having a grand old time reworking the Borg from their cybernetic existences into full blown humanoid specimens. They were getting so good at the procedures that they were becoming almost routine and they were converting them almost as fast as they could be brought to the surgery table.