“Captain, we may have a problem.”

Chris Larabee never thought a single sentence could carry so much ominous foreboding. For a split second, he almost believed they might make it out of Fluidic Space alive. After all, it appeared exposure to the alien environment had not caused the Away Team any il-effects, and the trio had made it to the Coral, a mass sizeable enough to be a potential hiding place while the Engineering team tended to the repairs the ship so desperately needed. Yet, all it took for the light at the end of the tunnel to blink out of existence was Ezra’s words reaching out to him from Sick Bay.

“What sort of problem?”

From across his chair, Chris exchanged a corresponding grimace of concern with his First Officer as Buck’s jaw tensed and his spine straightened.

“It appears Head Nurse Ruis is missing,” Ezra explained. “She was last seen on route to Deck 14 and has not been heard from since.”

“Have you tried raising her combadge?” Buck asked and then wished he hadn’t. Ezra wasn’t an amateur, the man would have made every attempt to find the woman before bringing it to the attention of the bridge.

“Of course,” Ezra answered with no hint of annoyance at the question. “I have attempted to locate her with internal sensors, but with the hardware damage sustained during our confrontation with the Borg, we cannot rely entirely on its answer.”

“Where was she last seen?” Chris chimed in.

“On route to Deck 14,” Ezra answered. “I ordered everyone evacuated from the area due to the power fluctuations it has been experiencing, and its proximity to Shuttle Bay 2. Thanks to our less than stellar communication system at present, she may not have realised this when she set out.”

“Deck 14. We’ve been having problems with power on that deck since the crash, Chris.” Buck reminded.

Chris remembered but until now, had no reason to give it too much thought. After the collision with the sphere, it was to be expected. Except with Ezra mentioning Deck 14, the closest deck to the damaged nacelle, prefaced with a missing crew member, a terrible possibility began to take shape. With internal sensor function at limited capacity, they could not even scan the area to pinpoint the woman’s location if she were there.

“Have you gotten a security detail ready?” Chris asked, knowing Ezra would be smart enough to know his reaction to plan well ahead.

“On standby waiting to proceed on your orders.”

“You have a go, Lt. Commander. Do a room by room search if you have to, I want her found. At the very least, with all the wreckage we sustained down there, she might have had an accident and be unable to get help.”

Meanwhile, Buck tapped his combadge, wanting to get to the bottom of the power drain on Deck 14. If Ezra and a security team were headed down there, Buck wanted to ensure at least some of its systems were back online to give them help. “Engineering, come in.”

“Assistant Chief Engineer Chanu speaking.” Chanu’s voiced filled the bridge.

“Where’s Julia?” Buck asked puzzled and while Ezra was no doubt on his way to Deck 14, Buck was sure the Security Chief was all ears since his channel with the bridge had yet to be terminated.

“Lieutenant Pemberton went down with Lt. Greer to Deck 14. They’re attempting to deal with the power fluctuation issue.”

“How long ago?” Chris asked tautly.

“About ten minutes.”

“Have you heard from her since?” Buck inquired, knowing it took about ten minutes to get to Shuttle Bay 2 from Engineering, turbo lifts and all.

“No, but she hasn’t been gone long....”

“Chief Engineer Pemberton,” Chris didn’t wait for Chanu to finish and tapped his own combadge. “Come in.”

There was no answer.

The silence immediately ratcheted the tension levels in the room. Chris saw Buck and Mary looking worried, and God only knew what Ezra thought as the Chief made his way to Deck 14 with his security team.

“Computer, locate Chief Engineer Pemberton.”

“Chief Engineer Pemberton’s last recorded position was in Turbo Lift 4,” the computer replied in her usual calm tone, even if the words delivered inspired the exact opposite. “Unable to provide an accurate location due to the malfunction to the internal sensor array.”

“Damn it,” Chris swore before tapping the combadge to mute his next words from the Security detail. “Buck go down there. You know how Ezra can be when it’s Julia in trouble. Make sure he’s thinking clearly.”

“Right,” Buck stood up immediately, not needing any reminders on that point.

When Quinn, the child of the Q entity had placed them in a pseudo-reality of the Magnificent Seven program, it had resulted in Julia being murdered by one of the story’s villains, Silas Poplar. Ezra’s reaction to Poplar when his complicity was revealed had shocked them all. Ezra put a bullet in the man’s head for his crime and was fully prepared to hold Q accountable for her death. While his gambler’s facade hid much, when Ezra’s fury was provoked, it burned hotter than a supernova.

“Chris,” Mary leaned over and asked quietly. “You think she’s in trouble?”

Before he could answer, Josiah’s voice echoed across the bridge.

“Captain, we may have a problem.”

*****

Two minutes earlier, Josiah Sanchez decided he needed a drink.

For the last hour, his duties had taken him across the Maverick, with only a brief pause at the Conference Room to attend the Senior Staff meeting. Josiah had lost count of how many people he was forced to counsel, how many hands he had to hold and equally reassure them, everything was going to be alright. This was no easy feat considering the relentless pounding the ship had taken in its attempt to escape the six Borg cubes that came out of nowhere.

While Chris Larabee’s dedication to his ship was unquestionable, he rarely saw the crisis from the perspective of the civilian members of his crew. From the seat of his Captain’s chair, Chris did not see the effect of his decisions on the families waiting for their loved ones to return to their quarters. With views of space afforded to most living residences, none of them was unable to ignore the sight of the Borg cube windows, and what capture by the Collective meant for them and their futures.

For some, it was simply too much.

If Josiah were forced to make a study of it, he was convinced the percentage of separation and divorces usually rose steeply after incidents such as these, after the danger of life in Starfleet went from concept to reality.

In the last hour, he’d talked to several spouses who were ready to take their children and leave the Maverick for good. The terror of assimilation and now their presence in Fluidic space, cut off from the Federation was proving to be more than they could handle. Others were still committed to their relationships, but there was no doubt the sight of those cubes had been traumatising, and they needed to talk to someone about their fears if only to purge themselves of it.

After spending a little time with the Potter children who like the most of the Maverick’s youngest members, were fearful of their parents' welfare, Josiah headed back to his office needing a moment to catch his breath. While he did not participate in the heavy lifting required by the rest of the Senior Staff, he knew the value of his role onboard the Maverick and needed the time to offer guidance to the crew for whatever came next.

Standing in front of the turbo lift, he was snapped out of his thoughts when the door slid open and stumbling out of it as if she had just run a mile was Lt. Terry Greer. She looked white as a sheet and was panting hard when she ran straight into him. Looking up at Josiah, her blue eyes touched his with wide-eyed fear.

“Oh God Counsellor Sanchez!” She burst out, shocked and dismayed at the fact she had taken this trip alone, her mind a storm of moths with wings beating so hard she could not focus on speaking coherently.

“Terry, it’s okay, you’re alright,” Josiah said quickly, trying to calm the girl down so she could tell him what’s wrong. He could see the panic across her face and knew no sense would come out of her until he could settle her down. Half the time, his voice was enough to do the deed. “What’s happened?”

“I have to call the bridge! I have to tell them!” she stuttered, trying to get herself under control. The last thing she had seen... the memory was so intense, she almost felt sick to her stomach. Worse yet, the realisation was somewhere in those crisscrossing beams of light, was Julia.

“Tell them what?” Josiah’s jaw tightened, realising they were in trouble, but it was a new kind of problem, more urgent than what he had heard during their meeting. “Lieutenant,” he tried a different tact. “Report.”

The word made Terry’s eyes fly open, and Josiah marvelled at its power. No wonder the staff looked like God had spoken when Chris Larabee made the same demand.

“Julia... I mean Lt. Pemberton and I went down to Deck 14, to help Lt. Moseley stabilise the problems we’ve been having with power fluctuations.” She said breathing slower, allowing the oxygen to slow her racing pulse. “When we got there, the emergency lighting was on, and it was hot. You could feel it the instant you stepped out of the lift like it had jumped up a good fifteen degrees and it was humid. We hadn’t walked more than a few feet down the corridor when we saw this red light, it looked like a narrow beam infra-red. The instant Julia saw it, she told me to run. I thought she was behind me, but when I got into the lift, she wasn’t! I wanted to go back, but there was more than one light now, at least a dozen, and it was coming towards me! I left her Counsellor Sanchez! I left her!”

The woman’s anguish at the decision was plain on her face, and Josiah put aside his own fears for the little redheaded engineer who shared baked Alaskas with Vin Tanner and brought Josiah new additions to his collection of unusual shot glasses following shore leave. “You stand here a minute,” he edged her towards the nearest wall, “and collect yourself. I’ll let the Captain know.”

“I shouldn't have left her....” Terry shook her head.

“You did the right thing,” he made her look him in the eye. “The Captain needs to know what is happening.”

She nodded, not appearing entirely convinced but Josiah didn’t have time for that at present. They were in trouble, and the Captain had to know.

“Captain, we may have a problem.”

“Like what?” The tension in Chris’s voice told Josiah immediately whatever fresh trouble was brewing on the Maverick, he was already aware of it. Josiah quickly relayed Terry’s story. Within a second of Josiah uttering his last word, the still-functioning emergency klaxons across the Maverick began screaming loudly.

“This is the Captain, we have an intruder alert. Repeat, intruder alert. All hands are to evacuate Deck 12 and 13 immediately. Repeat, we have an intruder alert.”

“Chris, what’s going on?” Josiah replied, the shrill sound of the alert assaulting his ears enough to make him wince.

Chris’s reply felt like brittle glass. “Trouble.”

*****

Touching down on the nearest branch of the Coral after leaving the bow of the Maverick, Vin Tanner thought as big as the place had looked earlier, it was nowhere comparable to what it felt like now he set foot on the grey-white surface. As their feet touched the ground, loosened grains of white swirled around them at the disturbance. The white particles offered a wave of greeting before retreating back to the surface once the fanfare of their arrival had passed.

Staring at another branch running over his head, for a second Vin thought it looked like the shelf of a mountain range because the size was almost the same. The strands of white running back and forth like spidery webs across the plasma realm of Fluidic Space, was almost beautiful if it was not so terribly alien. As he and drew kept his eyes fixed on those branches, trying to spot any signs of life, Alex was scanning the area, taking note of the ridges and dips that looked like hills and valleys

“You found anything?” Vin asked as Alex’s eyes remained fixed on the display while she took a few steps ahead., walking past a line of growths that might have been boulders if this were land.

“Plenty,” she replied, not looking up at him. “It’s actually not that different from what Drew thought.”

“It isn’t?” The security officer asked.

“Charlotte was right, it does have a high calcium carbonate content, but there’s also nitrogen, aragonite, some calcite and phosphorus. I think this was definitely some form of coral.”

“I thought coral was supposed to be all bright and pretty,” Vin remarked, having gone diving once and though he did not care for the experience, he did remember thinking the undersea world was awful pretty. If this was coral, why wasn’t it bright and luminous like those creatures they had seen earlier? The dull-grey white seemed out of place amidst all that.

Alex, realising Vin had pointed out something important, wanted to investigate further. Narrowing the scanning field on the tricorder, she had it after a few seconds. “Vin, the coral’s dead.”

“What?” He stared at her.

“All of it,” she widened the range of the tricorder to the shelf over their heads. “I’ll need the ship’s sensors to confirm the scope of it, but I think everything here is dead if not dying, and as recently as the last six months.”

“What could do that?” Drew spoke up. “I mean something like this would take thousands of years to form, if not millions. How could conditions alter so drastically to kill it off so quickly?”

“I don’t know,” she thought quickly, her mind already shifting through the possibilities. Lt. Phillips was their resident marine biologist. Alex was confident the man would be able to pinpoint the cause from the data she was collecting in the tricorder to provide a more specific answer, but for now, she was able to make a guess. “I mean it could be a variety of things, changes in the environment due to contamination, shifts in current that might alter the access to the nutrients to help it grew, I can’t tell more than that, only that it was sudden.”

She was about to tap her combadge to make her report to the Captain when suddenly, she saw Vin was no longer paying attention to either of them. Instead, his focus was fixated on the Maverick across the expanse of Fluidic space. While she could not see his face through the visor, he held their wounded ship in such scrutiny, it almost looked as if he were rivetted by what he was seeing.

“Vin?” She started to say when he spoke up abruptly.

“Alex. Get over here, I need the tricorder.”

His urgent tone propelled her forward, and whatever it was, Alex knew it was bad. Vin was not someone who exerted himself like this often, but when it did, there was no hiding the authority there. While Alex never entertained any thoughts of commanding her own ship, it was moments like this that told her someday Vin just might. Exchanging a quick glance with Drew, she crossed the distance to where he was standing at the edge of the coral, just a little further along the branch than where they had landed, facing the Maverick.

“What is it?”

Vin didn’t answer, his keen eyesight spotting something that needed immediate explanation. If he was right, there was no time to waste. Once the device was in his hand, he aimed it in the direction of the Maverick as Alex and Drew flanked him, feeling their insides clench in anticipation of whatever terrible thing he had just discovered.

It took her a moment to spot what he discovered, and her eyes widened once she realised what it was. The object was attached to the charred hull of the ruined port nacelle. While the nacelle was still intact, the luminous sapphire glow of the engines had been replaced by black. Yet despite this, they were able to identify the wedged-shaped object protruding from the hull of the nacelle. For a moment, it did look like someone had driven a shard of metal right through the duranium plating.

“Oh my God....” Alex gasped. “Is that what I think that is?”

“Yeah,” Vin nodded grimly, his blue eyes looking away from the readings on the tricorder, now flashing green confirmation. “It’s a Borg breaching pod. They’re on the ship.”

*****

Ezra and his security detail reached Deck 14 before Buck Wilmington could join them.

Forcing away his worries about Julia, Ezra told himself if he did not have his faculties anywhere but focussed on the situation, he would be no good to her or any of the people still trapped on Deck 14. With a detail that included Lt. Kate Stokes, Lt. Pico Chavez and Ensign Ravi Sharma, Ezra reviewed the conclusions he made after Casey’s revelation Head Nurse Ruis had vanished. If the Borg had come on board the Maverick, it was probably during the collision, when their internal sensors were offline, and they were scrambling to restore main power.

The aftershocks were so calamitous, the Maverick’s attention would have been focussed on restoring the shields and maintaining warp power so they could escape the Borg. The idea the Borg might have used the situation to transport through their destroyed shields had not been considered when they were on the run for their lives. No doubt the Collective might have had just enough time to transport a handful of drones to the Maverick. There was no need for a larger complement.

Why would they? The instant they arrived on the Maverick, they would begin assimilating crew members to boost their numbers. Drawing just enough power for whatever vile purpose they intended, Ezra swore at his lack of foresight because it meant they had time to create new drones and now, now his Julia... he couldn’t even begin to finish the thought.

No, Ezra shook his head, he couldn’t think of that.

Kate threw a sidelong glance at the Chief and knew he was hiding his worry behind that well-practised facade of control. Everyone on the security detail knew what Julia Pemberton meant to him, but they also knew him well enough to know he would not appreciate any well-meaning platitudes not to worry.

“Remember,” Ezra spoke as the turbo lift indicated they were approaching Deck 14, “their shields operate on a rotating modulated frequency. You will have no more than five, six shots at most before they adapt and render our phasers useless. If you cannot subdue them by then, leave.”

“What settings shall we use?” Sharma, the youngest of them asked. His age indicated this was the first time he was facing this particular enemy.

Ezra blinked slowly and answered after a moment, his voice a little less steady than before. “Shoot to kill. Chances are likely you will not have time to change your settings before they adapt. If they adapt, we lose our window to put them down.”

“But some of those might be our own people,” Chavez stated.

“We know that,” Kate shot the man a murderous glare for the utterly unnecessary reminder.

“Oh, Chief I didn’t mean....” Chavez shut up immediately, realising what he had just said.

“Just carry out your duty, Lieutenant,” Ezra said stonily as the door slid open.

Warm air immediately greeted them in waves, and if Ezra needed any further proof of the invader’s presence on the Maverick, it was silenced when he stepped out of the turbo lift into the sweltering temperature. The Borg required a temperature of 39.1 degrees Celsius with a humidity level in the mid-90s for optimum functioning of their cybernetics. There was no doubt in his mind they were definitely here.

Bathed in red lighting, the security detail did not progress any more than a few meters into the corridor, when the light of multiple beams of red appeared before their eyes, covering their faces and uniforms as if they had suddenly broken out in hives.

“We are the Borg. Lower your weapons and surrender. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

It was Julia on the other end of those words.

 

Ezra thought he'd prepared himself, he really did.

Riding down the turbo lift, with the possibility of what was happening on Deck 14 and Julia weighing on his mind, Ezra told himself he could handle it. He was the Chief of Security of the USS Maverick. He had seen things in his life that made him fist up inside in revulsion and still, he managed to do his job. Ezra could overcome this, no matter how terrible it was. When Julia was murdered by Silas Poplar, he'd held himself together long enough to find and kill the animal who satiated the insecurities of childhood by savaging innocent women, this could not be worse than that.

He was wrong.

She stood before them, still in uniform but everything else about her was Borg. The implants already spread across her face, and her skin was ashen grey, and mottled, a sign the nanoprobes injected through her system was spreading fast. Her green eyes were still her own, but the fire, that emerald spark that captured him from across the Conference Room the first time he saw her, that was gone. It was a flame extinguished under the boot of assimilation.

He thought of the girl who'd embraced him with happiness when he finally asked her to move in, the one who put up with all his foibles, who read Cosmo like it was the Guttenberg Bible and had stickers of daisies on her toolbox, was lost. Everything she was, was simply gone. He wanted to die right there and then until he forced himself to remember assimilation wasn't death. She could be saved. Somehow, he had to save her.

"Commander...." Kate asked, not knowing what to do. Her first impulse was to open fire but seeing Julia Pemberton about to transition into a Borg made her falter.

Ezra's response was to shoot the first Borg coming towards them.

A spread of green phaser fire moved across the cyberman's chest before he tumbled against the floor, unmoving. His death prompted the others forward, and Ezra searched for Julia among the faces. She had not advanced, and he suspected it was mostly because she was yet to become Borg fully. The insidious transformation had yet to afford her all its protections. The only reason she was allowed to speak for the Collective was due to her being the highest-ranking Starfleet officer assimilated since their invasion of the Maverick.

Just like they'd taken Jean-Luc Picard and turned him into Locutus, so had they done to his Julia.

The Borg moved forward in that slow mechanical way like some cartoon version of a robot. It would almost be funny if one forgot the person trapped by the Borg cybernetics was still in there, helpless. The Security detail opened fire, seeing familiar faces in the Borg's turgid charge forward and forced themselves to ignore it. The first volley of blasts flattened the Borg line of defence, and Ezra watched them hit the deck, their bodies sparking with phaser fire with the hit.

As they fell, Ezra's stomach clenched, seeing one of the bodies had a Starfleet uniform. The man's face was so severely mottled, with all his hair gone and his face half-covered with cybernetics and left eye replaced with an optical Borg implant, Ezra barely recognised him. With a surge of pain and horror, he realised it was Lt. Silva from Astrometics. Silva, who was an amateur magician and was once almost shoved out of an airlock by Vin Tanner when his famous flower trick went wrong.

"Keep firing!" Ezra ordered, refusing to yield the position until he absolutely had to. They would adapt soon enough, but until that moment, he was still going to try and reach Julia.

The hallway became a kill zone of red infrared beams, and green phaser fire as more and more of the Borg fell in the hall, and Ezra had to wonder how many of the people on Deck 14 had been assimilated. Were his own security people down here? As he looked through the smoke created by phaser fire, he saw Julia further down the hall, being led away from the fighting.

"Cover me!" He shouted and leapt over one of the bodies, landing near a Borg who immediately raised his hands to inject him with the soul-crushing nanoprobes. Ezra reacted instantly. He swung the butt of his phaser rifle to block the hand reaching for him before shoving the drone hard. The Borg stumbled and looked up just in time to see the barrel of Ezra's phaser aimed squarely at him. The blast ended him immediately, and as phaser fire continued to savage the number of the enemy, Ezra sprinted down the hallway.

"CHIEF!" Kate shouted on top of her lungs behind him. "GET BACK HERE!"

Ezra knew he was insane, he could end up in the same situation as Julia, but Ezra was no longer thinking like the Chief of Security. All he could think about was the woman he loved, trapped in an existence that was as close to hell as one could imagine. She was being led towards Shuttle Deck 2, the hive of all Borg activity on the Maverick. If he could get to her before they could complete their process of assimilation, he could get her to Nathan and have the doctor free her of the nanite monstrosities in her body.

With phaser fire still blasting behind him, Ezra was just passing one of the living quarters when he heard a scream. It was loud and piercing, belonging not to an adult he realised in a flash of clarity, but to a child. The Chief of Security froze in his steps for an instant, uncertain of what to do. The cry rang out again, and Ezra closed his eyes, knowing there was only one thing to do. Cursing at God for the choice forced upon him, Ezra raced into the room that was the source of the frightened scream.

He entered just in time to see a Borg tearing a little girl from the ventilation shaft she had taken refuge. She was no more than four years old, her screams reduced to shrieks of terror. The Borg paid no attention to the fact the child was kicking and screaming, only interested in acquiring raw material for use. Ezra fired at the Borg without a second thought, his phaser blast striking the cyberman in the side. Green energy crackled across the Borg's body, and he spasmed once or twice, before he collapsed on the floor, releasing his hold of the girl's ankle.

The little girl scrambled to the wall, hugging her knees to her small body as she wept such pitiful tears, it broke his heart hearing it. Ezra crossed the distance between them and dropped to his knees and reached for her. The child lifted her tear-stained face and Ezra immediately recognised her as Maria Ruis's daughter, Sofie. At the sight of him, she jumped to her feet and quickly embraced him hard, her slight body shuddering as she broke into fresh sobs.

"It is alright my dear," Ezra remarked realising he was lying through his teeth. It was not alright, not in the slightest, but this little girl didn't need to hear that. She needed him to be strong for her and for him to do his job as Chief of Security. "Come now little one, let us get you someplace safer."

Ezra got to his feet, picking her up and feeling her arms and legs wrap around his body as he carried her to the door. The phaser fire was still coming, and Ezra knew they must have reduced the numbers of the Borg in the hallway so he could make it to the turbo lift and his security team. Sidestepping the bodies on the floor, he kept Sofie's head pressed into his shoulder, so she did not see the carnage of the firefight. Ezra feared for her sanity if her father and mother were among the dead.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Ezra shouted to Kate and the others when all of a sudden, the doors to Shuttle Bay 2 slid open.

At least a dozen new beams of red pierced through the fog of phaser fire.

Ezra raised his weapon and fired, sending a bolt of green phaser energy at the emerging Borg. The blast struck the first one in the new group, but instead of being halted, a shimmer appeared over the Borg when the energy hit, dispersing it. Ezra tried again but knew even as he pulled the trigger, and the Borg closed in, it was too late. They had adapted. The second shot did nothing to stop the approaching Borg, and at that point, Ezra turned to run.

"Retreat! They've adapted!"

That was Buck, Ezra thought as he heard the voice announcing the unfortunate state of their battle with the Borg. Looking over his shoulder, he tried to see if Julia was among the new batch of drones and felt an ache when he couldn't. Instead, he focussed on the child in his arms, the one who no doubt saw one or both parents ripped away from her by these cybernetic monsters, who had narrowly escaped a similarly terrible fate in a maturation chamber.

The Borg had no use for children.

Those who were taken were placed in maturation chambers. Their growth was accelerated so their bodies would become adults in a matter of weeks, instead of years. All the while, they would listen to the Collective whisper in their ears, destroying the promise of what they might have been for good. He could not let it happen to this child, he would not. He had not gone after Julia because he had to save little Sofie. He would not let that sacrifice be for nothing.

Ezra saw the turbo lift ahead and his security team, waving at him to hurry up, with Buck Wilmington leading the way. When had the First Officer arrived? Then again, Chris Larabee wasn't stupid and knew precisely how Ezra would have reacted to Julia being in trouble. The Captain probably sent Buck down here to ensure he didn't do anything stupid.

Too late, Ezra thought, although his act of foolishness had allowed him to reach Sofie, so it was not a wasted effort. He did save someone, just not Julia.

Then without warning, one of the Borg drones that they thought dead sprang to life. As Ezra questioned how this could be, he realised the Borg may have simply been wounded, and the cybernetic implants had taken time to repair the damage. Before he could fire, Buck pulled the trigger on his phaser, but this time, the shot had no effect. The Borg's shields had adapted, and with their adaptation, their phasers were now useless. The Borg advanced towards him, and Ezra could do nothing but run, because he couldn't go hand to hand with a drone, not with a child in his arms.

Suddenly, Buck Wilmington slammed into the Borg drone, using his weight like a linebacker, propelling the cyberman back a few steps. He closed the distance between the disorientated Borg and swung the butt of his rifle against the enemy's jaw and cybernetics or not, Ezra was sure he heard bone cracking.

"Get moving, Commander!" Buck shot him a look that would not be defied.

Ezra didn't argue. Holding onto Sofie, he made for the turbo lift doors even as Kate and the rest of his Security team were attempting to shoot past him. Not looking over his shoulder, Ezra heard Sofie whimpering in fright into his shoulder as she clung to him for dear life. Only when he ran past the barrels of phaser rifles aimed at the advancing Borg drones, did he dare to look at what was behind him.

Buck was running towards him, barely a hair's breadth out of reach of the new Borg drones, now fully protected from their phasers. The First Officer was jumping over bodies, sidestepping others in his advance to the turbo lift. It was clear now they had lost Deck 14 and had to protect the rest of the ship from being similarly occupied. Kate and the others continued to fire, trying to slow down the advance when an arm reached out from one of the drones lying on the floor, similar to the one who almost captured him and Sofie earlier and wrapped a hand around Buck's ankle and pulled.

Ezra watched in horror as Buck landed hard on his face. The big man barely had enough time to overcome his dazed state when the Borg who had caused this fall, got to its feet with surprising speed. Before Buck could react, the two assimilation tubes slid out of the drone's arm attachment, penetrating his uniform to sink into the First Officer's shoulder.

"BUCK!" Ezra shouted as he saw the pure naked terror on Buck's face as the First Officer realised what had just happened. It lasted only for a second because soon the expression of fear on Buck's face drained into vacancy. He almost put Sofie down and went after Buck, but it was Kate who grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back into the turbo lift as the Borg drones swarmed the hallway.

"Sir! It's too late! We have to go now!"

Ezra almost shouted she was wrong, until he raised his eyes to the corridor as the doors started to close, and saw Buck was now standing upright, no longer resisting, and though the First Officer appeared to be looking in their direction, Ezra was sure he saw nothing.

*****

Two minutes later, the bridge was silent as a tomb.

No one could speak. Everyone present was still shocked. Everyone except Chris Larabee who stood up from his command chair like the burning heart in the centre of a galaxy. Staring hard at Ezra, he could barely control his rage at the news the man delivered, the news too terrible to be spoken over the comms, that required Ezra making a personal appearance on the bridge to give him.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Chris's voice was a strangled whisper and in its soft tones was the Herculean restraint he was using not to erupt like a supernova.

Ezra swallowed thickly, for once unable to meet the Larabee glare. He'd left it to Kate to take Sofie to Sick Bay, while he returned to the bridge, still stunned not only over the loss of Julia Pemberton but Buck Wilmington too. The First Officer's stricken visage, seconds before the turbo lift swept them away to safety, would haunt Ezra until his dying day.

"The Borg was able to assimilate him, Captain," Ezra repeated himself, and the statement still caused an audible gasp of dismay throughout the bridge, as if hearing it for the second time did not lessen the impact of what had taken place.

"How the hell did this happen?" Chris was out of his chair, glaring at Ezra with a mixture of rage and incredulity. Knowing his oldest friend, since the Academy, who stood up with him at his wedding, whom his son called Uncle Buck and saved Chris from his self-destructive behaviour after Sarah and Adam died was assimilated, made Chris almost sick with rage. The fury running through him felt as virulent as the nanoprobes turning his friend into a zombie.

"HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!"

The word felt like lashes against his skin, but Ezra knew Chris was right to be angry. If he hadn't gone after Julia, he wouldn't have been cut off, necessitating Buck to come after him. Even though he'd saved little Sofie's life, that had been done in the course of doing something selfish when he should have been thinking clearly.

"I am sorry, Captain," Ezra said miserably, not knowing what else to say for the first time in his life.

"Sorry?" Chris growled. "He's being turned into a fucking drone as we speak...!"

"CHRIS!" Mary stood up from her chair and was practically glowering at her Captain, refusing to let him go on, not when she could see Ezra breaking apart inside. "It's not just Buck down there, it's also Julia!"

As if he had been doused with a bucket of icy cold water, Chris realised what he had done and immediately fell silent, not to mention ashamed. Mortified by his insensitivity, Mary's sharp rebuke reminded Chris Ezra had not just lost a friend, but also the woman he loved. The last thing he needed was for his Captain to behave like a bastard.

"I'm sorry Ezra," he apologised regaining his composure. "This is the Borgs' fault, not yours. I know you did everything you could to prevent this."

"Not enough," Ezra shook his head, unable to think otherwise. "Not enough."

"Chris, what's our plan? They won't stay on Deck 14."

"I know that," Chris replied and swallowed thickly, before tapping his com badge. "Engineering, come in."

"Yes, Captain," Chanu's voice spoke a second later.

"Shut down all power to Deck 14, including the Shuttle Bay,. Not one watt of power is to get down there, do you hear me?"

"Aye Sir," Chanu nodded. "Right away."

The next order Chris had to give was probably the worst one he ever had to give in his life, but he was Captain of the Maverick, and he had to think about his crew, not just the friends that might have been lost. This had to be done no matter how sickening it felt.

"Computer," Chris spoke up, and even though he was loud enough to be heard, the tone of sad remorse was evident. "Disable all command authorisations for Commander Buchanon Wilmington. Authorisation Captain, Christopher Larabee. "

Mary's breath caught at that order and Ezra couldn't meet the Captain's eyes wondering if the pain in Chris's voice was anything like the black well of despair he was presently experiencing. Cutting Buck off from the Main Computer felt like giving the man up for dead but Ezra, if he had the mind to speak, would be the first to remind Chris it had to be done. If the Borg had control of their First Officer now, they would have access to those codes, and that was an advantage the Captain could not allow the enemy to have.

"Captain!" Alex's voice filled the bridge. "The Borg are on board the Maverick!"

Chris exchanged a glance with Ezra and then Mary before he answered quietly. "Alex, we know."

"You know?" Alex's voice revealed her surprise. "You know they've gotten on board with a breaching pod? They must have launched it shortly before the collision with the sphere. I think they used the crash to mask the breaching pod's penetration of the hull..."

Well, at least that question was answered, even if it was a moot point now. "Commander, get ready to transport back to the ship immediately."

"Chris, what's happened?" Chris heard Vin suddenly interrupt. It wasn't the Vulcan’s habit to jump in like that, but Vin would have been able to tell by just the sound of his voice something had gone terribly wrong.

"The Borg have taken Julia," he said, not looking at Ezra as he spoke. "And Buck."

"Oh God, no."

If Buck was here, he might have been touched by the level of anguish in the voice of the Maverick's second officer. Despite the less than auspicious start to their working relationship, the two had developed a close friendship that bordered on family. Alex's absolute lack of interest in Buck had given the man an unvarnished view of the female perspective while Alex considered Buck someone she could confide in almost as deeply as Vin.

"Captain," Vin spoke up a moment later because Alex's silence spoke volumes. "We're ready to beam back on your order."

*****

His designation was One of Four.

After his imperfections were removed and his programming initialised to become truly Borg, all that he knew became theirs to exploit. The technological superiority exerted by the inferior enemy had seen the destruction of no less than four Borg cubes. Now because of him, the Borg had access to that data. They would add it to their own distinctiveness and the next time they encountered the Federation, assimilation would be assured. If nothing else, the Borg knew how to adapt.

Although he had a name once, it was irrelevant and imperfect. The memories of who he had been, the mother who didn't live long enough to see him join Starfleet, the women who breezed in and out of his life and the ones who had the endurance to stay, were now bits of data stored in his memory banks, deemed as useless information. The past was irrelevant, the emotion of love and duty equally unnecessary.

Every part of his former life was relegated to a place he could no longer access, and if there was anything left of Buck Wilmington, he was screaming behind walls he could never escape, drowned out by the voices of the Collective.

Inez Recillos was exhausted.

Presiding over Four Corners, which at present was wall to wall with both crew and their families, she directed the servers who worked in the Maverick's mess like a general with her own miniature army. Giving her team orders to keep the mood light, to ensure everyone got what they needed, she was determined to keep their minds off where they were. Fortunately, the restoration of main power meant food replicators could be used to feed the masses, a thing Inez was grateful for because ration packs were poor substitutes for comfort food in a crisis.

Four Corners was always the social heart of the Maverick, and on occasions like this, it served as a refuge for those who found comfort in being with others, not sequestered in their quarters alone. It made acceptance of where they were easier to bear, and the view of Fluidic Space afforded by the picturesque windows of Four Corners was rather spectacular, even if it was an unfamiliar alien dimension. A short time ago, a school of creatures with a remarkable resemblance to jellyfish swam by against the backdrop of the sizeable tree-like mass that made the Maverick look positively tiny.

"Here you are. One of my very special banana splits," Inez presented the serving of ice cream, chocolate and fruit to one of the twin blond girls at the counter. The Whitworth twins, the nine-year-old daughters of Lt. Whitworth of Astrometrics, belonged to the group of children Inez had agreed to babysit while their parents were on duty.

"Thank you, Inez," Tina, who was nine, told the bartender as she picked up the platter with both hands and returned to the area at the corner of Four Corners, Inez had nicknamed the playpen, occupied by the children under her care. They varied in ages from four to ten, spread out across floors with crayons and drawing paper, while others played with games and toys. It was nice to see them there.

Inez was about to go serve another customer when she noted the doors to Four Corners sliding open and stepping through was none other than the Captain and Josiah Sanchez. Chris Larabee's presence drew an immediate response from those present, particularly the Starfleet personnel who wondered what he was doing at Four Corners when his customary place would be bolted to his Bridge during times of crisis.

A surge of disappointment filled her at Buck's absence but then supposed if Chris were here, the First Officer would need to be on the Bridge. In any case, he'd stolen a few minutes earlier on to check on her, to make sure she was safe down here, aware she would have her hands full with the civilians flowing into Four Corners. Still, Chris's appearance in Four Corners felt strange, especially with Josiah at his side.

Until he looked straight at her and Inez realised why.

The last time he came to see her like this was to tell her Raphael had died.

Watching Chris and Josiah cross the space between the door and the bar, pausing briefly to offer the obligatory greetings expected from the Captain, there was no doubt in Inez's mind she was the reason for his visit. Without realising it, her hands clenched into fists. Inez stood behind the bar, stuck like a fly in amber as he prepared to visit upon her some terrible news that required the presence of a Counsellor in the aftermath.

She almost turned and fled the room, not wanting to hear the doom he was about to visit upon her life but she couldn't move, because suddenly Buck's absence felt ominous. In the last two months, she had finally admitted herself she cared for him, and though he never said it out loud, Inez knew Buck loved her. It was why she had to stay and force herself to listen to the truth, even as she felt the cold blanket of despair descending over her world.

"Is he alive?"

She asked before Chris reached the counter and he wished more than anything, he could tell her everything was fine, that he'd just come for a drink at the bar, but he couldn't. Even though he didn't have time to leave his Bridge, not with the Borg running loose on his ship, Chris could not leave it to Josiah to do this or worse yet, tell her as a face on a view screen. He owed it too much to Buck Wilmington for such an act of cowardice.

"Inez," Josiah started to say, and Chris gave him a look to stop. Chris could do this and for Buck, he would.

"Yes," Chris answered, but before the delusion of relief set in, he added, "the Borg have him Inez. They managed to get on the ship through Shuttle Bay 2, and they were able to assimilate him."

When he said the word assimilate, his voice almost broke. Clearing his throat, he tried to imagine what Inez must be thinking. She had already lost one man she cared about. It seemed unbelievably cruel she should lose another so soon after finding love again.

"Assimilated," Inez started to wipe the countertop, paying close attention to a spot that didn't exist. She understood little about assimilation, only that it was a thing the Borg did to you, and it was something terrible no one should endure. "Can we get him back?"

"I am going to do everything in my power to try," Chris stated firmly, not just to her but to himself. "I promise you Inez, none of us are giving up on him, but I just thought you should know."

"In case you fail to get him? Back " She shot Chris a look and only then did he see the tears spilling over her anguished brown eyes. "Is that why you're telling me?"

Chris didn't know how to answer her, but thankfully, Josiah spared him the need to try. The Counsellor reached for her hands, covering her knuckles with his large palms to keep them still.

"No," Josiah said kindly. "We're telling you so you know there's still the hope we can bring him back to you."

Inez blinked, and the tears ran down her cheeks freely, leaving streaks across her dusky skin. It glistened beneath the ambient light of the bar. "Does it hurt? Assimilation?"

"No."

Josiah did not react to Chris's lie, understanding Inez's fragile emotional state could not bear the truth in all its brutality. Assimilation wasn't death. It was a living hell, and it would serve no purpose for Inez to know that. For Buck's sake, Chris wouldn't do that to her, he couldn't. Buck wasn't in physical pain, but mentally, God only knew what Buck was going through. The thought of the friend who walked through life playing big brother to everyone, robbed of free will, made Chris's insides twist with outrage.

"I have things to do," she managed to speak, even though her voice was little more than a whisper. Her composure, what remained of it was about to crumble, and she had no desire to do it in front of a room full of people. "Please excuse me."

Chris made no move to stop her as she swept out of view, disappearing into the small back room behind the bar. He was sure when she was alone, Inez would be weeping a torrent of tears.

"I'll stay," Josiah let out a sigh and turned to Chris. "She shouldn't be left alone. You should get back to the Bridge, figure out how to get Buck and Julia back."

Chris nodded, knowing he would be doing just that, even if he had to go down to Deck 14 himself, he was going to get Buck and Julia back, not only for Inez but for Ezra too. The Chief concealed his devastation behind a facade whose foundation was crumbling because some agonies were even too much for Ezra Standish to withstand.

"This shouldn't have happened to her again," Chris stared at the wall of drinks, knowing behind it was the room Inez had vanished into. "Not twice."

"It shouldn't happen to anyone, but it has." Josiah knew he did not have to remind Chris of this. The Captain's empathy for the bartender came from a very personal place, and even though Chris had gotten over Sarah's death, he was far from recovered. "She's strong, she'll cope, whatever happens."

Chris wasn't so sure.

"What about you? Are you alright?"

Chris raised his eyes from his introspective thoughts and saw Josiah studying him carefully. He could lie and shrugged off the question, but the truth was, he wasn't alright. He was far from it. Losing Julia was terrible enough, but Buck. The thought of not having Buck at his side, taking him to task when he was behaving like an asshole was an existence Chris did not care for.

"I thought I was saving us by bringing us here," Chris stared at the expanse of Fluidic space beyond the windows. "I thought it was the only way out. When they destroyed our shields. It was the only thing I could think of to keep us from assimilation. Even if the transphasic torpedoes made them vulnerable, they would have continued after us until the engines failed or we fell into the range of their tractor beams. I thought if we came through the singularity, they would give up but they didn't, they just kept coming."

"Chris," Josiah stopped him before he got any further with this display of self-recrimination. "If we hadn't run into the singularity, they would have boarded the Maverick, and all of us would have been assimilated. You did the best you could, and we're still here. Now you've got to pull yourself together and figure out how to get us home."

Josiah paused before adding, "with or without Buck and Julia."

Chris opened his mouth to object, determined to leave neither behind but he knew if it came down to the crunch, if the fate of the one thousand people on the Maverick hung in the balance, he knew the choice he would make. Across Four Corners, the crew and their families were looking to him, their Captain, to bring them home and knew whatever decisions he made, his responsibility to them would come first.

"I don't know if I can live with myself if I do that," Chris stared at the Counsellor.

"Can you live with yourself if you don't?"

Josiah didn't need to hear the Captain’s answer because his silence spoke volumes. Chris Larabee would do what was necessary to get them home, even if it meant sacrificing Buck Wilmington and Julia Pemberton.

*****

 While Inez's reaction to Buck's situation was one of despair, JD Dunne's response landed at the extreme end of the spectrum.

"What are we waiting for? We can't just stand around here doing nothing! Buck and Julia need our help! We gotta go down there with a security team and get them back!"

The kid had embarked on a tirade surprising those who were accustomed to the ordinarily calm Lieutenant, who rarely showed a temper because he was often in the company of superior officers and didn't feel it appropriate for him to raise his voice when they did it well enough for him. The revelation of what happened to Buck Wilmington surfaced a side of JD rarely seen. His rage, coupled with his bewilderment at their seeming lack of action, took no prisoners in its explosive fury.

Of course, they all understood why. When JD had come on board the Maverick, Buck Wilmington saw a young man, who despite his brilliance earning him a posting on one of the best ships in the fleet, was still in mourning. JD's assignment as navigator should have been reason enough for any Academy graduate to celebrate. Except the person whom JD most wanted to share in his success had died in the same battle that earned Chris Larabee his captaincy.

Buck, who shared a similar experience when his own mother passed shortly before he entered the Academy, had taken the boy under his wing, beyond the demands of his professional responsibility.

To JD, Buck had become more than mentor and friend, he filled the sizeable void left by Jennifer Dunne and became the father figure JD never knew. No matter what his doubts and his fears about being a bridge officer on the Maverick, Buck was always there to remind JD, he had earned the right to be there, and wherever she was, his ma would be proud.

The idea of that man, whose kindness made everyone around him feel just a little better, with his big broad smile and earnest desire to shoulder the weight of their problems, being reduced to a mindless drone was unimaginable in JD's consciousness.

"JD, it's not that simple." Mary tried to calm him down, sharing JD's revulsion at the situation, but his words were playing havoc with Ezra's state of mind.

Like the rest of them, JD stopped pacing the floor of the Conference Room where the remains of the Senior Bridge Staff awaited for the Captain's return to discuss what came next. Vin and Alex had been transported back to the Maverick once main power was restored, and its disconnection to Deck 14 left the Borg inert for the moment, with security force fields keeping the drones penned in. The surrounding decks were already evacuated with security posted at every possible access point to the rest of the ship.

It was at best, a temporary stop-gap until they could decide what came next.

"It is that simple!" JD threw up his hands, forgetting who he was addressing. "We've got to go down there and get Buck and Julia back before it gets any worse. The Borg are probably down there now, filling their insides with nanoprobes! Using what they know to get to the rest of the ship! It's what they do!"

JD had read everything he could about the Borg after the Battle of Sector 001 took his mother and his subsequent work with Nathan Jackson to produce a cure to the Borg nanoprobes. JD knew precisely what Buck and Julia were being subjected to. The horror of it was too much for him to accept on any level.

"JD, settle down." This time it was Vin who tried to diffuse JD's escalating fury, even if he secretly agreed with the kid. The Borg weren't going to stay put. Containment in Deck 14 would be hurdled soon enough, it was just a matter of time. "We all know how you feel, but if we don't do this smart, we're going to be no help to anyone down there. We've gotta avoid the same problem Ezra's detail ran into."

"You mean like letting Buck and Julia be turned into drones?" JD flared and even as the words were uttered, Vin saw Ezra flinch because they cut to the bone. The kid was on such a tirade of anger, he had no idea the crippling blow he just inflicted on Ezra Standish.

"Lieutenant, that is ENOUGH."

Alexandra Styles, now acting First Officer snapped with enough force in her voice to douse the flames of his outrage for good. She saw Ezra barely holding it together, not just because of Julia but the guilt tearing him inside at allowing Buck to fall to the enemy. Like him, she knew how to erect facades of strength so those around them wouldn't see just how much pain was being concealed, and it was this insight that made Alex see how close he was to breaking.

The glare Alex shot JD was merciless, and it drove the young officer into his chair without another word.

"JD, there is not one person in this room who doesn't want to help Buck and Julia, not one. But this isn't helping the situation. Buck and Julia have been taken, and we have to accept that. We have to accept it because recriminations and rage are not going to get them back. If we ever want to see them again, we have to keep our heads and figure out what we are going to do next.”

Alex wanted the room under control before the Captain got back because Chris Larabee would not have tolerated JD's words to Ezra under any circumstances. As it was, she was fighting to restrain her own feelings on learning Buck and Julia’s fate. Buck's loss was particularly biting, given how prophetic his words about fearing assimilation had become.

JD dropped his gaze to the smooth dark glass of the conference table, feeling a wave of embarrassment at his outburst. "I'm sorry Commander."

"It's okay," she patted him on the shoulder and retook her seat, letting out a sigh. "This is hard on all of us. Ezra," she looked across the table at the Security Chief, wondering if he needed to be given a time out, at least for a few minutes so he could catch his breath. "How you doing?"

Ezra swallowed thickly and with it, all the anguish he felt at seeing Julia assimilated and Buck's realisation he was going to experience the same violation, was shoved into the deep recesses of his soul because Alex was right, they all needed to think clearly.

"I am better Commander," Ezra answered and felt Mary's hand cover his. Turning to the protocol officer, he saw the sympathy in her blue-grey eyes and was grateful for it. "Thank you."

As he spoke, the doors to the Conference Room slid open, and the Captain walked in, with Nathan Jackson at his side. Josiah's absence was noticeable, especially when they knew where he had been. As always, everyone stood up when Chris entered the room, a gesture of respect the Captain was soon waving away, so they could retake their seats, as he wanted this meeting could get underway.

"How is Inez?" Mary asked, empathising with Inez's pain, considering she was a widow.

"Not good," Chris shook his head. "Josiah's staying with her."

No further explanation was needed beyond that and truth be told Chris was not in mind to provide it. Right now, his ship was in trouble and his friends needed to be recovered before anything else happened.

"Status?"

"The breaching pod is still lodged in the nacelle. They might be able to draw power from it, but how much power is unknown. It might be enough to maintain Borg systems, but not enough to breach our forcefields." Alex answered.

"I saw we get that monkey off our backs first," Vin stated. "We got no idea what it might be doing to the ship while it's still connected to the Maverick."

"Can't we use a shuttle to tractor it or maybe the transporter beam?" Mary suggested, surveying the room for an answer.

"We can't tractor it because it could tear the nacelle off the ship if we try to pull it out and at this point, with our internals sensors in their current condition, we have no idea how much the pod is integrated with the Maverick to attempt a transport." Chris explained.

"What about flooding the entire deck with anaesthesine gas?" Vin suggested instead. "Knock the sons of bitches out and strip them down while they're under."

"It won't work," Nathan shook his head, wishing it were that simple. "Those nanoprobes don't just control their cybernetics, it maintains their life functions. Assimilation takes place on a molecular level, which is why they can land on any planet, whatever the atmospheric conditions."

"That's true," Alex agreed, "I mean they can walk through a vacuum without worrying about decompression."

"We can't use energy weapons on them either," JD added. "I mean all we can manage is a couple of shots before they adapt and we're defenceless."

"Then we do not use energy weapons," Ezra spoke for the first time. "If phasers do not affect them, we require something they cannot adapt to, largely because it's too primitive. The Borg cannot function without their human components, so to stop them, we must do extreme damage to those parts of their bodies."

"What are you suggesting?" Mary asked, finding that solution somewhat extreme.

"Guns," Chris guessed Ezra's meaning before the Security Chief could reply. "You mean guns."

"Are we suggesting we just gun them down?" Nathan exclaimed horrified. "We can restore them if we can incapacitate them but if we shoot them..."

"We end their suffering," Ezra whispered, blinking slowly as the words left his lips. "If nothing else, we end their suffering."

Ezra's words hung in the air like the Sword of Damocles.

"There's gotta be another way!"

This naturally came from Nathan, and the shock was not just on his face but mirrored on JD and Mary's as well. Chris, Vin and Alex, on the other hand, did not react at all. Their expressions appeared grim, and their refusal to dismiss the suggestion outright implied their serious consideration of it.

Ezra said nothing but everyone at the table knew what it took for him to make such a ruthless recommendation.

"Nathan," Chris spoke on behalf of the security chief. "Buck Wilmington and I have known each other for as long as I've been in Starfleet, he's my oldest friend. He was the best man at my wedding, godfather to my son and he kept me from walking away from Starfleet after the accident. I've been through it all with him, and I can tell you right now, if we can't get to them, if there is even the remotest chance he could wind up with the Collective, he'd want that escape."

No one could refute that statement. Living life out as a drone, losing all sense of self while watching helplessly as the Borg annexed God only knew how many civilisations, it wasn't living and they couldn't deny given the alternative, Buck wouldn't choose death as a way out of that nightmare. The same could be said about Julia, whose bubbly personality, like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, would rather die than living her existence out as Borg.

"Look, we're not there yet," Chris swept his gaze across the faces now the possibility settled over them like an ominous cloud. "We have several problems to deal with, the least of which is Species 8472. They know we're here and it’s only a matter of time before they come after us. We need the ship up at full capacity before they can reach us, and we can't do that and fight the Borg at the same time. Suggestions?"

The question did the job of snapping everyone out of their emotional devastation, reminding them there were still other matters to attend beyond the horrific situation Buck and Julia were trapped. The Maverick was more than just two people. She was a ship with over a thousand people counting on them to do their jobs, no matter what their personal feelings were at present.

"Captain," Alex said after a moment, searching for solutions and remembering what Buck would do if he were here. The Captain needed answers and the one that surfaced in her mind, while obvious, was the one she was loathed to suggest. However, under the circumstances, they had little choice in the matter. "I think we ought to consider separating the ship."

Eyes widened at the suggestion.

In a day of increasingly dangerous situations, the suggestion seemed to compound the burden they were already carrying.

"Is that necessary?" Nathan looked at the bridge officers for direction, since to him, it sounded rather extreme. Then again, less than a few hours ago, he and Rain had been arguing about wedding arrangements, now look where they were. Nothing ought to surprise him anymore.

"That's not bad," Vin said first, and it was not merely because Alex was his wife, but because separating the ship opened up a world of possibilities for their present situation. "That's not bad at all."

"I agree," Ezra chimed in. "It does solve some of our more immediate concerns, Captain."

While Chris would typically balk at separating his ship, he could see where Alex was going with this. Their presence in Fluidic space required out of the box thinking and Alex had just presented him with a solution that was not only bold, but it would allow him to protect his crew as well as deal with the Borg threat. Leaning back into his chair, he met Alex's gaze across the table, nodding in approval for her to continue.

"If we separate the ship, we can effectively keep the Borg from getting to the rest of the crew, limiting the number of victims they can turn into drones. Not to mention the sensor and communications arrays are on the saucer section. Engineering can conduct repairs without incident."

"I concur," Ezra met her gaze, preferring to focus on the Borg without worrying about the civilians who could be used to fuel the Borgs' numbers. "In the event Species 8472 do intercept us, we can engage them while at the same time allowing the saucer section the opportunity to depart the area safely."

"That's right," Vin added. "It's not like we can go to warp in this region anyway. The saucer section has full impulse engines, phaser and torpedo banks, as well as deflectors. Not to mention it has its own anti-matter reactor, so it's not defenceless. On the other hand, when we separate the ship, we can switch to the secondary sensor array, which means we'll be in better shape for a fight."

Glad to see his senior staff leaving behind the emotional trauma of losing Buck and Julia for the moment to focus on their situation, Chris felt a surge of pride for this group of people who were not only his staff but his friends. He prayed their number would be whole again. For now, this was the best thing to do. Chris was allowing the Borg to take no one else.

"Alright then," Chris said, sitting up and sweeping his gaze across the faces at the table. "We're separating the ship. Nathan, you, JD and Mary will report to the saucer section. The rest of us will head to the battle bridge and commence the separation."

"Chris!" Mary burst out in protest before she could stop herself, her emotions getting the better of her because she did not like the idea of being sent away at all. Then she saw the sharp stare Chris was aiming in her direction.

Long ago, when they decided they were going to be a couple, Chris had stated there were some lines they could not cross if their relationship was going to work. This was one such instance because the look he was giving her right now, told Mary in no uncertain terms this was not a request, but an order from her Captain.

Shoulders slumping, Mary flinched under his glare and looked away, feeling ashamed and embarrassed by her outburst. "Yes Sir."

Everyone else at the table had the good sense to ignore the tense moment between Captain and the Protocol Officer and Chris was relieved he did not have to remind Mary, in this room and at this table, she was one of his officers, not his lover.

"Captain, I want to stay," JD broke in, wishing to be heard before this decision became set in stone. He didn't want to leave the others, not when they would be actively working to retrieve Buck and Julia. "I can help."

"I know you can," Chris said kindly, mindful of JD's feelings on the matter but not about to let it sway his decision. "But I need you to work with Nathan to build me the bioweapons to deal with Species 8472. If we get into trouble, that might be our only defence against them."

"Captain," Ezra added, "Lieutenant Katovit will be able to assist Doctor Jackson and Lieutenant Dunne with that work, and I would prefer he remained on the saucer section leading the security team there."

"I agree," Chris approved, having similar confidence in Drew Katovit, before turning back to JD. "JD, I need you to take charge of the saucer section and keep my crew safe. Can you do that for me?"

JD wanted to argue, but his loyalty to Chris Larabee would not allow it. Besides the Captain was right. It was important the civilians, who were more than just Casey, Inez, Billy and all the people they saw daily, who made up the community of the Maverick, be protected. As a Starfleet officer, his duty was to them first, not to any one person.

"Yes, Captain," JD nodded, knowing the decision was right but hating that the words felt like ash in his mouth.

"Chris, there's something else," Nathan spoke up while there was time. He had a feeling after they left this room, things would speed up, and the opportunity to discuss the matter would be lost. "I had a quick look at the sample Alex collected from the outside, including her tricorder readings from the Coral."

"What about it?" Chris shifted his attention from JD to the doctor. It was hard to believe before the Borg came along and turned their lousy situation into something worse, there had been a mystery to be solved in Fluidic space.

"Well, it was what we suspected," Nathan explained, "a substance not that different from blood plasma, with protein chains, amino acids, water and electrolytes. It's a primordial soup not too different from the biological environments of many planets in the early stages of developing life. As is the case in all these types of environments, microbes are abundant. So far what I saw didn't look dangerous, and I will need to confirm it with more analysis, but I can tell you right now, just from the quick study I made, they're dying."

"Dying?" Mary gasped and quickly glanced out the window of the ready room to the iridescent world outside. "How?"

"I'm not sure," Nathan shook his head in bewilderment. "Near as I can figure, it's some kind of radiation, not unlike Berthold rays but nowhere as extreme. It's interfering with organic matter on a molecular level, draining the power right out of its atoms."

"Is that what happened to the Coral?" Vin asked, recalling Drew’s observations about the mass outside and its bleached appearance.

"Yes," Nathan nodded. "However, whatever has caused the degradation of atomic bonds isn't here anymore, it just caused enough damage for the decay to be irreversible. There's something about it that feels familiar. I have to consult my medical database, but whatever it is, it's destabilised every living thing in the area."

"Maybe this is why they're blaming us?" JD suggested. "This environment has survived for a long time without any harm, this suddenly showing up after contact with normal space might have something to do with it."

"Could it be a Borg weapon?" Ezra inquired. "The Collective did initially open the rift to Fluidic Space. Seeing how easily Species 8472 disposed of the Borg ships previously, perhaps the Collective is attempting a different approach to invade this region."

"No," Mary shook her head. "The sense I got from my brief contact with them is they were blaming the Federation specifically, for something we did to them."

"And the singularity was opened in our space, not the Delta Quadrant," Alex added.

Chris didn't need to hear any more. "Nathan, we need to know all we can about this. If we can end hostilities between us and Species 8472 by proving to them what is happening in their territory isn't our fault, we can end one problem before it starts."

"I'll get on it," the healer nodded, understanding the importance.

"Alright people," Chris got to his feet. "Let's move like we got a purpose."

*****

Once the decision was made to separate the ship, things moved quickly.

So far, the Borg had yet to emerge from Deck 14, but Chris knew they were on borrowed time. It wouldn't be difficult for the Collective to burst through the barriers erected to hold them at bay, which was why he accepted Alex's suggestion of saucer separation. Evacuation of all non-essential personnel from the stardrive section of the ship continued, with Nathan, JD and Mary remaining on the bridge. Taking Alex, Ezra and Vin's place at their stations were Charlotte Richmond, Drew Katovit and Nora Densham, with JD taking centre seat.

Even though he knew she wasn't happy about it, Chris was adamant Mary remain in the saucer section with Billy. Besides, he was confident JD could use her counsel if things went south with the Borg.

After the shipwide alert was made by Chris through alert panels and combadges, and the acknowledgements from all department heads were received, followed by the swift preparations, it was time for Chris, Vin, Ezra and Alex to head to the battle bridge on Deck Eight. Accessible through the seldom-used emergency lift in the far corner of the room, Chris took a moment to speak to Mary.

Despite the hard stance he did not regret taking with her in the meeting earlier, he still wanted to say goodbye because it was no way to leave things between them if the worst should eventuate.

"After we separate, JD's going to take the ship closer to the Coral, so it can be used as cover while we stay where we are. Not that I think they're capable, but I don't want to risk the Borg getting access to a transporter and attempt to beam over to the saucer. We're going to remain beyond transporter range for the time being."

"Alright," Mary nodded in understanding, noticing the others waiting at the lift for Chris to join them. Even though she wished she was going with him, in retrospect, she realised he was right. They were heading for combat, and Mary would be far more useful staying out of their way. Taking a deep breath, she met his eyes, fighting the urge to touch him like a lover. "Please take care of yourself. We've lost enough today."

Chris was grateful that the earlier tension between them passed but he couldn't linger. There was too much to do.

"Take care of Billy," he said gently. "I'll see you soon."

With that, he broke away, giving her a parting look of affection before he headed towards the lift.

"Computer, transfer command to the battle bridge. Authorisation Larabee, Christopher - Captain."

"Acknowledged," the computer's reassuring voice returned. "Transference complete."

As Chris stepped into the turbo lift, he gave JD one final order. "JD, take care of my ship."

"Aye Sir," JD followed Chris's progress from the command chair, wishing more than anything he was going with them.

As Chris Larabee disappeared behind the doors of the turbo lift, Mary reclaimed her seat next to the command chair now occupied by JD. Lowering herself against the cushion, she noted the vacant position on the other side of JD and felt a surge of grief she was sure the young man knew all too well.

Buck's absence never felt more cutting.

"We'll get him back JD," Mary patted his hand as it lay against the armrest. "Chris won't give up on him."

JD nodded, but it was hard to feel that way right now when the empty First Officer's seat felt like a void as deep and hollow as the singularity.

*****

Less than a minute after departing the main bridge, Chris nestled into his command chair on the battle bridge and shifted uncomfortably. He sat in it so infrequently, it still held the stiffness of new leather. Beside him, the notable absences made him realise how isolated starship commanders who came before him must have felt. The Captain's chair never felt lonelier than at this moment.

As if to remind them of the dire circumstances prompting its use, the battle bridge was bathed in dim lighting and tinged with a reddish hue signalling their current status. Its layout was similar to the Constitution-class starships of old, with the Captain's chair commanding the room, the helm and navigation stations in front of him and the security and operations stations behind him on a raised floor.

"Vin," Chris said to the officer of the Con at his station. "The minute we release the docking clamps, I want you to take us at least 50 thousand miles away from the saucer section, beyond transporter range. Maintain that distance at all times."

"No problem," Vin nodded, already setting the range parameters into his console pad.

"Captain," Ezra spoke up from his security station behind Chris. "All department heads are reporting in, the evacuation to the saucer section is complete."

"Good," Chris faced front again, seeing nothing but the murkiness of Fluidic space and turned to Alex who was occupying the Ops station next to Vin. "Begin the countdown."

"Aye Captain," she nodded and tapped her console, initiating the sequence. "Saucer separation in ten seconds. Nine... Seven... Five... Three... One. Initiating saucer separation."

From a distance, the graceful starship appeared to be stretching like a band of elastic as the bow of the saucer edged outwards. Across the Maverick, the sound of docking clamps disengaging echoed throughout the four million tonnes of starship pulling itself apart. The Maverick's nose moved further ahead of the starboard drive until the saucer section glided into view of the viewscreen.

Seeing it from this perspective filled Chris with a sense of profound loss, that the best part of the Maverick was going with the saucer section, leaving behind the draconian reality of their situation. No one spoke for a few seconds as they saw the saucer section pulling further ahead of them. The Captain wondered if the rest of the senior staff felt the same way, that separating the ship felt like he was taking the easy way out, by playing it safe.

No, he shook his head. He would not take any chances, not after losing Buck and Julia.

"Saucer separation complete," Alex announced, throwing a sidelong glance at Vin, who knew what was expected of him now.

"Moving us 50 thousand kilometres away using thrusters," Vin spoke just before the Maverick started moving, evidenced by the sight of the saucer veering off the screen as the helmsman followed the Captain's order to put some distance between them.

"All systems are nominal Captain," Ezra answered, looking up from his console that was flashing reassuringly in green. "We appear to be suffering no ill effects from our last maneuver."

"Alright," Chris leaned back into his chair, still disliking how it felt as the saucer section disappeared entirely from the view screen and the Maverick pulled away from the Coral, heading out into the expanse of Fluidic space. "What's the status of the Borg?"

"So far, they appear confined to Deck 14. My security team reports they have made no effort to penetrate the rest of the ship by either Jeffries tubes or access tunnels. I suspect the lack of power may have hindered their progress for the time being."

"I wouldn't count on it," Chris said tautly. "The only way they can return to the Collective is to leave Fluidic Space. In here, they are cut off from the rest of the hive, just like we are. My gut tells me, they're trying to retake the ship so they can get back to normal space."

"I think the Captain is right," Alex turned away from her screen. "Captain, no matter what the cost, we cannot allow these Borg to leave the ship and reach that end."

"I know," Chris was way ahead of her. Ever since Buck and Julia were taken, he had thought of nothing else. "We have to get them back before they rejoin the Collective because Julia and Buck can give them all the technical data to the new armour and our transphasic photon torpedoes. If the Borg get that, they can adapt, and we'll be defenceless again."

"Jesus," Vin whispered under his breath. They had barely gotten away from the six cubes as it was and stranded themselves in Fluidic space to do it, to say nothing of the friends now lost to assimilation. The idea of facing Borg without the advantage they had, made him remember the carnage he witnessed during the Battle of Sector 001 when they encountered one cube.

Chris stood up from his chair, giving up entirely any effort to be comfortable in it. Facing Ezra, he spoke with ice in his voice. "Now let's get those Borg sons of bitches off our ship and our friends back."

He was One of Four, Primary Adjunctant of Trimatrix 1.

With adaptation and assessment of its new acquisition, the Borg quickly exploited the tools at their disposal to its maximum efficiency. For the assimilation of the USS Maverick, the Borg determined very quickly, the knowledge contained in the human formerly known as Buck Wilmington would be of most use to them, even more so than that of the former Chief Engineer. Along with the technical data contained in his mind, Buck Wilmington bore an understanding of how Captain Chris Larabee operated, and in acquiring that information, the Borg knew how to proceed next.

Previous encounters with Federation starship Captains had taught the Borg one thing - proceed with caution.

Despite their superior technology and numbers, the Borg often found itself on the losing end of engagements with the captains of starships. The process in which a Captain was created included a set of variables the Collective was incapable of predicting. While the Borgs’ primary objective was to bring order out of chaos, starship captains used chaos to create order. They could never be counted on to do what was logical or expedient and often railed against all reasonable courses of action, gambling with the most improbable variables to reach their desired outcome.

If it were not irrelevant, the Collective would have found this quite maddening.

One of Four, accessing the memories of Buck Wilmington, understood this and adapted accordingly. When the power was drained to the deck they established as their new hub, it was One utilizing the knowledge of his former self, that directed the drones to the two vehicles berthed in the shuttle bay. Each containing an anti-matter drive, they were more than sufficient to supply the drones of Trimatrix 1 with all the energy they needed. Making no effort to infiltrate the rest of the ship at this point, the drones instead took the opportunity to become fully charged and to analyze their recent encounter with ship’s security.

The Borg were unnable to prevent the Maverick from separating since Buck Wilmington’s access to the ship was severed thanks to the foresight of its Captain. Still, it had access to shuttlecrafts and the breaching pod so locating new drones for assimilation would not prove difficult. Their primary objective, now their upgrade was complete, was the assimilation of all crew still on the starboard drive. After this task was finished, the Collective would seek out the occupants of the saucer section and assimilate them accordingly. Only then could the Collective could begin construction of the quantum singularity generator to return to normal space.

Then Trimatrix 1 could then turn its attention to returning to the Collective at all costs.

Before optimum conditions for their return to the Alpha Quadrant could be achieved, Trimatrix 1 needed to penetrate the rest of the ship. Departure through the main access point on Deck 14 would cause too much attrition, something they could ill afford at this point. Thus the Borg adapted and found a new route. The individuals designated ‘security’ were slavishly guarding all exit points from Deck 14.

All except one.

*****

“Status?”

Chris Larabee asked once the saucer section of the Maverick was no longer in the battle bridge’s view screen. As per his orders, JD was taking the saucer section towards the Coral to use its numerous branches for cover, allowing engineering to conduct the repairs needed to its damaged systems. Even though Chris accepted the suggestion when Alex made it, he still could not help but feel conflicted seeing the other half of the Maverick disappear from view. It felt too much like defeat to submit to such drastic action.

Still, it was the wisest course to take, even if it left the taste of sour whiskey in his mouth.

“All systems are in the green Captain,” Alex announced from her station where she doubled as First Officer in Buck’s absence. “We’ve got full sensors and communications now we’re able to use the secondary arrays.”

The secondary arrays, which was shielded during their engagement with the Borg, only ever saw exposure when the ship was separated. It spent most of its life as a minimally powered backup system in hibernation, sealed off when the saucer section was locked in its customary position.

“That’s something,” Chris shrugged, not able to take any comfort in this news since his ship was far from whole and Borg invaders were having free reign of Deck 14, even if they seemed momentarily contained. “Alright, can we detect how many Borg life signs they are?”

“I am conducting a sweep of Deck 14 even as we speak,” Ezra answered automatically.

The Chief of Security was a little more himself now he was back at his station, working actively to deal with the Borg threat and retrieving their lost comrades. As it was, the memory of his last encounter with Julia was repeatedly playing in his mind, reminding him how much time he had squandered when it came to their relationship. If he failed to get her back, Ezra knew he would be spending the rest of his life regretting it.

Stop, he told himself forcibly. Just stop.

Blinking once to dispel those lingering regrets, Ezra pushed aside thoughts of Julia for now because he knew just how crippling it could be. Instead, he fixated on the readings flashing on the tactical station in front of him, its soft greenish glow bouncing off his face as the data appeared on the display.

“I am registering at least....” his voice trailed into the silence of horror as the readings made sense to him with shocking clarity.

“What?” Chris stood up immediately upon hearing the sudden drift in Ezra’s speech. Turning his head around to look at his Chief of security, Chris saw Ezra’s composure completely shaken.

THUNK!

All eyes lifted immediately to the ceiling with that one loud thud and through the plexiglass window of the battle bridge, they could see something was moving.

“Computer, erect emergency force fields....”

It was all Chris managed to say before the glass shattered, raining large pieces of deadly fragments down on their heads. Chris threw himself out of his command chair while both Alex and Vin dove for cover beneath their stations. However, the glass breaking was the least of their problems because as Vin had pointed out earlier, it was not space surrounding them, but matter.

A thick column of plasma poured into the battle bridge, quickly flooding the floor with the noisome fluid. By the time Chris scrambled to his feet, the fluid level had risen so steeply, it was swirling around his knees. In a matter of minutes, the bridge would be completely immersed.

“Computer, erect emergency force fields to seal the breach!” Chris shouted as he saw Vin scrambling out from beneath his station and hurrying over to Alex. Ezra was heading to the weapons locker, attempting to access the phasers stored there. While Ezra was armed, Chris knew the Chief would not be able to hold off the Borg on his own.

“Unable to comply. Force field emitters on the secondary bridge have been damaged,” the computer answered with the voice of betrayal.

“Fuck!” He swore out loud, wondering if things could get any worse.

Of course, they should have considered the possibility the Borg might attempt to enter the ship this way. In Fluidic Space, there was no risk of explosive decompression if one penetrated the vessel from the outer hull. In fact, the sudden deluge of plasma into the ship’s interior would create the perfect level of confusion for the Borg to slip through while the crew was scrambling to seal off the Maverick from further flooding. He wasn’t even above crediting the Borg with damaging the emitters to ensure they could not erect emergency force fields to minimize the damage. Unfortunately, it was too late for recriminations at his lack of insight.

Not when the barbarians were not only at the gates but storming it.

The Borg wasted no time in pressing their advantage as Chris spied at least four faces peering down at them through the translucent deluge. He had no doubt there were more to follow. Hurrying to the steps leading to the raised section of the bridge, he was met by Ezra, who thrust a phaser in his direction. Chris had no more grasped the weapon in his hand before the security chief was leaning over the rail, firing the phaser and striking the first Borg to reach the floor in the chest. The drone jerked around cartoonishly as sparks flared across its cybernetic chest before collapsing, creating a turgid splash as he landed.

Another Borg soon followed, and by now the fluid was already past their waist and rising steadily. If the window had been any larger, they would already be entirely submerged, and Chris knew they had less than a minute to evacuate the area.

“Vin, catch!” Ezra called out to Vin and Alex who were making their way across the floor towards them. The helmsman caught the weapon with one hand just as another drone landed behind him.

Meanwhile, Chris was wasting no time now he was armed. Taking aim, he fired at a drone about to lower itself into the flooded bridge. The bolt of energy struck the Borg on the side, forcing it to lose its grip and fall to the floor. Landing in a sickly splash, spidery webs of energy coursed through the drone’s body for a few seconds, before it disappeared under the rising pool of plasma.

“Vin, look out!” Ezra warned as another drone approached the helmsman.

Vin fired on reflex and as was customary for the best marksman on the Maverick, struck his target dead centre. Except instead of collapsing as the other two drones had done, this one staggered for a moment before straightening up, Phoenix-like, to resume closing in on the Vulcan.

“Shit!” Vin swore. “They’ve adapted!”

He tried firing again, but when the phaser blasts bounced harmlessly off the drone’s shields, dispersing no sooner after making contact, Vin decided it was time for a different approach. Closing the distance to the Borg with far more speed than the drone was capable of moving, Vin circled it. The Borg unable to process the change in tactic, was unprepared for a physical attack. Grabbing the cyborg by the neck and skull, Vin twisted hard using all the strength his Vulcan physiology possessed, snapping the drone’s neck. Sparks spat from ruptured wiring and disconnected tubes before the cyborg went limp in Vin’s grip.

“Vin!” Alex cried out as another Borg closed in on the helm officer, it’s hand extended outwards in readiness to inject twin injection nodes into Vin’s back. Acting on reflex, Alex grabbed a piece of broken pexiglass lying across the Captain’s chair and closed the distance. Her arrival was punctuated by the jagged edge she drove into the drone’s body. The Borg spasmed in pain, uttering no cry as its dark blood spilled over her hands, blood that was not human. Only when the drone tumbled to the floor, did she realize this Borg was from a species she did not recognize and felt a surge of relief it wasn’t one of the Maverick’s crew.

“Vin! Alex! MOVE!” Chris hollered, waving them towards the turbo lifts as Ezra continued to fire, even though the shots were doing no good. The deluge had risen high enough to reach their armpits, shorting out the helm and navigation station. now completely submerged, only the top of the command chair could be seen now.

Chris’s order had both the officers moving through the slick fluid, just as more and more Borg descended into the bridge from the newly created accessway. A sudden thought struck Chris at that moment, and it was one he could not ignore and needed action immediately. As he allowed himself to be steered by Ezra towards the turbo lift, Chris tapped his combadge and hoped his warning had not come too late to save the rest of his ship.

“RED ALERT! All hands, this is the Captain. Evacuate all sections adjacent to the outer hull. Repeat, evacuate all sections facing the outer hull, the Borg are attempting to breach the ship through the observation windows. Security, report to all sections along the outer hull and assist with the evacuation!”

As Chris gave that order, Ezra had a few of his own to deliver. “Security teams to proceed to the outer hull as per the Captain’s order. The Borg are attempting to board the ship by breaking through the windows. Assist in the evacuation of these areas immediately. If they breach the windows, they will be able to flood the decks. Repeat, all security teams proceed to the sectors adjacent to the outer hull immediately!”

As Chris watched the fluid swirling around his ankles, he knew he’d lost his bridge again but had to stave off his fury to minimize further risk to the starboard drive. It might be too late to seal off the bridge, but he could prevent this same deluge from overtaking the rest of the Maverick. “Computer, erect emergency forcefields on all windows on the outer hull! Repeat, erect emergency forcefields now!”

More Borg landed on the floor of the battle bridge, wading past the Captain’s chair to intercept them before they could escape. As more and more fluid drained into the room, Chris knew if they did not get out now, they would be assimilated long before they drowned in this deluge. Firing once again at the Borg in a vain effort to hold them back, he cursed at the lack of success as the drones kept moving, their shields ensuring the phaser fire was rendered harmless.

“Captain, we must go!” Ezra insisted as he activated the doors to the turbo lift, allowing the fluid entry into that confined space as well. Vin and Alex were now climbing up the steps, fluid dripping from their uniforms as they emerged from the almost entirely submerged bridge floor. Only the top of the Captain’s chair was visible now, other than the Borg closing in on them. Despite their lumbering movements, the Borg were moving quickly, attempting to reach the potential new drones before they could escape.

Chris wanted to protest when Ezra shoved him into the turbo lift. When it came to his life and protecting the people he cared about, Ezra who was often the model of propriety, didn’t give a flying fuck about protocol. The security chief was continuing to fire at the Borg, even though it did absolutely no good, determined to provide Alex and Vin with some cover as they ran towards the turbo lift. Thanks to the slick covering them, they were struggling to keep from slipping as they ran but still moved fast enough to stay ahead of the Borg.

“COME ON!”

Vin looked over his shoulder to see the Borg climbing up the steps, having no difficulty navigating the slippery surface as he heard Chris shouting at them. Alex was ahead of him, and he saw her reaching for the railing when she almost slipped. The deluge was filling up the rest of the bridge now, with the thick column showing no signs of slowing as the full tide of Fluidic space poured through the open gap in the roof.

Behind him, the Borg were closing, and Vin winced when he recognized one of them through the grey mottled skin and bald skull. It was Ensign Ana Furaha from Stellar Cartography. He remembered thinking her flawless skin reminded him of chocolate and how she had a smile almost as sweet. As he stepped into the turbo lift, seeing her cold, lifeless eyes fixed on him, it reminded Vin of Julia Pemberton, trapped in a similar shell. Was it just this morning, they had shared a Baked Alaska while plotting how they were going to rebuild his motorcycle? If the pain of her loss could break his heart just thinking of it, what in God’s name was Ezra feeling?

The Borg appeared at the doorway and though Ana, no not Ana, Vin told himself, but the drone she had become, attempted to inject them through the narrowing gap, they were sealed inside before the tubes could reach them.

“Everyone alright?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Vin answered Chris after a moment, catching his breath. The Captain leaned against the wall, with eyes closed and Vin didn’t have to look into his eyes to know what Chris Larabee was thinking. In a day of defeats, it looked like the loss of the battle bridge was taking its toll on him.

“Well,” Alex let out a sigh, “you gotta give the Collective points for originality. I never even considered they might come at us that way.”

“We better start remembering Fluidic space and normal space are two different things,” Chris said tautly, the passing cloud vanishing from his eyes, much to Vin’s relief. Although what was left behind was bald anger.

“What are your orders, Captain?” Ezra asked quietly because like Vin, he too recognized Ensign Furaha and couldn’t help but wonder if this was what had become of Julia.

“We regroup at Engineering. Vin, you should be able to access helm control from there. Our objective has not changed. We’re getting those bastards off our ship. The enemy just pulled down our shorts and kicked our asses without us noticing, that’s the last time they’re getting away with it.”

“A lovely analogy, Captain, but I concur,” Ezra made a face tapping his combadge. “Kate report. What’s your status?’”

A burst of static filled the lift before Lt. Kate Stokes replied. In the background, they could hear the sound of phaser fire telling them all the security officer was dealing with a Borg incursion. It made Ezra doubly determined to rejoin his team so he could direct their efforts against the enemy first hand.

“We managed to keep most of them out when the Captain gave the order to erect the emergency force fields.”

“Most of them?” Alex looked at Chris, not liking the sound of that one damn bit. However, before she could say more, Kate added further.

“They’ve managed to enter the ship via the damage in the starboard nacelle. The emitters were destroyed during the collision so we can’t erect force fields. We’ve managed to pin them down using the internal forcefields before they can reach the rest of the ship, but they’re adapting faster and faster Chief! Lt. Razel is reporting that another contingent is attempting to enter through the Anti-Matter generator!”

Chris’s eyes widened at that revelation. If any damage were sustained by the anti-matter generator, at the very least, the Maverick would lose its ability to generate power. At the worst, they would have containment breach, and the subsequent explosion would tear a hole through subspace. The Maverick would return to the Alpha Quadrant alright, but it would do it as particles of atomic dust.

Alex had an even worse assessment of the situation. “Captain, if they can adapt so quickly to our phasers, it’s not going to be long before they figure out how to breach our forcefields.”

Chris Larabee closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath to steady himself.

The litany of abuses his ship was suffering was stoking his anger into white-hot rage. As always when he reached such levels of volcanic fury, the civilization of the Starfleet Captain fell away from his conscience like locks turning into molten lava. Now more than ever, he felt the spirit of the Man in Black, the one who could act with ruthless calculation to win the day. To save his ship from the Borg, he embraced the persona without hesitation, and if God damned him for it, so be it.

The Borg were not taking his ship.

Vin Tanner saw the change falling over his friend’s face and understood whatever the Captain had in mind, it was best to step back and let him get on with it.

“Transporter Chief Rain,” Chris tapped his combadge and spoke with a voice so cold it felt like points of ice against the skin. “Where are you?”

“I”m helping out in Engineering Captain,” Rain answered automatically. As it had been with Kate earlier, she spoke over the background noise of voices barking at each other in response to their current crisis.

“Meet me in Transporter Room 1 immediately.”

“Aye Captain,” she answered without question.

“What you got in mind, pard?” Vin braved a question. This was the reason why Buck Wilmington was the First Officer of the Maverick because aside from Vin, the big man was the only one who could stand up to Chris Larabee in this state.

“Ezra, you get down to the anti-matter generator,” Chris stared at him. “Make sure they do not blow up my ship. Alex, Vin, you’re coming with me. We’re going to deal with these Borg the way we would do if we were in normal space.”

Alex nodded, suspecting what might be involved and dreading it.

Even though she was several hundred years old, Transporter Chief Rain Nal still marvelled at how quickly a day that started out rather well, could become utter rubbish in a matter of hours.

This morning she had become an engaged person, and the most troubling thing on her mind was the realization her husband to be was deluded enough to think their wedding would be taking place in a holodeck saloon. It was the universal constant no matter what species one was from or how alien the culture, men had no say when it came to planning a wedding.

As it was, in between avoiding assimilation by the Borg, aiding Engineering repair the multitude of problems arising from the collision with the sphere, Rain's previous hosts, Mysa, Nura and Lydia were on the case. By the time the Maverick slipped into Fluidic space, they'd already mapped out the most important aspects of the ceremony. The seating arrangements, the music to be played during the ceremony, (My Heart will Go On, thank you very much), and what colour flowers would go best with the dress she would be wearing for the occasion.

Considering the ship was presently on Red Alert, with enemy Borg roaming the outer hull like flies on a carcass and sections of Maverick was filling up with goo, Rain was satisfied her wedding planning were on schedule. Therefore when the Captain summoned her to Transport Room 1, she was confident that no matter what took place, at least her future nuptials would not be disrupted.

As the doors to the Transporter Room slid open and the Captain strode in purposefully, with Vin Tanner and Alex Styles flanking him, she wondered what he intended. Like the rest of the ship, she was aware of Buck Wilmington and Julia Pemberton's assimilation, and while Rain felt the sufficient amount of horror at that news, she also had confidence this was a temporary state of affairs because Captain Larabee would simply not stand for it.

When the trio reached her, Rain found her eyes widening at the sight of Vin and Alex in their current condition.

"Oh my God," Rain exclaimed with a wrinkled nose. "You've been slimed."

"Thank you," Alex returned sarcastically, her revulsion at Rain's description showing. "I wanted to be reminded I'm covered in snot."

"Yeah," Vin rolled his eyes. "I knew I married you for your charm."

Chris however, was in no mood for any kind of levity, not with the black storm cloud he was presently riding into his next action.

"This is not the time, Officers," he shot them a look with an edge to his voice they knew not to argue with. "Rain, can you get a lock on all the Borg?"

"On the ship?" Rain stared at him, the question took her by surprise.

"Yes on the ship," Chris said impatiently, aware Vin and Alex were trying to figure out what was on his mind. Well Alex anyway, Vin always seemed to know what he intended, even if Vin didn't have specific details. "Can you establish a transporter lock on them?"

"Yes, yes," Rain nodded, requiring only a split second thought to give the Captain an answer. "Their cybernetics has a very distinct energy signature, I can get a signal."

"Good," Chris said, not looking at his acting First Officer or his helmsman. "Because I want you to transport them all off the ship."

"Off the ship?" Alex interjected immediately, "and send them where?"

For a moment, Alex thought Chris intended to send them into the emptiness of Fluidic Space. Indeed, the threat to the Maverick would be over, but some of those Borg were their crew. Buck, Julia, Maria and God only knew how many others. They had yet to make a tally of how many were lost to assimilation, but Alex knew it was almost everyone on Deck 14. While she appreciated Chris's scorched earth policy, if Buck Wilmington were here, he would never stand for it.

Of course, she should have known better. Chris Larabee would never consciously endanger his crew.

"Nowhere. We're going to hold them in the transporter pattern buffer."

"Is that possible?" Vin stared at Rain but could not help the admiration from seeping into his eyes at Chris Larabee's solution to their Borg problem.

Once Rain overcame her shock and her feelings of pride at the Captain's ingenuity, she nodded wildly in answer. "It's possible, but we have to do it fast. The instant I begin transport, they're going to adapt their shields to disrupt the transport beam"

"But that would take plenty of them off the board," Vin declared, on Chris's page now. "That might be enough for us to retake Deck 14. "

"Exactly," Chris stated, giving Vin a faint smile that even when he was at his most unpredictable, Vin always knew what was going on in his head.

"Captain, how long can we hold them in the Transporter buffers? If the ship's computer suffers any kind of significant damage, it will purge the buffer to make room for memory. We could lose all of them." Alex pointed out. As elegant as the solution the Captain had devised was, she had to point out the difficulties and the potential danger.

"We hold them long enough to start bringing them out," Chris replied, having thought this through on route to Transporter Room 1. "One at a time."

"One at a time?" Vin spoke before he began to understand himself what Chris was planning. "So we can strip off the cybernetics?"

"Yeah," Chris nodded. "We bring them out one at a time and hit them with a focused burst of EMP before they have a chance to raise their shields. The Collective may be adaptable, but they can't fight physics. If we disrupt their cybernetic parts, we can separate the machinery from the individual."

Alex considered the idea and then nodded, "it could work. If we can render the nanoprobes in their bodies inert long enough, Nathan should be able to flush out the implants from their system entirely. We could restore everyone back to their previous selves."

"Okay," Vin looked at Chris. "How do we get started?"

"Alex, can you modify Vin's phase rifle to deliver the EMP burst?"

"Yes," Alex nodded, "but I recommend we do it in one of the cargo bays and reinforce the area with a dampening field to keep the EMP burst localized to just the drone. We could inadvertently short out our own systems attempting this, especially if we intend to do it repeatedly."

"Vin," Chris turned to him. "I want you to deliver the burst. You're the fastest with a phase rifle. The second their pattern is established, you need to fire. We can't give those bastards any time to realize what we're doing and block the shot."

"I'll get it done," Vin said confidently as he handed Alex the phase rifle Ezra insisted he take because the Security Chief would allow the Captain to go nowhere without the proper protection.

"The instant we put the drone down, he or she is to be transported to Sick Bay and held in a stasis field until we can extract the nanoprobes."

"Aye Sir," Rain nodded, once again feeling grateful her faith in Chris Larabee was justified.

"Captain," Alex looked up as she slid the housing off Vin's rifle to make the required adjustment. The Captain's proposal had surfaced another advantage in their favour. "Voyager constructed the bioweapons using modified Borg nanoprobes. I suggest when we purge them from the drones, we store them so they can be reprogrammed for the warheads."

It was a good plan. Synthesizing nanoprobes to arm the warheads would take time they did not have. So far they were lucky to avoid a visit from Species 8742, but if Mary was correct, and the aliens did blame the Federation for its current troubles, then they would not be far away. Worse still, there was no guarantee the warheads would work as well as they did when used by Voyager.

After reviewing the logs from Voyager further upon entering Fluidic Space, Chris discovered it was Voyager who provided Species 8472 with the technical data regarding nanoprobe warheads. While he lauded the decision made by Kathy to avoid a war, surrendering their only defence against Species 8472 would not have been his first choice. In any case, Chris guessed it was access to this data that allowed the enemy to diffuse the Borg weapons since the Collective would not have been privy to this fact.

"Do it. Until we get the Borg under control, I won't authorize reintegrating the saucer section, and we'll need to be in one piece when we fight Species 8472."

"Is there any chance we can talk them out of a fight?" Alex inquired. "I mean if Admiral Janeway managed to avoid a war, perhaps we might be able to convince them we're not responsible for whatever is happening to their territory."

"We can talk," Vin replied, "but we got nothing to say they want to hear. If there's a mass extinction event going on they think we caused, they won't listen unless we can give them proof we're not responsible."

"Vin's right," Chris gave the younger man a nod of approval for getting to the heart of their problem so succinctly. "At the moment, we have no information about what's causing the deterioration of their space, and without that data, we have no cards to play. If we want to avoid a war, we've got to figure out what's happening here."

"Alright," Rain looked up at the three officers, having filtered out their conversation while she had been configuring her transporter station to carry out the Captain's audacious plan. "I've got a signal lock on at least thirty Borg drones scattered across the Maverick."

"Thirty," Chris winced at the number. “How many can you get before they adapt to disrupt the transport?"

"More than half," Rain "after that. I can't say. You've seen how quickly they adapt."

"No argument there," Chris replied. "As soon as you get them, I want you to head down to Cargo Bay 2. It has its own transport pad, so you should be able to rematerialize their patterns down there."

"In that case," Rain said with her usual flippancy. “Let’s get the bugs off our windshield."

*****

One of Four was busy at work.

While the rest of the Collective was engaged with the crew of the Maverick, One of Four was inside the Federation runabout called Corrizo. The interior of the craft, a model of waste, with its cushioned seats, food replicators and sleeping quarters, was being converted into living space suitable for Borg. Tearing out all the redundant systems, with the aid of Two of Four, formerly the Chief Engineer of the Maverick, they installed Borg alcoves for regeneration.

Confidence was an emotion One of Four could no longer feel, but his calculations estimated the Maverick would ultimately fall. When it did, its crew would become Borg. However, in accessing the knowledge of Buck Wilmington, One could not discount the small probability Chris Larabee might stave off their attempts at assimilation. The phrase 'Larabee hat trick' kept surfacing in One's programming, words which made no sense to the Collective, but nevertheless, cautioned them enough to make contingency plans.

Although One of Four could not hear the voice of the entire Collective, he was attuned to the others sharing Fluidic Space with him. All of them were working to a single purpose, united by the desire for perfection, where all other races were inferior, chaff to be used for the making of something greater. The defeat of the cubes made a return to the Alpha Quadrant imperative. The technological information possessed by his former self and the Chief Engineer revealed the threat to the Collective.

No matter what, One and she who was now called Two of Four, had to return to the Alpha Quadrant. They had to deliver the details of this technology to the Collective.

One was continuing the work on the Runabout when suddenly he stood bolt straight from the console against which he hovered over. Voices were vanishing from his head. Not just one, or two but many. Those in the craft with him reacted with similar surprise and they stiffened with uncertainty at those silenced voices, trying to determine why the loud chatter they were used to hearing in their ears, now felt diminished.

One turned to look at Two and wordlessly, they communicated.

Six of us are offline.

Two nodded in response.

Six more have followed.

One could feel their disappearance.

Their life signs have not been terminated. They have simply vanished.

Two guessed why immediately.

They are being transported.

One knew what had to be done, and he transmitted the thought to the rest of the hive.

Adapting shields to emit transporter disrupti...

Six more were gone. One of Four could feel their voices vanish into nothingness and suddenly the loud chatter was reduced to the hushed whispers of those afraid of speaking out loud for fear of notice.

Initializing disruption emitters.

The whole process took less than a minute to activate, but even as the Borg adapted their shields to avoid being forcibly removed, another three voices had vanished.

Two spoke up again.

We have calculated the probabilities of success based on current data. We lack the numbers to take the ship.

One was begrudgingly forced to agree.

All remaining drones are to retreat to this deck immediately.

*****

"Captain," Ezra Standish's voice reached Chris shortly after the Captain arrived in the starboard section's Sick Bay facilities with Alex. "The Borg are retreating. Repeat, the Borg are retreating!"

Exchanging a quick glance with Alex who was making preparations to enact the rest of Chris's plan at the console attached to one of the stasis beds, the news though good was by no means the end to their present predicament. "Ezra, how many Borg life signs are you detecting now?"

Chris had no idea how fast Rain could operate the transporter controls to do what he asked of her, but the woman wasn't his Transporter Chief for nothing. Having seen her transport a person in a freefall off a mountainside once, it was a testament to her skill she managed the feat using nothing but manual control. He had no doubt she would do everything in her power to neutralize the Borg threat by trapping them in the pattern buffer.

"Ten," Ezra spoke a moment later, his voice revealing his astonishment at how this miracle had come about, especially after the Borg proved so resistant to phaser fire. "Captain, I am reading only ten signals, and they are retreating to Deck 14. While I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, what pray tell happened to the others?"

"Let's just say I got creative," Chris replied, deciding he would explain it to Ezra later because they still had work to do. "They're probably falling back because they don't have the numbers to take the ship."

"I concur with that assessment," Ezra agreed. "What are your orders, Captain?"

Even if he did not say it, Chris had no doubt Ezra wished to chase the Borg back to Deck 14 and the Shuttle Bay to retrieve Julia and Buck, now they had a slight advantage. Chris shared the sentiment. Until Buck and Julia were free of the Borg implants violating their minds and bodies, nothing was won. "My orders are to get down to Deck 14 and get Julia and Buck back."

"It would be my pleasure, Captain," Ezra returned smoothly, but even Chris could hear the relief in his voice.

"It's ready Captain," Alex interrupted Chris's thoughts when she stepped away from the controls for the stasis bed, now ready for its first occupant.

"Alright," Chris decided it was time to see if this gamble of his worked. Sweeping his gaze across the secondary Sick Bay station, he missed the spaciousness of the version on the saucer section and wished Nathan Jackson was here. Chris's plan was formed in a moment of rage and desperation, and they had to make do with what they had. "I swore I'd never want to be in a position to use one of these."

"Well," Alex allowed herself a little moment of levity. "You can explain it to Nathan."

"Thanks," Chris gave her a look. "I try not to piss off the person who can give me pain meds when I’m hurt, and for doing this, I better not get hurt any time soon. Nathan is going to lose his fucking mind when he finds out."

Biting the bullet, Chris let out a deep breath and spoke. "Computer, activate Emergency Medical Holographic Program."

As soon as he finished the sentence, appearing in the middle of the floor, was a man of average height, balding head and dark eyes. His expression was sour and did not inspire Chris's confidence in believing it was capable of providing a proper bedside manner. The hologram, dressed in Starfleet blue, surveyed the room before fixing those dark eyes on him.

"Please describe the nature of the medical emergency."

"We're about to have a Borg drone transported here with its implants deactivated. We need you to remove all of them. Can you do that?"

"I see," the Doctor answered. "And how soon until replacements arrive?"

"No more than a day. Can you do it? We're on the clock."

The Doctor stared at Chris as if he were talking to a child. "Then, you better hurry."

*****

 In Cargo Bay 2, Vin Tanner was waiting patiently for the first of the Borg to appear on the transporter pad.

Twenty Borg were presently trapped in the limbo of the pattern buffers, doomed to exist as bits of energy and data until they were rematerialized. Rain was standing by at Cargo Bay 2's transporter station, waiting for the Captain to give her the order to proceed. Vin watched her hands move across the display like an artist playing a tune. He had to admit, he doubted anyone else could have removed as many of the Borg in her place.

"You have a go," Chris Larabee's voice chirped through their combadges.

"Okay," Rain replied, "let's put Humpty Dumpty together again."

Vin's finger tightened over the trigger of the phaser as the familiar hum of the transporter was heard, and the golden mist of energy appeared before them, quickly solidifying into a shape. The beauty of the transporter beam was soon replaced by the ugly, cybernetic form of a Borg drone. The face twisted into a parody of life thanks to machinery and implants was no one Vin recognized and for this, he was grateful.

The Borg's red eye glowed to life once the transport was complete, but it had no time to register anything in its environment before Vin pulled the trigger. The bolt of silvery energy fired struck the drone squarely in the chest, and it staggered on the platform as sparks began to appear across the exoskeleton concealing its original flesh. The Borg opened its mouth to utter a cry of pain and Vin could only watch as the EMP burst short-circuited its cybernetic components.

The short circuit caused an energy spike on the Borg's neural implants, and it spasmed violently before falling flat on its back, the red glow of its ocular implant blinking out of existence for good.

Rain hurried over to the Borg as it lay on the transporter pad, unconscious, with its cybernetic attachments smoking from the overload. Running a tricorder over the drone, she looked up at Vin. "It's done. We've severed its connection to the Collective."

"That's a start," Vin said with relief before tapping his combadge. "Chris, it worked. You got your first patient."

Hopefully, it wouldn't take long before they could do the same to Buck and Julia.

Even though it was only a few hours ago since Ezra Standish was last here, when the doors of the turbo lift slid open, what he and his security team found made him think it was years that passed, not hours. Gone was the sleek aesthetic of Federation ship design. Instead of vibrant, soothing colours and well-lit corridors, the deck now bore a terrifying resemblance to the alien nest the crew of the Maverick discovered on Fiorina ‘Fury' 361.

No longer bathed in the glow of red alert, the light was now a ghoulish shade of green. An obscuring fog lingered over the floor now running back and forth with cables and exposed panelling. With wires dangling from the ceiling like overgrown creepers and conduits cut open haphazardly, it was clear the Borg were transforming the deck into something that suited their purposes. Even the temperature felt insufferably hot, and the humidity dampened the walls with moisture, prompting Ezra to tug instinctively at his collar in discomfort.

"Remember, keep your distance," Ezra warned his security team, comprising of Kate Stokes, Lt. Razul, a Saurian complete with tail and retractable claws, and Pico Chavez. Moving through the darkened hallway, Ezra felt as if they were travelling through the gullet of some sleeping beast, praying it would not wake up and swallow them whole. "Do not get close enough for them to use their injection nodules because you know what occurs next."

No one needed further elaboration. Learning the fate of the Maverick's First Officer was lesson enough to drive the point home.

Ezra took point, but instead of leading the way with a phaser rifle, he was armed with a semi-automatic Browning shotgun. In fact, the arsenal of every member of his team saw their day before the mid 21st century and the advent of energy-based phasers.

Kate was carrying a pistol crossbow, from all accounts a family heirloom, with a fifty-pound draw weight. Lt Razul, on the other hand, was Saurian. Being a reptilian with a mouth full of serrated teeth and a tail which he sometimes used to subdue unruly visitors to the Maverick, he needed no weapons for hand to hand combat. Meanwhile, Chavez had opted for a Klingon bat'leth, on loan from Alex Styles.

"When we engage," Ezra continued to speak because the silence was making everyone nervous, "target their cybernetics first. If we can disrupt their operation, we may be able to give Lt. Rain the opportunity to transport and then hold indefinitely in the pattern buffer. If you must aim for the flesh, aim for the body. The injury must be crippling, not fatal."

"Right Chief," Kate nodded, not liking the idea of having to kill anyone who a day ago, might have been one of their crewmates.

"Gotta give the Captain credit," Chavez commented as he aimed his torch at a particularly dark corner and was relieved to find nothing lurking there. Once the Captain's plan was underway, the remaining Borg on the ship had adapted quickly, preventing further transports by emitting a dampening field impervious to a signal lock. "I would never have thought to use the transporters that way."

"Never underestimate the ingenuity of Chris Larabee when he is angered enough."

Ezra could share the Captain's outrage in this situation. Losing the battle bridge was adding salt to the raw wound left behind by the loss of Buck and Julia, to say nothing of being forced to separate the ship. As it was, Ezra was struggling to keep his own emotions in check, because he needed full command of his faculties if he ever hoped to get Julia back. The urge to throw caution to the winds by succumbing to his baser instincts was overwhelming. He wanted to race into Shuttle Bay 2 and retrieve his Julia before anything else happened to her, but Ezra knew he would never reach her if he acted rashly.

"I cannot blame him," Razul spoke, his voice always sounding like a hoarse whisper even with the aid of the universal translator. "If it were my pouch brother that is taken, I would let nothing stop me from getting him back."

"How about you both button up and let's get this done," Kate grumbled, a hint of exasperation because she knew just how much restraint the Chief was using to keep his emotions under control, and such comments even made innocently, was doing him no good. There was no way to tell who was being held in the pattern buffers when the transports were conducted, so it was entirely possible Julia might still be among the drones yet to be rescued.

Kate knew this, and she was sure the Chief did too.

At present, there did not appear to be any Borg activity in the corridor, but before the dampening field blocked out Maverick's sensors, they knew more than ten had escaped the forced transport and were last seen converging on the Shuttle Deck. While the Captain had taken steps to sever any power to Deck 14, the drone might utilize the anti-matter drives in the docked vehicles to furnish their power needs. However, without new drones to assimilate, it was an advantage they could not exploit.

Reaching the doors leading to Shuttle Deck 2 without incident, Ezra looked over his shoulder to issue his last order before they stepped into the heart of Borg infestation on the Maverick.

"We will not engage them until it is absolutely necessary. For now, we will enter and see what it is they are up to. Drones will not attack unless we attempt to interfere with whatever operation they are conducting."

"We got it, Chief" Kate nodded on behalf of the others.

Ezra regarded Kate a moment, grateful for the consideration she was giving him. Kate was one of the newer additions to his security team, having faced a personal crisis in the past that stalled her career somewhat. She'd come from a troubled marriage that spilled into her work, resulting in an official reprimand making her prospects for promotion difficult. Ezra had given her a chance to prove herself, and since her arrival on the Maverick, she displayed nothing but exemplary conduct.

Right now, he was touched by her efforts to lessen his worries and though there could be no salve until Julia was returned to him, Ezra still appreciated the effort.

Facing front once more, he reached for the panel next to the door and activated the button, the barrel of his Browning poised for action. The doors slid apart with its near soundless hiss and Ezra braced himself for what lay beyond. After what he'd seen already, he was ready for anything.

He was wrong.

For a moment, it felt as if they were stepping into the nightmarish version of a Dickensian slaughterhouse. The reek of stale blood and dead flesh wafted through the doors, clinging to the air despite the ship's ventilation system. Benches previously used to maintain the shuttles and runabouts had been converted into crude surgical beds, splattered with blood and gore. Dirty, brown stains slicked the deck, and a large storage container was left open, its lid discarded to reveal its grisly contents.

Arms, Ezra thought as the bile rose up his throat, arms and eyes. To his utter horror, he wondered if he scanned that terrible collection of flesh, would he find one of Julia's emerald eyes? The thought almost made him violently sick.

"Mother of God," he heard Chavez whisper, the young officer crossing himself as if he were looking at something unholy.

To aid in the secondary phase of the assimilation process, one of the shuttles had been stripped down, its exposed hull revealing the newly created alcoves where the drones were now regenerating, drawing power from the anti-matter core of the craft. However, the bulk of activity seemed to centre on the runabout Corrizo.

Ezra counted at least seven of the drones moving in and out of the craft, like busy ants in the midst of constructing a new hive. They were emerging and entering the runabout from every open hatch. Those who exited, departed carrying what appeared to be the interior furnishings of the vessel. Beds and seats were torn out, tables were removed, and anything that might be used for comfort joined the growing pile of discards in the middle of the shuttle bay deck.

"What are they doing?" Kate asked, staring at them in puzzlement.

It was no mystery. Ezra knew the answer immediately. "I believe they are readying the craft to depart the Maverick."

Tapping his combadge, Ezra knew he had to bring this information to the Captain. They could not allow the Corrizo to leave the Maverick, even if it meant storming the craft to do it. As of yet, the Borg had not reacted to their presence because they were merely observing and not interfering. Ezra knew the instant Chris heard this latest development, he and his team would be ordered to stop the Borg by any means necessary.

"Captain..." Ezra started to speak when the voice died in his throat.

Stepping through the main hatch of the Corizzo, was Julia. Or rather what was left of her.

As she strode towards the pile of discards, Julia did not see him or anything else the Collective did not require her to. He could only stare in anguish at the complete destruction of everything she'd been. Julia's left arm was gone, replaced by the obscene prosthetic worn by all Borg drones. Half her face was concealed by the ocular and cortical implants and the creamy skin Ezra loved charting during their nights together, was as grey as a corpse. Even her glorious red hair was gone, and if it were not for her surviving eye and the familiar shape of her petite body, encased in the tight Borg armour, Ezra would not have recognized her as the woman he loved.

"Julia," he whispered, and something inside him snapped.

Ezra was running before he could stop himself. Closing the distance between them, he heard Kate shouting after him, but the red haze gripping him would not allow him to answer. The compulsion to drag Julia, kicking and screaming out of this place if necessary, was like a fever. He couldn't let this continue, couldn't allow this to be her fate under any circumstances. The idea of that luminous spirit, who drew him to her like a moth to the flame, trapped forever in that horrific shell filled him with such a well of outrage he could barely think.

Only when he took a step towards Julia did the other drones attack. Julia raised her head to look at him, and the beam of red caught him in the eye, making him flinch. Her remaining green eye shone dully like a gemstone lost in the dirt. A drone began walking towards him briskly, in its stiff, clockwork manner. Before it could reach him, he heard the snap of a bowstring, and the drone dropped to one knee as the bolt of a crossbow speared him through the thigh, creating sparks of energy as he landed. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the attack had prompted the other drones into action, and they began to converge on the new arrivals.

Ezra knew he should be leading his team, but all he saw was Julia.

She tilted her head oddly as he closed the distance, eyeing him like some variance she couldn't account for before she continuing to walk away. Instead of coming towards him, however, she was returning to the runabout. Speeding up to reach her before she got there, another Borg lumbered forward to intercept him. Without thinking twice about it, Ezra raised the shotgun and fired at point-blank range. The blast was like a crack of thunder freezing time in a single moment. When it resumed again, his uniform was spotted with the numerous points of crimson beams as the Borg turned their attention to him.

The Borg Ezra had shot lay on its back, twitching like a frog as the cybernetic armour it wore hissed and sparked with energy. It was not dead but judging by the fact the male drone had not risen to his feet, Ezra concluded the blast had caused enough damage Searching the deck, he saw Julia walking up the ramp attached to the main hatch of the runabout.

"Ezra, what's going on?" Chris Larabee's voice demanded as he headed for the Corrizo.

"I am getting Julia back!" Ezra replied, discarding all professionalism for this one driving need.

"Ezra, fall back to your security team now!" Chris's voice indicating clearly he knew Ezra had gone off-script.

Ezra ignored him and ducked when a Borg stepped into view, swinging its prosthetic arm in his direction. Having no time to fire his gun, Ezra avoided the swing by ducking low enough to avoid it. Jumping up again, Ezra slammed the butt of the weapon against the cortical implant on the Borg's temple. The drone staggered sideways, the damage to the implant disorientating it enough to let the Maverick’s Chief of Security get past.

"RAZ!"

Kate's horrified voice forced Ezra, to look over his shoulder to see the rest of his security team wrestling with the half dozen Borg converging on them. To his shock, he saw Razul on his knees. The Saurian had gone hand to hand with the Borg, and the one drone left on the ground proved he had been successful, but not enough. The Saurian was clutching his elongated neck, after the Borg standing over him had driven what appeared to be some kind of sharp tool through his flesh, not bothering with assimilation. Blood soaked his uniform, staining the familiar gold fabric to red.

Coming to Raz's aid, Chavez drove the point of the bat'lethinto the drone's back and was in the process of taking another swing when a drone closed in on him. The security officer had just enough time to turn when he stiffened in pain. Ezra could only watch helplessly as Chavez’s face drained of expression as Borg nanoprobes surged through his body. As the technological infestation took hold of his cells, he sank to the ground, unable to do anything to save himself.

Chavez's collapse snapped Ezra out of his act of compulsion, reminding him of his responsibilities to his team. Kate was surrounded on all sides, and if he didn't act now, she would fall just like Razul and Chavez. Casting a glance at the runabout, he saw Julia disappearing through the hatch and knew, even though the realization made him wail inside, he had to let her go.

Running back to Kate, who was frantically trying to reload her crossbow, Ezra fired at one of the drones, drawing their attention away from the last member of his security team standing. The blast flattened the drone who was struck, causing the others to turn their attention to him again. Only when Kate turned to see his approach, did Ezra realize just how terrified she was and felt immediately ashamed for forgetting his own rules and jeopardizing not just her life, but damning Chavez and Razul.

Then without warning, the remaining drones started to retreat. Leaving the two humans behind, the Borg began moving briskly away from them. As they left, they paused long enough to retrieve Chavez who was still kneeling on the deck, frozen in place, now the nanoprobes had taken control of his body. Trapped in his transitory state, he was helpless as the fleeing Borg drones retrieved him and led him to the runabout.

"Are you alright?" Ezra asked quickly.

"Yeah," she nodded, no judgement reflected in her eyes at what his act of recklessness had done to two of their number.

"Come on," he gestured her to follow him. "If we can reach Chavez, we will be able to purge his system of those insidious nanoprobes."

Ignoring Razul's bleeding body as they ran past, Ezra focussed on reaching Chavez before it was too late. He had forgotten his duty and with Ezra paying the price for. Still, it was not too late to save Pico. Ezra was too far away for the shotgun blast to be of any help to the young lieutenant and knew if Chavez reached the runabout, they would be too late. Thinking quickly, he grasped at the only solution he could think of.

"Kate, shoot him in the leg!"

"What?" She stared at him.

"Shoot him in the leg!" Ezra barked again.

This time Kate did not argue and took aim with the crossbow pistol and fired. The bolt struck Chavez in the joint of his knee, bringing down the officer with one single shot. As he fell, Ezra sprinted toward him, determined to save Chavez from the same fate as Julia. No sooner than the thought crossed his mind, the engines of the runabout came to life, its twin nacelles flaring with blue energy.

"Captain, the Borg have taken command of a runabout! I think...."

Anything he was going to say next was halted by the barrier of energy splitting the deck in half, keeping him and Kate from going any further forward. Through the golden veil of energy, he saw the Borg continuing to board the runabout, with one of the drones escorting Chavez despite his injury. Chavez wore the same blank expression as Julia, who was no longer in sight, and Ezra imagined the fear the young officer undoubtedly felt knowing they were powerless to help him.

"EZRA!"

Chris's voice snapped him out of his despair. "Captain, they've erected emergency force fields to keep us from reaching them. You need to order them lowered immediately!"

Ezra could attempt it himself, but he has a sneaking suspicion, the authority to activate the forcefield had come from Julia. While he had rank enough to disable most of the security measures on board the Maverick, he would not waste time attempting to see if he could override the Chief Engineer's authorization when the Captain's command would make it a surety.

"Emergency force field deactivated under Captain's authorization," the computer spoke up a second later.

By the time the force field lowered allowing Ezra and Kate passage through the runabout, the main hatch had already slid to a close, sealing the Borg and their captives inside. The runabout's engines hummed louder, making the walls and the floor vibrate from the increasing power. Ezra discarded the shotgun, deciding it would do no good against the duranium hull of the ship. Unhooking the phaser from his belt, he saw Kate do the same as they closed the distance to the Corrizo.

"We must disable their engines!" Ezra said as he raised his phaser to fire.

"How are they going to get through the shuttle bay doors?"

As if in answer to her question, the low rumble of the Corizzo's engines seemed to reach a crescendo when the sleek craft lifted itself off the deck floor. Perfectly aware of what came next, Ezra opened fire without hesitation even as it hovered a few meters over the deck. Aiming for the nacelles, Ezra prayed they could do enough damage to disable the runabout and end its flight before it could begin.

Once again, the Borg proved more than capable of anticipating their response.

Even with both his and Kate's phasers, the twin bolts of energy never reached either nacelle. They dissipated harmlessly before contact was made with the hull, making Ezra's stomach clench with the realization they were too late.

"They have raised their shields!"

Chris, who was listening to their entire exchange on the open channel of Ezra's combadge, spoke up with that announcement, his voice soft. "Ezra, you and Kate need to leave Shuttle Bay 2 immediately. We're going to open the outer doors."

"You mean to let them escape?" Ezra accused incredulously, unable to believe Chris Larabee was making the suggestion. Yet even as he watched the runabout gliding towards the shuttle bay doors, he understood why. The runabout was going to leave the Maverick one way or another. How much damage it would do on the way out was entirely up to the Captain.

"Ezra, they've raised shields and are charging weapons. If we don't let them out, they'll blast out of there and take the shuttle deck with them or part of the hull. We have to let them go for now. We'll have a better chance of catching them once the runabout leaves the ship."

"Julia's still on the runabout Chris!" Ezra flared up, ignoring the fact he was edging close to insubordination.

"I know that Ezra, but you still have to leave."

Ezra saw the runabout flying closer and closer to the outer doors, aware of what kind of damage it would do if the small craft unleashed the full vent of its phasers inside the ship. The Maverick was already in bad shape, any further damage might result in crippling the ship beyond their ability to repair it.

"Come on Chief," Kate said kindly, guiding him towards the doors leading into Deck 14. "We'll get her back. Right now, we've got to leave before these bastards decide to take a more direct route out."

As he was led to the exit to Deck 14, Ezra knew with every fibre of his being as he heard the outer doors slide open and the deluge of Fluidic space to come rushing in after them, he had just lost Julia again.

For the first time, Chris Larabee felt utterly alone in command of his vessel.

With no choice but to direct his ship from the lonely seat at the central station of stellar cartography, the wrap-around holographic screen surrounding him made Chris feel as if he were flying the Maverick riding on top of her hull. The experience would have almost been heady if not for the lack of stars, the separation of his ship and the escape of the runabout Corizzo from Shuttle Bay 2. Even now, a full minute after the smaller craft had made its abrupt departure from the Maverick, Chris felt the sting of Ezra's disbelief.

If the Corizzo were to escape their grasp, their chances of restoring Buck and Julia would vanish right along with it.

"Vin, have you got her in sight?"

Vin Tanner, who had relocated to Engineering because the battle bridge was out of bounds, responded promptly through comms. "I got her, Chris. I'm moving us into tractor beam range."

"Good," Chris nodded, not wishing to face Ezra or Inez for that matter if they failed to capture the runabout, to say nothing about his own feelings about allowing his oldest friend to suffer the equivalent of a living hell. "Grab them before they reach the Coral. That thing is huge enough to give them plenty of places to hide if they get there."

"Don't worry," Vin assured him, just as aware of the stakes as Chris. "I'll do it as soon as they're close enough."

At the far end of the room, at one of the workstations, Alex Styles showed no reaction to Chris's occupation of her usual workspace in stellar cartography. As Science Officer, this was her domain. Here, and the laboratory beneath the walkway ending with the central station where the Captain was commanding the Maverick. Until they could repair the force field emitters on the battle bridge and drain the plasma of Fluidic space from the room, this would have to serve as the temporary centre of command.

Alex didn't mind one bit. Because like Chris, she wanted Buck and Julia back. Since he'd been taken, Alex had been haunted by Buck's words to her shortly before he went to Deck 14. Despite her love for Vin Tanner, Alex could not deny her affection for the First Officer. He was so many things to so many people. To JD, Buck was a father and mentor, to Chris, a friend and conscience while to Inez, Buck was a second chance. To Alex, however, he was someone she admired because he had a heart as big as a galaxy, and it was simply too obscene to see something that magnificent crushed under Borg hardware.

With the Captain's voice issuing orders to Vin through comms in the background and the image of the runabout Corizzo growing larger and larger in a screen generally used for making star maps, Alex's eyes shifted to the short-range sensors she modified for operation in Fluidic space. Since signals had to move through matter instead of a vacuum, Alex had calibrated the sensors to detect large surges of displacement the way scientists were able to detect tsunamis following an ocean quake. When she saw the benign readings in green suddenly begin to flash red, she wondered if Fate was working actively against them.

"Captain!" Alex burst out once she interpreted those readings.

The level of anxiety in her voice made Chris turn sharply. "What is it?"

"I'm detecting a compression wave coming towards us at bearing point 24. mark 139, range five thousand kilometres and closing."

Chris blinked slowly knowing the exact cause of that wave without Alex having to spell it out and what it would mean to their effort to retake the runabout. Exhaling loudly, he did not look at her when he spoke. "How long till it reaches us?"

"Two minutes."

Two minutes. It would not be enough time to grab the Corizzo, and even if they did manage to snag the ship, they couldn't go into a fight towing the craft. As it was, Chris had no idea their shields would be able to withstand the technology of the enemy on approach. The same enemy who almost single-handedly destroyed the Borg not long ago. Furthermore, he had to think of the saucer section taking refuge behind the Coral. He had no idea if Species 8742 had detected them, but Chris could not allow that possibility. There were families on that ship, families he had sworn to protect.

Even if it meant sacrificing Buck and Julia.

"Vin," Chris said quietly, the order he was about to give felt like ashes in his mouth. "Break off pursuit of the runabout and take us away from the Coral, maximum thrust."

With the channel open, Vin would have heard Alex's words just as plainly as Chris and knew what was about to come down on them. The officer of the conn also knew what it took for the Captain to give that order and did not question it. "Aye Sir."

"Alex, get Ezra down to Engineering. We need him to manage the secondary weapons console from down there."

"Yes, Captain," Alex nodded.

As Chris saw the view of the screen shift away from the runabout, revealing the approaching image of two bioships, he spared a thought for the people he was abandoning for his duty.

Forgive me Buck. 

*****  

Ezra felt numb.

He sat on the floor of the deck outside the armoury, not knowing where else to go after leaving Deck 14. He should have asked the Captain for orders, but he couldn't formulate a thought that didn't involve him screaming in rage, so Ezra simply stayed where he was, trying to erase the image of Julia as a drone from his mind so he could function again. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the grotesque thing she had become, and it filled his stomach with the same curdling horror.

Until Ezra got her back, he feared he would never be able to remember her as anything else.

Suddenly, the red alert panels began flashing, resuming its warnings of a new threat to the ship and Ezra immediately tapped his combadge, because those angry red colours had the same effect of water splashing over his face. At that moment, Ezra also remembered the Maverick was Julia's pride and joy and after his utter failure to save her, the least he could do was protect the ship she loved so much.

Before he could report to the bridge, Alex's voice filled the corridor.

"Ezra, get to engineering! We've got incoming."

"What about the runabout?" Ezra demanded, breaking into a run towards the turbo lift.

"We can't go after it with bioships on the way Ezra," Alex said quietly, perfectly aware the Captain was listening to their exchange. "We've got to break off and lead them away from the saucer section."

Ezra paused as he reached the turbo lift and slammed the panel with his fist, biting down the curse of anger that wanted to escape his lips at that revelation. For a few seconds, he could not breathe, feeling the resurgence of numbing anguish at what this would mean. It was likely they may never catch up to the Corizzo if they were forced to engage Species 8742, and if that happened, Julia would remain a drone. Not just Julia but Buck and Chavez too.

"Yes," he finally trusted himself to speak. "I shall join Lt. Tanner shortly."

As the doors slid open and Ezra stepped into the turbo lift, he thought of his last exchange with Julia and knew he would never stop regretting the choices he made about their relationship. He should have made things permanent after that whole business with Q, but as grateful as he was to get her back, Ezra had not dared to take the step needed. She'd been patient about it, trying not to press, but he could see how it affected her, especially after Vin Tanner and Alexandra Styles, the most unlikely people one would imagine married, had exchanged vows.

Now it was too late, and he may well spend the rest of his life regretting it.

*****  

The two bioships when they appeared, were precisely as Voyager described them.

From the rearview scanner, Chris was afforded his first glimpse of the enemy. While he had seen the footage of them from Voyager's logs, it was nothing compared to seeing them for himself, especially when they were closing in on the Maverick. Their design was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and he could very well believe the ships were the result of organic technology.

Their configuration reminded Chris of squid swimming in the ocean, but unlike those luminescent creatures, the hull or skin, whatever one called it, of the vessel ranged from black to olive green. The patterns on the hull were kinetic. He doubted Voyager had time to thoroughly analyse the vessels, but as Chris studied them, he observed the hull of both ships almost appeared alive, as if each were reacting to the environment they were presently travelling.

"Can you we hail them?"

Chris asked, making an attempt at diplomacy, even though their earlier encounter with the species indicated this meeting was going to be anything but confrontational. If Mary was right about what Species 8472 thought they were guilty of, he doubted they would be in a mood to listen.

"I can try," Alex answered, "but they're a telepathic race, so they may not communicate that way at all. If I recall correctly, Species 8472 needed a human form to interact with humans, if not they used telepathic means. With Mary on the other ship..."

"You don't have to tell me," Chris didn't need her to continue. "Engineering, raise our shields.."

"Aye Captain."

It was Ezra who responded, prompting Chris to look over his shoulder at Alex. Both exchanged a look of relief, grateful Ezra was at his post, even though subconsciously they knew he would be nowhere else. Ezra was too much a creature of duty, and though he played fast and loose with the rules at times, mainly when it came to his onboard gambling activities when it came to the safety of the Maverick, the man took his job very seriously. Even the emotional trauma he was now suffering would not change that.

"Glad you're with us Ezra," Chris said kindly.

"I was never anywhere else." His voice was composed, but even Chris could hear the strain.

Returning his attention to the matter at hand, but making a mental note to check on the Chief later, Chris saw the enemy on approach. Both ships were coming at them at full speed, leaving no doubt they were on an intercept course. The holographic screen allowed Chris to catch a glimpse of the runabout, which was taking advantage of the situation to make good their escape. Chris could only afford them a brief glance, making a silent promise to himself and the friends on board the small craft, this would not be the end. He would find Buck, Julia and the rest of his crew, but first, he had to save the Maverick.

"Distance?"

"Two thousand kilometres," Alex updated.

"Captain, they are charging weapons!"

"Vin! Evasive pattern delta!"

Even as the view screen revealed the Maverick banking hard to starboard, Chris gripped the edge of the workstation to avoid being thrown off the walkway. Behind him, Alex was bracing herself against the secondary workstation to keep herself from tumbling down the steps into the laboratory below. The holographic screen depicted the swirl of Fluidic space as the starship veered away from the Coral. As the great ship moved through the liquid world around them, Chris caught a final glimpse of the Corizzo disappearing into the numerous branches of the dead mass, taking the opportunity the arrival of the bioships had given them.

"Enemy ships are firing!'

Ezra's warning came a second before they felt it. Not since the Maverick was fired upon by five Cardassian warships simultaneously, had the ship suffered an assault as violent. Through the viewscreen, Chris saw the effect of the blast on his vessel as the Maverick's starboard section was practically forced into a barrel roll from the impact. Emergency systems screamed alert across all decks, and once again, Chris was hanging onto the central station for dear life.

"Ezra fire transphasic torpedoes now!" Chris managed to shout.

"Arming torpedoes!"

"Captain, we've lost fifteen per cent of our shield!" Alex called out from her station, where she was trying to remain standing while attempting to discern what it was they were just hit with. From the records, she knew the weapons of Species 8472 were capable of destroying Borg ships, but Voyager hadn't been able to analyse their weaponry in their flight to escape the ship in pursuit.

"What the hell did they hit us with?" Chris demanded.

"I'm not sure!" Alex shook her head as she tried to understand the readings appearing across her display screen. "Near as I can figure it, it's some form of tekasite, protomatter...oh my God. Captain, it's got the same readings as trilithium!" She stared at him in unmasked horror.

Trilithium? Chris shared her shock. No civilised species used trilithium unless it was as a weapon of mass destruction and even then, its use was roundly condemned by most of the space-faring races they'd encountered. The ability to stop nuclear fusion was deemed far too dangerous to be used near any kind of star or sun. Of course, it made sense, Chris realised. Fluidic space had no celestial bodies capable of being destabilised enough to go nova. Why wouldn't they use such weapons when there were no consequences to their environment?

"Firing transphasic torpedoes!" Ezra announced.

Chris saw through the external view afforded in front of him, the formidable torpedoes surging towards the bioship in the lead. It struck the alien craft across the hull, causing the enemy ship to veer to the side, it's surface cackling with spidery webs of energy. However, instead of breaking apart like the Borg ship had done, the bioship was still intact. Damaged, but not destroyed. It limped away from the fight, leaving one ship in pursuit.

"Direct hit!"

"Fire again!" Chris ordered, not about to waste the opportunity to slow down the enemy. He had no doubt crippling either craft would do nothing but gain them a little time.

The bioship returned fire before Ezra could carry out the order, forcing Vin to perform another sharp maneuver that had Chris gripping the rail along the walkway. While the ship careened dangerously to port and starboard again, Chris was struggling not to be tossed over the side and cursed the Borgs' part in keeping him off his bridge where this fight should have been conducted.

While Vin managed to avoid the second shot from the bioship, he was not able to avoid the subsequent blast. Once again, Chris felt his ship shudder from the impact, hairline fractures began to appear across the screen around them. Conduits ruptured along the walls, and one of the consoles in Alex's laboratory below exploded.

"Damage report!" Chris barked and was somewhat jarred when it wasn't Julia who answered him. It took a second to remember why and when it did, he uttered another silent curse of hatred at the Borg.

"Minor hull damage Captain," Chanu replied. "Our shields are holding, but they're down to sixty per cent!"

"Ezra get that damn ship off us before it drains all our shield strength!"

"Torpedoes away!"

Once again Chris watched as the triad of torpedoes escaped the Maverick's weapons bank, hurtling through the greenish sea of fluidic space. The bioship made an admirable attempt to avoid at least two of the torpedoes in the volley but could not escape the third. Once again, it was struck hard enough to be sent spinning off course, the destructive energy of the transphasic torpedoes spreading across its hull, but still, the ship was not destroyed, merely crippled.

"The enemy ships have given up the pursuit," Alex replied, relief showing in her face because, like him, she knew the Maverick could not have managed a sustained assault like that. Just two blast from the bioships weapons had been enough to drain half their shield power. If not for the transphasic torpedoes, she doubted they would have been able to fight the enemy off at all.

"Ezra, Vin, good work the both of you," Chris complimented letting out a heavy breath because they were nowhere out of trouble yet, but he wanted both men to know how instrumental they were to this narrow escape.

"Captain," Alex spoke up, brushing away an errant strand of hair from across her face. "I think we need to find the saucer section and get out of the area. We wounded them, that's all. They're still able to fly and since I don't have a clue how they communicate or the range of their telepathy. we have no idea how far away their reinforcements might be."

"Agreed," Chris had more or less reached the same conclusion. "Ezra, we're going to have to leave the area. We'll come back for Julia and Buck, I promise you, but we can't stay here."

As Captain, he had no reason to give Ezra an explanation, but the man had held himself together for the good of the ship and for that, Chris felt he was owed one. As he waited for the Chief of Security to speak, he looked across the walkway and saw Alex's grieved expression and knew she was just as torn as he by the decision, but they had no choice.

"Thank you, Chris," Ezra's voice replied after a moment. It was rare Ezra discarded protocol to address him so informally, but this was no ordinary day and nor was the promise Chris made to him. "We have to save the Maverick above all else. If I cannot help her at this time, I can ensure her ship is kept in one piece at least."

Chris said nothing for a moment, thinking how annoyed Julia would get whenever he put 'scuff marks' on her ship as she put it, or how he liked stopping in Engineering and listening to her sing from her repertoire of old musicals. Among the senior staff, it was Julia who always saw the bright side of a situation, no matter how bleak things were. It was what made her relationship with Ezra Standish so improbable, and yet Chris suspected that was the reason the Chief of Security loved her so.

"Vin," Alex spoke up, "I've set the navigational systems in the main computer to locate the saucer section via its transponder frequency. You should be able to use that to locate it."

"Thanks, Darlin'."

Alex blushed a little at the informal response but supposed after what they had just been through, she wasn't going to begrudge him a little affection. Raising her eyes to the Captain, she saw Chris Larabee staring at the holographic display of Fluidic Space around them. His expression was unreadable, and she wondered what he was thinking.

"Captain?"

"We have to find out what's going on here. Before they come after us with everything they've got. We've got to find out what they think we've done. It's the only way we're going to leave Fluidic space alive."

Sadly, Alex couldn't disagree.

It took less than thirty minutes to locate the Maverick and even less time than that for the ship to become whole again.

The crippled bioships had opted not to maintain their pursuit and despite Chris wanting badly to remain behind so they could search every inch of the Coral for the runabout, doing so would be courting folly. There was no doubt in Chris's mind the enemy craft was calling for reinforcements, and despite their success with the transphasic torpedoes, the Maverick was still in no position to face an armada, not until he had answers.

As he told Alex, the only way to return home alive was to continue their investigation into the cause of Species 8742's hostility towards the Federation and the Alpha Quadrant.

With the Maverick speeding away from the scene of the battle at maximum impulse, Chris found himself back in the Conference Room again, facing the remains of his Senior Staff. The loss of Buck and Julia at the table still felt profound, even with Chanu temporarily filling the void left by the Chief Engineer. The toll of the last day showed on the faces of all his senior officers who were both mentally and physically drained.

Ezra was barely holding it together, and Chris debated whether or not he ought to let the man have a few hours alone to come to terms with his grief. While Chris had not yet given up hope on any of his crew still onboard the Corizzo, Josiah would be the first to tell him they needed to prepare themselves for the worst. Chris had a feeling Ezra was already there, and he was starting to cave under the pressure. Nevertheless, Chris couldn't bring himself to excuse the man, not yet anyway.

Appearing just as physically drained as Ezra was mentally wrought was Nathan Jackson, who looked as if he needed a few hours sleep as well. If Chris knew his CMO, the man would have been burning the candle on both ends while he was on board the saucer section, aiding JD in constructing the bioweapons while trying to treat everyone who had been injured after the Maverick's skirmishes of the day. Only a direct order would compel the man to get some rest and Chris would do that if he saw Nathan falter.

Josiah also appeared weary. As always, he was being all things to the civilians, assuring everyone escape from this bizarre dimension was going to happen, while counselling the grieving families of the crew lost in the battle with the Borg. Chris made a mental note to ask him how Inez was doing and as well as check on Ezra when time permitted. Then again, by the way Josiah was subtly observing their Chief of Security, Chris suspected Josiah might already be making such plans himself.

"Status?" Chris asked no one in particular, his gaze fixed on the window outside, feeling his own gloom as he stared into the strange landscape of Fluidic space. Even though they were travelling at full impulse power, he felt as if they were stuck in mud. Chris never realised how comforted he was seeing the stars race past them when they were in space, and right now, he longed for the comfort they provided.
Alex, taking Buck's place, as Acting First Officer even though she clearly despised it, nodded at Chanu to prompt the nervous Assistant Chief Engineer to commence his report. It was apparent Chanu liked taking Julia's position at this table as much as she wanted to take on Buck's role. The lieutenant avoided making eye contact with Ezra who sat stonily at his customary place, but even she could see the fractures appearing in his usually impassive gambler's mask.

"We conducted repairs on the sensor and communication array shortly after saucer separation and were able to replace all the damage hardware via the outer hull. At the moment, we're running a routine diagnostic over the newly fitted systems, to ensure the interface with the main computer is working properly. We should have full sensors and communication ability within the hour. Right now, we're conducting last-minute repairs to the ablative armour, and that should be up and running in three hours. We needed the ship fully integrated to begin that work. I've also sent repair crews to Deck 14 now that it is clear. We're removing all the Borg hardware and the...."

His words faltered, and Alex knew exactly what he was about to say because he looked as if he was about to turn a shade of green.

"The biological material," Alex concluded for him, sparing him the need to clarify.

"Biological material?" Nathan asked, staring at her puzzled. "What biological material?"

Cursing under her breath at the fact she was going to have to spell it out, and wanting to save the Captain from doing it, she met Vin's gaze and saw the Vulcan giving her a look of encouragement. Glancing at Ezra who did not react to the question, Alex could not even begin to imagine what must have run through the man's mind after he encountered that grisly container of flesh.

"After the assimilation process," Alex turned to Nathan, "the Borg discarded the parts they didn't need."

"Parts they didn't need?" Mary started to ask when understanding flooded her face. It was swiftly followed by stomach-turning revulsion. "Oh God."

As the shockwave of that revelation impacted across the table, Mary ignored the wave of audible gasps, and exclamations of horror as she understood the reason for Chris's haunted expression. The shadows across his face told her he felt every injury inflicted upon his ship and his crew like arrows driven in the flesh. She wanted badly to reach out to him, but Chris would not appreciate such inappropriate sentiment at this time, so the Protocol Officer did the best she could, offering her support in silence.

"The material," Alex cleared her throat to do away with her own disgust, "is being stored in the starboard section Sick Bay. We activated the EMH down there to take charge of it. The remains have been placed in stasis to prevent further tissue necrosis."

"Jesus Christ," the healer whispered, uncertain what was worse, the fact his friends and the crew had been maimed to fit the Borgs' terrible mould, or he would have to match tissue types to see what limbs belonged to whom. Forcing himself to maintain his professional demeanour, Nathan regained his composure to deal with the situation as it stood. His throat dry, he took a sip of water from the glass in front of him before he trusted himself to respond again. "So we managed to recover some of our people?"

"At least fifteen of the patterns we stored in the buffer belong to Maverick crew," Alex explained. "Thanks to Rain, we rematerialised them one at a time and hit them with an EMP burst to short out all the nanoprobes in their system before they could adapt their shields. The EMH was able to remove nanoprobes after we transported them to Sick Bay. According to the EMH, the neural and cortical links implanted in the newer drones had yet to reach full integration. These could be removed without too much damage. Nathan, we managed to get Maria."

"And Claire," Chanu added, never more grateful for anything in his life when the news reached him in Engineering. During the crisis, Chanu had been on autopilot. Working on the Maverick allowed him to avoid facing what happened to Clare. When he was told she was among the rescued drones, he almost wept in relief. Now, he only wished Ezra Standish had similar news.

"Thank God," Nathan sighed in relief, grateful to hear his Head Nurse was alive and well. He soon regretted it when he saw Ezra flinch, feeling immediately guilty when it was clear Ezra was just hanging on. "I'll still want to check them out myself. The EMH is not a doctor, I don't care how much programming it's got."

"We kind of figured you would," Alex managed a little smile, though it did not reach her eyes. "We had to suspend the re-materialisation process when we ran into the bioships, but a few of the patterns we restored aren't from the Maverick. One or two are from species we have not encountered before. They may be from the Delta Quadrant. We're holding them in the brig for now, behind a Level 1 force field in stasis. There hasn't been enough time to determine how long they've been assimilated and in what mental condition they are in."

"After so long without free will, I doubt they'll be very functional," Josiah said thoughtfully. "If they've experienced a prolonged period of assimilation, the sudden loss of the Collective consciousness would be a tremendous shock to the system. Don't be surprised if a few of them want to go back to the Borg."

"You're kidding!" Vin's usually unflappable manner gave way to shock. He was aghast, unable to imagine any reason why someone would willingly want to give up all freedom to become a mindless cybernetic zombie.

"Not at all," Josiah replied, noting Chris was facing his officers now, taking an interest in the conversation. "It's a variation of Stockholm Syndrome. According to the report from Voyager's Doctor, the crew member called Seven of Nine was taken as a child. She went through adolescence and adulthood with no experiences beyond the Collective. Imagine if you will, growing up with thousands of voices in your head, being part of a consciousness where you're never alone and then having that snatched away abruptly. It's not like losing your sight or hearing, where you might have some basis for comparison. In her case, it was all she ever knew, and it was understandably traumatic."

"Are you telling me if we retrieve Julia and Buck, they may wish to return to that hell?" Ezra demanded, speaking for the first time, his voice raised.

"No" Josiah replied, unfazed by the Security Chief's outburst and was somewhat expecting it, considering the strain the man was under. "They haven't been assimilated long enough, and they've got fully formed personalities. Their sense of self, their connections to their lives, their relationships are still there. I have no doubt they are fighting tooth and nail to exert themselves, but unfortunately as we all know," Josiah raised his eyes to the others at the table, "the Borgs' conditioning is too thorough. But they're still in there Ezra. We just have to reach them."

"That is hardly a kindness," Ezra spat bitterly, the tidal wave of frustration and anger he had been trying so hard to restrain was beginning to spill over the edges of his control. "They are trapped in a hell they cannot escape, and with every second they remain in the grip of these insidious cybernetic monsters, what remains of their sanity is being eroded away. If we ever managed to save them, what remains will be nothing more than the broken pieces of the people we knew!"

"Ezra, we will find them!" Mary reached for his hand, wanting to show him they understood, but he snatched it away before she could make contact.

"How?" He bit back. "We can barely save ourselves! If we are obliterated in this place, then we just don't die, we condemn them to remain in that hell for all time!"

"Ezra," Chris spoke up finally. "You need to take a moment."

"No, I do not," Ezra turned on him viciously, refusing to be silenced now that the emotions inside of him had reached boiling point and would not be contained any longer. "I am merely stating the reality of our situation and our inability to face the fact Julia and Buck are gone!"

"Commander," Chris stood up, ignoring the outburst even if the words cut. "This is not a request. You're dismissed. Go to your quarters and take a few hours for yourself. Josiah, if you please, go with him."

Josiah nodded and got to his feet, distressed to see Ezra in this condition, even if he was expecting it. It was not the first time the Counsellor had seen Ezra react in the extreme when it came to Julia Pemberton. If they failed to retrieve her as Ezra had so brutally pointed out, Josiah feared for his sanity.

"You are sending me off the bridge like some errant child?" Ezra glared at Chris, refusing to be dismissed. If he had to sit out this fight, he would go mad! "You have no idea what this is like!"

"Don't I?"

Ezra opened his mouth to retaliate, but the words would not come. Chris was not staring at him with unkindness, but with empathy and Ezra knew then and there he was wrong, the Captain knew exactly what he was going through. Except unlike Julia, who may yet be recovered, Sarah and Adam Larabee were gone with no possibility of return.

Ezra blinked, and the red haze across his mind vanished to be replaced by the black tide of despair he had been fighting so hard to keep at bay. "I am sorry, Chris," he closed his eyes. "I did not mean...."

"I know. Ezra, I need you to pull yourself together so you can take your post because I need you on your game, if we're going to get out of here and find Julia and Buck."

"Come on, Ezra," Josiah placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's take a walk, get a drink or something. I think you could use one."

"Yes, of course," he nodded, the fight had drained out of him as Josiah guided him away from the table.

As the Counsellor passed Chris, Josiah gave the Captain a nod of assurance he would not leave Ezra's side until the Security Chief no longer needed him. It was a promise Chris could take to the bank, having been on the receiving end of the Counsellor's help on several occasions and aware of how tenacious Josiah could be when someone needed his aid.

No one spoke for a few seconds after they left, but when the silence was broken, it was by Chris who gave Alex a nod of thanks for trying to spare him but decided it was time he retook the reins.

"Chanu, I think we're done," Chris glanced at the Assistant Chief Engineer. "Get back to Engineering and continue the repairs."

"Aye Sir," Chanu jumped to his feet, glad to be out of the room and the tension in it.

Once he departed, Chris turned to JD who had been silent all this time. The youngest member of his bridge crew had said nothing, content to listen but Chris suspected Ezra's outburst had made him understand how vital it was to keep his head together for what came next. When this as over, Chris made a mental note to tell the kid how well he was doing. Buck would have been proud.

"JD, how are we doing with the bioweapons?"

JD, who was still reeling from Ezra's dismissal even though he understood the Captain's actions, snapped back to attention and quickly answered. "We've managed to modify at least one warhead. Nathan came up with an idea of how we can mask the nanoprobes to perform the same way they did for Voyager."

"Yeah," Nathan replied, shaking off the aftershock of Ezra's departure. "Voyager had the right idea, but I think I might have a better solution. Instead of having the nanoprobes mimic the cells of Species 8472, I took it one step further. I've programmed ours to match the protein chains in their chromosomes, adapting the probes to resemble any one of the 100 odd genes that Species 8472 possesses in their DNA. On this level, it will be harder for them to detect the nanoprobes like they probably did before if they've devised a cellular defence."

"One ain't gonna be enough," Vin looked at Chris. "After we kicked their tails, they're gonna be coming after us with a fleet."

Chris tended to agree.

"We'll need more nanoprobes if we want to produce more warheads, Captain," JD pointed out. "That's going to take some time."

"We've got them," Alex stated, having anticipated this when she suggested they store the extracted nanoprobes purged from the rescued drones. "The EMH kept all the ones we took from the drones. I believe those can be modified for use in creating additional warheads?"

"They can," JD answered. "Now we know how to reprogram them, we can do that to as many of the nanoprobes as we can get. I could use your help, Commander, with the programming that is.”

"You got it," Alex gave him a little smile.

"Good because I need to get back to my Sick Bay and conduct some research." Nathan stated.

"Research?" Chris stared at the healer in question.

"I've been studying the plasma sample Alex brought back, and I can tell you, now that I've spent a bit more time analysing it, the rate of decay of all microbial life in the sample, I doubt Species 8472 can do anything about it, or else they would have already."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Species 8472 has one of the most formidable immune systems of any life form we've encountered, and it appears the environment of Fluidic Space is composed of the same organic structure. It's extremely adaptable for life but what is causing this, isn't attacking cells, it's draining the energy from them. I mean every ounce of it, is being depleted. It's draining it at such a rate that the cells simply cannot recover even after the cause has moved on. As near as I can figure it, it's not just the microbes, it's in the plasma, even in the Coral. It's total and worse yet, how it draws the energy is a complete mystery, so even if you knew what was causing it, chances are that's not going to help."

"So unless we find the cause, they're all going to be dead?" Vin asked. While his opinion of Species 8472 wasn't stellar due to their present circumstances, he had no desire to see the entire race wiped out. Wait a minute, he realised then the full implications of what Nathan was suggesting, and the realisation became even more monstrous. "You don't mean just the life forms, the whole of Fluidic space? The entire dimension?"

"If it isn't stopped," Nathan met Chris's gaze. "Yes."

"This is why they think it's us, Chris," Mary explained. "Something like this threat couldn't have originated locally, it must have come from somewhere. This is why they think we're responsible. We have to help them. I know we're not in the best situation, but even so, we can't sit by and let an entire dimension die."

"We won't," Chris assured her, not only because it was the right thing to do but because it might be the only way for them to dissuade Species 8472 from destroying the Maverick when the bioships caught up with them. "However, we need to do this fast. We managed to survive our first run-in with them, but if they come after us in numbers, we might not be so lucky. Right now, we're cut off from safe haven, nor do we have access to resources if we need to conduct major repairs."

"Judging by what Nathan said earlier, whatever is doing it is some form of radiation that's draining the energy out of living tissue, even after it's moved on. If that's the case, couldn't Alex scan the region using the decay rate to determine the concentration?" Vin suggested.

Alex sat up, staring at Vin with eyes bright with possibility. "Yes, yes, I can. Captain, if we can track the decay rate, it could give us a trail to follow. The stronger it is, the easier it will be for us to trace it back to its source."

"That's a plan," Chris offered both officers a nod of approval, glad to see his bridge team regaining their bearings after the hits they suffered today. It was good to have a win or a course of action that wasn’t just them running with their tails between their legs. "Alex, do that first before you help JD with the warheads."

"No problem," she said confidently, "once I tell the sensors what to look for, I can feed that into the navigational system, and Vin should be able to follow the decay rate back to its highest concentration."

"Uh I got a question," JD spoke up suddenly, hoping it didn't sound stupid and borne out of his inexperience. "If this thing is draining the energy from all the organisms in this environment, doesn't that mean us too?"

"Good point," Chris gave JD a nod of approval at the young man's astute and somewhat crucial observation. "Nathan?"

"Well it's difficult to say at this point because we have so little data. If it's hungry for energy, the Maverick's hull might protect us but the shields might be another matter."

Chris didn't much like the idea of the shields being drained if they were needed for a fight. However, the shields weren't their only protection at this point. "We'll use the ablative armour."

"Of course," Alex exclaimed. "That armour is specifically designed to repel energy draining weapons, it should work against whatever it is we're chasing."

"Alright then," Chris said, getting to his feet. "Let's do this."

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