The Sulaco.

When he heard its name mentioned in connection to this whole business in Tenabrus, his reaction to it was visceral.

The Sulaco conjured up a gamut of emotions within Chris Larabee every time he heard its name spoken. The ancient ship represented the most disgraceful period of his life, when he was so self-absorbed, even justifiably, that he risked the lives of everyone around him. The deaths of those he caused indirectly were forever branded into his consciousness and reminded Chris most starkly his responsibilities as Captain of the Maverick.

Secondly, the Sulaco taught him to never take the people in his life for granted. In the weeks leading up to the discovery of the ship, Chris had mistreated everyone from Buck to Mary, behaving like a selfish bastard when all they wanted to do was help. It never occurred to him what it would be like to have no one at all, not until he learned about Ellen Ripley whose fate was so tightly bound to the Sulaco. Ripley lost everyone she cared for, one by one, desperately trying to save them and failing through no fault of her own.

By the time he left the Sulaco behind, Chris had learned what it was to put himself before his ship, and it was a mistake he would never make again.

More than six months earlier, the Maverick encountered an ancient carrier wave transmission originating from a Conestoga-class Colonial Marines carrier, from pre-World War III Earth. Investigating the signal brought Chris and the Maverick to the Sulaco, now trapped in orbit over the planet Fury 361, a world once used to host a prison facility. Through the ship’s logs, they learned about Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley and her terrifying encounters with the creatures called xenomorphs. 

With a reproductive cycle closely related to parasitic wasps, requiring another organism to reproduce, the xenomorphs overwhelmed the mining colony of Hadley’s Hope on the planet of LV-426, now known as Acheron. Accompanying a group of Colonial Marines, one of which was ironically an ancestor of the Maverick’s Captain, Ripley journeyed to the planet in hopes of rescuing the miners before it was too late. Unfortunately, almost all the colonists had been used as hosts for new aliens, and the marines found themselves greatly outnumbered. 

Only Ripley, his ancestor Dwayne Hicks, a synthetic named Bishop and a lone survivor, a little girl called Newt, escaped alive.

Unfortunately, the xenomorphs proved hardier than their human opponents and managed to get loose on the carrier during the group’s return trip home in stasis. The attempt to penetrate the hypersleep chambers created an electrical fire which saw the crew moved to the Emergency Evacuation Vehicle or EEV, and directed towards a world capable of supporting human life. In this case, Fury 361. Once the Sulaco dealt with the fire, the computer system altered its trajectory and went in search of its human passengers. 

On Fury 361, the aliens were allowed to thrive. By the time the Maverick arrived some three hundred years later, the prison facility where the EEV had landed became the centre of their nest, with more than a hundred specimens in hibernation. Unaware of any of this, the Away team that included the Captain, Vin Tanner, Ezra Standish, Alex Styles and three security officers, landed on the planet to investigate. They would subsequently learn through their discovery of the android Bishop, Ripley and her companions never left Fury 361. 

Worst yet, the xenomorphs became aware of their presence and attacked. The Away Team barely escaped with their lives, losing all their security personnel, including the officer left on board the Sulaco with Julia Pemberton. Chris ordered the entire nest vaporized with a barrage of photon torpedoes and recommended when the Sulaco was returned to Earth, it should be thoroughly scanned to ensure no other specimens remained. 

The risk of any of the goddamn things getting loose on Earth was simply too much. 

“What have you got Alex?” 

Chris waited for his Science Officer to deliver her report while seated at his usual place at the head of the Conference table, with Vin Tanner and Julia Pemberton also present. As soon as he and Vin returned to the Maverick from their Away mission to the relay station, they turned their tricorders over to Alex who was more than capable of disseminating the data contained and coming up with the answers needed to explain what might be happening on Tenarus. Just to be safe, Chris had contacted Buck at the asylum and discovered to his relief, they were in no danger at present. 

“Keep an eye out Buck,” Chris had told his First Officer. “If something even smells wrong, I want to know.”

“You got it Chris,” Buck assured him. 

Alex didn’t waste any time getting to her feet and walking to the main display so she could deliver her report. Like Vin, she knew just how volatile the Captain could be on this subject and would not tax his patience any more than necessary. It was why she enlisted Julia’s assistance to review the data and it was all the Chief Engineer could do to not descend into paranoia herself, once she heard the Sulaco mentioned in connection to their current mystery. 

“Alright,” Alex drew in a deep breath and began speaking. “It took me a few hours to track down all the available information about Lt. Lambert by contacting Earth on subspace. I think I may have an idea of what happened, although Captain, I think we need to recall the Away Team immediately, and possibly begin the evacuation of Tenarus.” 

Chris’s eyes widened at the suggestion, dread inside him rising like the rank stench of rotting flesh. However, he was Chris Larabee, and he knew how to crush such emotions ruthlessly, at least until he knew why she had made her extraordinary statement. 

“Tell me,” Chris said coolly, indicating he would do nothing until she told him why. 

Vin glanced at his Captain and best friend and could imagine the invisible strands of Chris’s patience snapping, one by one with each second of silence. Meeting Alex’s gaze, he told her silently to begin.

“As we already know, Lt. Lambert was assigned to the Sulaco, shortly after it returned to Earth. Following your recommendations Captain, Starfleet’s Biological Hazard Division initiated an Omega Level baryon sweep across the entire ship, ensuring the sterilization of any organic matter still remaining on board. After that, the engineering crews moved in, with security escorts to begin the refit for its eventual display at the Zefram Cochrane Museum.” 

“Did they find any of those goddamn things?” Chris demanded, wanting this question answered first and foremost and knew he was being testy, but when it came to the xenomorph, he was running on an extremely short fuse. 

“Yes and no,” Alex answered promptly, unperturbed by her Captain’s sour expression. 

“That’s impossible!” Julia protested. It was the most animated anyone had seen the redhead since her rescue from the Borg. “We went over that ship inch by inch before we sent it back to Earth. There were no more of the things left!”

“A specimen was found, but it appeared to be dead,” Alex explained quickly because she could see the possibility the scans missed something disturbed Julia. Particularly when Alex remembered how determined Julia was to ensure the Sulaco was rid of the xenomorphs after Fury 361. 

During the time the Away team was trapped on Fury with the alien hive, Julia was forced to contend with one of the alien spores implanting security officer Ty Atwater. When the xenomorph emerged, Ty Atwater’s grisly progeny hunted her across the ship. Alex remembered Julia being profoundly affected by Atwater’s death, knowing he had died in agony and alone, without her being able to help him at all. 

“Julia,” Alex addressed the woman kindly, “we don’t know anything about this creature, not really. Except for the specimens we found on the Sulaco, we didn’t have much time to study the things. It required recalibration of our tricorders just to detect the xenomorph, it’s very possible the eggs might have some form of natural camouflage preventing us from seeing them during scans. In any case, this particular specimen did not survive the baryon sweep. It was found dead by one of the teams, and from what we can tell, no one was implanted.” 

“How can you be so sure?” Julia frowned, not about to absolve herself just yet. 

“Because none of the engineering teams was alone long enough for it to happen. It’s why security was assigned to each engineer. Captain, it was Jerry Lambert who found this specimen. The engineer he was working with, Lt. Callie Leech, was in the ship’s drive when the spore was found. By the looks of it, it was already dead. Commander Nakamura at Space Dock told me that both of them were checked out after their encounter, there was nothing implanted.” 

“Alright,” Chris nodded, not about to let go of his suspicions just yet, but wanting Alex to continue her report. “Go on.” 

“The specimen when examined appeared to have died from massive baryon contamination,” Alex explained. “My theory is there was an egg somewhere on the ship, somewhere it was near impossible to scan. According to Nakamura, the spore appeared to have been found in the ship’s drive network. I believe this one was laid by the creature hatched while we were on Fury 361. According to Bishop, each drone is capable of laying eggs, I think that was what it did while it was hunting you.” 

“Damn it,” Julia cursed under her breath, aware this was perfectly logical. While she had been hiding from it, the xenomorph had run of the Sulaco and could have done precisely what Alex suggested. 

“Anyway, with Lt. Leech given the all-clear, work resumed on the Sulaco, and the ship was deemed safe. In fact, it took its place at the Cochrane Museum only a month ago, and there have been no reports of any trouble. Lt. Lambert continued working at Space Dock until two months before his sabbatical. Now while’s it not on his official records why he left, I got the real story from Commander Nakamura.”

Alex braced herself because if her reaction to what Nakamura told her was extreme, Alex couldn’t imagine what the Captain was going to think of it. 

“Lambert and Callie developed a relationship just before she shipped out to Ventax II. Now before she left, she had checked into Starfleet Medical, and they did detect some form of oxidized material in her lungs which was causing a mild allergic reaction. Aside from an odd taste in her mouth, she suffered no ill effects and the doctor who examined her gave her an all-clear.” 

Chris sat up, ramrod straight. “Oxidized material?” 

“Yeah,” Alex nodded, thinking it was how she reacted to that news herself. “The doctor thought it was rust.” 

“Oh my God,” Julia’s hand flew up to her mouth. “Is it possible?” 

“We can’t be sure,” Alex continued, “but she got worse on route to Ventax II. Now no one connected it to the spore because we know implantation needs to happen, and it did not in this case. Furthermore, the trip to Ventax took weeks, and the normal gestation period for a xenomorph is days. If she was implanted, it would have emerged long before she arrived at Ventax.”

“Then what happened to her?” Chris asked. Ideas were forming in his head, ideas he didn’t much like to entertain but he would not leap to conclusions until he heard the rest of Alex’s report. He saw Vin staring at him hard as if the helmsman had a window into his soul and knew exactly what he was thinking. Chris didn’t envy him the ability today. What was in his head right now, was pretty unpalatable. 

“She arrived on Ventax II and presented with all the symptoms of respiratory illness. Doctors on Ventax reached the same conclusion as they did on Earth, she was having an allergic reaction and treated her for that. However, she was continuing to deteriorate, and this time the doctors took it more seriously and after extensive tests, discovered she was suffering some kind of genetic disorder, where her DNA was mutating.”

“Oh shit,” Vin swore, understanding now that look in Chris’s face all well now.

“Mutating into what?” Chris demanded. 

“They didn’t know,” Alex replied after a moment. “I contacted Ventax Research Station and told them to transmit all their records to us here. I’ve asked Doctor Li Pong to take a look at it using Nathan’s own research material. The doctors at Ventax couldn’t help her because they had no idea what they were dealing with. I mean why would it occur to them this could be related to the Sulaco’s xenomorphs? 

“Agreed,” Chris nodded in understanding, “so what happened to her?” 

“Nobody knows.” 

“What do you mean nobody knows?” Chris demanded. “She can’t have just disappeared!”

“Two months after arriving at Ventax, Callie disappeared,” Alex repeated herself. “Since Lambert wasn’t her husband or family, they wouldn’t tell him what happened to her until he got there himself and found out, she’d become friendly with a psychiatrist making the rounds of the hospital where Callie was being treated. Somehow or rather, this psychiatrist managed to convince her to leave Ventax with him.” 

“A psychiatrist?” Vin’s eyes widened, realizing where she was going with this. “You don’t mean....”

“Paracelsus.” 

“Why on Earth would she go with Paracelsus?” Julia blurted out the obvious question. 

“We don’t know for certain Callie went with him,” Alex stated firmly. “However, if Jerry believed she went with him, it would explain why he was here on Tenarus.”

“Yes,” Chris nodded in understanding. “If he believed Callie went with the doctor, he would be led here, trying to find her.” 

“Except,” the science officer sighed, “Paracelsus claimed he had no idea who she was.” 

“If that were my girl,” Vin spoke. “I wouldn’t take his word for it.” 

If Lambert loved Callie enough to go to Ventax to be with her during her illness, then he would have chased down every possible lead to her whereabouts. Furthermore, Paracelsus’s denial he knew Callie at all, especially when Lambert knew it to be an untruth, would have led the security officer to draw some pretty damning conclusions. 

“He didn’t,” Alex looked at Chris. “Nakamura made the inquiry on Jerry’s behalf, and it was after Paracelsus denied knowing her that he left Ventax. I believe he came to Tenarus looking for Callie.” 

“And needed to escape the place months later to send a distress signal,” Julia pointed out. “Captain, the analysis of the scans you took over the relay station, indicate the scoring from small arms fire. You were right about someone going in there with guns blazing. I’ve also detected return fire. Now the blast patterns are very distinct. One is a Starfleet issued phaser, our ordinance produces a very specific kind of signature.”

“And the other?” Vin asked. 

“A Nausicaan disruptor pistol,” Julia nodded at Alex who tapped the display to show the weapon in question. Resembling an Earth-type revolver with more hard corners, its poly-alloy casing had a dark, almost black metal finish. “I recognized the energy dispersal from a paralithium cell. Also, the message intercepted by the Erstwhile definitely came from the relay station.” 

“So Paracelsus sent his thugs after Lambert once he realized Lambert was trying to get a message to us,” Chris frowned, remembering Buck mentioning how unhappy Ezra had been to see Nausicaan mercenaries playing the part of hospital warders. It appeared Ezra’s instincts were correct as usual. With what they now knew about Paracelsus, the presence of the Nausicaans seemed even more ominous. “The question is, did they kill him, or is he still alive in the facility? Obviously, he was trying to get Starfleet’s attention when he sent that distress signal.” 

“Inconclusive,” Alex shrugged. “There was blood detected by your scans. The DNA did match him, but it was nowhere substantial enough to imply he was killed. He could have been wounded.” 

“So,” Vin finally asked the most obvious question. “Why? Why did Paracelsus take Callie?”

Alex dropped her gaze to the carpeted floor, deciding it was time to speak up, now they had reached the heart of the matter after all the discussion. The conclusion she reached was not going to make her Captain very happy, not in the least. Chris called her the best science officer he ever worked with, and much of his faith had to do with her ability to make conceptual leaps. She was about to make one now and hope the journey across didn’t seem too outlandish, considering everything she had to base this on, was speculation. 

“Captain, I have a theory.” 

All eyes shifted to her, and Alex found herself on the receiving end of the Larabee glare set at full intensity. The man’s stare could make her feel like a freshly-minted cadet at the Academy again, and not even Vin’s encouraging smile could shake it off. 

“I’m all ears Commander,” Chris spoke with just enough edge in his voice to indicate he wanted to hear it now. 

“We know how resilient the xenomorphs are. The things can exist in a vacuum, they’re capable of hibernating for centuries and patient enough to wait out a host, no matter how long it takes. It possesses a digestive system that also acts as it’s circulatory system, carrying the most corrosive biological acid in existence. It took military-grade hardware to kill one in the 21st century and hand phasers in this one. I think it’s safe to say these creatures are near indestructible.” 

“That’s for sure,” Vin nodded, unable to disagree. Even though he often ran a combat simulation pitting him against the xenomorphs hand to hand, Vin knew he cheated by programing the creature without their acidic blood, somewhat neutering them. 

“The thing is, we know so little about silicon-based lifeforms. We assumed a baryon sweep would exterminate them immediately. What if it didn’t? What if it mutated the spore to such a degree, it didn’t need to immobilize a host as usual? The report I saw from the Biological Hazard Division showed the alien spore Lambert found dead, had been so for quite some time. Captain, the carcass was desiccated.” 

“Jesus Christ,” Chris’s eyes widened in horror, realizing what Alex was trying to say. “You think she breathed it in?”

“Oh God,” Julia gasped, equally shocked to the core by that idea. “YOu mean the oxidized material they thought was rust was actually...”

“Xenomorph DNA,” Vin concluded. “Makes sense, the things can adapt to just about anything. Why not this? But then why didn’t it come out of her like the others?”

“The mutation caused by the baryon sweep might have altered its normal gestation period,” Chris explained. “It normally implants an embryo into a host directly. What did Callie’s doctors at Ventax say it was? A genetic disorder?” Because if she breathed in it, it’s microscopic, means its nowhere as indestructible as it was if it were an embryo. Remember, without transporter technology, getting the thing off a host’s face is nearly impossible. The blood alone will kill any victim. No, it couldn’t do what it had to as fast.” 

“So the embryo was growing inside of her by the airborne xenomorph DNA?” Julia winced, unable to imagine anything more horrible, and for the first time, being Borg didn’t seem as terrible as what poor Callie Leech must have endured in the last hours of her life. 

It was worse than that, Chris realized when he saw Alex had not spoken because what was on her lips was too terrible to say. 

“No,” Chris shook his head and felt his stomach heave. “It turned her into one.” 

Chris Larabee, you lucky bastard. 

Buck Wilmington cursed his Captain and old friend for the dozenth time since sitting down to listen to the lecture being presented by Nathan Jackson to the staff of the Tenabrus Institute. 

He wished he was anywhere but inside the small auditorium attached to the Administration Wing of the facility, twenty-two levels deep beneath the surface of the planet. While it was always a point of contention between himself and Chris whenever the Captain wanted to assume command of an Away mission, this time, Buck would have happily lost the argument. At this moment, he wished more than anything, regulations didn't require the First Officer to take the place of the Captain on Away missions since he really rather Chris was here instead of him.

Months ago, the subject of the lecture would have fascinated him. Like Alex, Buck was a former science officer, and they often sat together during such occasions. Buck could imagine he and Alex side by side, trading comments under their breath, like two kids passing notes in class. Right before Chris jabbed him in the ribs and made Alex cower with a patented Larabee glare. Instead, Alex was up there on the ship, and he was down here, listening to a subject in which he had far too much insight. Discussing it with the clinical indifference of those who had no idea how traumatic the reality could be. 

Seated along the front row of chairs in the auditorium, next to him was Ezra Standish and Mary Travis, appeared to be listening to the lecture with interest along with Josiah who was next to Paracelsus. Nathan, who was more than accustomed to delivering talks, not just to the Maverick staff, but was often called on to speak about his work on the Borg assimilation process, captivated his audience. If not for the subject matter striking too close to home for his liking, Buck would have been similarly engaged. 

"The Royal Protocol," Nathan spoke from behind a marble rostrum at the head of the auditorium, "appears to be a line of programming incorporated in the cortical implants of all Borg drones shortly after activation of their neural transceivers, the device which connects them to the Collective hive mind. This program remains dormant for most of the drone's life, activated only when there is a need to produce a Borg Queen." 

"Produce a Borg Queen?" A hand shot up on the cusp of that question. It belonged to one of Paracelsus's staff, a middle-aged Takarian with prominent nasal ridges. "I thought the Borg Queen was a single telepathic female." 

"According to the data gathered after our Captain's encounter with the species called the C'Kaia, that is true. The C'Kaia are a race of arthropods whose planet went nova, taking a sizable number of their population with them. To colonise worlds for their use, they created the Borg to do the deed for them, in much the same way the Founders bred the Jem'Hadar. Like all high-order insects, they exist with a hive mentality and chose to do the same with their new creations. They wanted the Borg hierarchy to mirror their own hive mind, since it would be easy to control one telepathic female, instead of thousands of cybernetic organisms."

"Of course," Paracelsus spoke up, "Every species which accepts the concept of mono or polytheistic deities, imagines God in their own image. We've seen it in every species and culture in one form or another. It makes perfect sense for the Borg and the C'Kaia, whatever role they play in each other's development, to view themselves in the same way." 

"Absolutely," Nathan nodded. "I believe a telepathic female was originally needed to create the hive mind and link the others. When the Queen severed their link, the Borg evolved beyond the need for her to be a real person. With the cultures and the technology the Borg absorbed in the search for perfection, the link no longer needed the telepathic connection to exist."

"It is not without precedent," Paracelsus spoke to his staff. "In the society of bees, all female worker bees are capable of producing fertilised eggs. Then they simply feed one particular larva royal jelly. The added nutrients produces a queen who becomes the mother of their society.”

“In this case,” Nathan continued, “it is a line of programming the Borg initialises when the Borg queen is killed, or they are cut off from the Collective and require one." 

The Royal Protocol.

Buck's stomach churned inside his stomach when a wave of nausea came out of nowhere and threatened to make him sick. Closing his eyes, Nathan's words faded away, and only one phrase remained. Royal Protocol. Each word impacted like the explosions from artillery shells and Buck could taste something metallic in his mouth. Logically, he knew it was his mind playing tricks on him, that all this was a memory, a memory of being Borg. Yet Buck also knew if Chris hadn't freed him from the Collective when he did, this would have been One of Nineteen's ultimate plan. 

The next step after the Maverick was assimilated would have been the initialisation of the Royal Protocol. 

Buck stood up abruptly, silencing Nathan in mid-sentence. The healer looked at him puzzled before understanding dawned across the man's face, and Buck saw genuine regret at how this lecture might be affecting the First Officer. Hating it that Nathan should feel bad about anything, Buck just knew he had to get out of there. 

"I need some air," he said hastily to Ezra, who offered no judgement, nodding in understanding and allowing Buck to make a discreet departure without further comment. 

Leaving the others without looking over his shoulder, Buck strode out of the auditorium through the first exit he could find. 

Buck strode through the now empty hallways and activated the glass panels along the walls, not unlike those on the Maverick, and got directions to the Atrium. Right now, he needed solitude, not more corridors and hallways. The Atrium might not be the open space Buck craved, but Paracelsus had designed it to resemble a large park and for Buck that was good enough right now. His pulse was racing, and Buck knew he was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack, which filled him with exasperation and probably worsened his condition. 

Fortunately, the area was devoid of people at this time of the evening. Most of the staff were either at the lecture or enjoying their downtime. Buck had given JD leave to forgo the talk since Holly had invited him to dinner. Despite the younger man's stuttered reaction to the invitation, Buck knew JD had wanted to go. Although Buck knew JD was hoping to maintain a long-distance relationship with Casey, who was in Bajor, there was no indication the girl was coming back. It wouldn't hurt for the kid to date a little to determine if absence did indeed make the heart grow fonder. 

Thinking of JD and Casey's relationship inevitably brought Buck back to his thoughts on Inez and once again, the turmoil inside him was given the added turbulence of where he left things with Inez. 

Christ, he was a mess. 

Reaching the Atrium, Buck found the grounds of the faux-park were empty. All the patients, or inmates as Ezra insisted on calling them, were now back in their rooms in the level below, along with the Nausicaan warders charged to keep them in line. Leaving the path through the grass, he made his way to the section of wall concealed by the holographic projection of the Higo Hosokawa Gardens in Japan.

Sighting a bench sitting next to a Bajoran lilac tree, he headed towards the seat facing the picture-perfect view of the gardens during one of its famous lighting festivals. Sitting down, he admired the scene of maple, hackberry and wax trees, illuminated by fairy lights with Kumamoto Castle in the background. Once settled, he took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself. 

Breathing in and out, remembering some of the meditation exercises Josiah suggested he try, Buck tried to calm his nerves when suddenly a voice came out of nowhere to invade his still forming state of serenity. 

"Pretty nice view considering we're as far away from Japan as we can possibly be," Josiah Sanchez remarked casually. 

Buck blinked and looked up to see the Counsellor next to him. "Counsellor, shouldn't you be in the auditorium catching up with your buddy Gabe?" 

"I will eventually," Josiah rounded the bench before he took up the space next to Buck and leaned against the backrest, admiring the same view. "Gabe's happy quizzing Nathan about the Borg, he'll be fine without me for a while." 

Buck frowned, guessing his abrupt departure from the auditorium would not have escaped the Counsellor's notice and wished the man would go away. He had no desire to talk right now. 

"So you needed some fresh air too?"

"I needed to see if my friend was alright." Josiah threw him a sidelong glance, not about to mince words about his intentions. Buck would see through a lie and as a Counsellor, honesty was vital in all dealings with a patient. "If it wasn't me, it would have been Mary. She's worried about you, and so is Ezra, but he respects your privacy too much to intrude."

Buck's first reaction was one of hostility, but he could tell nothing being said to him was meant to be intrusive. They cared about him and because of that, Buck reined in his temper. "I'm fine Josiah. Just too much shop talk about the Borg for this time of night. I needed a break." 

"Fair enough," Josiah conceded the point. "I suppose all that talk is somewhat repetitious for you. You've heard it all before and you know more about the Borg than anyone in the room." 

"Damn straight," Buck bit back and then realised he showed a little more emotion than he intended. "I wish everyone would stop asking me if I'm alright, I'm fine." 

"They're concerned about you," Josiah pointed out. "It's natural, given how we almost thought we lost you for good." 

They weren't the only ones, Buck thought silently and knew that his friends were only trying to help, just like Josiah. Yet something inside him didn't want to touch the bag of crazy that was left behind by the Borg. 

"Well, you didn't," he started to get to his feet, preparing to run again, in any direction he could find, as long as he could avoid this conversation. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are," this time, Josiah did look at him. "I know that, do you?"

Buck stopped short. "What do you mean?"

Once again, his heart started pounding and what drove him from the auditorium, returned in full force. The clenching of his gut, the fear that seemed to come out of nowhere and suffocated him. Buck was certain he had been hiding it! He'd done everything he could to show no one how fragile he was because he refused to be seen as a victim and couldn't bear their pity. He was broken inside, he knew that, but Buck couldn't take anyone else knowing it too. 

"Buck," Josiah stared at him kindly. "No one expects you to bounce right back from what you went through. You've set an impossible standard for yourself to be the man you were before this happened. No matter how much you want to ignore it, you can't. You know exactly what kind of effect being assimilated has on your mind, I don't have to tell you that it's going to be with you for a long time. What I can do is help you accept what happened and possibly move on. If you keep ignoring the problem, trying to make demands of yourself you can't possibly meet, it's going to hurt you worse than assimilation ever did." 

"You don't know what it's like Josiah!" Buck snapped, stepping away from him. "I close my eyes, and I see them, I see the faces of the people I hurt. I hear them screaming in my dreams! I almost destroyed the ship! Those people on Vulcan, the ones we couldn't save, that's on me Josiah! On me!" 

"Listen to yourself," Josiah stood up and faced him. "You're using words like I, me, and my. When you were Borg, you were none of those things. There was nothing in Buck Wilmington in those actions. You became a number, just one part of a hive mind programmed to behave the way a million other minds caught in their web behaved before you. The Collective took the best of you without any permission and used it."

"I should have been able to...."

"Stop them?" Josiah countered. "If Jean-Luc Picard, one of our greatest commanders couldn't stop them, what makes you think you could do any better? Picard's will alone has forged some of our greatest victories, and the Borg went through him like he wasn't even there. You have no reason to feel less because you couldn't fight them. So many have tried Buck, so many have failed. Some never come back, even after the implants are removed. You are still here, and I know you're fighting hard to come back all the way, but you don't have to do it alone. We're here for you, and we'll do everything we can, but you need to trust us." 

Buck turned away, unable to expose all even though Josiah's words penetrated. They just didn't go deep enough. 

"Sometimes," Buck said softly, "I wish Chris had killed me down there. I wish he fired the phaser and made it all end. I almost hate him for not doing it, for not setting me free before I hurt all those people.”

Buck just wished Chris had let him go. 

"So what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

JD used a line that would have made Buck Wilmington proud if he were present to hear it as he stared across the table at Holly.

They were in the dining hall located in another section of the same sublevel as the Administration Wing, sharing dinner after Buck told JD he was not required to be at the lecture. After hours installing the upgrades to the communications system, drawing out the work while Ezra tried to figure out the place, JD didn't mind the exemption. Especially with Holly. 

Although surprised by the invitation, stunned really, JD managed to accept without looking like a complete idiot despite Ezra's efforts to hide his amusement at the whole scene. Trying not to read more into the invitation than the fact Holly probably didn't get a chance to meet people her own age here, JD accepted. Still, a part of him was rather pleased a pretty girl with that killer smile found him interesting enough to hang out with. 

The dining hall they ended up in for dinner, contained at least two dozen white plasteel tables with matching chairs, with every wall except the one installed with food replicators, covered with holo screens. The scenery on each wall was different, but all were breathtaking and idyllic, from the beaches of Risa, to the glorious skies of Russo IV and of course the undersea cities of Pacifica. With the lighting dimmed enough for things to remain visible but not harsh, the atmosphere was pleasant enough to make everyone forget they were in an asylum. 

Holly laughed at JD's question and bit into the piece of lettuce, taking a few seconds to chew and swallow before answering him with a sad smile. "My father and Doctor Paracelsus were old friends. They worked together when my dad was stationed at Corridan, so I knew him growing up. When my dad caught Legato's disease and died, I was a wreck. My mom died when I was five and Doctor Paracelsus was family to us. He knew I didn't have anyone left, so he offered me a job as his assistant, and I accepted."

"I'm sorry," JD reached across the table and squeezed her hand, understanding more than he would like how alone she must have felt. "I know the feeling. My mom died at the Battle of Sector 001, and it was only just the two of us."

"It's funny, isn't it?" Holly met his gaze, the grief still lingering in her blue eyes, "you grow up wishing there were more people in your life when it's just the two of you, not realising when you lose that other person, they were all you ever needed." 

"Yeah," JD agreed. "So do you like your job? I mean it's gotta be a little creepy working here."

"It was at first," she admitted readily, remembering how anxious she'd been when they'd taken that first ride from the surface to the sublevels where the institute was located. "But Doctor Paracelsus was really nice, and I've come to know the other doctors and staff, so I'm getting used to it." 

Holly flashed him a smile and JD had to admit, it was capable of lighting up even this dreary place. He liked her a lot and felt a pang of guilt at the idea of being attracted to her. Still, JD reminded himself what he and Casey agreed to when they decided to part six weeks earlier. Both of them recognised their lives were just beginning, and neither were starry-eyed teenagers, and it was entirely possible Casey might not return to the Maverick at all. While he was not yet ready to think it was over between them, JD accepted Casey's decision for them to part as friends. 

As he allowed himself to like Holly, JD decided it might not have been such a bad idea after all. 

"What about you?" Holly broke him out of his reverie. "Life must be pretty interesting on a starship." 

"It is," JD grinned, "but it can be scary too. I mean we ran into the Borg not long ago and that was bad. Most of our time's been spent the last few months along what used to be the Neutral Zone. After what happened to Romulus, everything has been going crazy in this quadrant. It's why we were so insistent on making those upgrades."

"Well the force field keeps most things out," Holly explained before a memory surfaced and her expression became troubled. "Although we did have one of our patients wander outside not long ago." 

"Outside?" JD's eyes widened in surprise. He was certain Ezra implied nothing could penetrate the force field once it was raised. Then again, he thought silently, during their last check-in with the Captain, they'd discovered someone had escaped the asylum to reach the relay station. That person had to find a way through the forcefield to make the hike there. "Won't they die?" 

"Yeah," Holly nodded. "We thought for sure they would, except this patient managed to get to one of our cold-weather suits and escaped through a breach in the lower levels. I mean we didn't build this facility, it was here long before we arrived. Doctor Paracelsus says that we just added to it. I think it was some kind of base used by Romulans or something." 

"What sort of breach?" JD seized upon the opportunity that Holly had unexpectedly presented him. During the tour, Buck mentioned Paracelsus took them no further than the sub-level below them, where the patients were in residence. The final two levels were nothing but storage space according to the doctor. However, if Jerry Lambert had stolen a cold-weather suit, then his escape route might have been underground, beneath the reach of the force field. 

"I'm not sure," Holly admitted, aware she was probably talking out of turn but JD was a Starfleet officer. It was perhaps important he had this information if they were to be kept safe from anyone trying to harm the institute or its inhabitants. "Kash told me he heard Shavo saying they found some kind of tunnel system on Sub-Level 25. That's the lowest level in the facility. It was apparently ancient and not in any of the blueprints."

"Holly," JD said gravely, "if there's a way out, that means there's a way in. We need to seal it off."

"I'm sure it has already," Holly assured him, although the uncertainty across her face a second later indicated she wasn't entirely sure. 

"Can I take a look?" JD asked, aware if this entryway existed, Paracelsus might keep it from them if they confronted the doctor directly. If Ezra were able to act on this information, JD knew the Security Chief would already be on his way down there to investigate. As it stood, JD was sure he could convince Holly to take him instead.. 

"You mean, go down to Sub-Level 25?" She stared at him, a little apprehensive. "I've never been down there." 

"We won't stay long," he promised. "We’ll just go down there and take a look around. I can get my tricorder so we'll find it in a hurry. If there's a breach Holly, we should get it fixed as soon as possible or reinforce it. The Maverick has tonnes of stuff to make sure nothing wanders in from the outside. Didn't you say there were all kinds of critters living on this planet?" 

"There are," she confirmed. "I guess we could take a quick look, I mean to make sure it's safe." 

"Thanks Holly," JD grinned, pleased at his effort to convince her. "Now let's finish dinner and go down there for a look. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about at all." 

Until Nathan saw Buck stand up and leave, the healer had forgotten how his words would be received by someone still raw from the process of assimilation. Unable to go after the First Officer himself, Nathan was glad to see Josiah had done it instead. Still, the distress Buck would have felt, left a sour taste in his mouth. As a healer, he took an oath to do no harm, and that included not rubbing salt into the mental wounds of his patients.

Even Doctor Paracelsus noticed Buck's abrupt departure, and it took a quick explanation after the lecture for the doctor to understand why.

Thus when Nathan saw Josiah and Buck step through the doors leading into Doctor Paracelsus's suite, where the man was hosting a private dinner for his guests, there was only one thing to do. 

"Buck, I'm sorry. I should have known..."

"It's okay, Nathan, I'm fine." Buck stopped the doctor from going any further. He hated that Nathan should regret anything because he was unable to get his emotions under control. 

Buck was still nowhere close to feeling like himself, but the talk with Josiah did serve the purpose of releasing some of his pent up anxieties. It also gave him some food for thought. Josiah's advice did make him question whether or not he could continue as First Officer of the Maverick when his grip on reality still felt somewhat fragile. 

Doctor Paracelsus, who emerged from the next room to greet his guests, approached the three Starfleet officers, wearing a look of contrition. "I am afraid I would not have imposed on Doctor Jackson if I were aware of your situation Commander," the man said, genuinely regretful. It only heightened Buck's annoyance at how everyone was affected because of his traumas. 

"Like I told Nathan," Buck dismissed the perceived slight with a wave of his hand. "You couldn't have known." 

"Still, it must have been a terrifying experience," Paracelsus was not about to be absolved so quickly as he gestured for the group to take a seat at the lounge while the catering staff prepared the meal in the adjoining dining room. Mary and Ezra had yet to arrive and since dinner was some time away, the doctor retreated to the drinks replicators to furnish his guests with refreshments. 

"Gabe," Josiah tossed Paracelsus a look to drop the subject. 

Buck caught the exchange and decided he wasn't going to have the entire evening descend into awkwardness by having people tread on eggshells around him. Perhaps if he explained himself a little, it would ease the tension. 

"It's okay Josiah," Buck gave him a small smile of gratitude and once again, shared Chris's sentiments that the Maverick had the best damn counsellor in the fleet. "It wasn't an experience I'd recommend," he admitted to Paracelsus to satisfy the man's curiosity. 

Paracelsus returned with a carafe of synthehol and some glasses, before placing them on the table and taking a seat himself. "Doctor Jackson tells me you were with the Collective for a few days." 

More like an eternity, Buck thought to himself. "I was."

"They say a Borg drone is never alone when they are connected to the hive. Did you hear the others or one single voice?" 

"Perhaps this isn't the best conversation to be having," Josiah had no desire for Buck to relive any traumatic memories, especially after their discussion in the Atrium. He understood Buck was trying to prove he was able to handle any situation, even scrutiny about his Borg experience. Still, Josiah would prefer to spare him the ordeal when his emotional state was suspect. 

"I don't mean to intrude," Paracelsus apologised, seeing Josiah's concern. 

"No, no," Buck brushed aside their worries, determined to pull himself together for the duration of this mission. He wasn't going to be treated like he was fragile, and he was done behaving like it as well. "Look you said it yourself Josiah, I’ve got to talk about this." 

"I did," Josiah remarked still concerned about Buck's state of mind, despite the First Officer's attempts to prove he was capable of handling anything, "but in a more controlled setting." 

"I'm surrounded by three doctors. It doesn't get much more controlled than that." Buck gave Josiah a little smile, trying to assure the Counsellor he was up to answering any questions about assimilation. 

"He's got a point," Nathan replied, trying to be supportive, but he wasn't about to let Buck get ahead of himself either. "But the minute it gets uncomfortable, you say so, and that will be the end of it, right?"

Nathan shot Paracelsus, a stern warning he would not be defied on this point. It was Nathan who pulled the Borg implants out of Buck's body and the memory of just how much of it there was during the painstaking operation, told the healer Buck had every right to his discomfort. Nathan was still mortified by his lack of sensitivity at not realising how his lecture would affect Buck, who was not just his commanding officer, but his friend. 

"Of course," Paracelsus took the warning seriously before regarding Buck again. "Commander, I didn't mean to cause you any upset. Out here, we've been fortunate to be out of the Borg's path during their incursions into our space. I've read all the papers, but you are the first person I've encountered who's actually been through assimilation. I apologise if curiosity got the better of me." 

"I understand," Buck shrugged, and took a sip of the synthehol in the glass he poured himself before addressing the question asked by the doctor. More than anything he wished it was the stash of whiskey Chris claimed he didn't keep in his Ready Room. 

"It was never a single voice," he said after a moment. "There were a lot of voices talking all at once. You were never alone in your mind, they were always there, but they didn't say anything different. Their voices weren't something you heard, it was like seeing out of a thousand windows all at once, and one of them was yours. The Borg always say assimilation makes you feel like a part of something, but they're wrong. You can see everything, but you can't do anything about it. You can hear the others, but you can't talk to them. All you can do is just watch." 

No one spoke for a moment, and both Josiah and Nathan could tell by the dull expression on Buck's face, this was what made Buck suffer so much, witnessing all the pain the Collective used him to inflict on others, without being able to do anything about it. 

"And the Queen?" Paracelsus asked since he did not know Buck, and could not read him as well as his friends. "Did you hear her?" 

"No," Buck had to admit. "The circumstances of the Maverick's encounter with the Borg kept the Collective away from the assimilated. The Queen was never able to influence us. Still, even though she wasn't there, you could..." 

"...feel her?" Paracelsus finished off Buck's sentence to the surprise of Josiah and Nathan. 

"I thought you said you've never dealt with assimilated patients before?" Nathan asked, finding Paracelsus' guess a little too accurate. 

"I haven't," he admitted quickly, clearing his throat. "But I have encountered species with hive mentalities before. The Jarada and the Xindi-insectoids have a similar societal structure as the Borg, with their leader being the queen mother. The Jarada Queen can communicate with most of their warrior and worker classes. I've even been asked to consult on a few cases, and I must admit, I've felt her touching my mind." 

Josiah stared at him for a moment, wondering how Gabe could have allowed himself to become involved in such a situation. Starfleet Medical had strict regulations for therapists without mental training to attend to telepathic patients. Before his arrival on Tenabrus, Josiah reviewed Gabriel Paracelsus's record and knew the man had no credentials to be treating patients with those kinds of abilities.

Thanks to his marriage to Ayla, who was Betazoid and fathering two children with the same traits, Josiah learned how to erect shields around his thoughts. It allowed him to treat such patients safely, preventing them from inadvertently affecting his mind. Having a psychic connection was dangerous, it led to cracks in a therapist's impartiality and risked contamination by whatever psychosis the patient was suffering.

"Is that wise?" Josiah looked at him with concern. 

"Unintentional I assure you," Paracelsus saw Josiah's scrutiny. "However, it is a fascinating insight. For some, having a voice telling you what to do removes all the doubt from one's action. It liberates them from moral quandaries, insecurities and reservations..."

"Assuming the voice is real and not the result of mental illness," Josiah pointed out, finding Paracelsus's viewpoint troubling. 

"Agreed," Paracelsus laughed. "But for some, it almost feels like religious enlightenment. Surrendering yourself to something greater, being part of a whole, working to one purpose. It's like hearing the voice of God telling you exactly what he wants of you and knowing how you fit in his plan." 

"I wouldn't call it that," Buck spoke, finding nothing about assimilation at all enlightening. 

"Well, the Borg are in search of enlightenment," Paracelsus smiled. "Perhaps when they have evolved to that point, they will have the perfection they seek." 

"The Borg don't want enlightenment," Buck found himself saying because the man's words angered him. 

The evolution Paracelsus referred to had come at the cost of whole civilisations, swallowed up by Borg machinery, destroyed for all time. He thought of the races the Collective had taken. All their achievements, their songs, their history, their dreams and their technology. All of it was compressed into streams of data where the beauty of it would be considered irrelevant, just some information to be used when preparing to assimilate yet another race.

"They're locusts. All they understand is taking what they need and discarding the rest. There is no enlightenment, no attempt to achieve true ascendancy, just this insane need to have more." 

"Sometimes," Paracelsus said with a little smile, unperturbed by Buck's harsh assessment of the Collective. "God's ways are not to be understood." 

Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. 

His heart was pounding in his chest like the pistons of some great engine suddenly jolted into overdrive. For a moment, JD Dunne thought it might literally explode inside his chest, cracking open ribs, spraying flesh and meat in all directions like... 

...a xenomorph being born. 

The association would have made him double over and puke if he were not so terrified already. Tendrils of fear coiled around his spine as he caught his first glimpse of teeth, slick with noisome fluid, appearing through the darkness like the slow reveal of the stage when the curtain rose for the play to begin. A long, thin strand of drool hung pendulously from one of those enormous teeth and when the elongated head turned in their direction, what remained of Holly's senses was utterly shredded. 

Her scream not only snapped JD out of his paralysis, but it gave the creature clawing its way out of hibernation, the jolt it needed to become fully alert. As it tore at the resinous coating around its body, JD knew with absolute certainty, they would have only as long as it took for the creature to rip its way out of its cocoon before it would be upon them. Neurons began firing rapidly in his brain, flooding JD with an encyclopedia of information in a split second. It was spurred on by the flight instinct, telling him what he needed to know to survive the next thirty seconds. 

"Come on!" JD gripped Holly's upper arm and dragged her forward, shaking her mind out of its stupor of fear. 

Despite this, she followed him blindly, her neck still craned so she could see what was behind them, instead of where he was leading them. JD needed no visual to know the creature would soon be in pursuit, if not already. What he knew about the xenomorph was burned into his memory after reading the Captain's report following the mission to recover the ancient ship, the Sulaco. Until then, JD thought he was ready to handle all the terrors of space. 

Seeing the footage of the xenomorph on LV-426 told JD he knew nothing at all and made him remember in vivid detail what he was dealing with. 

These things were fast, damn fast. They were capable of climbing walls, flattening themselves like mice so they could fit into ducts, electrical conduits, and airshafts. Shooting them with a phaser only worked if you were standing a reasonable distance away, or else the acid spray from their bodies would have the same effect as diving into molten lava. If you didn't use a phaser, they would come at you with lightning-fast reflexes, and unless you were a Vulcan amid plak tow, you had no goddamn hope of taking them on hand to hand.

Sprinting across the metal-plated floor covered in sticky globs of resin and tendrils of dark organic matter, JD knew in his mind they were withered umbilical cords. He also knew if the xenomorph in pursuit didn't kill them, then the spores inside the eggs of this alien hatchery would accomplish that just as well, only slower. As they hastily retraced their path into this hellish place, JD became conscious of other sounds penetrating his heavy breathing and Holly's barely stifled whimpers of terror. 

He heard things tearing in the darkness, movement in places where all had been still, the low hiss of things alive and terrible, awakening from their slumber, ready to spring unto an unsuspecting world. They were all waking up, JD realised with dismay as he saw the open grate against the wall beckoning them forward. Absurdly, he thought of Alice in Wonderland and how he and Holly had chose to go down their own rabbit hole, except it did not lead to a world of whimsical magic.

Instead, it led them straight to hell. 

He could hear the hard chitin of its exoskeleton chinking against the metal, wincing upon hearing it. Without looking back, he knew the xenomorph was behind them, and it was closing the distance quickly. The open mouth of the grate awaited and he knew they had seconds if that to reach it before the xenomorph was upon them. A few more steps and they were at the wall surrounding their escape route. 

"Get in!" JD warned, swinging around at last and going for his phaser. 

How close the creature was made his blood turn cold and going purely on instinct, JD fired.

The energy beam struck the creature in mid-torso, almost severing it in half. But the cut was nowhere that clean, and the xenomorph's body exploded, spraying acid in all directions. The bulk of greenish fluid bathed several eggs and the floor surrounding it. JD raised his arm to shield himself, and noted in the split second before he felt the acid eating through his uniform, the creature's corrosive blood did little to harm the eggs or the organic tendrils on the floor. 

JD, however, was not so lucky. 

He knew he was a suitable distance away when he fired, but that did not prevent a few stray drops from splashing against the sleeve of his uniform. He felt the sting immediately like he'd been hit with the stray embers of a fire and uttered a cry of pain as the corrosive material began to eat away at the fabric. Still clutching the phaser because he was too frightened to let go of it, JD quickly yanked the sleeve off in one powerful rip. It did not stop the pain biting into his skin, and by the time he discarded the blazer sleeve, he'd realised it ate through his grey turtle neck as well. 

"JD!" Holly shrieked. 

JD looked up and saw another alien on fast approach. More than one actually, a few of them. 

"GET GOING!" He barked and prompted her towards the grate by his sharp demand. 

Tearing off the sleeve of his turtleneck, he fired again, able to ignore the pain in his arm because the adrenaline was lending a helping hand. Another alien took the brunt of the blast and exploded, bathing the others in its blood and immediately filling the room with more noxious smoke. JD didn't wait around to see if more were coming, because he knew they were. Instead, he turned on his heels and ran, seeing Holly disappearing through the vent and fully intending to follow her in. He heard her scrambling into the metal passageway and bent over to follow her, casting a glance at the hatchery they were leaving behind. 

They were waking up, JD thought with horror. Not just the ones so cleverly concealed in the dark cracks of the alien growth clinging to the walls like some grotesque fresco. Even as he saw their shadows moving across the walls covered in bio-resin, and God only knew what else, he knew the xenomorphs coming out of hibernation. They were pulling themselves free of the nooks and crannies they'd created with their bizarre alien design and would soon be seeking their way of this sub-level. 

"Hurry, JD!" 

JD heard Holly cry after him as he reached the opening and clambered inside. She had already started crawling along the shaft, pausing long enough to ensure he was behind her. As he saw the aliens approach, he picked up the grill lying on the floor near the opening and quickly pulled it into its place. He had only a few seconds because the aliens were on the move and he suspected it wouldn't take them long to figure out where their potential new hosts had gone. Adjusting the setting on his phaser, he pulled the trigger and worked quickly to weld the grate in place. 

"What are you doing?" Holly insisted, her eyes wide with fear, wanting nothing more than to be away from this place. 

"If I don't seal this, they're going to come after us, and I'm telling you, they're better than we are with ducts." 

"Oh God," she whimpered as the yellow energy beam did its work of melting the steel of the grate. The smell made her flinch, and she retreated as the glow bathed JD's face, and she saw the sweat forming on his skin. "Those things," she managed to say, "what are those things? Where did they come from?" 

That was an excellent question, JD thought and then tapped his combadge with one hand, while the other was still gripping the phaser tightly. 

"Commander Wilmington! Come in!"

There was no answer. 

JD tapped his com badge again. "Commander Wilmington, please come in. Buck!" 

JD exchanged a quick glance with Holly who looked just as perplexed. 

There was no chance to debate the matter because he saw something moving through the louvres of the grill, followed by a sharp jolt and an earth piercing shriek of indignation when the metal did not buckle. 

"GO!" He waved Holly to start moving. "I don't know how long that's going to hold!" 

No sooner than he finished those words, the grate shuddered again, and this time, JD saw it buckle just enough to tell him that with persistence, the creature on the other side of the grill was going to get through. Crawling on his hand and knees after Holly, he moved quickly along the shaft with that relentless pounding spurring him on.

They had to get out of here and tell the Captain about the cocoons, and about Jerry Lambert. 

“Thank you for indulging me in this Ezra.” 

Mary Travis flashed the Security Chief a look of appreciation after they met each other in the hallway, a few doors away from the rooms they were assigned for the night’s stay at the Institute. In truth, they were supposed to be heading to Doctor Paracelsus’s private suite for dinner. Still, since the Away Team was now being allowed to move about the facility unescorted, Mary wanted to take the opportunity to investigate the telepathic signals she was receiving from an unknown mind somewhere in this place. 

While the sensible thing might have been to bring her insights to Paracelsus’s attention, something in her gut, an instinct Chris often said he swore by, advised against it. Despite his outwardly charming and affable manner, Mary did not trust the doctor. She was a career diplomat who sat in mediation with a variety of people and races throughout her career, and she knew how to spot a lie. Paracelsus reeked of it, but unfortunately, Mary had nothing except her minor telepathic senses to back up her suspicions.

Something was going on here, something she could not put her finger on but felt it imperative they discover before it was too late. 

“No thanks needed Mary,” Ezra dismissed her gratitude gently. “Your perceptions in the past have been of great value to the ship, I believe the Captain would expect me to do nothing less than to investigate any sensitivities you might experience while here. Besides I, myself would like to search this facility without any escorts showing us what they want us to see in their supposed guided tours.”

Mary flashed him a radiant smile of thanks and could see why Julia Pemberton was so smitten with Ezra. The man might sound like an English novel about manners, but there was reassurance in his words stronger than duranium. Having his confidence meant a lot to Mary, who was not ignorant of the fact that as a telepath, she barely rated. She could not probe other people’s thoughts or impose her will upon them, but her marriage bond with Syan did leave her open to receiving telepathic signals. 

Leaving the hallway, they entered the Atrium once more, now mostly deserted as staff and patients returned to their private quarters to spend their evenings. Earlier, the bright lighting and picturesque holographic scenes made the place look cheery and idyllic. Now with the lights dimmed to simulate the evening, the images projected altering to show nighttime scenes, and the long shadows everywhere, Mary found the place somewhat eerie. 

“I feel something Ezra,” Mary tried to explain herself to justify his faith. “It’s compelling, but also subtle, not quite a language. I think.” she glanced at him, “eventually anyone with high to median esper ratings will pick it up.” 

Ezra frowned because, on the Esper scale (ESP), he had a poor rating and would most likely not detect anything, which left him at a disadvantage. “Can you interpret what you are sensing?” 

“If I didn’t know better,” Mary’s brow furrowed, aware Ezra wasn’t going to like this association at all. “It feels like Borg chatter.”

The Chief stopped short immediately and stared. 

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not the Borg,” Mary reassured Ezra quickly, aware he would not be impartial on this matter. After what happened to Julia, Ezra was especially sensitive to any possibility of the Borg being in the vicinity and wanted him to get the thought out of his mind right away. “It’s in the background, but instead of many voices, it’s just one. And it’s female.” 

“Like the queen.” 

“No,” Mary shook her head as they reached the lift. “It’s not a language but emotions. Its intent is not to affect your mind, but your heart.” 

“A far more insidious form of control,” Ezra replied and then added. “However, I believe you are correct, this does not sound like a Borg situation. The Collective is ruthless, clinical and methodical. Emotions are irrelevant distractions of no use to them.”

Ezra leaned forward and activated the lift controls, waiting for a second before the doors slid open and they stepped inside. The Chief examined the lift control once the doors sealed them in. As far as they knew, the deepest floor of the facility was Sub-Level 25, where storage equipment was being kept. His discussions with the Operations staff while he and JD were installing the new security and communications upgrades revealed the functioning of transporters and comms on this level was problematic, which was why it was used for storage. Still, Ezra wanted to take a look for himself. 

“Would you say your sensitivities became more acute the deeper we journeyed from the surface?” Ezra asked the protocol officer, his gaze still fixed on the panel 

“Yes,” she nodded. “Right now, what I’m experiencing feels like a call, drawing me into something.” 

“Then we should not disappoint,” Ezra answered, grateful they were both armed. Despite Paracelsus’s assurance, the patients here were non-violent, Ezra’s distrust of the man, not to mention the knowledge this facility housed criminally insane patients, meant he would take every precaution necessary. “Sub-level 25.”

“Sub-level 25 is restricted.” The automated voice responded. 

“Under whose authority?” Ezra inquired smoothly, showing no signs of annoyance at the refusal. If anything, he expected it.

“Doctor Gabriel Paracelsus.” 

“What do we do?” 

The security chief unhooked the tricorder attached to his belt and tapped the display before aiming it in the direction of the lift panel. Mary watched in fascination as the controls suddenly came alive, streams of numbers running over its dark glass display. She understood quickly it was a program of some sort, but its purpose was beyond her. 

“What is that?” She had to ask after a few seconds. 

“It is a decryption program Alexandra and I were working on during our off duty hours. We were hoping to use it to access restricted systems on enemy ships, particularly ones with a personalised authorisation code. We, or rather I call it,” Ezra couldn’t help flash her his trademark smirk, “the Wild Card.” 

Mary rolled her eyes. “Does Vin know you and his wife are secretly creating dangerous programs that violate the security of non-Starfleet systems?”

“Not specifically, but if we were to object, I might let it slip that he did attempt to build a motorcycle in their quarters in one afternoon.” 

“In one afternoon?” Mary laughed. 

“Oh yes, he was fortunate transporter technology was able to remove that unholy mess before Alex returned from her shift or else I would have had to make up my couch for him for the evening.” 

Mary was about to respond when the computer spoke up again, almost with contrition. 

“Authorisation accepted. Proceeding to Sub-Level 25.” 

With a soft jolt, the lift began moving, repeating the same pulsing drone that accompanied their descent when they arrived at the Institute earlier today. As the seconds ticked by, taking them to the lowest levels of the facility, the sensation Mary experienced suddenly intensified, and instead of gentle cajoling where she felt drawn into something unexplainable, now a new emotion swept through her. 

The warning of danger. 

It surged through her like somewhat just gave her a hypospray of pure adrenalin. Mary could almost feel the neurons in her brain firing, prompting her heart to start beating harder, turning the brisk current of blood running through her veins into a frothing frenzy. 

“Ezra,” she spoke almost breathlessly as if she had run a mile in a split second. “Something is wrong.”

Beads of sweat were forming against her skin, giving it a waxy appearance. Mary’s pupils were dilated, and Ezra stared at her for a moment, trying to understand how all the release valves on Mary Travis’s usually elegant and poised composure had been flipped open, allowing her to descend rapidly into panic. His concern heightened because he knew whatever ailed her physical condition was not due to changes in the environment, but no doubt a result of a mental attack. 

“Mary, tell me what is happening to you?”

Though his voice maintained his usual calm, inside he was anything but that. Mary Travis was his comrade, not to mention and finally, the woman Chris Larabee loved. If anything happened to her, Chris would level this place to the last sub-atomic particle in retaliation. In the background, the lift’s journey continued with its pulsing beat, taking them deeper and deeper into Tenabrus’s depths. 

“I feel like...” Mary struggled to articulate the emotions bombarding her. Every sense was alive and dialled to maximum. She felt as if she could hear everything, poised to react to it. “I feel as if someone screamed danger in my head and told me to be ready, to do whatever it takes to survive. I don’t understand completely. As I said,” she drew in a deep breath, “none of this is spoken in words but in feelings.”

The lift came to a stop, silencing them both for a second, and the doors slid open. 

They stared into the corridor it emptied into and saw a passageway of stone and dark grey metal. Ezra straightened up immediately, his hand drifting to his phaser in an almost reflex action. If the upper levels were designed to promote the image the Tenabrus Institute was a medical facility, then what they saw now gave no doubt this was anything but a prison. Grey walls of steel Ezra instinctively knew were inches thick, flanked the metal plated floor. He could see the rivets in the seam, and the lights along the ceiling were harsh and glaring. The corridor led to another set of doors, just as formidable looking. 

Warm, humid air rushed into the space they occupied. For a second, Ezra thought he was stepping into the path of a hot-air dryer. While the temperature wasn’t uncomfortable, it certainly reminded him of the tropics. He started to feel the moisture forming beneath the collar of his uniform. Every sense Ezra had, warned him of danger. It overrode his desire to see what was beyond those doors, which instinct told him would explain everything. None of it was as important as his responsibility to his comrade. 

“Mary, we must return you to the Maverick. I do not believe you should remain here.” 

“No,” Mary pushed past him, the need to approach almost overwhelming now. “We need to see what is behind there.”

Without another word, she pushed past him and entered the corridor. Ezra followed her out but paused just beyond the lift after its doors slid close with a hiss. Tapping his combadge, he wanted to make some effort to let everyone know where they were. The soft chirp of the device was broken by the crackle of static, telling Ezra the Operations team had not lied when they said communications at this depth were problematic. Wiping his damp forehead, he tried again and was greeted with the same disagreeable noise. 

“Mary, we are going to see what is through those doors and then we are returning to the others,” Ezra said firmly following her out. “We have no communications down here.” 

Mary wasn’t listening, she was striding towards the end of the corridor, her footsteps echoing through the area as she moved. The need to see what was behind those doors was overwhelming. She knew it was more than just her own mind that demanded the knowledge, but a need being generated by something lying in wait down here. From the moment she arrived, it had been calling to her, and now on the cusp of discovery, the rational part of Mary’s mind wondered if Paracelsus 

Reaching for the panel, she was poised to activate it when she heard Ezra call.

“Mary, stop!” 

The sharpness of his order made her freeze, the command in his voice seldom used, was penetrating. Glancing over her shoulder, she stared at him with a mixture of impatience and confusion. “Ezra I need to go in there.” 

“I know that,” Ezra came alongside her. “But I will not allow you to rush in blindly. The tricorder appears to be malfunctioning. I suspect the cause may be a dampening field of some kind. One only employs such a device if they have something to hide.” 

Her emotions were still churning, drawn by the desire to enter those doors, but her reasonable mind recognised the danger he was implying. “Alright, what do we do?” 

“We need answers,” Ezra sighed heavily, knowing despite her erratic behaviour, they needed to know what was happening. Without further delay, he activated the door panel, anticipating the possibility of access into the room might be restricted. 

Except it wasn’t. 

The doors slid open and what lay inside was a scene Ezra Standish never wanted to see again. 

"The derelict ship carrying the original alien eggs crashed on LV426. It didn't come from there. Somewhere out there, is an entire planet of these things, and someday, we're going to land on it, and she'll find us all over again."

Chris Larabee’s words repeated themselves in Ezra’s mind like artillery shells exploding. What he saw in front of him was a scene he never wished to see again. Of course, there would be no reason to implement further security measures to prevent anyone from entering the room. What lay inside wanted visitors. No, not visitors Ezra thought in horror. 

Hosts. 

The room was filled with eggs as far as the eye could see. It explained why the temperature on this floor was so warm and why access was restricted. The place was the size of the shuttle bay deck on board the Maverick, not enormous but large enough to ensure there was space for hundreds of eggs. Hundreds. His stomach hollowed at the thought and knew however these things had come here, they could not have been transported in. Paracelsus knew about these creatures, he had to, Ezra’s mind reasoned. It’s why access to this sub-level was restricted. 

Staring at the grotesque hatchery, Ezra was reminded of Fury 361 and realised the climatic conditions of the planet matched the temperature on the deck. Fleetingly, he wondered if the xenomorph’s world was similar. Of course, it was challenging to say the least when to date, xenobiologists examining the remains of the creatures had yet to learn where they originated. 

There was a belief the derelict spacecraft carrying the hatchery came from outside the galaxy before crash landing on LV-426 in the Zeta Reticuli system. Ezra thought this more than likely since the creatures had appeared nowhere else. Only the void between the galaxies could contain them. In his nightmares, Eza dreamed of a dark universe where nothing but the alien lived, stilled into hibernation because the species had overtaken all other life forms. 

“We have...” 

Before he could utter another word to stop her, Mary entered the room. 

“MARY!” 

She wasn’t listening. Instead, she was walking through the space between the eggs, oblivious to the danger she was in. Ezra had to pause a moment to set his phaser to stun, perfectly willing to render her unconscious to get her to safety. The woman was being pulled in by some kind of telepathic control, and even though there might be some risk involved in severing that link, that was nothing in comparison to what would happen if one of those eggs opened.

Ezra now understood what was affecting Mary since her arrival here. The xenomorphs were telepathic. On Fury 361, Vin had developed sufficient mental shields to keep the creatures out of his mind and was only affected after having direct physical contact. Mary was able to receive telepathic signals but had little to no ability to keep anything out. 

Tapping his combadge again even as his feet started moving, Ezra was once again greeted by a burst of static, reminding him how alone he and Mary were in their current predicament. Searching ahead, he saw Mary in the middle of the room. Ezra cursed because he had to go after her. Palm gripped tight on his phaser, Ezra followed Mary into the belly of the beast, mindful of how quiet he needed to be, even if the urge to shout was overwhelming. 

When Alex was trapped in the hatchery on Fury 361, she told Ezra she escaped implantation for as long as she had, because she remained silent. The eggs needed external stimuli to open, and Alex theorized that stimuli was sound. So whatever he had to do now, he had to do it in absolute silence or else neither he or Mary were leaving this place alive. 

As he delved deeper into the room, he saw the thick dark veins running across the walls and the ceiling, transforming the room from its man-made appearance to something organic, pulsing with lifes. It occurred to Ezra at that moment, turning his blood cold at the realisation, that these veins were constructed by the xenomorphs and were what they used to remain concealed in hibernation. With something akin to stark terror, Ezra understood these eggs could not have been hatched in such numbers unless...

Dear God. Unless there was a queen. 

Ezra opened his mouth to warn Mary to tell her to stop moving because they had to get out of here now. They had to get back to the Maverick and order an immediate orbital strike. This planet had to be quarantined. Was that what Jerry Lambert had tried desperately to escape and warn them? His association with the Sulaco would have told the security officer precisely what he was dealing with. Ezra could appreciate why he would risk the escape. 

Fearful he would lose Mary in this darkness, Ezra hastened his pace reluctantly and told himself if one of the eggs so much as moved, he was going to obliterate it. Mary crossed the room, coming to a halt at the opposite wall, in front of a twisted alien construct of dark veins and protruding metal. Ezra let out a sigh of relief, grateful the obstruction kept her from going any further into this hive. If there was a queen in here, he certainly did not wish to meet her. He’d avoided that particular experience on Fury 361, and had no wish to make up for it here. 

Mary was staring at the obstruction, and it was only when it moved, Ezra realised it was no alien-made construction at all. The irregular edges moved into the light pouring in from the outside corridor, and Ezra saw a massive black crown tapering into the elongated head, rising slowly at their presence. Teeth appeared then, dripping with noisome fluid, almost as long as his forearm. Ezra’s first impulse was to open fire, but if he did, the tidal wave of acid would kill Mary on the spot, and he had no guarantee he would kill it. 

All of a sudden an egg hissed open, and perhaps it was at this last moment, Ezra saw Mary blinking in realisation at the trap she had been led to. As she saw the alien queen revealing its teeth, its soft hiss of a voice belying the savagery of the creature, was eclipsed by the loud gasp of the alien egg unsealing. Steaming air rose out of the open egg, and as Mary started to withdraw, those clammy, pale fingers penetrated the sheath of skin and began emerging. 

It was as far as Ezra was prepared to let it get. The chief of security fired and the egg exploded as the beam of phaser energy struck the meaty side. A sharp screech of fury escaped the alien queen as she bellowed her outrage at one of her children being murdered. It snapped Mary out of her reverie, and the protocol officer began to withdraw as Ezra closed the distance between them, determined to get her out of there safely. 

Then out of nowhere, something small and coiled launched itself at Mary Travis before Ezra could fire. It landed across her face and brought her down, screaming. As Ezra watched in horror, he could do nothing as the thick tail coiled around her neck, tightening its hold as its digits dug into Mary’s skull.

Ezra was sure if it were possible, he could have sworn the queen was smiling. 

When the chirp from his combadge sounded, Buck excused himself from Paracelsus's suite and stepped into the hallway so he could talk to the Maverick. 

Even if the Maverick didn't make contact, Buck would have contacted the ship anyway. So far, the rest of the Away Team had yet to make their appearance. Not JD, not Ezra, not even Mary. While he knew Ezra's tendency for investigation could sometimes lead him to take risks to get to the truth, even Ezra knew better than to remain out of contact in this environment. Furthermore, he couldn't be sure if Ezra was with Mary and JD, neither of whom had checked in either. 

"Commander Wilmington here, what's up?" 

"Buck," Chris Larabee spoke up, and the tone he used was one Buck knew well, it was reserved for Cardassian guls and Vorta commanders. Something was wrong and judging by the tension in Chris's voice, it was bad. "I want you to take charge of the Institute and lower the force field."

Buck blinked. 

"Excuse me, Captain?" Buck's gaze shot up to the ceiling as if he could see through the twenty-three sublevels and the sky above, at the Captain. Starfleet tended to respect civilian jurisdiction, and it was only under extraordinary circumstances, did they permit their personnel to usurp it. 

In anticipation of Buck's question, Chris started explaining.

"I've already contacted Starfleet Command and advised them of the situation. You are to secure the Institute immediately and lower the force field. A security team will be ready to transport to the asylum the minute that happens. We're going to begin immediate evacuation.”

Buck was struggling to catch up. When Chris Larabee set his mind on a course, the Captain of the Maverick was like a speeding comet attempting to implement it. "Chris slow down, what situation? What's happened?"

Buck heard the Captain drawing breath before continuing. "Jerry Lambert was assigned to the Sulaco when it reached Earth. He went to Ventax II and Tenarus to track down his girlfriend, Callie Leech. She was an engineer on the Sulaco...."

Before Buck could react to this piece of information, the silence in the hallway was shattered by the orchestral boom of klaxons. Startled by the sudden noise, Buck forgot about the Captain's report for a second, sweeping his gaze across the hallways to see other doors along the corridor sliding open. Anxious hospital staff were poking their heads through doorways, looking about in confusion and alarm. They stared at him instinctively for answers, but Buck had none to give them since he was just as puzzled by the sudden alert as the rest of them. 

"Chris, they've initiated the emergency alert for some reason. I'm going to find out what's going on." 

There was no response.

Buck tapped his combadge again. "Chris, are you still there? Maverick, come in." 

Once again, Chris did not answer. Buck tried more before he was greeted by the almost inaudible chirp of the device, over the screaming klaxons. Swearing under his breath, he made an attempt to contact Ezra and the rest of the Away Team, and found they too, were out of reach. Wherever they were, they were not responding. Furthermore, Buck had not missed the mention of the Sulaco before he and the Captain were cut off. 

"What's going on?" One of the Institute's staff, an older woman in her fifties, hollered through her doorway. 

"Just stay in your quarters until we have more information," Buck ordered, deciding that was good advice no matter what the crisis. At least until he knew what was actually happening.

Retreating the way he came, he strode towards the doctor's quarters. He entered the room to find the traditional 'before dinner drinks conversation' had been abandoned as both Nathan and Josiah were firing a battery of questions at Doctor Paracelsus. The director was speaking with someone through the comms panel on the nearby wall while motioning the two Starfleet officers for silence. 

"What do you mean a security breach?" Nathan was demanding even after Paracelsus had called for quiet. "I thought you said the patients were in lockdown for the evening?" 

"Buck!" Josiah turned to the First Officer with noticeable relief on his face at Buck's arrival. "Do you know what's going on?"

"No," Buck replied shortly, "I was talking to the ship when we got cut off, and I can't get a hold of Ezra and the others either.."

The first officer continued towards the Institute's director wearing an expression on his face that told the man he would not be dismissed as easily as Nathan and Josiah. After what Chris said about the Sulaco, Buck was not underestimating how dire their situation could be, if the absolute worst-case scenario was being applied to their present circumstances.

 "Doctor, what is going on?" Buck's tone left no room for Paracelsus to mistake he would be willing to wait for answers.

The doctor turned to Buck, his expression stony. Nowhere in sight was the amiable doctor who had welcomed them with open arms. The expression on his face was nothing less than glacial as if Buck and the Away team were intruders at his bastion of power. "We have a security breach in Sublevels twenty-four and five. "I believe your officers have been down there."

The accusation in his voice was apparent, but Buck ignored it because if the doctor had nothing to hide, there would be no need for alarms to be screaming nine colours of hell around their ears. No, Buck decided, the doctor was hiding something, and it looked like Ezra's usual nose for trouble was right on the mark. Again. 

"I thought those sub-levels were just for storage?" Nathan returned, uncertain why that would be the cause of a facility-wide alert. Not that he was surprised. Ezra being Security Chief was often willing to go where angels feared to tread in search of answers. When there was a mystery to be solved, the man was damn near relentless. 

"It doesn't matter what's down there," Buck stated, more focussed on the fact they were cut off from the Maverick and for that matter, the rest of the Away Team. "Why can't we contact our ship?" 

"I've disabled all communications through the force field. Your ship cannot be allowed to prevent what must happen. I was waiting until you and your people to leave, but because of your interference, the great work we are conducting will begin soon. You should feel privileged Commander, what we do here today will change the galaxy and bring us unity the likes we've never known. It will make the Federation charter obsolete." 

His words might have been attempting to sound reassuring. Instead, Buck's jaw clenched by how ominous it seemed. How many times had tyrants begun their road to damnation with those lofty ambitions? Nor was Buck alone in his reaction to Paracelsus's statement. Neither Josiah nor Nathan liked the doctor's explanation one damn bit if the expressions on their faces were any indication. Nevertheless, it was Buck who spoke first. "Unity? How?" 

"Through the attainment of perfection of course," Paracelsus answered as if it was blindingly obvious. 

This time, it was Josiah who had a visceral reaction to the word, recalling the context in which Paracelsus once used it. Long ago, when they were young men at the Academy lying in the sun and engaging in all kinds of philosophical discussions before time and experience taught them better, they spoke about religion. Not just about religion, but about worship and deification, as well as the path to achieving true enlightenment. Josiah was never religious, but he understood faith and spirituality. 

Paracelsus, on the other hand, found religion, those on Earth and beyond it, lacking. Too many deities were fallible constructs of their worshipper's weaknesses and had no desire to give his faith to beings he considered fundamentally flawed. To Paracelsus, reaching religious enlightenment meant the attainment of perfection. With a sudden start, Josiah realised it was probably why he was so fascinated by the Borg, although it was not an observation Josiah was going to voice to Buck at this time. 

"What does that mean?" Buck's stiffened, making the same association as Josiah. When the Borg assimilated him, it was all he could hear in his head, their single-minded pursuit of perfection. As if that goal justified the civilisations and lives they brought to ruin to achieve it.

"I found it. I found perfection," the doctor explained, seeing no reason to conceal the truth when he was sure the missing Starfleet officers had already discovered it themselves. He drifted away from the wall panel and went to the table to pour himself a drink, deciding he would need one to reveal the truth to these non-believers. "I was on Ventax II, and there it was, lying in the most unexpected place in the galaxy, in a hospice, surrounded by the living dead." 

"Callie?" Buck asked, remembering the name of the girl Chris mentioned. 

"No, not Callie," Paracelsus shook his head. "The Goddess. She spoke to me. I heard her speak in my head, even as she was still forming, coming into being." 

"What Goddess?" Nathan balked, fearing the reality Paracelsus might need as much treatment as his patients. 

"Dear God," Josiah stared at him, seeing the veneer of sanity slip away from his old friend's face until all that remained was the grotesque visage of a fanatic.

"Josiah, you understand, don't you?" Paracelsus turned to him, trying to convert Josiah With his deranged words. "You remember what we talked about, about how gods should be perfect, and they should make us perfect as well. They shouldn't be forcing us to endure the endless struggle of free will where we try to make the right choices to get where we need to be. A perfect god would make us the perfect vessels without all that torment." 

"What the hell have you done?" Buck cut in, every word out of Paracelsus's mouth convincing him Chris was indeed correct for telling him to assume command of this facility. 

"I told you," Paracelsus smiled at him. "I have allowed the perfect god to be born. That poor girl on Ventax, she was so confused. She didn't know what was happening to her. She couldn't hear the Goddess the way I did. She thought she was struck down, diseased but it was nothing like that. She was chosen, the way Mary was chosen by Jehovah to give birth to the son of God."

'You think Callie was chosen?" Buck exclaimed, remembering what Chris revealed seconds before they were cut off. A wave of sympathy and disgust swept over him at the fate of poor Callie, who was doomed before she even left the Sulaco.

"Yes," the doctor nodded, oblivious to the growing horror of the others in the room. "Callie thought she was going to die, but I knew the truth. She was going to transcend, to become the mother of all. She wasn't able to hear the Goddess, which was unfortunate because then she would have known she was blessed. I could though. I heard the Goddess speak, and I understood what was happening. Callie was a vessel. She carried the Goddess within her." 

Josiah's expression was ashen. "Gabriel what did you do?"

"I told her to come with me to Tenarus so I would take care of her. I made her understand she would be born again, transformed into something wonderful."

Josiah blinked slowly, trying to understand how a rational mind could succumb to such beliefs? The Gabriel he knew was a spiritual man, open to possibility, but this, this was beyond everything they had been taught as healers of the mind. How could he have become like this? 

"You mean a queen xenomorph." 

Both Josiah and Nathan stared at Buck in stunned horror. 

"How is that possible?" Colour drained out of Nathan's face at the revelation of the unseen menace Paracelsus believed was a goddess. As a doctor, he'd seen all kinds of dangerous organisms and species. He was not naive to the reality that terrifying life forms were lurking in the darkness throughout the galaxy, creatures so fearsome they were never meant to be encountered. The xenomorph fell into one of these categories. "I thought we made sure there weren't any of them left on the Sulaco." 

"Even in death, they survive," Paracelsus continued, smiling as the full measure of his mania became apparent. "All it needed was for Callie to breathe in their essence. The Goddess lives in all things, even in the dead cells of her children. Her spirit entered Callie, and made it possible for her to be reborn. "

"You let this happen to her?" Josiah accused his old friend, becoming more infuriated by his callous disregard for Callie's private hell. "You knew this thing was eating her up alive and you did nothing?"

"No one could have stopped what was happening to her Joey," Paracelsus declared, refusing to see he had done anything wrong but provide Callie with some kindness. "The doctors at Ventax had no idea what was happening to her. They filled her with so many drugs, she couldn't hear the Goddess. Only I could, and by the time I found her, there was no changing what was going to happen. So I gave her peace, making her understand she was about to reach enlightenment." 

Buck's thoughts were fixed on this connection Paracelsus was extolling with such awe. At the briefings after the Away Team returned from the Sulaco and Fury 361, they'd discussed the alien in some length. Vin believed they were telepathic, having reached the conclusion during the Vulcan's brief meld with the creature. If these things had an insect consciousness, then perhaps they were similar to the Borg in the way the Queen communicated with drones.

As the Maverick's First Officer, Buck had access to the crew's personnel files and knew Mary's latent telepathic abilities, arisen from her marriage bond with Syan, was also due to her high ESPer rating. All first-year cadets were required to undergo the testing at the Academy, mostly to ensure those with high scores were unaffected adversely when they came into contact with telepathic species. She had no doubt picked up the queen's telepathy the moment she arrived at Tenarus. 

Buck suspected the same was true for Gabriel Paracelsus. If he was able to check, Buck was convinced he would learn the doctor also possessed a high ESPer rating, which was why he was so susceptible to the queen's manipulations on Ventax. Except in Paracelsus's case, it had months to work, to wheedle its way into the doctor's brain, eroding away the man's tenuous hold on morality and using his search for perfection to get to this moment. 

"Okay, okay," Nathan spoke out, trying to process what Paracelsus was saying into hard, scientific fact, ignoring his rants about religion. "From what I understand of these things, they need to implant a host."

"Chris recommended a baryon sweep across the entire ship when she got to Space Dock," Buck countered. "There's no way they could have survived that." 

"We don't know that for sure," Nathan returned, refusing to discount the possibility of such a final outcome. He recalled the specimen he examined after the Captain returned to the Maverick from Fury 361. A spore attached itself to Lt. Ty Atwater, and though it died after embryo implantation, Nathan had learned enough about the alien to know the species was highly adaptive. 

"Remember, this isn't a carbon-based lifeform. The xenomorph cells showed a propensity towards extreme adaptability. They were made to survive at all costs. We assume a baryon sweep might have killed any remaining spores, but it could have mutated their DNA, allowed them to evolve an airborne method of delivering the xenomorph cells. Once she breathed it in, it went to work rewriting her DNA, until she either turned into one of them or produced a queen." 

"It isn't a goddess Gabe!" Josiah grabbed the doctor by the arms and shook him, so angry he couldn't think. "It's an alien life form that needs hosts! We've dealt with them before!" 

'You're wrong!" the doctor broke free and stepped back. "Callie gave her life to see the Goddess born. Even after death, she continued to serve, continued to bring enlightenment to the rest of us." 

"To the rest of us?" Buck's blood ran cold. "Who’s us?" 

He almost didn't want to know. 

"The Goddess was young, she was still weak. I had to keep her safe, but when Lambert broke in here, looking for Callie, I knew the others would come So I did what I had to, to protect her, to make sure no one could hurt her. She told me what I had to do, told me I had to make the others understand. The queen was still alive in Callie's blood, I could pass it on to those who were worthy, let them reach perfection as Callie did. There were so many whose minds were troubled, who needed the simplicity of the Goddess’s guidance. I freed them from that pain." 

"Patients," Josiah whispered. "You infected patients?"

"How many?" Buck demanded, thinking that no matter how bad Chris thought things were down here, they were actually worse. 

"Enough," Paracelsus replied. 

"HOW MANY?"

Buck’s furious bellow startled Josiah and Nathan alongside Paracelsus.

The doctor's expression was almost serene when he gave his answer. "Fifty." 

"Jesus Christ," Buck exclaimed. "You got fifty of the things running around loose?"

"No!" Paracelsus declared. "They're hibernating, they don't wake up unless you go down there. It's why those levels are sealed. She's only just started laying..."

"That does it!" Buck snapped, cutting him off, having heard enough to know they had to leave immediately. The klaxons screaming around them proved something had gone wrong, Paracelsus's grand plan of containment had failed. "Lower the force field, we're evacuating everyone to the Maverick before this place gets overrun." 

"Her plans will unfold accordingly," Paracelsus said with a smile, "but right now they are contained. They cannot reach us from the levels below. I have seen to it. There's no way for them to reach us here." 

"I don't care," Buck snapped. "You will lower the force field down. We're leaving, all of us!"

"You can't," Paracelsus smiled. "Without my authorization code, you can't lower the force field. I've made sure no one can lower it without my permission. I suggest you accept your fate," he glanced at Nathan and Josiah as well. "Let what must happen, unfold as she desires it." 

Buck was about to tell him what he could do with that sentiment when the doors to the doctor's quarters slid open. 

"I NEED HELP HERE!"

Buck had never heard Ezra Standish so panicked, but as the Security Chief stumbled into the room, carrying Mary Travis in his arms, Buck could well understand why. The blond protocol officer appeared unconscious, although it was difficult to tell for sure, since all Buck could see was the monstrous alien creature covering her face. It's spindly digits were clamped around her skull, while its long tail was coiled around her throat. 

"Oh, my God!" Nathan gasped in horror, perfectly aware of what hideous process was taking place inside of Mary at this moment. 

Buck could only stare at Mary, thinking to himself, he prayed Chris would forgive him if he had to kill her. 

"It's alright," Paracelsus said in an almost soothing tone. "She is being blessed." 

THIRTY MINUTES EARLIER

JD Dunne didn’t like what he was doing, even if it was for an important cause. 

Holly Jones liked him and judging by their conversation throughout dinner, it was clear the girl was starving for friends her own age. It didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous, with soft smoky blue eyes and the sweetest smile he’d ever seen. Despite himself, JD couldn’t deny he liked her too, and that made him feel like a jerk for two reasons. One because Casey was gone for less than two months, and he was finding himself attracted to another girl, and two because JD was using Holly’s attraction to investigate the Institute. 

After convincing Holly it was of dire importance he saw the escape route Jerry Lambert had taken to escape the Institute, the duo left the hallway and headed for the first lift that would take them down to those restricted levels. Despite her belief in his words, JD needed to see Lambert’s possible escape route. He sensed Holly was a little afraid of breaking protocol. Still, it was obvious she liked him, and held her reservations in check, making JD feel even worse. 

That ain’t no way to treat a lady.

JD could almost hear Buck’s reproachful tone in his head, but also knew they needed to understand what was going on in this place. Lambert had risked everything to get a message to them, even daring to cross the blizzard ridden wasteland beyond the walls of this facility. Whatever it was Lambert was trying to tell them, it was important enough for JD to risk bruising his conscience a little. 

“You sure you’re okay with doing this?” JD asked as they reached the lift and saw her hesitate when she reached for the controls. Secretly, he hoped she didn’t change her mind but felt compelled to ask nevertheless. By helping him, JD was aware Holly’s future here could be jeopardized. 

“Yeah,” Holly gave him a little smile, a trace of apprehension in her eyes. “I guess maybe I want to know what’s down there too.” 

“Really?” He looked at her with surprise, seeing something in her eyes for the first time. The possibility of worry breaking the surface of her sunny disposition. 

Holly paused before answering, throwing a brief glance down the hallway ending with the lift in front of them. At this time of the evening, there were a handful of people in view. They were either coming or going into the dining hall or heading in towards the lift on the other side of the corridor. When the lift doors slid open, and she stepped inside, she seemed almost relieved she was away from prying eyes. 

“You have to understand JD,” Holly said quietly as the door slid to a close sealing them inside. “Dr Paracelsus isn’t just my boss. After my dad died of Clarke’s disease, I had no family. My mom passed away when I was a little girl, so dad was my world. I felt totally alone until Dr Paracelsus came to the funeral and offered me a place here as his assistant. He knew I did the same thing for my dad, and even though he said he needed help here, I knew it was because he didn’t want me to be alone. I care about him as more than just someone I work for. He’s been my family too.” 

JD felt worst hearing that and decided he was not going to trick her into betraying Doctor Paracelsus, no matter how much he needed to get at the truth. It wasn’t right. “Holly, if this is going to get you into trouble with him, or...”

“Something has been going on,” she said abruptly. “I mean he’s the same as he’s always been, kind and willing to help anyone, no matter how sick they are, but ever since he came back from his trip two months ago, there’s been something, and I’m not sure how to explain it.” 

“Hey, it’s okay,” JD lifted her chin so she could meet his eyes and Holly could see he sincerely wanted to help her. “Just take your time.”

Holly tried to articulate her suspicions but found it a strain. He was there, but sometimes he wasn’t, and if Holly didn’t know better, she would think his mind wasn’t on his work even though he went through the motions of making sure every patient got the help they needed, but his attention lay elsewhere. 

“It’s like he’s here, but he’s not,” Holly explained. “I could be talking to him, and even though he’s listening to everything I’m saying, it feels like it doesn’t matter to him, any of it.” 

JD let out a sigh, finding Holly’s admission a little familiar. He thought of Buck and how the First Officer of the Maverick had been ever since he was liberated by the Borg. Yeah, JD understood where Holly was coming from alright.

 “You mean like you know he’s okay, and he’s saying all the right things, but his heart isn’t in it?” JD ventured a guess. 

“Yes!” Holly’s eyes lit up when she saw JD understood what she was trying to say. Her voice displayed the enthusiasm of their first meeting. 

“It started when he came back from Ventax II. Then it wasn’t just him, it was some of the others too. Dr Srurin, Dr Beshnaach and Dr Zanil. It’s like they don’t like what they’re doing any more and it’s all a job to them! I used to see them care about their patients, I mean really care, but now they’re almost indifferent! Then, of course, we got the Nausicaans. I mean it made sense when Dr Paracelsus explained it, that it was hard to get warders out here, but they’re walking around with disruptors and telling us sub-Level 24 and 25 are now restricted!”

This exploded out of her in a gush of words. Finally, Holly exhaled loudly realizing she had been holding this in for so long the ability to speak it was liberating. “I’m sorry, you’re the first person I could really talk to about all this. I mean I don’t feel right about talking about Doctor Paracelsus, but now that you’re here and the more I think about that patient who escaped, the more I think maybe it isn’t as right as I thought it was.” 

“Can you get this lift moving?” JD prompted, reminding her they were still inside the lift and had yet to direct it to where they wanted to go. He did however, want to hear about this patient, now that he finally got Holly talking. JD promised himself he was not going to betray her trust, now she chose to confide in him, but instead get to the bottom of her fears. 

“I can, but I can only get us to sub-Level 23,” Holly replied. A small smile of mischief stole across her face before she continued speaking. “Kash told me that there’s an old accessway that starts at 23 and goes all the way down to 25. It’s from when this place was some kind of an outpost before the Institute was established. We can use it to get down there. The guards won’t even see us.” 

Holly was true to her word. 

Most of Sub-Level 23 was reserved for patients. When JD and Holly stepped through the lift doors after it opened for them, they were once again at the start of a long corridor, not unlike the one the Away team travelled before reaching the Atrium. Instead of emptying into a vast, idyllic garden, this time JD saw a formidable set of steel doors, marked with enough signage to indicate only medical staff would be permitted entry beyond that point. According to Holly, on the other side of those doors were the Nausicaan warders, keeping a vigil on their patients.. 

Nevertheless, Holly led JD through the first door along the corridor. The sign on the wall next to the doorway read administration, and Holly explained the room was where daily patient records were uploaded into the central computer. After navigating through several smaller rooms, including an infirmary, a staff lounge and a lunchroom with a replicator, they finally arrived at what appeared to be a small, maintenance compartment. 

“Here?” JD looked dubiously at the enclosed space.

“Yeah,” Holly nodded. “According to Kash, there should be an old air duct, shaft or something around here.”

JD took a step inside the room and saw old equipment, boxes and other forgotten objects stacked against the walls. The air was musty, and it was clear the facility’s circulated air did not quite reach this far. As he scanned the walls, he noticed it was constructed of rock that resembled sandstone and then surmised this part of the complex must have been part of the original structure. Using his tricorder, he ran a quick scan and immediately located an opening behind a stack of boxes. 

“Let me get these out of the way,” he told her before quickly setting to work to clear the area.

The boxes weren’t hefty, and JD’s scan with the tricorder revealed the objects inside them were just linens stored away until needed. Holly leaned in to help and very soon, they’d moved enough of the boxes to reveal the accessway previously concealed. It was little more than a square opening in the wall with a metal grate sealed over it. Judging by the dust accumulated across its narrow panes, no one had attempted to open it for quite some time. 

“I wonder how long since anyone opened it,” JD remarked as he got onto his knees and gripped the corners securely before attempting to pull it back. Age kept it in place for so long it took quite an effort to even get it to budge. JD eventually shifted his grip to the metal louvres and made a little more progress when he put his back into it.

It came off suddenly, sending JD backwards to land heavily on his rump, the cover still in his hands. 

“You okay?” Holly came next to him, her eyes studying him with concern. 

‘Yeah,” JD, let out an exhale. “Just reminded me I need to spend some time in the gym. “That was tough.” 

“You did it though,” She smiled at him before going to investigate the open vent. 

“Holly, hold up,” JD spoke up as he put aside the cover, not about to let her climb in first, which she looked prepared to do. He was the Starfleet officer who convinced her to help him. While there might be nothing down in Sub-levels 24 and 25, JD had no intention of letting her find out first, especially if it did turn out to be dangerous.

Poking his head through the opening, the shaft awaiting them ran along the wall for a few dozen feet before reaching what appeared to be a juncture. JD adjusted the tricorder and flooded the passage with enough light to let him see ahead. It came to an intersection that led to both the upper and lower sub-levels. Deciding this was what Kash meant, JD started to climb in when he paused and looked at Holly.

“I suppose telling you to wait here is going to be pointless?”

“See,” Holly smiled at him radiantly. “You Starfleet officers are smart.” 

With just enough space for him to fit without his shoulders and skull bumping against the roof of the duct, JD led the way as they crawled along the dusty passage. The narrow space was illuminated by the tricorder’s display screen, and when they reached the intersection, JD observed, they were able to see the rungs of a ladder against the wall. No doubt an emergency accessway, the ladder ran through the entire facility, past every sub-level there was.

Once again, Holly would not be deterred from following him as JD began the descent to sub-level 25, deciding if they were going to enter forbidden territory, they were best to start from the bottom. It didn’t take them long to climb down even though both JD and Holly were aware if they slipped, the consequences would be somewhat dire. Neither could see the end, and with only JD’s tricorder providing illumination, the journey felt more than a little ominous. 

After what felt like an eternity, they finally reached the floor of hard rock which signalled the end of the shaft. At its base were the entrances to two other vents, not unlike the one they used to reach this point, moving in two separate directions. Despite this, it was the thickness of the air, not to mention the warmth of it that captured JD’s attention the most. At this depth, he’d imagined the temperature would be cooler, not warmer and almost tropical. While he appreciated the climb down might have left them a little sweaty, there was no ignoring the unusually high humidity level. 

 Curious as to why this was and wanting to determine which vent they should enter, JD conducted a quick scan with his tricorder. After a moment, the readings appeared across the display screen, leaving JD frowning at the data. 

“Holly, what did you say was down here again?” He raised his eyes to her. 

“Equipment,” she stated, her expression turning wary when she saw the look on his face through the greenish glow of the tricorder screen. “Why?”

“I’m detecting life sign readings,” JD explained and walked towards the accessway to the right of them. “It’s real faint, but it’s definitely here.” 

“There shouldn’t be anyone down here,” Holly repeated herself. “It’s meant to be for storage. I know there’s research being conducted on sub-level 24, what kind I can’t say, but this far down, there shouldn’t be anyone at all.” 

“Then we need to find out who these life signs belong to,” JD said firmly. 

In retrospect, JD wished he hadn’t. 

When they emerged near the source of the life signs, he wished to hell Holly was anywhere but with him. As it was, he had to give her credit for not losing her head. It was bad enough he practically had to use a phaser to cut through along the vent cover to get out of the duct. The other side was covered with some form of biological material the tricorder could only identify as a kind of organic resin, but possessing none of the markers for eukaryotes. 

Once they were through, JD understood why. 

The chamber they entered was vast. JD did not know just how large it was, but he suspected it might encompass the entire sub-level. He determined very quickly, the other vent would have simply led to a different section of it. It was so big he couldn’t even see its walls, not that the dim lighting inside the chamber allowed for that. Lights attempted to appear through the organic constructs coating the walls, resembling large veins and made one feel like they were inside the belly of some unholy beast. 

“JD,” Holly whispered, her face almost white with fear. “What is this?” “

JD knew immediately of course. He read the reports from both the Captain and the Maverick’s Science Officer, detailing the events on Fury 361 and the encounter with the creatures called the xenomorphs. Yet as he scanned the area, trying to stymie the rush of terror threatening to grip him as surely as it was sending Holly to the raw edges of panic, he realized there was something unusual about all this. 

Yes, the design was undoubtedly like the hive construction on Fury 361, and the interior was as described by Alex, who had a much closer look at the place than she would have liked, JD was sure. However, there were no eggs, not one sign of them. He couldn’t understand how that could be. If this was a xenomorph hive and they were enough of the things around to build this biomass surrounding JD and Holly, where were the eggs?

“JD,” Holly tugged at his arm. “Let’s go.” 

“Not yet,” he stated firmly because he wanted to find out the source of those life signs. Xenomorphs were extremely hard to detect, even on tricorders and he recalled Alex mentioning recalibration were needed for them to be identified. This meant the life signs he was seeing did not belong to the creatures since he had yet to adjust the tricorder for them to appear. Considering how the xenomorphs reproduce, it was vitally important for JD to find out who they belonged to, and report it back to Buck and the Away Team.

“Holly,” he turned to her and said firmly. “I know you’re scared and believe me, you got reason, but I know what did this and if I’m right, there are people trapped down here, about to die in the worst way possible. We’ve got to be sure about this, so we can help them okay?” 

Holly swallowed thickly, nodding slowly even though she was scared. She’d insisted on coming with him, and now she was not going to be a complete pill by going all hysterical on him, especially when he mentioned there could be people down here, dying. “Okay, JD.”

“We’ll be fine Holly,” JD looked at her and without thinking raised a finger to her cheek, stroking the soft skin tenderly, surprising them both by the action. “I promise.” 

Her cheeks bloomed with colour, and if it were not for the fact they were in the worst place possible, JD might have kissed her, but instead, he saw her jaw set, conviction flooding into her face. 

“Let’s help them.” 

Taking her hand with one of his own, JD moved forward quietly, using the tricorder to lead the way. Whatever had been stored here before was now a part of the strange alien architecture, held together in some biological design he could not even begin to comprehend. Tables, chairs, pieces of conduit, wall panelling, anything that could be used to create the formations across the floor and ceiling, some so large they were almost columns connecting both. 

“What did this?” She asked softly. 

“I think,” JD spoke very quietly, remembering Alex’s report and how important it was to keep sound to a minimum. “It’s an alien life form we discovered on Fiorina 361. It’s one of the most dangerous aliens we’ve ever encountered, and we thought we destroyed them all. “ 

“So what is it doing here?” 

“I have no idea,” JD admitted, but he wasn’t about to reveal the reasons for the Maverick’s arrival at Tenarus, not without permission from Buck or Ezra. He did believe it had to do with Jerry Lambert and his assignment to the Sulaco.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the display screen, JD followed the signal that led them deeper and deeper into the sub-level. He was grateful Holly took his lead to remain quiet as they crept through this stygian hell, where demons of a kind waited around every corner. Aware of how well these creatures could remain hidden in the shadows, JD had to let go of Holly’s hand so he could hold the tricorder and his phaser at the same time. 

“Are we close?” She asked, wiping her sweaty palm against her thigh, trying to keep her fear reigned in. She didn’t know anything about these creatures, but this bizarre construction around them told Holly she never wanted to see one face to face.

“Yeah,” JD paused, somewhat puzzled because the tricorder told them they ought to be in sight of the life form readings by now, but he could see nothing. Sure they were faint, but they should have been visible by this point. “Hang on I’m going to switch to a different spectrum, maybe I can see them better...”

“Kill me.” 

The voice made both JD and Holly freeze in their tracks because it came out of nowhere.

“Hello?” JD spoke up again, searching the darkness ahead of them, trying to find the source of that desperate voice. Lowering his eyes to his tricorder, he tried to pinpoint the exact location when he heard it again, this time loud enough for him to have no need of the device in his hand. 

“Kill me, please.” 

JD and Holly’s eyes lifted up and saw a face staring down at them. The roof of the chamber was pregnant with cocoons and peering through one, not entirely formed was the face of Jerry Lambert. Most of his body was already consumed by the metamorphosis he was undergoing, with thick ropy veins of translucent yellow coiling around him like a python about to swallow him whole. As JD struggled not to get violently sick, he realized Jerry was the lucky one. The others, despite projecting life signs, were already too far gone. There was no trace of the people they were, fully encased within the slimy, alien shell. 

Holly opened her mouth to scream but clamped her hands over her lips to stifle her horrified cry, knowing the noise could bring whatever did this to the poor souls trapped in amber above them. Self-preservation kept her silent. 

“Please,” Jerry begged again, and this time, JD could hear the utter desperation in his voice. “Please kill me.” 

“We can get you out!” JD burst out, refusing to let anyone die like this. “I”m from the USS Maverick, our medical officer can help you. He can get you....”

“You have to kill me!” Jerry Lambert found his voice, seeing his one chance at salvation and needing this young man to understand just what the stakes were. “It’s too late. You have to kill me and the others. You have to get out of here and get back to your ship, and tell them what he’s doing.”

“What he’s doing?” JD asked, staring at Jerry’s face, covered in slime, the alien tendrils growing beneath his pale skin. “You mean Doctor Paracelsus?” 

“Yes,” Jerry managed to sob, “Doctor Paracelsus. He’s growing queens.”