CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I

"Chris wake up." He heard her voice in his ear. It might have been the first time she had spoken or perhaps the last in a series of requests. Whatever the number, Chris Larabee’s mind was still too foggy to tell the difference. As lucidity crept in on him like a stranger in the night, thoughts moved through his mind with little consistency or any reasonable sense.

For an absurd moment, he delighted in the sound of her voice against his ear. Chris savoured the light wisps of her melodic voice against his skin until he was alert for all the wrong reasons. He wondered if her breath was capable of having a similar effect on the rest of him. The moment lasted briefly. Suddenly, his last memories returned to him like icy water splashing against his face. His growing awareness brought to life a swirling torrent of images that spanned hours but were compressed into mere seconds of real time.

He sat up abruptly. An action he regretted doing almost immediately following. His consciousness allowed the awareness of pain to announce itself as a most filthy headache. Instinctively he reached for his brow, trying to recall a time when he had suffered a similar affliction with such equal intensity. Unfortunately, this was not the morning after a particularly lively bachelor party and this time his headache was definitely not self inflicted.

Part of its cause seemed to be the powerful beam of the strobe light he found himself staring at overhead. He could look at it for no more than a second because it was bright enough to burn out his corneas if he was not careful. Dropping his gaze to the floor, Chris attempted to filter out the stark glare from his eyes so that he could be able to see more than free floating blobs of vibrant colour. Adjusting his vision to the lighting took a few seconds but when he was capable of seeing again, Chris Larabee found Mary staring at him with concern.

"I’m fine." He responded to put her concerns to rest. "Just a little out of it."

Once he was fully in command of his eyesight, Chris observed their new surroundings. He had been lying on a flat piece of foam in the corner of a white room. Not only were the walls this colour, but also the ceiling and the floor. It reminded Chris about Alex’s theory that the intruders were deranged scientists conducting experiments. This room certainly belonged in a hospital. It reeked of antiseptic or something similar and brought to mind his stay at Starfleet Medical.

There were no windows to be seen or a door for that matter. The only distinguishable feature in the room appeared to be a small diamond shaped panel on one of the walls. He wondered momentarily if the panel activated a yet unseen way out of the room. He could hear no other sound other than their breathing. There was no familiar hum of ship engines, no footsteps against the deck nor any sounds that might indicate life beyond this prison. Despite himself, Chris found this quiet more disturbing than anything else that had happened so far.

The last thing he remembered was the beam of light approaching him on the bridge of the Maverick. There was a moment of understanding, when he realised that he had been its target. Following that was a disjointed memory of Mary placing her hand on his shoulder, trying to help him. He had tried to warn her but the opportunity never came and they were both whisked away. The bridge had disappeared around them both. After that, nothing coherent remained of the images. He remembered fingers around his arm and a sharp stab of pain, with Mary crying something vague in his ear. Instinctively, he rolled up a sleeve. Further up his arm, there was a slight blemish on his bicep that itched when he examined it.

"What did they do us?" He managed to ask and winced at the dryness of his throat.

Mary brushed a strand of hair from her face. Most of her hair had unravelled from its tidy coiffeur. "They injected us with some form of sedative." She was trying to maintain her calm despite the nature of their predicament.

"It leaves a lot to be desired." He grumbled, massaging his aching head. "Have you seen them?"

"Not as yet," she shook her head in response. "I was unconscious myself until ten minutes ago. I awoke up to find that you still under."

Chris nodded, absorbing the information. "We have to get out of here." He declared stating the obvious. "I don’t intend either of us becoming their guinea pigs."

"Excuse me?" She asked confused.

"Its bad reference," Chris said rising uneasily to his feet. He felt his head swim as he stood upright and Mary immediately got to her feet to help him.

"Their sedative apparently works better on men." She remarked.

Chris gave her a look. "I’m so honoured." Nevertheless, he did not resist when she took his arm. Together, they walked forward slowly. Chris felt himself become stronger as his limbs were forced to work. He headed towards the diamond shaped panel that appeared to be the only thing of interest inside the cell.

"Do you think they are still engaging the Maverick?" Mary asked.

"Probably." Chris replied. Inwardly, he hoped that this was not the case. The idea of his ship going to battle without him was more than he could stand. It was bad enough being spirited off his own bridge without having facing the possibility that he could be spared the destruction faced by his crew. However, he was confident that Buck would maintain the ship’s course to the Vikaris quasar and save the Maverick from that fate. "If Buck has any sense, he would be making tracks back to the quasar." He answered her question, knowing that her thoughts were centred on the safety of her son.

"You don’t think he would try to rescue us?" She looked at him.

"He might." Chris mused, never really considering the idea because Buck’s first priority ought to be the ship not two lives out of more than a thousand. "Although I doubt his chances are very good. We are inaccessible to a rescue for any number of reasons. If they’ve kicked in transwarp, there’s not a chance that the Maverick could keep up."

"I see." She answered softly.

Chris met her gaze and then realised that Mary did not appear to be as dispassionate as usual. Was he actually seeing some semblance of fear in her eyes? It was easy to forget that under all that Vulcan tradition, was still a human being capable of feeling a gamut of emotions. He realised that she needed to hear something positive. "It will be alright, Lieutenant." He smiled encouragingly. "Don’t you trust my ingenuity to get us out of this?"

"If you’re attempting to be funny, it’s not working." Mary retorted.

"See if you get a good report from me at your next evaluation." He muttered, leaning over the panel.

"Captain," she looked at him. "If it were possible that either of us were to see another evaluation, I would not be overly concerned at its content."

"Touché." Chris replied. He did not look at her as he was more focussed on the panel on the wall. "What do you make of this?"

Mary leaned in for a closer look herself. "I don’t know. I think it’s an activation pad of some kind but I’m no engineer."

"This is a pretty good cell they’ve got us in." Chris commented, taking his attention away from the panel. "I guess they must have transported us in here, since I don’t see any doors or openings we could have been brought through."

"It is a feasible way to ensure security," Mary pointed out. "As transport appears to be the only method of entry or here, they can be assured their prisoners won’t be escaping."

"Unfortunately for us." Chris mumbled under his breath. He could not say he admired their captor’s efficiency as she did. In fact, he wondered if she had any idea how much trouble they were in at all. Chris could not even begin to guess why the intruder had captured him. Why take him specifically? Although he had not voiced it to her, he knew Mary presence here was a mistake. After all, the beam had been coming towards him. She had inadvertently allowed herself to be taken when she attempted to help him.

"It looks like we have not choice but to wait until they are ready to see us." She spoke, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better." Chris commented.

"I could lie but I don’t think that you’d be any better off." She retorted.

He wondered if she meant to be smug or was it just typical Vulcan superiority at being the more realistic of them both at their situation? In either case, he did not wish to address the point at the moment. Chris was becoming increasingly irritated at their vulnerable position neither did he like being buried in this room with no way out.

"There must be some way out of this place." He replied walking alongside the walls. "Oxygen must come in here for us to breathe."

"True." Mary answered. "However, the vent through which it is being filtered may not be of a size to help us."

"Show a little optimism will you?" Chris looked over his shoulder at her.

"I rather remain realistic." She declared.

"Whatever you say," he sighed deciding that he did not want to argue with her. She would probably win anyway. Instead, he continued his examination of the walls. He ran his fingers against its surface and felt it was cold and smooth. There was a clinical efficiency to it all that disturbed him although he could not say why. The finish on them was flawless. Tapping against it, he decided it was made of some kind of metal but could detect no seams or rivets that might indicate how it was held together. When the wall reached his feet, it merely curved to form the floor. It almost appeared as if someone gouged the shape of this room from a solid block. If anything, that discovery added to his rising claustrophobia.

"This is a near perfect cell." Chris found himself forced to admit. "There is no way out unless you can tear your way through solid steel or whatever this construction material is."

Mary was staring at the panel and did not answer. Somehow, she knew their escape lay behind this small diamond shaped device. She knew that if she could deduce its purpose, she could give the Captain the answer he so desperately needed. As she glanced at him periodically, Mary noticed he was pacing the wall like a trapped sehlat. His growing anxiety was obvious although she had no idea what to say to him that could possibly ease his apprehension.

Not unless she understood the function of this device.

Suddenly, it came alive before her and emanated a dull white glow.

"Captain." She called out. "Come look at this."

"What is it?" Chris asked and turned towards her.

He had not taken a few steps forward when suddenly, in the centre of a room that familiar beam of blue light shimmered to life around him. Chris was barely conscious of it being around him before it disappeared taking the captain with him.

"Chris!" She cried out, unable to keep her fear from him out of voice or mind. It was however a futile gesture.

He was gone and she was alone.

II

In the blink of an eye, Chris Larabee was somewhere else.

He tried to move his head and found that he could not. His head was being held down. Instinctively, he tried to move his hands and found that they too were similarly strapped tightly. He also became aware at this point that he was naked because the binders securing his limbs were metal and as cold as the temperature in the room. He tried to ignore the cold since his bare skin was pressed hard against the metal table to which he was secured.

He tried to crane his neck side ways to get a better look of where he was but was unable to do so as he felt something cold pressing hard against his temple. After a number of futile attempts at trying to break free, Chris rested back on the table and observed what he could of his environment. Judging from his angle of perception, he realised that the table he was strapped to was being propped at an angle.

Don’t panic, Chris. He told himself. It's not as bad as it looks.

An inner voice responded almost immediately.

It sure looks as hell looks as bad as it seems.

Chris took a deep breath and forced away such thoughts. At the same time, he tried not to remember anything about his discussions with Buck regarding scientific experimentation and human guinea pigs out of his mind. Instead he focussed his attention on something else and tried to remember if they had drugged him in order to unclothed him without resistance. Although he nearly sprained a muscle doing it, Chris craned his neck to see if there was a fresh hypo mark on his arm. Despite being unable to see his upper bicep very well from this angle, there did not appear to be one.

He remained there for some time and Chris wondered if this interlude was some kind of interrogation technique. Lesser-willed people could break under such tactics since waiting could be an effective method of torture. Therefore, instead of allowing the time to affect him, he concentrated on seeing what he could of this new place.

Above him was a powerful strobe light that beamed directly into his eyes, making it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond his position. The rest of the room was dark but he realised if he concentrated hard enough, he could hear movement. Although difficult to define at first, he was soon able to distinguish the sound of feet against the floor, hushed voices using words he could not understand in a language he did not know. He kept the panic away from his mind, telling himself that it was possible because Vulcans did it all the time. Thinking about Vulcans inadvertently brought his focus to Mary. Did they have her in a room like this as well? He hoped not. Thinking her under similar circumstances infuriated him.

His surroundings however, did seem incredibly cliqued. It was a perfectly unimaginative representation of the classic interrogation room. If he was not the victim, it could have almost been laughable. These people could take lessons from the Cardassians or Romulans. Now they knew how to scare the hell out of you before they actually got to the interrogation. Klingons had no idea of course. Their methods of torture were so brutal that they were lucky if the victim survived much less chose to impart any useful information. The Borg did not need to torture. They just assimilated you so whatever was kept in your mind became theirs to use anyway. The same went for the Jem Haddar who did not need to interrogate because their Shapeshifter masters knew your secrets before you did.

"Captain Larabee." A voice spoke out of the darkness.

Chris tried not to show that the sudden sound surprised him. The voice sounded close but he could not see anyone. "Its about time someone showed up, I was starting to feel somewhat unloved."

"Your attempts at humour will avail you nothing." The voice spoke.

"That’s not the first time I’ve heard that today." He remarked softly wondering if they had been listening into his conversation with Mary during their incarceration. "In that case, I’ll just forgo the formalities and ask what the hell am I doing here."

"You are here to service us." It responded with an edge of ice indicating it did not approve nor like his tone of voice.

Chris blinked at those words. They sounded Borg. It was impossible. He had seen parts of their ship and nothing about this felt like a Borg situation. Was it mere coincidence? There seemed to be only one way to find out. "Are you Borg?"

"We are not the Borg Collective." The voice answered sharply. If he could have seen the speaker, Chris was sure that the person would be bristling with annoyance. Everything indicated that it disliked the reference intensely.

"You sound like them." He declared, deciding to probe deeper into that aversion. It was the only avenue of inquiry he had for the moment.

There was a slight pause. "We have brought you here for a reason Captain. You can either co-operate with us or we can take the information straight from your mind, possibly damaging you in the process. We had hoped you would be wise enough to choose the latter."

"Quid pro quo." Chris retorted. "Since you’ve raided my ship’s computer banks, I’m sure you know what that means. Something for something. I may choose to be co-operative if you answer some questions of my own."

"You are hardly in a position to be difficult Captain."

The word made Chris angry but for the moment, he controlled it. They were correct. He was hardly in the position to make demands since they had the upper hand but the fact that they needed something of him, gave Chris a bargaining point. He wished he could see them. It was difficult to maintain this position when he had no idea with whom he was dealing with. "Perhaps not but kill me and what I know dies with me and it looks to me like you’ve been searching for some time already."

"What do you know of our needs?" The voice snorted in obvious contempt. "You are minor species, born the only inhabited world of a minor star system. At the moment, your only worth to us is the information you can provide. Do not assume that we need you in any way."

"And yet you went to all this trouble to acquire me." Chris said with a hint of sarcasm. "As I understand it, that’s hardly an indication that I am expendable."

"It is not your place to understand, merely to furnish us with what we require." The voice retorted vehemently becoming impatient with the whole process.

"Look," Chris said becoming a little annoyed himself. "I am Captain Chris Larabee of the USS Maverick, service number 378072. That is all I am required to say to you. If you wish to know anything further, I suggest you be a little more flexible instead of engaging me in this verbal joust of superiority."

"We are superior in every way." The voice returned angrily. "You are nothing to us. Just a waste of flesh in a galaxy populated by waste. You are here to service us and that is all that the consideration you deserve."

He was playing a dangerous game with them and he knew it. However, he was not about to compromise in any way. This race had butchered hundreds of people and laid to waste Federation colonies without thought or reservation. He was not about to inadvertently help them unless he was given a clearer understanding of the situation. Taking a deep breath, he let out a sigh of defiance and spoke slowly. "Then we have nothing more to discuss."

He had less than a second to regret those brave words before his captors retaliated. Chris was surprised by a sharp jolt of energy that wracked through his body like a nothing he had ever experienced. Its intensity was so powerful that he jerked on the table like a fish that was gasping for its last breath on the floor of a boat somewhere. The pain alerted every nerve in every corner of his body, causing him to stiffen with excruciating pain. He tried not to cry out because his pride would not allow him to display such vulnerability before the enemy. However, his pride was soon eroded in the wake of such exquisite agony that nothing could have contained the pain that shredded his resolve apart.

Chris could feel his teeth digging into the skin of his lips and his fingernails tearing into the softness of his clenched palms. He could smell the burning of flesh in his nostrils and wondered how much he could endure. The violence of the charge caused him to salivate, trickles of fluid ran down his chin and then onto his chest without his even noticing it. The razor like pain stabbed at him with the clarity of a thousand sharp knives. Chris was quickly pulled into a whirlpool of such agony that he did not know anything beyond the white-hot pain that had pierced through his mind.

He didn't even notice when he started screaming.

**************

Now Mary felt like the one who was pacing like a trapped sehlat.

She waited patiently for several hours, waiting for them to return the Captain. When he had first been taken she had almost expected them to spirit her away as well. However, after a certain amount of time had passed, Mary become less certain of that expectation. Finally, she found herself folding her legs beneath and sitting down to meditate in order to calm the fears that were threatening to overwhelm her. Occasionally, she would glance at the panel wondering if she ought to tackle the task of learning what function it played. The only reason she had not done so yet was the concern that if it was a means of escape, she would have to do it without the Captain.

She could not leave without him.

He had been gone almost into his fifth hour when she suddenly heard the familiar hum of the transporter device again. Once again, she realised that the panel had illuminated during the process and it confirmed her suspicion that the panel was somehow connected to their matter teleportation device. Chris appeared on the floor of the cell, stark naked. His clothes appeared shortly after. Even as she scrambled towards him, she saw the deep purple welts across his back. He was half-conscious and judging by the amount of bruising on his body, she estimated that he was in considerable pain.

"Chris," she hurried towards him. "Chris, talk to me!"

He did not answer her which only served to heighten her panic even more. He was lying on his stomach, very still and for a moment Mary believed the worst. However, as she rolled him over, she noticed his chest rising and falling somewhat raggedly. At least he was still alive. There was blood running down his chin from where a lip that seemed bitten. Her stomach hollowed at the reason for that and knew then that he had been subjected to torture. The bruises on him seemed to be the result of some type of low power energy discharge. Phasers set on low power and close range could cause similar bruising although the pain was meant to be extreme.

She took his head on her lap and for a moment, Mary was overcome with a deep sense of anger at what had been done to him. However, this was not the time for anger. He needed tenderness at this moment and she was determined to provide it. Mary let his head rest on her lap for a long while, allowing him to rest after his ordeal. There was no reason to wake him when it seemed they were not going anywhere. Any ideas she had about escape would simply have to wait until he was better.

Mary used the sleeve of her dress to clean the blood off his face, using unusual tenderness she would normally have reserved for William alone. It was not lost on her the concern she had for Chris Larabee. Despite herself, Mary could not longer deny that her regard for him was more than just as her captain. She admired the way he had reached out to her son and gave the boy the guidance that she was unable to provide. Most humans found Vulcan children difficult to cope with but Chris never seemed to have that trouble with William or Billy as he was more accustomed to referring to her child.

"Oh I feel terrible."

His voice snapped her out of her reverie.

She looked down and saw that he was conscious if not somewhat disorientated.

"Don’t move Chris," she said gently. "You need to rest."

"No arguments from me." He whispered as he opened her eyes and looked into her face. "Now there’s a sight worth waking up to."

Mary was almost tempted to smile. "Well, you are starting to feel a little better I see.."

"Not much." He grumbled, trying to shift to a more comfortable position on her lap. "Apparently, my overwhelming charm was lost on them."

It never ceased to surprise them the arrogance of human males and their ability to make jokes during the most dire circumstances. Chris Larabee, as she was starting to realise, was a master at both those traits. "I can’t imagine that."

He met her gaze at that remarked and smiled at her. "I see I need to work on it." Suddenly, his hand flew to his chest and he raised his neck long enough to see that he was still naked. The realisation motivated him to move like no other.

"Chris, you should remain still..." She protested.

"Lieutenant," he said trying to maintain as much dignity as a man in the nude could possibly do. "A captain needs to maintain some degree of privacy and at the moment, I am feeling somewhat exposed."

Mary turned her back on him, respecting that need although it was somewhat redundant now and allowed him to get dressed without being observed. She did not need to look since what she had seen of him was impressive but there was no need for him to know that.

"Captain, were you able to see our captors?" She asked still keeping her eyes averted.

"No," he shook his head. "They were hidden in the darkness for most of the interrogation. They had me hooked up to a device that discharged low level energy bursts. No permanent damage I suspect, but it hurts like hell."

"What information did they want?" She asked again.

"Nothing they would make specific and I must admit I was a little too cocky for my own good." He said trying to stifle a groan of a pain as he slipped his trousers on. "Okay, I’m partially decent."

She turned around and quickly remarked. "Captain, perhaps you should try being not so charming next time."

"I’ll keep that in mind during the next round." He replied reaching down for his grey shirt.

"The next round?" Her brow rose immediately in concern.

"I assume that there will be one considering I gave them nothing during the first." Chris replied. What he did not add was their warning to him during his last moments of consciousness. They had made it extremely plain to him that while they had not intended to take Mary hostage, they would not hesitate to use her if it would ensure his co-operation.

Chris did not intend to allow that under any circumstances. Somehow, he was going to have to come up with a new plan.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I

She watched him sleep and knew he was not telling her everything.

In the past few hours, it seemed to her that she was learning more and more about him with each passing moment. When had the time come that he had become more than captain to her and she more to him than just his protocol officer? Mary could not tell but the barrier between them was like a veil whose substance was diminishing as gradually as the shifting of ocean tides. Perhaps it was their entrapment together that initiated this bond between them like two animals sharing the same cage.

Mary could not say for certain but even as he slept, she could feel him strongly. In all her life, she had only shared a mental link with one other person so strongly and he was now dead. Syan could always sense the feelings inside her no matter whether where he was. She remembered with a flash of intense pain the moment she knew that he died. His death cry had been ripped through her mind as the Borg destroyed him and his ship. To this day, the loss of his katra was something Mary was unable to fathom. Vulcan souls were meant to be preserved, to take their place with all the others in the place of keeping, not to be discarded to the four winds like a mist. Residues of his self remained within her but the absolute loss of his living soul was almost as devastating as losing his physical being.

Her link with Chris was not like this. She was human and the mental links created in her mind because of the mind meld between herself and full blooded Vulcan still remained. Only a strong emotional attachment could reactivate them and she could not feel Chris from a distance because he simply did not possess the telepathy to maintain such link. However, when he was near, his emotions were the proverbial open book to her. Prior to their incarceration, her link to him was vague. She sensed something in his regard for her but nothing Mary could define clearly. Now it was much stronger because his concern for her had escalated and the torture had weakened him considerably. The intensity of his emotions surprised her and she wondered what she had done to inspire such passion.

Although she could not read his mind but rather sense his emotions, Mary became certain Chris was protecting her. She sensed his duplicity earlier and knew he had held something back when they had spoken of his interrogation. The fear she sensed in him was strong but it was not fear for himself. Chris was afraid for her life and her safety. It did not require any great leaps in logic to understand why that was. Undoubtedly, their captors had threatened her life in exchange for his co-operation. She knew nothing short of death could allow him to voluntarily harm any member of his crew but in her case, Mary knew Chris’s dedication to duty and his feelings for her could become conflicted.

Humans could be so illogical at times.

The Vulcan philosophy she had been forced to adopt, declared that it would be sensible to allow her to die. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. However, Chris was not Vulcan, he was human and found it extremely difficult to take this course of action because their emotions interfered with the decision. Mary believed when the time came for Chris do so he would be unable to make that choice because he would be hampered by his feelings for her. Of course, he had not spoken of it. She never expected he would. However, she refused to allow him to sacrifice himself and possibly the Federation because of her. The Starfleet officer that she was did not find such an action acceptable.

Mary rose to her feet quietly and walked towards the panel. For a long moment, she merely stared at it, wondering if it was wise to proceed any further. She knew nothing about this cell and the surveillance methods employed by their captors. They could be watching her now and she did not want to provoke them into hurting the Captain any more than they had. She did not want him to pay for her misjudgement.

As it was, she was now a liability to him. Her very presence made it impossible for him to make a decision without taking her welfare into account. If she was capable of being furious at herself now, Mary would be. What had possessed her to reach for him when the transporter beam had enveloped him? Mary was not accustomed to impulse and knew the motivations behind her attempt were for purely personal reasons. She had allowed her emotions to get the better of her and now he was paying for the price.

One way or another, she would find a way out of this cell.

Mary touched the panel. It did not react. For a moment, she considered how she would proceed. She had been brushing up on her engineering skills and while she would never have Julia’s inborn expertise or Alex’s vast scientific knowledge, she had been on Vulcan long enough to learn quickly. Being surrounded by super intelligent people made it necessary for her to refine her ability to commit a great deal of information to memory upon first reading.

She had no tools to work with and allowed her hand to begin a more physical examination of the panel now that she knew it was not meant to be accessed from inside the cell. She let her fingers slide across the slanted edges, testing the seams for weakness. After a few moments, she found a weak point and paused as she decided what to do next. Taking stock of her options for a short time, Mary reached for one of the hair clips holding her hair out of her face. It was a simple metal clip that she had purchased in one of the shops in Jupiter Station. It did not look very formidable but it was definitely strong. In any case, she had little choice in the matter and had to be content with it. She dug its edge into the crack at the base of the panel in so that she could pry it open. Mary forced it down gently, adding more and more pressure. It was a few seconds before her efforts displayed any progress when she saw the crack widen and becoming, more visible. She was almost there.....

Suddenly the edge snapped.

The abrupt break propelled the jagged edge of the rest of the clip straight into hand before she could even react to pull it away. It buried itself deep within her skin with such force and rapidity that the pain took her by surprise before she had a chance to deal it and instinctively, she let out a soft cry of pain.

Chris sat up immediately. "Mary?"

She winced in annoyance at having woken him and nursed her bleeding hand while she examined the injury. The broken half of the clip had embedded itself in the flesh below her knuckles. She let herself dropped to the floor as she took a closer look. "I’m fine, I just hurt myself a little." She answered trying to maintain her dignity in such a ridiculous situation.

Chris was by her side in an instant. "Let me see." He ordered.

"It is superficial." She declared, making it known that she did not require assistance.

Chris saw heavy rivulet of red fluid snaking down her wrist despite her best attempts to stem its flow. "It does not look superficial to me Lieutenant." He made particular emphasis on that last word to indicate his determination in this matter.

Unfortunately, she had to concede to his rank and extended her hand forward reluctantly. Chris took her hand gently and saw the metal clip still protruding from her flesh.

She did not answer because he was correct. It was not.

"It does however, look worse than it is. Take my arm with your good hand."

"Why?" She asked suspiciously.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Are you always so adversarial with your commanding officers?"

"Just you."

"You must be in pain," he smiled faintly. "You’re making a joke." Without saying anything else, he yanked the clip out of the wound before she had time to react. Her nails dug into his arm in a spasm of pain and let out another cry of pain which cut through him just hearing it. He dropped the broken hair clip onto the floor and wiped her blood on his sleeve. The blood flow from the wound seemed heavier now that the obstruction had been removed. Quickly, he tore a small strip of material from his tunic.

"What were you doing?" He asked. "No let me guess, you were trying to get that panel open?"

"I refuse to comment on the grounds that I will incriminate myself." She smiled wryly watching him shape the material into a makeshift bandage for her hand.

"Lieutenant, while I appreciate your diligence, perhaps waiting for me might have been a good idea."

"How so?" She looked at him. "I know I’m not an engineer but it could not hurt just to take a look."

"I agree," he nodded as he secured the material with a tight knot. "However, I would rather you not skewer yourself in the process. One of us in bad shape is enough."

"I wanted to get us out of here." She said quietly.

Something in the tone of her voice made him look up when she said that. Her eyes that were normally devoid of emotion, seemed softer and more fluid. "You have placed yourself in enough danger because of me, Chris."

Chris liked how it sounded when she said his name, especially with a tone that indicated that she felt more for him than he had previously thought. He was aware that they had crossed some invisible boundary seldom defined by men or women until left long behind. At that moment, he understood that she cared and it was because he was more than just her captain. He realised her concern was far more personal and intimate. For a moment, he did not know what to say and remained silent. Her face softened and Chris saw that he need not speak at all because she knew the unspoken feelings he had for her.

He reached for her and placed a gentle hand against her cheek. Mary did not move away, neither did she speak. Instead, she raised her hand and placed her palm across his. Everything that needed to be said between them was established by that simple gesture of intimacy. Almost as if they knew what was taking place, Chris saw Mary eyes widen. He looked behind him and saw the transport beam in the middle of the room, seeking him out again. His gaze returned to her quickly, before they spirited him away again.

"I’ll be alright." He said confidently and knew that most of it was for her benefit.

Mary’s eyes started to well with emotion and her lips started to quiver as she saw the beam come towards him. "I’ll keep trying to get us out of here."

"I know." He answered finally before the beam reached him and took him out of the room.

Once he was gone, Mary closed her eyes and tried to come to grips with this ache in her heart and the terrible fear she felt. She sat there for a moment, trying not to worry about him and concentrate on what she had promised before he was taken from her. A short time later, she rose to her feet and faced the panel again with icy determination in her face.

"Let’s do this again." She whispered once and then set to work.

II

He was in the same interrogation room although this time, he was fully clothed. Like before, he could not see his interrogators but he could hear them in the room, whispering amongst themselves as they decided his fate. Chris knew in no uncertain terms that they would harm Mary if he was not more co-operative and decided that he was going to have to approach this situation from another angle. As much as he disliked doing it, he was going to have to play ball to gain more information about them.

"Captain Larabee, we trust that you are more willing to talk after our previous meeting?" The same voice boomed in his ears again.

"I don’t respond well to extortion," Chris admitted. "However, it looks that I don’t have much of a choice to be stubborn."

"We are glad that you understand your situation. It would be regretful if we had to resort to more extreme measures."

Chris was glad he would not find out what exactly those measures were. He was still trying to recover from the previous ones and he needed to be in somewhat decent shape to effect any kind of escape. "I don’t doubt that you will use those measures on my Protocol Officer if I don’t obey. That is how well I understand the situation."

"She is here to service our needs Captain, not yours." The taut response returned.

"Whatever," Chris said abruptly. "Since you have taken all this trouble to make me capitulate, you mind telling me what it is that you want to know?"

There was a momentary pause before a response came. Chris strained his eyes to look into the darkness to see a face to which he could attach that voice. Unfortunately, he found that he could see no one. He wondered what reason was there for such secrecy. It was not as if he were in any position to do them any harm if he knew what they looked like.

"As you have already guessed Captain, we were responsible for the destruction of your colonies along the border of your territorial space."

Hearing them admit it sickened him to his stomach while at the same time firing his anger. However, he restrained his feelings and continued listening quietly.

"We required information about your Federation but found the information retrieval unit on the colonies inadequate for our needs. We took live specimens and similarly found them lacking as they were unable to provide us with what we required. We made these attempts on several colonies and erased all evidence of our presence in our departure."

"Not all evidence." Chris declared.

"We are here on a mission of utmost urgency to our race and were not concerned with the welfare of an unimportant species."

Once again, Chris maintained his temper. "So you went to Deep Space Five and downloaded their computer core." He replied.

"You are correct. Fortunately, the data stored in the station’s retrieval unit was far more comprehensive and did give some us valuable insight on how to proceed with the next part of our investigation."

"I don’t’ what use I can be to you if you’ve already downloaded a space station’s computer core. It probably contains more information then I will ever know." He answered honestly. Suddenly, Chris found that despite the situation, he was extremely interested to know what it was these intruders wanted of him and the Federation.

"The computer core contains factual data which is not what we desire." The voice answered quickly. "We have come to investigate the two incidents in which your Federation has encountered the species known as the Borg Collective."

Now Chris was really surprised. "You want to know about our encounters with the Borg?" He exclaimed, unable to hide his shock. "Why?"

"As far as we know, no species of inferior technology has ever defeated the Collective and yet your Federation has done so twice."

"I wouldn’t say defeated," Chris retorted. "In each encounter we suffered devastating losses." Chris had no trouble revealing this to his captors. If they had taken the contents of Deep Space Five’s computer core then he was not telling them anything they did not already know.

"Yet they were nonetheless defeated." The speaker continued. "That is unprecedented and we wish to know how you accomplished this."

"Mostly luck." Chris retorted. "And thanks to some innovative thinking by our starship commanders."

"Yes," the voice considered. "In particular, the human known as Jean Luc Picard. A Federation starship Captain."

There was an ominous way about the manner in which they said Picard’s name that immediately sent a cold shiver down his spine. Suddenly, it hit him. The realisation came alive with such inspiration that Chris was struck by the force of his discovery. In an instant, he understood why it was the intruder had gone to the trouble of taking him alive. They had responded to the broadcast he had sent across space to lure them, not because discovery was contrary to their purposes in this quadrant. It was because he had sent the signal.

Captain Chris Larabee of the USS Maverick.

They did not want a human specimen. They wanted starship captain, like the one responsible for the Borg destruction at Wolf 359 and then over the skies of Earth.. He could be wrong, it would not be the first time. However, Chris refused to believe that he was incorrect . With instinct he relied upon more steadfastly than logic, he was certain of the truth he had just uncovered but he had to put his theory to the test.

"You think because I am starship captain, I can show you how to defeat the Borg?" He asked.

"We do not need your assistance to defeat the Soulless Ones!" The voice snapped angrily. "We are here on scientific study to understand how such a primitive culture can fend off the might of the Borg! Our interest if merely for the purpose of study!"

Somehow that protest appeared to be just a little too vehement to be simply arbitrary, Chris decided. "I may be a member of primitive culture but I’m no fool. If your interest was purely scientific you wouldn’t have gone to the lengths that you have done to accumulate your data. My officers and I deduced some time ago that there was a measure of desperation to your actions."

As responding to their unseen anger at his insolence, his body spasmed with pain as he felt the energy discharge striking his body from the table beneath him. Fortunately after being tortured for hours previously, Chris had developed a small amount of endurance to it. While it hurt beyond description, he found that he was able to recover faster than before. He knew his words had hit a chord with them because they had retaliated like children throwing a temper tantrum.

"Okay, since you feel that strongly about it, we won’t mention desperation." Chris managed to say after a moment. "However, I’m afraid I can’t help you." He retorted. "Jean Luc Picard was able to defeat the Borg because they assimilated him. His crew was able to retrieve him. Fortunately, once the connection to the Collective was severed, the nanoprobes inside him were destroyed and his human cells were able to reassert themselves. The experience allowed him certain insights into the nature of the Borg, insights he was able to use to defeat them."

"You are lying." He heard the voice respond in anger. "Their consciousness is vast and insight or not, they would have been able to circumvent what minute knowledge he had of them!" The voice protested. "Your understand is simplistic and in error."

"We have a saying in our culture," Chris retorted. "To know your enemy is to know how to defeat him. Jean Luc Picard knew his enemy," he stated firmly. "He knew his enemy well enough to outwit them. If you have come looking for a super weapon, I’m afraid you are going to be disappointed. The Borg was defeated with nothing more than one man’s determination and insight."

Chris waited for a response but none came. Although he had only heard one voice, he was certain that there were more individuals in the room with him. While not speaking to him, he heard them conferring amongst themselves, trying to decide whether or not they believed him. In the meantime, he took the chance to go over what he learned so far. These intruders were deadly afraid of the Borg but Chris could not understand why. Their technology proved they could be more than a match for the Borg if necessary. Even if they could not completely defeat the Collective, they had enough technology to fend off any Borg invasion.

"Picard was the human responsible for destroying the First." The voice stated after a long while.

"The First?" He asked confused.

"The First from whom the Collective originate. That who brings order from chaos."

For a moment, he could not understand to whom they were referring and then it came to him. Chris had read Jean Luc Picard’s log report of his encounter with the Borg following the failed invasion of Earth. It was an unusual story involving time travel and Zefram Cochrane. Chris had been more interested in Picard’s impression of the legendary inventor to take much notice of the rest of the report. However, it did reveal that the Borg had a central leader that had been previously unknown to the Federation.

"You mean the Borg Queen." He replied.

"The First."

"You keep calling her the First." Chris asked. "Of what is she exactly the first?"

There was another pause. "She is the first Borg. The original is who began the assimilation process. It was she who injected the first microprobes into another that began the race. She who had independent will where none was meant to be."

"You know much about the Borg." He responded. "Perhaps we could share our knowledge." He offered. "It’s obvious that they are your enemy. We can help each other. I do not know what exactly you are hoping for by interrogating me but if I knew what you were searching for I am sure we can find an answer."

"We need no assistance from the likes of you. You are not a true life form, only the C’Kaia are alive!" The voice shouted angrily but Chris suspected this response was mainly borne out of the realisation that his words had rung true.

"C’Kaia." Chris mused. "Is that your species?"

"The C’Kaia are the natural masters of this galaxy. It is our right to rule and to purge the systems of all inferior forms of life."

Chris had heard this so many times from so many would be conquerors that it was almost corny. Did they never learn anything different to say or was there some universal manual through which they obtained their litany of tedious rhetoric. "A difficult position to take considering the Borg are the most powerful species we have yet to encounter. I am certain that they would object to your claim. You are biological like I am biological and we all fodder for assimilation if we don’t help each other."

"The Borg is an accident! Like all accidents they will be destroyed eventually."

"They are not accidents and it will take far more than arrogance to destroy them." He declared. "It will take co-operation and mutual understanding." Chris stated. He knew he had to try and reach them somehow. If the C’Kaia considered the Borg enough threat, perhaps they would yield enough to acknowledge that they needed assistance, even from an inferior specimen like him.

"We require no co-operation from you or your kind." The C’Kaia said icily. "The Borg will be destroyed. Without the First, they are significantly weakened and we will make them do our bidding as they were always meant to. We will not make the same mistake twice."

"The same mistake?" Chris whispered. Suddenly, he had very bad feeling about all this.

"Yes, you foolish human." The C’Kaia snorted with contempt in his voice. "It is we who created the First and we who found the telepath whom you know as the Borg Queen."

CHAPTER TWENTY

I

Mary lost track of time after she began work on the panel. Ironically, the only tool she possessed that could sufficiently pry open the panel was still the damaged hair clip. Mary retrieved the clip from where it had fallen and resumed her efforts to open the panel since she had little choice in the matter. Initially, she was concerned that her tampering with the device would incite the wrath of their captor but as her work progressed, no such action appeared forthcoming. If anything, it confirmed that she and the captain were not being kept under close watch. Obviously, their captors did not believe that they were capable of escaping from such an impregnable cell.

After a length of time coaxing the panel loose and remaining careful not to harm herself further, the diamond shape cover popped off with a final creak of protest. It fell on the floor and skittered across the room. For a minute, Mary remained frozen wondering if her success had brought any attention to their guards. Once again, no such action had arisen and she continued working.

The neat diamond shaped hole that was left in the wake of the panel’s removal, revealed a series of alien circuits and sophisticated isolinear chips. These were probably generations ahead in design to anything Starfleet had ever envisioned. For a long while she merely stared at the mechanism, trying to ascertain if there was a common frame of reference to the layout of circuits, relays and chips. She was no engineer but she had basic engineering knowledge that was a required course at the Academy, not to mention what she had been studying since coming on board the Maverick. She studied the circuits carefully, fully aware that everything depended on her being able to make the mechanism work for her.

They had to get out of here. Nothing could be done to affect their escape while they were trapped inside this tomb. A transporter mechanism must operate from this point because the panel came alive each time the Captain was taken. Mary considered the possibility that their captors must have placed safe guards to prevent tampering such as this. She did not see any such devices. However, she was starting to hypothesise that her captors might be arrogant enough to believe that their technology was far too superior to be tampered by an inferior species. Then again, they were of a highly specialised race, who did not appear to keep prisoners for any length of time. In either case, there was nothing to do but try.

Once she began testing the individual components of the mechanism, time whirled by with frightening speed. Slowly, her keen intellect began grasping concepts of the mechanism. Her eyes began seeing abstract comparisons with Federation transporters. In a rudimentary way, the process was the same. It was easy to visualise and hypothesise what each component might do. Mary found herself stymied by the problem of accessing its function as its instructions were not meant to originate from this location. However, after giving much thought to it, an idea formed in her head.

She was still wearing her com badge. It had not been removed because their captors saw no reason to do so. The com badge had only a finite range and she did not doubt that the Maverick was far behind them by now. It was certainly beyond the range of the com badge to be useful as a communication device to signal for help. However, in itself it did contain various components that could be useful as an interface to the circuits and chips within the alien mechanism.

The com badge also contained a universal translator and by definition, was capable of extrapolating all types of language form into an understandable medium. It would not take much to alter its programming to enable it communicate in a numerical form that was the most universal language of all. Once that was accomplished, the com badge could in essence, ‘speak’ to the alien technology and she could feed it instructions.

It took another hour of lying out circuits and attaching the tiny wires to the inside of the transporter panel before Mary could make the attempt. She had wanted to wait for the captain’s return but knew logically, that was ill advised. If they were to return him to his cell, all they would need to activate the transporter panel and discover what she had done. The com badge hung limply out of the opening. Only its wires connected it to the circuitry inside the opening. Tapping it gently, she hoped the interface would work and that both devices could speak to each other.

"Initiate transport." She said coolly. The com badge should be translating those words into a numerical form and instructing the alien transporter to comply.

There was no response.

"Initiate transport." Mary spoke again, trying not to let her failure overwhelm her with disappointment. "Now."

As if it could understand her inflections, she snorted to herself.

Suddenly, the beam appeared in the room. As before it was difficult to see under the power of the strobe, but she saw the air before her shimmer with energy and knew that the beam was there. It approached her quickly and consumed her as readily as it had done the captain. Mary closed her eyes as she saw the world in front of her disappear.....

....and reappear a second later, changing shape and form significantly.

The room was slightly larger than their cell but not much more. Its walls were a metallic grey that was much kinder to her eyes after the contrasting white walls of their cells. The illumination inside the room was dim and while she could see well enough, did not leave much for detail. Fortunately, there was no one inside it with her although she assumed there had to be guards posted outside the door at the corner of the room. Mary could not imagine any race being so incompetent. It would unwise to leave the room that way and she scanned the place for an alternate exit. At the base of one wall was small metal grate, probably a ventilation shaft. It was not the most effective means of travel but decided it would be better than using the doors and risk being caught if there were indeed sentries posted outside.

Before that however, she took a moment to conduct a quick reconnaissance. As of yet, neither she nor Chris had ever seen their captors and wondered if there might be some clue to their identity in their machinery. She went to the console built into one of the walls. The controls were mostly touch sensitive, requiring little dexterity and as were all shaped like the panel in the cell. There was nothing resembling dials and buttons, switches or knobs. It seemed to her that the intruders were of a species who had difficulty using controls that required sophisticated finger dexterity. Perhaps their digit control was not developed. Mary studied the panel briefly before she made her way to the vent.

Although she saw no evidence of surveillance devices in the room, that did not mean they were not present. The technology of this race was so unusual that she might not know what she was looking at until it was too late. It was calculable that eventually they would discover her escape. She intended to use her time wisely until that point. Mary dared not risk being caught now that she was finally free. Kneeling down, she pulled open the grate and set it aside as she examined the size of the shaft. It would be a tight fit for the captain but she would have adequate space to breathe. Either way she could not afford to be selective. Climbing inside, Mary barely managed to turn around as she replaced the grate behind her.

Not daring to hope but admitting that things were better than before, Mary let out a sigh and thought to her herself; so far so good.

***********

An hour later, Mary had no idea where she was.

The inside of the ship seemed like an endless catacomb of tunnels, access ways and shafts. She had no idea where the Captain was and wished she was not forced to take the com badge apart. Right now, it would be extremely useful in locating him. While she had been crawling down these passage ways, she began to notice something else of interest. Many of them were covered in thick dust that had accumulated over an unbroken period of time. It did not seem as if much maintenance was conducted. It also surprised her that no intruder alert had sounded over her escape as of yet.

Finally, she decided she had to risk emerging from her hiding place to locate the captain. If he was returned to his cell, they would learn of her escape and she disliked the consequence to him when that took place. However, finding him on this vast ship was no easy feat. She could only think of one way to find him and that method was quite distasteful. It required her to drop all mental shields completely. She had to use his mind as a beacon to locate him. She was confident that the bond between them was strong enough to achieve that end. Things would be so much simpler if he were a Vulcan whose telepathic skills were more than adequate for her task. Syan had opened her mind and while she would never be strong enough to be considered even empathic, Mary knew she could find him.

She folded her legs and took a deep breath, steadying herself for what was to come. Most Vulcans abhorred opening themselves like this but Mary knew that she was not Vulcan and there was no other way. As unusual as this was, it also happened to be the only possible way for her to locate the captain. She remembered the disciplines required to do this and tried to draw on the teachings of Vulcan elders to help her in her quest.

Mary took several breaths as she felt the shields in her mind slowly descend like the curtains at the end of the play. Although she could feel emotions in her head from a host of minds, they were not as plentiful as she would have imagined for a ship this size. In fact, while their combined thoughts produced loud interference, Mary knew its volume should have been larger. Just how many beings were on board this ship? Adding to the mystery was the nature of their thought patterns. They were odd if somewhat simplistic. There was a certainly orderliness to it that seemed undoubtedly alien. What struck her most was the level of unity they possessed with one another. Such cohesion among individuals was unheard of without some form of telepathic ability. Whatever this species was, they were single minded in their goals and similarly dedicated.

Finally, Mary forced their emotions away and allowed herself to concentrate on finding Chris. Her mind knew how to find him because of their emotional bond to each other. Although not as powerful as a Vulcan mind meld or a pon farr bonding ritual, it would suffice for her purposes. Her consciousness stretched across the expanse of the ship. Through the sea of feelings, she could sense his, like a lost grain of sand. Minute as it was, Mary could her consciousness extending forward like a physical force and reaching for it.

My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.

There was the chance that he would not know what was taking place. To the untrained, the comprehension of telepathy was limited. There was every possibility that he might consider her voice in his mind as some product of dementia and ignore it completely. Mary did not believe that of him though. The captain had a strong mind and he knew that their relationship could allow for this.

My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts

She could feel his emotions entering her mind. Although he was not quite aware of her yet, she could feel the establishment of the link between their two consciousnesses.

Chris, can you hear me?

Once again, only silence echoed back at her. Perhaps, he was not conscious and could not answer. Nevertheless, the link was made and she rolled onto to her hands and knees and began crawling up the shaft again. The invisible chord between them compelled her to keep moving, allowing her to navigate inside the maze of shafts to reach him quickly.

I am coming, Chris. I am coming.

I

This light has finally driven me crazy.

Chris blinked and hoped that would help in some way to clearing his head. For an instant, he thought he heard Mary telling him that she was on her way. For the last hour, they had left him on the table while they chose their next course of action. It appeared that the C’Kaia’s foray into Federation space was to discover the secret weapon that Jean Luc Picard had used against the Borg. As it was, he had been unable to coax more information out of them regarding the startling revelation they had made earlier.

Could it be that this species had created the Borg? Chris could not imagine for what purpose the Collective had been intended but it was obvious that if the C’Kaia were to be believed, their creation got loose on an unsuspecting galaxy. The masters were now as vulnerable as the billions they had condemned to extinction because of the Borg. There was almost something poetic about it all.

Chris, can you hear me?

Chris shook his head and knew that this time that sharp voice in his mind was no illusion or a figment of his imagination. He had heard it! It was Mary. Her voice was clear as one spoken out loud. Suddenly, his mind grasped it. Vulcan mind meld? No, that was impossible. Mary was human. However, Vulcans were telepaths and their mating ritual required some form of bonding process that was known to incite latent telepathy in some humans. He knew humans who were telepathic sensitive after such unions and knew it was possible to reach another mind if they were to lower their mental shields. While he could not confess to understanding all of it, Chris did hear her voice in his head.

Chris, I am coming.

************

Chris was very close now. She could measure the intensity of his emotions in a short radius from her position. Suddenly, she saw a grate further up the shaft and crawled quietly towards it. She could hear voices that seemed like a series of chirps and clicks. Had she been wearing her com badge, the universal translator would have been able to make sense of this unusual language. Throughout her journey here, she had ascertained one thing; there were not many C’Kaia on board this ship which was somewhat puzzling considering its size.

She reached the edge of the grate and waited for the voices to stop. The incomprehensible sounds of their language seemed fast paced and heated and Mary sensed something of great importance was being decided. She had a sudden premonition that her escape had been discovered. Peering through the slits in the grate covering, Mary saw through the dimly lit room that two figures had stumbled out leaving one behind. She observed that their movements were clumsy and awkward and their bulk was spindly. While they were definitely bipedal, there was something about their shape that required more investigation.

A question for Doctor Jackson if she ever saw him again, Mary decided.

She waited until the remaining alien exited another door in the room before she emerged from her hiding place. Without a doubt, she knew the alien had entered the room where Captain Larabee was being held. The situation was still risky but if they had learnt of her escape then her time had run out and action was needed now. Carefully, she forced the grate open and climbed out of the vent. Despite the urgency of the moment, Mary was pleased to be standing upright again. Her legs ached from its cramped confinement. For a few seconds, she allowed her mobility to readjust itself.

The room was no different from the one she had transported into earlier. Once again, the illumination was dim as were the nature of the controls. She looked at the door where the other two aliens had exited on some a panel not unlike the one in their cell. This one was mostly likely the mechanism controlling the door. She looked around and saw an odd shape tool sitting on one of the panels for which she could only guess its function. However, it was heavy and sufficient for her purposes.

There was no way to do this with any kind of delicacy, she decided. With a controlled swing, Mary brought down the object against the panel with all the force she could muster. The cover shattered underneath the weight of the tool sending shards in all directions harmlessly. It did make aloud crack however and Mary wondered if she had been heard. Never assuming anything, she jammed the length of the tool through the mouth of the broken opening. Letting go quickly, she saw tendrils of energy cackling across the tool from the internal mechanism. The short circuit she had been attempting to produce ejected sparks and smoke into the room. Mary hoped that it would be enough to jam the door and give them enough time to retrieve the captain.

She heard the other set of doors beginning to hiss and quickly ran to one of the walls flanking it. Mary remained still as the door slid open and a figure moved past her. Instead of remaining to confront the alien, she slipped through the opening and immediately slammed her fingers on the panel to close it. The alien whirled around as the doors started moving and Mary realised she had no idea how to lock it. She was going to have to attack.

Mary dropped to the floor. She glanced over her shoulder as the doors hissed open again and saw the captain strapped to a table in the centre of the room. He seemed all right for the moment but she still had an alien to contend with before she was able to help him. The alien shuffled in awkwardly and Mary kicked out her foot, slamming into what could be its ankle, causing its legs to buckle beneath it. Once the alien was down, Mary saw the silhouette of what appeared to be its misshapen head and sent a flying kick into its face. It uttered a loud screech of pain as her foot connected before it went reeling against a wall. The alien landed hard, with a loud crunch as it hit the hard surface. Mary hoped she had not delivered a mortal blow because when the alien slumped to the floor, it did not move.

"Mary!" She heard Chris call out. "Is that you?"

Pushing all thoughts for the alien aside, she jogged towards the light.

Chris was clearly pleased to see her when she stepped underneath the glare of the powerful light above him. "I knocked out one of them." She explained as she reached him.

"My heart bleeds for him." Chris retorted sarcastically. "Can you get me out this thing?" He demanded.

"Wouldn’t be much of an escape if I can’t Captain." She remarked as she studied the device that kept him confined. Fortunately, freeing him did not look difficult. There appeared to be only one strategically placed button on the whole machine. Mary gathered that this was the unlocking mechanism as Chris had informed her before that his tortures on this table had taken place without the aliens having to enter the circle of light. Most likely, that function of the table was controlled by remote.

"Very funny, lieutenant." He said. "I think I liked you better when you didn’t have a sense of humour."

"Liar." She replied, pressing the button gingerly.

The metal binds holding his body down suddenly released with a loud, audible snap. Chris did not waste any time getting to his feet once he was free. Although his muscles were stiff from hours of immobility, Chris was determined to put some distance between himself and this room. He gave his legs a quick massage to aid with circulation before he looked up at her. "Nice work Mary." He said warmly.

She flashed him a radiant smile full of emotion and he saw the relief in her eyes at knowing he was alright. "We have to keep moving." She responded softly. "I’m sure they have discovered my escape."

Chris agreed with that assessment but there was one thing he needed to do first. "Do you think you can find the controls for this light? I want to see what they look like." He had yet to explain to her that the C’Kaia may have been the race to create the Borg Collective and if either of them escaped, the information to the Federation would be invaluable.

"I believe so." She answered. Immediately her gaze shifted up and she followed the network of conduits that ran from the actual lamp. Within seconds, she found the controls and the room flooded with light.

As Chris had suspected, the room was some sort of laboratory. There were instrument panels, console screens and a vast variety of alien devices on each wall. One wall was host to an enormous refrigerated compartment. As Chris observed it, he saw dead specimens trapped inside clear canisters stored away neatly for easy access. They came in every shape and size, from small furry mammal like creatures to races Chris could not even begin to categorise. All posed before him in a grotesque gallery of death. Chris wondered how many of these specimens had died a naturally and how close had he come to becoming part of the display. As his eyes scanned the compartment, his stomach lurched as he realised that the C’Kaia already had a human specimen already.

The man stared back at him with eyeless sockets. His ebony coloured skin had frozen to a pasty grey. Chris saw the Y incision in his torso and hoped the death he suffered was not as awful as it surely looked. This was probably an inhabitant from one of the destroyed colonies, Chris guessed. The callousness of the C’Kaia enraged Chris and renewed his determination to stop their murderous experimentation once and for all.

Suddenly, he heard Mary call out behind him. "Chris, I think you should have a look at this."

Chris turned around and saw Mary standing over the alien she had attacked. He had been so busy examining the rest of the room that he had forgotten his original desire to see what the C’Kaia looked like.

Judging from its length, the alien on the floor was humanoid sized. However at that point, any other resemblance came to an abrupt end. Its huge compound eyes stared at them although both Chris and Mary were quite certain the alien was unconscious. It had no face to speak of or at least one where features could be held distinct from the other. Its mandibles projected from the side of its head and were lined a set of sharp serration’s that could be called teeth.

Tucked neatly between the thorax and segmented abdomen of its body were two sets of extra arms. None of these appendages had any developed fingers and had only two digits if they could be called that. Its legs were clearly made for bipedal motion although there were structural flaws that would make such movement awkward. Its skin appeared to be a kind of exo-skeleton that was covered in thick spiky hair. Chris could not even tell what gender this particular alien was but he could understand why they considered all other forms of humanoid life to be incapable of sentience. Chris had never seen any species closely resembling the C’Kaia and yet he knew immediately what they were.

The C’Kaia were insects.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

I

Both of them were still staring at the body of the unconscious C’Kaia when they heard the distant thunder of someone beating down the doors in the next room.

"They’ve discovered that I obstructed the main door." Mary informed him, stating the obvious.

"We better make ourselves scarce." Chris retorted and quickly surveyed the room for anything closely resembling a weapon. For once, their luck held and he sighted what looked like a pexiglassed weapons locker containing rifles mounted against the far wall. Without wasting any time, Chris hurried to the case and tried opening its lid without much success. The panel beside the clear case was moulded into the shape of a C’Kaia hand ensuring no one could commandeer the weapons within unless they were of the species.

"Grab him!" Chris ordered Mary and himself stepped towards the unconscious C’Kaia. Although she was supposed to maintain a Vulcan stiff upper lip, he could see her revulsion as she reached for the C’Kaia and began dragging it towards the panel. Chris quickly joined her and felt similar feelings as they hauled the C’Kaia across the floor. Chris was hoping that the movement did not awake their unconscious host, assuming Mary had not done severe damage when she attacked him. However, he remembered reading that as a good Vulcan wife she was schooled in their self defence disciplines and did not doubt that this C’Kaia would be out for some time.

They reached the foot of the locker and Chris hauled the alien to its feet. Propping it up against the wall, Chris reached for the C’Kaia’s hand and slammed its palm against the moulded imprint on the panel. The panel came alive almost immediately on contact and after a short period of processing, Chris heard the soft click of the compartments locking mechanism being deactivated.

Wasting no time, he let the C’Kaia drop to the floor as he reached for both weapons. He had no idea how any of it worked but decided that was a question for another time. Preferably when they were absent. After distributing the weapons among themselves, Chris looked to Mary because she knew the layout of this place better than he did. After all, she had managed to find him in a ship this size.

"How did you get in here?" He asked.

"I’ll show you." She replied, understanding his intention. She started towards the inner doors leading to the room from where the noise was coming from. Chris followed her without question because he was confident in her abilities. As it was, she had accomplished a minor miracle in escaping from their cell to find him. While they were far from being out of danger, at least they now had a chance of coming out of this alive.

As the doors slid open and they entered the room beyond the laboratory where he was being held, the pounding behind the door grew sharply louder. The scent of smouldering metal had started to fill the room. He guessed immediately that the C’Kaia were trying to cut through the doors as well as employing more physical methods of penetrating the room. Chris did not relish being around when that happened or the consequences to Mary if they were caught. They needed him alive but she had just proved herself to be a dangerous liability that could not longer be tolerated.

"This way." Mary declared, pointing to the open ventilation shaft.

"Get in." He ordered ushered her through the small opening. He wondered momentarily whether he himself would be able to fit in such a narrow passageway but there hardly seemed appropriate to debate the matter at the moment.

Once she had disappeared into the darkness, Chris climbed in after her. He was careful to replace the grate behind him although it took a few seconds of manoeuvring to give his shoulders enough room to move. He did not doubt the C’Kaia would eventually guess how their prisoners had escaped the room, but the period between now and eventually could mean the difference between life and death.

"Ducts," Chris grumbled, looking at the confining space around him as he was forced to move down the narrow space. "It’s always ducts."

"What?" Mary looked over her shoulder in question.

"Nothing," Chris shook his head and responded with a query of his own. "Do you know where you are going?" He asked as he followed Mary down the dark passageway. The sounds from the clanging doors becoming more distant the further they kept going.

"Not really," she answered honestly. "I thought we ought to put as much distance between us and where we were."

"Good thinking, we need to find their engineering deck." Chris stated.

"Captain, that is going to be exceedingly difficult." She returned automatically. "I found you because of some mental ability but it’s not at all strong enough to do that."

"You also said the same about getting out of our cell but you’re here." Chris quipped.

"Yes but that was luck too, I’m not an engineer and you’re overestimating my talents." She retorted as they came to a juncture in the shafts. She turned around to face him.

"I never underestimate your talents Mary." He replied with a mischievous smile on his face. "I’m looking forward to seeing all of them."

Mary rolled her eyes and retorted. "Grow up."

"Killjoy," he grumbled and then thought about what they ought to do. "We’ll head towards the centre of the ship." He suggested after a second.

"You mean that sphere inside the ring?" She remembered thinking that the ship’s strange construction might have something to do with its method of propulsion when they had first seen it on the bridge of the Maverick. She immediately saw where he was going with this. If they could damage it structurally, then perhaps they could slow the ship down or at least take it out of transwarp.

"I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be a central location for a key system. Even if it isn’t the engineering deck, it might widen our options. They’re called the C’Kaia by the way and they think that Jean Luc Picard developed some kind of cognitive sense about the Borg when he was assimilated seven years ago. Right now, they’re on a heading toward Borg space in the Delta Quadrant"

Mary was confused at their motives. Chris could not blame her. At transwarp, the journey would take a little under a year. "By why take us? We’re not important to them."

Chris paused before he answered. "You aren’t but I am. They want a starship captain they can sacrifice to the Borg for assimilation. They want to recreate whatever happened to Picard so that they can have a conduit into the Borg Collective consciousness."

Mary said nothing for a moment but the fear he saw in her eyes was apparent.

"Alright," she asked. "What do we do?"

********

"...the circumstances, the Maverick is ordered to return immediately to Deep Space Five."

It had come finally and this time there was nothing Buck could do about it. There were no ambiguities to play upon, no more excuses or even parlour tricks. The communication from Admiral Wellington was specific with no room for misconception. It was a final decree he had no choice but to follow. After 24 hours under silent running, the Maverick has passed clearly beyond what was Federation space in its desperate search to keep track of Captain Larabee and Mary. Although the transwarp signature gave them a trail to follow, it was obvious that the intruder’s superior velocity had taken them out of the Maverick’ reach.

After the twenty-four hours had passed, Buck had little choice but to contact Starfleet Command and give them an appraisal of their status. While waiting for their response, Buck had continued the ship’s course. Although he had not voiced it, their current heading was taking them directly to the Delta quadrant or would do if they continued on course for the next eighty years.

With Wellington’s words still ringing in his ears, Buck sat in the Captain’s ready room trying to find options in what was a seemingly hopeless situation. The moment Admiral Wellington had given him that order, the situation was out of his hands. Obviously, the admiral did not think that an untried first officer could handle a situation of this magnitude. Buck could not blame him of course, it was a reasonable assertion. Buck did not believe any malice was intended behind the order. He was after all new to commanding a starship and engaging an enemy like the one the Maverick had been facing required an experienced commander.

If he knew what was good for him, he would withdraw from the pursuit and return to Federation space. However, he could not. There was something inside him that would not allow him to simply give up on Chris and Lieutenant Travis. He knew if he were in the same position, Chris would move heaven and earth to get him back. He knew as well as Admiral Wellington surely did that if they were to abandon pursuit now, in likelihood they would never retrieve their lost personnel. He still believed that Chris would somehow escape on their own but their survival after that depended on the Maverick being able to reach them when that happened.

Yes, he was pining his hopes on a very slim chance and he knew it. The probabilities of such an event developing were almost non existent. At this moment, he had no indication that either Chris or Mary were still alive or capable of making any kind of escape attempt. It was ill conceived risking so many for a futile quest. However, the part of him that did not yield to reason, whose passion and fire allowed him to make far more accurate decisions with his heart rather than his head, told him that Chris Larabee would never allow anyone to keep him caged for very long. If there was a way for him to escape, Chris would find it.

After a few minutes of preponderance on the thought, Buck reached for his com badge. "Commander Wilmington to Lieutenant Tanner."

"Yes Sir," Vin’s voice returned automatically.

"Increase our speed to Warp 9 and maintain pursuit." Buck ordered and eased back into his chair, hoping he knew what the hell he was doing.

"Yes Sir," Vin responded, with a hint of pleasure in his voice that they were strengthening their effort to find the Captain. Buck was aware that Vin felt deeply for the captain and that they had a personal friendship that was growing in strength the more time they served together.

There was no reason to let anyone else know about their orders, therefore he would limit the responsibility if it went wrong solely upon him. As far as Buck was concerned, no one else needed to become involve in his insubordination for disobeying orders. If they were to be any consequences from this action, Buck would suffer it alone.

Suddenly, the doors slid open and Alex walked in the room. His acting first officer had been on the bridge when JD had announced the incoming signal from Starfleet Command. Alex Styles was no fool. Buck thought to himself. She would have guessed the content of the transmission even if she was not present to hear it herself. Buck knew he had.

"Can I help you Alex?" Buck asked casually.

She looked at him suspiciously as she stood before his desk. "Did Starfleet Command give us permission to maintain pursuit of the intruder?"

Buck paused, wondering how he ought to answer this question. He did not wish to lie to her because she was his first officer for the moment and undoubtedly any stain on him would not confine itself from her. However, he took a gamble on her response and decided to answer her honestly.

"No, they didn’t."

For a moment, she did not speak. The was no surprise on her face even though she understood the full implications of his order to Vin and absorbed it in quiet contemplation before she finally commented a few seconds later. "They ordered us back to Federation space?"

"I am afraid so." He replied.

"I gather you are ignoring that order." She stated firmly. His orders to Vin had made that a foregone conclusion and she could not say that she disagreed with him.

"For the moment," Buck answered, watching her closely for her reaction.

"I see." She nodded slowly. "How long do you intend to maintain the pursuit?"

It was a fair question. She had every right to know just how long he intended to keep violating orders. "I don’t know."

Alex let out a heavy sigh. "I know what it is to be left behind Buck," she said after a moment and the expression on her face became one that was impenetrable.

Buck saw the pain surfacing briefly in her eyes and wondered what the hell the Cardassians had done to her when they had her in their custody. Cardassians were known to be absolutely brutal in their torture methods and most who emerged from a Cardassian prison were usually scarred forever. While the records indicated that she had been tortured, it did not say what exactly had happened to her. There were injury reports but nothing conclusive and although she seemed well enough for duty, she had no appreciation about letting anyone know the specifics of her ordeal.

"I’ll support your decision in whatever you want to do. If you say that we maintain the pursuit, you have my full backing. I don’t feel right about leaving our people behind either."

"Buck nodded slowly grateful that he had a partner in misery so to speak in the course he had embarked upon. "Thank you Commander." He said warmly.

"I will get back to the bridge." She returned with a faint smiled before turning to leave.

"Alex?" Buck called as she was about to leave

Alex looked over her shoulder. "Yes Sir?"

"You surprise me Alex." He remarked. "But it’s a good surprise."

She cocked a brow and answered. "I’ve been doing that a lot lately." She said thinking about Vin and the expression on his face when she had kissed him. She had a feeling the Vulcan thought that had been a good surprise to.

"Well," Buck grinned. "Don’t stop, I like it."

II

"What was that sound?" Chris became aware of the faint hissing sound behind him moment ago.

At first Chris Larabee was uncertain of what he was hearing. However, he began to smell the faint odour of an unknown chemical in the air and knew something was happening. The small amount he had inhaled made his head swim and Chris realised that the C’Kaia were trying to flush them out into the open. Obviously, their captors had guessed that they were using the ship’s vast ventilation system to evade capture and were taking measures to force them out of the tunnels. Chris looked over his shoulder and saw it seeping out of thin fissures in the walls. Within seconds, a cloud of smoke had formed and was coming towards them with unnerving speed.

"We have got to get out of here!" Chris shouted to Mary in front of him. "They’re flooding the shafts with some kind of gas!"

Mary stopped long enough to look at him. "Coming out in the open could be equally risky." She pointed out grimly but saw the greenish vapour coming towards them and knew that their choices were limited.

"I seriously doubt it’s any riskier than remaining here Lieutenant!" Chris retorted and prompted her to move again.

His hands were aching from this awkward position. His knees and his palms were screaming out in protest as they were forced to move faster along the narrow passage way. As it was, his bulk was his biggest obstacle for any speedy movement. He nevertheless scampered after her, grimacing each time his head knocked against the over head ceiling and his shoulder bouncing of the walls of the tight compartment. Mary was able to move with barely enough room to spare while he was forced to move keeping his limbs as close to his body in order to conserve space. He was so cramped he could barely think let alone move with any kind of real co-ordination. The cloud was still coming at them, probably being forced up the shaft by the induction fans they had encountered during their passage through these tunnels.

Suddenly, he heard Mary cry out. "Captain, I see a ventilation grate further up!" Following her exclamation, he noticed she had moved faster although how she managed to in such confinement was beyond him. The fortune of feminine bone structure, he mused as he hastened his pace to match hers.

After what seem like an eternity of this undignified mobility, Chris saw Mary finally arriving at the face of the air vent in question. She changed position with the agility of a trained acrobat and did not wait to see if it was safe beyond it. Chris cast a glimpse back to the green mist in close pursuit and was thankful that she did not stand on ceremony when she slammed her foot against it. The force of her kick snapped its clasps apart and sent the metal covering flying forward like a projectile.

She pulled herself out of the open shaft and dropped onto the floor just in time to see two C’Kaia aliens emerging from the doors at one end of the corridor. Unfortunately, there was no way she could avoid being seen by them. Their reaction to sighting her was swift. They started running towards her immediately. Unlike the other C’Kaia she had seen earlier, these two were not hampered by cumbersome bipedal movements. Instead, their approach used not only their legs but also the extra limbs Chris and she had previously noted.

Certainly, this was a more affective mode of travel because she was barely able to unsling her weapon and release one shot when they were almost upon her. One of the aliens was only meters away when it suddenly shot a thick glob of clear fluid from its proboscis in her direction. Mary jumped out of the way to avoid it, hearing its splatter on the floor behind her a second later. The initial blast from her weapon had caught the other alien in mid thorax and brought the creature down as it prepared to pounce. The other alien screeched in protest over its fallen comrade and spat again. Once again, she managed to avoid being hit but her attempt to avoid it had placed her in a bad position to fire her weapon. The alien was inches from her and Mary was still fumbling with the weapon to get adequate hold to fire. Suddenly, a blast of energy streaked past her and struck the attacking alien dead centre. It collapsed on the floor. Its thick exoskeleton made a loud crunch as it impacted.

She turned and saw Chris on the floor. He had fallen out of the grate and remained where he was to take aim when he saw the alien about to attack Mary

"Are you all right?" He asked concerned as he picked himself up from the floor. They could not remain here for too long. Already, Chris could see tendrils of the gas inside the shaft starting to seep out of the grate into the corridor.

Mary nodded in response to his question, unable to deny that she was a little shaken by the moment. Combat was not something an engineer had to deal with, especially one who had been stationed at Jupiter Station for most of her career. She rose to her feet and was on her way towards him when she noticed the floor where the fluid ejected by the C’Kaia had landed.

It made her stop immediately and leaned down for a closer look. The two areas where the fluid had landed were now smouldering. It appeared the fluid was eating through the metal plates of the floor like some kind of corrosive acid.

"What is it?" Chris asked walking up beside her.

"It looks like some kind of molecular acid." She replied.

"That would be consistent with an arthopodian life form." He commented "Most insects break down food products by regurgitating digestive acid. They eat the food after it has liquefied." He responded as they put some distance between themselves and the growing cloud. Fortunately, the length of this corridor was considerable and they were able to leave it far behind now that they were on foot instead of their hands and knees. "I suppose a higher order of insects might decide to use that method as a form of defence."

"Gross but effective." Mary retorted, wondering what would have happened if the substance had made contact with her skin.

The corridor was almost fifty metres from one end to the other, Chris noticed as they advanced toward the opposite end. The low hum that was prevalent throughout most of the ship had become an actual vibration he could feel in the air. Out of curiosity, he placed his hands against the cool steel of the wall and fell his palm tingle at the microscopic shudder.

"Can you feel that?" Chris asked.

Mary had been listening to it. In fact, she had noticed it as soon as their melee with the C’Kaia had passed minutes ago. However, it was no mystery to her what it was. She recalled what the ship had looked like prior to their kidnapping and believed she had a good idea where they were. "I believe we are on one of the pylons connecting the outer ring of the ship to the inner sphere."

"At least we made it this far." He retorted sighting a door at the end of the corridor and stepping up the pace towards it. "I’m surprised we don’t have the entire ship combing the halls for us."

"There does not appear many C’Kaia on board Captain," Mary informed as she fell in step with him.

"How so?" He inquired.

"When I dropped my mental shields in order to find you, I was able to get a sense of the minds on board this ship. The volume of personnel does not seem consistent with a ship this size."

Somehow, that did not seem as outlandish as it sounded. Since their escape, they had made it half way across the ship without being detected. Although the C’Kaia had flooded the shafts at every point, two guards per grate seemed to be a small complement regarding the importance of their prisoners. Even now, the corridors were similarly deserted. While he knew he should not complain because this improved their chances at escape, it did make him wonder why.

"There are many questions about the C’Kaia." Chris remarked. "First of all, I believe them when they claim to have created the Borg."

"You think they’re responsible for the Borg collective?" Mary asked as they closed in on the doorway. Her expertise was in the engineering sciences and she was no authority by any means in biological or entomological studies beyond the basic understanding required for her classes at the Academy.

Chris however, had no such difficulties. He had studied classes in advance xenobiology when he was at the Academy and was surprised how much of that knowledge remained intact, even after so many years. "If the C’Kaia are the creators of the Borg, then it would explain some aspect of Borg behaviour. For instance, the hierarchical structure of the Borg. Like most insect cultures, the Queen is the leader and all others are referred to as drones. We have seen the Borg refer to themselves in the same way. Their collective consciousness may have been forced to induce the same kind of single minded unity shared by insect colonies."

"If you are creating a warrior race, it would make sense that you fashion it after yourself." She answered as they reached the door. "Although their purposes escapes me. Obviously, the C’Kaia are advanced enough to wage wide scale warfare without creating such an aggressive warrior caste to do their bidding."

"That’s true." Chris replied. "However, we don’t know all that much about them. Until we do, we can

only guess what their motives are."

"True." They reached the door and both Chris and Mary took a defensive position flanking it.

With their weapons drawn, Chris nodded at Mary when he activated the door panel. The door slid open. Neither of them moved for a few seconds as they waited to see if any C’Kaia would come through the doors to investigate. After a minute or so, Chris deemed it was safe to enter the room and peered over the edge of the doorway.

"Oh my god." Chris whispered softly.

Mary saw his eyes widen in disbelief. The weapon he had been holding was primed to fire, dropped aimlessly to his side as he stepped out into the doorway and walked into the room. For a second, she could not fathom what could astonish him so completely until she herself looked inside the room.

They had both been wrong about the sphere being the centre of the ship’s propulsion system. When Mary followed Chris’s gaze, she saw a room so large that it took up the full area of the sphere as viewed from space. However, what astonished both Starfleet officers was not its size. While they had been wrong about its purpose, they were certainly not wrong about it being a key area. The room was a cargo hold and in it was the most precious cargo of any race. It filled every square inch of space inside the large area except for one small aisle that cut through the centre of it.

"Captain," she responded in a soft voice. "Are those what I think they are?"

"Yes," Chris nodded grimly. "They’re eggs."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

I

Both of them were still staring at the body of the unconscious C’Kaia when they heard the distant thunder of someone beating down the doors in the next room.

"They’ve discovered that I obstructed the main door." Mary informed him, stating the obvious.

"We better make ourselves scarce." Chris retorted and quickly surveyed the room for anything closely resembling a weapon. For once, their luck held and he sighted what looked like a pexiglassed weapons locker containing rifles mounted against the far wall. Without wasting any time, Chris hurried to the case and tried opening its lid without much success. The panel beside the clear case was moulded into the shape of a C’Kaia hand ensuring no one could commandeer the weapons within unless they were of the species.

"Grab him!" Chris ordered Mary and himself stepped towards the unconscious C’Kaia. Although she was supposed to maintain a Vulcan stiff upper lip, he could see her revulsion as she reached for the C’Kaia and began dragging it towards the panel. Chris quickly joined her and felt similar feelings as they hauled the C’Kaia across the floor. Chris was hoping that the movement did not awake their unconscious host, assuming Mary had not done severe damage when she attacked him. However, he remembered reading that as a good Vulcan wife she was schooled in their self defence disciplines and did not doubt that this C’Kaia would be out for some time.

They reached the foot of the locker and Chris hauled the alien to its feet. Propping it up against the wall, Chris reached for the C’Kaia’s hand and slammed its palm against the moulded imprint on the panel. The panel came alive almost immediately on contact and after a short period of processing, Chris heard the soft click of the compartments locking mechanism being deactivated.

Wasting no time, he let the C’Kaia drop to the floor as he reached for both weapons. He had no idea how any of it worked but decided that was a question for another time. Preferably when they were absent. After distributing the weapons among themselves, Chris looked to Mary because she knew the layout of this place better than he did. After all, she had managed to find him in a ship this size.

"How did you get in here?" He asked.

"I’ll show you." She replied, understanding his intention. She started towards the inner doors leading to the room from where the noise was coming from. Chris followed her without question because he was confident in her abilities. As it was, she had accomplished a minor miracle in escaping from their cell to find him. While they were far from being out of danger, at least they now had a chance of coming out of this alive.

As the doors slid open and they entered the room beyond the laboratory where he was being held, the pounding behind the door grew sharply louder. The scent of smouldering metal had started to fill the room. He guessed immediately that the C’Kaia were trying to cut through the doors as well as employing more physical methods of penetrating the room. Chris did not relish being around when that happened or the consequences to Mary if they were caught. They needed him alive but she had just proved herself to be a dangerous liability that could not longer be tolerated.

"This way." Mary declared, pointing to the open ventilation shaft.

"Get in." He ordered ushered her through the small opening. He wondered momentarily whether he himself would be able to fit in such a narrow passageway but there hardly seemed appropriate to debate the matter at the moment.

Once she had disappeared into the darkness, Chris climbed in after her. He was careful to replace the grate behind him although it took a few seconds of manoeuvring to give his shoulders enough room to move. He did not doubt the C’Kaia would eventually guess how their prisoners had escaped the room, but the period between now and eventually could mean the difference between life and death.

"Ducts," Chris grumbled, looking at the confining space around him as he was forced to move down the narrow space. "It’s always ducts."

"What?" Mary looked over her shoulder in question.

"Nothing," Chris shook his head and responded with a query of his own. "Do you know where you are going?" He asked as he followed Mary down the dark passageway. The sounds from the clanging doors becoming more distant the further they kept going.

"Not really," she answered honestly. "I thought we ought to put as much distance between us and where we were."

"Good thinking, we need to find their engineering deck." Chris stated.

"Captain, that is going to be exceedingly difficult." She returned automatically. "I found you because of some mental ability but it’s not at all strong enough to do that."

"You also said the same about getting out of our cell but you’re here." Chris quipped.

"Yes but that was luck too, I’m not an engineer and you’re overestimating my talents." She retorted as they came to a juncture in the shafts. She turned around to face him.

"I never underestimate your talents Mary." He replied with a mischievous smile on his face. "I’m looking forward to seeing all of them."

Mary rolled her eyes and retorted. "Grow up."

"Killjoy," he grumbled and then thought about what they ought to do. "We’ll head towards the centre of the ship." He suggested after a second.

"You mean that sphere inside the ring?" She remembered thinking that the ship’s strange construction might have something to do with its method of propulsion when they had first seen it on the bridge of the Maverick. She immediately saw where he was going with this. If they could damage it structurally, then perhaps they could slow the ship down or at least take it out of transwarp.

"I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be a central location for a key system. Even if it isn’t the engineering deck, it might widen our options. They’re called the C’Kaia by the way and they think that Jean Luc Picard developed some kind of cognitive sense about the Borg when he was assimilated seven years ago. Right now, they’re on a heading toward Borg space in the Delta Quadrant"

Mary was confused at their motives. Chris could not blame her. At transwarp, the journey would take a little under a year. "By why take us? We’re not important to them."

Chris paused before he answered. "You aren’t but I am. They want a starship captain they can sacrifice to the Borg for assimilation. They want to recreate whatever happened to Picard so that they can have a conduit into the Borg Collective consciousness."

Mary said nothing for a moment but the fear he saw in her eyes was apparent.

"Alright," she asked. "What do we do?"

********

"...the circumstances, the Maverick is ordered to return immediately to Deep Space Five."

It had come finally and this time there was nothing Buck could do about it. There were no ambiguities to play upon, no more excuses or even parlour tricks. The communication from Admiral Wellington was specific with no room for misconception. It was a final decree he had no choice but to follow. After 24 hours under silent running, the Maverick has passed clearly beyond what was Federation space in its desperate search to keep track of Captain Larabee and Mary. Although the transwarp signature gave them a trail to follow, it was obvious that the intruder’s superior velocity had taken them out of the Maverick’ reach.

After the twenty-four hours had passed, Buck had little choice but to contact Starfleet Command and give them an appraisal of their status. While waiting for their response, Buck had continued the ship’s course. Although he had not voiced it, their current heading was taking them directly to the Delta quadrant or would do if they continued on course for the next eighty years.

With Wellington’s words still ringing in his ears, Buck sat in the Captain’s ready room trying to find options in what was a seemingly hopeless situation. The moment Admiral Wellington had given him that order, the situation was out of his hands. Obviously, the admiral did not think that an untried first officer could handle a situation of this magnitude. Buck could not blame him of course, it was a reasonable assertion. Buck did not believe any malice was intended behind the order. He was after all new to commanding a starship and engaging an enemy like the one the Maverick had been facing required an experienced commander.

If he knew what was good for him, he would withdraw from the pursuit and return to Federation space. However, he could not. There was something inside him that would not allow him to simply give up on Chris and Lieutenant Travis. He knew if he were in the same position, Chris would move heaven and earth to get him back. He knew as well as Admiral Wellington surely did that if they were to abandon pursuit now, in likelihood they would never retrieve their lost personnel. He still believed that Chris would somehow escape on their own but their survival after that depended on the Maverick being able to reach them when that happened.

Yes, he was pining his hopes on a very slim chance and he knew it. The probabilities of such an event developing were almost non existent. At this moment, he had no indication that either Chris or Mary were still alive or capable of making any kind of escape attempt. It was ill conceived risking so many for a futile quest. However, the part of him that did not yield to reason, whose passion and fire allowed him to make far more accurate decisions with his heart rather than his head, told him that Chris Larabee would never allow anyone to keep him caged for very long. If there was a way for him to escape, Chris would find it.

After a few minutes of preponderance on the thought, Buck reached for his com badge. "Commander Wilmington to Lieutenant Tanner."

"Yes Sir," Vin’s voice returned automatically.

"Increase our speed to Warp 9 and maintain pursuit." Buck ordered and eased back into his chair, hoping he knew what the hell he was doing.

"Yes Sir," Vin responded, with a hint of pleasure in his voice that they were strengthening their effort to find the Captain. Buck was aware that Vin felt deeply for the captain and that they had a personal friendship that was growing in strength the more time they served together.

There was no reason to let anyone else know about their orders, therefore he would limit the responsibility if it went wrong solely upon him. As far as Buck was concerned, no one else needed to become involve in his insubordination for disobeying orders. If they were to be any consequences from this action, Buck would suffer it alone.

Suddenly, the doors slid open and Alex walked in the room. His acting first officer had been on the bridge when JD had announced the incoming signal from Starfleet Command. Alex Styles was no fool. Buck thought to himself. She would have guessed the content of the transmission even if she was not present to hear it herself. Buck knew he had.

"Can I help you Alex?" Buck asked casually.

She looked at him suspiciously as she stood before his desk. "Did Starfleet Command give us permission to maintain pursuit of the intruder?"

Buck paused, wondering how he ought to answer this question. He did not wish to lie to her because she was his first officer for the moment and undoubtedly any stain on him would not confine itself from her. However, he took a gamble on her response and decided to answer her honestly.

"No, they didn’t."

For a moment, she did not speak. The was no surprise on her face even though she understood the full implications of his order to Vin and absorbed it in quiet contemplation before she finally commented a few seconds later. "They ordered us back to Federation space?"

"I am afraid so." He replied.

"I gather you are ignoring that order." She stated firmly. His orders to Vin had made that a foregone conclusion and she could not say that she disagreed with him.

"For the moment," Buck answered, watching her closely for her reaction.

"I see." She nodded slowly. "How long do you intend to maintain the pursuit?"

It was a fair question. She had every right to know just how long he intended to keep violating orders. "I don’t know."

Alex let out a heavy sigh. "I know what it is to be left behind Buck," she said after a moment and the expression on her face became one that was impenetrable.

Buck saw the pain surfacing briefly in her eyes and wondered what the hell the Cardassians had done to her when they had her in their custody. Cardassians were known to be absolutely brutal in their torture methods and most who emerged from a Cardassian prison were usually scarred forever. While the records indicated that she had been tortured, it did not say what exactly had happened to her. There were injury reports but nothing conclusive and although she seemed well enough for duty, she had no appreciation about letting anyone know the specifics of her ordeal.

"I’ll support your decision in whatever you want to do. If you say that we maintain the pursuit, you have my full backing. I don’t feel right about leaving our people behind either."

"Buck nodded slowly grateful that he had a partner in misery so to speak in the course he had embarked upon. "Thank you Commander." He said warmly.

"I will get back to the bridge." She returned with a faint smiled before turning to leave.

"Alex?" Buck called as she was about to leave

Alex looked over her shoulder. "Yes Sir?"

"You surprise me Alex." He remarked. "But it’s a good surprise."

She cocked a brow and answered. "I’ve been doing that a lot lately." She said thinking about Vin and the expression on his face when she had kissed him. She had a feeling the Vulcan thought that had been a good surprise to.

"Well," Buck grinned. "Don’t stop, I like it."

II

"What was that sound?" Chris became aware of the faint hissing sound behind him moment ago.

At first Chris Larabee was uncertain of what he was hearing. However, he began to smell the faint odour of an unknown chemical in the air and knew something was happening. The small amount he had inhaled made his head swim and Chris realised that the C’Kaia were trying to flush them out into the open. Obviously, their captors had guessed that they were using the ship’s vast ventilation system to evade capture and were taking measures to force them out of the tunnels. Chris looked over his shoulder and saw it seeping out of thin fissures in the walls. Within seconds, a cloud of smoke had formed and was coming towards them with unnerving speed.

"We have got to get out of here!" Chris shouted to Mary in front of him. "They’re flooding the shafts with some kind of gas!"

Mary stopped long enough to look at him. "Coming out in the open could be equally risky." She pointed out grimly but saw the greenish vapour coming towards them and knew that their choices were limited.

"I seriously doubt it’s any riskier than remaining here Lieutenant!" Chris retorted and prompted her to move again.

His hands were aching from this awkward position. His knees and his palms were screaming out in protest as they were forced to move faster along the narrow passage way. As it was, his bulk was his biggest obstacle for any speedy movement. He nevertheless scampered after her, grimacing each time his head knocked against the over head ceiling and his shoulder bouncing of the walls of the tight compartment. Mary was able to move with barely enough room to spare while he was forced to move keeping his limbs as close to his body in order to conserve space. He was so cramped he could barely think let alone move with any kind of real co-ordination. The cloud was still coming at them, probably being forced up the shaft by the induction fans they had encountered during their passage through these tunnels.

Suddenly, he heard Mary cry out. "Captain, I see a ventilation grate further up!" Following her exclamation, he noticed she had moved faster although how she managed to in such confinement was beyond him. The fortune of feminine bone structure, he mused as he hastened his pace to match hers.

After what seem like an eternity of this undignified mobility, Chris saw Mary finally arriving at the face of the air vent in question. She changed position with the agility of a trained acrobat and did not wait to see if it was safe beyond it. Chris cast a glimpse back to the green mist in close pursuit and was thankful that she did not stand on ceremony when she slammed her foot against it. The force of her kick snapped its clasps apart and sent the metal covering flying forward like a projectile.

She pulled herself out of the open shaft and dropped onto the floor just in time to see two C’Kaia aliens emerging from the doors at one end of the corridor. Unfortunately, there was no way she could avoid being seen by them. Their reaction to sighting her was swift. They started running towards her immediately. Unlike the other C’Kaia she had seen earlier, these two were not hampered by cumbersome bipedal movements. Instead, their approach used not only their legs but also the extra limbs Chris and she had previously noted.

Certainly, this was a more affective mode of travel because she was barely able to unsling her weapon and release one shot when they were almost upon her. One of the aliens was only meters away when it suddenly shot a thick glob of clear fluid from its proboscis in her direction. Mary jumped out of the way to avoid it, hearing its splatter on the floor behind her a second later. The initial blast from her weapon had caught the other alien in mid thorax and brought the creature down as it prepared to pounce. The other alien screeched in protest over its fallen comrade and spat again. Once again, she managed to avoid being hit but her attempt to avoid it had placed her in a bad position to fire her weapon. The alien was inches from her and Mary was still fumbling with the weapon to get adequate hold to fire. Suddenly, a blast of energy streaked past her and struck the attacking alien dead centre. It collapsed on the floor. Its thick exoskeleton made a loud crunch as it impacted.

She turned and saw Chris on the floor. He had fallen out of the grate and remained where he was to take aim when he saw the alien about to attack Mary

"Are you all right?" He asked concerned as he picked himself up from the floor. They could not remain here for too long. Already, Chris could see tendrils of the gas inside the shaft starting to seep out of the grate into the corridor.

Mary nodded in response to his question, unable to deny that she was a little shaken by the moment. Combat was not something an engineer had to deal with, especially one who had been stationed at Jupiter Station for most of her career. She rose to her feet and was on her way towards him when she noticed the floor where the fluid ejected by the C’Kaia had landed.

It made her stop immediately and leaned down for a closer look. The two areas where the fluid had landed were now smouldering. It appeared the fluid was eating through the metal plates of the floor like some kind of corrosive acid.

"What is it?" Chris asked walking up beside her.

"It looks like some kind of molecular acid." She replied.

"That would be consistent with an arthopodian life form." He commented "Most insects break down food products by regurgitating digestive acid. They eat the food after it has liquefied." He responded as they put some distance between themselves and the growing cloud. Fortunately, the length of this corridor was considerable and they were able to leave it far behind now that they were on foot instead of their hands and knees. "I suppose a higher order of insects might decide to use that method as a form of defence."

"Gross but effective." Mary retorted, wondering what would have happened if the substance had made contact with her skin.

The corridor was almost fifty metres from one end to the other, Chris noticed as they advanced toward the opposite end. The low hum that was prevalent throughout most of the ship had become an actual vibration he could feel in the air. Out of curiosity, he placed his hands against the cool steel of the wall and fell his palm tingle at the microscopic shudder.

"Can you feel that?" Chris asked.

Mary had been listening to it. In fact, she had noticed it as soon as their melee with the C’Kaia had passed minutes ago. However, it was no mystery to her what it was. She recalled what the ship had looked like prior to their kidnapping and believed she had a good idea where they were. "I believe we are on one of the pylons connecting the outer ring of the ship to the inner sphere."

"At least we made it this far." He retorted sighting a door at the end of the corridor and stepping up the pace towards it. "I’m surprised we don’t have the entire ship combing the halls for us."

"There does not appear many C’Kaia on board Captain," Mary informed as she fell in step with him.

"How so?" He inquired.

"When I dropped my mental shields in order to find you, I was able to get a sense of the minds on board this ship. The volume of personnel does not seem consistent with a ship this size."

Somehow, that did not seem as outlandish as it sounded. Since their escape, they had made it half way across the ship without being detected. Although the C’Kaia had flooded the shafts at every point, two guards per grate seemed to be a small complement regarding the importance of their prisoners. Even now, the corridors were similarly deserted. While he knew he should not complain because this improved their chances at escape, it did make him wonder why.

"There are many questions about the C’Kaia." Chris remarked. "First of all, I believe them when they claim to have created the Borg."

"You think they’re responsible for the Borg collective?" Mary asked as they closed in on the doorway. Her expertise was in the engineering sciences and she was no authority by any means in biological or entomological studies beyond the basic understanding required for her classes at the Academy.

Chris however, had no such difficulties. He had studied classes in advance xenobiology when he was at the Academy and was surprised how much of that knowledge remained intact, even after so many years. "If the C’Kaia are the creators of the Borg, then it would explain some aspect of Borg behaviour. For instance, the hierarchical structure of the Borg. Like most insect cultures, the Queen is the leader and all others are referred to as drones. We have seen the Borg refer to themselves in the same way. Their collective consciousness may have been forced to induce the same kind of single minded unity shared by insect colonies."

"If you are creating a warrior race, it would make sense that you fashion it after yourself." She answered as they reached the door. "Although their purposes escapes me. Obviously, the C’Kaia are advanced enough to wage wide scale warfare without creating such an aggressive warrior caste to do their bidding."

"That’s true." Chris replied. "However, we don’t know all that much about them. Until we do, we can

only guess what their motives are."

"True." They reached the door and both Chris and Mary took a defensive position flanking it.

With their weapons drawn, Chris nodded at Mary when he activated the door panel. The door slid open. Neither of them moved for a few seconds as they waited to see if any C’Kaia would come through the doors to investigate. After a minute or so, Chris deemed it was safe to enter the room and peered over the edge of the doorway.

"Oh my god." Chris whispered softly.

Mary saw his eyes widen in disbelief. The weapon he had been holding was primed to fire, dropped aimlessly to his side as he stepped out into the doorway and walked into the room. For a second, she could not fathom what could astonish him so completely until she herself looked inside the room.

They had both been wrong about the sphere being the centre of the ship’s propulsion system. When Mary followed Chris’s gaze, she saw a room so large that it took up the full area of the sphere as viewed from space. However, what astonished both Starfleet officers was not its size. While they had been wrong about its purpose, they were certainly not wrong about it being a key area. The room was a cargo hold and in it was the most precious cargo of any race. It filled every square inch of space inside the large area except for one small aisle that cut through the centre of it.

"Captain," she responded in a soft voice. "Are those what I think they are?"

"Yes," Chris nodded grimly. "They’re eggs."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

I

Eggs.

Hundreds of them. No, Chris quickly amended. Not hundreds but thousands. He knew what they were on sight. That much about his entomological studies remained intact. The rows were endless and they stretched from end of the cargo hold to the other. All were placed in orderly rows, each with a mechanical attachment which Chris gathered controlled its environmental requirements to prevent hatching. He could not say how he knew that the technology was meant to prevent birth but it seemed to make sense somehow.

The eggs themselves, were little more than a foot high, tubular in shape and did not seem altogether different from the egg sacs he had seen of their Earthling except these were a great deal larger. As he and Mary stepped off the platform from the main entrance and descended to the floor of the hatchery, Chris could see the vague shapes behind the translucent wall of the eggs. Infant C’Kaia moved languidly in gelatinous fluids, completely unaware of the world beyond them..

"They must be thousands of them." He heard Mary declare. She was staring at them with a mixture of horror and fascination.

Chris shook his head at her expression. Women and bugs. Five hundred years of equality and they still got the jeebies whenever they spotted something with more than four legs.

"At least," Chris responded as another thought occurred to him that had nothing to do with that aspect of feminine behaviour. Hurrying back onto the platform, Chris activated the door panel and waited for it to slide to a close before raising his weapon. Taking, a careful aim, he fired one shot into the centre of the panel. The energy blast impacted against the device, sending sparks in all direction. He stepped back to avoid being burned by the stray embers and was content to see the panel completely destroyed. Jagged rips of metal glared at him while burnt circuitry hissed and cackled through the torn fissure.

"That ought to buy us some privacy." He said returning to the aisle where Mary was currently moving her gaze over the cargo hold with an expression he knew all to well. It was evident that she was gathering information about this part of the ship. Her eyes moved across the beams and the walls of the hatchery with deep concentration. He wondered what had captured her attention so completely.

"There appears to be a stasis field protecting these eggs." Mary announced after a moment.

That revelation did not surprise Chris however. He had gathered as much even though he had not solid evidence to back assumption. Following her gaze, he realised she had come to this conclusion because there was a slight shimmer of energy encasing individual egg being generated from the mechanical receptacles they were mounted on. Combined, it almost looked like a veil of stardust hung suspended over each one egg.

"I wonder how long they have been like this?" He mused.

"God knows." She replied, even though his question had been rhetorical. "I can tell you however, that this does explain why there are so few C’Kaia on board."

"Does it?" Chris looked at her sceptically. "I fail to see how."

"They are obviously the guardians for these hatchlings." She answered.

"If that is true why risk the cargo by coming into direct conflict with the Maverick?" Chris countered.

"We not exactly a threat to them." Mary pointed out.

"I don’t know about that." He disagreed. "We may not have been in the beginning. While their technology is formidable, it is not invulnerable. We’ve seen that we can hurt them."

"You’re right." She agreed. "I can’t see why they would take a ship into battle with cargo like this."

"I don’t know," Chris shrugged, unable to answer that question. "However, if one of our photon torpedoes penetrated the hull of this cargo hold, the entire hatchery would have been lost despite its shielding."

"Shielding?" She looked at him.

"Chris came up alongside of her and pointed upwards. "Do you see those conduits running across the ceiling and the walls?"

Mary did see them, however, the conduits were so fine it could have been any number of things. They ran across the length of the ceiling and across of the hold that remained exposed to space. Sometimes they even criss-crossed over one another but were never more than 1 metre apart. Until one actually looked it was easy to miss these conduits as they were designed to blend into the background. "I see them but couldn’t that be just normal circuitry."

"I don’t think so." Chris shook his head. "I thinks it is a shielding of some sort as well as an anti-transporter mechanism."

Mary was not even going to question how he came to that conclusion but was confident that he was right. Starship captains seldom made such speculations unless they were absolutely certain of what they was talking about.

"That’s a good thing for us." Chris said with a sigh. "At least they won’t be able to beam us out of here."

"True." She remarked and continued her observations.

So many questions, Chris thought to himself. He was starting to see a vague explanation forming in his head but there was still many gaps. They continued walking through the aisle and all the while, Chris felt uneasy about being in here with all these eggs. While the C’Kaia had obviously shown themselves as ruthless aggressor, Chris did not want to be here if the adult C’Kaia found them. Whatever he thought of the C’Kaia was irrelevant, the beings inside these eggs were not responsible for the crimes of their elders. He did not want to harm any eggs in the fire fight that would ensue once the C’Kaia knew they were inside the hatchery.

"Let’s get out of here," Chris suggested and hasten his steps as they made their way down the aisle. "I don’t like this place."

While Mary could not share his discomfort, she did understand it and thus hurried to keep up with him. They had not taken more than a few strides when the silence of the room was suddenly shattered by the sound of someone pounding against the steel door. Both of them reacted to the noise and knew that their privacy was going to be short lived.

"Damn." He cursed under his breath. "I was hoping for a little more time before they found us."

"That was always going to be a slim hope Captain." Mary pointed out.

"I won’t argue with you there." He replied and broke into a run. They ran down the narrow aisle through the sea of C’Kaia eggs. When they reached the end of the aisle, the passageway banked sharply and led to a set of doors, they had not seen from the distance. It did not appear to lead out of the sphere however but seemed to be a smaller room in the hatchery.

"Through there!" He ordered Mary, deciding that they had little choice to be selective at the moment.

Chris reached the door panel first and slammed his palm against the activation pad. Fortunately, these panels did not require any identification or else they would be real trouble. The door slid open without protest and Chris entered first to ensure that it was safe to do so. The measure soon proved valid as a C’Kaia leapt in front of him and spat a shot of fluid at him.

"Duck!" He shouted at Mary as he jumped out of the way to avoid being hit. Turning around swiftly, he delivered a flying kick in the alien’s torso and then brought down the butt of his weapon against the C’Kaia’s head when it doubled over.

Mary had thrown herself against opposite wall when the alien’s venom, for the want of a better word, struck the closing doors behind her. Immediately, the corrosive liquid began eating into the steel. While she did not think it was quite strong enough to eat all the way through, it certainly reaffirmed her belief at its potency if it came into contact with flesh. She saw the captain attacking the alien and raised her own weapon in reaction.

"Don’t move." She warned with ice in her voice while keeping aim at the C’Kaia. Not that it was in any position to protest as the Captain’s blow had left it quite dazed as it staggered against a panel for support.

"Thank you." Chris said appreciatively, as he collected himself and unslung his weapon.

Once the captain was ready to take over, Mary looked around the room. While he was attempting to question the C’Kaia with little success, Mary focused her engineering expertise to the purpose of this annexe. It was a control room of some sort. She decided immediately. There were console screens showing a wide range of environmental readings, everything from atmospheric temperature inside the hold and the integrity of the stasis field protecting the eggs. Except for the wall where the door was located, the rest of the walls were taken up machinery. There was also an image of the cargo hold on one of the consoles. It was most likely this C’Kaia that had alerted the others to their presence. However, it was incidental compared to what caught her attention.

"Chris!" She said in more excitement than she meant to show once the discovery had been made. "Does this mean what I think?."

Chris hurried to her side and saw what she was looking at. "Yes it does," he said with a smile. "The sphere is capable of separating from the rest of the ship. It has independent propulsion systems and what appears to be a communication dish. I think this is the main control room for the hatchery."

"That would make sense." Mary replied. "If the ship was in trouble, they would able to get the eggs away to safety."

For a moment, Chris felt silent as he considered the new possibilities ahead. The idea forming in his head was distasteful but unfortunately, he had little options left. Once again, he tried to wrestle with the moral implications of what he was doing and knew that the debate was over. The moment the C’Kaia had destroyed Federation colonies, they had thrown down a gauntlet of challenge Chris Larabee was forced to take up.

"We’re going to have to polarise the stasis field." Chris declared after a moment.

Mary looked up, certain she had heard incorrectly.

"I beg your pardon, I thought..."

"You heard right, we’re polarising the stasis field." He said again.

"Captain, doing that might kill the life inside the eggs." She declared, her horror showing.

"I know." He said grimly. "But we’re going to do it."

Had she misjudged him? Was he really capable of doing this, even for the sake of their lives? For a moment, Mary did not know what to say and then realised he must have a reason for this request. By God, she hoped he had one. "Why?."

"Are you murderers?" The C’Kaia suddenly spoke. "Those are infants! They have not harmed you!"

With Chris’s universal translator still functioning, both Mary and he were able to understand the C’Kaia and so would it, when he responded to its declaration. "You did not seem to have this crisis of conscience when you obliterated our colonies. There were children on those worlds as well or do they not count because they are not C’Kaia."

"I do not know anything of that!" The C’Kaia said evasively. "My responsibility is to the hatchlings only. I am of the Carer Caste. I have no influence with those of the High Caste."

"Well that’s too bad." Chris replied and ordered sharply. "We’re doing it Lieutenant." His tone clearly indicating he wanted no arguments on the matter as he gave her quick instructions on the how.

Mary knew better than to argue and she turned to the controls in order to begin. She had no more than reached for the panel before her when she heard the C’Kaia respond with more urgency.

"You cannot do this!" It cried out desperately. "Stop!"

Chris raised his gaze and met the alien’s compound eyes directly. "Then help us escape." He slowly, his voice full of icy deliberation.

That made the C’Kaia stop in its tracks. For a moment, it did not know what to do. Chris could almost see the conflict that was raging within it. Did its responsibility to the Caste supersede its responsibility to the eggs under its charge. Chris sympathised with the decision it had to make but he had to force the C’Kaia to choose. Their lives depended on it.

In the mean time, there were immediate problems that required attention. With his eyes fixed firmly on the C’Kaia, Chris spoke to his engineer. "Mary, see if you can find the audio control to the outside corridor?"

After a moment or so, he heard her answer.

"Here it is." She nodded and gingerly approached the communications panel in the complex.

As she began working on his request, Chris addressed the C’Kaia again. Time had run out for it to consider its options, a decision had to be made now. "Carer, I need to know if you are going to help us. I do not wish to destroy the hatchery but rest assured I will if I think that is the only way to escape your ship alive." Chris paused a moment and then added. "Carer, if you help us escape, I will see to it no danger will come to the hatchery. My companion and I only wish to return home."

"You would not harm the unborn?" It asked uncertainly.

"I give you my word, for all it is worth to you that if you help us escape the hatchery will remain undamaged. However, I cannot guarantee its survival if we do it alone. Our knowledge of your technology is tenuous as it is, one wrong button pushed and we may accidentally kill the entire hatchery. Do you wish to take that risk Carer?"

"Captain," Mary interrupted before the C’Kaia had a chance to answer. "I have activated the communication relay in the pylon. You may speak to them now."

"Do I have your answer?" Chris demanded, not tolerating any further hesitation. "Will you help us?"

Finally, the C’Kaia nodded slowly. "I will help you if you keep your vow that the unborn shall not be harmed."

"Good," Chris nodded. "Now, how do I get a visual of the corridor?" He asked quickly. The C’Kaia stepped forward gingerly, conscious of the weapon pointed at him as he walked towards the console. His odd shaped digits moved across the controls with surprising dexterity and within seconds, one of the inactivated screens came alive with the image Chris sought.

There were at least five C’Kaia at the door, trying to cut their way inside. Chris knew that they could not be allowed to penetrate the hatchery so he had to make his move now. Taking a deep breath, he spoke.

"To the C’Kaia who are trying to penetrate the hatchery of the unborn, stop immediately!" Chris saw them react immediately to the sound of his voice. They stopped working on the door and searched the source of the voice. It did not take them long to realise that it had been transmitted from else where.

One of them approached the image recorder mounted on the ceiling of the pylon and glared directly into it. While all the other C’Kaia Chris had seen so far were a dark, bluish colour, this C’Kaia and his companions were hued in crimson shades. If a caste system was in effect here, it was likely that these were the warrior drones.

"We will do no such thing human!" The leader responded indignantly once the initial shock had faded away. "You would be wise to give yourselves up immediately."

"I don’t think so. Your power over us ended the moment we entered your hatchery. You cannot recapture us without endangering your own. We have seized command of your hatchery control and if you and your fellow C’Kaia do not withdraw to the outer ring immediately, I will jettison the entire contents of this sphere!"

"You would not dare such an atrocity!" The C’Kaia shouted in outrage. "We would destroy you and your entire race for such murder!"

"Then you will withdraw." Chris said coolly, unaffected by the C’Kaia’s vehemence.

"Never!" It roared.

"Mary, depressurise the sphere." Chris ordered.

"You promised not to harm the unborn!" The Carer declared.

"Your eggs are in a stasis field are they not?" He turned to the C’Kaia.

"Yes." It nodded. "They are protected inside the field."

"Then depressurising the sphere will not harm them, even if it is for a short period of time. I do not intend to carry out my threat unless provoked Carer, I am merely expressing to your comrades that the threat I make is real."

That seemed to calm the C’Kaia down a bit but Chris did not intend to trust him with too much. The alien was too agitated and too unfamiliar with the situation to be reliable. As Mary activated the depressurisation process, a red warning light began flashing inside the room, indicating the commencement of the procedure. Klaxons began screaming inside the room and outside it, Chris was sure. The warrior C’Kaia certainly heard the alarm for depressurisation because within seconds, he heard their leader shouting at him to stop.

"You savages!" He heard them shout and wondered if they could be any more hypocritical considering what they did to the colonies on Kalendra 2, Omega 6, and god knows how many others.

"There is still time to stop this," Chris addressed them again. "Withdraw now and we will abort the the procedure."

The C’Kaia turned to the others in his group to make the decision, with the sounds of klaxons wailing the background reminding them the consequences of the wrong choice. After a moment, the leader turned back to Chris and responded in a low growl. "We will withdraw for now."

"You made the right decision." Chris answered, not allowing it to show either in his voice or in his face how relieved he was that they had not forced him to go through with his threat. "Now leave the pylon."

"What guarantee do we have that you will not harm the unborn when we have complied?" The C’Kaia demanded.

"You don’t have one." Chris said sharply. "However, you can be assured that the hatchery will remain safe for the time being. Now leave immediately or you might give me the impression that you intend to go back on your word. Trust me, that would not be wise."

The threat in his voice was clear and the C’Kaia did not dare gamble on the lives of their precious cargo. At least, not until the odds were better stacked against them. Chris knew his advantage was temporary. The C’Kaia had formidable technology on their side and may be preparing to use it even as they stood here contemplating their next move. Finally, the stalemate was broken and the C’Kaia warrior contingent made a reluctant retreat.

Once they were gone, Chris turned to Mary and the C’Kaia Carer. "Alright, we don’t have much time." His eyes moved to the C’Kaia. "You’re going to help us separate the ship."

"That has not been done in centuries!" The C’Kaia declared. "I am not even certain if the ship is structurally capable of doing so now! You are endangering all of us by this foolhardy attempt at escape."

Chris wondered how much of its protests were genuine and how much of it was an effort to stall for time. In either case, Chris was not going to pay the C’Kaia’s outburst more attention then necessary. "I am willing to take that risk," he stated firmly. "Now you will help us or I swear I will go out there and shoot every one of the unborn before your eyes if necessary!" He raised his weapon higher for effect. "Do we understand each other?"

The venom in his voice surprised Mary and she wondered how much of it was a facade for the benefit of the C’Kaia. She knew that humans could be extremely violent when they wanted to be and this side of the captain was something that unsettled her greatly.

"I understand." The C’Kaia nodded, suitably intimidated for the moment. "I will assist you as I promised. I will reiterate that this ship has not separated for a great length of time and I cannot assure you it will work."

"Show my engineer what needs to be done and it will." Chris answered with a little more calm in his voice.

The C’Kaia turned to Mary and said quietly. "It will take a few minutes," he began. "The prelaunch sequence must be followed exactly. I have never done this before but I am told that there are no shortcuts to the procedure."

"I understand." Mary nodded as the C’Kaia set to work. "What time we have will have to suffice."

As Chris heard that, he sighed to himself and hoped that it would be enough. They had only one shot at this and failure was not an option.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

I

Vin Tanner found Alexandra Styles sitting at favourite place inside the observation deck. He knew she liked that place better than she liked Four Corners because there were less people there. It was more than a day since the Captain had been taken and the mood on the Maverick was grim. Vin himself held similar feelings of anger and frustration at the Captain’s abduction off their bridge. The helm officer knew that Ezra was particularly infuriated by that fact and the suave and normally charming security chief was wearing a black cloud over his head since the kidnapping, cursing at their lack of ability to stop the enemy from beaming the captain right of the bridge.

He had walked into the observation deck hoping to find her here; unable to explain why seeing her was often the highlight of his day. Vin found so much pleasure in just talking to her he was at a loss to understand why, not to mention that since she kissed him, he had constantly craved to have her touch him again. She met his gaze as he approached her and flashed him a smile the one she gave no one else but him and made his heart rate increase just a little faster. Vin wondered if he was being subject to some metabolic anomaly that Vulcans seemed to acquire at the most inconvenient times. Perhaps he would ask Doctor Jackson about it when the present crisis was over.

"Hello Vin." She greeted, holding a warm mug of hot chocolate in her hands. It had one marshmallow on top that was slowly liquefying because of the heat emanating from beverage.

"Just come off duty?" She asked.

"Yes." He nodded as he sat down before her. It was nice to know that he did not have to ask anymore.

"I came off an hour ago myself." Alex remarked, her gaze fixed on the stars outside even though she liked his company. "Anything interesting to report?" She asked, perfectly aware that if there were Buck would have summoned her to the bridge by now.

"No." He shook his head sombrely, reminded of the Captain then and feeling a wave of sadness at his absence. Ever since he had met Captain Larabee, Vin had got the sense that the man was more than just his commanding officer but his friend and Vin did not have that many of them to be able to lose them. He hated the captain being gone and even more so because they could do nothing to get him back. "There’s still nothing."

Alex caught the sorrow in her eyes and had the urge to hold him. She did not know why she felt the way she did about Vin Tanner, only recognising that she saw a lost soul as her was lost, struggling to find its way back to the light or even reach for the first time. She looked in those pools of cobalt and knew instantly what he was feeling and was starting to believe that he could do the same too. "Vin, we’ll find him." She said trying to make him feel better because she hated seeing him sad. It reached into the dark depths of herself where Alex had not believed anything could penetrate anymore and reminded her most acutely that she was not as emotionally devoid as she thought.

"I know we will." He said with a smile and then raised his eyes. "Can I ask you something?" He said after a moment.

"Yes," she liked him smiling and was happy to oblige him in his questions. He was so full of them even though they were roughly the same age.

"Why are you so sad?" Vin asked.

She looked at him with surprise but recovered quickly. "What makes you say I’m sad." She swallowed thickly.

"Because you are." He answered honestly, the only way he knew how to respond to any question. She admired him that ability even though she hated it as well because it made her unable to lie to him with any success. "Its everywhere. It’s in your voice, in your eyes and its even in your smile."

Alex took a deep breath and released it. She supposed Buck Wilmington was right, she did need to tell someone and this Vulcan was the only person on this ship, she could say she trusted with complete and utter conviction probably because she cared about him more than any other person ship as well. "I was captured by the Cardassians when I was stationed on Deep Space 9."

Vin said nothing but he knew enough about the Cardassians to know how they treated their prisoners. Male prisoners suffered brutally enough but even imagining a female must have endured, suddenly made him understand a little better. "It was very bad." He replied, not asking because it could be no other way.

"I was held there for six months." She swallowed and forced herself to continue when suddenly, his hand took hers. She had not noticed how close he had been sitting before her but was suddenly she became very aware of him in a manner that did not seem to register at first because it had been so damn long since she felt anything remotely like it. His skin was warm against hers and Alex felt her stomach leap inside her as he gently intertwined his fingers between her own and held it there in support. "Cardassians do not adhere to the stellar mandates regarding prisoners of war. They will do anything to break you and it came to a point where I had to do anything to escape. I made a choice to survive and so I did what I had to get out."

He did not understand that part of it but he could tell from her eyes that it must have been terrible indeed to cause so much pain. "I’m sorry." He said softly. "I should not have made you talk about it."

"No it’s okay," Alex answered with a faint smile. "You know the world didn’t fall apart like I thought it would if I spoke about it. Maybe in time, I’ll tell you a little more."

"I would listen." He admitted.

"I know you would." Alex met his eyes and said warmly. "That’s what friends do, we listen." She glanced at the stars again and added, "That’s why we have to wait here for the Captain because he’s your friend and we’ll get him back."

"Chris is pretty resourceful." Vin commented. "I’ll bet that at this moment, he’s showing the enemy a thing or two about Captain’s ingenuity."

**************

"Can we please can get some stabiliser control so I can stop falling on my ass!" He declared as he attempted to get to his feet again. Around him, the sphere was shuddering badly as Mary and the C’Kaia wrestled with the controls as they attempted to separate the hatchery sphere from the rest of the ship. Although he was quite certain that the C’Kaia Carer was not deliberately hindering their attempts to complete the separation, it appeared that the alien knew less than he was admitting. Chris was starting to believe it when the C’Kaia had stated that sphere had not undergone separation in centuries.

Klaxons were screaming throughout the sphere and Chris ventured to guess that similar alarms were being sounded on the ring section of the C’Kaia vessel. He knew that they had achieved partial separation because the sphere was now rocking dangerously as it tried to unattach all docking clamps to the rest of the ship.

"We must abort!" The Carer cried out. "One of the docking clamps is malfunctioning! We are unable to separate."

"Can it be done manually?" Chris retorted as he hung onto a nearby panel for dear life.

The Carer considered this for a moment. "Yes, it can. There is a manual release on the starboard section of this craft."

"Give me a floor plan schematic!" He ordered.

Within seconds, one of the consoles flashed the information required. Chris studied it carefully after the Carer showed the location of the errant docking clamp. After a moment, he turned to Mary. "Keep your weapon on him while I’m doing this." Chris ordered her.

In response, Mary stepped back from the panel leaving the C’Kaia to work alone as she raised her weapon and aimed carefully. While they had been working to release the ship, the C’Kaia had been conscious of the captain’s weapon aiming at it and poised to fire. Like Chris she did not trust the alien enough to believe that it would not make a bid for escape once they were alone.

"All right," Chris said contented with the situation. "I’ll be back soon." He replied hurrying out of the room.

Chris hurried out of the control room and saw the small access hatch located at the turn of the corridor leading back into the hatchery. Earlier on, he and Mary had run straight past it without seeing it but now that he was looking, Chris detected it easily enough. There was a small activation pad on the base of the wall to access the hatch. Once again, it was designed for C’Kaia hands and was quite easy for a human to operate. The hatch slid open with a loud hiss of hydraulic gases and a musty smell drifted from the opening.

As he lowered himself into the passageway and started climbing downwards, he could feel dust on his palms as he gripped the wrung of ladder. The ship was still shuddering as it tried to escape its tether and Chris had a great deal of difficulty maintaining his hold. His descent into the engineering deck of sphere section was slowly but it gave him time to observe. The illumination in this part of the ship was dim. However, he was still able to visualise the vague shapes of machinery around him and hear the low humming of the engines resonating in his ears. According to the floor plan, he knew he did not have far to go before he reached bottom.

He let go of the wrung and dropped the remaining feet to the floor. Landing on the hard metal deck with a loud clang, Chris looked around and saw that the engine core directly in front of him. It did not seem that much different from some of the older constitution class ship’s warp core but he knew that the dynamic of this ship was completely different to those ancient vessels. The similarities went as far as appearance only because this was an engine capable of transwarp speed. The machinery around the transwarp core was throbbing with its own kind of life as the core required no C’Kaia or human to aid its function. Chris made a quick investigation as he moved towards the rear of the room. According to the schematics he had seen earlier, the manual release controls for the docking clamp were on this deck. It appeared that the entire deck was completely automated. The access hatch that had brought him here was only meant to be utilised to conduct routine maintenance on these systems. Beyond that, the sphere’s engine core did not require outside assistance to function.

The manual release clamps were situated in varying points around the large engineering deck. Fortunately, Chris needed to reach only one. It was getting harder and harder to maintain his balance as the ship’s shuddering seemed to have become worse. If they did not separate from the ring soon, the sphere’s structural integrity could be compromised. Considering that this was their only way to escape, it was a state of affairs they could would well afford.

As he approached the manual release, he saw the large, metal lever jutting out from the wall. Once again, the lever was designed so that a minimum amount of force was required to activate it. However when he went to pull the lever down, it took a great deal of strength to force it to move. The physical strength of the C’Kaia must have been formidable, Chris thought. Nevertheless after a determined effort to move the lever, Chris felt the manual release engage.

When it did, he felt the engines heave with the a wave of power. The shuddering stop in one final surge that forced him to the floor. Even though he could not see it for himself, Chris knew the sphere had made the separation successfully. When he was upright again, he noticed that the shuddering had stopped and the engines were humming with a rhythmic pulse indicating energy flow.

It took him a few minutes to return to the control room now that the ship had stopped shaking and he had the freedom to hurry instead of taking carefully measured steps. When he arrived, Mary was at navigation control although her weapon was still pointed at the C’Kaia. Upon seeing him, she lowered the gun and set her full attention to what she was doing.

"I set in the co-ordinates as you said. Unless I really botched it up, we should be returning to Federation space at transwarp speed." She said unable to hide her concern that she might be wrong.

"What about the ring section of the C’Kaia ship?" Chris questioned, coming next to her. "Are they in pursuit?"

"Yes they are." The C’Kaia answered for them. "They are in pursuit." The C'Kaia indicated towards the another console. Judging from the trajectory readings of the two blips on the screen, it was clear the Carer was telling the truth. Not that it mattered in any way, Chris had expected the C'Kaia to follow them.

"Thank you." Chris answered and turned back to him. "You’ve kept your word, Carer." He replied. "I will keep mine. We will not harm the unborn. Our plans at this point are merely to return to our own space and to my ship. After that, you may return the hatchery to your sister ship"

The Carer seemed somewhat surprised by Chris’s gratitude although it was difficult to tell for certain. He had very little contact with insect species of this specialised development. Generally, it was unusual for an insect species to evolve to this sophistication. The unfortunate realities of nature had always placed arthopoidian life forms at the bottom of the food chain, to be preyed on by almost every other classification. If they did not meet their destruction as a food source, they were usually destroyed because they were considered pestilence.

"I am only a Carer of the unborn." It responded. "I do not wish to see any creature harmed but it is not my place to question those of the High Caste." It was an attempt at an explanation and Chris accepted the gesture for what it was.

"Do you have a name Carer?"

"I am simply the Carer." It answered unable to grasp the need for a name. "We do not have use for personal designation."

"Are there many carers?" Chris asked.

"No," it shook its head. "I am the only one. We cannot afford to hatch many of the unborn. Only a small number are allowed to maintain the ships and the hatcheries."

"Why are the hatcheries located on ships?" Chris found himself asking. If he was to resolve this situation, he needed to know as much about the C’Kaia as possible. Besides, the Carer did not seem to mind answering his questions. This was probably because its entire genetic make up was specialised to perform that one task and its mind were not created for anything else. It would not be filled with suspicion or animosity unless it had directly to do with the well being of the unborn. "It is not a safe situation to place children."

"We have no choice on this matter." The C’Kaia answered. "Our home planet went nova generations ago and were forced into these ships to safeguard what was left of our race."

"What about colonising other planets?" If there was one thing he knew about insects was their adaptability in any environment. They were one of the hardiest creatures in existence anywhere.

"We were not welcomed elsewhere and the High Caste decided that we needed to conquer the worlds that we wanted. Our numbers then were smaller than it was now. It was decided that a warrior race should be created in order to colonise worlds we desired."

"The Borg." Chris stated firmly. Of course. Now it made sense. Pieces of the puzzle fell into place with that explanation. "You used a telepathic female that you hoped could link the minds of the species you needed as warriors as your collective will is linked. You implanted them with cybernetic devices to maintain control but something went wrong didn’t it?"

The C’Kaia nodded slowly and somewhat regretfully as well. "Somehow, she possessed independent will and all we had succeeded in doing was creating a new deadlier life form that we had intended them to be."

"So you unleashed your Frankenstein on an unsuspecting galaxy and have been responsible for the deaths of billions."

"We tell ourselves that those were not C’Kaia so it does not matter." The Carer’s voice became soft. "I do not feel this way. I am responsible for the unborn and I cherish their lives enough to learn that perhaps all life means something to the race who spawns it. I would not like if I were the only one who felt that way."

It was a hard admission to make, Chris was sure and he appreciated the Carer’s honesty. "You are not. Perhaps when this is all over, you may tell the C’Kaia that the Federation has many unseeded worlds for colonisation. You need not wander like this."

"You would do this for us even after what we have done to your own?" The Carer said astonished.

"Yes," Mary answered, hoping she was not being too forward in making promises for the Federation of this magnitude. However, she believed the C’Kaia had a great deal to offer the Federation if it could be convinced that other species were not slaves for their service. "Need forces us to do things we often regret and it appears your need is great."

"I wish we could accept your kindness but I know the Higher Caste will not agree." The C’Kaia answered. "Perhaps before the Borg female was destroyed, such an agreement may have been possible."

"I don’t understand." Chris declared. "With or without the female, they are still dangerous."

"Unless you have a fail safe device." Mary stated. While she had been concentrating on keeping the controls directed at navigating the sphere ship back to Federation space, she had been listening to the Captain’s conversation with the C’Kaia. "Something that the Borg themselves do not know but perhaps the Queen did."

"Yes." The Carer admitted. "I am uncertain of its mechanics but there was an original fail safe device that could be triggered in the event of malfunction. However, the female somehow blocked our efforts to trigger it. The High Caste believe it still exists but we have no way to access it."

That was it. The final piece of the puzzle. The piece that completed the picture and explained everything. "That’s why you came after me." Chris stated with a note of triumph. "The C’Kaia wanted information about Picard because he was able to tap into the Borg Collective consciousness and defeat them. Now they want me assimilated so I can have the same access to the Collective and trigger the fail safe."

"An audacious plan." Mary declared.

"To say the least." Chris retorted. For the first time since this all began, Chris Larabee had a plan and he knew what to do. "Mary," he said quickly. "We need to send a message to the Maverick."

"With a little help from the Carer here, I fail to see why we can’t." She answered. "Do you want to tell them where we are."

"It would do them very little good." He said abruptly. "At transwarp, we’d reach them first. No," he shook his head. "I have something a little different in mind."

Mary raised a brow and let him continue.

II

How much longer were they going to search for the Captain, JD Dunne found himself thinking. though he hated to think that the Maverick would lose its commander during its maiden voyage, he was starting to believe that there was little they could do to prevent it. They had been dutifully maintaining their pursuit for three days now and there was still little indication to prove that Chris Larabee or Lieutenant Travis was still alive. He had spent most of her shift monitoring all subspace channels or frequencies for anything to assist in their rescue attempts. Unfortunately, his success was almost non existent.

The bridge seemed to be caught in a black mood of depression that was slowly filtering to the rest of the ship with each passing day they maintain their pursuit of the transwarp vessel. He wondered what could have possessed Starfleet command to urge them to continue their search considering the ship was probably so far away now that catching up to it was astronomical. However, JD was not about to bring that up to the first officer.

Buck remained where he was since he had arrived at the beginning of his shift, firmly seated in the command chair. JD wondered what was going through his mind. Was he starting to see it was hopeless too? Nevertheless, his actions had bolstered much confidence among the crew. Even if his determination to rescue the captain seemed foolish, it was nice to know that he had at least tried and would put the same effort into retrieving them if they too were lost as the Captain was.

Lieutenant Standish however, seemed to show signs of wear. JD had noticed that the Security Chief was more sombre these days, no doubt because he was angry at how they captain had been taken off the bridge through all the security protocols. Perhaps, he knew what no one else wanted to admit even thought the possibility loomed heavily in their mind, that it might be too late for the Captain or Lieutenant Travis.

The Maverick had entered new territory now. The space they were now traversing had never been charted before and stellar cartography was making the most of this opportunity. It would have been nice if the circumstance that had brought them out here was less dire. Suddenly, the sudden flashing on his communication panel interrupted his thoughts.

"Commander, I am receiving an incoming transmission." JD immediately declared.

Buck rose to his feet in the centre of the room and met his gaze directly. "From Starfleet Command?" He asked before exchanging glances with Alex.

What was that about?

"No Sir," JD replied automatically, ignoring the odd behaviour of the two command officers. "This transmission isn’t coming from Federation space."

The news rippled through the bridge like a wave and swept everyone along with it. JD listened carefully to the incoming signal whose frequency was completely alien but undoubtedly possessed a Starfleet recognition code. It did not take him long to decipher it.

"Commander," JD looked up at the first officer in astonishment. "Its Captain’s Larabee’s identification code."

Everyone on the room shared the sigh of relief released by Buck Wilmington. However, he did not let himself enjoy the moment and returned to business immediately. "What does the transmission relay?" He asked coolly.

JD returned his attention to the transmission being sent and quickly punched into the translation. "The transmission is travelling on a frequency I’ve never seen before. Its faster than normal subspace. I would say its a highly focused pulse of some sort."

"The content JD." Buck insisted. "The specifics isn’t important at this time."

"Yes Sir," JD nodded. "The message relates, Captain Larabee Lieutenant Travis have escaped and are on their way to the Vikaris Quasar."

"Which means we’ll run into them." Alex concluded.

"Please continue." Buck said to JD again and Alex fell silent.

"He has given us a instructions prior to intercept." JD continued relaying the message.

"Instructions?" Buck declared with mild surprise. "What sort of instructions?"

JD met his gaze, not understanding the nature of the request himself but relaying it nonetheless. "He wants us to turn our communications array into an interplexing beacon with a directional focus of vector 23 mark 563."

It took a moment for him to calculate the approximate location of those co-ordinates but when the answer appeared before him eyes, JD could hardly believe it. He looked up at Buck who expression seemed even darker than him.

"Commander," he responded slowly, still unable to believe what had the Captain had requested of them. "Those co-ordinates are in ....."

"I know JD." Buck cut him off before he could say it. Undoubtedly, experience had allowed him to calculate the importance of those co-ordinates long before he had received his answer from the terminal. "Those co-ordinates are in Borg space."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

I

"Captain, the ring vessel is hailing us." Mary spoke up.

Chris had expected they would even if he did not voice it. "Let’s hear what they have to say." He said casually.

It had been several hours since they had separated from the rest of the C’Kaia vessel. Although the ring section of the ship had been in close pursuit, it had not open fire on them. In taking the sphere, Chris had not only ensured a means of escape for himself and Mary, but with the hatchery on board, the C’Kaia were helpless to retrieve them. Since the sphere was heavily shielded and armoured, the C’Kaia were also unable to transport the eggs or them for that matter and firing on the hatchery was not an option.

Temporarily, it appeared that he was holding all the cards.

"Captain Larabee, we wish to inform you that this foolishness will not be tolerated." The superior voice of the C’Kaia filled the airwaves. Even though, they had declined to provide them with a visual signal, Chris knew from the voice that it was the C’Kaia who was responsible for his interrogation. "We demand the return of the Unborn immediately."

Chris rolled his eyes in resignation before responding to the C’Kaia. "The Unborn will be returned to you when my officer and I are back on our ship. In the meantime, I suggest that you drop the attitude and remember that the only reason we have not destroyed them is because it suits our purpose to keep them alive. Do not presume to think that we will not do the same if their usefulness to us is ended. I am well aware of the limitations placed upon you since I am in possession of the hatchery. You will drop retreat out of our scanner range until such time as I locate my ship." He said coldly and then added for effect. "I recommend that you don’t force my hand, you won’t like the results."

There was a momentary pause and Chris wondered if they did not have a new trick up their sleeve or some alternative he had not anticipated. However, nothing happened and Mary made an announcement shortly after. "Well they did it. They’ve withdrawn out of scanner range."

"Good," Chris nodded in return. "How is our Carer?" He inquired when the tension had eased. Until now, the Carer had been focussed with monitoring the condition of the eggs in a hatchery. Chris hoped that when the time came, the Carer could escape the consequences of aiding them in their escape. While much of its co-operation was due to the genetic engineering that ruthlessly compelled the Carer to place the Unborn above all other considerations, Chris knew that there was more to it. He got a sense that the Carer was tired of this nomadic existence and did not appear to believe that the C’Kaia were the only true life forms in the universe. Perhaps it was due to its place in the Caste, who knew for sure?

"Carer," Chris was suddenly struck with a thought. "Are you male or female?"

The Carer looked over its shoulders, or equivalent anyway. "I am male as you both." It responded. "Why do you ask?"

Chris threw a glance at Mary who was engrossed in her study of the controls, before returning his gaze back to the Carer. "What do you mean both?"

Sensing some importance in the question, the Carer turned around to face him. "You are both males."

An understandable mistake from an alien, Chris decided. How many humans would the Carer have encountered to know the difference? "Carer, I am male but Lieutenant Travis is female."

"A female?" The surprise showed in the sudden quiver of the Carer’s short stunted wings. "The one called Mary is a female?" The Carer cocked its head to one side, examining Mary like she was some strange kind of creature.

"Yes I am," Mary joined in the conversation. "Are C’Kaia females not allowed to serve on your ships?"

"I have not seen a C’Kaia female in my lifetime. There are none among us." The Carer replied.

"But the hatchery...." Chris started to say.

"When our world went nova, we were unable to save the Great Mother or the Newlings that would replace her. The Unborn were removed before the devastation. Someday, when we conquer the universe, we will release the stasis field and the Unborn will at last join us. We calculate that a quarter of this number will be female."

That explained why the C’Kaia had created the Borg to colonise their worlds. They simply could not afford to take their ships into battle and run the risk of loosing the hatcheries. If not for the Unborn in the hatcheries, the C’Kaia would have become extinct long ago. According to the Carer, the C’Kaia released the stasis field on a small number of the eggs only when the need arose. This was mostly for replacement of crew who were aging or who had been killed during the course of their nomadic existence in space.

Chris was about to question the Carer more about the social structure of the C’Kaia when suddenly a sharp beeping erupted from the nearby controls. Mary turned her attention to it immediately as both Chris and the Carer joined her there. During the past few hours, Mary expertise in handling the complex controls had increased as she no longer needed the Carer’s continuous assistance.

"What is it?" Chris asked.

"A ship is entering extreme sensor range." Mary replied automatically.

"The ring section?" He asked, wondering what the C’Kaia had up their sleeve now or were they simply attempting to test his resolve. For all their sakes, Chris hoped they did not intend to call his bluff because he could not say how far he was prepared to go to get Mary back to the ship safely. If it was just his life, things would be simple but it was not. She had a son who needed her and Chris did not intend to let the boy lose another parent.

"No," Mary answered, shaking her head. "It is coming from Federation space."

Federation space? While this part of space was largely unexplored, it was also uncharted by the majority of alpha quadrant ships. No formal contact had ever been made to the worlds in this sector of the quadrant but that did not mean there were not privateers out here. "Can you get a ID lock?"

"Not at this range." She responded but her hands indicated otherwise. They were moving across the board with amazing speed.

"Your female learns quickly." The Carer remarked. "Reputedly, our females are only for breeding."

"Well maybe not all things about C’Kaia customs aren’t bad." He threw Mary a wolfish smile.

"Captain," she looked over her shoulder and remarked with smirk. "You’re a pig and I think you need to see this."

Chris was at her side and examined the readings. "That’s a Federation warp signature."

What was a Federation ship doing out this far? Suddenly, with a flash of insight, he knew who was out there. When he had sent the message earlier about the interplexing beacon, he had done so on nothing more than faith that his first officer and his ship were still in existence. Most likely licking their wounds in the Vikaris Pulsar after their encounter with the C'Kaia ship. Neither could he not deny the nagging fear in the back of his mind that the C’Kaia might have destroyed the ship after their abduction. Now, however, it appeared that his ship was not only in one piece but his Buck had done the unexpected by coming after them instead of returning to Federation space.

"Its the Maverick." He stated firmly.

"That is your ship then?" The Carer inquired.

"We think so." Chris answered slowly before another thought occurred to him and it was a possibility that did not bode well for his plans. "The other ship is going to be able to pick her up."

She realised where he was going with this line of inquiry. "You think they’re in danger." It was a statement not a question.

"Yes I do." He nodded. "I want maximum acceleration right now. We have to get there first." Chris ordered. "We’ve got a bargaining point with the hatchery, we don’t need to give the C’Kaia one as well with the Maverick."

***********

"Buck," Ezra spoke up, his voice carrying across the bridge. "I have picked up multiple transwarp signatures at extreme sensor range."

"I need a better definition of multiple signals than that, Commander." Buck said without looking at him

"Aye Sir." Ezra replied promptly, knowing that the identification was important in light that the Captain had escaped.

Nevertheless, since hearing from the Captain, crew morale seemed to have risen considerably. Buck himself had contacted Starfleet Command and offered an explanation for the Maverick delay in returning to Deep Space Five. Although, he did have to confess at being perplexed by the Captain’s instructions to them.

"How is the work coming along on the construction of the interplexing beacon?" He asked Alex who was at her customary position at the science console despite her temporary promotion to acting first officer.

"Julia tell me that it is ready. Apparently, she and his crew have been working double time to get it done." She answered looking up at him briefly to answer.

"I’ll make a note to enter a commendation in the logs for their work." Buck answered calmly. "Ezra, how we doing ascertaining how many transwarp signatures are in sensor range?"

"Better than before," the security chief replied unable to hide the confusion in his voice. "I think there are two but their transwarp signatures are odd."

"How so?" Buck swivelled around in his chair to face him.

"Well, one signature fits with the previous recorded signature of the enemy vessel but there is a slight variance in the other."

"Two ship perhaps?" Ezra suggested.

"I don’t think so." Alex replied hurrying next to his console to take a look at the readings herself. "More like a slight shift in warp field of a very narrow margin."

Buck considered that for a moment. Then it clicked into his head with an almost audible sound. His conclusion had merit given what they knew of the enemy and it now offered a possible explanation for the structure of the enemy vessel. "Alex, when we separate our ship, are our warp signatures identical?"

Her eyes flew open widen, understanding immediately. "They are almost identical with a slight shift in the configuration of the warp field."

"You think they’ve separated their ship?" Ezra looked at him.

"It might explain how the Captain and Lieutenant Travis were able to escape and transmit their message to us.."

"Buck, one of the transwarp ships have accelerated considerably. They’re putting considerable distance between themselves and the other ship." Ezra said suddenly.

Buck reserved his opinion on that turn of events for the present. "What is the course of the lead ship?"

"Its on an intercept course." Ezra replied. "It should reach us in 14. 9 minutes."

"Battle stations." Buck rose to his feet. "All hands to red alert."

"It could be the Captain." Alex declared.

"And it might not be." He said coolly. "At this point, I’m not willing to gamble until we have more information."

"Yes Sir." She nodded dutifully knowing that blind faith in the captain’s abilities was not the best way to proceed. At the moment, they knew he was alive. That was enough. However, neither she nor Buck had voiced the suspicion that the enemy might have extracted Captain Larabee’s security code from him and was using it to draw them into a trap. While the possibility was unlikely, she was reminded of Buck’s words that their lack of information was a liability.

The doors to the bridge slid open and Nathan Jackson and Josiah stepped out of the turbo lift and unto the floor. Although it was not necessary for either of them to be on the bridge at this moment, Josiah knew he could not stay away. He was slowly going mad pacing the floor of his sick bay waiting for news of Chris now that they knew he was alive.

"Nathan," Buck looked at him. "Less I’m the one whose needing it, I don’t seem to recall anyone being sick."

"Since we are going into a combat situation, it would be wise to have a doctor on the bridge." Nathan pointed out. He had carried his medical case with him in the instance his presence was questioned. Either way, it was a lame excuse and he knew it. The question was, did the first office know it as well?

"Commander," Josiah spoke up. "I requested the doctor’s presence on the bridge. While Captain Larabee’s identification code has been verified, we do not know that information was not taken from him under duress. It may be necessary for us to confirm the authenticity of the message by other means, voice pattern and DNA testing."

Buck nodded in understanding. "A wise precaution. How do you propose we do this?" He asked, even though it was actually impossible for such testing to be any value since the captain was not hear to provide the samples to make a proper identification. However, Buck could understand why they wished to be on the bridge.

"You can stay," Buck frowned turning back to the view screen. "Only because I don’t have the heart to turn away two such lousy liars off the bridge."

II

"It is the Maverick." Chris declared as the first image of the ship appeared on one of the screens inside the control room. However, his pleasure was short lived and he remembered the urgency of their situation. "Has the other ship picked up on them yet?"

"If their sensor range is compatible with this vessel’s, then I would say that it is a strong possibility that they have detected the Maverick." The Carer replied.

Damn, he wished they could get good news sometimes. "Once they reach the Maverick, they’re going to use her as target practice until we give up the hatchery."

"My people would do this." The Carer lent his opinion. "We would do no less to ensure the safe return of the Unborn."

"I hope that interplexing beacon is set up or this is going to be one short homecoming." Chris declared. "How long until we reach the Maverick?"

"At this speed, I estimate within the next ten minutes." Mary answered.

"Okay," Chris nodded and considered his options. "We should be in communication’s range, hail them."

A partial plan had been forming in his head ever since he learnt about the Borg and their relationship to the C’Kaia. During their journey to Federation space, Chris had a chance to iron most of the bugs out of a very risky idea. However, a gamble was all he had. There was no way the Maverick could take on the C’Kaia ship. They may be able to damage it but not without destroying itself first. Their encounters with the C’Kaia had proved their weakness so any solution to their current crisis would not be won on a show of strength. It had to be won on fear. Unfortunately, Chris had expected Buck and the Maverick to be in the vicinity of the Vikaris Pulsar, instead of pursuing a transwarp signature they could never hope to catch. He had no idea why he was surprised, Buck would be determined enough to come after him. In Buck’s place, Chris knew he would.

"Contact established." Mary announced with pride because she was mastering the technical aspects of this situation quite admirably.

On one of the screens, Buck’s image appeared before them. Standing alongside Buck was Josiah, whose brow was knitted in concentration.

"You finally lost your mind that you need a Counsellor on the bridge Buck?" Chris remarked as he caught sight of his first officer.

Buck burst into a wide grin and although the screen offered a limited view of the bridge, Chris could tell that the rest of the crew shared his relief. "It is good to see you Chris," Buck answered. "We were starting to believe that we’d lost you for good."

They had no idea how close they had come to doing just that, Chris thought to himself but did not say it out loud. "Well you haven’t got me back completely yet," Chris replied. "We’ve still got a great deal of work to do before the other ship reaches us."

At that, Josiah stepped back realising that Chris needed to confer with his first officer. "Buck, why are you here? I thought you would be on your way to Federation space by now."

"You’re welcome," Buck said sarcastically. "While I’m thrilled to see you, you mind telling us what’s going on?"

"Lieutenant Travis and I have commandeered this vessel. It contains the hatchery for the C’Kaia young."

"The C’Kaia?" Buck asked.

"Yes," Chris answered. "I don’t have time to explain now. Is the interplexing beacon ready?"

"Aye Sir," Buck replied. "Julia put in a supreme effort to get it done."

"Good," the captain retorted. "Now I need you to transmit the following message through the interplexing beacon."

Chris gave him the specifics of the message he had constructed over the past few hours. Upon hearing it, Buck’s surprise was evident.

"This is a highly risky action," Buck commented. "Are you certain that there are no other options?"

"Unfortunately not," Chris shook his head. "Make certain that it is ready to transmit immediately. For the moment, we have other problems. By now, the other C’Kaia ship knows that you are here and will probably try to bargain your life for the Unborn on this ship. We can’t allow them to get the upper hand. We will be intercept range in a matter of minutes, until then hold position and go to battle stations."

"Already done." Buck said confidently.

"You’re just too good Commander." Chris grinned. "I’ll contact you when we reach your position."

With that, the communication channel between the two ships was terminated and Chris turned back to the Carer. The C’Kaia deserved an explanation in light of what he had witnessed between Chris and his first officer. Despite being their prisoner, the Carer had willingly helped in their escape and surrendered more information that was required of him to provide. Thanks to the Carer, they had been provided not only with valuable information about the C’Kaia but also the Borg.

"Carer, I know what you have heard may sound alarming but I assure you that we will not be forced to take this action unless your people gives us no other choice." Chris explained.

"I understand that you are compelled to do what you must," the Carer replied. "However, if you do this, you condemn our race to death."

Chris placed a hand on the C’Kaia’s shoulder. "Carer, your people are not fools. They know as well as I do what the stakes are. When my plan is brought to their attention, I am sure they will not risk the lives of the Unborn any more than you are willing to do."

The Carer however, appeared unconvinced. "The High Caste are not always reasonable." He replied. "You may not have a choice but to retaliate."

Chris had considered that possibility but instinct told him that this was their only chance. With the Dominion war still raging on the other side of the galaxy and the recent Borg attack on Earth, the Federation could not afford to waste resources on fighting a new enemy. The C’Kaia had proved themselves to be a formidable threat. Even though their numbers were small, the technology gave them an advantage and it did not appear that they were prepared to give any quarter for the savagery of their attack. Certainly not after destroying Federation colonies that were home to women and children with ruthless and clinical efficiency.

No matter, how many of the high minded ideals of his Federation past lingered in his mind, Chris knew that war allowed for no such considerations. They had one weapon that could silence the C’Kaia forever and end the threat to the Federation. As much as it pained him to use it, Chris knew he would do so if forced into it. Even the C’Kaia knew that if his message were allowed to escape the memory banks of the interplexing beacon, it would signal the deathnell to the entire C’Kaia race.

His reverie was broken when Mary voice broke into his concentration. "Captain, the ring ship is increasing speed."

"I gathered they would." Chris said with a sigh. He had expected them to do so once they had the Maverick on its scopes. No doubt, they were seizing the opportunity to balance the odds in this dangerous game he was playing with them. Strangely enough, he was no longer afraid. Now that the moment was upon him, there was little time to feel fear or caution. It was reminiscent of how he felt during that moment when Captain Picard first took command of the fleet during the Borg attack and he was still the first officer of the Rutherford. He had come face to face with that singular moment in every Starfleet officer’s life that defined the rest of his career. The moment of the Call. He had made the choice then and he was now a starship captain.

Now, it remained to be seen if he could pull the same hat trick twice.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

I

The ring section of the C’Kaia vessel increased to maximum acceleration the minute the Maverick came into its scanner range. Fortunately, Chris had expected as much from them. Within a matter of seconds, the ring was bearing down on the Maverick that was still not taking any evasive measures as per his orders. His instructions to Buck were in accordance to a plan that required maintaining the ship’s position. Still, Chris did not intend to put the Maverick at any more risk than it already was.

"Mary, move us into position between the Maverick and the ring ship." Chris ordered, watching the monitor closely. The ring was bearing down hard on the Maverick even though the galaxy class starship was making no efforts to move out of the way. Sensor readings before him indicated to Chris that Buck was taking the appropriate measures. The ships' shields were up, including the specifically modified shield that could stand up to the battering offered by the superior weaponry of the C’Kaia ship. Without even being present on his bridge, he could determine the sequence of events as they unfolded. No doubt, Buck would have placed phasers and quantum torpedoes on stand by to fire. More than anything, Chris wanted to be there.

"The ring is increasing speed." Mary declared. "They are trying to reach her before we can put ourselves in position."

"They’re not fools." Chris responded. "They know that if we move to protect the Maverick, they’ll be back to the same position. They won’t be able to fire."

"I am adjusting to speed to compensate." She answered and Chris saw the Maverick drawing closer on the monitor screen.

Realising their advantage was drawing close, the ring ship fired a series of blasts at the Maverick. Chris could sense desperation in their act. From this distance, those blasts were nothing more than a futile exercise. He could see the Maverick’ shields absorb the energy of those bolts preventing them from harming the ship.

"How soon until we are in position?" He asked quickly.

Mary was staring at the console screen. She was very unsure with what she was doing and even though she was holding up well with his tutelage and that of the Carer’s, this was not her field of expertise. .

"Lieutenant?" He repeated firmly. This was no time for doubt. He cared about her but they were still Starfleet officers. "Keep focussed." He ordered.

"Yes." Mary nodded. "We are in position now."

The sphere ship glided effortlessly through space between both ships and then came to a halt. With its thrusters igniting in the darkness surrounding them, the sphere held position, completely obstructing the Maverick from the line of fire. The ring section of the C’Kaia ship slowed immediately, realising their momentary advantage was lost. The vessel made a vain attempt to swing around the sphere to regain that line of sight with the Maverick but Chris saw to it that the sphere followed suit.

They could play this game for hours. Chris realised this but knew that this entire incident had gone far enough. He did not want to destroy the C’Kaia hatchery any more than he wanted his own ship harmed. However, that decision would depend entirely on the good senses of the C’Kaia in the ring ship. They were not a mindlessly aggressive species. Their technology was formidable because of engineering superiority and scientific knowledge. If they did not possess such a supreme attitude that they were not the only sentient life forms in the galaxy, the Federation might have been able to assist them. However, Chris did not hold out hopes for the C’Kaia to change. What was needed to end this was not compassion but another emotion entirely.

Fear.

"Signal the Maverick." Chris instructed and then turned to the Carer. "Its now or never. I hope you people care about the Unborn as much as you say."

The C’Kaia did not say anything but his stunted wings started to tremble slightly, an action he often produced when he was nervous. Chris knew the Carer was still confused at his role in this situation. His first duty was to the safety of the hatchery and everything he had done so far, even assisting them to fly this ship, was for their protection. Chris just hoped his superiors saw it that way when it came time to account this incident after it had ended.

"Buck’s on line." Mary informed him dutifully. She seemed more focussed now and Chris was glad. He could understand her apprehensions but despite his feelings for her, he was still her Captain and there were times when he needed to pull her in line.

Buck appeared on the screen. As usual, the Buck was holding a brave face for the benefit of the crew, hiding any concern despite the fact that their recent battles with the C’Kaia ship had not ended well. However, without being able to look beyond the screen to the rest of the bridge, he knew the rest of the bridge crew was not that dispassionate.

"Report." Chris ordered automatically.

"We sustain minimal damage to the ship." Buck answered. "The shields are still holding and we have initiated the ionic dispersion field throughout the ship. As no one has been transported yet, it is logical to assume that it is working."

One of the requests Chris had made during their early transmission was for the Maverick to generate an ion dispersion field throughout all decks inside the ship. He did not want the C’Kaia taking anyone else off the Maverick to use as a bargaining chip during their discussion. The premise for his plan was fragile enough without adding the potential for hostages into the equation.

"That’s nice to know." Chris replied with a faint smile. "Has the message I asked for been fed into the computer?" He inquired.

"Aye Sir." Buck nodded. "JD informs me that it is ready for transmission through the interplexing beacon."

"Good," Chris nodded. "What about my other orders?"

"A Class 9 probe has been despatched to Starfleet Command. It should make contact with Deep Space Five in a matter of hours."

"All right," Chris replied, deciding that there was no delaying the inevitable now. The pieces of his stratagem had been laid out and now it was time for him to make his gamble. "Standby on my order to transmit the message. I am leaving this frequency open so you will be able to monitor my communications with the other ship."

"Understood."

With that Chris turned back to Mary. "Hail the C’Kaia vessel."

*************

The C’Kaia on board the ring ship took their time answering their hail. Chris estimated this was probably because they were still trying to decide what to do. While they did not want to take chances with the hatchery, Chris knew they could not sit still and let a non-sentient hold them to such ransom. In any case, it was time this situation was resolved conclusively. Mary continued hailing the C’Kaia until the enemy ship was forced to respond. For the second time, since they had commandeered the sphere section of the ship, the C’Kaia who interrogated him appeared on the viewing screen. Despite his predicament, the C’Kaia commander was still determined to maintain his air of superiority.

"Captain Larabee, if you do not shut down engines and prepare for reintegration of the hatchery back to our vessel, we will destroy the Maverick."

To his credit, Chris had to admit that the commander was making a strong show of determination. However, they both knew the threat was empty.

"Is that the best you can do?" Chris said just as firmly. "I think we both know that you won’t fire on the Maverick, not with the hatchery in your line of fire. Make no mistake that if you make the attempt to fire from a different angle, we will compensate for the difference."

"This is merely a diversionary tactic." The C’Kaia snorted derisively. "You cannot remain in the sphere forever and the moment you remove yourself from it, we will destroy you."

Chris did not doubt the hatred in the C’Kaia’s voice would drive him to do that. To him, non-C’Kaia were barely alive let alone, sentient or deserving of any consideration. In separating the C’Kaia ship and stealing the hatchery, Chris had instigated the full wrath of the C’Kaia’s superior ego. Nothing less than his death would satisfy that wounded pride. "No you won’t." Chris said firmly. "Because if you do, then you condemn your entire species to death. Do you want to be responsible for your own genocide?"

"You overstate your importance!" The C’Kaia declared. "Your Federation does not have the strength to confront us on any level, technologically or otherwise. We could destroy your ship now and it would not matter."

"We may not," Chris said slowly. "But I think the Borg certainly are."

The alien's wings started trembling for a split second before it steadied into a rigid pose. "What do you mean?"

"At this moment," he answered. "My first officer is on stand by to transmit a message through an interplexing beacon we have built on our ship. Since you seem to know all about the Borg technology, then you know that an interplexing beacon is how they relay most of their communication. You will also know that during our experiences with the Borg, we are aware of the frequency in which they transmit. Make any attempt at attacking my ship and I will order my first officer to transmit our message."

"What message?" The C’Kaia said haughtily although Chris could tell that it was not as confident or superior as it once was.

"That the creators of the Borg still exists and are attempting to destroy them." He retorted.

For a moment, the C’Kaia did not speak. Chris could sense his fear, even if the alien’s expressions were unreadable by him. However, Chris could smell his apprehension. He could feel it in his bones with an instinct as potent as reality itself.

"They will not believe you." The C’Kaia replied with an angry hiss.

"They will believe when we inform them that you have implanted a fail safe device in their original matrix that will allow you to disable them and render the entire Collective harmless."

"You are speculating!" The C’Kaia snarled with impotent fury. "You have no knowledge of the kind!"

"Humans aren’t as stupid as you think, "Chris returned with similar venom. "We are capable of gathering evidence and producing a hypothesis. No one builds an army of aggressively dangerous soldiers without wishing to maintain some control. I give your species more foresight then you believe us to have so I know that you would not have unleased the Borg without being able to render them ineffective at some point. Most likely after they had conquered as much territory as you required. Unfortunately, the Borg Queen terminated your link to their minds didn’t they? You seem to underestimate all creatures that are not C’Kaia. Once she terminated the link, you no longer had any control over them and that is why you are so interested in Jean Luc Picard’s assimilation. You wanted me assimilated so I could trigger of the fail safe once I was inside the Collective consciousness."

"As I said," the commander of the C’Kaia ship repeated. "You are speculating."

"Perhaps I am but rest assured, that speculation is also included in our transmission to the Borg." Chris answered.

"We will destroy your ship before such a message is ever released to harm us." The C’Kaia. "Your threats mean nothing to us."

"If myself and my ship, do not contact Starfleet Command in 24 hours to advise them otherwise, they will send transmit the message."

"You are bluffing." The C’Kaia snorted. "You had no time to send a transmission."

"The transmission was sent before you attacked my ship." Chris countered. "You may be able to find the probe that is sending the message but not even with transwarp energy are you going to outrun subspace." Chris said boldly. "The message will be sent to the Borg and they will come here first and we will offer them our assistance in exchange for our safety. Considering the nature of the threat you pose to them, they will undoubtedly accept. The Borg are relentless but they are not stupid. They will come after you with everything at their disposal and they will find you because we will tell them what to look for."

"You would do this!" The C’Kaia shouted. "You would offer us to the Soulless Ones like a sacrificial animal? What of Federation ethics? You forget I have accessed your computer core. We know everything about your vaunted Federation principles, you may make the threat Captain but you certainly do not have the instincts to do so callous a deed."

Very good, Chris though to himself silently. The C’Kaia was attempting to appeal to his moral side. It only served to show how desperate they were becoming. He knew as well as Chris did that if the C’Kaia’s existence were made known to the Collective, there would be nothing that could stop the Borg in finding them. Unfortunately, in this matter, Chris had no compassionate side. The images of those destroyed colonies lingered in his mind as well as the blank hopelessness in Lars Croft’s eyes because he had failed to protect the people under his command. He thought of Kalendera 2 and all those children who would never know another sunrise or grow up to become have children on their own. Thinking about them hardened him and gave him the rage he needed to drive his point home.

"You forced me to cast out Federation morality when you murdered the people on our colonies. You expect compassion after what you have done? I don’t give a damn what happens to the C’Kaia because the C’Kaia deserve whatever is coming to them. If you attempt to destroy my ship or ever put yourself in Federation space again, my last order before I die is to see to it that your presence is made aware to the Borg." He paused a moment and took a deep breath. "Before you kill me, I will have the satisfaction of knowing that all C’Kaia in the hatchery will be born Borg."

The air was still for a long while because the C’Kaia before him could think of nothing to see say. Chris had used his last words carefully because he knew that is what would have the greatest impact on convincing the C’Kaia that the threat was real. If the fate of the Unborn was truly what the C’Kaia cared for, then the possibility of their assimilation would be the most potent reminder of the Borg threat to them.

"You make a convincing argument Captain," the C’Kaia said finally. "I would not have believe such savagery from a supposedly civilised race however, you are after all inferior so one cannot expect you to abide to your own rules."

Chris knew the C’Kaia was trying to anger him with those words but he took them as barbs from a fallen enemy who was unable to strike back. "Our rules apply to those who will offer us similar consideration. By your actions, you have proven that the C’Kaia cannot be trusted to do the same. We want no more to do with you or your kind. Leave Federation space and that will be an arrangement suitable for all."

The commander leaned closer to the screen and glared at Chris in the eyes. "We will defeat the Borg Captain, you may rest assure of that and when we do, we will be back. I look forward to that day with great relish because you will know what it is to make an enemy of us."

An empty threat, Chris decided but nevertheless one he would keep in memory for a long time. He certainly did not intend to lose any sleep over it. "There are enemies everywhere, you are no different from any other." At that, Chris terminated the line.

Letting out a sigh, he wished he could have been able to offer the C’Kaia some help but knew it was impossible. The higher castes that controlled the fate of the entire species were too arrogant to be reasoned with. It was sad because those like the Carer would be swept away on wave that could only lead to extinction for their civilisation.

"Carer," he looked at the C’Kaia. "I look forward to the day when we can be friends." He said honestly. "I do not judge the C’Kaia by the actions of the high caste, only by yours."

"You have kept your word to me." The Carer answered. "I do not judge your actions by your words to my leaders."

"Thank you," Chris grinned. "You may tell your people when we are gone that we will not transmit the message while you remain outside Federation space. However, I will see to it that if we even suspect you of trespassing on our territory, we will transmit to the Borg."

The C’Kaia nodded. "I understand. You must do what you can to survive as we must."

"I am certain that you will not be held accountable for what has taken place." Mary remarked. "You may tell them that I am telepathic and was able to take much information out of your mind. We will corroborate your story."

"Thank you," the Carer answered, genuinely touched by the offer. "I wish things could be different."

"I do so as well." Mary replied. She felt a certain kinship with the Carer in his concern for the Unborn. She could share his feelings of productiveness because she knew that she would be no different if it was William who was threatened. He had dealt with the Captain and herself with honesty and forthrightness even though he was not obliged to. Mary hoped he would be spared any blame for what has taken place.

"Carer," Chris said finally. "There is one last thing I wish you to bring to your people after we have left."

"What is it?" The C’Kaia inquired somewhat intrigued.

"If the C’Kaia ever decide that the rest of the galaxy is not populated by non sentient beings, the Federation has many planets that are uninhabited. There is no reason for the C’Kaia to wander like nomads through space, we would help you to find a new home if your people are willing to accept our help."

He had to make that offer. As a starship Captain, he was compelled to extend the hand of friendship to other species, no matter how averse they were to the offer. The Federation was built on tolerance, even if it is given to one who was previously an enemy.

The Carer seemed sceptical about how such an offer would be received but he nevertheless returned a polite response. "I will see to it that your suggestion is given to them." He did not hold any hopes for his superiors to accept such an offer though.

Pity. It would have been nice to have a home.

II

It never felt so good to be back on a bridge of a starship then at this moment. After setting out terms with the C’Kaia, Chris contacted the Maverick and ordered a shuttle to dock with the sphere ship. Once the shuttle Ares had docked with the C’Kaia vessel, Chris and Mary left the craft in the capable hands of the Carer. The twenty minutes it took to cross the breach between the sphere and the Maverick, under the watchful eye of the ring ship, still seething from its defeat, were unsettling ones for Chris. Everyone on board let out a sigh of relief when the Ares finally landed on the hangar floor inside the Maverick.

If it had not been inappropriate for the captain to do so, Chris would have dropped to his knees and kissed the deck under him out of gratitude. As it was, he settled for wearing a wide grin on his face as he moved through his ship to the bridge. His crew were equally elated at his return and Chris spent much of his journey to the bridge responding to salutations on her well being. Mary had excused herself immediately after they had left the hangar and hurried to see her son

When he stepped on the bridge, Josiah was the first to reach him. The doctor did not stand on ceremony and gave him a hearty slap on the back before launching in a tirade of well wishes. Chris received similar responses from his bridge crew (albeit a little more restrained) before he took his command chair. It felt good to be back on the bridge of the Maverick. He never knew how much affection he had for his ship and his crew until this moment.

"The C’Kaia ship has begun to integrate Captain." Buck informed him as he settled in.

"Let’s take advantage of that." Chris declared. "Do we have full warp power?" The question was rhetorical because the Maverick had sustained minor damage during the brief attack by the ring ship earlier.

"Julia reports that all systems are functioning at peak efficiency. She has corrected any damage inflicted earlier." Buck answered dutifully. Buck returned to his customary position next to the Captain’s chair and Chris had a feeling he was pleased to be there.

"In that case, Vin, take us back to Federation space at Warp 9."

"Aye Sir," Vin glanced over his shoulder and offered his a smile. "With pleasure."

Ahead on the viewer, the image of the two sections of the C’Kaia ship suddenly disappeared from the screen as the Maverick made a 180 degree turn and started heading in the opposite direction. As the stars blurred past the ship, Chris could tell by the atmosphere on the bridge that everyone was pleased to be leaving the C’Kaia behind.

"Ezra, are there any signs that the C’Kaia are in pursuit?" Chris inquired.

Ezra, studied his scanner readings momentarily before he looked up at the Captain again. "At this time no. We are still within scanner range and I have programmed the sensors to give us a proximity alert if the C’Kaia ships comes any closer than one light year."

"Nicely done." Chris commented and faced the viewer once more. He became lost in thought for a brief while, his mind trying to grasp the future that lay ahead for the C’Kaia. It remained to be seen if the C’Kaia could honour their agreement however, Chris was confident they would. The C’Kaia ego would not take defeat at the hands of a lesser species with much dignity. However, they could not risk the Borg becoming aware of their existence until the time was right for them. For the moment, the situation was in a stalemate, although some might construe that he had won. Chris preferred to think that he and the C’Kaia had reached an uneasy compromise. .

"Chris," Buck inquired. "Do you really think that this is it for the C’Kaia?"

"Yes I do." Chris said firmly. "Threats aside, they are a doomed race unless they decide to settle on a planet and stop their nomadic existence."

"And if they don’t?"

"If they don’t they will be wandering the space ways forever, hoping for a way to defeat the Borg so that they can take control again."

"Hell of a life." Buck ventured to say. Chris had not much time to give him a detailed account of his time on the C’Kaia vessel. Buck made a mental note to read the captain’s report at a later time to get a full appreciation of the facts.

"Yeah." Chris agreed sadly. "They are so trapped by the singular notion that they are superior to everyone else that the only way to start again is on the ashes of conquest. It sounds dramatic I know, but it is true."

"They aren’t the first to believe that." Buck countered. "Maybe in time, they will learn better."

"They have spent a great deal of time wandering in the wilderness, hoping to find that elusive way to penetrate the Collective. Ultimately, they will find it but it will be their destruction. The moment the Borg are aware of them in their consciousness, they will also be aware of the fail-safe. Picard’s report on his assimilation by the Borg was very specific. He had no independent will and everything that he knew became theirs to use." Chris met Buck’s gaze, who nodded in understanding.

"Therefore, whomever the C’Kaia uses to infiltrate the Borg will become a tool who will be able to hide nothing from the Collective. The Borg will be capable of locating the C’Kaia more effectively then any message relayed by us through an interplexing beacon." Alex who was listening in quietly offered comment.

"When that happens..." Chris tried not to think of the consequences to the C’Kaia nation because assimilation was a fate he would not wish on anyone, even an enemy. "The C’Kaia will cease to exist."

 EPILOGUE

"Captain’s Log Stardate 143536.5

"It has been almost a week since our encounter with the C’Kaia and so far, the scans we have made across the sector show no further evidence of the C’Kaia ship that in our space. After two days of repairs at Deep Space Five, the Maverick has resumed her mission. During our recent incursion into uncharted space, stellar cartography has listed a number of M-class worlds that may have intelligent life. Starfleet command has requested us to investigate."

Chris put down his data pad and eased back into his chair waiting patiently for Buck to arrive. There was something in Admiral Wellington’s communication to him that required investigation if not for simply his own curiosity. Regarding the incident with the C’Kaia, it appeared that Starfleet felt that he had acted accordingly. Not relishing another enemy to deal with along with its current problems with the Dominion, Starfleet was grateful of his handling of the situation and the problems he averted. They were also interested in the part of his report dealing with the origins of the Borg. Chris was sceptical at how useful such information could be but it did answer a few questions about the Borg.

He was in mid swallow, when he heard the door to his ready room. His yeoman had programmed all his favourite beverages into the food replicator when he had been away so Chris was now enjoying a thick Jamaican blend of coffee. He gulped down the liquid and responded quickly to the beeping door.

"Come in."

The door slid open and Buck made his entry as expected. Since returning from the C’Kaia ship, Chris had noticed that the crew’s confidence towards their first officer had been strengthened because of Buck’s determination to rescue him. Reports from both Josiah and Nathan seemed to add weight to the notion that Buck was turning out to be a splendid choice as first officer, no matter what reservations Admiral Wellington might have had. In fact, the admiral himself had finally agreed that the Captain’s choice had been the correct one after all.

"You wanted to see me Chris?" Buck said entering the room before pausing in front of his desk.

"Yes," Chris replied taking another sip of coffee. "Sit down Commander."

Buck’s brow rose at that request but reacted with no more than that. He sat down promptly wondering why Chris was using such formalities with him and wondered if he had some bad news coming to him.

"I’ve some interesting comments Admiral Wellington." Chris said casually.

"Really?" Buck answered. However, there was a slight shift in his manner that Chris was perceptive enough to catch. Buck’s response had been more than just a reflex action to the comment but there was also more interest in his voice than he was letting on.

"It seems that the Maverick was unaccountable for almost 24 hours after receiving Admiral Wellington’s directive to return to base." Chris pointed out, careful to keep an accusation out of his voice.

"We sustained damage and I felt it necessary to hold position in order to make repairs." Buck replied with just a hint of guilt in his voice.

Chris tried to smile wondering if his first officer knew that was one of the most used excuses to account for missing time in Starfleet history. However, he did not mention it. "According to the log, the ship slipped into Warp 8 after I was taken and you maintained pursuit of the C’Kaia ship."

Buck did not speak but he repented nothing and knew that Chris was enjoying seeing him squirm. However, Chris decided to spare him the embarrassment. In truth, Chris knew exactly what had happened. He had already guessed that Buck had probably disobeyed orders and maintained the pursuit. Even though his actions were a breach of orders, one that Admiral Wellington was astute enough to notice, neither the Admiral nor Chris wanted to take any action. Buck’s actions were something both of them would have done themselves in the same position.

"Its okay Buck," Chris said with a faint smile. "No explanations are necessary. I have had the discrepancy stricken from the Log. Admiral Wellington seems to agree with what you did. He even seems to think that you might make a good first officer after all."

"Thanks," Buck let out a sigh, glad that he was not in trouble.

"I appreciate what you did Buck," Chris said soberly. "Not many officers would have been willing to put themselves on the line like that. You’ve earned a new respect with the crew when you did that and I’m pretty damn grateful too, big fella"

"Hell," Buck said somewhat embarrassed. He never knew how to deal with praise, not in almost twenty years of friendship Chris thought. "I figured you’d find your own way out of there." Buck added. "You usually do."

"Its nice to know that you were there anyway." Chris grinned.

"I always will be." Buck answered softly and Chris knew that was a truth far more steeped in reality than any other said so far.

******************

He had unfinished business with one other member of the crew but the setting for its confrontation would not be the Captain’s ready room. Whether it was intentional by either of them, Chris and Mary hardly saw each other following their escape from the C’Kaia ship. Other than her reports to him, they had very little reason to speak to one another. Chris was aware that something had happened between them and he was not willing to let it go. However Mary seemed hesitant now. It felt as if returning to the ship had put in perspective the nature of where their relationship was going.

Chris knew he cared for her a great deal. He refused to deny that or hide from his feelings about her although he did understand her fears. She was a widow and her husband was only six months lost to her. He could understand her fear but he was not willing to let her go. Not until she gave herself a chance to explore what she had expressed to him in the C’Kaia vessel. Mary had found him on that enormous ship because she had allowed herself to become emotionally connected with him. In itself, that was an act borne out of necessity yet it was a barrier that could not be forgotten now that it had been crossed.

She was working in Engineering again, trying to brush up on her technical knowledge since the experience on the C’Kaia ship had taught her how necessary it was. Chris stepped on the deck to see her at a workstation. He knew from other members of the engineering staff that she occasionally liked to work in the small hours of the night because there was less chance of interruption when she was doing intense study.

The hum of the warp core in front of her masked the sound of his footsteps as he approached so Mary had no idea of his presence until she spoke.

"Hello Mary." He greeted.

She stopped working immediately, placed the data pad down before turning around to face him. "Captain, what can I do for you?" Her tone seemed cold and Chris knew it was forced.

"Mary, we need to talk." Chris said gently, meeting her gaze. He saw a flicker of apprehension in her eyes, before it was crushed mercilessly under the weight of her self-discipline.

"I’m working on something." She answered softly, knowing what he intended. Mary knew that he was aware she was staying away intentionally.

"Fine," he replied, refusing to be brushed off. They were going to get this out now. "We’ll do it here."

"Captain, this is inappropriate." Mary stated.

"Mary I care about you," he began ignoring her attempts to silence him. "I care about you a great deal. Now we both know something happen between us on that C’Kaia ship and I’m not prepared to forget it. At the time, I didn’t believe that of you either."

"It is ill advised for us to become emotionally involved." She said softly. "It would lead to errors in judgement for both of us. As captain, I would compromise your ability to make decisions."

"I know all that." Chris retorted sharply. "Believe me, there’s probably a paragraph in Starfleet Regulations about it but I also know, no one whose really cared about someone he’s served with has ever given a damn about it."

"It is too soon for me Chris," she confessed finally. It had been hard for her to make that revelation but deep inside her, beneath the anxieties she felt, that much she knew. Vulcan discipline had forced her to bury those emotions but she could not help how she felt. She could only control it. "I have lost a husband and I am not ready to explore a relationship between us. Is it enough for you to know that I care?"

Strangely enough, it was. Chris cared about her and he knew pursuing a relationship with her could be difficult but the difficulty did not make him want to give up. She was worth it and he knew when she was ready to share a relationship with him, it could be truly wonderful. When it came to Mary, he was struck with an insight about them that would not be denied. In her eyes, he saw everything he had ever wanted from a woman and knew that his life would never again be complete without her. If she needed time, he could wait.

"It is." He answered, taking her hand in his. "When you are ready, I will be here."

She did not smile but when he gazed into her eyes, Chris could see it.

******************

"What is going on at that table?" An unknown ensign asked Inez while she was pouring the young man the Rigellian cocktail he had ordered. The Bolian was looking over his shoulder at the Captain’s table, where the senior staff had gathered for their weekly gathering.

Inez slipped in an olive into the blue concoction and reached for a bottle of liqueur under the counter. "Its the Captain’s weekly dinner." She sang out as she searched for the bottle in question.

"What that’s all about?" The ensign continued to probe. He could see Doctor Jackson, Counsellor Sanchez and the Captain laughing at a joke while Lieutenant Commander Standish and Lieutenant Pemberton were whispering quietly to themselves at the same time that Commander Wilmington, Lieutenant Tanner and Ensign Dunne were engaged in similar banter. Lieutenant Travis and Lieutenant Commander Styles were making comment on the entire proceedings.

"Its just the Captain’s way of getting to know the senior staff." Inez replied as she emerged from behind the counter again.

"They never did that on the Potemkin." The ensign retorted.

"Well, Captain Larabee likes to do things differently." Inez said pouring a dab of liqueur into the cocktail. "Its his way of creating a good working environment between the senior officers."

"Is it working?" The young man asked.

Inez stopped what she was doing and glanced at the group of people at the Captain’s table before responding to the ensign’s question with a faint smile.

"It's getting there."

THE END

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