Nick sat in a chair in his quarters aboard the Stonewall, looking through one of the large viewing windows. Normally, he would have been greeted with the peaceful and humbling view of the interstellar void. However, that view was now obscured by the hulks of metal that drifted in the distance. The light from Sibiran reflected and glinted off the remnants of the battle with the Borg, now two days in the past. Early reports indicated that, even with a full clean-up and salvage effort, it would be months before it was all removed.
At the very least, the Corps of Engineers will have a lot of new Borg toys to play with, thought Nick to himself.
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him. In their effort to resist forceful assimilation by the Borg, Starfleet and the Federation were, by choice, assimilating elements of the Borg into their own technology. Of course, it was the element of choice that made the two situations so very different.
A chime interrupted his thoughts.
“Enter,” Nick simply said as he looked toward the door. It opened and T’Rehes stepped through.
“T’Rehes! Please, have a seat. Can I get you anything?” Nick asked with a smile.
“No,” she said simply with a shake of her head. “However, may I get you something? After all, you have been ordered to rest.”
Nick laughed. “I hardly thing my doctor meant I couldn’t walk to my replicator. Thank you though.”
T’Rehes nodded and approached Nick, but did not sit in the chair across from him.
“Nicholas, I need to speak with you regarding what has happened. Specifically, my choice to not inform you of your implant’s activity.”
Nick raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“I do not regret what I did, Nicholas,” she said quickly. “It was the best course of action for determining the motives of the saboteurs and minimizing the chance they would realize we knew of their efforts, since early on we suspected the implant was using you to compromise our operations.”
T’Rehes paused. “However, the best course of action for this fleet... may not have been the best course of action for our friendship. I made the choice and I understand if you felt betrayed by it. My choice meant your temporary connection back to the Collective, which I know must have been... painful... for you.”
Nick smirked. “It wasn’t pleasant. I actually ended up reliving the memories of my assimilation... as well as that of my husband.”
“Your husband?” asked T’Rehes.
“Yes,” Nick said as he pointed to a small photograph screen on his desk.
T’Rehes walked toward the desk and picked up the screen. It showed a much younger Nick, free of implants, smiling with another man.
“You both appear quite happy.”
“We were. That was taken right after I resigned from Starfleet to live with him out on a Federation colony... two days before it was attacked by the Borg.”
T’Rehes placed the device back on his desk. “Then I do have one regret; that you had to go through that again.”
Nick shook his head. “You made the best decision for the fleet and, in the end, probably the best decision for me as well. Thanks to those basecodes, the implant’s transmissions and memory mining capabilities were deactivated without any harm to me. Much to her chagrin, my CMO admitted that without those codes, brain damage would have been much more likely.”
“Besides,” Nick continued as he looked back out at the debris field, “they were the ones who did this... and I intend to take advantage of it.”
“What do you mean?”
Nick looked back at her. “This morning, I had the implant’s sedative capabilities deactivated... but I ordered my CMO to not implement the program that would sever my one-way connection with the Collective.”
“Nicholas... is that wise?”
“That connection was a valuable tool during our battle with the Borg. I could hear damage reports from nearby ships and targeting information. More than a few Borg ships met their end because I could help direct our ships to act more effectively with that information.”
“Undoubtedly so, Nicholas, but have you considered the risks of this? You are connected with the Collective. While the implant has stopped transmitting and tapping into your memory, we do not know what impact this connection could have on your psychological well-being.”
“I know the risks, T’Rehes, but don’t worry. For one, I’m back to sleeping well. And with the Borg gone from this sector once again, I don’t hear any voices. It’s silent. So... at the very least, I guess I can be an early-warning system of sorts.”
“And a higher priority target,” T’Rehes argued. After a moment, she continued. “I will not formally protest this decision, but I do ask you be aware of the dangers. If you start to notice any abnormality, it is only rational to have that connection terminated.”
Nick nodded. “Of course. I know the risks of my choice, T’Rehes, and I will do everything I can to minimize them. For now... I believe this to be best for the fleet.”
T’Rehes saw Nick’s point and said nothing more. After an awkward silence, Nick decided to change the topic of conversation.
“loS contacted me this morning. Apparently, he has returned to Qo’nos and retaken control of the House of Nagh reD with little resistance. He would like to establish a Klingon presence in this sector to help in the fight against the Collective. I’m sure the Federation Diplomatic Corps will be surprised to receive that message.”
“Yes. It is likely they will be just as surprised as the rest of the admiralty was when they learned of how many Klingon ships used our transwarp network to reach Starbase 82. I do not believe I have seen Admiral Quinn’s eyes go so wide before.”
Nick chuckled. “No, I suppose not. However... on the subject of loS... I noticed something interesting in the reports from the Pandora and the Khyfa.”
T’Rehes nodded, already knowing what he was about to bring up. “Yes. You are referring to the timing of the Undine ambush on our task force and loS’ ships?”
“It occurred at almost the same time as the transmission the Pandora intercepted which appeared to initiate the Borg invasion.”
“Coupled with the first intercepted transmission, showing loS’ father’s death at the hands of Nedec, it would appear the Undine are utilizing Borg technology and even coordinating their movements with those of the Borg, to at least some degree.”
Nick shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. From all we know of the Undine, which admittedly is still very little, an alliance between them and the Borg seems remote at best. Our first contact with the Undine was when they were at war with the Borg!”
“I do not believe an alliance is consistent with the evidence, Nicholas. If the Borg and Undine are allied, why have they never fought together? At both Vega Colony and this starbase, the Undine refrained from fighting with the Borg despite the fact that such an act would have meant our destruction. Instead, the Undine have appeared separately, both times in an ambush that targeted ships affiliated with Stonewall Fleet.”
Nick’s brow furrowed. “That’s right. They ambushed our ships, as well as the Garret and the Aurora, prior to the Vega Colony battle. And when Captain T’Laris and myself were ambushed, it was when we were ordered there by Admiral Terev. Speaking of which, has Ethan done any digging on her recently?”
T’Rehes nodded. “Yes. He was actually the one who first suspected a link between the Borg and Undine, and that Admiral Terev might be that link. However, there has been nothing suspicious from her since she was... reassigned... to Starbase 47, despite the fact that Starfleet Intelligence has been keeping a record of her activities. In fact, the only significant development was that her attache, Commander Gallagher, was killed in a shuttle accident three months ago.”
“Hmmm. All the same, I’m going to ask Ethan to keep an eye on her. He may not have been able to convince the brass at Intelligence she is working with the Undine, but he convinced me. In the mean time, perhaps we should move our efforts toward illuminating the nature of this link between the Undine and the Borg. Even if Terev is involved, I doubt she’s the sole element.”
T’Rehes tilted her head. “I agree Terev should be monitored, but that was not my point. My point was that there are other hypotheses more likely than an alliance. It could simply be the Undine have found a way to eavesdrop on the Borg, and are simply appearing at times to further complicate our efforts to defend against them.”
“True,” Nick said, but his tone suggested that his mind was still on his own suggestion. “Either way, we need more data. I’d like to convene a meeting of our senior captains to discuss possible strategies. This is something we’re going to need everyone’s help figuring out.”
“Agreed. If there is nothing else, I am due back at the Pendragon for a meeting with my staff.”
Nick shook his head. “That’s all. Thank you for stopping by, T’Rehes.”
T’Rehes only nodded before she left the room. Nick turned back to the window and looked out at the stars and the debris drifting through it all. It had been a costly battle... but he knew there were still more to come. Somewhere, in that interstellar void, was an enemy that would stop at nothing to destroy the Federation and its ideals. Borg... Undine... or perhaps something altogether unexpected...
