[2005: NOV-DEC] Element

[Captain Robin Phoenix]

Element

A small shuttle speeded through the nearby asteroid belt, eighteen minutes away from its homebase in sector 118. Dodging large and small rocks and galactic bodies, which one would find inside an asteroid belt, the shuttle’s pilot seemed to take great risks in getting to his final destination. Grabbing hold of herself as her colleague initiated evasive maneuver after maneuver, Jana’s thoughts were only at one thing; getting home safely.

‘Careful, flying into one of those rocks does not solve anything’, the young female shouted to make sure her voice was loud enough to neutralize the background clatter and rambling from the various damaged systems. Era, the male piloting the craft, bit his teeth together as he pulled the vessel into a screwdriver like maneuver in order to dodge yet another asteroid. ‘ Get of my back will you, or I will fly into one indeed.’ the stressed pilot shouted in return.

Suddenly sparks flew through the compartment as the shuttle jolted with great force. ‘Darn, they found us!’ Era cursed as he let the shuttle roll once more. Jana let herself fall into the co-pilot’s seat as another jolt rocket the ship, she quickly rambled her fingers over the barely working console, trying to get some useful information. As she read the incoming data, her eyes widened and her mouth opened a tad. ‘There are two of them now!’ Jana shouted with her high pitch panicking voice. Glancing at one of the screens that showed the rear view, Era sighed angry, ‘Two pyramids in one day... just our luck. I guess we're not done with the Borg yet.’.

Staring at the tactical console to her left, the young woman looked at the decreasing numbers displayed next to the distance indicator... feeling her heart beat growing stronger. ‘Insert the d-tonic already!’ she blurted in a high pitching voice as she bend close to her friend’s ear. Era’s concentrated and frustrated face showed an annoyed frown. ‘You know I can not control her at those speeds inside this asteroid soup Jana! Now sit down and see if you can get those mines working!.’ With a dominant gesture of his hand, Era pointed at the tactical console. He hated to shout at the beautiful girl next to him, but this was no time for such uncontrolled outbursts of panic. Jana got the message, pouted her afraid lips and returned to her seat.

Anxious minutes passed as the two mighty Borg ships maintained a pursuit course, bashing and blasting through the asteroids as they did under protection of their incredible strong armored and pyramid shaped outer hull. The damaged and antique shuttle did not have that luxury, so the dodging at high speed continued. ‘Era, there... look!’. Pointing through the shuttle’s cracked right window, Jana pulled Era’s attention as she hinted at a dense area with enormous asteroids within the belt. The male pilot grinned as he nodded to his companion, ‘Great work Jana, that should slow them down.’. With a sharp turn, the shuttle steered towards an opening between a few mammoth asteroids. Swooshing through the almost microscopic opening between, the terrorized class two shuttlecraft increased the distance for their foes. The Borg were forced to come to a full halt to either destroy the obstruction, or go around. This bought the two nervous humans valuable minutes as they continued to steer for home.

In the distance, the dying red giant doomed from behind the field. Era and Jana glanced towards each other and shared a short lasting laugh and moment of hope after disparity while running from the Borg’s cybernetic fist of powerful destruction. Turning his eyes back to his controls, Era let his fingers glide over the flickering lights as fast as he could. ‘We are almost clear of the belt, prepare the d-tonic injection sequence’, he spoke. Jana responded and moved to another seat, beginning to operate a different system interface. As she sat down there and worked as fast as she could, her partially scared voice gave Era live reports. ‘D-tonic system at ninety percent, this is as good as it is gonna get!’, Jana called out. Nodding in agreement, yet not quite fond of the odds, Era responded with false confidence in his voice. ‘Initiate at my mark... and in five...’, as the young but experienced male pilot prepared for the jump and counted down, Jana had amplified the normally useless warpfield with coaxic particles that operated in a constant flux. ‘...three... ready... steady... go!’.

On Era’s command, the young woman initiated the intermixing sequence which directly injected the d-tonic mixture into the heavily altered warpcore aboard the small shuttle. They could no longer reach warp speed as ships did so many decades ago, but they would get a burst during a few seconds which brought the ship right on the edge of light and sub-light speed. The altered warpfield would not only counter act an force equal to that of the shuttle, but actually wrapped the shuttle in a thin layer of subspace materials. As this happened, the shuttle speeded towards its final destination... but it seemed their arrival would not be without complete danger.

Suddenly an alert sounded through the small and noisy compartment. ‘We are losing power, the mixture is unstable. Era, we are being pushed out the slide.’. Her companion did not look at her, instead he tabbed in commands as he spoke; ‘Just five more seconds...’, he begged as he tabbed the console in front of him, ‘Come on darling, only a few more seconds...’. His words were barely spoken as sparks suddenly filled the back of the cabin. Adding to the ugly small but serious explosion, the computer decided to speek during the already stressed situation; ‘ Warning, warpcore breach imminent. Intermix chamber rupture in progress.... With her terrified blue eyes wide open, Jana grabbed her console tight as she stared outside the [...]pit window. Era was wildly inserting command after command as the presumed last seconds of his life ticked away.

The shuttle was flung out of the sub warp slide and appeared in space, very close to the red giant star. In a wild tumble, she span out of control and headed for an explosive death. The old shuttle’s hull buckled under the stress of temperature and gravity of the red giant. Within a second, both nacelles were ripped of just before the hull completely split open in a bluish white explosion of the shuttle’s power source. The remainders of the craft were pulled into the star and vanished in the heat.

‘Well, I am glad that is over.’, Era loosely spoke as he stepped of the transporter platform. Jana still stood on the platform, staring ahead. It took a few seconds before she realized they were safe now, safe at home. Brushing a hair straight with her fingers, the brunette walked up to Era and sighed. ‘You could have told me we were going to make it... I thought we were going to die!’. Era looked at the woman, and softly smiled... but with a teasing tone; ‘What if I had told that and then be wrong about it?’. Jana did not know what to say, she simply stared at the idiot in front of her. ‘Come...’ he said, ‘...we have to take the database to the council... you can hate me later.’.

Jana simply grunted as she grabbed the case with the old padds from his hands and left the room. Era shook his head slowly and frowned, then he jogged to the exit and towards his colleague. During the trip, both did not say much. Few people have lively discussions after realizing how close they came to death. The two walked through the main hallway of deck twelve. The huge sphere they, and six-hundred-thousand others lived in, had ninety decks within the third hull. There were two other hulls, but no-one would dare going there because of the star’s influence. Their home, a floating sphere in an ‘orbit’ round this star’s inner core. Safe from the Borg who roamed outside and reigned over eighty percent of the four quadrants. Things were different in the 2900's.

Upon arrival at the desired deck, the two paused in front of the door they needed to pass. “Stay professional now you hear?!” Era said as he rested his hand on his colleagues shoulder. “Sure, whatever... there is little I can say about our findings as it is troubling enough.” The female responded. Era did not say anything to that. He knew she was right, there was little the two could say about the discovery... the ancient data of an organization called the Federation explained enough on its own.

The doors opened and the two entered the room. The council existed out of eight people, all old and gray or bold. Era sighed as he glanced at the oldtimers that were in for a shock. “You bring news from the so called sol system?” one of the elderly men spoke. “Yes.” Era responded. “Although, technically it is not news... it is history.”. The council members looked at each other in a strange way only older and more experienced people could. “Present to us the... history, you found.” The same elderly person responded. Era simply tossed him the ancient things called pads, and remained silent. The older man linked the piece of antique to the data enhancement module in front of him at the desk.

It took the apparatus a few seconds to decode the ancient format of data recording, but then it displayed the wanted information. It seemed the data was arranged in a linear time frame, based on some sort of old stardate system. The data started at stardate 258211.20, it’s main event was called; “Omega threat 001.” Which displayed and explained what had happened to the galaxy so many species did not know or had been forgotten in the annals of space faring civilizations. An unusual but trusted female computer voice started to comment on the displayed events.

“Stardate 258211.20: USS Columbia detects the omega particle. Omega directive initiated by CO Captain Avatar.

Stardate 258212.05: USS Columbia discovers Omega source; Borg influence suspected.

Stardate 258301.15: Starfleet lost contact with Beta quadrant. USS Columbia, USS Victory, USS Constitution dispatched by Starfleet command to investigate Beta quadrant sector 197

Stardate 258301.19: Starfleet lost communication with USS Columbia, USS Victory and USS Constitution.

Stardate 258301.26: USS Wallace and USS Morningstar dispatched to Beta Quadrant; lost communications within two days after being dispatched.

Stardate 258302.15: Borg cubes detected heading for Federation sector 001. Fleet of 73 starships are send to intercept at sector 118 incl. USS Aurora, USS Independance, USS Kodiak , no further communications with fleet.

Stardate 258302.26: Omega directive initiated within Alpha quadrant. Federation lost contact with: Vulcan, Betazed, Ferenginar, Qu’onos, Romulus and other Alpha quadrant key planets.

Stardate 258303.15: Starfleet initiates own Omega defense sequence; Warp capability within known sectors is disabled to defend against Borg invasion.

Stardate 258304.06: Starfleet reports mayor losses during battle at Mars planetary colony. Evacuation initiated of Sol system.

Stardate 258305.21: Remaining fleet at 3% strength. Starfleet initiates surviving protocol: Red Giant One a.k.a. Eden II Project.

Stardate 258307.15: Federation fleet at 1,2% strength due to Borg battles. Final data entry by President Yanos of the Federation: “Starfleet has been defeated, as have all major powers within the known galaxy which have fallen to the Borg. The “Eden” project is the last human stronghold. Earth has fallen… now, only time will tell if the human species will survive.

End of data”

Speculation of the displayed events were discussed by the council present. Speculations, tactics and future plans were mentioned, as they had been mentioned hundreds of years ago. But none understood the true meaning of the history lesson. The true meaning one should understand… the only way to survive had been destroyed in an attempt to safe just that humans wanted to protect. The Borg might have been the invading element, but it had been the humans who introduced Omega to the Borg in its full potential... and it all started way back... hundreds of years ago with a starship called...........

At that time the Borg attacked the last Human outpost. The last means of survival. And it was because the terrans own defensive measures they could not survive… there was no escape for they were no longer fast enough. The human era would end. As the flames filled the corridors of the huge last human outpost deep within the Red Giant star, Era and Jana grabbed each other in an attempt to live. Little did they know, two hundred years in the future the space they knew and so much loved would no longer be theirs.

BORG REPORT: #5698765589; TERRAN SPECIES ASSIMILATED; NO INDIVIDUAL SURVIVED

Edited November 20, 2005 by counselor phoenix