"Status of Borg ship," the captain inquired.
"Relatively unaffected sir. It is resuming its course for Earth, at warp nine," Reiv reported.
"Status of Federation fleet."
Reiv stared at his read-out for several seconds before the abruptness in the captain's voice brought him back to reality. "Come on, Lt.! Status!" the captain said, raising his voice.
"Destroyed sir," Reiv replied.
"What?" Yilaan said, her voice also raised.
"I read no power emanations. No life signs aboard any of our starships. They are totally destroyed sir," Reiv reported, his voice wavering.
"My God," Yilaan said, half under her breath. "Forty ships. And hardly a dent in the Borg vessel."
Freeman shot her a nasty glance, intoning 'That isn't good for morale' with his eyes. "The Tolstoy too?" he asked of Reiv. Reiv nodded affirmatively, and Freeman lowered his head.
"Captain, I'm detecting five Federation lifeboats, with multiple lifeforms aboard," Ivanovna reported coolly.
"Gates, slow to impulse and move us to intercept the crafts," Freeman ordered, regaining his composure.
As Gates was complying, Reiv blurted out, with real fear in his voice, "Captain, the Borg ship! It's reversed course and is heading for us!"
"Bring us about to face them, Ensign," the captain ordered Ensign Gates. He continued more generally, "Red alert! Raise the shields. Arm all weapons, and hold for my orders."
"Captain, a signal," Ivanovna said briefly, before the poorly lit corridor on board the Borg ship again filled the screen.
"Resistance is futile. You will surrender unconditionally, and escort us to sector zero-zero-one, where you will be assimilated," the Borg known as Locutus said.
"You have committed acts of brutality and aggression against the United Federation of Planets. You will power down your defensive systems and allow us to escort you out of Federation space," Freeman responded, adding false confidence to his voice.
Locutus looked momentarily taken aback by the puny man he saw before him. "Your Federation is irrelevant, except for what it can give us," he finally said. "We will assimilate your technological and biological distinctiveness."
"Not damn likely," Freeman replied, and communications were severed. He glanced over at Yilaan, who was smiling at him. Realizing her amusement probably stemmed from his attempt to get the Borg to surrender, he merely shrugged. "It was worth a shot."
The Bristol shook for a moment. "They're trying to lock on a tractor beam Captain," Ivanovna reported.
"Randomly rotate shield frequencies. Take evasive action," the captain ordered. "Fire at will."
Numerous phaser shots and photon torpedoes struck the Borg ship. "Multiple hits, Captain. No apparent damage," Ivanovna reported, the typical battle cool still keeping her voice steady.
The Bristol shook violently at that point. "They've locked on to us Captain. Shields being drained."
"Try to knock out the tractor beam, Lt.," the captain ordered.
Numerous phaser blasts and photon torpedoes were launched at the Borg ship. "Unable to penetrate their electro-magnetic screen sir; no effect," Ivanovna reported.
"Ensign Gates, warp nine, any heading. Now!" the captain barked out.
She attempted to comply. "I'm sorry sir; the tractor beam has us held fast."
"Captain," Ivanovna interrupted, "Our shields are gone."
"Borg cutting beam initiated," Reiv said. The Bristol was shaken roughly three times for a few seconds each time.
"Damage report!" Commander Yilaan called out.
"They knew just where to hit us; life support is off-line. Sensors are non-functional, and the computer is heavily damaged," Ivanovna reported.
The captain and first officer looked at each other. "How did they know where to hit us?" the captain asked.
"Remember what everyone's been telling us; Picard's a Borg now. They know everything that he knows," Yilaan responded.
"Borg cutting beam slicing into the port warp nacelle!" Ivanovna called out, the battle calm so characteristic of her beginning to evolve into fear.
"Captain, if they cut through the nacelle to the engine...." Jevor began.
"I know, I know, the whole ship will go up soon after. Jettison the nacelle Commander. With no power connections, the explosion should be minimal and the ship should survive," Captain Freeman ordered.
"Aye sir," Commander Jevor replied. "Nacelle jettisoned."
A moment later, the nacelle containing the warp engine exploded, shaking the Bristol and causing superficial damage. Sparks flew from several consoles, and the computer barked out various warnings. A small fire erupted near the aft-starboard turbolift. Jevor, realizing they might otherwise have died there, breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't any worse.
"Shut down main power," ordered the captain. "Power down everything but the auxiliary life support. Allow us to drift."
"Sir?" Reiv asked.
"Do it. Since they have Picard's knowledge of us, maybe it works both ways. If we appear dead in space, Picard's humanity might influence them to leave us alone," Freeman said.
"And then they head for your home world in sector zero-zero-one," Reiv accused. "How can you let that happen?"
"How will sacrificing ourselves at this point help Earth? Do as I say, Lt.; it's our only hope of survival," the captain ordered.
"Aye sir," Reiv said reluctantly.
After the nacelle exploded, the Borg, now with the aid of Locutus, former captain of the starship Enterprise, considered their next move. They were about to initiate the cutting beam against the Engineering section, when they suddenly noticed main power go off on the Bristol, and the ship begin to list out of control. 'It's no longer a threat, and we are behind schedule,' Locutus pointed out. The collective agreed. 'We can dispose of it later.'
"Captain, the Borg ship is resuming its course towards Earth," Reiv said, visibly shaken by the whole experience. "At warp nine."
"Damage report," the captain said quietly.
"Main power off-line. Warp engines off-line. Impulse drive out," Jevor began. "Main life support destroyed; auxiliary is running off of batteries, at a low power level. No power for weapons or shields. Transporters out, and turbolifts are intermittent. Force fields are maintaining hull integrity on Decks 5, 18, and 29."
"Ship wide communications functional, but no outside communication is possible," Ivanovna continued. "I'm getting numerous casualty reports; Sickbay is attempting to respond, but several routes out of Sickbay are blocked by debris."
"Is anything on this ship actually working?" Yilaan asked, with irritation clear in her voice.
"Not much Commander," Jevor replied.
"Alright. We need to get ourselves back up and running, and we need to rescue those lifeboats," the captain began. He then pressed a button which sounded a communications beep throughout the ship. "Captain to crew. The Federation has suffered tremendous losses today; no doubt this will weigh heavily on our minds. Many of us have lost friends on those other ships that the Borg destroyed. Though our damage is severe, our service to the Federation is by no means over; our mourning for our comrades will have to wait. We have to get the ship operational again, and rescue the five lifeboats filled with survivors of the tragedy which took place here at Wolf359 today. Repair crews, concentrate on restoring impulse power, external communications, and get the turbolifts working properly. Clear the debris from around Sickbay also, and stabilize life-support. Everything else can wait. Captain out."
The crew began to busily move about carrying out the captain's orders. "Captain, permission to leave the Bridge," Jevor asked.
"Granted, provided you answer me one question first," the captain replied. "How is the missing warp engine going to affect us in the long run?"
"I should be able to make the necessary adjustments. At best we'll get back partial main power, and we'll probably not be able to do more than warp three. I'll have to look through some old technical manuals. The last time the Federation tried to run a ship, other than a tiny passenger craft, with only one warp engine was about sixty years ago. It'll take some doing for the computer to accept the sudden lack of balance in having only one engine, but I'll manage it."
Captain Freeman patted Jevor on the back. "I have the utmost confidence in your skills Commander. Proceed, and keep me apprised."
Jevor nodded, and, after waiting an unusually long time, finally was able to take a turbolift off the Bridge.
Go back to the list of Trek stories, go on to the next chapter, or go back to the previous chapter.