As he set course to follow the warp signature left behind by the vessel that had destroyed the civilian shuttle, Fransix Leski’s hands trembled. He could feel the adrenaline flooding his veins and sharpen his senses, forcing his heart to heart to race ahead, while his mind desperately tried to catch up with what was happening. It wasn’t panic, but a fierce alertness that seemed to ignite every nerve. 

Excitement and anxiety collided and dissipated into an electrifying blend of anticipation and dread, and a sense of purpose that conflicted with the uncertainty of what awaited them. 

Around Leski, people and words blurred in and out of focus at a rapid pace until his mind had decided what to pay attention to, and what to banish into the background. 

“Sir, we are picking up a signal.”, said the officer by the science station, and Leski’s glanced over at her in an attempt to anticipate what she could have discovered. 

“What is it?”, asked the Captain, seeming equally eager to calculate their next move accordingly. 

“I am not sure yet.”, the woman admitted while her brows furrowed as she leaned in to assay the readout. “It looks like a broadcast, an unencrypted file. Source unknown.”  

“It could be a trap.”, warned someone else, and what followed was a moment of silence. 

“Run it file through a level-five buffer,” Captain Ceix ordered. “Set up a heuristic filter to isolate any anomalous signals or active code fragments.” He paused, and glanced at the officer by the tactical station. “Monitor for any secondary emissions or piggybacked transmissions.”

The science officer nodded, her fingers already moving across the console. “Initializing the quarantine buffer now… it’s clear.” 

Leski wanted them to double-check. He had to admit that he didn’t have much experience just yet, but receiving something from an unknown source didn’t sit right with him. 

“Let’s see it.”, nodded Ceix, and turned his attention to the view screen where the backdrop of stars and far-away nebulae was replaced by a mixture of standard alphanumeric characters and alien script. Column after column of entries, each row representing a single item or entity.

“It looks like an inventory manifest.”, noted the First Officer as she stepped closer to the view screen. 

The first column was labeled with what appeared to be identification codes. Next to each code, a second column displayed a list of what could only be described as components: entries like LC Cortex Array, Peripheral Neural Cluster, Nanotube Filament. 

Further to the right, a column labeled Status offered brief descriptions: Extracted, In Transit, Processing. Adjacent to that, a final column titled Schedule detailed timestamps.

“Strange…” muttered the science officer, tilting her head as she cross-referenced the data with the ship’s library.

A few rows contained longer entries, with additional details. Subject 7484-C: High-value bio-integrated system. Extraction scheduled within 24 hours.

Leski’s chest tightened. There was something unsettling about the way the log intermingled clinical precision with descriptions that felt disturbingly personal.

“What do you make of it?” asked the Captain. 

“It could be raw materials,” suggested the tactical officer, though his tone betrayed uncertainty. “Or… biological samples?”

The science officer narrowed her eyes at a section toward the bottom of the log. A secondary list, separate but linked to the main inventory, was titled Containment Registry. It bore a smaller number of entries, each with a several descriptors.

“Captain, this section seems to refer to… well, individuals,” the science officer said hesitantly. “The terminology here suggests live specimens. But the way they’re categorized…”

The room fell silent. 

“Are there any recent specimen registered?”, Ceix asked. “Anyone who might have been part of the shuttle’s crew or civilians?”

“Four of them.”, nodded Brennan. “The entries match the approximated date of destruction of the shuttle.”

Tactical spoke up next. “According to the crew manifest and passenger list, they had fourteen individuals on board.”

“Why wouldn’t they have taken the others?” , frowned Ceix.

“I think I can answer that.”, said Brennan, and Leski noted how she looked a little more pale than usual. “There were nine passengers in total, four of them travelled together. V’lana Torvass, Roth Moser, Meg Weißenfels, and Krisic Kar. And they were all assimilated into the Collective.”

“They’re Borg?”, Leski blurted out before he could stop himself. A few more senior officers shot him a reprimanding glance, while Brennan gave a vague nod. “Ex-Borg. With all that happened… well, there are a few of them around.”

Leski felt a shiver running down his spine. The Borg terrified him more than any other entity in the galaxy. The loss of self, becoming part of a machine… 

And his mind got stuck on that, overwhelmed with intrusive thoughts of the worlds they had destroyed, assimilated. 

“So they are Borg parts.”, said Ceix with an unusual heaviness in his voice. 

“Sir.”, said the science officer. “Broadcasting this was either an accident… or an advertisement.”   

Ceix gave a slow and rose from his chair. “Ready room.”, he said tightly. 

Once more acting before thinking, Leski got up. He had worries he wanted to voice, be part of the group that made the decision whether to run to or from danger, but realised quickly that he wasn’t privy to that discussion. And for the first time since the start of his Starfleet career, it bothered him. 

He swallowed hard, attempting to retake his seat, when Brennan approached him. “Take a five minute breather.”, she said quietly, and so only he could hear it. It was a kind gesture, but in that moment, all Leski could think about was how incredibly intrusive it was for a telepath to read his mind. He wasn’t part of the decision, and now he was not even allowed the privacy of his own thought. 

“I’m fine…”, he replied, but Brennan only gave him a pat on the shoulder and followed Ceix and the other senior officers, leaving the remaining crew to stare at Leski. At least he did feel stared at, and that tipped the scale in favour of taking the offered break. 

Away from the bridge, he could finally breathe. He leaned against the cold wall of the corridor, hoping it would ground him, but finding it did nothing of the sort. 

“Hey Fransix.”, said the voice that finally did. It belonged to Velix, who Leski didn’t know terribly well, but liked. They had been serving on the Cupertino together, and been promoted in the same celebration. 

“… Hey…” He said lamely, trying not to make eye contact. “What are you doing here? Headed to the bridge?”

Velix gave a nod. “Yes, got orders to show up, just don’t know why yet.” She paused for a moment and then looked at Leski. “Aren’t you supposed to be on the bridge?”

“Taking a short break.” he offered as an excuse. It didn’t work. 

“You never take breaks. What’s up?”

“I don’t know.”

Leski sighed. He didn’t want to talk about it, but desperately needed to. And of all the people on the ship, Velix was probably the one he felt most comfortable with. Eventually, he spoke up. 

“We think the shuttle had Borg on them. And that it was destroyed and the Borg were taken prisoner. The Captain is discussing it with his senior officers now.”

Velix’ eyes widened. “Borg?”

Leski nodded. “Or… ex Borg.”

“I heard about something like that from one of my friends in Intel. Something about harvesting Borg parts… Even scraps of that tech can cause havoc. We’ve seen what happens when people think they can control it.”

“They are terrifying. The Borg, I mean.” Leski said quietly, expecting to be reprimanded or berated, but Velix did neither of these things. Instead, she agreed. 

“They are. I know my symbiont encountered them before. I honestly hoped I would not.”

“I would rather just… leave.”, he admitted quietly, feeling a little safer to voice his feelings. 

“And not do anything?”, Velix asked with a frown. 

“No, not that… just….”

“Just what?”

“I don’t know.”

Velix fell in step next to him as he made his way back to the bridge. Leski had been given a few minutes, and somehow needed to put himself back together before those doors parted. 

“The Borg are evil. Everything about them is poison. It’s hard to feel sorry for them.”, he said eventually.

“What about the ones who broke free? The ones who didn’t choose it? They’re people now…  Imagine surviving the collective only to be… harvested.”

Leski gave a small nod. “We need to… I don’t know.”

Velix stopped in her tracks and looked at him. “Fransix, what’s really going on?”, she asked calmly. 

“I…- “

“Don’t tell me you don’t know.” 

Leski sighed once more. “I just wish I had more… more time? More influence in what happens now?”

“How do you mean?”

“Everything is just moving so fast – first the distress signal, then the destroyed shuttle, then the broadcast, now the Borg. They are discussing what to do next, and I don’t have a say. I just get to do what they decide, at the time they decide. I feel like… I feel like a drone. Like I don’t have any autonomy.” 

The silence that followed was almost deafening. 

“They make decisions and all I can do is comply, or get out.” , he added bitterly. 

“But you can get out.”, said Velix. “You have autonomy. And I get how it’s not great to not have a say in the matter, but do you trust our Captain to make good decisions?”

“I mean… I have no reason to doubt him…”, Leski admitted. 

“I understand that it doesn’t feel great when someone above you is making decisions, but what would be the alternative? Ask everyone on the ship? Vote? The Captain is in his position for a reason, and he has never failed his crew.” 

“I know.”, nodded Leski, though he sounded a little defeated. “I think I am just… overwhelmed.”

“And maybe a little scared.”, Velix added neutrally. “Me too – maybe not so much of this, but other things. Captain isn’t scared, though. That’s why I am good with him and the senior staff making the decisions.” 

Leski inhaled, focussing on feeling his lungs fill with air. “Let’s… make a deal. Okay?”

“Sure.”, said Velix, a little too trustingly, in reply to which Leski tried a grin. 

“I stop being scared to potentially face the Borg.”

“Okay…?”

“And you stop being scared of asking Pereira out.” 

Velix cheeks turned red. 

“Oh shut up. That was sooooo uncalled for.” 

“Still true.”, said Leski, his grin turning a little more sincere. 

The doors to the bridge hissed open, and Velix shot him a playful glare as she made her way to relief the officer at the science station while Leski returned to his own chair at the helm, deciding that he was still scared and overwhelmed, but that he would shelf those feelings for later.