The April dropped out of warp a safe distance away from the Displaced freighter that they suspected was either infested with, or in the process of being assimilated by the Borg. After hearing that the readings were confirmed, Wong stood and Picard maneuvered his tunic into place.
“Alright people, let’s do this sharp and fast.” He referred to their prearranged plan to quickly disable the ship’s propulsion and snatch it with a tractor beam.
“Red alert, shields to maximum charge all phasers and load torpedoes.” Mee IH called from his pool at the rear of the bridge. He and Lt. Boffo had been working on tuning both the weapons and shields to hopefully help prevent the Borg from adapting too quickly.
As the lighting shifted and klaxons began blaring Butler said in a low tone, “They don’t appear to be reacting in the slightest. The ship may be inoperable, or they may be planning an ambush, or both.”
“Duly noted…Helm take us in, full impulse. Weapons standby to target their propulsion systems. Dish, you let us know if you see them so much as twitch in our direction.” Wong ordered.
Less than three minutes later they heavy escort had the mid sized long range freighter secured in the clutched of it’s tractor beam, and Mee IH, Ingram and Tesa were busy doing their final check and preparations to begin towing the ship at warp to SB80.
“Sahib, we are being hailed by the freighter.” Singh called out.
Wong remained silent for several seconds. He had contemplated what to do in this scenario, but he internally went through an additional round of due diligence.
“Prepare to respond on an isolated, audio only channel Lt.”
“Ready, sahib.” Singh replied, and opened the channel when Wong gave a nod.
“We are the Borg…” The phrase that invariably struck terror in the souls of those who heard it was how the message began. But there was something different, something about the drones voice seemed less menacing, sounding almost anxious or confused.
“We…cannot hear the Collective. We request…assistance.” The audio message continued.
Wong glanced around the bridge, meeting eyes with Fields, Mee IH and Gallifray. All three had surprised, curious looks on their faces.
“We acknowledge your request for assistance. We will comply. Our ship will tow your vessel…back home, so that you may rejoin the collective.” Wong said, trying to keep a natural and neutral tone.
“Message received. State your designation?” The drones on the other end of the comm demanded.
“My designation is irrelevant. We will comply and render the assistance you have requested. Do not make any attempts to interfere with our towing operations, if you make any hostile acts they will be responded to with deadly force. Acknowledge.”
“Message received. We are the Borg, we will comply.”
“We will begin the journey soon. Further communications are unnecessary, this channel will now clo…” Wong was about to have Singh cut the comm when the Borg interrupted him. Again the drones sounded almost worried, or nervous.
“We request to know how long until we are reunited with the Collective.”
Wong made the slicing motion across his throat and Singh mused the channel.
“Lasage, what’s our ETA to SB80, if we perform the tow at warp 8?” Wong addressed the helmsman.
“Happroximately nine days and eight hours sir.” Came the reply. Their orders were to have the freighter at SB80 in less than eleven days, and that didn’t leave a lot of room to spare.
Mee IH squeaked and cleared his throat, “Cap, that’s going to be puting our engines, deflector and tractor emitters under a lot of strain.”
“ETA at warp 7.8 Lasage?” Wong asked.
“Ten days and eleven hours sar.”
That left only a few hours, Wong turned back to his XO, “I understand that we’ll be taxing the ships systems, but can we reasonably tow them safely at warp 8?”
“Probably.” Mee IH groaned.
“Very well then, we’ll worry about the maintenance and repair ramifications when we arrive at SB80. Re-open the channel Lt.” Wong nodded to Singh.
“Borg vessel. We expect to have you returned to the Collective in roughly nine and a half days.” The Captain said.
“We must request assistance to provide us with the ability to recharge our power cells. We only have enough reserves to remain functional for four days.” The drones replied.
“Understood Borg vessel. We will contact you again shortly and arrange a plan to comply with your request. Message ends now.” Wong turned to Singh who quickly closed the channel.
“Lonely, scared, and starving Borg drones certainly was not on my bingo card for today.” Gallifray mused aloud.
A few hours later, Cdr. Fields and two of his ‘shooters’ were waiting in Transporter Room 1 when Lt. Tesa and Doc Lady arrived. The plan was to beam over and provide the absolute minimal assistance to the drones by installing a power adapter siphon node on one of the freighters’ EPS outlets. It was a calculated risk, but the only other option was letting the two dozen or so drones aboard the ship die, which would defeat the entire purpose of their mission, and could very well cause a major contamination of the drones home reality.
“So, we’re on a mission to go feed some hungry Borg drones from a different dimension eh?” The exocomp doc asked.
“Yep. That’s the long and short of it Doc.” Fields replied.
The away mission was successfully completed and the team was beamed back aboard the April after having spent less than five minutes on the Borg freighter.
