RJ stayed at the back of the small group as they made their way through the corridors of the Resolute. It was a small ship, but there seemed to be enough blood and bodies for a ship at least three times the size. He was glad he’d insisted that Aya leave the Resolute and head back on one of the family’s smaller transport ships. Hopefully whatever was happening with Starfleet was limited to Starfleet. If not…

No, he couldn’t think like that. 

Cutting that line of thought off sharply, he moved up to the front of the group as they reached a corner. There was a firefight going on up ahead. Mason gave quick-fire hand signals and they moved around the corner, only to find another big guy in a torn and bloody fleet uniform standing in the middle of the corridor. There were fallen around him, both unassimilated crew members and the borg. 

“Mason!” the other guy nodded as he walked toward them. “‘Bout time you got here.”

“Glad you’re not dead yet, Bennett.” Mason chuckled, pulling the other guy into a quick hug, clapping him on the shoulder. Bennett’s lips compressed into a thin line, pain flaring in his eyes for a moment, but when the two broke apart, his expression was clear. 

RJ leaned in, murmuring to Kovash. “Did they decide to staff the Resolute with giants or something?” 

“Llanarians.” Kovash snorted in amusement. “Built like barns, all of them.”

“Are they now?” RJ mused, eyeing up the two big men. Bennett was blond, and seemed a little younger than Mason, but not by much. 

“And that one dumb as a box of rocks,” Kovash muttered. “But good fighter. And engineer,” she added begrudgingly. 

RJ’s eyebrow shot up. As a rule engineers weren’t as dumb as a box of rocks, which meant that Kovash and Bennett had history. Definitely had history. 

 “Okay, we’ve got two type-8’s but that’s only a max of what… 20 if we cram people in?” Mason asked the big engineer as the rest of the team fanned out, keeping an eye on the corridor. It was quiet though, eerily quiet.  

Bennett nodded, his rifle slung over his shoulder and a padd in his hand. “Your orders have been repeating on maintenance channel forty-two and at least half the escape pods have been launched.” 

Mason grunted. “If there’s even two in each of those… make that thirty, and the shuttlecraft we should be able to get most of the unaffected off the ship. Okay, let’s do it…” 

He turned around to the rest of the group. “We’re a deck down from the shuttlebay,” he said, expression grim. “Let’s move fast and keep it tight. Expect resistance as we hit the shuttlebay. Apart from the escape pods it’s the only way off the ship so if they’re going to bottleneck us anywhere, it’s going to be there.”

 The group moved as one, RJ’s heart pounding in his chest as he took his place near the back of the group as Mason took point. He found himself side by side with Bennett, the big engineer, but there was no time for talking. They were too busy keeping their eyes and ears open as they headed up to the shuttlebay. 

 RJ half expected the borg to have scuttled the shuttlecraft, or for them both to be gone already, but there was still one there. His breath punched out from his lungs with relief. 

 “Okay, that’s good,” Mason commented as he waved them past him through the doorway. “That means someone else got out.”

 The door swished shut behind RJ, who was the last through, with an odd electronic chirp he’d never heard before. Turning, he spotted the gruff captain patting the door frame. Mason caught his eye and smiled.

“The Resolute is unique,” he said, already herding RJ across the shuttlebay. “She’s always got our back.”

 ———-

It was alone on the ship again. Finally. 

When the… other mind had arrived, it had moved from it’s favourite replicator and buried itself deeper into the ships systems. Stayed on the move and tried to help as the other mind took over the little minds on the ship. Not all of them. Just some. For what reason it couldn’t figure. 

Until the controlled minds started to kill the other crew. 

It helped. As much as it could. Keeping some doors shut and opening others as it helped the unaffected crew to escape. 

And finally, it was alone. There was only it and and big mind on the ship now…