“Status report,” Cromwell had sat in the center chair for as long as he could. He stood up and walked toward the conn, his mind buzzing with anxiety knowing that that Sphere was close enough behind to kick them. 

“Holding at warp 8, the Sphere is closing a lot faster than I’d like it to,” Rawles replied. 

“Bring us up to warp 9, Mister Rawles. I want as much room between us and that Sphere as we can get.”

“Yessir,” Rawles’ fingers danced across the control surface and the hum of the warp drives kicked up slightly. 

Cromwell stood on the deck, staring at the stars stretching out in front of him, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he ground his teeth. He was struggling to keep the gnawing fear in his gut at bay, but it wasn’t easy. 

“Put the Borg Sphere on screen,” He said. 

“Aye, Sir.” DeMont toggled the view to show the Sphere pursuing them. 

Even at Warp 9, it appeared to be gaining on them. Cromwell scowled at it. There it was. The thing of his nightmares. He clasped his hands at the small of his back and clenched his fist. So many deaths, so much suffering. He idly wondered how many people were enslaved to the Borg in that cube. How many lives had been lost to them, how many had never even had a chance to start. Did he know any of them? Were any of the friends he lost aboard that vessel? 

He shook his head and turned back to the command chair, “I need ideas, people. We can’t run from these bastards forever and I’m not exactly planning to have a knock down drag out fight with them.” 

“We could arm a photon torpedo and drop it in our wake. As close as they’re following us, they wouldn’t have a chance to avoid it,” Novak offered. 

“The plan has merit, however I do have a concern that the explosion may destabilize our warp field and abruptly drop us out of warp. At this speed, the structural integrity field would be severely compromised,” Stravek countered from the Science Station. 

There was a beat before DeMont spoke up, “We could reconfigure the main deflector to emit a polarized tachyon pulse. We can modify our warp field to compensate, so it’d only drop the Sphere out of warp.” 

“That might just work,” Cromwell said with a nod. 

“Commodore, if I may?” Melissa Rodriguez spoke up from the corner of the bridge she’d taken up.

Cromwell turned and gave her a nod, “I’m accepting all takers, Doctor.”

Rodriquez gave him a smile and a nod, “Both plans are functional, but neither serve our purposes. If we blow a hole in their Sphere or if we knock them out of warp, they’ll adapt and resume pursuit,” she stepped forward and leaned on the nearest hand rail. “It’s going to take even longer to destroy the Cube remains aboard the ship. We need a solution that knocks the Borg out and helps us destroy the remains as quickly as possible.” 

“She’s right, Mon Capitaine,” Dumouchel replied with a nod. “Simply running will not be enough.” 

“Agreed,” Cromwell nodded, “Any ideas?” 

Rodriguez opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but closed it again and shook her head, “No, sorry…” 

Cromwell chuckled, “Fair enough. But you’re right, we need a solution broader than just knocking the Borg out of pursuit for a few minutes.” 

The bridge was silent for a few moments until Rawles spoke up, “The Sedlin Maelstrom.”

Cromwell looked over at him and raised his eyebrows, “Don’t leave me hanging, Mister Rawles.” 

Rawles turned back around in his chair, “Sorry, Commodore. The Sedlin Maelstrom is a methane nebula between the Azure Nebula and the Romulan border near Crateris. The area has a high amount of subspace distortions that create eddies that make navigation almost impossible. If we warp into the Malestrom and teleport the Cube remains into one of the Methane pockets, we should be able to hit it with a high yield photon torpedo. Anything that the torpedo doesn’t destroy, the methane detonation should and the Borg would be caught up in the eddies.” 

“And so will we,” Novak chimed in. 

“Well… yeah…” Rawles trailed off, looking around for help. 

“Actually, maybe not,” Rodriguez replied. “Can I pull up your shield systems?” 

Cromwell motioned her to the Operations Station. 

Rodriguez ran over to the console and started running through commands, “Yeah… Yeah, this could work. Based on the data I’m seeing here about the Maelstrom, the eddies aren’t randomized at all. They’re actually fairly consistent, we should be able to maintain navigational control if we use a bilateral quantum compensation in the shield grid,” She offered. 

DeMont had been looking over her shoulder as she worked, “She’s right, Commodore. There’s enough variance in the eddies, though, that we’d only be immune for maybe ten minutes.” 

“You won’t have that long,” Rodriguez raised a finger in the air, “The Borg will most likely be taken by surprise by this maneuver, but they’ll adapt in two to three minutes and get back to the hunt.”

Cromwell made his way across the bridge, slowly, tapping the ends of each of his fingers with his thumb as he thought. Finally he spoke, “So we’ve got two minutes to drop in, transport the cube remains into a methane pocket, blow it up, and run, all the while the Borg Sphere comes crashing in behind us.” He chuckled a little, and turned back to his crew, grinning. “Sounds fun. Mister Rawles, how far are we from the Maelstrom?” 

Jason turned back to the console and tapped in some commands, “At present speed, forty-five minutes.” 

“Will the Sphere overtake us by then?” 

“No, sir, but it’ll be close.” 

“You’ve got permission for emergency warp then, Lieutenant Commander.” 

“Go fast as hell. Understood, sir,” Jason replied, adjusted the speed. 

Cromwell gave a chuckle as he turned back to the rest of the crew, “The rest of you, get those modifications ready, get every non-essential system’s power shunted into the shields, and prep the high yield photon torpedo,” He said. “We’ll only get one shot at this. Let’s make sure we don’t miss.”