“Now entering standard orbit, Captain.”

Captain Vestri acknowledged the report before looking to Kozlov seated at the science station. She was glad to see he’d taken the time to change out of his pyjamas and dressing gown into his duty uniform. “Scan the surface.”

“Already scanning, Captain,” Kozlov replied, his eyes fixed on his console. 

Vestri watched as Kozlov’s fingers danced across the LCARS interface, stilled for a few seconds and began to dance again while he muttered in Russian. She knew better than to rush her prickly Chief Science Officer so she sat patiently and waited for his report.

“The homing signal is coming from the planet’s surface, but I am not detecting the sort of debris one would expect to find from a crashed ship.” Kozlov finally announced. “The signal is transmitting from the centre of a small settlement in a mountain range on the eastern continent.” 

A quick succession of beeps from the tactical console over Vestri’s right shoulder drew her attention. “Captain, long range sensors have detected a ship heading this way.” Lieutenant Zejer Imji fell silent for a few seconds before slowly announcing, “It’s a Borg ship.”

“How long until it reaches us?” Vestri jumped to her feet and turned to face her Chief Tactical Officer.

The barely contained fear was plain to see in Zejer’s eyes and Vestri could understand it because she felt the same. “Ten minutes.” Zejer replied evenly.

“That’s how long you have to locate and recover whatever’s transmitting that homing signal.” Vestri told her First Officer.

Ekholm sprang into action, issuing orders as she moved to the turbolift. “Zejer and Kozlov with me.” She looked to Shepard, “Have Lieutenant Commander Bara meet us in the transporter room.”

A feeling of dread filled Sofia Vestri’s chest. She considered herself fortunate, having completely avoided contact with the Borg during her twenty year long Starfleet career. Even a few months ago, during the Fronter Day incident, the Toronto had been shielded from the signal by the Paulson Nebula.

In less than ten minutes, Captain Vestri and her crew would come face to face with the stuff of nightmares.

The instant the materialisation sequence was complete, Freya Ekholm’s feet sank into the two-inch deep snow. The ground was covered in a thick white blanket with more snow falling from grey clouds that obscured the night sky. 

A nearby light went out, briefly bathing the narrow street in darkness before it came to life once more. A cold wind whipped through the street and Ekholm silently complained that her leather field jackets did little to protect her from the chill. 

The silence of the street was broken by the familiar trill of a tricorder as Kozlov began scanning the area for the homing signals exact location. “This way.”

With the snow crunching underfoot, the away team followed close behind Lieutenant Kozlov as he followed the tricorder’s directions. From the corner of her eye, Ekholm could see Zejer with her phaser drawn. The Bajoran security officer remained alert to any unseen threats that may be lurking in the shadows.

Eventually the street opened up into a large square. Kozlov stopped and slowly swung his tricorder left to right. He raised his free hand and pointed to what looked like the village’s primary power generator. “Over there.”

“Kozlov and Bara, recover the Borg device,” Ekholm ordered. “Zejer and I will have a look around.”

“Captain, the Borg ship’s entering visual range.” Lieutenant Shepard announced from Ops.

Vestri absently rubbed the armrest with the heel of her palm. “Onscreen.” The view of the planet below was replaced by an image of the incoming Borg ship. At the far edge of the Toronto’s visual sensors, the ship was tiny and undefined, but even so there was something off about it. “Magnify.”

“What is that?” Shepard asked aloud the question they were all asking themselves. This Borg ship was unlike anything they’d seen before. Far from being a simple geometric shape, it looked more like a civilian freighter with Borg tech strapped to it.

The Captain didn’t take her eyes off the screen. “Analysis.”

“The configuration is identical to a class of starship used by the Karemma,” Shepard announced as he studied the sensor readings in front of him. “But it looks like Borg tech has been integrated into it.” He paused and looked up. “It’s been assimilated.”

Lieutenant Oreba spun in her chair and Vestri briefly met her gaze, but carefully schooled her features. It was only when she noticed Oreba’s eyes flick to where Vestri was still absently rubbing the armrest that she realised what she was doing and stopped. “Eyes on your station, Lieutenant,” Vestri gently chided her CONN officer before addressing Shepard again, “Lifesigns.”

Shepard glanced down at the Ops console. “There are twenty-five lifesigns on board…all Borg.”

“The Borg-Karemma ship will enter orbit in three minutes,” Oreba announced.

Cold and wet seeped through the knee of her uniform as Lieutenant Commander Vabia Bara knelt in the snow and removed a panel on the village’s power generator. The piece of Borg tech stood out, a contrast with the civilian Federation technology of the generator. She pointed her tricorder at the Borg device and studied her handheld scanner in silence. Beside her, Lieutenant Kozlov did the same.

“Looks like an auto-regeneration unit,” Bara concluded after a few minutes, having cross checked her scans with known Borg devices in the Federation database. Voyager’s numerous encounters with the Borg had increased Starfleet’s knowledge of Borg technology considerably.

Kozlov nodded slowly in agreement. “Removing it should be a fairly straightforward job.”

“Get away from that!” An angry voice shouted from behind them. When Bara turned to face the voice’s owner, he found herself face to face with one of the locals with what looked like a rifle in his hand. “Who are you? 

Commander Ekholm and Lieutenant Zejer walked slowly towards them as Bara stood to her full height and turned to face the stranger. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Vabia Bara of the Federation Starship Toronto. This is Commander Ekholm and Lieutenants Kozlov and Zejer. Who are you?”

“I’m Cal Doref. I’m the leader of this commune.” His eyes roamed over their uniforms. “Federation,” Doref repeated the word slowly. “You’re the ones who helped us when the Dominion left. You gave us the generator.” 

Bara watched the First Officer nod. “That’s right.”

“What are you doing with it?” Doref asked. “Are you here to take it back?”

His distrust was understandable given he’d probably lived most of his life under Dominion occupation. “No,” Bara replied. “Someone’s installed a non-standard piece of tech in this panel-”

“That’s right.” Doref cut in. “I bought it from a Karemma merchant who passes this way every few weeks. He told me it would cut down on the time we spend maintaining the power generator.” 

Bara’s eyes flicked to the rifle in his hand. “That device belongs to a race of cybernetic lifeforms called the Borg. It’s emitting a homing signal that’s bringing one of their ships here. Let us deactivate the homing signal and take the device with us.”

“You’re not taking it anywhere,” he told them, his grip on the rifle’s barrel tightening.

“Red alert,” Vestri ordered as the Borg ship established an orbit over the planet. The lights dimmed and red lights activated throughout the ship. “Lock weapons and prepare to return fire.”

The tension on the bridge was palpable. Everyone’s fear levels had jumped several notches, but most of these officers had served under Vestri’s command for more than a year; she was confident of their abilities in a crisis.

“Captain, the Borg ship is scanning us.” Sheppard announced.

This is it, Vestri told herself as she gripped the armrests of her chair tighter. She was no stranger to combat situations, and she was confident the Toronto was more than a match for the assimilated Karemma ship, but she hated this part of command.

A long thirty seconds passed and by the time her count had reached sixty, her patience had run out. “What’re they doing, Lieutenant?”

“Nothing,” Shepard replied, his confusion clear in his voice. Slowly he added, “The Borg ship is ignoring us.” An alarm from the Ops console drew Shepard’s attention. “Captain, they’re activating their transporters. Someone is beaming to the surface.”

“Toronto to away team…”

“…You’re about to have some company. Observe only.”

The away team drew their phasers as a lone Borg drone materialised nearby. It looked around at the people gathered near the open panel but was completely disinterested in them. “”What the fuck is that?!”

“It’s a Borg drone,” Ekholm replied as the drone began walking slowly towards the open panel with it’s mechanical arm outstretched. “Don’t try to interfere with it.” Bara and Kozlov moved out of the drone’s path.

Doref studied the drone’s face as best he could in the low light. “Looks like the Karmma merchant who sold me the device.”

“It probably was,” Ekolm told him. “But he’s been assimilated by the Borg. Stripped of his individuality, augmented with technology and connected to the hive mind.”

None of that seemed to phase Doref. He stepped directly in front of the drone and levelled his rifle at its chest. “Stop or I’ll shoot.” The slight quiver in his voice suggested he wasn’t as confident as he seemed. Undeterred, the drone continued to advance. “I said stop.”

Ekholm tried to pull Doref out of the way but he pushed her back with enough force that she fell to the ground. She looked up just in time to watch him squeeze the trigger, firing a concentrated energy burst into the drone’s chest. It convulsed as it fell to the ground.

Doref’s features twisted into a smug satisfied grin that he aimed directly at Ekholm. “I don’t know why you people were so afraid of it.” He stepped over to the felled drone and kicked it a few times. For good measure he fired his rifle at its lifeless corpse.

As Ekholm was helped to her feet, she would’ve loved to wipe the smile from his face but she had a feeling the Borg were going to take care of that. Indeed, within seconds a second drone materialised nearby. “They’ll keep coming until they get what they want.”

This time Doref didn’t hesitate. He raised his rifle and fired at the drone. A green hued force field flared as the energy burst struck it. Unharmed, the drone continued its advance. Doref fired a second time, and a third and a fourth. Each time the blast was absorbed by the shield.

“They’ve adapted.” Bara muttered needlessly.

Seeing it didn’t matter how many times he fired at the drone, Doref tried a new approach. He rushed at the drone, ready to use his rifle to strike. But the drone caught the rifle mid swing with ease and yanked it out of his hand, tossing it aside. Then it did the same to Doref himself, throwing him several metres to land on his back in the snow. Zejer moved to check on him as Ekholm watched the drone.

With no one to stop it, the drone lowered itself on one knee and yanked the auto-regeneration unit from the generator. The town’s square was plunged into darkness. Ekholm activated the light on her phaser and pointed it to where the drone had been. It was already standing and moving towards its fallen comrade. Once again it knelt down, this time to recover several pieces of technology from the downed drone.

Its tasks complete, the drone stood and beamed away in a green glow. At the same time the dead drone disintegrated. The snow on the ground where the drone had fallen was completely melted and black scorch marks remained. It reminded Eklholm a bit of the snow angels she made when she was growing up in Marstrand.

Ekholm turned to find Doref marching towards her, well as much as one could march with a pronounced limp. “You let it take the device.”

“My orders were to not interfere,” Ekholm told him. “Our priority now is to help you restore power.” She tapped her commbadge. “Ekholm-”

Doref crossed into Ekholm’s personal space, his face inches from hers. “Haven’t you done enough already?” Ekholm watched as Doref limped off.

“Toronto to away team. Status report.”

Ekholm’s shoulders sagged. “The Borg have recovered their device. In the process they’ve knocked out power to the town.”

“The Borg ship is moving off. Prepare to beam back.”

As much as Ekholm wanted to pursue the Borg, she knew they couldn’t. Not right away anyway. “We can’t leave yet, Captain. We need to help these people restore power to their town.”

“How long?”

Lieutenant Commander Bara stepped in. “I’ll need to make a proper study of the damage but a few hours at least.”

“Very well,” The Captain’s sigh could be heard clearly on the comm. “Commander Bara, I want this work completed as quickly as you can. I’ll signal the Challenger. Maybe they can catch up with our Borg friends.”