The bodies lay where they fell. And for what? They hadn’t resisted, and they hadn’t drawn their weapons. They’d been murdered merely for existing. As Lieutenant Balan stared at her captors, she wondered what could bring someone to kill so flippantly. Was it really just to send a message? Did life really mean so little to these people? Beta Serpentis III was not a warm place, but had it really turned them into monsters?

What hurt the most was that she didn’t even know the names of the dead. She’d only met the two security officers during the ride to the surface. They were no older than her, and they should have had a full life ahead of them, but now they were dead. Was that what awaited each of them? Was that what awaited her, and Lieutenant Sh’vot, and Admiral Reyes, and the other three officers in the delegation? She wanted to cry. She wasn’t ready to die.

Lieutenant Balan looked over at Admiral Reyes. The admiral’s hands were bound, and her mouth was gagged, yet she looked completely calm. The woman that had led them through the trials of Nasera, the warrior who’d then charged straight back into the fight with the Jem’Hadar and then fought against the Borg on Sol Station, Allison Reyes just sat there like it was a normal day in the office. She showed no fear, no concern, no grief, no nothing. How? Had she just accepted the inevitability of what would come? Or was she holding out hope that the crew of the USS Ingenuity would somehow save them from this nightmare?

Looking past Admiral Reyes at the rest of her colleagues, they looked as fearful and afraid as she felt. She found some solace in the fact she wasn’t alone. As she stared at Lieutenant Sh’vot, there was something else too. It wasn’t just fear on his face. There was also a fury in his eyes. The colonists were Andorian, just like he was, and this was personal for him.

Lieutenant Balan wanted to speak, to reach out to her colleagues, to comfort and to be comforted, but she dared not even whisper. Her captors had already shown what they were willing to do. Her best chance at life was to avoid provoking them. At least that was what she told herself as she sat their quietly, lost in an internal maelstrom of fear and dismay. More likely, she was just going to end up dead.

Sitting between a pair of Andorian guards, Admiral Reyes had other ideas. She let out a loud grunt. It was all she could do with her hands bound and her mouth gagged. The guards looked down at the elder woman. She grunted again. Now, everyone was looking at her. Lieutenant Balan wondered what the Admiral was up to, and she wasn’t the only one. Administrator Thoss, the ringleader of the hostage takers, walked over to her.

“You got something to say?” Administrator Thoss asked as he stared down at her with sadistic pleasure. This was a high-and-mighty admiral of the great Starfleet, yet she looked so pitiful beneath him. For a moment, he savored the poetic justice of the role reversal after all the pain Starfleet had done the last time a holier-than-thou flag officer descended upon Beta Serpentis III. Administrator Thoss knew that soon, none of this would matter, but that didn’t stop his curiosity. Out of personal self-indulgence, he wanted to hear what she had to say. He reached down and plucked the gag from her mouth. “Just mind your manners.”

“As you minded yours with my men?” Admiral Reyes spat, two hours of bottled up rage spilling out the instant the gag came out. The Andorian had killed her men for nothing more than existing, and she couldn’t help herself.  It was a mistake though.

The open palm of the administrator’s hand came quick, so quick in fact that Admiral Reyes hadn’t even closed her mouth before he struck her across the cheek. The administrator was a bulky man, hardened by decades on Beta Serpentis III, and the strike knocked the smaller woman from a sitting position straight onto the cold deck of the reception room. Hands restrained, she could do nothing to brace her fall. Her skull bounced off the deck, and it was all she could do to remain conscious.

“Now, now, Admiral,” Administrator Thoss admonished as he stared down at the pitiful pink skin. “What did I say about minding your manners?” The Andorian reached over and took a rifle from one of his guards, and then, in one smooth motion, he swept it across the room and aimed it at Lieutenant Balan’s chest. “I only need you in order to keep your ship in the palm of my hand.”

Lieutenant Balan’s eyes grew wide with fear. She saw her life flash before her eyes as she looked down the barrel of his rifle. Whether or not she wanted, tears began to flow down her face. She started to shake. She was going to die.

“You clearly do not understand who we are,” Admiral Reyes replied calmly, carefully enunciating her words. She new the criticality of the moment. “My ship is watching you from above. If any more of our lifesigns disappear, they will conclude this is an execution, not a negotiation.” Even as she referred to the imminence of her death, her voice did not crack. “And if that happens, they’ll follow the playbook and turn this place to rubble.”

“They wouldn’t dare!” Administrator Thoss scoffed incredulously.

“After what we’ve been through, I promise you they would,” Admiral Reyes assured him, feigning confidence as the pair locked eyes in a clash of wills. “We laid nine hundred and thirty five of our colleagues to rest on Nasera alone, and we killed thousands of our colleagues on Frontier Day when they were assimilated by the Borg signal.” There was a complete coldness in her eyes. “What are six more? You’re lucky they haven’t ended it already.”

Inwardly, Admiral Reyes knew it was a bluff. If Captain Lewis was up there, or Dr. Brooks even, she knew they’d make the right call. Unfortunately, she’d left Captain Lewis back at Wolf 359, and Dr. Brooks had gone to Salvage Facility 21-J with Commander Lee. That meant she was depending on Lieutenant Commander Allen, Lieutenant J.G. Cruz and the junior officers of the USS Ingenuity. They were too young and too inexperienced. Their trauma could paralyze them as easily as it could inspire them.

For a moment, Admiral Reyes wondered if her bluff would work. A few seconds later though she got her answer and Administrator Thoss lowered the rifle and handed it back to the guard.

“I admire your convictions, Reyes,” Administrator Thoss conceded as he reached down and prepped her back up into a sitting position against the bulkhead. “And for that, we will wait and see. I promise you though that if your crew up there does anything besides what I’ve instructed, you and your crew here, you will not live to see our salvation.”

Admiral Reyes breathed a sigh of relief. Her outburst had been a mistake, a moment of emotion when she lost control, and Lieutenant Balan had almost died for it. Thankfully, temperatures can come back down, and now was time to get to work. “Salvation, you say?” Men in power often wanted you to brag about their importance, and so she baited him. “You’ve used that word a couple times now, but for the life of me, I don’t see it.”

“No, I wouldn’t think you would,” Administrator Thoss replied as he shook his head. “Because you do not listen. You did not listen all those decades ago when it first came to us, nor even just a few short months ago when yet again, it came to you and your ilk. But that voice, you cannot stop it. It guides us, and it will see us to our salvation.”

“I’m not following,” Admiral Reyes admitted. Given Beta Serpentis III’s history, she had a hunch where he was going with his fanatical language and historical references, but she hoped he was wrong.

“Of course not,” Administrator Thoss replied. “Rather than accepting the opportunity to become part of something greater than yourself, instead you fight against it. But the Collective, it is beautiful, and it is inevitable. As you will soon understand.”

“The Collective?” Admiral Reyes sighed, struggling to conceal her concern now that he’d said it for all to hear. “You see the Borg as your salvation?”

“My salvation… your salvation… the salvation of the entire galaxy,” Administrator Thoss replied as he looked up at the sky. “The galaxy up there, it’s a chaotic and messy place. As a Starfleet officer, you know that… but what if there were a better path?” He looked back at the Admiral, and she could see the conviction in his eyes. He believed to his core what he was saying. “They are the answer. No suffering, no pain, no evil. Just unity.”

Admiral Reyes just stared at him. He really believed what he was saying.

“We the lifeforms of the United Federation of Planets determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war is how the Federation Charter begins, is it not?” asked the administrator rhetorically. “When the Borg come once more, there will be no more war. Just collective unity for the greater good.”

Admiral Reyes opened her mouth to protest, but the Andorian didn’t let her get a word in. He just kept on going with his train of thought.

“The dignity and worth of all lifeforms… the equal rights of members… our strength to maintain interstellar peace and security… don’t you see it, Admiral?” he pressed as he stared at her. “Your Charter seeks that which the Collective promises. No more wars, no more inequality, no more weakness. Just perfection.”

Admiral Reyes sighed. If you gave a fanatic a book, they’d find a way to read their truth in it. Administrator Thoss had done exactly that. Assimilation might offer peace and equality, but it did so through oppression at the cost of individuality and self-determination. That was not a price she was willing to pay. How could anyone? How had this colony become so lost? And, even more concerning, why were they so sure salvation was approaching? The Borg had been badly wounded on Frontier Day. Was Administrator Thoss going mad or did this backwater administrator know something they did not?

“Fate put you here, Admiral, to make our salvation possible,” Administrator Thoss smiled insidiously. “Do not lament. Together, we will go forward into the future. It’s our destiny.”