May 2401

While raising an aperitif glass, Taes said, “Now listen closely.”  

She took a sip of something viscous and fuchsia from the glass while she waited for their rapt attention.  Her senior staff were gathered around her, all of them seated closely on a clutch of geometric sofas and armchairs.  In the privacy of the parlour off the rec deck, their collective manenr was informal.  Most of their uniform jackets were loosened.  There were pairs of boots scattered on the floor.  Only once she held their eyes, and Nelli’s eye-stalks, did Taes feel like a salonnière of old.

“For this round,” Taes said, looking to each of them in turn, “I would ask you all to tell me something you’ve hit with a starship.  Judgement begins.”

Kellin was slurping from a tankard of synthale when she asked the question.  He blinked a couple of times, and then his body sunk deeper into the sofa, his shoulders curling inward.  When he spoke, his words came out in hushed tones of shame.

“Regulan eel-bird,” Kellin said.  His nose scrunched, and there was a heaviness to his gaze.  “I missed it on sensors during a landing approach when I first took shuttle lessons on Berengaria.”

Taes raised her glass to Kellin and cooly said, “Punishment.”

“Training hours,” Ache said next.  Sitting beside Kellin, her posture looked all the more rigid and purposeful.  Beside her, Kellin slumped down further and draped a leg over the side of the sofa.

Ache explained, “I hit my mandatory training hours in the academy simulator.  That’s all I’ve ever hit.”

Nodding at Ache sagely, Taes said, “Punishment.”

“Century Storm,” was Yuulik’s answer.  She over-enunciated the words, dragging out the vowels.  The whole time, she was smirking like she had a secret in her heart.

Looking to Nova as the newest member of the senior staff, Yuulik explained, “It was my turn to pilot the USS Nestus when it grazed the gust front of an ion storm.”

Taes squinted at Yuulik.  “What was your answer then?”

Solidly, Yuulik replied, “Century Storm.”

Taes breathed out a “Hmmm,” and she frowned.  Raising the glass to her lips, Taes took a leisurely sip that would leave Yuulik waiting.  She watched Yuulik twitching the whole time.

When Yuulik looked about ready to protest, Taes granted an “Acquittal.”

“You saw it coming,” Kellin blurt out at Yuulik, chuckling as he did.

In an oddly helpless tone, Yuulik retorted, “It was moving very quickly.”

“There was still time to change course,” Kellin affirmed, “and then you charged it.”

“I’m not an expert pilot!  Okay?” Yuulik said, sighing defensively.

“Our warp field coils were shredded,” Kellin added.

While they bickered like siblings, Taes interrupted them by drawing in the others: “Nelli?  Nova?  What’s something you’ve hit with a starship?”

Shrugging twice, Nova shook her head and said, “I can’t think of anything?”

“Really?” Taes remarked with an edge of sardonic incredulousness.  She fixed Nova with a look that said far more than the single word.

Nova downed a sip of coffee and then shook her head again.

“Babe, c’mon…” Yuulik whispered.  Yuulik looked at Nova –looked right at her– and her eyes were practically bulging out of her head in disbelief.

“…Oh,” Nova said.  The sound that came out of her was reluctant and pained.  “Oh no,” she muttered, hiding her eyes behind her hands.  “I forgot…”

Keeping her face obscured, Nova took a breath and said, “Subspace fold.  I pushed a subspace fold into the USS Sarek.  That one time.”

Taes raised her free hand, reaching out for Nova.

“Acquittal,” Taes said.

“Now it’s your turn, captain!” Yuulik shrieked.  “What have you hit with a starship?”

June 2401

Somewhere between Constellation and planet four, a perverse flickering of light heralded transwarp deceleration.  One last staccato flashing of light snuffed out in the arrival of a Borg cube.  A single looming facet of the cube filled the panorama visible through the viewcreen.  The position of the Borg cube in space, and its sheer mass, obscured any view of the planet or light from the sun.

Captain Taes’s first reaction was disbelief.  Her ship’s state-of-the-art sensors had not warned of the cube’s arrival.  Through the transparent bulkhead, all she could see was exposed mechanics and twisted charcoal-black metal.  More engineered components were splayed out on that one side of the cube than what gave life to Constellation.  Every coil and antenna appeared to have some function, yet the purpose of many remained a mystery to Starfleet.  A mystery that would be left for another day.

Gasping for breath, Taes ordered, “Evasive action!”

Promptly, Cellar Door confirmed “Reverse thrusters” from the flight control station.

Sitting in the centre chair, Taes elongated her spine and rolled her shoulders back.  She could feel the gentle vibrations of the ship’s movement in the armrest of her chair.  Although she could see more of the Borg cube, the cube continued to fill the entire viewscreen.  Its sheer mass had such gravity Taes could imagine time slowing, as if she were being dragged into a black hole.

“Raising shields,” Lieutenant Commander Ache announced.  She was already stabbing commands into the freestanding tactical station that flanked flight control.  “All hands go to red alert!”

“Belay that order,” Taes said firmly.  “Lower shields, commander.”  Sensitive to open dissension during a red alert, Taes spoke slowly to ensure she was understood.

Her rising dread bled into Taes’s next order as vocal urgency.  She swept a hand towards the operations station.  “Lieutenant Nova, maintain a transporter lock on every away team member,” she said.  “We’re not leaving them.  Signal the Estéron to prepare for launch.”

When Ache and Nova acknowledged the orders, Taes watched the visual depiction of Constellation on the transparent tactical panel change.  The thick lines signifying the shields faded out.

“Tactical analysis” was Taes’s subsequent request.

Ache said, “Detecting no power to the cube’s weapons arrays.  No sign of raised shields either.”

From the science station to Taes’ left, T’Kaal impassively replied, “The cube is scanning the planet.  It has directed no sensor probes at Constellation.  Based on the movement of their active sensors, I theorise the cube is tracking the homing beacon.”

Returning her attention to Nova, Taes ordered, “Contact Commander Rayco.  Order his team to find cover for immediate beam-up.  Find a bush or a cave or jump off a cliff; find anything.  Prepare for emergency beam-up.”

“Captain,” Ache declared with an uncommon panic in her voice.  “The cube is powering their high-energy laser cutters!”

“Tell the transporter room to energise,” Taes instructed Nova.  “Prime directive be damned.”

Constellation had reversed far enough from the cube to see an entire array of pinpoint red particle beams slash out into the planet.  Soon after, a green projection of wide-dispersal beams danced in concert with the cutting beams.

Simultaneously, Ache reported, “The cube is firing on the planet and activating multiple tractor beams.”

T’Kaal quickly added, “The Borg’s attack is hyperionizing the planet’s ionosphere.  All electromagnetic and subspace carriers are being dispersed.”

“Do we have the away team?” Taes asked, looking to Nova..

Nova didn’t answer, already speaking at a companel on her station: “Transporter room, boost the gain on the energizing coils!”

Raising her voice, Taes asked, “Do we have the away team?”

T’Kaal reported, “They’ve scooped out a large tract of the planet, including their homing beacon and our runabout.”

Visible through the viewscreen, a large chunk of the planet was dragged impossibly into orbit by the tractor beams.  A circular opening in the cube irised open wide as the tractor beams maneuvered its prize inside the cube ship.

“We have the team from the runabout onboard,” Nova said, but her voice cracked at the end.

“What about the scouting team?” Taes asked insistently.

As soon as the circular opening in the Borg cube sealed itself again, the cube vanished in a transwarp flash.

“…We lost the transporter lock through the scattering field.”