Lieutenant Jason Devron had been of the planet’s surface for roughly an hour now; surveying the situation in and around the mining complex. Assistance had finally arrived in the shape of three starships.  One a Fleet Auxiliary Vessel, the USS Albion had brought with it a team from the Corps of Engineers.  They’d split into two groups.  The first had headed into the mines to assess how safe they were before allowing medical staff and cadaver recovery teams from the other ships to go down.  Whilst the second team were checking out the damage to the bridge the Jaxartes had partially destroyed.  In the mean time they were using boats to ferry themselves and equipment over to the far back.

He was near the back of the CAT-05 Komatsu, one of the two transport vessels used by the Borg in their quest to assimilate the small population of this planet.  Its rear ramp was down, as it had been moments after landing.  A pair of Starfleet crewmembers were bringing out yet another body bag; adding it to the increasingly long lines already laid out across the landing area.  Small colour coded tags on each bag signified if it contained a Borg, a miner etcetera, or in a few cases a crew member from the USS Adriatic.

There were nearly a hundred of these bags so far, and others would be joining them as more and more sections of the mines were searched and cleared.  He spotted doctor Andrianakis chatting with another doctor, but was too far away to gather what they were saying; when the other name nodded and walked away, he caught the Greek woman’s attention.

“I’m surprised you’re still up and about.” Jason said sincerely.

“I could say the same about you.” She gave a slightly tired reply. “Chain of command as I was the first medical officer on the scene.” Despite not having any rank within Starfleet, she was more experienced at disaster relief, having worked with ‘WHO’ back on Earth; so the other doctors where more than happy for her to remain in charge of the situation.

“Surely you could just hand it over and grab some sleep?” He enquired.

“We’ll be done in a couple of hours.” Phoebe reassured him. “Then I will just sleep the rest of the week.”

“Have we figured out how so many where killed and what affected some of us on the ship yet?” Devron asked.

“That Borg Cube sent at a signal ordering the termination of all its Drones.” The doctor informed him.  “And your brain picked up the signal”

Devron looked at her in mild shock. “I don’t get it though.  I’m not Borg, neither where the others?”

“It would appear not everything done during Frontier Day was completely cleared up. Those assimilated that day, are more susceptible.” Andrianakis informed him. “It’s a temporary thing and will dissipate over time.  Every individual is unique in that respect.”

“It affected Torf the most because he’d only just been assimilated?”

“Correct. It was also how the Drone from the Cube had been able to send the signal to his brain and make him tap those numbers out whilst he was unconscious.”

“Forgive me for asking but how did they die?”

“They had their brains cooked and their blood boiled.  As a way to die there couldn’t be much worse, and those poor things felt every second of it.”

The lieutenant wasn’t sure whether to feel sorry for them or not; but he did feel sorry for those individuals they’d only just taken.  The two of them continued discussing events as they walked along towards one of the warehouses which had been converted into a temporary treatment area dealing with those individuals who’d only been stunned by the Borg.  So far that had accounted for roughly 260 people.

Tents and screens had been erected to separate different sections and offer some small level of privacy for the patents.  Those in the most serious state had already been beamed up to the orbiting starships, but there was still plenty of work for the three Starfleet doctors and dozen or so other medical staff within the warehouse.

“Well I’ll leave you to get on doctor.” Jason announced standing by one of the doors inside. “See if I can hitch a lift over the river.”

“Ok, take care.” She smiled back.  Then heard someone shout her name from somewhere and turned away.

Lieutenant Devron still wasn’t sure if this whole mess could be classed as a victory or not; though he knew its outcome could have been much worse.

**********

Ensign Tholakath had joined with the security teams checking that everything was safe on the other side of the river and that none of the Borg had found alternate means of getting across after the bridge was destroyed.  The locals seemed wary of him at first; they didn’t get much in the way of contact with alien species and had only ever heard bad things about Cardassian’s, which they recognised him to be.  Despite being in a Starfleet uniform, they felt less sure about trusting him than the other officers and crew currently in and around their town.

But when someone let slip; most likely deliberately, that he was responsible for blowing the bridge up and therefore preventing or at least seriously delaying the arrival of the Borg there.  The mood towards him softened.  Though to have a girl of five run up to him and present the young Cardassian with a bunch of flowers she’d clearly picked from her own garden moments beforehand did take him aback.  Tholakath looked up to see the girl’s mother a few metres up the road, with her arms folded across her chest.  But the smile seemed friendly enough. “Abbey, come along sweetheart.” She shouted warmly.  It was clear though when the young girl grabbed his free hand that she wanted him to come along to.  He shrugged apologetically towards the mother, who couldn’t help but laugh at the Ensigns predicament.  “Sorry about this, Mister?” She paused a moment.

“Tholakath ma’am.” He replied. “Ensign Tholakath.”

She smiled at being called ‘ma’am’ and wasn’t sure in all her 25 years of life if someone had actually ever used that term when speaking to her. “Just call me Tamara.” Her parents really thought that one out well when they picked the name. Many a late night drink with a young man shouting out as they parted company. ‘Shall I call you tamara?’ Instead of saying tomorrow.  She’d even gone and married one of them.  Married at 19, a mother at 20 and widowed by 23.  Of cause the tall grey skinned if not entirely unhandsome and rather polite Ensign standing before her; didn’t really need to know all that.  It just felt rather nice to be treated with a little respect.

The mood was soured suddenly by the arrival of a gruff looking old man who came limping along the road from the other direction. “Clear off you Cardassian scum!” He yelled loud enough for probably a lot of people to hear him clearly. “Stay away from my daughter and get you stinking hands off my granddaughter.”

Tamara looked at Tholakath apologetically and mouthed ‘Sorry’; before attempting to usher her young daughter back into their house.  Her father, a man who looked to be in his 60’s, closed the distance fairly rapidly despite his impediment.  Stopped just short of the young Ensign and spat on his left boot. “Go crawl back under whatever rock you came from.”

“Sir, you’re clearly upset.” Tholakath said as calmly as he could. “I have no wish to cause offence.”

“You’re still breathing.  That’s enough of an offence to me!”  Came the bitter retort.

The next voice came from behind the Cardassian, but he recognised it as being his Captain. “Is there a problem here Mr Tholakath?”

The old man craned his neck round to see the new arrival. “I want this lizard freak charging.”

“On what grounds?” Devron asked, noting the Ensign was holding a small bunch of flowers behind his back in an attempt to prevent the man from seeing them.

“He molested my granddaughter.” Came the response.  The Lieutenant noticed the Ensign’s hand clinch into a fists; but was relieved to see it relax again slightly rather than take a swing at the man; even if he wouldn’t have entirely blamed him.  He reassured the man the matter would be dealt with and he’d send someone around later to take statements; before leading his tactical officer away.

Once a couple of streets away, Tholakath turned. “You’re not going to follow through with that are you, Sir?”

“No I’m not.” Jason replied. “It seemed clear that man holds a grudge against your people for either what happened to him personally or those close to him.”

“Will we always live in the shadow of the past?” The Cardassian pondered aloud.

“Look I wasn’t exactly pleased to see you when you came aboard the Jax, was I?” Devron said patting his colleague on the shoulder.  “Wounds take time to heal.  All we can ever hope to do is make tomorrow a better place. And save people whether they are grateful afterwards or not”

Tholakath thought about those words as they carried on walking.  It’s why he’d joined Starfleet in the first place. ‘To make tomorrow a better place.’  Hopeful one day everyone would treat him in the same way that young girl and her mother had, as a person and not some monster; and who knows may be one day there’d even be hope for the Borg.