Stardate: 71010:1800
Title: The Hard Voyage Home (Part 1)
Author: Ensign Sparky
Time: After "May the Circle Be Unbroken"
Scene: Rennas, The Past, and The Future


Three was making good time towards the Banquet Room, having come to the conclusion that the Banquet Room was the most logical location to get to as the Horizon already had those coordinates. Unfortunately, there would be far more drones and warriors to worry about to reach that location. As Three proceeded he tried to limit his contact with the Rennas so as to limit the damage to their culture. From the reports he had seen of this culture, if one could call it a culture, the Rennas were a very aggressive group that tended to take whatever they found would improve them. They all took their orders from the females of their species. In fact, the Rennas were very close in nature to a combination of ants and bees with the addition of very advanced telepathic abilities and a high level of intelligence.

To a human this thought process would almost seem like praise, but to Three it was a method of calculating a way to deal with a threat. As soon as Three began to think like this he felt a sudden surge to several of his neural nodes. If anyone had been around to see, it would have appeared that Three had simply phased out of existence. Unfortunately for Three this was far from the truth. As he began to phase out it sent a shockwave of energy throughout the Hive complex.


=/\= 500 Years in the Future =/\=

"This is not working! We must complete this process and transport the sample before it is to late," came the frantic scream of the Science Officer.

There was a sudden lurch as the ship was struck.

"Captain, shields are at 50%. They have adapted to the new modulation. They are adapting faster than we can change them," screamed the tactical officer.

"Continue to modulate those shields. Helm, initiate evasive maneuver Alpha-Ceti-One."

"They are matching our maneuvers," stated the Helm.

"Shields are holding, but they are attempting to adapt to the new modulation," the Tactical Officer reported shortly after.

"Doctor, how much time do you need?" Inquired the Captain.

"The process will be complete in approximately 90 seconds."

"Tactical, can you keep them off of us for that long?" The Captain asked.

"Yes Sir. We can hold them off for that long, but not much longer after that."

"Very well. Engineering, begin the Temporal Burst start up procedure."

[Captain, that procedure will cause our shields to drop. The Borg will take us all,] came the nervous response from Engineering.

"I am aware of that. Our lives mean nothing when weighed against that of our people. I will set the computer to perform a data dump and then self-destruct 5 seconds after the burst is activated. Is the child ready for the procedure, Doctor?"

"Yes, Captain. As soon as the procedure is completed I will implant the child. It will take 4 hours for the child to complete the transformation."

"Very well, have the datapadd attached to the child’s container."

There was an odd sense that began to fill the Bridge. It was a sense of the end being near, but along with this feeling came a strange sense of joy; they were finally going to be able to save their people. It had taken centuries to discover a method to save their people from the Borg in the past. They had managed to travel back and collect the samples and return to the future to use their technology to combine and refine the sample and make it compatible with their species. Unfortunately, the Borg had found their last outpost and attacked it in the middle of the transfer process. 40,000 souls had perished delaying the Borg assault long enough for this ship to escape with their people's last hope of salvation. Now the Borg had caught up to them and were trying to assimilate them too. They had managed to destroy 4 cubes and several other smaller Borg vessels, but they were rapidly running out of time, an interesting thought due to the current situation.

"Captain, we are ready to inject the child," called out the doctor.

"Very well. Proceed. Initiate ship-wide intercom."

After several seconds a beep told the Captain the ship was ready.

"To all hands, this is the Captain. We have reached the moment we have all waited for. The salvation of our people is at hand. In a few minutes we will be dead, but our people shall live on with our sacrifice."

"For our people and our ancestors we give our lives freely and without regret or fear," came the call of the entire crew.

"Initiate."

Somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, for light years around, there was a sudden bright flash as the Last Hope's engines went critical, destroying not only the ship and all it held but also the Borg fleet that was pursuing them.


=/\= Unimatrix One (future) =/\=

"The vessel belonging to Species 6530 has self destructed. All vessels in pursuit of the remaining members of Species 6530 have been destroyed. 29,032 individuals have been added to the collective. The memories of those assimilated do not contain the information required. Sensor readings from the pursuing vessels are being analysed," came the unified voice of the Collective.

"Very well, I will process this," came the voice of the Queen. Almost immediately she turned to a viewscreen. "Interesting. They sent something through a temporal anomaly just before they destroyed themselves."

She quickly turned her thoughts to one of her spheres. Within seconds it was reconfiguring itself for temporal travel. She knew the trip would destroy the vessel, but not before a message could be sent.


=/\= 200 Years in the Past =/\=

"What is it?" Came a quiet voice.

"It looks like a container of some sort. It is nothing like what we have used before. Is that a datapadd?" Came another voice.

The voices were muffled by the shell of the container and the child wasn't able to understand it all.

"What does the padd say?"

"By the Ancients! Quickly, help me take this to the Elders," came the frantic voice of one of the beings.

There was a sudden shifting as the container was picked up.


=/\= Several Years Later =/\=

"Finally we have finished. Which child has the memories of the original?"

"The third one does."

"What shall we name him?"

"Is a name needed? They have not been living very long against the Borg. Thankfully none of them have been assimilated. The self-destruct protocol has been successful. To date the Borg assault has been halted, and we have taken back three of the thirty planets we have lost. We have also taken some of their technology."

"Excellent. Prepare to launch this group."


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Ensign 'Sparky'
Tactical Officer
USS Horizon
NCC-72400
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