Back by popular demand, well sort of...
Ranma of BORG ch3a
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. But do you really think that's gonna stop me from using them? :)
Special thanks go out to my prereaders Jerry, Jay La Valley, and Jefferson Natividad
----------------------------------------------
"And then she nearly tore my holo emitter off when you transmitted the coordinates of the test subject." At this point the Doctor was in full rant mode. There was absolutely no way to shut him off. Not since he had been given control of his off switch. If you asked the crew of Voyager most of them would say it was the biggest mistake ever made. If you really wanted to shut up the Doctor you could tear off his mobile holo-emmitter, but that would only get you on his bad side since he was the only qualified physician on the ship who could heal serious wounds.
Fortunately for Tuvok he was very good at not paying attention to the Doctor's rant, he'd done it many times in the past. "Doctor, if you can tear yourself away from announcing Seven of Nine's rough handling maybe you could assist me in finding any hidden BORG devices." Tuvok said as he made a few adjustments to his tricorder.
The Doctor quickly ran a subroutine to calm his artificial nerves, besides taking his anger out on Tuvok would have been pointless. "Fine." He then pulled out his tricorder and began to sweep the surrounding area. "Are we looking for anything in particular?"
"Any BORG technology. We need to know what exactly happened here." Tuvok then turned to the Doctor with a raised eyebrow. "So what exactly happened to the second source of BORG energy?"
"When I and Seven of Nine found the source of Energy it turned out to be a small geodesic sphere almost a meter in diameter. When we received your com signal Seven of Nine went into a frenzy as she reconnected some of the loose wires and blew it up. Then she dragged me here."
"Fascinating." Tuvok say's as he move's his tricorder along one of the support columns for the Tendo's outer wall.
"You mean that you sympathize with me?" The Doctor looked like he was about to smile.
"I was referring to the anomalous reading's from this support column." Tuvok puts his tricorder away and takes out his phaser.
"I should have known." The doctor replies as he reconsider's going over some of the personal log entries from a doctor named Mccoy.
---------------------------------------------
Meanwhile inside the Tendo home.
Seven of Nine began to feel very uncomfortable as everyone just stared at her. She would have left the room if her son wasn't here. For some reason she began to feel like giving her son a hug. This only made her more flustered as Capt. Janeway made introductions.
"Hello, my name is Katherine Janeway and this is my associate Seven of Nine." Capt. Janeway takes a nervous glance at Seven of Nine before turning back to the family. "If you'll excuse us." She doesn't wait for an answer as she nudges Seven of Nine back to the front door.
Seven of Nine comes out of her flustered state to realize that she is being pushed away from her son. "Stop."
"We must have the wrong house, recelebrate your tricorder."
"No that is my son." Her words are soft but the edge of steel can be heard in them.
"How can you be so sure?" Capt. Janeway looks skeptical as she recelebrate's her tricorder to get the same exact reading's as before.
"He look's a lot like my father." Replie's Seven of Nine with a small trace of wonder in her voice
Janeway pauses as she remember's a picture she saw of Seven of Nine's parent's. "It could just be a coincidence. And if it isn't a coincidence then how do you account for his age?"
"Crossing the boundries between universes is very difficult. If you cross over into another universe incorrectly you may end up inadvertently traveling through time." Seven of Nine almost looks smug.
Capt. Janeway looks back into the house as she mulls over Seven of Nine's logic. "That cube was severely damaged. We also don't know what sort of equipment it was carrying."
"At the very least we should check this out. If he isn't the test subject then we need to know why he is a source of BORG energy." Without waiting for further comment from her captain Seven of Nine heads back into the living room.
Capt. Janeway frowns as she follow's Seven of Nine. She got the feeling that this isn't going to be so easy.
---------------------------------------------
In Federation space around DS9.
Captain Picard gazed at the artificial wormhole generator. It was a magnificent piece of technology, pity it took a war to create such grand pieces of engineering. It was almost identical to the one he had destroyed during the Federation/Dominion War, though smaller. This was because it was meant to be towed to the front lines from where it could resupply the Jem Hadar soldiers with little delay.
It was 1 kilometer in diameter and 5 kilometer's long. The reason it was at DS9 instead of the cardasion world it was orbiting is because DS9 had been declared neutral space by all parties involved, this had made the station into a research station. The business's still inhabiting the stations promenade didn't seem to mind all of the traffic.
Too bad he didn't have all of the forces he wanted. Most of the Federation ships involved in the war had been turned back for extensive refits and other missions. It would take a few days to call the ships he wanted back. Q had said in no certain terms that they did not have a few days to spare.
So now he had to resort to desperate tactics.
"Your on sir."
"This is Captain Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We need volunteers for a strike against the BORG. I cannot promise your safe return or the success of this mission. What I can guarantee is that without your help the BORG may succeed in acquiring a new weapon which they will use to assimilate countless species, most likely we will be first. If any of you crave vengeance for what the BORG may have done to your people or your families then please join us and put a stop to their power play."
The replies flooded in. Almost every ship wanted to join in the ensuing action. But for some reason Capt. Picard still had a uneasy feeling, like it would not make much of a difference.
------------------------------------------
"Sorry for keeping you waiting." Capt. Janeway tries to smile honestly. "I had to confer with my colleague upon a plan of action. Seven here needs to examine that cursed glove of yours, in private." Capt. Janeway tried to emphasize the word private when she looked at Ranma.
"Oh my. She can use the Dojo, right father." Kasumi's words broke no argument but Soun eye's Seven of Nine before reluctantly nodding his head.
Ranma shows Seven of Nine the way to the Dojo while Capt Janeway tries to engage the family in a bit of idle talk.
"I apologize for not completing introduction's. Might I have your names."
Kasumi start's the introduction's with herself and introduced everyone around the table, this ended with Nabiki who still looked at Janeway suspiciously.
"Why are you here?" Nabiki asked, it was just too suspicious that these people showed up.
"We were passing through the area when I heard several teenager's talking about what happened yesterday." Replies Capt. Janeway as she calmly sips some of the tea that Kasumi had given her. She thought about maybe trying this instead of coffee.
"Your not here on a quest for vengeance are you?" Asked Genma as he nervously wiped his brow and tried to remember if he had ever encountered those wemon before.
---------------------------------------------
Meanwhile Seven of Nine and Ranma were sitting on the Dojo floor. Seven worked in silence as she pulled several devices from the inside of her kimono's sleeves to examine the assimilation glove. For once since transporting to this planet she was glad that Captain Janeway made her wear the kimono, at first she had resisted but after a few examples of Japanese fashion sense and the potential for concealing equipment in the sleeves Seven of Nine was sold.
The silence bothered Ranma as he wanted to tell her his dream and ask her some questions. Like why did she look so much like a adult version of his female form? Now if he could only think of how to start the conversation, for some reason he didn't want to appear stupid.
Unknown to Ranma Seven of Nine also wanted to ask him some questions. She didn't know how to start that sort of conversation though. So she tried to focus on examining the assimilation glove with her tricorder, unfortunately she made a small mistake.
Ranma was shocked when two long spikes came out of his left hand.
"What the hell are those!?!"
Seven of Nine calmly deactivated the spikes and then spoke to her son. "They are micro-tubules. You really haven't seen those before?" She asked surprised. Usually when someone underwent assimilation like this they tended to discover the nanoprobe tubes in horrifying ways. Though in truth anyone assimilated like this wouldn't have a free will of their own.
"What are micro-tubules?" Asked Ranma as he stared at the slender needles slowly retract into his wrist. He didn't try to hide his revulsion or confusion
"They are needles which inject nanorobots into the bloodstream of unassimilated people." Seven of Nine replied. Then seeing her son try to understand what she had just said she tried to explain the technology in easier to understand terms by using the small screen of her tricorder to display relevant images.
---------------------------------------------
In fluidic space another battle between the BORG and species 8472 had occurred. Species 8472 had strengthened their defense to the point that only one BORG scout had made it through the ensuing melee to vanish into a singularity. But this time a BORG sphere escaped the 'dance of death'. It had information to return to the collective.
---------------------------------------------
Capt. Janeway looked at Genma strangely before replying. "No. Why do you ask?" She was genuinely curious since it wasn't very often that she was asked that sort of question. Maybe they had different social custom's here.
"Hehehe, no reason. Just wondering." The elder Saotome replied lamely as he tried to avoid her gaze. He kept getting the impression that something bad was going to happen. Maybe it was time to go panda?
Soun decided to speak up for his friend. "Well we usually get challengers every now and then who come after Ranma."
Well at least that proved her theory of different social customs. "Why do they come after Ranma, did he do anything to them?"
Genma assumed a heroic stance as he bellowed out his answer. "NO! As a martial artist it is his responsibility to meet all challenges."
"That and you sold him to most of those people who come around here." Replied Nabiki with a smirk as the bravado that Genma had used shriveled up and died. She then looked at Janeway, the other woman expression told Nabiki that she was not after Ranma. In fact it looked like Janeway was confused, this made Nabiki smirk. "It's a long story."
"I'm sure it is." Capt. Janeway softly commented as she absently sipped her tea. Partly to calm her nerves but mostly to get a chance to get a real look at the interior of the room she was in just in case she had to make a quick exit. The room itself was of typical 20th century Japanese design, that is to say bare walls tastefully decorated, tatami mats to sit on. The only anomalies that distracted from the tranquil scene were the TV and the multiple breaks in the walls. Capt. Janeway frowned as she looked closer at the cracks, it was hard to tell but it looked like several had been damaged in a explosion or maybe a earthquake. Filling that question away for later she put her teacup down and asked the question that had bothered her since meeting these people. "Now could one of you please tell me why you were all staring at Seven of Nine?"
Kasumi looked thoughtful for a few seconds before replying. "Seven of Nine looked like Ranma's female form, only older."
Capt Janeway stared at Kasumi, trying to make sense of what the eldest Tendo daughter just said. "Ranma's female form?" She tried not to sound too disbelieving.
Nabiki waited a few seconds for anyone else to answer that particular question, no one did. "Well it all started about two years ago in a place called Jusenkyo....."
Capt Janeway tried to understand all of what Nabiki was telling her but she found it increasingly hard to believe that so many things could happen to one young man. It wasn't possible, right?
---------------------------------------------
"So this isn't a cursed glove?" Ranma asked. Sure it was a stupid question, but the thought that this glove that was now a part of him wasn't magical in nature stunned him to say the least. That and the fact that up til now the only really advanced piece of technology he was familiar with was the TV.
Seven of Nine smiled at her son, it's not like she didn't have a reason. From her tricorder readings she determined that Ranma's body should be able to put a stop to the assimilation process. It was quite a feat considering how vicious the BORG nanorobots could be when assimilating someone.
>From additional the tricorder readings she had determined that this boy who knelt opposite from her was her son. Now all she had to do was introduce the new's to Ranma. She sincerely hoped he would take it well.
---------------------------------------------
In a area five miles north of Phoenix Mountain a small girl watched the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.
A large spike was literally growing out of the ground. It was almost 2 meters high, all black except for those areas that looked gray. Like some sort of enormous plant.
The little girl had watched this thing grow from day one, when it had first....sprouted out of the ground. She was also the only one to acknowledge its existence. Everyone else in her small village kept talking about evil spirits and exorcisms, though none of those people did anything.
They were too afraid of the Chinese authorities shifting their attention from Beijing to this small community. Though the little girl didn't know why her parents and everyone else feared the authorities, they were supposed to protect people, right? Her parents had merely smiled when she had said as much.
So here she was, sitting on the soft grass, silently staring at the black spike. Wondering when it would stop growing.
Then it began to glow much brighter.
The little girl ran off to tell her parents.
---------------------------------------------
In a different universe. The BORG scout cube materialized in the middle of a great battle. There seemed to be two distinct classes of ships, one attacking the other. One was a light tan color that seemed to shift in the light becoming darker than lighter, they were needle strait but rounded off.
The other class was black in color, with spikes protruding from almost every point.
In between these two different types of ships were numerous other types, too many to count. The only common trait they shared was there attack of the black ships.
As the BORG scout began scanning for the test subject several Vorlon ships lashed out with concentrated bursts of laser energy, having mistaken the BORG vessel for a Shadow ship. The cloud of debris marked the spot where a BORG scout and several Vorlon ships had been.
Another dimension, another failure.
Sixteen dimensions down, four to go.
---------------------------------------------
In fluidic space. In the wreckage of a BORG sphere drone 2345183 unimatrix D activated.
The communications arrays had picked up the distress beacon of the BORG research cube. BORG drone 2345183 subsection 5 quickly redirected power from the containment field to the communications array.
A visible ripple seemed to pass through the shell composed of organic craft. One of the nearer organic ships began inspecting a interesting piece of debris.
As the information was sent out to the BORG collective the BORG drone was torn apart by a member of species 8472.
But it was too late, the information had already been sent out. Now all they could do was wait and try to buy Capt. Janeway as much time as possible.
---------------------------------------------
The deck plates seemed to hum with the power of the warp core, or to Chokotay it seemed like they did. He stared at the blue/green jem that was Earth, but not their Earth, it was strange to stare at a planet that was home but not *your* home. His Captain was down there right now trying to find a BORG test subject, who for all intents and purposes might try to assimilate her, for all anyone knew this could be some sort of elaborate trap. But when he tried to send a larger security force she had ordered him not to, he might have disagreed were it not for the intense gleam in her eyes, reluctantly he backed down. Now he was stuck in the Captains chair while the Captain was down on the planet doing who know's what. Add to that some of the anomalous energy readings that Harry Kim had started to pick up from some of the satellites. Chakotay looked over at Kim's flustered expression , it was easy to guess why the young ensign was so flustered, when they had first encountered species 8472 Kim had almost paid with his life, an experience like that could harm anyone.
"Commander." The incessant voice of Ensign Kim cut through Chakotay's deep thoughts as he looked at Kim and saw the worried visage that greeted him.
"Yes, what is it?"
"The sensors have picked up a subspace carrier wave, I'm trying to localize its location." Kim replied as he bent over his station, almost as if he was trying to will the location of the subspace transmitter to appear on his console's screen.
------------------------------------------------------------
It happened without any warning. The subspace transceiver hidden in Ranma's brain activated, seeking a source of direction it locked onto the nearest BORG drone, Seven of Nine's nexus transceiver. One moment they were talking about technology, the next they experienced each others most vivid memories. Seven of Nine experienced a comforting blackness where she felt protected, the Nekoken, Jusenkyo, and various battles which had almost been lost. Ranma experienced the assimilation of a childs parents then the childs assimilation, the grief she felt upon loosing her son to species 8472, and her lessons under Captain Janeway.
Without conscience thought both came together in a crushing hug while crying. The horrors of their pasts creating the bonds of their future.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Got it!" Harry Kim cried triumphantly as he relayed the coordinates to fire control.
"Lock phasers and Fire!" Chakotay ordered.
The high power phaser annihilated a three meter section of China within seconds.
---------------------------------------------
The two fathers had retreated to the Shogi board while everyone else left at the table continued to talk. This is what they did when the weirdness level they were used to went to a all time high, they ignored it and expected Ranma to do something about it.
"So you work for a company called Federation Inc." Nabiki still looked skeptical as she tried to read the other womans body language. So far all she could tell was that this lady was very nervous.
"Yes that's correct. We specialize in unusual occurrences." Capt Janeway silently scolded herself for not coming up with a better cover story. As she tried to come up with more relevant details for her cover story she hoped for some sort of distraction.
A small beep issued forth from the comm badge she hid under the lapels of her business jacket before a voice spoke up. "Chakotay to away team is everything alright down there?"
Capt Janeway sighed as she moved to answer the call. This wasn't the sort of distraction she hoped for, since it blew her cover, but it was welcome. "Yes every things fine, has anything happened?"
By now everyone was looking at Capt. Janeway as she spoke out loud and was being answered from some unknown source.
"Several seconds ago we destroyed a subspace transceiver in China. Were Seven of Nine and the test subject affected?" Again that slight note of worry. She knew that if Ranma were to be assimilated into the collective he might very well assimilate her and seven of nine.
"Ill get them." The tone of Nabiki's voice brokered no argument as she rose form the dinner table and proceded to the Dojo. Whatever happened she was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.
"Kasumi was it? Could you make us some tea, this is gonna be a long story." Capt Janeway started to rub the temples of her head as the eldest Tendo daughter calmly walked to the kitchen to prepare some tea.
A few minutes later a dazed Nabiki came back into the room leading Ranma and Seven of Nine. It wasn't hard to tell that both had been crying, though why was a different question. What really surprised everyone was when they saw that Ranma was holding Seven of Nine's hand.
---------------------------------------------
Captain Picard rubbed his temples as he read another report from the monitor built into the armrest of his chair. Who knew that commanding a force of this size could generate so much paperwork? He knew that command was never easy but this was ridiculous. Here he was about to lead a large force of ships to destroy or capture some invention created by the BORG, and he already had paperwork to complete.
One of the more unusual occurrences was when a small fleet of Jem'Hedar ships came through the wormhole and immediately joined up, almost like somebody had told them since they missed the public broadcast. Thinking of how he had become involved in this situation. "Q."
"You called Mon Capitan?" Said Q as he appeared with a bright flash where Riker was sitting just a few moments ago, everyone who saw Q appear looked around the bridge to see where Riker had been teleported to.
Captain Picard tried not to yell at Q while his mind tried to think of where Riker had vanished to. All of his guesses only lead to a migraine.
"Hes on DS9s Promenod. I thought he looked like he needed a break." The perpetual grin that Q sported didn't inspire any trust, rather more distrust.
"Fine. I didn't call you here just to argue, instead I want to know why you're helping us?"
"Oh such a simple question with a simple answer. Because it helps me." Q snaps his fingers and vanishes in a bright flash of light.
Capt. Picard grimaced as he saw that Riker had not reappeared.
---------------------------------------------
Quark rubbed his brows much the same way that Picard did but for totally different reasons. Those reasons were at the bar singing some horrible Klingon song, somehow the Klingon and Jem Hedar soldiers had gotten into a singing contest which later devolved into a combined chorus. For those of you who don't know Klingon singing can be rough on the ears yet thats only when their sober, but when their drunk the song ends up sounding like a truckload of cats being tortured. That wouldn't have been so bad if the Jem Hedar soldiers hadn't challenged them to a singing contest, surprising really since all Jem Hedar soldiers were tone deaf. All in all Quark attributed the whole thing as one of those weird occurrences that happened when two distinct species got really drunk. Unfortunately that thought did little to alleviate the headache he was getting from hearing every nuance of that terrible song with his big ears. Now if only someone could break them up, but who?
"Whats going on here?"
Quark made a mental note to thank those Bajoran Prophets sometime, this just couldn't be blind luck. He turned around to see who his rescuer was, William Riker. Quark looked from Riker to the singing chorus, trying to decide which was worse and finally settling on Riker since then Quark would retain his hearing, or at least part of it.
---------------------------------------------
Several hours later the fleet was assembled. Now all they had to do were wait for the modifications that Q specified for the wormhole generator to be finished.
"Sir, work crews report that the modifications to the wormhole generator are done and will now perform final checks before transporting off."
"Thankyou ensign." Captain Jean Luc Picad sat down in his command chair in a attempt to try and stop himself from pacing from one side of the bridge to the other. It was gonna be a long wait.
Several minutes later the fleet as ready as they were gonna be. Captain Picard sat in his chair with a smile lighting up his face as he prepared to give the order to be underway, the smile was from finishing all of the necessary paperwork from procuring some of the supplies that Q said were necessary. To his right William Riker while sporting a black eye was the polar opposite of Picards good mood, that's what happens when you try to break up a chorus of Jem Hedar soldiers and Klingon warriors you have to expect someone to get hurt, fortunately station security had arrived in time to stop the little mob from impelling Will on the dobo table.
"The artificial wormhole is activating now."
On screen a spiral form composed of brilliant neon colors obscured the wormhole generator, the center of the pinwheel briefly inflated and blew out to form the mouth of this artificial wormhole. After several more seconds Captain Picard opened a channel to all of the ships now under his command.
"In ten seconds we will proceed into the wormhole. Stay in formation we cant afford any accidents along the way."
After ten seconds the first wave consisting of Jem Hedar ships sped through the artificial wormhole closely followed by the Klingon ships. Captain Picard smiled as he remembered his solution to ending the debate over who would go out in front of the fleet, he replicated a coin and made each group call out a side, heads or tails.
"Helm, full impulse power."
"Aye sir."
"Engage."
The other ships followed by a couple of Jem Hedar cruisers entered the wormhole. Shortly there after the artificial wormhole callapsed.
------------------------
End part A.
Go to part B
___________________________________________________________________
To get your own FREE ZDNet onebox - FREE voicemail, email, and fax,
all in one place - sign up today at http://www.zdnetonebox.com