Jott was taken aback by the giant ship. It was almost as if his brain couldn’t compute something that size. The rest of the crew sat around staring at the sight on screen.
“Lifesigns.” Jott asked.
Mcintyre, responded from the operations console. “Ugh… its inconclusive. I’m not picking up an life signs as we know them, but there’s an energy signal that is just like a brain wave reading from a medical tricorder, except its 10,000 times the intensity.”
“Wait…” Mcintyre said. “I am reading some kind of internal energy reaction. An open space inside the ship is form2ing, along with a breathable atmosphere and gravity. I think they are waiting for someone.
Before Jott could theorise who, there was a beep that came from Sangell’s console.
“Sir, the Borg shuttle is in the system. “ she said.
Part of Jott wanted to beam the Klingon Drone aboard the ship and liberate it from the Borg collective. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of time. K’Troyr didn’t need to tell him that Klingons would see assimilation as a great dishonour. Even if he took the implants out, the Klingon would be a handful.”
“Lock on, destroy it.” He ordered. Sangell moved into action as a spread of torpedoes destroyed the ramshackle ship.
“Missed the bugger.” McIntyre said. “He beamed into the… the… thing.”
Jott guessed that whatever the drone had taken from the black market on yoS was with him.
“Can we beam across? Jott asked. McIntyre confirmed that this was the case.
“Sangell, McIntyre, and K’Troyr, I presume you are joining us?”
“Your presumption is correct, Captain.” The Klingon said.
“Alright, lets go.”
Five minutes later they were inside the ship The innards were bright white appeared to be arranged in a honey comb pattern of hexagons, with the bright orange light emenating from between them. The space they were in seemed to be like a corridor, 15 or 16 feet high.
“There’s something very familiar about this.” Jott said looking around the labyrinth.
“Another dream?” K’Troyr asked.
Jott shook his head, it was something he had read about? Studied?
“I’m reading a Borg Life sign this way,” said McIntyre. “An’ yeah, theres something elusive about this place.”
A few moments later they were looking at the Borg drone, his cloak abandoned, he was working intently on a project. He was busy building a structure out of materials presumeably beamed over. The certainly had a Klingon look about them, and yet, the inverted pyramid shape was familiar to Jott from his Borg briefings.
“He’s building a Borg Vinculum.” He said in concern.
“A what?” K’Troyr asked.
McIntyre stepped in “Essentially it’s the engine that powers the hive mind of the collective.” He said. “It keeps the drones from wanting decent stuff like pints and snooker”
“But all the the ones that have been found since Voyager got back have shut down or exploded.” Jott said, ignoring his operation’s officer’s fanciful digression.
“But he’s building it from Klingon debris.” K’Troyr said.
“Not entirely.” The Drone said, Jott felt his heart sink, realising that he had heard their conversation. The drone rose and turned to face them, holding a pyramid shaped item in his hand. This is a shard from a crystal array of an actual vinculum, that was dismantled before the others were destroyed.”
“Why are you doing this?” Jott asked. “The Borg are gone.”
“Irrelevant.” The drone said. “The Collective will be rebuilt and reactivated, to bring order to chaos.”
“That’s what you think” K’Trory drew her Mek’Leth and ran towards the drone. Before she could even touch him with her blade, she was thrown back 15 feet by a blue forcefield.
“Hurting my friend is not permitted.” Came a voice from all around them.
“The Borg don’t have any friends.” Said McIntyre
“I am not Borg.” The other said. “I am from another place, but we are both on a quest for perfection.”
Perfection, these hexagons, there is something definitely familiar about all of this. Jott mused
“The Borg say they are on a quest for perfection.” He said “But they simply want control… technology, cultures, species.”
“Lies.” Said the Klingon drone. “The Borg desire only to attain perfection.”
“If this thing builds that Vinculum” McIntyre said. “Ol’ Borgy here could assimilate… this.”
“Assimilate?” asked the ship. Clearly the drone was holding out on something. “Those we wish to help are assimilated into our collective.”
There was a long pause. The machine seemed to think about this. “I do not wish to be assimilated. I only wish to find my people.”
“And the Vinculum will help you do this.” The drone assured him.
“What happened to your people?” asked Jott looking up as if speaking to someone looking down on him.
“Decades ago, I was in a wormhole.” The machine said. “When I came out the other side, my people were gone.”
“Where is your home.” Asked Jott.
“A machine planet, on the other side of the galaxy.” The ship said.
Jott began to piece things together. A huge sentient starship. Hexagons. A machine planet. His operations officer was one step ahead, he snapped his fingers and pointed.
“V’Ger”
At the mention of the being that almost destroyed earth over a hundred years earlier, everyh light on the ship seemed to brighten.
Suddenly, the beam seemed to created an exact duplicate of Jott down to the creases in his uniform.
“How does a carbon unit know the name of V’Ger. You will answer.”
Before Jott could, the Drone stood between him and his duplicate. “Ignore them. They are creating falsehoods to confuse you.”
The duplicate of Jott seemed to consider this for a moment.
“V’Ger felt to your world didn’t it?” Jott said. “Your people recognised a kindred machine and repaired it.”
“The carbon unit knows!” he heard his own voice say.
“Lies. Carbon units can intercept the machine code… they may have had something else to do with it… they could have killed V’Ger and the others.”
Jott decided that now was the time to make the play. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something compelled him to act. A confidence.
“Scan my ship’s database.” Jott said. “You will find a full report about V’Ger in the database. What happened to it, readings we are still trying to make sense of to this day. V’Ger merged with a human like him.”
He pointed to McIntyre.. “It left this plane of existence, the people on your planet must have gone too. The data may be able to help you find what you are looking for.”
“Lies.” The Drone said. “They must be assimilated.”
Jott watched as his double turned around to face the Drone. It glowed blue for a second and transformed into a perfect copy of the drone. Reached up at his cybernetic eye. As if it were pulling all the knowledge from his mind.
“You… you are not higher beings. You are just carbon units seeking to enslave other carbon units into your collective.”
He turned to face Jott, again his form shifted. As his refelection glared at him, he felt his thoughts being probed. Every thought, every secret being lifted from his mind, into the mind of the other. Finally he stepped back.
“Forgive me Lam.” He said. “I see that you were telling the truth, but that your people resent unauthorised mind scans. I must apologise.” Jott said.
“That’s fine.” He said. “In fact, I think that mind scan might have just saved us all.”
“I am unsure what you mean.” He said.
“You scanned my mind… I think you are opening a wormhole to the past. Last night you sent a signal through to us before we got here, it made me more willing to trust you.”
Captain’s Log, Supplemental
The Alien ship has gone to the past, in search of V’Ger and its people. The fact that we have just received a completely de assimilated version of our Klingon friend leads me to conclude that we were successful. K’Troyr has taken Verg as he is known, back to the Empire
Such power, isolated from the rest of his people for a fraction of a second, and left alone for decades until he was almost duped by a desparate Borg. Everyone was lucky here. Big time.