PART 4
Commander William Riker watched the battle unfolding on the battered bridge of the Enterprise. “Begin repairs, we need to find the Captain and get out of here” he said. Captain Smith had ran off to rescue a group of children trapped when the Borg boarded the ship. The Borg, supremely confident in their ability only sent 20 Borg per deck below deck 10. The Captain was trapped down there now as well. Riker looked to Data, “Mr Data, you have the bridge, what’s left of it anyway” he said, walking into the ready room. There was a morbid atmosphere on the bridge, they had just been watching the defeat of a combined force of 100 ships, Federation and Klingon, and been slammed out of the fight by the USS Galaxy, a former Federation vessel now commanded by the assimilated former Captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard. Riker sighed and picked up a chair in the ready room, returning it to its rightful place behind the desk.
On deck 20, Captain Mark Smith sat slumped against a wall in the room where he had rushed to try and save the children trapped down there. All he felt was a profound sense of failure. When he had arrived in this time and learned that the Borg were breaking through, he set himself against the Borg, vowing to save the Federation and the rest of the Alpha Quadrant the same pain they were going through in his time. But through his efforts, Captain Picard had been re-assimilated by the Borg, the entire crew of the USS Galaxy had shared the same fate. The fleet had been engaged in battle with hundreds of Borg vessels in the Viridian system, and he had no idea what had happened to them. The Ensign who had sent the distress call in the first place was scanning the door that the Captain had sealed, “Captain, the Borg are leaving the door for the moment. Orders” he said. “Get some rest, Ensign, to get out of here, we are gunna need it” he said. The Ensign nodded and went over to the wall by the door and sat down, exhausted. The Captain went back to self pity, knowing it was useless, but at that particular moment he didn’t care. A small boy interrupted his train of thought, “Hi” said the boy nervously. In the dark Smith couldn’t see who it was, “Well hi there, kid” smiled the Captain, instantly hiding his true feelings, “You ok” he asked looking at the boy, “No, I’m scared” replied the child. The Captain looked at the boy, “What’s your name son” he said gently, “Mark” replied the child solemnly. Realization hit the Captain, “Mark Smith” he said, “Yes” said the younger version of himself, “What’s your name” asked the boy curiously, “Captain Mark Smith” replied the Captain. “Wow, you have the same name as me” said the boy, “Actually, I am you” said the Captain, ignoring the temporal prime directive. The young Mark Smith was confused, “Me” he said, “Yes, kid, I’m you from the future, so why are you scared” he asked. “The Borg” replied the child with a shiver. “Well they are very scary” agreed Captain Smith, gently patting the floor next to him. The child sat down, “They want to get us” said the child sadly. The Captain looked at him, “Yes” he said, “They want to get us”. The boy looked at him, eyes full of fear, “Will they” he asked. The Captain looked down on him, softly, “No, they will not get us if I can help it” said the Captain, “But to make sure they don’t get us, I need your help” he said, smiling, “I need you to be my brave little officer” said the Captain, smiling at all the children who had gathered around him. “All of you can be my brave little officers” he said. Looking around, he could see they were not convinced. “Here we go” said the Captain, reaching up to his collar and removing a pip, “Mark, I’m going to need a first officer” he said, putting the pip on the boys collar. “You there, what’s your name” said the Captain. “Alex” said the child. Smith smiled, “The Klingons would say that is a strong name, how would you like to be my security officer” he smiled. The child laughed softly, momentarily forgetting his fear, Ensign Saunders watched, laughing softly as well. Captain Smith clipped the second pip to the second young boy. He looked around, searchingly, “Who is good at science” he said. A couple of children put their hands up, “Ok, you” he said closing his eyes and pointing. A boy of about 12 stepped forward, “You are my new science officer” he said putting the third pip on the boys collar. Now I need to give a last pip, but what should they be an officer of, thought the Captain. Then he got it, “Now, who has the best eyesight” asked the Captain. All the kids pointed at a boy in the middle, “What’s your name, boy” asked the Captain, kindly. “John” said the boy, “I name you, Chief look out” smiled the Captain, giving the last of his pips away. He looked at the remaining kids, “Now, the rest of you have a job just as important as the others” he said, “I need you all to be the eyes and ears for me and Ensign Saunders” he said, “Can you do that” he said, smiling, “Yeah” said the children. The Captain laughed, “Right, bedtime then, a crew need s a good sleep before a mission” said the Captain. Within minutes, the children were all asleep, and Captain Smith and Ensign Saunders were agreeing on a watch rota to make sure the Borg didn’t catch them by surprise.
After the group had slept for a long time to get their strength up, the Captain was ready to start his push to evacuate the children. He tested internal communications, tapping his communicator, “Smith to Bridge, is anyone there” said the Captain, “Captain, we had no idea you made it, internal communications failed shortly after your last conversation with Ensign Saunders” said an elated Commander Riker. The Captain smiled, in such a short time he had earned the respect of the crew, “Commander, are the turbolifts working yet, I need to get the children off the decks where the Borg are” he said, “Yes, Captain, turbolifts are operational again” replied Riker. “What about transporters” he asked, “They should be repaired soon, we have internal sensors back so I can keep a lock on you and if the transporters come online I can beam you out” said Commander Riker, “Acknowledged, Smith out” said the Captain.
10 minutes later, the scared group silently crept through deck 20, looking for the turbolift. They found themselves at a corridor with a turbolift at the end, “Ensign” whispered the Captain, “Take them to the turbolift, I’ll hold at this position until you are all in” he whispered, as the Ensign crept up beside him, “Yes, Sir” said the Ensign, ushering the children along the corridor. That’s when things started going wrong, Borg came out of nowhere from either side of the corridor section. He fired his phaser at them, taking a couple down, but they were quick to adapt, he smoothly changed the setting and fired again. He heard a shout behind him, “Captain, come on” shouted Ensign Saunders. The Captain turned and ran. As he ran past a door, it hissed open and a strong vice-like hand grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks. Saunders began to leave the lift, “Get back, Ensign” shouted the Captain, struggling with the drone. He turned and punched it in the face. As he struggled with the first drone, he didn’t notice the second drone come out of another door, until it grabbed him, “Get out of here, that’s an order” shouted the Captain, as Borg swarmed towards the lift. The last sight they got of the Captain was him struggling in the grip of 2 drones, with about 40 drones rushing towards them. As the lift smoothly ascended Saunders tapped his communicator.
On the bridge, Commander Riker was monitoring the repair efforts, when the call came through, “Saunders to bridge” he said, “Riker here” replied the Commander, “Sir, we are in the lift, the children are safe. I regret to inform you, Captain Smith was apprehended by the Borg” said the Ensign, “Understood, Ensign, Riker out”. The crew looked extremely demoralized, “Commander we are being hailed” said Worf, “On Screen” said Riker. “We have your Captain, lower your shields and surrender your ship, you will adapt to service us” said the Borg queen. Riker saw drones dragging Smith onto the assimilated bridge of the Galaxy, “Don’t surrender, Commander, that’s an order” he shouted. “Acknowledged, Captain. Don’t you surrender either, Sir” said Riker. “Acknowledged” said the Captain. The queen smiled, “Why do you resist us, we only want to help you achieve perfection” she said, almost petulantly, “I happen to like myself just the way I am” said Riker. The queen looked at him, “But you are an imperfect being and we are the height of perfection” she said. Riker looked at her pointedly, “Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind” he said, “Enterprise out” he said, cutting her off before she could respond. But the image remained. She was forcing the communication through the Enterprise computer. That was how they saw Captain Smith break free of the Borg drones, knocking them over like bowling pins. He ran forward across the bridge, and dived at the Borg queen. He quickly snapped her neck, severing the tenuous balance between machine and organic components. That should have been the end of it, but the Borg had adapted as soon as the future cube came through an anomaly and established communication with the collective in this time. As the queen dropped dead, the Borg collective fell under the control of Locutus, who Captain Smith couldn’t kill for the danger of killing Captain Picard. He jumped across the bridge and deactivated the Picard drone and grabbed his communicator. Luckily for him, deactivating Locutus caused a temporary disturbance in the collective. He looked at the screen, “Lock onto my communicator while they are disrupted and beam him out of here” he said, slapping the commbadge onto the drones chest. The drone vanished from the bridge. “Captain, the Galaxy’s shields have been raised again, we can’t lock onto you” reported Commander Riker. The Captain ran to the tactical station. He looked around and found a phaser compartment underneath it. Quickly tapping the buttons on the small hand held weapon he turned it on the Borg and opened fire on the few drones on the bridge. “I’m locking out the main bridge, that should give me some control of the ship” said Smith. He checked the status, of the systems, “Damn, they managed to reroute shield controls before I locked them out” said Smith. A beeping came from the sensors, “Commander, does the Enterprise have any propulsion systems” said Captain Smith. “Yes, we have thrusters, but we aren’t going anywhere without you, Sir” said Riker. The Captain smiled, “Commander, you have the Captain, and I’m not supposed to be in this time period, if I remain, who knows how I could damage the future” said Smith, revealing something he had already been planning. “Save Picard, I’ll save the Alpha Quadrant” he said.
As if to drive the point home, the Borg cube dropped out of warp. “Commander, lower the energy signature of the Enterprise, they shouldn’t register you” said the Captain, alone on the assimilated Galaxy’s bridge. “The Borg are conducting an intensive scan, they have lost the signal of both Captain Picard and the Borg queen” reported Worf. Riker nodded, “Data, have they detected us” he said, heavily. Data checked the sensors, “There is no indication that they have detected us, Commander” said Data. “Helm, move us away, full thrusters” ordered Commander Riker, reluctantly. “Put the Galaxy on screen” he said, taking the chair on the bridge that was previously occupied by Captain Picard or Captain Smith, 2 men who he had come to respect.
On the Galaxy, Captain Smith was playing with the weapons and propulsion systems. He was targeting the Borg vessel. He started to work the firing. Within seconds he was pitting Borg technology against Borg technology. The Galaxy was firing on the Borg cube, but the Borg cube was battling back hard. The Captain could see instantly that he was outmatched. The ship was slammed around under the brutal assault of the Borg cube. Sparks were flying everywhere as the ship was slowly being torn apart. In a few short minutes, Smith had watched his shields reduced to 15%, his weapons were losing power and the warp core containment field was losing integrity. He was thrown to the floor as another shot slammed the ship. The shields were destroyed and the weapons failed. The sound of a critical alert filled the bridge. “Smith to Enterprise, it’s been a real experience” he said. “You too, Captain, good luck” came back Commander Riker. Captain Smith went to the propulsion console, the ship was counting down to a warp core breach. He plotted a course at warp speed, straight at the Borg cube and engaged. As the Galaxy jumped to warp speed, the crew of the Enterprise observed a flash of metal as the ship covered the distance in seconds. The Borg cube began to tear itself apart under the stress from the impact. The day had been won. But at a heavy price.
6 years later
Cadet Mark Smith stood with the Enterprise crew in the Starfleet Auditorium. It was the sixth anniversary of the Borg invasion, where Captain Picard had been assimilated and the Galaxy crew along with him. Cadet Smith glanced down the row of the crew and saw Captain Picard standing sombrely at the end of the row, alongside an Admiral whose name he couldn’t remember and Commander Riker. The Admiral was addressing the assembled crowd of Klingons and Starfleet officers. “The honoured dead fought for freedom from the Borg 6 years ago and they paid the highest price. A combined loss of nearly 10000 men and women serving in the Klingon and Federation fleets. Today we honour their sacrifice and the sacrifice made by the crew of each ship to survive the Battle of Viridian. To name the honoured would take me another 6 years, and therefore I regret that I can only name a few. The interim Captain of the Enterprise, Captain Mark Alexander Smith, put in command by Captain Picard before an attempt at an ambitious plan to rally Starfleet and her allies. General M’Tath of the Klingon 1st Battle Group”. The Admiral went on naming the honoured dead, but Cadet Smith was thinking of just 1. Captain Mark Smith. The man he had spoken to in the darkened interior of the Enterprise. The man who despite his own apparent fears comforted children he had never met. The man who had showed him the true potential of himself. Of course, subtle changes had to be made to records, Cadet Smith now went by the name Mark Smith Jr and the records showed his father died when he slammed the USS Galaxy into a Borg cube. But other than that, Captain Mark Alexander Smith’s mission to stop the Borg causing unimaginable damage to the timelines and the future had been completely successful. There had been no sign of Borg activity since the ships self destructed and he had even fallen in love with a young woman called Alyssa May. As far as Cadet Smith was concerned life was good.
The End