442 Borg No More
It was almost too easy for us to set up a kind of self-perpetuating machine of rescuing individual Borg, fixing them to become whole again, and then suborning or building Borg Cube ships to send out with those rescued to take revenge on the rest of the Borg. As former Borg, most of them retained their memories of being part of the Borg Collective, including how to efficiently run their ships.
My smaller ship couldn't house more than a few hundred Borg before we were too crowded to help any more, so we started loading them up into their own ships, with proper medical bays, and a few Chappels to continue Beverly Crusher's work as the ships were sent out.
Since we had extensive scans of Borg systems, from individual Borg to their large ships, it was easy to adapt standard consoles to replace the neural interface they used and kept the same functionality. The only downside was their self-repair functions were only able to work with the Collective's mental power behind it, which none of the rescued Borg wanted to be a part of, not even a fake or temporary one.
That didn't really matter much in the long run, thanks to the former Borg being able to easily infiltrate other ships and planets with their knowledge. Agent Keyla easily slipped into the role of overall commander for the operation and she could barely hide her joy at how quickly we had taken over an entire moon from the Borg.
It became her main base of operations to launch from and all of the freed Borg under her command were more than happy to continue our work to free the rest of the captured beings that were still trapped by the Borg Collective. Each little bit we took from it, weakened it, and the Collective as a whole wouldn't notice until it was far too late.
We left Agent Keyla in independent command at the edge of Borg space, with her squad of Chappels in charge of different divisions, and they soon expanded to quickly become a major force to be reckoned with. She gave us a few reports to pass on at specific drops along the Federation border too, just to keep her promise to her other bosses in Section 31 and remain in contact with them. None of us wanted them to think she had gone rogue on them.
“You know, she really is happy.” Lwaxana commented as Wesley flew us back into the transwarp conduit to return to Federation space.
“It's her dream to protect humanity.” I responded.
“She might ask for more people from Section 31 to come to her.” Beverly added.
“Definitely.” Lwaxana and I said together, then we chuckled.
“You're going to let her tell them how to find her?” Beverly asked.
“She already did.” I said and told them about the scans she leaked to them.
Beverly looked confused. “Why isn't the transwarp conduit filled with Starfleet ships?”
“None of them want to stumble across a random Borg ship alone.” Wesley answered.
“Oh.” Beverly said, her confusion gone.
“If the conduits were large enough, I'm sure they would send and entire fleet through at once.” I said.
Wesley nodded. “Even the Borg ships only go through them one at a time.”
“Which is why it was so easy for us to keep our own movements hidden.” I continued. “Of course, they would be slamming into each other all the time if there were more than one ship going through each conduit, especially if they're moving in different directions.”
“I wonder if they did lose a few ships that way when the conduits were first constructed?” Wesley asked. “It would explain why they only do one at a time now and wait for it to transition before sending another one through on a similar route.”
“That makes too much sense to not be true.” Chappel from OPS agreed.
“We have a large number of their logs from the data nodes of multiple ships.” Data said from the Navigation console. “We'll have to spend some time in one of the labs to pour over the data for confirmation.”
“That sounds like fun. How about we check it out after this shift?” I asked and both Wesley and Data nodded with smiles on their faces.
Beverly and Lwaxana exchanged amused look and didn't comment about boys and their toys.
The tactical console beeped several times. “Admiral! There are several warp signatures at the end of the transwarp conduit into Federation space.”
“Several? How would they know...” I stopped talking and nodded to Beverly.
“Red Alert! Shields and Armor up. Charge weapons.” Beverly ordered and the lights dimmed as the ship entered combat mode. “Data, prepare for a short warp jump. Wesley, execute the jump as soon as we exist the conduit and bring us about to face whoever is waiting for us.”
“Aye, sir.” Data responded and started typing.
Wesley grinned at getting to show off his piloting skills. “Aye, sir!”
“End of conduit approaching.” Data said a moment later and sent the information to Wesley's helm controls. “Micro-jump to warp speed prepared and ready to execute.”
Everyone on the bridge tensed slightly, because it was a risky move as they entered potentially hostile territory. I was the only one that didn't tense up, since I knew we would catch the garrison ships by surprise, especially with Beverly using a move similar to the Picard Manoeuvre to get us by the danger zone.
As soon as we appeared in normal space, Wesley engaged the warp drive for a moment, barely touching Warp One, and swung us around to face the ships that were all solely focused on the end of the conduit. The Starfleet ships had been caught almost completely off-guard and only had their main shields up that protected the essentials, like the Bridge and Engineering.
“Tactical, tag their rear shields with low powered shots.” Beverly ordered with a smile.
“Gladly!” Chappel said happily and all five ships suffered a single phaser beam that made their shields flicker and almost drop, revealing a Galaxy class, two Reliant class, and two Excelsior class ships.
“Drop to Yellow Alert and hail them.” Beverly ordered and the ship's lighting returned to normal.
“All hails have been redirected to the lead ship, the USS Galaxy.” The Chappel at OPS responded.
A few of the others on the bridge let out chuckles at that, since that was the ship we had pretended to be when we encountered the USS Enterprise to drop Lwaxana off.
“Onscreen.” Beverly said and stood up to put the attention on herself and stepped forward to conceal me mostly from view. The viewscreen changed form the view of the slowly turning ships to show the bridge of the Galaxy, which was identical to the Enterprise.
“I applaud you for such a great ambush.” Captain Laurena Andreas said with respect. “You're Captain Crusher, I presume?”
“It's nice to finally meet the real you, Captain Andreas.” Beverly answered with a knowing smile.
Laurena chuckled. “I heard about your ship almost successfully pulling that off.” She said and gave her a searching look. “By your words, it wasn't you in command at the time?”
“That would be me.” I said and stepped forward to stand with Beverly.
Laurena gave me a look, from head to toe. “Well, that explains a lot.”
Lwaxana laughed and then coughed to cover it up. Beverly smiled and I had to chuckle as well, because I had caught the same thoughts as Lwaxana had from the head of the blonde woman on the screen. She had correctly guessed that Beverly and I have been having a lot of fun personal time together.
“If you haven't guessed it already, we were dispatched by Starfleet Command to garrison the entrance to the transwarp conduit. It's only a small squadron; but, it's mine and I will protect Federation space with it.” Laurena said and then smiled crookedly. “I suppose I should thank you for pointing out the flaw in how I had positioned my ships.”
I nodded to Beverly. “It was her plan to turn the situation around as soon as we detected your ships waiting for us.”
Laurena nodded. “I've already changed the deployment to leave sensor buoys as distractions instead and pulled the ships back far enough to cover a wider area and also to give each other support if needed.”
Both I and Beverly nodded with approval at the decision.
“We can assist in building a much smaller spacedock to add some firepower to your command area.” I offered and Laurena looked surprised.
“I heard a few rumors about the Hekaras people gloating about a brand new space station.” Laurena admitted. “I haven't had a chance to stop by to check it out for myself, though.”
“I'd be surprised if most of Starfleet hasn't heard about it by now.” Beverly said and gave me a pointed look.
I held my hands up in surrender. “It's not my fault that the Hekaras were really happy when we handed full control over to them.”
“Yes, it was!” Most of the bridge crew said at the same time.
Laurena let out a laugh, as did her first officer.
“As you can see, he's quite humble.” Beverly said with a roll of her eyes, making the other captain laugh again. “Would you and your command crew, and the other captains in your fleet of course, be open to beaming over here for dinner this evening? We can discuss what needs to be done to secure this end of the transwarp conduit.”
“Both I and my command would be delighted to visit, captain.” Laurena said with a genuine smile. Her first officer stood and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Oh, right.” She said and patted his arm and looked back at the screen. “We also have several diplomatic messages to deliver to you, now that you've appeared in Federation space again.”
“We were quite far out of reach for the last few weeks.” Beverly admitted.
Laurena motioned to the woman standing at tactical console behind her and the tactical officer entered several commands. The OPS console on the USS Retaliation beeped several times and Chappel checked it.
“Sir, we just received about three hundred messages of different kinds.” Chappel said. “Most of them hold a Priority One designation.”
Beverly gave me an amused look. “It seems we have a few messages to read through before the semi-formal dinner tonight.”
I chuckled at her subtly giving the other captain a more relaxed atmosphere for the meal, nodded in agreement, and stepped back to let her finish the conversation.
Beverly nodded to me and looked back at the viewscreen. “Captain Andreas, I look forward to meeting you and your staff in person at eighteen hundred hours.”
“As do I, Captain Crusher. See you then.” Laurena responded and the viewscreen returned to show the ships in space as they moved to different positions and covered their command area much better than they had before.
“My ready room?” I asked and Beverly nodded.
“Commander Chappel, you have the bridge.” Beverly said and we walked across the bridge to enter my ready room. We had some reading to get through and not a lot of time to do it, not if we wanted to enjoy some alone time before the semi-formal dinner tonight.
*
Captain Laurena Andreas gathered her command staff, the other captains and their command staff, and they all teleported over to the USS Retaliation in waves. Her first of course, and she was warmly greeted by Beverly Crusher. The handsome woman was even more striking in person than she was on the viewscreen and her warm handshake made Laurena feel welcome.
Laurena introduced her bridge crew, then stayed there as the rest of the captains and their bridge crews transported in. Once everyone was there, Beverly led them through the ship to the large mess hall. It was nicely decorated and also had a large banner hung on the wall that welcomed them.
It was a little odd to have such a reception, especially after she read a few of the restricted files and reports on the things Thomas Riker had done. Laurena had expected to be rebuffed or held off, as if she was trying to poke her nose into things she shouldn't be involved in, and instead she was greeted like an old friend and talked to without any kind of hostility or animosity.
It was refreshing in a way she hadn't thought she needed. Her expectations had been thoroughly smashed and she kind of went along with everything without resisting. She enjoyed several pleasant conversations, excellent food that she asked the recipes for, and she spent time with another female captain that shared her views, some opinions, and admitted being the captain was more difficult than others made it look.
Laurena admitted she felt the same way, especially now it was her turn to make others think it was an easy job to handle while also running a ship like it was supposed to be. Beverly laughed and she joined in, which seemed to establish a friendship that the both of them needed and also appreciated.
Once the food was demolished and the remains picked over, and after a few glasses of actual wine and not replicated synthehol, they all moved into a conference room and sat around it to discuss what they could do to make the new command area into the safest area for them to operate in.
That was when Laurena was let into the secret of the Hekaras Sector's starbase creation. The USS Retaliation had somehow converted all of those dangerous tetryon radiation fields into durasteel beams and hull plates, speeding up the space station's completion from nearly a year to only two weeks. Well, for the outside.
The inside could be completed by the Hekaras people at their own pace as they made it look however they wanted. They didn't have to stick to the standard designs like every other spacedock in the entire Federation either, which was another reason they had been so happy with gaining uncontested control over it. It was a massive power multiplier and would keep their people safe for generations to come.
Laurena wanted that for her new command. She really wanted it. A pleading whisper in her new friend's ear that she would do anything to have the same thing, made Beverly give her a pointed look. She didn't have to clarify that she literally meant anything, thanks to Lwaxana sitting on Beverly's other side and whispering the same thing in her other ear.
Beverly sighed and had to politely let her new friend down that she wanted to keep Tom for herself. Laurena only blushed slightly as she whispered that she meant Beverly and that Tom would have been a happy addition and wasn't necessary to complete the deal.
It was the first time Beverly was actually tempted, since she had hit it off so quickly with another woman. Casual sex was something that happened between consenting adults and Beverly's previous experience with only married life, then a very long dry spell, and then enthusiastically getting with Tom, were the only experiences she had with such things.
Lwaxana's whispered words that it was solely up to Beverly, made the redheaded woman sigh. Tom hadn't complained once as she vehemently defended her own claim to him and now she was considering bringing another woman to her bed and without him.
After thinking about that, Beverly remembered Lwaxana testing her resolve to keep Tom for herself and her eyes went across the room to where Tom was talking to Data, Wesley, Lieutenant Chappel, and two of the male captains of the garrison. As she watched him laugh and clap Data on the shoulder, she knew what her decision was.
“I'm sorry, Laurena. Tom is mine and I'm his. I can't break my promise to always remain faithful.” Beverly told her.
Both Laurena and Lwaxana smiled, exchanged looks, and leaned in to kiss Beverly's cheeks. It made the redhead blush and she knew then for sure that she had been tested again... and she had passed. She let out a relieved sigh and heard two chuckles beside her. She let out a little growl and a huff, which just made her two friends laugh more.
Beverly laughed as well, raised her glass of wine, and the three of them toasted to fidelity and took a sip. They lapsed right back into working on the details and how long it would take to build a bare bones spider-like spacedock and Laurena fully agreed that was the best and quickest one for them to make.