Star Trek:

Children of Asimov

By: Immodicus Furor

A big thanks to Medico69 and sosseres for editing this chapter!

Chapter One

Ensign Alexander Rockwell’s face contorted into a frown as he glared at his screen, willing it to change, to do anything. He jabbed a few of the controls, but nothing happened.

“Damn computer.” He muttered.

“Is something wrong, Ensign?” Captain Scott asked him.

“Nothing much,” Alex responded with an exasperated sigh, “Just the monumental failure of the new computer system I developed.”

“I thought that the system core was already operational?”

Alex shook his head. “It isn’t the system core. The artificial intelligence engine is running perfectly, above specs even. It’s just interfacing the core with the rest of the ship’s computers that is proving nearly impossible.”

“Give yourself some time,” the captain replied with a laugh, “after all, you’ve designed an artificially intelligent brain in less than a week, and the programming to run it. Most people would call that a job well done. What’s your problem with the interfacing anyway? I thought the LCARS consoles were supposed to be adaptable to anything.”

“It isn’t the display capabilities or anything like that,” Alex continued as he tried a few override sequences, “but the speed of the data transfer itself. The A.I. is processing information way, way too fast. The bio-neural gel packs aren’t able to keep up, and the data cache built into the consoles isn’t adequate for the size of the transfers. We won’t get full functionality out of the new system unless I redesign the interface and method of data transfer completely. This may be an experimental starship, but I don’t like the idea of taking the main computer offline and completely rebuilding the system.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem for us, as long as you can keep the cloak and main power operational while you do it.”

“I’ll have to take the holographic projectors offline.” Alex told his captain with a grimace.

“Oh, please,” Captain Scott said, rolling his eyes, “don’t worry about this ship’s crew. We can do without the holograms for a while. Besides, this ship is idiot-proof. As an ancestor of mine once said about his own ship, ‘a chimpanzee and two trainees could run her.’ Of course, he isn’t my ancestor any more, not since he was found by Captain Picard, but that is a whole different story…”

Alex looked at Captain Scott strangely for a moment, and then got back to his work on the console. He had just torn off the plasma crystal display, and was now in the process of completely re-wiring the small computer behind it. He had developed a small positron chip just for this occasion, to see if he could sort of install a small brain in each of the consoles. The A.I. would be able to leave its subroutines running in the micro-brains constantly, reducing the amount of data it had to transfer through the bio-neural gel packs. He clicked the chip into place, and was satisfied to see it begin glowing. He grabbed the display panel and quickly re-attached it, praying silently for it to work.

“Computer,” he said out loud, “activate the operations terminal.”

The bridge of the Tesla was a lot like that of the standard Intrepid-class design, with partially walled-in tactical and operations consoles, wall consoles, side consoles recessed into the walls, and the command chairs in the center facing towards the helm console. Except that the Tesla’s operations console was completely redesigned, with sixty inch monitors covering the area that would normally overlook the bridge, and a thin sliding door that turned the position into a mini-office. The only reason that Captain Scott and Ensign Rockwell could see each other was because the monitors could become transparent, as the frame merely emitted a two-dimensional holographic image that became the display - it could be adjusted or switched off at any time.

When the operations terminal activated, it was quite a sight. Several holographic monitors suddenly switched onto full display mode, blocking out the small booth completely, and all the control panels snapped to life. But Alex was interested in only one thing: the message on the console that stated it was now connected intermittently to the A.I. core.

“Much, much better.” Alex mumbled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

And his mild taste of happiness was completely drowned out by shock when he glanced at the rest of the displays. His blood ran cold, his eyes widening, as he double-checked the incoming alert several times.

“S-sir…” Alex stuttered as he dimmed the holo-displays. “You better get over here.”

Captain Scott quickly walked over, the small door sliding open automatically as he approached.

“What’s wrong now?” He asked.

Alex opened the message on his primary display, and unnecessarily read it aloud.

“Starfleet Command has issued a Code One alert in response to an invasion by an unknown force. This force consists of at least ninety vessels, and has already destroyed several special operations task forces. Sir… the Federation is at war. The Tesla has no orders of course, as it is outside of the Federation Council’s rule, but Starfleet will probably request our assistance.”

“Contact Jade fleet headquarters,” the captain ordered, “and ask them what we should do.”

Jade Corporation was a civilian organization operating outside of Federation space. Decades ago a wealthy aristocrat had discovered a new type of drive technology, and for some reason that had never been revealed, decided to leave the Federation in favor of forming a corporation that operated like some sort of private government. He had even commissioned a small fleet to protect its borders. The founder, who had never been seen by anyone except his holo-assistants, continued to research new technologies, using his jump drive to establish relationships with more advanced species than anyone inside Starfleet had ever managed to come in contact with. Just by seeing how a ship a millennium more advanced than yours ran could provide great inspiration for further development. The Tesla was a ship operating under the flag of Jade Fleet. It was a modified Intrepid class starship (Jade Corp. had actually developed the Intrepid class for Starfleet) that was dedicated solely to research. It had a crew of six, all human except the engineer, who was a unique Vulcan-Klingon hybrid.

Having only six living beings on board was not a hindrance, however. The Tesla featured holographic display systems that ran about thirty emulated crewmembers at all times, increasing the ship’s capabilities greatly. If Ensign Rockwell had his way, none of the holographic crewmembers would be just emulations anymore. That was why he had designed the system core; by creating a large A.I. capable of supporting multiple personalities, he could build android bodies that would become true individuals. Holograms had many limitations that androids did not; they were not actual matter, for one. They could easily be erased, their entire unique personality destroyed, moved, or changed. Under Rockwell’s system, each android would feature a positronic matrix, which would hold its personality, and would uplink to the main core to amplify its intelligence. It would bring the artificial crewmembers much closer to being true life forms.

Ensign Rockwell had quickly fired off a communiqué.

“Message sent, sir. Following standard protocol, they should have our orders back to us within the hour.”

Captain Scott nodded. “In the meantime, forget the A.I. research. I want you to get together with Lieutenant Loepker, Commander T’Khiori, and Lieutenant Reed to design a new shield grid for the Tesla. Call Ensign Davis up here as well; I want to have her reinforce her security systems. If we do get involved in the fighting, there is always the chance of being boarded.”

Alex nodded and sent off the computer alerts that would awake them.

“Anything else sir?”

“Yeah.” Captain Scott said gruffly. “Did those Starfleet bureaucrats manage to get any data on this new enemy?”

“Only a short video clip.” Alex hit the button that began the ten-second video that Starfleet had sent. They barely managed to catch a glimpse of a thin craft before an energy beam lanced out, the image cutting off immediately.

“Hmmm…” Captain Scott scratched his chin. “Can we apply any magnification and enhancement?”

“That was already at more than fifty times magnification. The craft was pretty damned far away when it destroyed the probe that was spying on it.”

The captain sighed. “Great. No intelligence, no idea what we may be facing.”

“Just how I like it,” Ensign Davis said with a smirk as she walked off the transporter alcove along with Loepker, T’Khiori and Reed.

Alex couldn’t help but take an unconscious step backwards from Ensign Paula Davis every time he came face to face with her. Being about six and a half feet tall, she was nearly a half-foot taller than him. Not to mention that the dark skinned woman appeared to be some kind of primal warrior, judging by her musculature. She looked like she could snap most people into several pieces using her pinky finger alone… that made her a very effective chief of security.

Adam Loepker was on the other end of the spectrum from Ensign Davis. He stood at about two inches shy of six feet, and was composed of a wiry frame that might as well have been made of toothpicks. While not very imposing, he was good at his job. He was the tactical officer of the Tesla. He had personally designed the new enhanced phasers and quantum torpedo tubes that formed the ship’s armament, and he knew the schematics of pretty much every known vessel in existence, including weak points, by heart. He usually sat at the tactical station, while Davis was located in one of the recessed side consoles. On a normal Intrepid class vessel, the chief of security and tactical officer would be the same person; but the Tesla was normal by no one’s standards.

Lieutenant J.G. Charles Reed was the Chief Researcher and Science Officer of the Tesla. He was a physically non-descript person who normally situated himself at the helm, since the actual navigation of the ship was done by holograms in the engineering section. He and Alex had worked together on many occasions in the last two years, on projects such as the advanced subspace cloak that rendered the Tesla completely undetectable by pretty much any known technology.

T’Khiori was the officer who had always caught Alex’s attention the most. She was a very rare (if not completely unique) Vulcan-Klingon hybrid. Having lived on Chal for nearly a year, Alex was not surprised by the beauty created by a combination of subtle forehead ridges, pointed ears, and an incredibly youthful appearance. Seeing hundreds of Romulan-Klingon hybrids had prepared him for that. It was more her extreme Vulcan-like calm that had shocked him at first. He expected anyone with Klingon blood in him or her to have some pretty aggressive tendencies. He most definitely did not expect a master of the Kohlinar discipline. She served as both the executive officer and the chief engineer, and was amazingly talented. Too bad that Jade fleet regulations curtailed any minor chances Alex had of ever going out with her.

“Is there something that you require, Ensign?” Alex was caught off guard as T’Khiori questioned him. He realized that he had been staring at her, for about the fourth time that week.

“Erm, no, sorry. I just drifted off.” It was woefully inadequate explanation for his constant unwanted attention, but he couldn’t come up with anything better at the moment.

“Anyway,” Captain Scott said with a slight smirk, “I need you two, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Loepker to get together and begin working on our shield emitters. I want the efficiency improved by a minimum of ten percent before we get anywhere near combat.”

Alex nodded, and was about to head off, when his console emitted a series of beeps. He stopped in his tracks, bringing up the message that had just arrived.

“Sir, looks like we’ve got our orders sooner than we predicted; a core Federation system has fallen under attack, and we are to give any assistance to Starfleet that we can. Sir… my god, they’re attacking Vulcan! How the hell can they have penetrated through all of Federation space that quickly?”

“Calm yourself Ensign Rockwell. Computer, set a course for Vulcan and initiate the jump drive.” Captain Scott seemed to take the news in stride, dropping into his cold-mannered command mode.

“Warning,” the computer alerted, “maximum jump drive range is estimated at ten thousand four hundred and eighty three light years. We are currently positioned more than eleven thousand light years from Vulcan. The coaxial core cannot reasonably meet the power demands of a jump of that distance.”

“Override, on the authority of Captain Richard Scott, commanding officer of the J.F.S. Tesla. Overload the coaxial core as much as necessary to get us to Vulcan.”

The feminine tone of the computer replied with a simple, “Authorization not confirmed.”

Alex winced. “Sorry, captain. I sort of haven’t loaded the secondary command protocols onto the new system core yet. Jane, override on my programming authority. Get us to Vulcan, if you will.”

“Ten seconds to jump drive initiation.”

“Jane?” Captain Scott asked.

“Jade-fleet Automated Neural Entity. Jane. I thought it was better than ‘computer.’ I’ll change it if you want, of course.”

“No, don’t do that. Jane is as good as anything.”

The ship shuddered, the stars on the main view screen shifting. The coaxial incursion had been completed, and the Tesla was now at the outskirts of the solar system, which was known as Vulcan.

T’Khiori turned towards her captain. “Perhaps I should return to engineering and check on the status of the coaxial drive.”

Captain Scott shook his head. “Negative. I need you on the bridge; the holograms can take care of things down there.”

She nodded, taking the executive officer’s chair beside the captain’s.

Alex caught himself staring at her again, and quickly redirected his eyes to look at the view screen. His console beeped to notify him of a major power drain; Loepker had just activated the shields and the weapons. The klaxon signifying battle stations sounded, the lights switching off to be replaced by red glow strips.

When Alex checked the sensor readouts, his mouth dropped slightly. “Sir, we have over one hundred enemy vessels attacking a Federation task force of about twelve starships. It looks like they started out with twenty, but it’s hard to tell; there is too much debris to properly identify all of it. If I’m not totally mistaken, I recognize the hull configuration of these ships. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d have to designate them as species 8472 bio-ships. Except that they are no longer totally organic.”

Captain Scott’s voice came in through speakers in the small operations cubicle (it was now totally sealed, a standard communications link providing the method for delivering reports), and he sounded pretty worried. “When you say ‘no longer totally organic’, you begin to scare me. You don’t mean what I think you mean.”

“Unfortunately I do. It looks like at least some of species 8472’s resources were assimilated by the Borg.” Alex looked in alarm at the rapidly changing scans of the sector. “And evidently they are pretty good at controlling these new ships. The Federation task force is down to seven intact ships. Vulcan home defense force ships are heading in as well, but nothing is hurting these things. I’ve only seen two of the bio-ships damaged so far, and that was when one of the Excelsior class ships had a warp core breech.”

“They are protecting themselves with heavy regenerative shielding,” Lieutenant Loepker reported, “but I think I can penetrate it.”

“Don’t stand around talking,” Captain Scott ordered, “Just do it. Fire at will; you’re the tactical officer, not me.”

The first bio-ship had no idea of what had hit it until it had already happened. Out of the vast emptiness of space flew two quantum torpedoes. The first created a quantum hole in the ship’s shields, and the second flew through that zero-point energy release, straight into the unfortunate vessel’s hull. The matter and antimatter met in the warhead, generating a massive explosion that flung the two halves of the destroyed ship out thousands of kilometers. The attack was repeated several times, a total of seven bio-ships falling to the tactic.

Following the Borg’s normal strength, however, they quickly adapted to the maneuver. Now, whenever a quantum hole was created, the shields were re-modulated virtually instantaneously, closing the gap in the grid. The eighth ship that was impacted by two torpedoes was entirely undamaged.

Loepker, taking a cue from his enemy, also chose that time to adapt.

“Alex,” he began as he turned towards the ops console, “do we have enough power to operate the tachyon emitters and transporters at the same time, while dumping charged warp plasma?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied with a grin, which could be seen through the now dimmed displays, “I see what you’re going for. I’ll re-direct power from life support if necessary.”

The Borg bio-ships had now completely broken off their attack on the remaining five starships, the ninety-four vessels spreading out in a search pattern. They were all hunting for the cloaked attacker that had taken seven of their ships, but it was in vain. The Tesla found them first.

A massive wave of tachyon particles spread across their fleet, the emitters on the Jade-fleet vessel struggling to meet the output demand. Normally, tachyon particles would not be a major hazard to modern starships. They did nothing but let small amounts of certain wavelength-range radiation through the grid. This wasn’t a problem except in areas with extremely radioactive hazards, such as the Briar patch that the Enterprise had fought the Son’a in, or in an area permeated with highly charged plasma. In this case, warp plasma.

As the Tesla flew through the ninety-two vessels, it let off a stream of warp plasma from its nacelles. Now leaving their shields vulnerable to radiation would be a dangerous thing to do for the Borg… so they were forced to re-modulate their shielding, which involved switching off and turning back on the entire emitter grid. This is when Loepker made his move, activating every personnel and cargo transporter aboard the ship.

Over thirty-two ships had quantum torpedoes or tricobalt charges beamed onto them during the shield cycle of the Borg fleet. All of the deadly ordnance detonated at once, causing a subspace tear to form around the overlaps of the illegal 25,000 TeraCochrane yield tri-cobalt weapons. Less than ten Borg bio-ships were left after the tear had ripped through their ranks, and they were pretty quick to head off into transwarp.

Adam Loepker and Alex smirked at each other.

“Not bad for a day’s work,” Adam commented to Alex. “But I think we could have done better. I don’t like letting those ships get away.”

“Heh. I wonder exactly what the Borg would think if we told them that six imperfect, limited life forms had bested them with a single starship. Resistance is futile my ass.”

“I wouldn’t be so happy if I were you,” Captain Scott said somberly. “Too many good people lost their lives today. I fear that they won’t be the last before this is over.”

“We’ll win.” Alex stated with absolute confidence.

“What evidence is that claim based on?” T’Khiori asked him with a raised eyebrow.

“The only evidence that matters. We have to win, or we cease to exist. I don’t intend to cease to exist anytime soon. Therefore the only possible outcome is victory, for anything else is unacceptable.”

“That is illogical. Merely wishing for a certain outcome of an event does not necessarily make it so.”

“No bickering on the bridge,” Captain Scott said with a grin, “keep it off-duty. Which is now, by the way. Everyone, take a few hours to yourselves. You all did well today.”

All six of them walked to the transporter alcove at the back of the bridge; the Tesla did not waste space on turbo lifts. They each programmed their individual destinations and disappeared into a shimmer of blue energy.

Alex was surprised as he re-appeared next to T’Khiori amid the black and yellow grids of the holo-deck.

“Commander!” Alex yelped in surprise. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you intended to use the holo-deck. I’ll leave immediately.”

“It is not a problem, Ensign.” T’Khiori appeared entirely unsurprised… but then again, she did have incredible emotional discipline. “I was just going to meditate in one of Vulcan’s holy temples. I can just as easily do the same in my quarters, you may utilize the holo-deck.”

He quickly shook his head. “I was only planning on taking a quick look at Chal, nothing important.”

T’Khiori raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been to Chal before?”

Alex nodded in response. “Yeah, when I turned eighteen I moved there. I had been hired to modernize their central computer networks; I ended up building a new multitronic processor to replace their old duotronic equipment without completely re-wiring the system. The place was so nice and quiet that I decided to stay. I had planned on remaining there for quite a while, until Jade fleet hired me. They offered me a higher wage and twenty times the resources that the Chal could, so I left.”

“I too have lived on Chal. It was the only place where people truly accepted me, except here. I considered Starfleet for a while, but the humans all looked at me like I was some kind of demon. Vulcans even shunned me most of the time.”

Alex was extremely surprised when he saw a tear in the corner of one of her eyes. He placed his hand on her arm reassuringly.

“It’s okay if you need to talk about it. Not even a Vulcan can completely suppress their emotions without hurting all the more for it.”

She shied away from his hand, looking disoriented. He quickly realized his mistake.

“Oh damn, I’m sorry T’Khiori! I forgot that Vulcans don’t like to be touched.”

It was a faux pas for anyone to come into physical contact with a Vulcan when they did not request it; they were low-level telepaths. This could make even the lightest touch an intimate thing to them, as if they were actually coming into contact with the person’s mind.

“It is okay,” she managed to say through the tears that were now freely running down her cheek, “it is just that I am constantly struggling for control. That is the real reason I was coming to the holo-deck; I was going to work out my anger.”

“Anger? What’s made you angry?”

“The way all of you treat me here; it’s like you all think that I am unapproachable. Mr. Loepker and Mr. Reed are constantly flirting with Ensign Davis, but they are incredibly distant with me, treating me like nothing more than their superior officer. You, on the other hand, have always been pretty friendly with me, but you have never approached me as anything more than your superior officer as well. I am sorry if I seem cold sometimes… but it is the only way I know of dealing with all of my problems.”

Alex shook his head lightly. “I’m sorry if I’ve acted distant. I never thought that you would want a friend. If you want to know the truth, I have been attracted to you for quite a while now. I never pursued my feelings because I thought you wouldn’t reciprocate, and because it is against regulations.”

T’Khiori smiled lightly. “I won’t tell if you won’t. I’ve been attracted to you for quite a while as well.”

He was taken aback quite a bit at those words. He could tell her shell was dropping; she had smiled, admitted to being attracted to someone, and used contractions in the same sentence. She was definitely not a typical Vulcan.

“I better let you get to your ‘anger management.’” Alex said smiling. “If you’re still interested in pursuing a relationship after your head has cleared and you are thinking straight, then I’ll set up a date on the holo-deck; it’s an isolated room that is run completely by the computer, which I control. We’d be completely safe from being caught violating Jade-fleet regulations.”

“Don’t leave!” She said with just a bit of anxiousness in her voice. “Sorry, it’s just that this is the first truly inter-personal contact I have had in about two years. Maybe you could join me in the simulation I was going to run. Jane, activate program T’Khiori one-alpha.”

Before Alex had a chance to say anything, the world shifted around them. They were deep into a dark jungle, the sound of owls hooting filling the air.

“Where are we?” He asked.

Five Klingons, five Vulcans, and five Cardassians walked out into the clearing they were standing in.

“This is where I work out my frustration.” Bat’leth’s appeared in both of their hands. “Jane- level one. Begin attack.”

Alex barely had time to mutter ‘oh shit’ before the fifteen attackers were on them.

Chapter Two

Thanks to sosseres for editing this chapter!

A hideously bright and pale formation obstructed Alex’s view as he began to return to consciousness. It was one of the most malformed, disgusting things he had seen in his life.

“Get that out of my face,” he muttered.

The Emergency Medical Hologram took a step backwards. “Sorry that my lowly features do not appeal to your human sense of attractiveness. I’ll have my face re-programmed, just for you.”

Alex groaned. Why did they still use this damned Mark One when there were newer and better versions out there?

“Doctor… what happened to me?”

The hologram raised an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan-like fashion. “You mean you don’t remember getting clobbered on the holodeck? I believe that a simulated Klingon managed to beat you with his bat’leth, and as you well know, the secondary command functions of the new computer are not online. The safety protocols on the holodeck were completely non-functional.”

“Please, no lectures. My head hurts enough as it is.”

The EMH rolled his eyes as he deployed the surgical panel overlays across Alex’s body. A three-dimensional hologram of the inner workings of a human body appeared in the air over the surgical bed.

He suddenly became very nervous. “Doctor, why are you prepping me for surgery?”

“I discovered during my physical examination that one of your ribs was cracked twice. It will be much easier to use the organ replacement replication system instead of artificially healing it. It won’t take more than a few minutes. Jane, activate full medical scanning. Overlay and highlight any changes from normal human anatomy.”

The entire hologram began glowing red.

“Alert,” Jane’s feminine voice warned, “preliminary medical scans show no damage. In-depth scans are not penetrating fully through Ensign Rockwell’s body; they are reporting zero data acquired. I recommend a level one diagnostic run on this surgical bed’s sensors immediately.”

The doctor looked baffled. “I tested it out less than ten minutes ago, to check over T’Khiori! Sensors were fully functional then! Switch to auxiliary medical sensors. Access internal ship sensors as well, set to life-science mode.”

“Maybe it’s Jane,” Alex suggested, “after all, I’ve had less than a day to work the bugs out of her.”

“Computer failure is a possibility,” Jane acquiesced, “as all sensors are receiving the same results. If my logic circuits were not operational, I would believe that a dampening field was activated within your body.”

He laughed. “A dampening field, eh? I doubt it… I don’t have anything except the normal organs. Kidneys, heart, liver. Don’t remember anything about a sensor dampening field emitter in my anatomy class.”

“To satisfy my curiosity,” Jane reported, “I just ran a security scan of your body. Ensign Davis’ security sensors feature electronic counter-counter measure systems. I managed to penetrate what appears to be a highly localized sensor refraction field, but the scans were stopped by a plate of metal that, at best guess, is at least five centimeters of structural integrity field reinforced tritanium alloy.”

Alex shook his head in resignation. “Great, the sensor systems have become rerouted or something; it sounds like she’s scanning our own hull armor. I’ll run a diagnostic later. Until then doctor, I’d rely on medical tricorders and more traditional medicine.”

The doctor nodded in agreement, reaching for his medical tricorder. Just as he was about to begin the examination, a thunderous klaxon rang throughout the room. The primary lighting switched off to be replaced by the red glow of alert condition illumination.

With a few quick taps on a control panel beside him, Alex climbed up from the surgical bed. He was grateful that he evidently still had his uniform on, and not a hospital gown.

“Sorry, doc. Duty calls. Jane, initiate site to alcove transportation; Ensign Alexander Rockwell to the bridge.”

The doctor attempted to stammer out an argument, but Alex was already on the bridge before any actual protest could be formed. He quickly made his way to his console, dimming the surrounding viewscreens somewhat to be able to watch the rest of the bridge.

Captain Scott swiveled in his chair towards the rest of the appearing crewmembers.

“We seem to have developed a slight problem,” he began with a grimace, “the Borg have returned to the Vulcan system. Except they don’t seem to be going after Vulcan home defense forces this time. They are scouring the area with twenty squadrons of ten bioships… and they are pinging away with every form of subspace sensor technology that we know of, plus a few that we’ve never seen before. It looks like they’re searching for us.”

“Captain,” Loepker commented, “maybe we should give ourselves a little breathing room. I recommend jumping to Vulcan’s Oort cloud and hiding out for a while. If the Borg catch us in an area where they can concentrate two hundred bio-pulse weapons on us, we don’t stand much of a chance. Normally I wouldn’t be worried; the subspace cloak can protect us against most attacks. But the Borg have an uncanny ability to thwart defensive systems. Obviously they’re getting even better at it if they have taken over that many 8472 ships.”

“Agreed,” Captain Scott replied with a nod, “Jane, if you would please set a course for Vulcan’s Oort cloud and engage, I would be much obliged.”

Jane’s feminine voice quickly replied with an affirmative. She also informed everyone that it would take ten seconds for the coaxial core to charge for the jump.

Alex grew incredibly nervous as he looked at his sensor readouts. “Sir, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the Borg have-”

He was cut off as a shower of sparks cascaded across the bridge, four separate EPS conduits exploding outwards. The combat lighting went offline, most of the consoles shorting out. The deck shook violently, tossing Loepker to the ground with a nasty cut across his forehead. Luckily, the operations console was still functional; it was hooked directly into Jane’s emergency core power supply.

“Sir, the Borg hit us with multiple Bio-pulse weapons the second our coaxial drive began charging!” Alex reported. “The drive systems are offline, along with main power and internal defense systems. Our impulse reactor is also completely non-functional, and I am receiving only partial auxiliary power. We have no propulsion left exempting our maneuvering thrusters, and we don’t even have the power to run them. We’re dead in space.”

As if things weren’t desperate enough, the intruder alert sirens happened to choose that moment to bellow out their warnings.

“Assimilated Species 8472 on decks eleven, eight, five, three, and… one.”

Just as he finished calling out the deck numbers, a massive biomechanical creature appeared in the middle of the bridge amid the sparkle of a green transporter field. It was a surreal moment, to say the least. There really was no description adequate to describe it fully. If there was anything more terrifying, Alex could not possibly imagine it; this creature, this thing might as well have been the incarnation of Lucifer himself. The creature had a somewhat elongated humanoid head and torso on a tripedal base, and was maybe a little over two meters long. It screeched a cry that radiated not only in audible wavelengths, but with a powerful telepathy that echoed in the minds of the crew. It was made all the more hideous by the patchwork of metal and wiring that covered its body, topped off with an optical implant that searched the bridge with a red laser.

A tinny voice was emitted by a small speaker on the creature’s shoulder.

“Deactivate all of your weapons and submit to the will of the Collective. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. Comply.”

Ensign Davis smirked as she whipped out a double-barreled phaser compression rifle and stood up facing the monstrosity. She fired with a glee in her eyes that was somewhat frightening, twin beams of coherent energy flashing into the Borg’s side. They made two small pot marks, but did little else as the creature just shrugged it off. She fired again, both beams impacting squarely on a defensive field that refused to budge.

As the beast approached Davis, its right arm rising in preparation to deploy its tubules, T’Khiori leapt into action. She flipped over the railing separating the command chairs from the rest of the deck, both of her feet impacting solidly with the Borg’s face. The Borg went flying backwards, smashing into the front of the operations console. Sparks flew inside of the booth, forcing Alex to flinch slightly.

The assimilated beast, however, had no intentions of staying down from two phaser beams and a mere kick… even if it was a kick from a part-Klingon. It charged straight back at T’Khiori, this time raising its still-clawed and completely unassimilated arm. Alex, having read the briefings on what the neurotoxins inside of 8472 claws did to organic beings, did not stop to think before he hurled himself out of the booth. He landed on the creature’s back, gripping its neck in a somewhat unwise chokehold. The drone simply yanked Alex off his shoulder, tossing him into a console hard enough to cause arcs of electricity to leap across the deck.

What amazed Alex was that he was able to stand right back up after a landing that should have killed him. The drone, evidently, was not pleased with this result. It charged at him with a heart stopping screech, leaping a full two meters to slam its claws deep into Alex’s chest. The still somewhat dazed ensign responded by grabbing the wrists of the Borg and squeezing with all of his might. The loud sound of crunching bone was immediately combined with a cry of pain from the creature.

It was given no time to recover; as soon as he had torn the beast’s claws from his chest, Alex came back at it with a powerful jump kick. He had only intended to knock the thing backwards, but was instead shocked as it dropped to the ground like a deactivated android. It immediately disappeared into a Borg transporter beam.

Captain Scott began delivering orders as if nothing strange had happened.

“I want options, and I want them now people. Restore main power, weapons, and defenses if you can. Ensign Rockwell, prepare the armbands. We may need to evacuate.”

Alex nodded and walked over to a locker near the transporter alcoves. He took out all six dimension shift transportation armbands stored there, strapping one on himself and doing a quick lap of the bridge to deliver the rest to the others. He ended back at his operations console, looking over damage reports. An idea formed in his mind as he glanced at his sensor board.

“Sir,” he began, “I think I’ve come up with something. According to what we know of Species 8472 bioships, each ship has only one pilot. This means that when they beamed over a boarding party, they had to leave several ships abandoned. We could take over one of those ships and get out of here using its transwarp drive.”

“How?” Captain Scott asked with intermixed curiosity and skepticism. “We don’t know how to work Borg interfaces, and Species 8472 ships are partially telepathically controlled. It’s not like we can just press the ‘go’ button.”

“Well, that’s the iffy part of the plan.” Alex frowned as he thought about exactly how ‘iffy’ it was. “I think we can interface Jane’s core directly with the bioship/Borg controls, and let her control the ship. We would have direct access to its systems through her.”

Now Captain Scott was reduced to rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Exactly how do you plan for us to get a two ton computer core over to a bioship?”

“That’s the easy part. We beam it. I incorporated a dimensional shift transporter into its design as an extra precaution.”

The captain hesitated for only a moment before giving his next order. “Abandon ship. Jane, initiate simultaneous core/personnel transportation sequence to one of the unoccupied bioships. Please try to place yourself in a position where you can easily interface with the ship.”

There was barely a flash of red light as they all disappeared from the bridge of the Tesla and reappeared on a bioship. Alex was already beside the two meter tall computer core hooking up cables before anyone else had even gotten their bearings.

“Okay,” Alex reported, “it appears the bioneural interfaces on the core can connect to the systems of the 8472 ship. Jane, can you hear us?”

“Affirmative, Ensign.” Jane replied. “System core is fully operational. Borg programming overridden. Subspace communications to the Collective have been severed. I would also like to inform you that you have broken several records on the speed of installation of computer systems.”

Captain Scott interrupted Jane before she could add anything else. “Get us the hell out of here before the Borg figure out what we’ve done, if you will.”

He barely had time to grab onto the edge of a regenerative alcove before the ship transited into transwarp.

Chapter Three

Thanks to sosseres for editing this chapter!

Ensign Rockwell was most definitely in the worst mood of his entire life. If he was alive. If he had moods.

In the last six hours he had been debriefed eight times, by six different admirals of various navies, and now he was confined to quarters. He hadn’t even been given a reason for the confinement, or for not being allowed to contact the rest of the crew. What’s worse was that nobody seemed to be able to tell him what he was. Or, if they were able to, they were withholding the information from him and were playing the role of being ignorant very convincingly.

Alex walked over to the holographic mirror for the fourteenth time that day. He had not bothered to put on a shirt, and therefore could still see the six deep gashes in his chest. Through tattered strips of flesh he could also make out a plate of metal. It was a strange experience to say the least. He could see the wounds, and yet he could not feel them. What was really bugging him was that he could remember feeling pain before. He could also remember his mother talking about a surgery to have his appendix removed when he was fourteen. How could an android have its appendix removed? How could an android have a mother?

Unless someone had gone through a lot of trouble to replace his chest with a tritanium plate, being an android was the only explanation that Alex could come up with. It would explain his fascination with computers and technology… but it also opened up a thousand questions. It was simply impossible. He could not possibly be an android if his memories were accurate. But were his memories accurate? He was so confused that he doubted his own name by this point.

He must have stood there before the mirror for over a half an hour, just staring at nothing, before the door alarm chirped. He quickly threw on a black shirt before he shouted for the person to come in.

As the door whistled open, an old man of average height walked in. He was completely nondescript exempting his long white sideburns.

“Who are you?” Alex asked snappishly. He wasn’t exactly up to being a gracious host at the moment.

“A question you must have been asking yourself for the past few hours.” The old man smiled lightly at Alex as he sat on the couch inside of the guest room. He kicked his feet onto the glass table in front of him. “Who I am is unimportant. What I am here to tell you is.”

Alex took a seat across from the old man, his annoyance scarcely in check.

“Then what exactly are you here to tell me?”

“You are an android. You have probably already figured this much out.” The old man frowned. “At least, if you’re as smart as I think you are. So let’s fill in a few details. You are three years old. Your life began when you perceived yourself to be eighteen years of age. You really have lived on Chal for a year, and been in Jade fleet for almost twice as long. Everything before that is programmed memory.”

It suddenly became very difficult for Alex to speak. “S-so… my family… they never really existed?”

The old man shook his head. “No. Although you do have a family, in a sense, if that helps any.”

“What do you mean?” His voice grew cold and hard without his intending it. This man had just taken away his conception of his life up to this point.

“Well, obviously, you have a daughter. That would be Jane. You did create her, and she is intelligent. So she is your offspring in every sense of the word. You also have a father; a single designer. Me, as it happens.”

“Designer or not, you’re still hardly telling me anything. Why did you design me? What is my purpose? How does this all tie together with me being on the Tesla? Is it too much to ask for real answers?”

The old man smiled again. “What is your purpose? You want to know your purpose? Well, you can figure out that one just like the rest of us. I for one believe we create our own purpose. I designed you because I could. That simple. I never had any great aspirations for you. Any aspirations for the direction of your life should be your own. You’re in Jade fleet, and were on the Tesla, simply because you chose to be. I made the offer to you, and you accepted.”

Alex shook his head. “There has to be more to it than that.”

The old man sighed. “Will no amount of information satisfy you? Are you not content to figure out your own answers for yourself? Fine. I suppose I can answer a few more things for you. My name is Isaac Asimov. I am about four centuries old, and I originally pioneered the concept of the positronic brain… although it was a mere technological detail in a series of my books at the time. In the Earth year 1992, I ‘died.’ Heh. Actually, an anatomically mimetic android temporarily ceased his functions, which registered as heart and kidney failure. When he was buried, he simply climbed out of the casket and the dirt and returned to me. I had received the android from a time traveler who happened to be a fan of mine. He gave me a few different things, such as a telomerase based medicine, that allowed me to live healthily beyond my normal lifespan. I had to fake my death just to make sure no one caught onto all of this.”

Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “And here I was thinking you were sane… tell me, Mr. Asimov, if you are who you say you are, what is your religion? What is the name of your novel with an oxymoronic name, which was also turned into a movie in the Soviet Union?” Alex smirked at the crazy old codger. Almost no one else now read Asimov’s works, and maybe one in a billion people in this century could answer the questions he just asked.

Asimov responded without hesitation. “Most people chose to call me a humanist, as well as myself, for a long time. I also went with the title of agnostic for a while as well. As anyone who has read my biography would know though, I consider myself an atheist. I believe the novel you refer to is the End of Eternity. And if you’ve read the book, it is not entirely oxymoronic, as the name accurately describes the final events of the story.”

Alex frowned. Either this crazy old man was a good researcher, or he was the real deal. He also matched the pictures that Alex had seen of Asimov pretty well, but a simple surgery could accomplish that in under thirty minutes now-a-days.

“And you just expect me to believe all this?”

“Nope.” Asimov smiled at Alex. “I expect you to figure out things for yourself. All I expect of you is to complete the conditions of your contract with my fleet. A new ship was recently completed in the Jade Corporation Sector Yard in orbit of this planet, Nephrite. We are planning on dubbing it the Tesla and deploying it with Captain Scott, you, and the rest of the crew onboard. It is quite a bit more advanced than the Intrepid line of vessels.”

Alex became interested in spite of himself. “What kind of ship is it?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself?”

Before Alex could even begin to object, Asimov’s hand had raised and double tapped a pin on his sleeve. They both immediately dissolved into energy to reappear on a beach overlooking a vast blue ocean.

“Why are we here?” Alex asked.

Asimov laughed. “To see the ship, of course! It’s just now completing its secondary flight trails. It should be visible shortly.”

They did not have long to wait. Before a minute had passed, Alex began to feel a slight tremor building up beneath their feet. Its strength grew and grew until sand could be seen vibrating from the force of the minor earthquake.

Then the tremors stopped, being replaced by the sound of a massive wave of water crashing down back onto the ocean. A huge, elegant vessel had just soared from the water, its bird-like features glowing with the sheet of water that coated it.

“My God…” Alex whispered.

Asimov nodded. “It is quite impressive, isn’t it? The Hawk class starship is much, much more advanced than anything Starfleet currently possesses. One hundred eighty meters long, designed to be almost fully automated… she is most definitely the state of Jade Corporation’s art. We’re currently training a new crewman to operate the helm, since you will most likely be going into combat soon. Also, we have prepared ten androids and linked them to Jane, who is already installed aboard. No holograms this time. The new Tesla is quite a bit more heavily armed than the previous one… six rapid fire pulse phaser cannons, twin type twelve phaser arrays, four burst fire quantum tubes - and those are just the forward facing weapons. There are also two aft mounted photon torpedo tubes, along with two concentrated neutrino based disruptor cannons. Her shielding has more than twice the power of the refit Sovereign class. She also features ablative armor generators that work in tandem with the shielding. When the armor is activated, the shielding is merely deployed beneath it. You won’t have to worry about getting taken out by just a few Bio-pulse weapon shots anytime soon. The coaxial drive can hit distances of more than fifteen thousand light-years in a single jump, and the charge time is down to about four seconds. She features the same inter-ship transportation system as your previous vessel, as well as the dimensional shift armbands. The subspace cloak is much improved if I do say so myself, and we have added a new feature to her. Using the captured Borg and Species 8472 technology to upgrade her over the past few days, regenerative subsystems have been added. Basically, the entire bio-computer network can be regrown in minutes, along with automated replication/transportation technology which allows most major components to be switched out as soon as they are damaged.”

“I must admit, that is one hell of a ship. I guess I’m going to choose to believe your story for now, as I don’t have much of a choice. Obviously you’re sane enough to build something like that, or else you wouldn’t be here, on a Jade Corp. world. Is there anything else I should be informed of? I’m starting to get sick of surprises real quick.”

Asimov grimaced, putting a finger to his ear, where he must have had a small receiver planted. “Unfortunately, I have just one last bit of bad news for you. Enemy vessels are entering the system. The Tesla should be picking you up any second.”

Alex nearly let off a cry of frustration, but was cut off as he appeared amid a cascade of blue sparks on the sleek, matte white bridge of the new ship.

“Welcome aboard.” Captain Scott said jovially, as if nothing unusual was happening. “The operations console is in pretty much the same place. Let’s get to work.”

Commander T’Khiori walked over to him when he sat down at the console.

“Ensign… later, we need to talk.”

Alex nodded. “For now, could you tell me what this thing does?”

He was holding a silver helmet in his hands, which had wires running from it to the console. He didn’t see anything like it at any of the other consoles.

T’Khiori gave the helmet a disapproving look. “It is your interface to Jane. This ship’s computer and power systems are a little more difficult to control then an Intrepid class’, so a more direct method of manipulation had to be developed. It was made especially for your… unique… mind.”

Alex, unfortunately, did not have time to waste on thinking about T’Khiori’s strange attitude. He strapped on the helmet, immediately being plunged into a bright world of circuitry while still being able to see the bridge.

“I guess the Borg are attacking again?” The young ensign’s voice sound distant, as if it was not his own.

“Yes and no,” answered Loepker. “This time they’ve sent a Cube. We think they might be trying to conserve their bioships. They did loose quite a few against us already.”

“Cut the chatter. Mr. Paris, if you would please…”

“Aye sir. Exiting the atmosphere now.”

Mr. Paris? Alex diverted his attention for a moment towards the helm, and sure enough, Tom Paris, veteran of the Voyager debacle, sat there as if the helm belonged to him. He had no idea how much it had cost Jade Corp. to pull Paris away from his family, but it would have had to have been quite a chunk of change.

Through his link with Jane, Ensign Rockwell could now feel changes in the sensor readings before he actually saw them. He started calling out reports as rapidly as he could.

“Borg Cube is approximately thirty-five seconds from interception, and is diverting course towards us. Their weapons are activated, and their electromagnetic protection fields are at maximum strength. They are attempting to open a communications link with our ship to hack into Jane.”

To Alex, the Borg looked like a plague spreading across the various circuits and gel packs that formed the system core. He merely willed them away, and the plague disappeared like a vapor.

“The Borg have been cut off from computer access. I am now attempting to reverse the procedure.”

With hardly any effort, Alex found himself inside of the Borg computer systems. It was a strange, dark, and cold place… and it was anything but silent. Voices screamed out from every direction, thoughts coalescing into one massive brain pattern. It was confusing, like being lost in a place that one knew nothing about… and Alex did not really like that kind of feeling. He pressed out with his feelings, attacking the voices, suppressing them. They all went silent for just a moment, the sensor readings changing in the same instant.

“Sir, I have managed to destabilize the Borg Collective’s link to this particular Cube for the moment. I recommend we engage while they are vulnerable.”

“Mr. Loepker, you heard the man,” Captain Scott ordered, “fire at will.”

“Aye sir!” Loepker replied a little overenthusiastically. “Twelve quantum torpedoes away!”

Under normal conditions, twelve quantum torpedoes would not represent a significant threat to a Borg Cube. However, with its electromagnetic shielding temporarily deactivated due to the disruption in the Collective, the vessel was no more than a hunk of tritanium… and twelve antimatter zero-point energy releases could easily reduce to ashes twenty-seven cubic kilometers of somewhat hollow tritanium. The massive Borg vehicle of terror blossomed into a fireball in just under three seconds after the battle commenced. The entire crew could not resist letting out a whoop of joy, not even Captain Scott.

“YES!” Captain Scott actually reached over and hugged T’Khiori, spinning her around and setting her down again. He then went and did the same to Ensign Davis. “Do you guys realize what this means? We just took down a Cube in record time! Damn we’re good!”

Alex hated to break into the captain’s joy with bad news. “Sir… I’m afraid we’ve received our next orders.”

Captain Scott’s smile did not waver one iota. “So, what is the old corporation telling us to do? Do we need to fill out a tax form or something for quantum torpedoes expended?”

“We’ve been ordered to go on the offensive. Our next destination is the Delta Quadrant. We are to cripple the Collective.”

Everyone seemed to become paralyzed at the same moment. No one dared to say a word. Tom Paris was the first to react, sticking a finger in his ear as if he hadn’t heard right.

“Are you kidding me?” He asked. “There’s no way in hell!”

Captain Scott managed to pull himself together. “When do we leave?”

“In one hour.”

Chapter Four

Alex couldn’t help but let out a groan as his door alarm chirped less than thirty seconds after he had sat down. They only had fifty minutes left before they began jumping towards Borg controlled space, and he had wanted to be able to stop and think about the many recent changes in events that had occurred.

“Come,” he said, barely restraining the frustration that wanted to seep into his tone.

“Did I come at a bad time?” T’Khiori asked as she stepped into the rather spacious room.

“No, of course not!” Alex immediately brightened up, hopping to his feet. “T’Khiori, I’ve been meaning to talk to you…”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Save it for some other time, Ensign. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” He was entirely confused, not sure at what she was getting at.

Her eyes narrowed perceptibly. “That you’re an android. I would have thought that my question would have been obvious.”

“Oh!” Somehow, he had nearly managed to forget what he was for just an instant. “Well, that’s easy enough to answer. I didn’t know myself. It wasn’t like I was trying to hide anything.”

One of T’Khiori’s eyebrows disappeared behind her brown bangs. “How is it possible for one not to know one’s own species?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about that question for a while. I was always told… or I always assumed… that I was human. Therefore, whatever I felt, whatever I thought, I assumed that was exactly the same way that humans thought and felt. There was absolutely no reason for me to expect any different. A belief that I was an android would have been… illogical… from my point of view.”

“Oh.”

T’Khiori sat down in one of the three chairs surrounding Alex’s glass coffee table. She looked like she was deep in thought. Then again, Vulcans always looked like they were deep in thought.

“Alex, I like you,” she stated bluntly, “but with all that has been going on recently… I am just a little overwhelmed. The Borg attack with Species 8472 ships, I finally open up to someone, I find out that someone is an android… it is a little much.”

Alex let out a long sigh as he took a seat across from her. “You think you’re overwhelmed? I recently found out that I am not at all the person I thought I was. I tell you what, after this, why don’t we just sit down and ta-“

“Alert. Alert,” Jane’s voice intoned, “unknown vessels are exiting faster than light speeds in-system. Captain Scott has requested both of your presences on the bridge. Transport is commencing.”

For the second time in the same hour, Alex disappeared into a transporter beam without much of any warning. He and T’Khiori both appeared on the bridge’s transporter alcove at the same time, hastily making their ways to their respective consoles. Alex placed his interface helmet quickly on his head while strapping himself in at his chair.

Sensor screens came alive in his mind, giving him thousands of visuals simultaneously on the readouts of the new vessels.

“We have over eighty-four vessels at the outer perimeter of the system.” Alex’s voice had dropped to a distant monotone intonation, as most of his mind was concentrating on his link. “The fleet consists of