A New Fear Averted

Posted on Sat Nov 21st, 2015 @ 1:18am by Admiral Ricky Wegener & Admiral Lucius Hawke & Ensign Six of Ten

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Bajor - 2360

* Resistance camp - Bajor 2360 *

In the wake of the elder Julisa’s capture and Darwin’s being attended to in the med tent, the camp had grown quiet. Lucius stood looking into the fire and puzzling all of this out. The other two arrivals were now in the sleeping tent and it was those two he wondered about. If what the young woman believed of herself was true, it presented a frightening possibility. The man was another mystery. Lucius was certain he was telepathic, but seemed to be able to divert another telepath from reading too deeply. Lucius had only picked up surface thoughts and they were best described as...confusing where the young woman was concerned. Granted, given they were from twenty-eight years in the future, he had no idea what their situation was back home. None of it made any real sense yet.

He glanced back towards the tent Torah shared with him. She had turned in, sleeping with Julisa the younger, and the flap was closed. He’d sent a runner into the town to find Rick, ordering him to use the emergency code. Now, he waited in the quiet dark for Rick to arrive.

It took about twenty minutes for Rick to show, but the town wasn’t real close and he’d had to get dressed. He was trying to get some sleep before heading out the next day, but obviously there were more pressing matters.

“Lucius,” Rick said as he approached. “This must be urgent.”

“Thanks for coming on short notice.” Lucius motioned to a log by the firs that served as a bench. “You may want to sit down for this one. Normally, I can handle whatever pops up out here but this….had too many kinks to be a simple matter.”

“Uh, okay,” Rick replied, slowly moving to the log. “I’m not sure I want to hear this if it’s throwing you for a loop.”

Lucius sat down beside him and debated where to start. Had it really only been a couple of hours? He shook his head and jumped in at the beginning. “Two hours ago, we picked up a ship coming in low and fast. It hit land five minutes from here and so I sent a team to check into it. The ship is an unfamiliar type, no markings. Four people were standing by it, two with Fleet insignia but the design was not familiar either. They brought them here and that’s where the fun begins.”

“So far, not so bad. Continue,” Rick said, trying his hardest to get comfortable on the log, which was not very comfortable at all.

“They arrived here and the two in uniform - the man gave his name and said he was Starfleet Security. The woman…” Lucius paused and rubbed his tired eyes. “Gave her name as Bajun Julisa.”

Rick had been fidgeting but stopped when he heard the name. “As in…your...?” He stopped for a moment. “It’s bullshit, right? Has she been checked? Julisa is, well hell, she’s just a baby, Lucius.”

Lucius nodded. “Rhett scanned all of them and I read them too. She and the man Darwin are Starfleet. He’s Security as he said, and she’s JAG. The scan of this woman shows an exact match with my young Julisa’s DNA. Rhett also says their chroniton particle readings are off the charts and….not the same as this time period. Then things got stranger.”

“Time travel. That explains the weird feeling I had a bit ago,” Rick muttered. With a long sigh, he asked Lucius to continue.

“The two with them. One is a species the doctor cannot identify, but I know he’s telepathic. Strong one too. I couldn’t get much other than surface stuff. The other young woman, however, concerns me. She has hardware over her eye, on her cheek, and the back of her hand. She did not say so but what I read...she thinks of herself as Borg. More accurately, former Borg.” Lucius stopped to look at Rick once more. “Is that even possible?”

Rick took Lucius’ arm and squeezed tightly. “Borg? Where is she now, Lucius. I need to see her!”

“She and the other man are in the sleeping tent. I can show you.” He studied Rick and frowned as he sensed the older man’s sudden rush of fear and hate. “What the hell is going on?”

As they walked Rick filled Lucius in on the Borg and his race’s encounter with them. “And that’s why there are so few El-Aurians now. They assimilated so many of us, essentially destroying our entire race with just a handful left here and there.”

They approached the tent and Rick stopped. “Look, we have to make sure that she’s not under the control of the Collective still. You’re going to have to go deep into her mind to find out what’s going on with her,” he said. “Otherwise, she could be a danger to everyone here.”

Lucius ran his hand over his face and nodded. “What have we stumbled into?” he mumbled, then stepped into the tent ahead of Rick. The place was empty save two bunks. The long-haired man was asleep on the lower one and on the upper lay Six curled beneath a blanket. Lucius motioned Rick over to have a look.

As he studied her sleeping form, he recognized some of the implants--well, they were much more advanced than the images he had seen, but they were easily identifiable as being Borg. He looked to Lucius. ”Do we wake her? If she is Borg, I’d prefer her to remain asleep, but if not it would be some sort of violation, wouldn’t it?”

“Good question. Does she look like one to you? I sensed nothing in her mind but her when I read her earlier, if that helps.” Lucius frowned then finally shrugged. “I really should make her aware of what I intend to do.”

With a nod, Rick took a moment to figure out how to wake her. Finally, he just put a hand on her shoulder and shook her lightly.

The feel of a hand on her startled Six awake immediately and she jumped back away from the touch even as she fought to wake up. She brushed back her long hair, then rubbed her eyes. “It’s not even daylight yet.” Growing a bit more coherent, she realized that two tall men stood looking back at her. One was familiar, the other was not. “What’s wrong? Is it Darwin? Or did you find Julisa?”

Lucius shook his head. “Darwin is in recovery and no, no word on Julisa yet. We’re still planning on a rescue tonight.” He looked to Rick. “Darhe’el and the Cardassian guards have her.”

“You seem to have left that part out, Lucius,” he said quietly, then turned back to the woman in the bed. “I am Captain Rick Wegener, Starfleet Intell--well, no matter. You’ve likely never heard of any of us.”

Six’s eyes widened and a small gasp escaped her. “But that’s just it I have. You are both --” She stopped, suddenly realizing it might be a bad idea to reveal too much of their futures. Then she pointed down below. “Is he asleep?” she whispered.

Lucius checked and nodded to Six, who tapped the side of her head. Lucius read her surface thoughts and his own eyes widened. “I see.” He passed on quickly to Rick the news that, in her time, she was undercover with Intel but didn’t want the man to know.

Rick was trying to put things together. She, and her cohorts, were from the future. She had met both Rick and Lucius but didn’t want to give too much information, which made sense. And Intel? “Look,” he finally started, “I’m an El-Aurian which...well, I guess you might already know that. Anyway, I’m sure you know what happened between my race and the Borg, and that they are not a threat to us right now. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ensure that you weren’t still somehow connected to the Collective, or had other plans for us. So, the Lieutenant here is Betazoid and--aw, hell, you know. He needs to read you. I’m sorry, but I have to be certain.”

Six nodded. “I understand. It’s alright.”

She grew still and focused on Lucius as he looked back at her. Silence stretched out between them as Lucius delved deep into her mind. As he read her, his brow creased and a frown settled on his face. The details of the past years with the Borg flew through his thoughts, then the past four years, and finally the recent months. Finally he shook his head to clear it and reached out to touch Six’s hand, knowing she could read his emotions. She smiled at something he whispered in her mind. “Don’t worry. We’ll get her back.”

Rick stood silently, watching the exchange. It didn’t take long but he was getting impatient. “Well? What’s the verdict?”

Lucius pointed to the door and slipped out quietly. Once they were outside he spoke again. “She is Halanan. I detected no one in there but her. She was recovered four years ago, in her timeline, and taken to San Francisco. It took six months to restore her and remove all the hardware except what you saw. Those pieces on her face are tied too closely to her brain and eye and couldn’t be removed. The one on her hand is necessary for umm….recharging when she can’t get to something called an alcove. Starfleet Academy, now Intel. Various other personal things that don’t concern us.” Lucius finally wound down and looked back at Rick.

Rick nodded. Of course, he wondered just how “good” a telepath Lucius actually was. He’d known him almost a full year now, but Rick had mostly been off doing his own thing while Lucius was here in the camp doing his. However, he had to believe what he was telling him. The kid was Starfleet and, more importantly, he wouldn’t have been working in Intelligence if someone much higher than the both of them didn’t trust his judgment and abilities.

“Okay. Well, at least that’s covered, and thank you for that.” He looked around, wondering what to do now. He was the senior officer on site, but this particular part of their mission was for Lucius to command, not Rick. “Well, let me know what I need to do to help. And by the way, rescuing Julisa--uh, Julisa the Elder? I’m going.”

“Thank you.” Lucius’ face expressed the gratitude he couldn’t find the words for just now. “We have to get her back. I will not have her live through all this one time just to come back and not make it. If everything you’ve told me about this race is still accurate in Six’s time, she will be valuable in this rescue.”

“That’s true,” Rick agreed. “Listen, I need to do one more thing. I’ll meet you in your tent in a few. We’ll need to plan before we mount this rescue.”

“We will. But Tora’s asleep in there with ..Julisa. Let’s meet in the mess tent. It will be empty another couple of hours yet,” Lucius answered. He turned and set off in that direction.

With a nod Rick went back into the tent. He whispered to Six, “Still awake?”

Six nodded slightly. “Let’s go outside,” she whispered and slipped off the bunk, landing almost silently on the floor before leading the way out.

“I know you said that you understood what happened back there,” Rick started once they were outside, “but I just felt the need to apologize. And I greatly appreciate you allowing that to happen. I had to be certain that we weren’t just adding more fuel to the fire. Thankfully, we are not.”

“I know. Even in my own time it’s not better,” Six admitted. “My first day on the station I went into a bar and had a man taunt me and try to rough me up until someone gave me a knife to defend myself. People still point and stare and whisper on one hand, or try to kidnap me to sell my blood on the other. But I understand and it means a lot that you asked permission.”

Her comments made him wonder what had happened with the Borg in their own time that would make personnel on a Federation starbase angry toward a former member of the Collective. But it was best not to dwell on those things. Even he knew that it wasn’t good to know too much about your own future.

He nodded slightly at her comments. “Well, you should probably get some rest. Sorry for waking you.”

“I’m going to check on Darwin. I’m a little glad you did wake me. I was having the strangest dreams.” Six smiled up at Rick. “I suppose I’ll see you at dusk when we go to get Julisa.”

As she walked away, Rick thought she was a decent young lady. And suddenly, he felt very bad for her and what she had gone through. His own race had been virtually wiped out by the Borg, but it probably couldn’t hold a candle to what she, herself, had gone through. He had no frame of reference to understand what had happened to her, however. Sure, he was one of only a few of his kind left, but she was actually taken, machinery and technology implanted into her, and most likely, she had done the same to others, all against her will. Did she have memories of those actions, or was Starfleet successful at removing those memories--or did she want them to be removed at all?

He shook his head and wandered off to find Lucius. Six, as she called herself, would be best though on at another time.

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Lt. Lucius Hawke
Captain Rick Wegener
Six Of Ten
2360