Perfection, 22 of 28
"PERFECTION"
by Jim Smith
Fine print: I don't own Star Trek and I'm not claiming to. I just own the story. Ask me before you do anything with it.
Chapter Twenty-two.
Tirava heard the whir of a cyberarthrotic servo-motor, and spun around with her plasma disruptor in hand. She was a fraction of a second away from firing, when she saw it was only Hardcastle.
"Whoa, easy!" He held up his arms until she lowered the weapon. "I opened the hole in the shields, so I came down to check on you and your shuttle. Did they make it?"
She motioned back to the airlock. "I don't know! They docked a few minutes ago, but no one's coming out, and they won't answer my hails..."
"You don't think the Xhiryptyr'x could have got to them..."
"I don't see how." She was reminded to quickly scan the room for any sign of intruders. "They'd have to go through me to do it. Wait--"
Tirava's antenna twitched as she turned back to the airlock, her disruptor still in hand. Beyond Hardcastle's perception, she had sensed the change in air pressure on the other side of the hatch. Someone was coming out of the Hrunting. But at this point, neither of them were sure whom to expect.
The hatch began to move and Nathan Jimenez pushed his way through as soon as it was open wide enough. He led with a phaser, but he was less jumpy than Tirava, and quickly holstered it. His jaw was bruised and swollen, but he could still speak. "Janeway," he muttered. "Where's Janeway?"
***
She'd beamed herself out of the shuttle as soon as it docked, and found herself standing directly in front of the harmonic resonance chamber that housed the omega molecules. Janeway scanned the chamber with a tricorder, and didn't like what she found. She'd been hoping to only deal with a few million of the deadly molecules. Unimatrix Zero had synthesized nearly an entire mole of the stuff. And it was stable. There was no way she could break them down before the Borg got to them.
Frustrated, Janeway followed the power conduits connecting the chamber to Korok's omega mortar, and began climbing up to the turret. If she couldn't dissolve the omega molecules, she'd have to detonate them, and that would require a massive power source. Without the resources of a starship, she had nothing on hand. But she had a pretty good idea who did.
When she reached the gunner's chair, Janeway leveled her sidearm at Korok's head. "General," she said politely. "We need to talk."
The Klingon had his eyes locked on his targeting screen, eager for enemies to come into range. "The time for talking is over, Admiral. Whatever you have to say can wait."
"This weapon wasn't supposed to be built."
"All you cared about was making the Borg assume it was here," he argued. "I fail to see what difference it makes if the assumption is correct."
"A big one," she sneered, "especially if they overrun your intercomplex and assimilate omega."
He turned around to smile at her, with one gnarly fang poking out between his lips. "Then I will prevent that from happening," he smiled. "Return to your fleet, and leave the warmaking to warriors."
"You're missing the point." Janeway rubbed her chin, trying to find a way to make him understand. "I want to defeat the Borg as badly as anyone, but we can't rush headlong at them."
"You aren't being asked to."
"General, I cannot let you take the war into your own hands. We have to destroy your supplies of omega immediately."
"I am uninterested in your recommendations!" Korok boomed. "I fought this war for nearly ten years, while you lounged in comfort in the Alpha Quadrant. Now you've provided me with the means to construct this weapon, to defeat my sworn enemy, and you would have us stand down. Where should the Zeroes retreat to, then? Will your alliance offer us refuge? Or should we continue to run from sector to sector, while the Collective slowly bleeds us like a wounded targ? No, this is our one chance. I will not allow anyone to cost us this opportunity."
The viewscreen showed a number of subspace distortions forming in the vicinity of the station. Korok's eyes lit up, and he began calculating firing patterns. "It begins now, Admiral. If you intend to shoot me, I cannot stop you. But there is no one on this station who will help you destroy the omega molecules. If you cannot stomach what you have wrought, then return to whatever vessel brought you here, and go."
Janeway found she had no pithy response to that. For the first time since she led the fleet to the Delta Quadrant, she truly found herself in a no-win situation. So although she continued to train her weapon on Korok, she only stood and watched as transwarp conduits formed on the viewscreen, and produced several Borg cubes. One of them took the lead, and was presumably the source of a communique that was relayed through Korok's terminal.
"WE ARE THE BORG. WE HAVE ANALYZED YOUR DEFENSIVE CAPABILITIES AS BEING UNABLE TO WITHSTAND US. RESISTANCE IS--"
Korok fired his omega mortar, and the lead cube ceased to exist.