Realms of Sci-Fi

The Collective

The message was broadcast on all subspace channels and frequencies. It was the voice of thousands, but they spoke in unison, their words mechanical and emotionless.

"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

A fleet of more than a hundred cube shaped vessels appeared outside the system. With their transmission completed, the Borg entered, moving forward in an inescapable tide.

The most advanced starship in the system was the USS Valiant. Starfleet had posted the older, nearly obsolete vessel in the Kimmer system to maintain a presence in the sector, but it had never been expected to enter combat and certainly not against a Borg fleet.

Captain Burt Mendelson sat in the command chair on the bridge of the Valiant, looking at the terrible situation he was about to become involved in. Twice before the United Federation of Planets had nearly been overrun by a single Borg cube, only managing to destroy them by the slimmest of margins with catastrophic losses in both ships and people. As he watched the hundreds of cubes closing in on his ship, Mendelson doubted the Federation would survive this time. He doubted anyone would.

Regardless of his doubts, Mendelson still had a job to perform, so he did what he'd been trained to do, setting aside his fears and concentrating on the task at hand.

"Lieutenant," he said to the communication's officer. "Transmit a message to Starfleet and inform them of the situation. Notify the colony on Kimmer Prime to begin evacuation. We'll hold the Borg back for as long as we can."

"Aye, sir," the Lieutenant answered.

"Helm," Mendelson ordered in his most commanding voice. "Put us in the path of the Borg fleet, but keep the ship turned to offer the smallest target profile. Tactical, bring hull armor online and ready all weapons. Fire the moment the first vessel is in range and concentrate the attacks to coincide with the rest of the ships in our fleet."

"Understood, Captain," the tactical officer acknowledged from his position forward and to the right of Mendelson's chair. The helm officer, a terrified ensign, didn't answer but complied with the orders given.

Mendelson watched the viewscreen, knowing his ship would be the primary target. The defense force of the Kimmer system consisted of small freighters and scout ships with crews of less than a dozen each. He knew they were no match for one cube, let alone the hundreds bearing down on them.

In a previous battle with the Borg at Wolf 359, forty Federation ships, the best of what they had, faced off against a single Borg cube and were blasted apart without even being able to slow the enemy vessel down.

The only real advantage Mendelson had was some advanced technology. The starship Voyager had returned from the Delta Quadrant last year with transphasic torpedoes and ablative generator armor brought back from the future. Starfleet hadn't upgraded the Valiant, but Mendelson had read the technical information, and his crew had been making the upgrades themselves. However, none of the systems had been tested yet, so it remained to be seen if they would even work. When the armor activated, it slid out in sections, one after another, until the ship was completely encased in a shell of gray.

The Federation fleet opened fire, combining their attacks on the nearest cube in the hopes of punching through the shields, but the cube was undamaged. The Valliant let loose a full spread of transphasic torpedoes, the golden starbursts streaking across space to slam into the enemy shields in a series of explosions. The cubes continued forward unscathed.