Chapter Text
It was only a matter of minutes, now. The Pride of Qo'noS sailed ahead of the fleet of twenty-five Kyuushu-class battleships, the need to be the first to strike overriding January's sense of duty or honor. The chance to avenge those she lost at Wolf 359 that seemed to be her only drive at the moment.
Lost in a moment of remensicence, she felt as though she were back on the bridge of the Roosevelt, sitting at the helm console. Captain Sotek was behind her, sitting at his chair, just like he always was. Commander Granger Kim breathing down her neck as he had one foot on the edge of the helm console, reading over her shoulder at the console's displays. And right next to her at the operations station, Ensign Kimberly Dawes. Out of memory, she reached up to touch the two-year-old headband she had borrowed from Kim just prior to their shift on the bridge.
Sharing the intimate details of Kim's date for New Year's Eve the previous night in the wardroom, Jan recalled fondly about how excited the ensign had been at being assigned to the Roosevelt. Ensign Dawes had been aboard no more than six months and she had become a fast friend to Lieutenant (junior grade) McKenna. They often proved themselves as a very hard-working team at the forefront of the bridge, and shared duty scheduled on a regular basis. She remembered that her hair was unexpectedly unruly the morning that Admiral Hansen assembled the fleet at Wolf 359, and Kim was thoughtful enough to smile and offer her the piece on her own head. "Here," she had said. "Take it. I think you need it more than I do." Jan promised to return it at the end of their shift. But it was never meant to be, and now January kept that headband with her, everywhere she went.
Now standing on the bridge of her own command, Commander McKenna waited for the first strike to be hers. Norman looked worriedly toward the captain, before he passed a message that the Riker was signaling to maintain fleet formation. Commodore Hastur was requesting to be informed of why the Pride increased speed to advance ahead of the fleet. January did not respond. Either she did not hear him or she did not care to respond to the commodore.
"Captain?" Sten called. "Commodore Hastur is ordering us to keep fleet formation."
Jan was now obviously ignoring the first officer's report of the communication. "Mister Yamaguchi, as soon as we're within weapons range, open fire with everything we've got. All weapons are cleared to fire at will."
Yamaguchi replied, carrying his order, "Aye, sir." He gave a sidelong glance to Sten, as though he were ready to support her if necessary.
Sten repeated, "Captain, Commodore Hastur is signaling again."
Jan shook her head, "XO, I heard you the first time. Maintain course and speed. No reply. How long until we're within range?"
Norman rose from his seat behind January, but Sten raised her hand in his direction, indicating that he could keep his seat. Instead, she rose and walked to her to deal with the situation. "Captain, we will be within range in ninety seconds," the Vulcan lieutenant replied. "Sir, fleet speed is warp nine."
McKenna nodded without reply. "Maintain speed, Lieutenant."
Sten whispered, "Sir, I applaud your bravery, however, your actions would constitute insubordination. I would be within my rights to relieve you of command."
January turned to look at Sten directly, and from behind them Norman read from the expression on the captain's face that Sten did indeed threaten what he would have. In the same low whisper, January looked at Sten and gave her response, "Sten, I have no intention of slowing this ship down. I want the honor of first strike. Can you understand that?"
"Sir, we are pulling away from the fleet. We will be without support for up to two minutes, that interval grows larger every second we advance." Sten continued, "How many lives do you intend to put at an unnecessary risk for the sake of that honor?"
Norman pulled his attention away from the captain and executive officer to look at his console. "Sirs, fleet speed has increased to match ours. Commodore Hastur has ceased his signal and rescinded his order."
It was a moot point, now, though she was sure to hear about it later from the Commodore. At that point, though, January did not care. She merely gave Sten a look of expectance, silently asking her for further comment. But before any words were exchanged between the two of them, she called to the helm, "Decrease speed to bring us within lead formation on the fleet, but make certain we're the first to come within range of those bastards."
The helmsman responded with a quick "Aye, sir," and the cube was not speeding toward as quickly. Sten returned to the auxiliary console that she customarily resided at, and January remained standing before the viewscreen. "Time to target is now sixty seconds," she reported to the captain.
"Understood," said the captain. She continued to fix her gaze upon the cube displayed before her. The sixty seconds counting down in her head, she relished the anticipation of the sight of her powerful vessel lancing forth and ripping the heart out of the cube. She would pay the Borg back in spades for what they took away from her that morning. When January's count passed fifty, she turned around to face the tactical station and ordered that the assault commence.
The Pride of Qo'noS had every forward-facing weapon open fire. Fifteen phaser cannons and nine banks of Romulan disruptors, accompanied by six bi-cobalt devices; every single shot hit upon the cube as a direct hit. Evidence of the strike was visible along the cube as scores showed and the devices punctured the hull enough to eat away at the sides. Members of the bridge crew cheered as they watched sensor feed on the main viewscreen. January remained unusually quiet, ordering the helm to "Reduce speed, let's let the other partygoers have a shot at this piñata."
To its credit, the Borg cube began to show signs of repairing, even as the other vessels brought their weapons to bear and echoed the performance of the Pride. However, the cheers on the bridge showing the onslaught of twenty-five vessels combating the Borg was short-lived as they realized that the cube as adapted to the technology in a very short amount of time. The Aen v'Stelam and the Yamato were the first two vessels to feel the brunt of the cube's counterattack. Tractors beams with the ever-present Borg cutting beam made fruitless attempts to pierce the advanced shielding of the two warbirds. Both ships made valiant efforts to fight back, while the rest of the fleet quickly regrouped to bring their best weaponry online.
"Message from the Riker. Upgrade status to allegretto," said Lieutenant Sten. The codeword was the authorization to begin preparation to board the Borg cube with the marine boarding shuttles.
January tossed a quick nod to Norman, who was already looking for the order. Once it was understood, the light marine division in the bowels of the Kyuushu-class ship made ready to begin combat boarding maneuvers. Meanwhile, the tactical systems aboard the ship were readying the more powerful tri-cobalt devices. The step up in the attack meant that they would be releasing their secret technology to the Borg months ahead of schedule. But then, the battle was not going as planned. If they fell here, then the defense fleet in orbit of the colony would face a superior adversary than anticipated.
On the viewscreen, the scene shifted to show that the Borg's tractor beam successfully penetrated the shields of the Yamato. The Borg's cutting beam made contact with the engineering section of the ship and was slicing into the hull. A frightening prospect as the assimilation of the hull technology would all but finish the fleet. Knifing through the vacuum to provide assistance, the Wasp placed itself in between the tractor beam and the deadly and refine cutting beam. Within seconds, the tractor beam began reworking itself to take hold of the new target, without immediate success. The Yamato disengaged from the attack on the order of the Riker.
The second round of attacks came shortly thereafter, with the Aen v'Stelam leading the way. Sensor inputs started to show massive amounts of interference as the combined might of the fleet produced high amounts of particle radiation, preventing the viewscreen from giving a clear picture.
"Switch the display to tactical," McKenna ordered. Instead of the image of the ships floating about, the screen shifted to show small dots, each one representing an Alliance starship, with a large block in the center. The formation of the fleeting looked like a broken circle, with each ship striking at different parts of the cube. Moderate damage was seen on the display, but as soon as the damage was done, the Borg made quick repairs. From her vantage, it looked like an accelerated version of how cells make repairs to themselves. Slowly, the points of puncture along the side of the cube would simply reform to a thicker hide.
Sten turned from her station to report that the commodore ordered the execution of the operation they held at. The marine boarding shuttles from every ship but the Yamato began to show up on the tactical display. Rather than focusing its energy on the battleships, the Borg cube was now attacking the shuttles directly. Unlike the shielding and armor of the Kyuushu-class, the shuttles presented very little opposition to the Borg weaponry. With a single sweep of its main battery, ten and twenty shuttles carrying a company of marines each disappeared from the display.
"Helm, plot us a course to lead those shuttles to their destination. Get us ahead of the largest group and prepare to extend shield around them," January ordered. The Pride changed its course and moved inward to guide the shuttles in, providing protection from the cutting beam. It was a valiant move, everyone though, but when the cutting beam hit the shields, the entire ship shook from the direct and sustained hit.
McKenna was thrown back into her chair from where she was standing. The rest of the bridge either fought the shaking to hold on or were removed from their seats. "Hold on, everyone!" she shouted over the whining of the hull. Though the deflector grid protected the hull, the vibration had an effect. Before long, the tractor beam of the cube gripped the ship. The cutter lashed out at the saucer section of the ship, and the hull was breached. A second beam began to attack the engineering section.
"Norm! Are those tri-cobalt devices locked and loaded?" January called, not bothering to turn her head to look at him.
"Aye, sir. Ready to fire at your command."
"Target the beam emitters, and fire."
The tactical display showed six of the devices on the way to their target. Tri-cobalt devices were exponentially more powerful than their lesser counterpart, providing more punch for the same size. Their effect on the cube was made known immediately. The cutters ceased, and the tractor beam released its hold on the ship. The boarding shuttles sped the rest of the way, no longer having the protection of the battleship to cover their entry, but the job was done. Marine tactical frequencies were expressing successful entries into twenty-nine different points along the hull of the cube.
"Okay, helm, plot us a retreat course. Engage at full impulse, and hurry up," the captain ordered.
"Engineering reports that the impulse engines are offline, sir," the officer at the helm reported.
Sten nodded, "Confirmed. Reports of massive injuries and deaths being reported by Lieutenant Donner. Request permission to assist him."
Jan nodded, "Go." Sten's engineering expertise was recognized by many aboard ship to be on par with Tom Donner's. Her presence in engineering was a valued one, especially by those serving in that department.
Sten ran to the turbolift as another officer moved to take her position.
"Can I get a full damage report on all systems?" January asked.
The new operations officer ran down his list, which included a hit to hull integrity, sublight propulsion and the shield generators. A casualty list showed that over twenty people were dead with twice that injured or missing, not including two of the Pride's shuttles that were destroyed when the Borg began to redirect its attack.
"Continue to fire tri-cobalt devices and all beam weapons," the captain ordered. "Keep the attack going."
By the time Sten reached the main engineering compartment, the starboard warp core was already offline. The portside warp core was glowing and working properly. Donner gave her a brief overview of the current situation, and the damage done to the ship. The impulse engines or one of the related subsystems somehow suffered critical hits between the hull vibration and the intensity of the cutting beam upon the hull. He was already wearing the working jumpsuit, with his toolkit in one hand.
Sten walked with him, trying to find the quickest way from the engineering deck to the impulse deck, to effect repairs. It would only be a matter of time before the cube was able to repair the damage done to it by the captain and while the Pride sat without means of evading, that tractor beam would return and begin slicing into the hull again.
They didn't have much time.
"Marine Commander reports they have made a successful entry into the inner nodes, however, they are meeting heavy resistance from the Borg," reported Norman from the tactical station.
McKenna could only nod. As more and more marines made their entry, it was now up to them. Commodore Hastur ordered some of the fleet to retreat to allow the marines to accomplish their mission to destroy the cube and make a speedy departure. Charges were to be placed through the heavy energy transfer nodes along the inner and central core of the cube. With enough nodes destroyed, a high percentage of the cube would be without power, and open to an assault without any further resistance. But as the marines were now onboard, it was imperative that the fleet limit casualties by friendly fire. They had to pull their punches.
The effect of that order had deadly consequences. Without the firepower necessary to deter the cube from attacking, two of the battleships fell to the Borg. One, the Wasp, as the cutting beam punctured the dual warp cores. The subsequent explosion caused critical damage to the Saratoga, and the captain of that ship ordered his crew to abandon ship. When the lifepods were clear, the Saratoga mustered whatever it could and made an attempt to ram the cube. However, with the tractor beam back online, it held the ship at bay until the self-destruct sequence completed.
January tried not to think about it, but she was afraid once more. She was afraid that the mission would fail and that the battle of Cirrius Prime would be likened to Wolf 359. Another twenty-five starships to add to the total number of starships lost. There was still another ace up their sleeve, but to use it would cost them so much more than a simple twenty-five starships. All of those marines on board the cube would suffer the same fate, not just the fleet crews outside, trying to keep the cube from advancing into the Cirrius Prime system.
Each Kyuushu-class warbird carried with it the brand new quad-cobalt device. Another leap in exponent firepower, with a price; the shockwave from the impact of this device would cause a grand amount of destruction in its path. With two more ships being held by the cube, and the Pride next in line, it was clear that if they made use of this weapon, three more ships would be destroyed due to friendly fire. The shockwave's range was just as theoretical as the damage proposed. It was sure to cause enough damage to destroy the cube, but perhaps half the fleet. And if not, the cube could weather the attack, and only the fleet would suffer.
When the commodore called in to stand by at the allegro status, she closed her eyes for a moment. "Load all quad-cobalt devices into the torpedo tubes and stand by the fire at my order," January said.
"Aye, sir," said Captain Yamaguchi, entering in the command at his station and holding the devices in a standby mode to fire. He began searching for a better-localized target on the cube's hull to target.
The silent moment on the bridge was broken when the Borg's tractor beam seized the ship. The Pride of Qo'noS shuddered to such a degree that it pitched the ship over some twenty degree before the gravity and inertial dampening systems recovered and righted everyone aboard.
"Sir, the cutting beam is now slicing into the engineering section of the ship again. It's a matter of time until they breach the warp cores," reported operations.
"Just like the Wasp." She breathed a silent prayer to Tom Donner.
Tom Donner read the situation with the Borg from the corner of his eye as he made repairs to the fusion reactors. They had scrammed, shutting down and returning to a cold state. Without fusion power, the impulse engines were as good as useless. Without those engines, they would have no means to propel themselves away from the cube. The end result of that was something Tom had no need to think about.
The ship shuddered once more, and his eyes went to the damage report being updated in real time. The deck above engineering was now exposed to space. People were dying, and he was moving as fast as he could, with Sten on the lower section of the reactor's control panel. The both of them were working as a team to bring the team of reactors back online and then restore its connection to the impulse engine.
Once more, the ship pitched over again as another hit landed against the hull directly. The Borg were not trying to assimilate, it looked as though they were trying to destroy the ship. It was unlike anything he had seen in his limited encounters with cubes and spheres. He looked at the damage display again and more systems appeared on the percentages reported to him. It did not look good.
He finished what he could, and closed the access panel to the reactor he was working on. Closing his kit and throwing it to the bottom level with a loud clatter, he grabbed both sides of the access ladder and slid down it until his boots slammed against the grates. Looking over Sten's shoulder he asked her if she was ready to restart the reactors.
"I am ready," she replied, rising from her haunches and standing upright again.
Tom nodded, "All right." He looked at the command console for the entire system and hovered a finger over the initiation subroutine. Closing one eye, he kept the other one on her. "If this doesn't work, Sten..."
"Yes, Lieutenant?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the console.
He smiled, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm in love with you." He hit the button.
Outside, the Pride's impulse engines lit up immediately as the reactors came online and began feeding power properly. The connections between the two subsystems maintained the energy transfer under normal operating conditions and within seconds, the ship's sublight propulsion was restored.
Inside, the bridge crew were already making preparations to get underway as quickly as possible. The Borg still held the ship in place with its tractor beam and attacked the skin of the hull with the cutter. January called in for assistance with the fleet, the impulse engines repaired, someone had to go in a make a rescue attempt to cut the Pride away from the cube's attack.
The flagship of the attack fleet, the William T. Riker, made it its personal objective to rescue the Pride of Qo'noS from certain destruction. Moving itself as close as possible, its phasers danced across the hull of the cube until the tractor beam began to be affected. As soon as it seemed as though the Riker would succeed, the tractor beam from the cube reestablished itself as the damage done by the phasers were nullified by adapting to the attack.
Captain McKenna slumped only slightly in her seat, looking toward Norman for ideas. He shook his head, and the answer was obvious. The only option to save the ship might be to fire a single quad-cobalt device at the cube. While Commodore Hastur had not authorized their use, with the ship at stake, January could argue that she had little choice but to open fire.
Just as opened her mouth to issue the order to fire the cobalt device, Captain Yamaguchi excitedly reported that the marines had completed the first phaser of their mission and was about to detonate their charges along the inner areas, across twenty-five different power distribution nodes. On the viewscreen, the scene shifted immediately to show the various tractor and cutting beams fall silent, including the one on the Pride.
"Full impulse power," ordered January. "Plot us a course toward the rest of the fleet and take us out of range of their tractor beam."
"Aye, sir. Approaching fleet rendezvous, now."
Norman reported, "The marines have laid the central nexus charges now, they are departing the cube in two minutes." The marine tactical frequencies were alive and kicking as he redirected some of the more interesting communications chatter to the bridge speaker system. She could hear the battalion commanders issuing orders to their troops and the passing of those orders down to the platoon level. Within those two minutes, the boarding shuttles began to liftoff from the cube.
Scattered internal explosions were making appearances on the sensors readouts. The cube was without energy within seconds, and the Borg's defenses were now silent. The recovery of the boarding shuttles took a few minutes, and the colonel in command of the marines assigned to the Pride of Qo'noS made his initial report to the bridge.
The order to open fire on the cube came from Commodore Hastur only moment after it was certain that the boarding shuttles were within the protective company of the fleet. The fleet of the twenty remaining Kyuushu-class warbirds made short work of the cube, destroying it outright.
Starfleet had its first major victory in the Borg War.