Coming To Terms...

Posted on Fri May 6th, 2022 @ 12:04pm by Fleet Admiral Mike K`Wor Bremer & Lieutenant K`Wor & Lieutenant Commander Croesus & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Coleman & Lieutenant Kah'lyn Chiara-Rivers

2,859 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 112 - A Trip to Remember
Location: The Artifact
Timeline: MD2, 1445hrs

ON:

Kah’lyn simply looked at Bremer as he and Hugh spoke, it wasn’t her place to ask questions about an obvious private matter. She simply walked along quietly.

Croesus joined his wife. " I do not feel good about this? Both of these people are our sworn enemies." Croesus told her.

As Hugh and Bremer walked past the two officers, he heard something about enemies and he stopped for a moment. "The Borg are an all consuming power and they take anything and everything they want, people included. Just remember that behind the implants are people who didn't have a choice."

Hugh let a small smile come through before continuing on their journey, with Bremer in tow. He looked back at the Admiral and said, "You've got a wonderful crew with you, sir. How long have they worked with you and how long have you been in command of Starbase 400?"

"I thought you said you know who I was." Mike replied, a little snarky.

Hugh stopped, his expression was more serious. "I guess I should have said I knew who you where. 'Destrutus'."

Mike looked at Hugh, confused.

"That's what you were know as while you were assimilated." Hugh explained. "While Locutus was to help us talk to the Federation, you, Destrutus, were meant to help us destroy them."

"Aren't those names from Latin?" Mike commented.

"Yes." Hugh replied. "The Borg that boarded the Enterprise-D learned that you used Latin terms and while they didn't totally understand the reason for using them, the Queen named Captain Picard 'Locutus' or 'the one who speaks' like in the word 'locutor'. I think you can understand where 'Destrutus' came from now."

Mike nodded, he hadn't even remembered being referred to as 'Destrutus' while he was assimilated. It way making the memories more painful, but also it give him a little more understanding.

"You didn't do anything willingly." Hugh added.

"How would you know?" A voice said from behind the group. K'Wor came into the light then added, "Weren't you already separated from the Hive by then?"

"I was, but the knowledge was available on a ship I was on before arriving here. I also received the same information from another Liberated Borg you may know. General Korok. He learned about it after you last saw him...about seven years ago I think he said." Hugh explained.

"You saw Korok? Recently?" Mike asked.

Hugh nodded. "He was contacted about the reclamation project, but declined to be apart. He said there were still others out there that needed help."

Mike nodded.

"Come." Hugh said as he motioned forward.

A few meters away the group entered an isolated room. There was a biobed-like table in the middle of the room with several monitors along the walls and a scanner over the bed.

"This is kind of akin to your sickbay. With your permission, I'd like to get a detailed scan of you. It'll show me what, if any implants you still have as well as the number of nano-probes still in your body." Hugh explained. "It's painless." He smiled.

K'Wor looked concerned.

Hugh walked over to the young man and gripped his shoulders in a reassuring way. "I know this is a lot to take in and you worry about your father. But, we've worked on this for quite some time and it could help to further our understanding of the Borg and how to reclaim their humanity," Hugh said, with a small smile. He wanted to make sure all knew and understood that nothing here could harm them.

After a moment, Hugh walked back over to the Admiral and began scanning him with the instruments on the biobed.

"I'm reading spinal supports, they provide protection to the bones in your spine and protect the spinal cord. You still have a micro Cortical Node above your right eye brow and it is in optimal condition. The Cortical Array is also still present but other than keeping the nano-probes in your body active it appears to be inactive but not non-functional." Hugh explained as he tapped a button on the display beside him and looked closer, "It's not something we can remove, which is why it was left within you nearly twenty years ago. And of course, nano-probes are present. You have nearly 2.5 million nanoprobes and they can do a variety of things. They keep your implants in optimal condition, they help you heal faster, they can help protect you from poisonous gases, they can even help your body's aging slow a little. Without extracting them, it's hard to tell, but they are dormant until your cortical array activates them." Hugh smiled, "But don't worry, they can't re-assimilate you."

Mike laid there for a few minutes, taking all of the information in. It was similar to what he'd been told after his post assimilation surgeries but now he knew nothing had changed. "Okay." Mike finally said a few moments later. "Can this also show me what I did while I was assimilated?"

Taking the scanner away from the Admiral for a moment, Hugh went into his own thoughts for a moment.

"There's a way, but it would involve distracting the guards. It's the Queen's Chambers and only a handful of people know about its existence. But, if you're really looking for answers, the chamber would give you the answers you seek," Hugh said with a ping of worry on his face.

"Then, we go there after this." Mike replied. "I need to know."

As he began scanning the Admiral again, Hugh said, "Then, I will take you there and I'll have a couple of the people close to me begin distracting the guards when we head out."

Hugh nodded at one of the xBs that was standing within the room and whispered some orders to him before he moved out of the room.

Kah’lyn was walking alongside her husband, she understood his feelings towards the Borg. “We have to give these people a chance Croesus, they’re not evil. You’re an ex-Borg Sir?” She looked at Mike curiously.

"Are you okay?" K'Wor asked.

Mike nodded. "I'm fine." He flashed a smile at his son. Mike then looked at Kah'lyn. "I was captured and assimilated by the Borg in 2380. I unwillingly helps the Borg destroy twenty-five starships, kill thousands of people, and nearly assimilate the Zerian population and their planet before he is rescued in a joint mission by the Pegasus-B, Enterprise-E, Yorktown-E, and Voyager. A few months later, using the information the Borg forcibly acquired from me, they launched an all out attack on Alpha and Beta Quadrants. That lead directly to the formation of the Typhon Pact, and thus this recent war." It was clear, Mike was carrying a lot of quilt.

"We'll follow you Hugh." Mike said after a moment.

Kah’lyn looked towards Bremer “For what it’s worth Sir, what happened wasn’t your fault, as I’m sure Hugh will tell you.” She looked towards Hugh and offered a polite smile.

"The Borg took you and forced you to try to hurt the Federation, just like Jean-Luc Picard. But, whenever you guys are ready, you can follow me now. The Romulan guards are distracted and we can get into the Queen's Chamber, whenever you're ready," Hugh said, offering a hand to guide the small group to the private chamber that allowed the Borg Queen access to her memories and experiences, all across the Borg Collective.

It brought order to chaos.

But, it wasn't something that Hugh allowed many, if any, to see. It was only during times like this that he would even consider it. It took them moments to walk down to the chamber and Hugh input his codes to enter the chamber. As they walked in, several consoles activated.

“Oh my ...” Kah’lyn stood looking around. “It’s hard to believe the Borg Queen used to reside in here.” She walked around taking in the area curiously but made no attempt to touch anything, knowing that one wrong touch could lead to who knows what.

Hugh walked over to one of the terminals within the room and began tapping commands into it, allowing the whole room to light up with the eerie glow of Borg green lights. After a few moments, Hugh looked back at the officers that came with him.

Walking over to them, he said, "There's a lot of memories that were formed in here. It's an eerie place for anyone that gets to see it."

Mike was silent as he looked around. The chamber wasn't familiar to him at all, but in an odd way he almost felt at peace. It was a strange paradox of emotions to process. He had dealt with the trauma of those events by leaving Starfleet for a while. His self imposed isolation had been good for him, or so he thought at the time. Only later did he realize that returning to duty brought him back fully unto himself.

"What do you need me to do?" Mike asked of Hugh.

"Depends on how deeply and passionately you want those memories...cause it would take an act of a Queen to pull them out into the open," Hugh said, wanting to make sure that Mike knew that it wasn't a simple task to pull the information out of a Queen, whether dead or alive.

Mike looked at K'Wor for a moment, then back to Hugh. "I need to know...I need to know what I did."

Hugh looked around the room for a moment before stepping onto the pad in the middle of the room. He pulled his arm out and a Borg access node came online and he started working on it.

"Sir, I'm going to try and access the Borg activation sequence and retrieve the information that you seek. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to interact with the Queen Consciousness onboard, so she might recognize you and might...mess with you, Mike. So, be prepared," Hugh said, before putting in the final sequence that brought down the tendrils to attach to Hugh's back.

Mike nodded. "I'm ready."

Hugh put in the final command and the tendrils came down, attaching to his back. Three of them attached to him and within moments, his eyes became black, much like the Queen herself. It took a few moments for Hugh to activate and interact with the Borg Queen, but when she came online, she was animated.

"Hello, Destrutus. Long time, no see," the Borg Queen said through Hugh.

Mike took a deep breath, he could 'feel' the Queen. While his eyes showed him Hugh, K'Wor, Kah'lyn, and Croesus behind them...his mind's eye only let him 'see' the Queen. At the site of the Queen, Mike could feel his Klingon half taking over, high anger raging and his blood boiling...but after a few moments an uneasy and unexpected calm came over him.

Kah’lyn stood transfixed by the whole interaction between Bremer and the Queen as she spoke through Hugh. The whole thing was as creepy as hell and she kept her distance not wanting to interfere with proceedings.

Mike 'watched' the Queen walk around him, eyeing him up and down. As she passed a reflective surface Mike saw himself as a Borg. His left eye had an ocular device over it with a green laser light and flashing blue and green lights over it. His right cheek and ear also had Borg technology attached it to, but he was unsure exactly what it was. His left arm also had a devise implanted and attached to it.

Mike looked at himself for a moment before looking back at the Queen. "I know you're not really here, you're just a shadow."

"But even a shadow can show us things, can lead us places." The Queen 'said'.

"I just want to know what you forced me to do." Mike replied.

The Queen smiled, "You enjoyed every moment of it too. You're true Klingon nature came out."

"How, when you suppressed everything that was me with you're Borg bullshit!" Mike countered.

"Ah, there's that fire. It makes you a good warrior and an even better destroyer when you left it free." The Queen sneakered.

In Mike's mind, he grabbed the Queen by the neck. In the reflective surface Mike was himself again, all of the Borg implants where gone. "Enough of these games. I'm in charge here. Tell me what I need to know."

The Queen relented, "Fine. I'll show you, but what are you willing to do in return?"

"As a shadow of the past, there isn't much that can be done for you in the here and now." Mike replied.

"For you to come to terms with what you did, you'll need to allow me in. Here and now." The Queen fired back.

After a moment, Mike finally replied, "Do it."

The Queen smiled, then disappeared. In the chamber, another tentacle came down from above and attached itself to Mike's back.

"Dad!" K'Wor called by Mike couldn't hear him.

In his mind's eye Mike saw himself after being assimilated. He stood in a chamber similar to the one they were in. He watched a holo-display of the Pegasus-B withdrawing as the Tactical Cube fired on the planet below. He could 'hear' the horrified voices of people as they were assimilated. The scene shifted and Mike could see a small fleet of Federation ships approaching. The Pegasus-B, Yorktown-E, Enterprise-E, and Voyager were among them. He watched as the Tactical Cube he was on board was able to lower the shields of several of the ships and fired on their unprotected hulls using his own tactical knowledge. He was even able to take over control of the Pegasus-B for a moment and force her to fire on the Enterprise and Voyager before one of the ships managed to jam his signal. Then, a Starfleet boarding party beamed aboard. Drones that stood between him and the rescue team were quickly eliminated but Mike, rather Destrutus activated multiple forcefields. Destrutus struggled against K'Temoc and another Officer as they tried to subdue him. Destrutus pushed K'Temoc off before injecting his tubules into the other Officer and starting the assimilation process. He then tried to do the same thing to K'Temoc, but was stopped as the forcefields were bypassed and someone managed to put a hypo to his neck.

The scene faded to black for a moment, but then faces started to appear. Faces of people Mike had helped the Borg to assimilate or kill. Zerian civilians and defense force members, Starfleet personnel, even members of the Pegasus-B's crew. The faces started off scared, angry, defiant but then the life drained out of them. They were scared, worried, and then they just stared at him blankly. Finally unison they said, 'We are Borg'.

Mike's own emotions welled up and got the better of him as he shouted out, "NO" the tentacle released and Mike dropped to the floor, struggling to catch his breath as sweat dripped down.

K'Wor rushed to his father's side as Hugh was also released from the Queen's tentacles.

Kah’lyn grabbed her tricorder and rushed to Bremer’s side, she wasn’t a medic but she had enough basic medical training to know what to do. “Heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, all elevated but starting to return to more normal levels. Admiral... can you hear me?”

Mike nodded. "That, was..." he took a deep breath and tried to stand "intense." Then he dropped back to a knee before dropping into a seated position.

Hugh stumbled to his own feet and took a few ragid breaths before his vision returned. He saw that Mike was on the ground and might need help, so Hugh decided to walk over and help out. He grabbed a basic Romulan Tricorder from his own waistband and began scanning the Admiral.

Hugh looked at the others and said, "He just got a massive information dump and it might take him a few minutes to regain consciousness. His mind is just processing everything that was given back to him and unlocked. The Queen just loves doing that sometimes. Lovely."

After a few more breaths his mind started to clear and he could fully control his muscles again. With K'Wor's help Mike finally was able to stand. While he was angry, ashamed, and even a little fearful of the memories he just relived he was also satisfied that now the blanks were filled in completely. He knew he'd fought again assimilation and against harming the Zerian people and other Starfleet personnel but his mental and physical abilities to stop himself had been stripped away from him. He knew he couldn't help it, but he also vowed to himself that if he ever confronted the Borg again he wouldn't let anyone else succumb to them by force.

"You need to rest." K'Wor commented.

Hugh nodded. "Come, I'll take you back to the transport site and you can return to the Pegasus while your teams finish their job."

Mike exhaustedly nodded as the group left the Queen's Chamber.


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