Day of Honor - Michael Jan Friedman [70]
"All the more reason to destroy us-or take you hostage," his second-in-command argued. "They know you're the one who brought the Caatati together. With you out of the way. . ."
Lumas dismissed the idea with a gesture. "You flatter me," he said. "I am no more important than anyone else, Sedrek. There are any number of commanders here who can lead an assault as well as I can."
The Caatati didn't believe that, of course. It just seemed like the right thing to say.
He turned to Grommir. "Lower shields."
Reluctantly, the technician did as he was told.
Lumas took a breath, then let it out. Before he, had finished exhaling, his surroundings had changed. He found himself standing in a large room full of complex equipment.
He wasn't alone, either. Janeway was there.
And so was the Borg.
Janeway watched Lumas's face as he materialized in engineering.
The Caatati noticed her first. Then he turned and saw that Seven of Nine was present as well, and his eyes widened.
"The Borg. . ." he said.
"Her name is Seven of Nine," the captain told him. "And she's the one who designed the energy matrix for you."
She indicated the device, a globe with a flat surface at each of its poles. It was rather small, considering the magnitude of its importance to the Caatati. Lumas tore his eyes away from the Borg and studied it.
But he was still thinking about Seven of Nine. Janeway could see it in his expression, in the way the muscles in his temples fluttered. He was thinking about what the Borg had done to his people.
Allowing Seven of Nine to present the matrix was a calculated risk. The captain had known that at the outset. However, she wanted Lumas to see that the Borg wasn't the monster he imagined her to be.
Not anymore. Now she was simply another member of Voyager's crew. And without Seven of Ninewithout her knowledge and experience-Janeway could never have offered the Caatati the hope of prosperity.
" This matrix," said the Borg, "will produce nine hundred and forty-four grams of thorium per day."
Lumas took a closer look at the energy device. He gave the impression that he was qualified to understand its workings, though Janeway wasn't at all sure that was the case.
"Now you can power all your systems," the captain told him, "and begin to rebuild your replication technology. You can feed all those children you spoke of." She let that tantalizing prospect hang in the air for a moment.
The Caatati looked up-not at Janeway, but at Seven of Nine. "You think this makes up for what you've done?"
"It can't," said the captain. "Nothing can. But as you can see, this woman is no longer part of the Borg collective. She has changed. And if she can do it, perhaps you can, too."
Lumas eyed her. "It's easy for you to say that. It wasn't your family her people killed."
Janeway sighed. "I haven't lost family to the Borg-but I've lost friends and colleagues. My people have experienced their share of misery at the hands of the collective."
The Caatati seemed surprised by that. "And you don't hate them?" He glanced at Seven of Nine. "You don't hate her?"
"I hate what they've done, " said the captain. "But I can't hate them any more than I can hate a planet for orbiting its sun. Remember-every Borg was a victim before he became an aggressor. Every one of them was plucked from the heart of a civilization he loved. And in that regard, Seven of Nine is no exception."
And neither, Janeway thought, was any loved one Lumas had lost to the Borg invasion. She hadn't come out and said that, hoping the Caatati could make that leap of logic for himself.
"Will you call off your armada and allow us to leave?" she asked.
Lumas frowned. "One device isn't enough for all our ships."
"True," said Seven of Nine. "But using this matrix as a template, you can construct as many matrices as you like. We can provide you with all the necessary components and specifications."
Lumas stared at her. Somewhere inside him, a struggle was taking place. The captain imagined she understood part of that struggle, but not all of