Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [2]
A shower of sparks burst from a console; the Queen shuddered. “You’ve infected us… with a neurolytic pathogen.”
“Just enough to bring chaos to order.”
The Queen breathed in sharply.
The Queen’s obvious panic permitted Janeway to loosen her iron-clad control just enough to allow a little pressure release; her shoulders slackened, her limbs relaxed. The nanoprobes flooding her systems spilled over the levies she’d erected to protect what was left of her self.
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang…
Though her vision blurred, Janeway forced her gaze up to the floating viewscreen and watched Voyager soar through the corridor of the transwarp conduit. A spread of transphasic torpedoes streaked out behind her like little shooting stars. The fiery explosions began.
No. Janeway smiled to herself. It’ll end with a bang.
“Voyager will be destroyed,” the Queen stated.
You’re not going to get to me now, you megalomaniacal bitch. “They’re ahead of the shock wave. They’ll survive… Captain Janeway and I made sure of that.” Inhale… Crippling fatigue overtook her; Janeway fought the impulse to succumb. Instead, she reached up and, with the last of her strength, pulled herself up so she stood eye-to-eye with the Queen. “It’s you… who underestimated us.”
The Queen’s body, overcome with tremors, quaked. Threads of energy crackled over her malfunctioning cybernetic limbs. Angrily, she yanked the offending arm out of its organic socket and tossed it to the ground.
It’s only a matter of time now, Janeway thought. We won. How long before the cascading explosions triggered by Voyager finally destroyed the complex where she was housed was unknown to her-and she didn’t care. At last, I’ve received absolution for all of it… Seven’s death, Chakotay’s broken heart, Tuvok’s insanity… Bleary-eyed, she looked ahead. The view shimmered and shifted as if filtered through a warped lens. Janeway pressed her eyelids together, opened them, and felt her world shift woozily. Her head rolled back. A tightness around her neck-like a vise-she shook the sensation away, wanting to watch the viewscreen as long as she could-Exhale.
Black.
Let go, Kathryn. It’s your time….
Her mind drifted. Deliriously, she wondered if this was what death felt like. She was terribly uncomfortable for someone whose body was supposed to be lifeless. For starters, the squeezing sensation around her neck wouldn’t go away. Something in the world outside pulled her toward it, refusing to allow her comfort in this warm, swimming world of syrupy darkness. Her eyelids fluttered open-and widened in shock.
Tuvok’s dark face, contorted in anger, eyes blazing with madness, started down at her. What’s he doing here with the Borg—
In that moment, she realized it was his hands she felt around her neck. Instinctually, she grabbed at his forearms, trying to wrench them away from her throat. His Vulcan strength was too much to overcome; he squeezed harder. She struggled, kicking at his legs, digging her heels into his thighs and calves. Denied her voice, she swung an arm out to the side and knocked over a tray filled with medical instruments, sending them to the floor with a metallic crash, hoping the noise would draw the staff’s attention. She twisted her head to see if she could see anything or anyone that might be useful. She caught a flash of her reflection in the metal cart tipped on its side. A smooth-skinned face stared back at her. Auburn hair streaked with gray. I haven’t looked like that for decades. Wait, I must be in Tuvok’s residential facility. Where are the damn doctors-anyone? Don’t they know he’s dangerous and can’t be left alone without sedation?
She felt around for anything she could use as a weapon-something sharp to stab him with, something heavy to knock him out. Light-headed from a lack of air, she tried twisting out of his grip enough to allow her to breathe. The lights in the room dimmed; Tuvok became a silhouette.
A door hissed open. A cry of concern. Rapid shuffling across the floor. Janeway’s world became darker. She felt Tuvok’s weight removed