Resistance - J.M. Dillard [72]
“Sir…” Nave began hesitantly. “You’ve fought the Borg before. I know that when the Borg overran the Enterprise, a lot of crew members were assimilated and…lost. What do you think our chances are of recovering Lio…Lieutenant Battaglia? Of actually bringing him home?”
“The same as our chances of bringing home the captain,” Worf answered at once. But his tone held little hope, and he would not meet her eyes.
Worf sat in the command chair on the auxiliary bridge as the stardrive section disengaged from the saucer. He had never conducted a saucer separation before, though he had taken part in the procedure many times. The entire process was fully automated, but it still seemed unnatural to him to divide a ship and leave part of it behind. It was the equivalent of severing an arm or a leg to him. More to the point, it was almost unfathomable to leave behind most of the crew when heading into battle. True Klingon warriors would never consent to being left out of the fray. Then again, if the skeleton crew aboard the stardrive section with him failed, those aboard the saucer section would join in the battle soon enough.
“Separation complete,” Nave reported from the conn of the auxiliary bridge.
“Very good, Lieutenant,” Worf said as he tapped his combadge. “Worf to the main bridge.”
T’Lana’s voice replied. “Aye, Commander.”
“Hold this position as instructed,” he reiterated his previous orders. “Once we activate the cloak, we will have approximately two and a half hours to conduct our mission. If we do not contact you by the end of that time, or you read any movement from the Borg cube, you are to leave the area immediately.”
“Understood,” T’Lana said.
Worf briefly wondered if he was expecting too much to think she would wish him well in battle as she had wished the captain before his mission. He quickly put the idea out of his mind and severed the communication. This was not the time for such silliness. He pressed his combadge again and opened communications with La Forge.
“I’ve activated the cloaking device,” La Forge reported from engineering. “It’s coming online now.”
If everything was going according to plan, the stardrive section would be in the process of disappearing from the main bridge’s viewscreen. He could almost feel the anticipation from the crew seated around him. This was likely their first time on a cloaked ship. Not that they would be able to tell the difference from within the ship, but it was an odd sensation. Worf had experienced it many times onboard the Defiant. To be totally invisible to sensors gave one a feeling of power. Though some would say that sneaking up on an enemy was not an honorable way to conduct battle, it was a necessity in some cases. And he could think of none more important than this.
“The cloak is holding,” La Forge reported. “We’re invisible.”
Worf set his eyes on the viewscreen in front of him. “Lieutenant Nave, set a course for the Borg cube. Maximum warp.”
“Already set, sir,” she replied. He heard the determination in her voice.
Worf then echoed the command his captain had used so many times before: “Engage.”
Beverly Crusher moved rapidly down the corridor toward the transporter room. She had been working in one of the labs in the stardrive section up to the last possible moment and was positive that she had found success. Now, as she went to join the away team, her mind was utterly focused on her next challenge. A medkit was slung over her shoulder; a hypospray was securely fastened to her belt, a phaser beside it.
She was doing this, she told herself, for strictly professional reasons: for the sake of science, of research, for the sake of any sentient beings that might ever run the risk of being assimilated by the Borg. It had nothing to do with her inability to sit idly and wait for word of the away team’s success or failure; it had nothing to do with her desire to go to the Borg ship and find Jean-Luc herself, to make sure—even if she had to do it herself—that the queen was destroyed and he was rescued and brought back to the