The Farther Shore - Christie Golden [72]
[215] “Further,” said Kaz, “I believe that the queen has been trying to contact Seven of Nine.”
“Dammit, I told you this was going to happen!” cried Montgomery.
“But how can this be?” asked Chakotay, who along with everyone else was ignoring Montgomery’s outburst. “We left the queen in pretty bad shape on the other side of the galaxy. Surely we’d know it if they were anywhere in the vicinity. The Borg are many things, but they’re hardly sneaky.”
“And yet all the evidence supports the theory that there is indeed a Borg queen in the Alpha Quadrant,” Data said. “Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
“One thing that’s stumping us is how slowly the assimilation is progressing,” said Kaz.
“Assimilation is normally nearly instantaneous,” said Icheb. “It’s strange that the Borg would construct a virus that takes so much time to take effect.”
“Agreed,” said Seven. “It is inefficient, and therefore, atypical of the Borg.”
Montgomery had remained silent. His eyes darted from one person to another. Janeway hoped that he wasn’t so busy being indignant that he wasn’t listening.
“Dr. Kaz,” he said, “why are you here?”
“The same reason we’re all here, including Commander Data,” said Kaz, quietly but firmly. “I’m here because this is where I can do the most good.”
“How much have you learned since you ... you left?”
“More than we’ve learned since the first report came in,” said Kaz. “If I may be honest, sir, I believe that if [216] we had asked Seven, Icheb, the Doctor, and Data to help at the outset, we’d have an answer by now.”
“Will we get one in time?” There was a softness to Montgomery’s voice ... almost a pleading note.
Kaz swallowed. He had just opened his mouth to reply when Harry Kim’s voice interrupted him.
“Admiral, a message came in earlier. I’m embarrassed to say that I downloaded it and forgot about it, but—”
“What is it, Harry?” Janeway asked.
“It’s from Peregrine.”
Everyone in the room, except for Montgomery and perhaps Data, tensed. “Put it through down here at once.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
“What’s Peregrine?” asked Montgomery. Tuvok kept a phaser on him, but it was clear it was no longer necessary. The admiral followed them to the Doctor’s console.
“Peregrine is the code name of a very mysterious friend of my Ops officer,” said Janeway, her eyes on the dark screen. “We don’t know who it is, but so far, he or she has been helpful indeed. Wonder how Peregrine knew to find Harry here?”
Everyone fell silent as the message began to scroll across the screen.
Hello again Lieutenant. I have very important information for you.
“Try to trace it,” said Montgomery. For some reason, he whispered.
“Can’t,” Janeway hissed back.
The virus that is causing mass assimilation on the planet is caused by a nanoprobe. It can only be activated by the express command of a Borg queen. By utilizing Royal Protocol—
[217] Before anyone could stop him, Montgomery reached down and touched a few pads. At once, the message blipped out.
“What the hell did you just do?” cried Chakotay.
“I was trying to conduct a trace!” Montgomery yelled back. “As you should have been doing. Unless we know who this mysterious Falcon is, we can’t know if he’s feeding us false information or—”
“Harry, can you get it back?” asked Janeway.
Harry shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “It’s gone. I wasn’t able to get a download of it either.”
“Great,” said Chakotay. “Now we’ll never know what Peregrine was trying to say.”
“This is all complete and utter crap,” said Montgomery. “That nonsense about Royal Protocol—If you want me to believe you, you’ll have to come up with more impressive proof than a Starfleet etiquette book!”
As Janeway whirled to give Montgomery a piece of her mind, she saw Seven of Nine standing stock still, as if frozen in place. Her full lips were slightly parted, her blue eyes wide.
“Seven,” said Janeway, tensely. “Seven, what is it?”
Libby swore. Just when someone was actually, finally reading the message, the antitracing logarithm terminated