I've known the wind so cold, I've seen the darkest days. But now the winds I feel, are only winds of change.
I've been through the fire and I've been through the rain. But I'll be fine ...
Cause I've got faith of the heart.
I'm going where my heart will take me.
I've got faith to believe. I can do anything. I've got strength of the soul. And no one's gonna bend or break me. I can reach any star. I've got faith, faith of the heart.
Cause I've got faith of the heart.
I'm going where my heart will take me.
I've got faith to believe. I can do anything. I've got strength of the soul. And no one's gonna bend or break me. I can reach any star. I've got faith, faith of the heart.
“You’ll have to shorten it a bit. The average television intro is less than a minute,” Kletsova said.
“And maybe jazz it up.”
“I’m okay with it if everyone else is,” Lenar said.
“I still like my theme song better,” Niki said.
“Well, I think this is more about Garcia than it is us,” Kletsova said.
“Oh, is this your theme song?” Niki asked.
“No,” Garcia said.
“What is your theme song?” Trini asked.
“Yeah, what is it?” Niki encouraged.
“‘It’s Been a While’, by Staind,” Garcia said.
“Whoa,” Niki said. “Are you sure you’re not depressed?”
“Wait, what’s all that about?” Kletsova asked.
“Not right now, I got to meditate,” Garcia said, getting up and cradling his guitar. He paused as if
remembering something. “Oh, and Trini. You’re good with computers. Will you hook up a wireless gateway to the super computer so I can access it remotely, say, with my cell phone?” He said the last while scratching his head, ‘casually.’ “So, if I think of something remotely, I can down load it directly from my cell phone.”
Trini’s eyes grew wide with understanding. “Um, yeah. I’ll get right on that.”“And, I guess we need to be dressed and ready to go by 8,” Garcia said.
kjº
Garcia closed his eyes and he became Brittany. He assessed the environment through her senses, reveling in the amount of information he could take in. Her tricorders allowed him to use the full capacity of his Kelvan heritage. He forced himself not to get lost in the memories of being turned into a Kelvan and focused on what had caused Brittany to send the alert. The Iotians had relocated the Captain to an infirmary. He maneuvered over to her and evaluated her condition. Her electrolytes were low, but the intravenous solution they were giving her should compensate. The delivery system was archaic, but adequate. She had a slight fever, too. As soon as it was convenient to do so, he touched her hand and whispered to her.
“Captain Munoz, it’s me, Garcia,” Tam said. “Can you hear me?”
“Brittany?” the Captain nearly sat up.
“No, don’t get up. I’m using the HROV,” he answered her, easing her back to a reclined position.
“Keep your eyes closed. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I haven’t felt quite myself ever since they transported me off the ship,” the Captain said. “I don’t
know what’s wrong. Maybe an infection?”
“I’m unable to detect any signs of a viral infection using the HROV, but then, I didn’t install a medical
tricorder, and the capacity of this tricorder is limited due to the operational needs of the HROV,” Garcia said.
“Is this why they have kept you in quarantine from the others?”
“There are others? How many?” she asked.
“Maybe one hundred,” Garcia said. “I’ve been working on a way to rescue you. It’s taking me longer
than I anticipated, but things are starting to fall into place now. It’ll be soon.”
The Captain reached up as if to pull him closer. She looked where she imagined him to be, and
without mincing words, said: “You rescue my crew, do you hear me. You get them to safety. What’s the
status of my ship?”
“I blew it up,” Garcia admitted.
“You what?!” she asked, nearly coming out of the bed. She ended up havong a coughing fit. “Someone’s coming,” Garcia told her.
A nurse was leading the doctor to the paitent. As they approached, Captain Munoz was settling back
into a normal breathing pattern. Garcia hoped she was looking worse than she felt, and it took considerable
effort not to take out the nurse and doctor and simply rescue her.
“I was sure I heard her mumbling, Doctor,” the nurse said. “You did want to know if she started
speaking.”
“It’s probably just the fever,” the Doctor explained. “Go ahead and bring up a recorder, just in case
she says anything important.”
“Alright, Doctor,” the nurse said.
After they walked away, Garcia said, “I’m going to get you out of here now.”
“No!” the Captain said. “You rescue my crew first. If you can take me out when you take them out,
fine, but don’t blow their chance for escape because of me. That’s an order. I’m the last one out. Do you
understand?”
“Yes, Captain,” Garcia said. “Alright. I got to go. If you need anything, you just yell out to me.
Brittany will relay the message. The antibiotics and anti-inflamatory they’re giving you should help. I’ll
check in on you from time to time.”
“Thank you,” Captain Munoz said.
kjº
General Hammon was in his office, pacing. He didn’t stop when Jay entered and Jay didn’t bother to
ease his tension. Jay merely stood, waiting, patiently, as the General came to terms with whatever decision he
was about to make.
“Jay, I think we have established beyond a reasonable doubt that Star Fleet has a secret base of
operation somewhere on our planet,” General Hammon said.
“Is this because of the recent White House incident?” Jay asked.
“Yes,” General Hammon said. “And all these damn recent UFO sightings. It makes me absolutely
crazy knowing that this Garcia chap is programming a super computer right in the heart of New NewYork.” “It appears to be harmless,” Jay said. “As far as we can tell, it’s a completely isolated system. There’s
only so many things that he can do with it.”
General Hammon stopped and looked at his most loyal commando. “We’re talking about Star Fleet
here. You’ve seen the Earth videos. That one guy can take a paper clip, some chewing gum, and single
handedly take out the opponents and disable a nuclear bomb.”
“Do you want me to take him out?” Jay asked.
General Hammon leaned into his desk. “You understand, the President will know nothing. Whoever’s
involved in this will take the complete wrap if caught.”
“I understand,” Jay said. “I have their tour schedule. They’ll be flying to New LA in four days. I
could make that plane disappear and make sure that there is no evidence, and, just as a precaution, should any
turn up, it would appear to be pilot error. Of course, it’s possible that a Red Shirt might save us the trouble. I
don’t know who Garcia pissed off, but he’s on someone’s hit list. I might be able to enable that person to
follow through with a hit.”
“Either way, I don’t care. I’ll leave this in your hands,” General Hammon said. “And Jay, this
conversation never took place.”
Jay saluted.
kjº
“Is he alright?” Carter asked, hovering over Garcia.
“Yes,” Deanna said. “If there were any brain damage, we would not be able to operate.” “I don’t understand,” Carter said.
“They’re holograms,” Gary said. “Tammas Garcia is afflicted with an extraneous multiple personality
disorder and with the use of this alien technology, he has somehow managed to manifest them into reality.” “I wouldn’t call us a disorder,” Ilona said.
“And how do you know about Garcia, and us?” Duana asked.
“He’s Gary Seven,” Deanna said. No one seemed to understand. She shook her head. “Time traveler.
Working for an alien race supposedly to help protect Earth, and other planets I guess, from some alien
conspiracy?”
“What happened to Garcia?” Carter asked, getting back to her main concern.
“He just screamed and passed out,” Thomas said, shrugging. “We’ll just rest here for a bit. You look
tired, Carter. Maybe you should try to get some sleep.”
“What I really want is to find a toilet and have a shower,” Carter said.
“Sorry,” Thomas said, looking around. “You can use the corner over there.”
“I’ll pass. How did you get here?” Carter asked.
“Afu and I came looking for you. Are you alright? Where’s Newel?” Thomas asked. “She’s dead,” Carter said, nearly getting lost in that. She bit her lip and pressed on. “Where’s Afu?” “We got separated. I fear the worse,” Thomas said. “I have found too many rooms with strange
animals running wild, and now the Borg?! I think we should be leaving soon.”
Garcia sat up, unexpectedly, startling Carter.
“Easy,” Duana said, moving to support him She knelt beside him, one hand on his shoulder, her other
hand measuring his pulse in his wrist. “Are you alright?”
“Gary, we need to destroy this complex,” Garcia said, attempting to stand.
“What about your great rescue plan?” Gary asked.
“We can’t allow any of the Borg to escape this facility,” Garcia said. “They’ve assimilated the queen
and we can not allow Gray smart Borgs to escape.”
An illuminated orb flew into the room and a man in a toga appeared before them. “What have you
done?!” he yelled. The voice was booming and rich as if channeled through an Opera setting, with undertones
of thunder.
Garcia reacted as fast as his HROV’s. They all drew their Kaluza-Klien Particle beam weapons and
fired them. The man in the Toga didn’t even stagger. To make himself appear more ominous, he doubled in
size and put his hands on his hips and laughed.
“You fool,” Hades said. “Do you really think we’d used imperfect technology such as holo-emitters?
This is real flesh and blood you’re firing at. You’ll pay for your insolence.”
Hades raised his hands and fired bolts of lightening, sending Garcia flying backwards across the room
and pinning him to the back wall. Isis stood up and hissed.
“You have no power here, bitch-whore cat,” Hades said. “I am not blind to your disguise. Your
hunting days are over.”
Hades sent the cat flying with an equally impressive round of lightening. Garcia fired his weapon
again, directing Duana and Ilona to do the same. Hades turned his wrath back towards Garcia, ignoring the
holograms all together.
Another orb entered and a man appeared between Hades and deflected the lightening with an open
palm. It fell from his hands like embers from steel being cut with a torch.
“Enough, Hades,” the man said.
“Out of my way, Apollo. He’s mine to do with as I please,” Hades said.
“Then you should have done so while he was still in your power,” Apollo said. “Back off.” “I will not surrender him to you,” Hades said. “You’re in my domain, now, sun boy.” “Your domain is lost and you’ll be lucky if Zeus gives you another after this fiasco,” Apollo said. Hades started to dissipate. “What? What have you done, Apollo? Zeus? I’m not finished yet!” “I did nothing to you,” Apollo said. “Garcia used a Kaluza-Klien particle weapon, highly affective
against inter-dimensional beings such as ourselves. It just took longer to have an affect than he anticipated.
Part of the time shift delay of being inside your domain. You’ll be lucky if Zeus let’s you out of the penalty
box for making such a mistake.”
“That can’t be? How did he get such a weapon? Zeus?! At least let me finish the Iotian experiment. I
spent all this time setting up the dominoes. I want to watch them fall. Pleaseeeee! It was going so well, too.
Who would have thought that entertainers with good intentions could have destroyed a society? We’re not
finished, Apollo. Garcia, we’ll meet again. Mark my words.”
Hades was growing in size, but growing fainter as he spoke, becoming translucent like a ghost and
rippling like a sheet in a wind, until finally he was gone. All that remained of Hades was an illuminated orb.
The light went out and the orb crashed to the floor, Apollo picked it up and disposed of it down a chute.
Apollo then turned smugly to Garcia. Garcia struggled to raise his weapon at Apollo.
“It will only block my access to this Universe for a short time, Garcia. And I could certainly kill you
before you got another shot off. I saved you from Hades this time, but don’t think I’ve done you any favors,
son of Kirk. I have plans for you yet. If you survive this place, then you can live a little longer, but I will
have my vengeance on you and your blood line.”
Apollo disappeared in a blaze of glory, a whirlwind of light, leaving his orb which transported out.
Garcia swallowed and slumped to the floor.
Thomas was the first one to stand up and say anything. “Holy shit, Garcia. Who did you go and piss
off?”
Garcia gave his best impression of being an innocent victim.
“We need to get out of here,” Gary said, picking up Isis and petting her soothingly. “Right, help Garcia,” Thomas said to the girls. He went and opened the door. Outside the door were a
McCoy Borg, a gray drone Borg, and a Gray warrior Borg. No one had yet seen a grey warrior, and it would
have been scary enough without the Borg accouterments. Its double torso and head seemed disproportionate
to the legs, and each of the four arms had a different Borg appendage. Thomas blasted the drone sending it staggering back into the warrior. The door shut. He blasted the controls, hoping that would slow them down.
“We’re not going out that way.”
Deanna put her hand in a recess on the opposite wall, thinking it would open a door. An opening in the
ceiling appeared and a cascade of water fell through the opening, creating a pillar of water that lead up to the
ceiling. The bubbles cleared. A light shone down through the water, making difficult to discern the blue aura
of the force field holding the water in the form of a cylinder.
“We’ll have to swim up to the next room,” Garcia said.
Carter backed away from the water. “Oh, no. Hell no. I’m not going in the water.” Isis hissed in an agreement.
“It appears to be the only way out,” Gary said, trying to console his cat.
“I don’t care. I’ll become a Borg before I go in the water,” Carter said.
“Nancy,” Garcia tried to calm her. “I am sure whatever killed Newel is not up there.” The door above closed and the column of water collapsed, splashing everyone. “Deanna, open it up
again. I’ll go and secure safe passage and then come back and get you. I am the best swimmer, after all.” “Excuse me,” Duana said. “But you just had a brain fart. You need more time to recover after being
attacked by Hades. I’ll go.”
Borgs were pounding on the door.
“Make it quick,” Garcia said, not arguing with her.
Duana entered the tube of water, knelt down, stood quickly, and shot up through the column of water.
A moment later the door closed and the column of water collapsed. Deanna reopened it and the column of
water reformed.
“Let’s move closer to the column,” Thomas recommended.
No one needed much convincing given the increased pounding on the door by the Borg. Everyone
moved over towards the column. The opening in the ceiling closed once again, collapsing the column of
water, requiring Deanna to open it. She did this twice more before Duana descended down the column of
water, head first. She had just passed the opening when the door closed and the column of water collapsed,
causing her to fall. She rolled with it, and ended up in a sitting position, shaking out her hair. Garcia gave her
a hand up.
“The room above appears to be empty. There’s an airspace at the top, just enough for our heads and its
breathable air. There are two doors that lead out, but I chose not to open them,” Duana said. “Why?” Carter asked.
“Well, I figured if they led to a dry room, all the water would drain out, and we wouldn’t be able to get
out of this room,” Duana offered. “And I didn’t think you would want to stay here much longer.” The door had begun to bulge inwards and an opening just large enough for the Borg Gray Warrior to
get its fingers in was now visible.
“Alright, Deanna, hit it. Every one is going up now,” Garcia said. “Nancy, kick off your boots.
You’re going with me.”
“Oh god,” Carter cried.
Garcia pulled off his boots and stepped into the column of water with Nancy. She was holding her
nose and squinting, but she went in. Garcia took her up to the next room. Gary and Duana followed, with Isis
clinging to Gary’s back. Ilona and Deanna followed them, and Thomas came up last. Nancy gulped for air as
she surfaced, clinging to Garcia. Gary surfaced and Isis climbed to his head. The wet cat was a pitiful sight to
behold. After they were all there, Garcia had Nancy let go of him.
“I’m going to go check out the next room. All of you stay here,” Garcia said. “Hold on to Nancy,
Duana.”
“Do you want my rifle?” Thomas asked.
“Is that the special model that fires underwater?” Garcia asked.
“Phasers don’t work underwater,” Thomas said. It took a moment for him to understand the look on
Garcia’s face, and then he frowned. “Oh, never mind.”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Nancy said.
“Now might be a good time to go,” Ilona said.
“Number two,” Nancy said, looking at Ilona crossly.
Garcia patted Nancy on the shoulder, took a breath, and disappeared into the water. “He makes it seem so easy,” Nancy said, trembling.
“He has the spirit of a dolphin in him,” Ilona said.
“Do you mean that metaphorically, in the manner of some Native American philosophy, or are you
saying he’s a reincarnated dolphin?” Thomas asked.
Before she could answer, Garcia surfaced, and took a breath. “Okay, we’re not going through that
door.”
“What did you find?” Gary asked.
“I found the queen mother and she’s huge. There’s no way of getting around her without getting
caught,” Garcia said.
“Are you sure she was the queen mother?” Ilona asked. “Because we all saw your princess, and she
doesn’t seem to resemble some huge floating sea creature.”
“She must metamorphose into the next creature,” Garcia said. “Because I am certain that was the
queen. And she has been assimilated. She’s so large, though, it may take a while for the assimilation to take
fully, but I could tell it was her.”
“Don’t queens have servants tending to them?” Duana asked.
Carter started to cry. “Oh god. We’re trapped. I know what’s behind that next door and we’re all
dead.”
Isis hissed fiercely. “There doesn’t appear to be another way out of here. We have no choice.” “Maybe, maybe not. Assuming there is something lurking behind door number two, I may be able to
level the playing field,” Garcia said, taking a stick of gum from his pocket and putting it in his mouth. Everyone looked at him as if he were insane. He smiled, complained about soggy gum loosing its
flavor. Ilona asked if Garcia intended to scare the monster by blowing bubbles. Garcia shook his head and
then stuck the gum on the wall at the water line.
“Stand by,” he said, and disappeared below the surface. When he returned he noticed that the water
level had indeed dropped.
“What did you do?” Thomas asked.
“I opened the door to down stairs,” Garcia said. “And the water level dropped. I say we do that a
couple more dozen times until we flush all the water out of this room, and then we can face whatever lies
beyond on our terms.”
“Umm, the Borg are probably down there by now,” Ilona said.
“Borg can’t swim,” Garcia said.
“What makes you so sure about that?” Thomas asked.
“Have you ever seen Borg in a wetsuit?” Garcia asked, and disappeared below the surface again. “If he doesn’t get us killed, I’m going to kill him,” Gary said.
“Amen, brother,” Thomas agreed.
kjº
“Tolro,” Phlam said, gasping. “We got… to set her down… for a bit of a rest.”
“Untie my legs and I can walk,” Seven snapped.
“Alright,” Tolro said, equally out of breath. “Put her down.”
They dropped her and leaned back against the wall.
“Hey!” Seven protested being dropped, after the fact.
“Someone put a gag in her mouth,” Tolro said.
“I know why the humans clothe their women, but why do the Borg clothe their women?” Riko asked. “The Borg… don’t care… about women,” Tolro said, still catching his breath. “The way we care…
about women. No paternal instinct.”
Muja started screaming. He took off down the corridor, leaving the others. A Borg was approaching
from their rear.
“Let’s go!” Tolro said, and started to pick up Seven. But his men were already running. He tried
draggin her, but couldn’t budge her. “Damn it,” he said, and decided to flee.
Tolro took off running, disappearing around the corner. Seven struggled with her binding, but it was to
no avail. The door beside her opened and a flow of water descended upon her. As it washed down the hall,
the approaching Borg tripped and fell in the onslaught of water. Garcia and Carter washed out into the hall
and managed to get up.
“See,” Garcia said. “That wasn’t too bad.”
Sounds of phaser fire from inside the room continued, as Thomas finished off the creature within.
Duana came out brandishing a phaser. “Hey, look what I found.”
“Tam?!” Carter said, pointing to the Borg on the floor.
Seven looked up at him as the water receded from around her. “Would you mind, please, untying
me?”
“Duana,” Tam said, nodding towards Seven.
Duana reached down and pinched the bindings off Seven’s legs and stood her up. At the same time,
down the hall, the Borg managed to recover his footing and began his march up the corridor. Duana fired.
Thomas joined her in a second burst. The Borg fell. Another appeared around the corner. “I think we should leave,” Garcia said. “Come on. This way.”
“My hands?” Seven asked.
“Duana?” Garcia asked.
“Are you sure? She’s a Borg,” Duana said.
“I was freed from the Collective by Captain Katheryn Janeway. I am no longer Borg,” Seven assured
them.
“Cut her loose,” Garcia told Duana.
“What, you’re just going to believe her because she dropped the name of a Captain you served under?”
Ilona asked.
“We don’t have time for this,” Thomas said. “They’ve adapted.”
“Follow me,” Garcia instructed.
They followed Garcia around the corner, with Duana and Thomas trailing behind, firing their weapons.
Carter slid to a halt, grabbing Garcia’s arm. “Hey, this is it! The Horizon.”
“Quick, everyone, before the door closes,” Garcia said.
They rushed down the flex tube and were surprised not to find the Horizon, but the airlock of a Ferengi
vessel.
“That explained the Ferengi,” Thomas said. “It’ll take a few minutes for me to open this control panel
and hot open the airlock.”
“We need to do it before they back up,” Garcia said. “The ice has formed a seal against the hull.” “May I?” Duana asked. On Garcia’s approval, she punched the control panel. The control panel fell
away and she reached and pulled out the remaining mechanism. Her hand morphed to access the computer
chip and the door opened.
They entered and found themselves in the control center of the Ferengi vessel. Garcia went to the
controls and started going through a start up procedure. Nothing seemed to be responding. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing? You can read Ferengi?” Thomas asked. “He’s doing it correctly.” Seven assured him.
“Oh, I guess you read Ferengi, too?” Thomas said.
“I do, actually,” Seven responded.
“The controls have been rerouted. I’ve got to go to the engine room and do it from there,” Garcia said. “Wait,” Gary said. “Somebody has to go back in there, find the power source, and blow the hive up.” “Right now, we need to save ourselves, secure better weapons, and regroup,” Garcia said. “I know where the power source is,” Seven said.
“How do you know where the power source is?” Thomas asked.
“I saw the Borg creating access points along the main power grid line,” Seven said. “They’re
preparing to establish Borg sleep chambers.”
“Take me there and I’ll take care of the rest,” Gary said.
“Now, just a damn minute,” Thomas said. “I’m the highest ranking Officer here, and I will make the
determination who goes and who stays.”
An open lift from the lower level rose to the command deck, bringing with it three Borg. Two in front,
and one behind. The one behind was Locutus of Borg. It orientated towards them. “Your lives as you have
known them are now over. From this point forward, you will service the Borg.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Garcia said. “That way, everyone. To the shuttle bay.”
Thomas and Duana fired at the approaching Borg, but they had already adapted their shielding. They
retreated, following the others. They locked themselves into the shuttle bay, which was strangely absent of the
one shuttle that it should have had.
“This is not going to end well,” Thomas said.
“Over here,” Garcia said. “There’s one life pod left.”
“It’s not big enough for all of us,” Seven said.
“Well, I don’t think the Ferengi Engineers had humans in mind when they built it,” Carter said. “Carter, you’re in. You have to be there for your daughter,” Garcia said. “Seven, you, too.” “I must direct you to the main power source,” Seven said.
“I was going to have you do that, whatever your name is,” G