Dark Origins

I have again been to the space center, and have done a mission on the Phoenix called 'Dark Origins'. It is perhaps the best mission I've done yet, new to the center this summer. On this mission, I was the Captain.

Mission Briefing: A black hole is found entering Dinaali space. Usually, a black hole is nothing new, the Federation has explored them before. But like usual, the Federation sent a probe to investigate this black hole because it did not orbit like most things, but rather up, then down, then back up again in a vertical loop, whereas most planets and other celestial bodies orbit in the opposite way, what would be the horizontal plane.

Nothing new was expected. Everyone was wrong. What the probe found was amazing; a planet suspended just above the black hole. According to all the laws of physics, this was impossible, the planet would be sucked in eventually. But it wasn't. No, rather scans showed that the planet was uninhabited and had been so for at least ten thousand years. It was presumed that the black hole was the reason of the civilization's death, but why didn't the planet disappear? Furthermore, was there any treasure on this planet?

There were several other things that were picked up by the probe, including that the planet was a major power source. There were also several similarities between the traces of the civilization and the modern Borg, so we were warned to be careful.

Several weeks later, the Phoenix was charged with the responsibility of heading to the planet. The problem was, how were we not to be sucked in by the black hole?

As it happened, the planet cast an eclipse out from the black hole, an eclipse of radiation and anything that may harm us. This eclipse was not going to last forever, and was out only hope of getting to the planet within the next ten thousand years. We decided to take it.

Mission: Undocking was disastrous. A permanent blotch on my record.

I'm getting ahead of myself. I am the newly appointed captain of the USS Phoenix. After the Phoenix was charged with the duty of exploring the unknown planet, I was personally picked by Starfleet to be on this ship, to help out if things got rough. The first thing I noticed was that bridge positions were filled by fresh graduates from the academy except for captain. I was the only senior among them, and thus captain. I would have filled the seat of first officer or tactical officer, for I have served as both, first officer for two years on the USS Voyager and one year on the USS Magellan, and as tactical officer on the USS Odyssey for one year.

Now, about the undocking I mentioned earlier; I was going through formal undocking procedures, and as I'm requesting permission to undock, I hear a scraping sound. I look on screens and see a sight that should not have been; the Phoenix had taken off without undocking, and was tearing the space station to shreds. My crew and I were hospitalized for a week (in actuality, we died and had death time, but for the purpose of the story, go along with it).

Several weeks later, we took off. I took the precaution of taking power out of all engines. My engineer was a step ahead and had already done so.

Nothing really happened for some time. We got several messages from other civilizations asking about the black hole. It was no secret that we were going to the black hole. It was that we were going to the planet.

Unfortunately, information on the planet got out and we got several calls. The first was from the Dinaari. Being a peace loving and crazy, psychotic people, they valued human life higher than their own. Needless to say, that is a great honor, but extremely annoying. That would be because the black hole was in their space, and through logic, they determined that by letting us through, it would be their fault if we died. I tried to reason with them, telling them that if they let us through, it wouldn't be their fault, but Starfleet's because they ordered us to go to the black hole.

They didn't listen, and hung up on us, but not before they declared war on our ship. Now, pause for a moment. If they value human life above their own, why attack us? There is a good possibility that we could die in a fire fight with a larger ship, where as flying through a wide eclipse is a piece of cake when you've been trained to fly through the narrowest of asteroid fields and nebulas. Does it really make sense? No, of course not. My crew and I still wonder how the Dinaari achieved the status of a warp civilization with their backwards thinking.

So now on to the fight. The Dinaari were not kind. The Dinaari being who they were, I had expected no fighting, so I flew in without shields. My mistake. I had just given the order to raise shields when the first shot was fired. It hit us good and thoroughly, and caused much damage. Luckily, no more shots came as we raised shields. But once they were raised, the Dinaari had no mercy. None whatsoever. They fired until our weapons, our shields, and our engines were offline. They hailed us. They asked if we had had enough. I said yes, and we would not again enter Dinaari space. The Dinaari activated their tractor beams and took us to the border. Then we were hailed by the Ferengi, an annoying race of backstabbers and extortionists.

There is something you should know before I tell you about the negotiations that occured between the Ferengi and the Phoenix. That something is that at the time, I was stunned, and my first officer, according to the rest of the crew, handled things awfully.The reason I was stunned you ask? Simple: my first officer is treasonous. He shot me, by accident is what he claims, though I don't believe him, and I was down. What kind of behavior is that for a first officer? I hand pick him from the crew and he backstabs me? What's up with that?

Alright, now on to the Ferengi. They knew our position. They offered us parts for our ship. Knowing the Ferengi, I refused their kind offer, and then they told us theirs. We either give them half of all the treasure to be found on the planet, or they would kill us here and now. It was an offer we couldn't refuse if we valued our lives. We accepted. Later we would find a way to get rid of the Ferengi and not have to pay up, for everyone knew they would turn around and stab us deep in the heart.

While engineering continued fixing our engines, we got several more calls, the first of which was from the Klingons. Naturally, they wondered what we were doing. They knew we were headed to the black hole, and assumed it was a suicide mission. They told us of how we must die a warrior's death, not the death of cowardly dogs. To which I replied, "Please don't fire on us." Again, another mistake, as I had given the Klingons to much intellectual credit. They asked us why they would fire. I had told them that they wanted us to die a warrior's death and they had weapons...Apparently that gave them the idea of firing on us, and having the honor of giving us the warrior's death they wished us to die. I quickly told them I hadn't meant it that way, and that we would be sure to find ourselves a warrior's death. Then we hung up on the Klingons before they could protest. Not the best idea, but our engines came up soon after, so it wasn't much of a problem. We hoped at least.

The final call was from Starfleet, which instructed us to try again with the Dinaari. We did so, and the result was we had to sign a legal document saying that the Dinaari would not be held responsible for our deaths.

Now that we had the okay to pass through Dinaari space, we continued on to the planet. We were there in roughly ten minutes. In the mean time, engineering worked on fixing the ship after our one-sided fight with the Dinaari, them being the one side. Several times operations, after being overworked by me and engineering, accidentally hailed someone. This happened thrice. The first it was Starfleet, I told them wrong number, and everything was peaceful. Starfleet wasn't angry. They second hail was to the Dinaari, who were slightly annoyed with us having accidentally hailed them. The third was the Klingons, who accused me of insulting their honor. I don't know how they came to that conclusion, but then they're Klingons. Of course they would find some thing or other wrong with the Federation. They always do.

It was during the time of travel to the planet that my helms officer managed to get Doctor James to give himself a numbing shot. It was really quite funny, I'll admit that. That incident may also explain why it took so long for helms to recover from a disease he got later. We also met Lieutenant Luna, who apparently graduated the same year as my tactical officer. Lieutenant Luna pretended not to know tactical. I can see why.

As it would turn out, Luna and James had some sort of a disagreement on something and were constantly bickering. From what I overheard, it was something about the last captain and helms officer of the ship. Something like the captain left to go to sickbay because Lieutenant Luna, celebrating his recent graduation from the academy, had accidentally shot him along with operations and the first officer. Luckily his phaser was on stun, so they didn't die. Then helms crashed into an asteroid. Not sure why, I didn't pick up on that part.

So we got to the planet, and stopped just outside of the black hole, where we switched to manual steering on the part of the helms officer. It was a rather bumpy ride, and we came close to being sucked in to the black hole many times, only to swiftly move into the safe zone, only to go past it into the gravitational pull of the other side of the eclipse. Nevertheless, we made it out alive. I was impressed with helms, especially since helms was the one who had crashed the space station a while back.

We landed on the surface of the planet smoothly. The xenoarchaeologist, Bruce, came up to the bridge to make sure that we would be alright. Not that he needed to. After all, we were from Starfleet, and he was from who-knows-where.Anyhow, he showed us the way towards the major energy source the probe detected. Then we came to a halt, for a force field would not let certain people pass, those being those with weapons or electronics. Therefore, we were forced to lay down our weapons. My gut told me this was very bad.

We soon came to an electronically controlled sarcophagus. This sarcophagus would not open, by the normal means, but rather by much simpler means, the kind that those in the early twenty-first century used: pressing a button. People of the twenty-first century were such barbarians.

Bruce was the one to find the button. It was pressed, and the sarcophagus opened. Inside was every Starfleet officer's worst nightmare: a Borg drone.

Naturally, we all ran for our lives. But then the drone spoke out, and we all dropped down to the floor, unable to get up. Then the drone spoke to us. I was expecting the usual "Resistance is futile, surrender your ships," stuff, been there, done that, moved on. Yet, not for the first time, my expectations were not fulfilled.

The drone asked questions about the Federation. In the state we were in, we had no choice but to answer. Thus we did. But why did the Borg ask about the Federation? The Borg already knows all about the Federation from the assimilation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard several years ago. So why ask?

The answer was found when Bruce spoke up and asked who the drone was. This plunged the drone into a tale of times long past, times that were the beginning of the Borg. The drone told us how there he was once the king of the Borg. That he had created his race into people that were half synthetic and half biological creatures, that he made the Borg who they were to day to avoid their destruction at the hands of the black hole. He told us of how his queen had stabbed him in the back and enslaved the Borg, forming them into a collective. Her collective.

The Borg queen put the king into the sarcophagus and left the planet, embarking on quests to assimilate the known universe. Thus the king has been sleeping since, and now wants to free his people with the code that will undo the one that enslaved them. The king asks us if we can help.

The Borg are the most powerful beings in the known universe; they are immortal, are immune to disease, adapt to any weapon in minutes, and have only one leader, who is very well protected. To free the Borg would make them are allies, and the Federation is not without enemies. With the Borg at our side, no one would threaten us. No one would threaten anyone. There would be no more war for the Borg are the most powerful life forms known next to Species 8472 and the Q. Freeing the Borg would mean peace until a more powerful race declares war.

What answer could we give the king? We said yes.

The king alerted us that the Borg may already know he's awake, for they rigged his sarcophagus with many alerts and traps. Sure enough, two Borg were waiting for us down the hall. While everyone without a phaser took cover, tactical, Lieutenant Luna, and engineering shot at the Borg. Just to answer your question, I gave engineering a phaser after my first officer shot me.

Then the king walked forth. He took one glance at the Borg and they fell dead. No one knew why, and the king himself couldn't explain. When this was all over, he was to be the topic of scientific study. After all, he was the one who turned his people into the Borg at the time humans were still swinging clubs.

We quickly hurried to the ship with no more incidents from there out. We launched the ship, only to set off one of the many traps set. Two ancient Borg fighters were activated, as old as the king himself. Needless to say, these didn't have the firepower of a Borg cube, and were easily destroyed.

Excellent. Everything was going well, we were exiting the planet and navigated out of the eclipse. Mission accomplished, and we even picked up the Borg king while we were at it. A promotion was sure to be in there somewhere.

Then things took a dark turn as we came out of the eclipse. People were waiting for us. Many, many ships. Every known major species was among them, from the Klingons to the Romulans, from the Cardassians to the Ferengi. And we were in the center of them all. Quickly, we sent out an alert message to Starfleet, fearing the worst.

The Dinaari were the first to call, and explained why everyone was here: they wanted to see the treasure. We told them we had none, and it was perfectly fine with them.... But the others may not be so happy.

The Ferengi called next, the collect their side of the bargain. As it turned out, they wanted their treasure. Fortunately, my crew didn't come across any treasure, and thus our side of the bargain was fulfilled. The Ferengi didn't think we were being honest, but we hung up on them to answer the far more threatening Klingons.

Of course, we were in a world of trouble with the Klingons. We had lied to them about the treasure, as they found out, hung up on them twice, and had insulted their honor. Luckily they said we didn't deserve a warrior's death. But of course, something always goes wrong. One of my crew members breathed a sigh of relief, and the Klingons found we were most happy without a warrior's death. They hung up and moments later fired. Most unfortunate for them, the shot hit a different ship, and the result was pure chaos. Everyone started firing at everyone else.

We would have died that day, save for the coming of a Borg cube, which saved us in the most unlikely of ways. You see, when a Borg cube comes, you want no part of it. So everyone ran except us, whose engines were once more offline, along with most weapons and shields. As we prepared ourselves for death, our alert call to Starfleet was answered. A full fleet was assembled, and they all began to fire on the cube. Within minutes, it was destroyed. The USS Magellan was the ship that shot the killing blow.

Following the after math of the battle, the Phoenix was docked with the Magellan. My crew and I got a good night's sleep, not knowing what the next day had in store for us.

The morning following the destruction of the Borg cube and freeing of the king, I was told of the overnight improvements that had been made to the Phoenix thanks to the knowledge of the Borg king. Our shields and weapons were now the standard of the Borg cubes, and we had the kind and gracious king to thank.

Doctor James also found that while the king had been sleeping, he had been aging, slowly, but still aging. Now that he was alive and well again, he was aging at the rate he normally should be, and thus had maybe two hours and most to live. Two hours to free the Borg.

Once aboard the ship, I was given the charge of helping the king to free the Borg. This normally wasn't a problem, but we found the Borg cube had come from a transwarp conduit just past the planet, now known as the Borg home world. It was presumed that past the conduit was the Borg nexus, the Borg fortification, were the queen resided.

Soon after leaving the station, it was found that there were two stowaways on board. Usually not much of a problem, but they carried a highly infectious disease that kills half of all victims in less than twenty-four hours of being diagnosed. The stowaways were found quickly and the disease was held. My helms officer was diagnosed, so the doctor instructed the crew not to go near him or touch him.

Before we reached the conduit, the usual people called, the Ferengi, the Klingons, and the Dinaari. The Dinaari were first again, demanding to know why we were passing through their space again. Of course, a Borg invasion was doubtlessly coming now that the king was living, and thus the Dinaari let us through without problems. Smart people for the first time.Next were the Klingons and Ferengi, both demanding to have half the treasure. They didn't believe me when I told them there was none, and thus I invited them to come aboard and search the ship. Moments later, we were in the transwarp conduit and leaving them behind. They weren't too happy.

As it would turn out, the conduit was radioactive. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? And guess what; the shields weren't up, and we had most power in the cloaking device so we wouldn't be detected by the Borg in the nexus. Then there was the thirty second warning that we would be kicked out of the conduit and most likely killed. Wow. What an exciting few minutes.

My resolution was to divert power from weapons into shields while simultaneously raising them, and put a little bit of power into the warp engines from the cloaking device to get a little farther before we were kicked out. These decisions had unforeseen repercussions.

With the luck of the Phoenix, we were kicked out of the conduit in an uncharted system in the middle of the Delta quadrant, and as it happens, a system belonging to the Borg.We were scanned by the Borg, and were soon attacked by a cube. This was the most desperate battle of our lives. We should've died that day. But we came out alive.

At first it was the normal battle, the Borg jamming our systems, blah, blah, blah. Then they did somthing different by boarding our ship to exterminate their king. Now the Borg weren't doing that of their will, but their queen's. They had no choice.The Borg slowly worked their way up to the bridge slowly, but there was a surprise waiting when they arrived. It was called the Borg king. Two of the Borg got to the bridge. One died and one was freed. From there on, the free Borg spread to everyone freedom. But the queen unfortunately noticed and killed the rest.

Now the cube commenced firing on us. This was when we used some of the new torpedoes installed at the Magellan. One shot, one kill. True for life forms and some star ships, but no one would ever have dreamed of the day it came true for fighting the Borg. On that day, the Phoenix became the first ship to ever destroy a Borg cube single handedly. Technically, though, we didn't actually kill the Borg, but rather rendered them helpless, transmitted the freedom code, and the queen killed them to prevent them from being freed. I still count it as a record though.

The Borg being destroyed and unable to challenge us further, we hailed the planet and relayed the king's code. Within minutes, the planet was free, asking the king what to do. As it turned out, the king didn't know, and thus his people suggested passing on the code and freeing others. All ended well in that system, and if we were to die in the Borg nexus, then there would at least be a system of Borg who were free and would pass on the code.

We reentered the conduit with shields and cloaking device raised. Within five minutes, we were in the Borg nexus. None of the Borg knew we were there. Five cubes flew right past us. Then operations accidentally hailed the Borg sphere where the queen was. We were detected. All systems were taken over. We were sitting ducks, and to make matters worse, the Borg queen wanted to kill her king along with the rest of us.

I was handling the first ever recorded negotiations with the Borg queen quite well. That is, until the king decided to talk. He wanted to become immortal, wanted to become part of the collective. At the time, he had maybe five minutes left to live. He offered the Phoenix in return for his immortality. It was a win-win situation for the Borg. The king was under the control of the queen. The Phoenix was gone. And best of all, the Borg would know Federation security codes. I couldn't let this happen, and was about to shoot the Borg king when my first officer shot me again. He had somehow been reassigned his phaser.

Once I got back from sick bay, the king explained to me this was the only way to free his people, get close enough to relay the code. I was still angry, but only because I hadn't thought of that.

When we were close enough, the Borg king put his hand on the main view screen. The code was automatically relayed, and the queen was infuriated. The king began to walk away after relaying the code and fell down on the floor. His life support was failing and he was dying. Yet, now was not the time. We had Borg on our tails. If I remember correctly, it was about seven cubes and a sphere versus a small vessel like ours. We were outnumbered. We were outgunned. We were outstrategized. We were dead.

As Doctor James attended to the king, we fought the Borg while simultaneously flying back to the conduit through a maze of unattended Borg cubes. The Borg followed us. We took heavy damage, and were eventually surrounded. If we had to die, we would go down fighting. We fired everything we could, which included small, self destruct probes which actually proved quite useful.

But it was no use. The Borg were adapting to our weapons. We had taken out five cubes, but two were still left, including the sphere. I heard the Borg queen telling us resistance is futile. But no. Not yet.We locked on to the Borg queen's vessel, the sphere. All fire was held until I gave the order. I gave the order.

Every weapon we had was being fired, every last one. All power was diverted into the weapons for one last stand. If we were doomed to die, we would take the queen down with us.

In that final, desperate hour, we should've died. We had single handedly taken out five cubes, a feat that had never, ever happened. The king was pronounced dead. Resistance truly was futile in that last moment. The crew braced themselves for impact.

We heard one last boom, and then it was quiet. It wasn't us that had exploded, no; it was the queeen. Then we were hailed by the Borg, who thanked us. It had taken a while for the code to work its way through, but it got there, and saved us all. The Borg asked of their king. We told them the bad news, that he died. The Borg asked permission to come aboard and take their king with them.

In the battle, everything was damaged. Nothing worked, and so the Borg offered to take us to the nearest space station in Federation space. We graciously accepted.

Mission Success: Our mission was a success, and we were the first crew to get a perfect ten out of ten, despite our beginning death