Chapter 12 - The Tide Turns
Alexander Grant stood on the bridge of the starship Venture, watching the ship's captain and crew make the final preparations for the assault on Nybiros. He was well aware of the good fortune that had brought victory to Starfleet's previous incursion into this system. He hoped this time would be no different.
"All ships signal they are standing by, Admiral," Captain K'lremi reported.
"Very well."
His mind ran through the plan again, attempting to find that one thing he had missed that would make all the difference. There was always something. He'd learned that hard truth over the course of his nearly fifty year career in Starfleet.
He'd almost reconsidered leaving the Tethys behind at Kel-j'na, thinking they might need the added firepower of the other Oceana class starship, but Admiral Simmons had convinced him of the need for protection for Kel-j'na in case Grant's attack on Nybiros failed.
No, everything was in place. Now all that remained was for the Abdiel to deliver the first, and most important punch in this match. He prayed it might be a knockout, but doubted they could get that lucky.
***
Setacvas put on the jacket of Jeremiah McCall's uniform to protect against the chill of the morning air on Nybiros. He took pleasure even in that inconvenience because of how alive it made him feel. The other Volmvas could not understand why he remained in the admiral's body. Their non-corporeal existence protected them from all the dangers of nature. But Setacvas had come to understand something all of them had forgotten since becoming beings of energy--- the pleasures of nature were what made its dangers worth enduring.
Recently, he had considered leaving Nybiros and starting a new life on a distant world, a real life.
But that dream had not lasted long. The energies of his mind were slowly eating away at Jeremiah McCall's body, treating Setacvas like some infection which had to be defeated even if it meant its own destruction.
The time would come when he would leave the body he now inhabited, but that would not be required for some time if he had any say in the matter.
The bright orb of the sun had just begun its daily ritual of travel across the sky hanging over the city. Setacvas took the elevator down to the ground level and stepped out onto a street crowded with G'voda walking to and fro on their appointed tasks.
"I do believe I am in the mood for a walk."
He had expected the thoughts of the man whose body he occupied to intrude on his good spirits, but Jeremiah McCall's mind was quiet. He had been that way ever since Setacvas had made the decision to stand up to the enemies of the Volmvas.
Good, Jeremiah, remain silent, Setacvas thought. I hadn't expected you'd have much to say since learning of the impending invasion by Starfleet.
Still nothing.
Wearing a smile, Setacvas started out toward the large spaceport at the southern edge of the city. Afterward, he planned to return to the command center to monitor the coming battle and the swift victory the G'voda would deliver.
Admiral Jeremiah McCall would be forced to observe the destruction the Federation had brought upon itself. And he would be helpless to stop any of it.
Once the children of the Ancient Progenitors were gone, everyday would be as happy as this morning for Setacvas.
***
Jack McCall sat in the command chair of the Abdiel while the ship's commanding officer, Paul Falco, sat at the conn station, piloting the small vessel.
"We're keeping pace with the garbage transport and are on course for the planet," Falco stated. "Awaiting your order to change heading."
Jack couldn't help but notice the less than enthusiastic tone in Falco's voice, but he didn't take it personally. To take another's orders aboard your own ship was a hard thing for anyone to swallow, and more so for a man like Falco.
Jack turned in the chair. "Hank?"
"Cloak is fully functional," Hank Evans reported from the tactical station. "Weapons and shields on standby."
"Power and drive systems at optimal," Melissa told him from her vantage point at Ops. "Power down procedures ready to initiate."
Jack frowned. This was the one part of this plan that he had the most trepidation about. "You sure we'll be able to power back up afterwards?"
"Based on what Mei and Hank told me about the effects of this thing, I believe we've shielded all the necessary systems." Melissa appeared to be trying to reassure herself as much as Jack. She held up a small flashlight. "But just in case..."
Jack nodded and touched the intercom control. "You ready down there, Mei?"
"You know I got chewed out the last time I set this thing off," Mei-Wan's voice said over the intercom.
Jack smiled. "I promise not to get mad."
"Even if something goes wrong?"
"If anything goes wrong, I doubt I'll have the time to get angry at you."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better."
Jack glanced at the chronometer counting down above the viewscreen. "Five minutes, twenty-three seconds, Mei."
"I'll be ready."
***
Setacvas enjoyed walking down the crowded streets of Nybiros. That feeling had nothing to do with the crowds of mechanical beings which would part as he approached. He hardly noticed them.
It was the simple joy of doing something that felt good.
Yet you would take that away from so many, Jeremiah McCall's voice intruded.
Setacvas ignored him. He wasn't about to let the bothersome contemplation of a human ruin this feeling for him. He had only fifteen more minutes to indulge himself before the attack by Starfleet was expected. Jeremiah could chatter away all he wanted, but he wasn't going to answer.
This day was the beginning of the end of his long battle against the Ancient Progenitors and their offspring, the current humanoid lifeforms of the Galaxy. He was determined to enjoy ever minute of it.
However, his happiness was short-lived.
All the G'voda around him stopped in unison, as if some switch had been thrown, cutting off power to them.
Setacvas slowed and then stopped. "What is this?" He approached one of the machine beings. It remained motionless. Then it struck him. The eyes. Its electronic eyes had gone dark.
He spun about and found it was the same with all the hundreds of nearby G'voda. "No! This can't be happening!"
But it is, Setacvas!
"There is no weapon the Federation has that could do this! I have searched every corner of your mind!"
Then the fear that had driven him ever since his release from the pit on Cajma came roaring to the surface again. "The Vedala!"
He took off in a dead run. He had to reach the command center.
Setacvas called to his fellow Volmvas, Come my friends! The Vedala are attacking the G'voda! We must protect those who have served us for so long!
He heard their reply, We come, Setacvas! We come!
However, that assurance did nothing to calm the panic in his heart. He had to find out why all his hopes had suddenly turned to ash.
***
"We have confirmation that the weapon has been activated, Admiral," K'lremi announced from her command chair.
"Order the fleet to enter the Nybiros system and surround all G'voda vessels," Admiral Grant told her. "No one is to open fire except if fired upon or unless on my direct order."
"Aye, sir."
***
On the bridge of the Chamberlain, Lak Negev sat in the command chair listening to orders from the Venture.
He touched the intercom control. "Commander Bishop, prepare Cilda for her transmission. We are about to enter the Nybiros system."
Down in engineering, Kristen Bishop stood at the vault that held their guest. "Acknowledged," she replied to Negev.
Her hand danced on the controls to the large door sealing the G'voda that had rescued Mei-Wan the last time they'd been in this system. She didn't understand why Jack McCall had been so insistent about letting this machine send the information about Mei-Wan's rescue to their enemies, but he had promised Cilda she'd get this opportunity, and Bishop was the last person to do anything that would make Jack a liar.
The vault door opened and she began the power up sequence on the currently inert machine. Bishop hoped she was doing the right thing. She didn't trust this or any other G'voda.
She smiled at that. "Here I am an engineer, and I don't trust a machine."
The G'voda's eyes illuminated.
"I am functioning again," Cilda stated.
"I have revived you so that you could send your message to the other G'voda."
Cilda sat up. "Then we have returned to Nybiros?"
"We'll be there in a few minutes."
***
The lights flickered back on. However, it was the illuminated text on the panel of the Ancient Progenitor device which filled the shuttlebay that caught Mei-Wan's attention. It took her nearly a minute to translate it.
"Oh no," she whispered. Her hand tapped her comm badge. "Lau to bridge."
She waited, but nothing.
"Lau to bridge. Come in Jack."
Still nothing.
Since there was no point in remaining in the shuttlebay, Mei-Wan hurried to the nearest turbolift.
***
Syronus looked about the observation deck. Something was very wrong.
The nearby display was dark. The only light in the room came from the windows.
In the chamber holding his prisoner, the Borg stood motionless. At least she hadn't been responsible for whatever was wrong.
He worked the controls of the display. It flashed to life. A flood of data filled it and Syronus's anger grew with each passing line.
"Power failure?"
He ran to the windows and his mind could not believe what he found. His ships stood frozen in place as dozens of Starfleet vessels dropped out of warp.
"No!"
The intercom crackled to life. "This is Admiral Alexander Grant of the United Federation of Planets…" The signal faded a moment. "…order you to surrender your vessels… I repeat…"
"Impossible!"
***
On the Abdiel's bridge, Melissa and Jack continued scanning the surrounding vessels.
"They may have removed his transponder," Melissa told Jack.
"He should be the only organic lifeform in the entire system." Jack watched the shifting display in front of him. His father had to be there.
"Wait," Melissa nearly shouted. "I think I've got something."
Jack examined the reading she had on the display.
"Uh, Jack," Hank interrupted. "I'm getting indications the drive and weapons systems are coming back online for a couple of the G'voda ships."
"Damn it," Jack said under his breath. "All we need is a few more minutes." He watched Melissa zoom in on the lifesign reading she'd found. "Have we gotten our comms back yet?"
"Negative," Hank replied.
"Got him!" Melissa's hands immediately went to work on another set of controls. "He's on a ship that's just now leaving the surface of the planet."
"Lock on to him with the transporter and bring him aboard," Jack ordered.
"Already locked," Melissa said.
Just as her finger was about to touch the last control, the Abdiel shuddered violently.
"What the hell was that?" Falco asked.
"One of the G'voda vessels has us targeted," Hank said.
"Why aren't we blasted into a million pieces?"
Hank did a quick scan of the vessel attacking them as the bridge shook again. "Because their systems are only at minimal power. Probably some backup power supply that was designed to combat the very thing we threw at them."
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack caught Mei-Wan entering the bridge. "Then we'll have to use the weapon again to knock that out."
"That's going to be a little difficult," Mei-Wan told him.
"Why?"
"The device isn't functioning."
"That's just great!" Falco blurted out.
"I haven't been able to figure out what the cause is yet," Mei-Wan said as she joined Jack and Melissa at the Ops panel. "My best guess is it was probably damaged somehow when we removed it from Dalvanax Two."
"I thought it had been checked thoroughly."
"I went over the systems, but to translate all of what I think was its diagnostic readout would have taken weeks even for the computer."
Hank shook his head. "For something that had been buried so long ago, we're lucky it worked at all."
Before Jack could react to that, Melissa had more bad news for him.
"There's something wrong with the transporter." She turned to Jack. "I can't get your father off that ship."
"What's the problem?" Jack asked as he tried the controls himself.
"I haven't found the source of the problem yet."
"Damn it." Things weren't going at all like he had planed. He only hoped the fleet was having a better time of things than the Abdiel was.
"Why don't I go back to the shuttlebay with Mei and see if we can't figure out a way to get that device functioning again?" Melissa suggested.
It wasn't as if they could do much else sitting where they were. "Get to it, while I try the transporter again," Jack ordered.
"Don't bother Jack."
They all turned to the rear of the bridge where a man wearing a Starfleet admiral's uniform stood.
"Dad?"
Hank pulled his phaser out and took aim.
"Put it away, Evans," Jeremiah McCall said, or rather the being inhabiting his body did. "Despite the limitations I have had to place upon my power to reside in Admiral McCall's body, I can still fend off a simple phaser blast."
Hank kept his phaser ready. "How about we put that to the test and find out?"
"No, I don't think that'll be necessary." Jack motioned Hank to lower his weapon. "I'm glad you came to see me."
"I of course detected your attempt to transport me, and due to your father's insistence I thought it best to see what you wanted. Or was it your father you wished to speak to?"
Jack's eyes widened. "My father?"
Jeremiah's demeanor softened. "I'm here, Jack. I told him he could trust you."
"It's great to see you again, Dad." Jack couldn't help smiling.
The admiral's face changed again. He looked up, seeming to search for something beyond the confines of the ship they were on.
"Setacvas," Jack began. "To answer your question, I wanted to talk to you. We can end this, here and now."
***
Syronus watched the story of what had happened to his ships unfold on the display before him. A cloaked ship had entered the system and set off some energy dampening field that had disabled the G'voda and their vessels. Fortunately the G'voda had fail-safes in their mechanical bodies which reset after any failure. Their ships, while having similar protections, had too many interconnected systems for any such preventative measures to be wholly effective.
He was pleased he had been able to return power to the containment field for his Borg prisoner before she had regained consciousness. He had not wanted her death to be the quick ordeal that would have been required of him if she had remained free.
The display indicated a signal was coming in from one of the approaching Federation vessels, but it was on a G'voda frequency, in fact the one that they often used to communicate amongst themselves.
Perhaps their spy had new information that would prove useful in turning the tide of this battle.
A voice burst into his mind.
I am Cilda. For five hundred years I was your prisoner. You took my dignity, my home, and my people from me. I endured all you did to me so that I might secure the survival of my people, the Fashod. But the time for such concerns is at an end. I have learned the truth of my existence and that of every G'voda.
Cilda's memories filled Syronus's consciousness. An image of the human woman, Mei-Wan, being prepared for transfer to a mechanical G'voda body. Then a storage facility on Nybiros--- a door opened, and Mei-Wan's body could be seen in stasis container. A scanner display showed evidence of neural activity.
Finally, Mei-Wan waking up in what appeared to be a room on a human vessel.
You are all dead, Cilda's voice told the billions of G'voda down on the planet below. Just as with Mei-Wan, your minds were only copied. The real beings you were died with your bodies.
The transmission ended.
But a moment later, it was replaced by the combined cries of horror from beings who'd always believed they'd had their minds transferred to new, mechanical bodies so very long ago. They now knew they were nothing but mechanical constructs designed to act and think like creatures who had ceased to exist.
However, this wasn't a surprise to Syronus. He had known this all along. To him it had simply been another price they had paid to do what was right.
Now a different price was being paid for his secrecy as the G'voda were forced to face the reality of their existence. His fear told him that price might eventually fall heavily upon him.
