Star Trek Voyager: The Gift

Star Trek Voyager: The Gift 9. Wolf 359

“How is the sensor sweep looking Ensign?”

Chakotay flushed slightly as the realisation dawned on him that Captain O’Dell had been speaking to him, his head immediately snapping up from the console to meet the eyes of the Captain but found that the older man had his eyes fixed on the viewscreen, which showed that the space around the Saratoga was eerily empty, almost too peaceful. “Ev…Everything seems normal sir…” He reported, stuttering slightly. Sprits, does every new ensign make such a mess of their first shift on the Bridge or is it just me? He cringed internally. Despite his verbal trip up, the senior officers seemed to take him at his word and settled back down into a productive silence, leaving Chakotay to his thoughts. As he stared down at the console he couldn’t help thinking about what they would be facing, there had been no word for the first fleet of ships that had followed the Enterprise’s tail since they’d entered the sector closest to Wolf 359 for over fourteen hours, the same sector the Saratoga and its accompanying fleet of 30 other ships had just entered at warp eight. Underneath the senior officers’ aura of calm, Chakotay could sense tension and even fear. After all, how could a fleet of 10 Starfleet ships, let alone the famous Enterprise, just disappear? Suddenly a sickening feeling of dread swept through him, overwhelming the anxiety driven excitement that had prevailed over him before, and he wished with all his heart he hadn’t left his family so abruptly, after their long trip out to see his graduation, just to be a part of this mission…

He shuddered as the perplexed, and slightly fearful, voice of the Tactical Officer cut through the silence like a knife, “Captain, I’m reading four Starfleet vessels and tens of others I can’t Identify, they’re exchanging weapons fire…”

“Get to those co-ordinates now Lieutenant!” O’Dell ordered the pilot sharply and Chakotay felt the ship’s hull surge forward beneath his feet as the Captain addressed the Tactical Officer directly, “What happened to the other six ships in the fleet Commander? Not to mention the Enterprise!”

The officer, a Trill Lt. Cmdr by the name of Denzin, glanced back down at the console, his hands shaking, “There’s a huge mass of debris…it seems they’ve been destroyed sir.”

“I want a visual on those ships as soon as we come within range!” Captain O’Dell ordered tersely after recovering from the shock of Denzin’s words. “I want everyone working to identify them before that; I want to know what we’re dealing with here!”

Chakotay robotically obeyed, forcing himself not to think of the hundreds of people on those ships and instead focus on his console. He had to hold himself up against the console as he recognised the unknown ships’ signatures as familiar, his legs sagging in horrified shock. “Borg… They’re Borg Cubes Captain…” He gasped out, staring at the viewscreen, which was blurred by the speed the ship was going, expecting to see hundreds of Cubes suddenly pounce on them from nowhere.

O’Dell now stood up to face him, his face white with disbelief and anger, “What does an ensign fresh out of the Academy know about Borg? What little we know of them is highly classified…”

Chakotay felt his breath catch in his throat as he felt the disbelieving glares of everyone around him, what could he say? He knew it was the Borg because he’d seen a Cube crash in his family’s field and he’d spent years living with a former drone as part of his family? “I…” He began in a near whisper but was interrupted by the crackle of the comm. system.

“This…this is Captain Underwood of the…U.S.S Churchill…” Chakotay gulped as he remembered that the Churchill was the head ship of their fleet, conceivably the first one to reach the battle between the remnants of the original rescue fleet and the Borg. “We are being…boarded by the Borg… In need of assistance…” Static cut her off until, “Captain Picard…captured…” With that last terrifying titbit, the comm. line gave out all together.