Eve surveyed the unusually quiet bridge of ColdFire, tapping one short-nailed finger against the armrest of her chair. Maybe it was the dire circumstances of this mission but somehow the captain’s chair, which normally felt so right and so comfortable now felt rigid and she just couldn’t seem to find the right spot for her buttocks. She hadn’t sat still more than five minutes since they’d left GS1.

       Directly in front of her was Flight Control, manned by the Cardassian helmsman Mr. Grunnig. The conn was optimized for maximum efficiency and only needed a sole pilot to operate it. Mr. Grunnig was an exceptional pilot but it was Eve’s intention to have Fotheran take the conn when they encountered The Borg Pyramid. Good as Grunnig was, he was no Denys Fotheran, who was without a doubt the best starship pilot Eve had ever seen. If it came to a fight, she’d rather have Fotheran flying ColdFire.

       The Ferengi Communications Officer, Mr. Cel was monitoring the overwhelming flood of transmissions streaming back and forth between ColdFire and what appeared to be every civilized system in the quadrant demanding to know what was happening, had ColdFire made contact with The Borg yet, what was Captain Mallory going to do when they at last encountered The Borg.

       It was a question Eve had been asking herself the past few hours.

       Ron Boutin turned in his chair from where he sat at the Science Station. “Captain…there’s something I think I should bring to your attention…”

       Glad to have the distraction, Eve sat up straighter in her chair and said; “By all means, Mr. Boutin.”

       “I’ve been backtracking the course The Borg Pyramid took to get to this point, using their warp signature and there’s something totally out of place here. The Borg passed through a significant number of inhabited systems. Systems of sufficient technological advancement that surely The Borg would have stopped to assimilate them. But they didn’t. They ignored them.”

       From his station at Ops, Wally Lockridge spoke up; “You sound almost disappointed, Ron. Seems to me that if The Borg left them alone we oughta be thankful.”

       “Oh, I am, Wally. I am. But The Borg never passes up the opportunity to assimilate a new species or technology. They sped by nearly two dozen inhabited worlds without so much as even slowing down for a scan. And that’s not like The Borg at all.”

       “Mr. Boutin is quite right, Mr. Lockridge. The Borg wouldn’t violate their directive without a very good reason.” Even though the words came out easily and without undue stress, Eve felt her throat tightening up. I think I have a VERY good reason for why The Borg left those worlds alone…

       The turbolift doors whooshed open and Fotheran strode onto the bridge. “Well, we can’t get anymore ready than we are now. There’s nothing left to do except meet The Borg and get this over with.”

       “Have you seen JoAnn?” Eve asked.

       “Last I saw of her she was helping out Dr. Bermiss in Sickbay. She said she’d be right here afterwards.” Fotheran moved toward the conn but Eve stopped him.

       “Commander, a few minutes of your time in my Ready Room if you please. Mr. Lockridge, the bridge is yours.”

       Lockridge nodded and moved to take Eve’s place in the captain’s chair as she led the way to her small but comfortable Ready Room. Behind her desk the round observation window showed the chaotic riot of warp space as she seated herself behind her desk, her interlaced hands propped under her chin. Fotheran went over to the replicator and said; “Denebian spring water. Ten degrees below room temperature.” The air shimmered and a tall glass of water appeared. “What’s the matter, Eve? Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts?”

       “Denys, let me ask you something: what would you say if I told you that there was a piece of my past I hadn’t told you about? That even after all these years I still have secrets I’ve never told you.”

       Fotheran sat in the chair on the opposite side of her desk and sipped his water thoughtfully before answering. “I’d say you picked a helluva time to come out with it.”

       “I’m serious.”

       “I know you are. You’re always serious. Eve…what possible difference could any secret you have make now?”

       “Because it concerns The Borg.”

       “Oh. I see.” Fotheran sipped more water before placing the glass on the desk and leaning forward, cracking his knuckles as he continued. “I got the impression back on GS1 that Riker was indicating that you had more knowledge of The Borg than you’ve ever let on. This dread secret of yours has got to do with that, I take it?”

       Eve sighed. “Yes. Yes it does. And now I find myself very afraid of what might happen when we encounter The Borg. Not afraid of a fight or of the truth coming out. I’m afraid of how the crew will view me afterwards. These people aren’t just my crew, Denys. They’ve become my friends, my family. And I think that soon, all that is going to change.”

       Fotheran nodded. “Y’know, Eve…I told you years ago that you should have taken Ron, Wally and the others into your confidence and told them you’re a Replicant. You’ve asked these people to trust you with their lives on many occasions and they’ve done so willingly.”

       “You know that Starfleet ordered me to keep my Replicant status a secret.”

       “Starfleet can go shove it up a turboshaft. On GS1 we’re as far as you can get from Starfleet Headquarters and we’ve gotten used to making our own rules.”

       “Maybe you have but I take the oath I swore seriously. I don’t have the hardwiring you have where I can pick and choose which orders I’m going to obey and which I’m going to ignore.” Eve frowned slightly.

       Fotheran held up his hands; “hey, hey…that’s not what we’re here to talk about…so let’s not even set a course in that direction, okay? You know where we’ll end up.”

       “You’re right. And that’s not why I asked you in here.”

       “Why did you ask me in here?”

       “I supposed I wanted to feel you out first and see how you would react to what I had to say.”

       Fotheran shrugged. “I’m not exactly the best sounding board when it comes to you, Eve. You know I’ll always have your back. But for what it’s worth, whatever this deep dark secret of yours is, I think the crew will take it in stride. They may be shocked, they may be appalled but they also have served under you long enough to know who the real Eve Mallory is.”

       “I hope you’re right.”

       “They may have some hard questions for you. Assuming we survive this. Questions that you should answer. Throw protocol out the airlock and sit down with them and come clean about everything.”

       Eve opened her mouth to answer but her commbadge came to life with urgency in the excited voice of Lockridge ||/\||Captain Mallory, report to the bridge! We have intercepted The Borg||/\||

       Eve hit her commbadge and replied crisply, “Go to Red Alert. Shields up to maximum. All weapons charged and ready.” Both Eve and Fotheran quickly got to their feet and left The Ready Room. Fotheran motioned for Grunnig to vacate the conn and Fotheran slid into the seat while Grunnig manned the Engineering Station. Eve sat down slowly in her chair and looked at The Borg Pyramid filling the viewscreen. “Normal magnification, Commander.”

       “That is normal magnification, Eve.”

       “Then pull back. Let’s see the whole thing.”

       Fotheran tapped a control. The Pyramid was smaller but looked no less formidable. The turbolift doors opened and JoAnn St. John came onto the bridge. She quickly moved to The First Officer’s chair next to The Captain’s Chair and sat down. “How are we doing so far?” she whispered to Eve.

       “I’ll let you know in five minutes. Mr. Cel, open a channel.” Eve sat back and took a deep breath and when she spoke again she used what Fotheran liked to call her ‘captain’s voice’: a voice of utter and total confidence and command. A voice that was used to being obeyed without question and without dispute.

       “This is Captain Eve Susan Mallory of the USS ColdFire. In the name of The United Federation of Planets I hereby order you to reverse your course and return to wherever you came from. I am prepared to use any and all resources at my disposal to ensure that you comply with this order. You have two minutes to respond.”

       Fotheran half turned in his chair and grinned over his shoulder. “Not bad, Mallory. Not bad at all.”

       “Unfortunately it doesn’t mean a damn thing to The Borg,” JoAnn grumbled. “Do you-“

       JoAnn was cut off by the response from the Borg Pyramid which was totally unexpected to say the least; “Ah, Perfect One. At last we meet.” The voice was unmistakably Borg but it was also very female in its softness and yes, its seductiveness.

       Everybody on the bridge swapped baffled looks. JoAnn shot a look at Eve who had gone shockingly pale, but she seemed to rally quickly. Eve and Fotheran gawped at each other for maybe ten seconds before Eve said; “What do you think?”

       “You’re asking me? I never heard of a Borg starting a conversation with anything other than ‘resistance is futile’. In any case, keep her talking. As long as the Borg are talking they’re not assimilating and that’s alright with me.”

       Eve straightened. She’d hoped never to hear the term ‘Perfect One’ ever again. “This is Captain Mallory.” She said. “What do you want?”

       “May we open a visual channel? I think our meeting will go much more smoothly that way.”

       Eve nodded to Cel who thumbed a control. And The Borg Queen replaced The Pyramid on the viewscreen. She appeared to be a humanoid female. Her head and upper torso were organic while the rest of her was obviously synthetic. Despite the grotesque implants that emerged from the back of her skull and the ghastly pallor of her skin it was undeniable that there was something almost obscenely attractive about The Borg Queen. A sexuality that was both repellent and captivating. She smiled as if she knew quite well the effect she made.

       “Never thought I’d see a Borg Queen,” JoAnn murmured. “Eve, do you-“

       Eve impatiently waved JoAnn to silence. She directed her attention back to the viewscreen. “I’ll ask again: what is it that you want?”

       “To talk to you, Perfect One. You are the reason I have come all this way.”

       Behind Eve, Boutin and Lockridge swapped baffled looks. Lockridge mouthed silently: Perfect One? Boutin hunched his shoulders in a ‘you got me’ gesture and they both turned back to the viewscreen as The Borg Queen continued to talk.

       “There is an enemy that threatens the very existence of The Borg and I have come to ask the help of The Perfect One in order to destroy it.”

       “You must be joking. Why would I help The Borg?” Eve’s voice was still confident but there was a tightness that only JoAnn noticed. “The Borg has been trying to destroy The Federation for years. Seems to me that if you’ve taken on more than you can handle it’s your problem.”

       “And once Species 13076 has finished with us how long do you think it will be before they come after you?”

       “Species 13076?”

       The Borg Queen smirked in slight amusement. “I'm sorry, Perfect One,” though Eve doubted otherwise she let the Queen continue. “While I realize you have a perfect understanding of our designations, others of your crew have failed to evolve beyond their simple comprehension of the species that inhabit their galaxy. Fortunately, Perfect One, I can make their understanding easy as we have learned what we believe to be a name from their consciousness: The Mephosta.”

       “And we're to believe these Mephosta present a threat to you? What, with your higher comprehension of the galaxy?” Fotheran retorted.

       “Why don’t you see for yourself?” The Borg Queen lifted a hand and a visual data stream of the Mephosta‘s destruction of The Gamma Quadrant Unicomplex began to play on ColdFire’s viewscreen. The bridge crew fell totally silent as the unimaginable carnage played out before their horrified eyes. JoAnn’s eyes opened as wide as they possibly could and one hand went up to cover her mouth in horror. Two minutes in, Wally Lockridge could simply watch no more and closed his eyes. Eve slowly got up from her chair and walked over to where Fotheran sat and placed a hand on his shoulder.

       “Eve.” Fotheran’s voice was devoid of emotion. “Tell me that what we’re seeing isn’t real.”

       “God help us all, Denys…I believe that it is…”

       “What ARE they?”

       The data stream was replaced by the face of The Borg Queen. “They. are The Mephosta, Commander Fotheran. And unless The Perfect One agrees to assist us in destroying them, they will eliminate The Borg. And then they will come for you.” The Borg Queen’s eyes seemed to fix Eve’s with a terrible intensity. “I realize you will need time to discuss this situation with your drones, Perfect One. I will contact you again in two hours.”

       The screen went dark.

C H A P T E R   S E V E N