Part 21 (1/2)

His heart only now beginning to slow, he re-transmitted the signal that would-should!- freeze every single device, making it impossible for them to detonate or decloak or even move.

But it had no more effect than the first such signal. The remaining thousands of lights continued to vanish in ever greater numbers until, after less than sixty seconds, every single one was gone, leaving only the muted specks that were the Borg vessels.

Though he knew it wouldn't help, Sarek called up another set of readings and yet another.

The same detonation signal appeared in every one, just milliseconds before the readings ended.

But no decloaking signals.

The photon torpedoes had been detonated, every one, but not in this dimension, where the explosions would have at least damaged the Borg cubes they were cl.u.s.tered around. Instead, their deadly power had been released in that other dimension, where it had no effect whatsoever on the Borg or on anything at all in this dimension-except for extinguis.h.i.+ng the specks of light on his viewscreen.

They knew, Sarek thought bleakly. All this time, they knew.

They must have known for years, perhaps from the very beginning of the program. Even the Borg couldn't have found a way to defeat the fleet's entire security system in the few minutes that had pa.s.sed since he had revealed its existence by destroying the one Borg s.h.i.+p.

It had been the spies, of course. There were Narisians on every Alliance world and on virtually every Alliance s.h.i.+p. They must have long ago informed the Borg of the interphase-cloaked torpedoes. And the Borg had devised a way to destroy them despite the security measures. They had been watching and waiting ever since, letting the Alliance waste its resources on a weapon they knew they could destroy in seconds.

If only he had destroyed both nearby Borg vessels, the Enterprise could at least have reached the Vortex, and there would have been a chance to restore the timeline Picard and Kirk and Scott and the rest had come from.

But now, with that remaining Borg vessel more than capable of destroying any Alliance s.h.i.+p-any fleet of Alliance s.h.i.+ps!- there was no way Kirk could be returned to the Vortex.

But the being they called Guardian...

Sarek was reaching for the control panel to enter the command that would re-open the channel to the Enterprise when yet another alarm went off.

Contact had still not been reestablished with the Wisdom when a rapidly flas.h.i.+ng readout clamored for Data's attention. Kirk abruptly cut off his restless pacing and peered over the android's shoulder.

”Captain,” Data said as he scanned the information, ”chronometric radiation is once again decreasing. The timeline would appear to be achieving even more stability.”

What now? Kirk wondered as Picard turned toward Guinan.

”Could the destruction of the Borg cube be causing this?” Picard asked.

”I do not know, Captain.”

”Your feelings- ”

She shook her head, momentarily lowering her eyes. ”They are telling me nothing.”

”Captain,” Data broke in, ”this may be the cause. The sensor s.h.i.+eld around the Terran system has just fallen.”

Kirk's stomach suddenly knotted and he involuntarily averted his eyes as the image on the viewscreen s.h.i.+fted, centering on distant Earth. For a moment all he could see in his mind's eye were the zombie-like faces of his friends and family, even of himself, now nothing more than creatures that had once been human but now retained only enough of their humanity to be sickened by what had happened to them.

And all apparently because of him.

With an effort that he hoped was invisible to Picard and the others, particularly Scotty, Kirk regained control of himself and raised his eyes to the viewscreen, where Data was rapidly increasing the magnification, zooming in on a single point of light at the center of the screen.

”That is Terra's sun,” he said, pointing out the obvious.

But then, as the magnification continued to increase, countless tiny dots began to appear all around the brightening star, all moving relentlessly outward.

For a timeless moment, Picard felt as if he were paralyzed, suffocating in a poisonously unbreathable atmosphere, unable to either resist or die.

As if he had once again been absorbed by the Borg, whose s.h.i.+ps now swarmed across the Enterprise viewscreen by the hundreds, perhaps thousands.

For that was what each dot represented: a Borg s.h.i.+p.

He knew without having to ask. In the aftermath of the pain inflicted on him by the one Borg s.h.i.+p's destruction, he had once again heard the Borg whispering in his mind. The link forged by that destruction had persisted, outlasting the destruction itself for a brief moment. There had been no specific words like those that had filtered into his half-waking mind earlier, nor even the wordless intuitions he had reluctantly become accustomed to. Instead, it had been a myriad of distant voices, like the murmur of a vast and invisible crowd, rising and falling, imparting nothing but an overwhelming feeling of restlessness, of apprehension.

Orders, his Locutus memories told him, an ocean of orders sweeping out in ma.s.sive waves, setting in zombie-like motion millions of drones and the s.h.i.+ps they controlled and maintained.

”How many?” he asked when he was once again able to speak.

”Two-thousand-three-hundred-eleven, Captain,” Data said.

”Borg?” Kirk asked, somehow keeping his voice steady.

”Almost certainly,” Data agreed, glancing briefly at Picard, ”but we are too distant for a reliable visual identification. The sensor readings, however, are consistent with Borg cubes.”

”And what of Earth?” Picard asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

”Its atmosphere matches that of other Borg worlds,” Data said matter-of-factly as the now-unblocked sensors began to take the measure of the distant star and its attendant worlds. ”Its overall ma.s.s is approximately five percent less than in our universe. The other terrestrial planets have also lost- ”

”We get the picture, Data,” Riker snapped. ”They've been strip-mining the solar system to build their d.a.m.n cubes. And using what's left of Earth as a breeding colony to fill them.”

”From what you people told me about this bunch,” Kirk said, ”I can't believe you were expecting anything less.” He pulled in a ragged breath. ”But what's important now is, where the h.e.l.l are they going?”

”They are moving in several directions,” Data said as his eyes darted across the readouts. ”However, ninety-three of them are heading directly for the Enterprise.”

”Picard!”

Sarek's image reappeared abruptly on the viewscreen.

”Sarek, what- ” Picard began, but the Vulcan cut him off unceremoniously.

”Proceed to the Guardian's world immediately, Picard. It is your only chance.”

”But if you can destroy the Borg s.h.i.+ps- ”

”I cannot. I did destroy the one, and I believed I could destroy others, but I cannot. The weapons capable of doing so no longer exist. The Borg destroyed them all just moments ago.”

”How- ” Picard began, but again Sarek cut him off instantly.

”You are wasting time, Picard.”

”Arbiter Sarek is correct,” Data said, not looking up from the data that streamed across his station's displays. ”Even if we proceed at maximum warp, we may not be able to reach the Guardian's world, a.s.suming it exists, before the Borg overtake us.”