Part 3 (1/2)

Starfleet's reports to the Palais de la Concorde grew worse with each pa.s.sing hour, and President Nanietta Bacco had tired of reading them. She winced as her intercom buzzed, and her elderly Vulcan executive a.s.sistant, Sivak, announced, ”Admiral Akaar is here to deliver your midday briefing, Madam President.” Bacco was about to concoct an excuse to send the admiral away when Sivak added, ”Ms. Piniero and Seven of Nine are with him.”

She sighed. ”Send them in.”

Bacco got up from her chair and turned around to look out the panoramic floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, the Tour Eiffel gleamed in the afternoon sunlight above the sprawl of Paris. Wispy clouds raced low along the horizon in the distance.

She pressed a padd on her desk to tint the window against the glare. As the electrochemical shade descended between her and the City of Light, the moment felt to Bacco as if it might be a tragically prophetic omen of the hours to come.

One of the doors behind her opened. It took all of her resolve to turn back and face her visitors, who she knew came bearing bad tidings. Leading them in was Bacco's chief of staff, Esperanza Piniero, whose black hair and olive complexion contrasted with those of the two people who were following her.

Starfleet's liaison to the Federation president, Fleet Admiral Leonard James Akaar, was a tall, barrel-chested, and broad-shouldered man of Capellan birth. His pale gray hair fell in long natural waves on either side of his weathered face.

Beside him was Seven of Nine. She was fair-skinned and blond. Her striking good looks were marred by the presence of residual grafts of silvery gray metallic Borg technology on her left hand and eyebrow.

Seven, whose name had been Annika Hansen before her early childhood a.s.similation by the Borg, had been liberated from the Collective by the crew of the Stars.h.i.+p Voyager during their long journey home from the Delta Quadrant. Now she was Bacco's top security adviser on all matters concerning the Borg.

”Good afternoon, Madam President,” Akaar said, resembling a talking bronze statue in the honeyed light of her shaded window.

”Admiral,” Bacco said with a polite nod. She offered one as well to her security adviser. ”Seven.”

Piniero feigned offense. ”No greeting for me?”

”I see you all day, every day,” Bacco grumped.

Before Piniero could continue their verbal volley, Admiral Akaar interrupted, ”Madam President, we have important news.”

”None of it good, I'm sure,” Bacco said, easing herself back into her chair. She made a rolling motion with her hand. ”Continue, Admiral.”

A despairing frown darkened his expression. ”The Borg are moving even faster than we could have imagined,” he said.

Seven added, ”They likely a.s.similated new propulsion technologies while replenis.h.i.+ng their strength.”

Bacco asked, ”How fast are they moving, Admiral?”

”We have confirmed attacks on Yridia, Hyralan, and Celes,” he said. ”We project the Borg will siege Regulus in two hours, Deneva in three, Qo'noS in five. At this rate, they are only nine hours from Vulcan and Andor and twelve hours from Earth. By tomorrow, they will be able to hit Trill, Betazed, Bajor, and dozens of other worlds. Most of our simulations suggest the collapse of the Federation in ten days, and the fall of most of our neighbors in local s.p.a.ce within a month.”

Bacco let her head fall forward into her hands. ”Dear G.o.d.”

Piniero pushed her fingers through her hair, back over her scalp. ”We have to evacuate those worlds,” she said. ”Now.”

”Actually, Madam President,” Akaar interjected, ”that will not be feasible. It would entail trying to move tens of billions of people in a matter of hours.”

Seven added, ”It would be a futile effort. Any s.h.i.+ps that fled those worlds would be hunted down by the Borg.”

The ex-drone's calm certainty only inflamed Piniero's anger. ”So? Should we just tell our people to sit quietly and wait for the end to come? What kind of plan is that?”

Akaar's shoulders slumped. ”I agree in principle, Ms. Piniero. But we no longer have enough s.h.i.+ps at our disposal for an evacuation effort. All civilian s.h.i.+ps that are able to flee have already done so, and all armed vessels and their crews have been pressed into service for core-systems defense.”

Bacco lifted her head and said to Akaar, ”How many lives have we lost so far, Admiral?”

”Ma'am?”

”How many civilian lives, Admiral?” She hardened her anger to hold her despair at bay. ”Do we even know?”

The admiral looked ashamed. ”We have estimates.”

”How many?”

He asked, ”Since the first Borg attack?”

”Yes,” Bacco said. ”Since the beginning.”

”Including non-Federation worlds...approximately thirty billion.”

It was too vast a number for Bacco to grasp. Thirty billion was too large even to be a statistic; it was an abstraction of death writ on a cosmic scale. ”Can Starfleet muster enough s.h.i.+ps to intercept the Borg armada?”

”It is not that simple, Madam President,” Akaar said. ”There are no isolated thrusts of enemy forces to intercept. The Borg have dispersed on thousands of vectors across known s.p.a.ce. We had organized Starfleet's defenses to s.h.i.+eld the core systems. Unfortunately, the Borg have committed enough s.h.i.+ps to attack all our worlds at once.” He cast his eyes downward. ”I regret to say we have no defensive plan for that scenario.”

Fixing her weary glare on Seven, Bacco said, ”Care to offer any strategic or tactical advice?”

”Our options are limited,” Seven said. ”I have been unable to help Starfleet pinpoint which cube is carrying the Borg Queen, which limits our ability to launch a surgical counterstrike. Fortunately, none of the s.h.i.+ps in the Borg armada has displayed any of the absorptive properties of the giant cube we faced last year. That suggests the Enterprise's mission to stop the a.s.similated vessel Einstein was a success.”

Piniero threw a sour look at Seven. ”Good thing,” she said. ”Otherwise, the Borg might have presented a threat.” The snide remark drew a stare of cold fire from Seven.

Bacco frowned at Akaar. ”Admiral, do you have any news to report besides the end of the Federation as we know it?”

”Yes, Madam President,” he replied. ”We have reestablished contact with the Enterprise and the Aventine. They were in the Delta Quadrant on a recon mission when the Borg armada attacked. They've returned and report that all subs.p.a.ce pa.s.sages have been collapsed. Admiral Jellico is cutting them new orders now.”

At that news, Bacco leaned forward. ”Can you pa.s.s along a message for me to Captain Picard?”

”Of course, Madam President.”

”Tell him that if he has any idea how to stop the Borg, no matter what he has to do, he has my unqualified authority to do it. If he has to toss Starfleet regulations and Federation law out an airlock, so be it. If we're still here when the dust settles, he can count on full pardons for himself and his crew, no questions asked. The same goes for anyone working with him. Is that clear, Admiral?”

Akaar nodded once. ”Exceptionally clear, Madam President.”

”Then let's all hope Picard has one more miracle up his sleeve. Because G.o.d knows we need it.”

6.

”The truth, Captains, is that Starfleet no longer has a plan.”