Chapter 15
        Captain's Log, Stardate 8330.5:
                We are towing the energy creature through
space in pursuit of the Stardrive Section.  Commander Data
has come up with a plan to defeat the Borg, and I have
given him my permission to implement it.  For some reason,
I find myself with an uneasy feeling concerning Data and
Worf, and how they came to be on the Stardrive Section by
themselves, but no one can remember how they got there.
I am assuming Q's involvement.

        The Saucer dropped came to a slow stop just outside
of the Wolf-359 star system, the tractor beam glowing brightly,
connecting the Enterprise and the energy leech.
        "No contact with the Stardrive Section or the Borg,"
reported Ensign Callari.  "Sensors do, however, register a
tremendous power discharge well within the Wolf-359C's
atmosphere."
        "Thank you, Ensign," acknowledged Picard.
Picard turned to Riker.  "If there is no sign of the
Stardrive hull soon, we must at least return to the future
with the energy creature."
        "What about Geordi, Worf, and Data?" asked Troi,
concerned.
        "We have no choice.  If we cannot contact Data, we
must assume that they have been destroyed by the Borg."
Then, speaking to the ceiling of the Bridge, "Picard to
Engineering."
        "Gomez here, sir," came the reply.
        "Prepare impulse engines for the slingshot effect,
using Wolf-359 as the center of the orbit," said Picard
gravely.
        "But, sir--" Gomez began, and was cut off.
        "I don't like the idea any more than you do, Mister
Gomez, but the safety of the Federation must take precedence
over any three officers," the Captain almost whispered.
        "Understood, sir."
        The connection was broken.
        "One question, Captain."
        "Go ahead, Number One."
        "What if the Borg did destroy the Stardrive, but
still survived?  What if, by traveling into the future,
we condemn the Federation in the past?" Riker asked pointedly.
        Picard thought a moment.  "A chance I'm willing to
take, Will.  We are here, we exist.  That, at least, makes
me think that the Federation of this era does indeed survive.
We have no such knowledge of the future."
        "Still, I would like my objections logged, sir,"
Riker requested stiffly.
        "Of course, Number One.  But if we don't succeed,
there will be no one to hear them.  Ensign Callari, lay in
an elliptical course for Wolf-359.  Distance, 1 AU," Picard
ordered.
        "You do realize how close we'll come to the star's
surface, don't you sir?" asked Callari.
        "Affirmative.  Plot the course.  Our maximum speed
with the creature in tow is three quarters the speed of light,
so calculate distances accordingly."
        "Aye, sir."  Then, after a brief pause, "Course
plotted and laid in."
        "Very good."  And, with a flick of the wrist, Picard
ordered, "Engage."
        The Saucer moved off in its wide, but ever-decreasing
orbit of Wolf-359.
        The beam of solid sound shook the Enterprise, which
was shielded from the brunt of the force.  It was infinitely
worse for the Borg.  The beam pummeled its way through the
leading face of the cube, disintegrating the ship at the
molecular level.  The beam continued through to the other
side of the Borg ship, erupting out the far side of the
cube and out into space, where the absence of an atmosphere
soon rendered it powerless.
        The Borg, unable to adapt to the strength of the
invisible onslaught, were helpless before it.  As the cube
still continued to rotate, more and more of the ship was
eaten away by the sonic disruption.  After being subjected
to it for nearly three minutes, the Borg ship was sliced
in half, the upper and lower forty meters floating freely
in the planets atmosphere, the contents of the Borg ship
falling out to land on the planet's surface or being
dispersed by the Enterprise's weapon.
        Soon, the upper portion of the cube was gone,
fallen into the deadly vibrations emitted by the Enterprise.
The remaining pieces of the Borg ship landed in the liquid
rock surface of Wolf-359C.
        Data regained consciousness just as the computer
announced "Warning!  Imminent planetfall!  Altitude 100
meters and decreasing!"
        Data hurriedly rose from the Captain's chair and
rushed to the navigator's position, shoving Ensign Gawron's
comatose form out of the way.  His hands played a surreal,
staccato rhythm over the navigational console.
        The great warp engines once again became illuminated
internally as the catastrophic power of the matter/antimatter
anhilation once again powered the ship.
        The ship slowed its descent, stopping just as the
downward facing end became embedded in the roiling surface.
The warp engines throbbed and the Enterprise was torn free
of the rocky embrace, sprinting for open space.
        Behind them, the few remaining Borg soldiers stirred,
dragging themselves out of the magma slowly, painfully, and
moving toward the remaining section of their ship, now
scarcely visible.
        With what little conscious thought was left to them,
the Borg communicated among themselves "Enterprise will be
destroyed"  "Time"  "Patience"  "Patience is irrelevant"
"Predicted time to repair: 80 Earth years"
        The Borg mind faded into silence, its many disparate
parts employed in the long task of rebuilding the great ship
from the exstant ores that could be extracted.
        "Computer, estimated time of repair," Data queried.
        "Three hours and twelve minutes," came the concise
answer, the computer already devoting its energy to the
automated repair systems.
        Gawron stirred, followed by Worf.  Each sat up
groggily, head in hands.  Moaning softly, they returned to
their stations and began running diagnostic programs.
        "Engineering to Bridge.  Is everyone alright up
there?" came Geordi's voice over the comm channel.
        Data looked from one to the other, receiving curt
nods of affirmation.  "Yes, Geordi, we are all functional.
And yourself and Commander Scott?"
        "We're okay down here.  We've begun repairs to the
Warp engines.  Should be completed in about an hour."
        "What is the top safe Warp speed we can use, Geordi?"
asked the android.
        "Uh, Warp Four," the Engineer replied slowly.  "Why?"
        "We must return Commander Scott to his rightful
place on board the Enterprise of this time."
        "Oh.  Yeah, forgot about that.  Engineering out."
        "Ensign Gawron, lay in a course for the Enterprise,
Warp four," instructed Data.
        "Aye, sir.  Course laid in," Gawron replied shakily,
still suffering from the sound blast.
        "Execute."
        Data sat back in his chair as the stars on the
viewscreen elongated into streaks, flashing by.  Fifteen
minutes later, the stars compressed to their normal size
as the Enterprise dropped out of Warp.
        There before them lay what was left of the Enterprise.
Its hull pierced, plating pealed back, it looked as if it
were rotting.  Electrical arcs were visible through the
gaping holes.
        The Enterprise moved slowly, its engine struts
twisted, Warp nacelles mangled.  The glow of power in the
engines was barely detectable, as was the light coming from
the portholes in the ship's side.
        The Stardrive section moved in closely, sending as
greeting the communications worm that had worked so well
before.  An audio only signal was transmitted, telling
Kirk that help was on the way.  Data also said that Scott
was beaming over, fresh from monitoring the shakedown
cruise of the new U.S.S. Excelsior.
        Memories of this shakedown cruise had been implanted
into Scott's mind, obscuring any thought of the Stardrive
Section and it's technological advancements.
        Reporting that "A maximum speed trial is yet required,"
Data closed the connection and the Stardrive Section left the
Enterprise behind.  Out of range, Data did not see the four
Federation ships shimmer into existence, dropping out of Warp
just as the Enterprise entered it.

        "Set course one one three mark two five, Ensign,"
ordered Data.

        "Aye, sir.  Course laid in," responded the young
officer.
        "Very well.  Engage, Warp 8.6."
        "Commander, Q told us that we must travel Warp 8.8
to achieve time travel," argued Worf.
        "I have recomputed the necessary equations and have
found that we need travel only Warp 8.6 because we now lack
the mass of the Saucer Section," Data rattled on, talking
about mass/density relationships in 4th dimensional space
as opposed to 3rd and 5th dimensional space.  He had just
started in on 6th dimensional space when Gawron reported:
"Warp 8.6, sir."
        "Worf, pull the switch," ordered Data.
        When Q had 'installed' the first switch on the Bridge,
he had also put one here, on the Battle Bridge.  Worf eyed
it suspiciously, but pulled it as ordered.
        The Enterprise leapt forward, as with triple the
acceleration, attaining relative speeds of Warp 19.  The
Enterprise left it's present time continuum at Warp 10 and
moved forward through time, faster and faster.
        When it finally dropped out of Warp, it was presented
with a startling view.  On the viewscreen, they watched as
the Enterprise, somehow whole again, separated, the Stardrive
Section floating toward the Xin ship and detonating.  They
watched as it was resurrected and propelled through time.
        As the Enterprise left this timestream, the Xin ship
began moving.  In the three hours between the Enterprise's
departure and the Saucer's reappearance, Data, Worf, LaForge,
and Gawron watched as the Xin ship crept through space.
        It had traveled no more than 1000 kilometers when
the Saucer appeared, dragging the energy leech behind it.
        On the Main Bridge of the Saucer, everyone had been
knocked unconscious by the trip through the ages.  All that
could be heard was the faint whisper of breathing and the
computer's voice.
        "Re-entry into proper era established," it spoke
mechanically.  "Disengaging tractor beam."
        The energy leech, already awakening from it's
artificially induced hibernation, hovered confusedly in
space.  Finally, rather than attacking the Xin ship, it
advanced on the food source closest at hand, the Saucer.

        "Mister Worf, fire a single photon torpedo between
the energy creature and the Xin ship.  Set it to detonate
at one hundred kilometers from the creature," ordered Data.
        "Aye, sir," Worf responded reluctantly.  He would
much rather have fired at the Xin himself, pointless as it
was, than waste a photon torpedo as bait.
        As the photon torpedo flared to life, it's explosion
illuminating the scene, the creature hesitated.  It sensed
more power, more food, from the explosion.  But that was far
away and this food source was close at hand.
        Finally, it opted for quantity over ease of access
and moved off toward what radiation was left from the explosion.
        Worf fired eleven torpedoes in all to lure the creature
after the Xin.  The Xin ship had never regained full temporal
motion and, to the Xin, the action seemed to move at well over
ten times it's normal rate.
        The energy leech sidled up to the Xin ship,
investigating.  Then it began feeding, siphoning off all
the Xin's energy.
        The crystal surface became cracked and dull, the
soaring antennas crumbled away, interior lights dimming,
as the Xin ship died.  Nothing the occupants did mattered.
The weakened hull ruptured as the energy leech disengaged
it's tentacles.  The Xin crewmembers were sucked out into
space, along with any equipment that was not tightly
fastened down.
        The Xin's bony carapaces helped to protect them from
exposure to the hard vacuum of space, but could not prevent
the rupturing of their internal structures.  They bled from
joints and oozed crushed organs from orifices.
        Finally, the Xin ship disintegrated, it's molecules
joining the vast population of interstellar matter.
        Still hungry, the energy leech now turned on the
Stardrive Section.  Worf launched more torpedoes, but the
creature was not fooled this time.  It continued it's
advance.
        "Lock on tractor beam, Geordi," Data ordered into
the intercom.
        "Tractor beam locked on.  The creature's leeching
our energy again, Data.  Better make this fast."
        "Affirmative, Lieutenant.  Ensign Gawron, plot course
two one six mark four seven," said Data, consulting a read out
on the arm of the command chair.
        "But that'll take us into the heart of Star 452M5,"
protested Gawron.
        "We will not be entering the star, but stopping
just short of it, Ensign.  Engage course at Warp three."
        "Aye, sir.  Warp three," Chris replied dubiously.
        "Arrival at Star 452M5 in fifteen seconds," reported
Worf, from his station at the rear of the Bridge.
        "Drop out of Warp .1 seconds before entering the heart
of the star and release tractor beam," Data ordered.
        "Aye, sir.  Whatever you say."
        "Carefully, Ensign Gawron.  You must not overshoot,"
warned Data.
        "Dropping out of Warp...NOW.  Tractor beam disengaging."
Then with surprise, Gawron reported, "The creature is moving
away, toward the sun.  Distance 123 meters and falling, 100
meters...90...60...15...2...it has entered the sun.  No longer
reading any lifesigns."
        With what could have been sadness, Data ordered,
"Return to the Saucer and reconnect."  Then Data just sat
there, neither responding to his friends, nor noticing that
they were even there.



On the next EXCiiiiiTing episode of Q and A, the big finale...

Enjoy, and what do you really think?


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