If this is a Dream, Why can't there be more Drones?

Posted on Saturday, 18 April 2020 - 7:30am by Lieutenant Raith Kolani
Edited on on Saturday, 18 April 2020 - 12:11pm

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Location: Shuttle One within the Dark Nebula ... Slumped forward in the Co-Pilot seat...

Raith looked around the view before him, as he took in the beauty.

He was stood on the lakeside jetty, before the massive lake near the mountain ranges on the planet Baku, taking in the view. Stood next to him was his sister, Aria. She was on shore leave from the USS Charon and somehow Raith had managed to get a way to arrive on the Starfleet outpost on Baku and meet her there.

He felt immense happiness as they took in the view before them. He hadn't seen Aria in several years and he was glad that the Luna Class starship had managed to take some time and stay in orbit for the next few weeks, giving the crew shore-leave and taking on supplies for the next part of her exploration mission.

It also gave them a chance to spend some time catching up with each other. Boarding one of the small rowing boats moored there, the two of them got on board and Raith began rowing the boat out into the lake.

"So, how is it being out on the final frontier in one of those fantastic Luna Class starships?" he asked as he took a steady rhythm in his rowing actions.

"Fantastic is the word," Aria agreed. "When Starfleet built these beauties, they really hit the mark. She's capable of doing so much and travelling so far out amongst the stars. It's amazing serving onboard the Charon."

Raith smiled as he saw the glint in his sister's eye. Knowing how much she had wanted to join Starfleet and be out amongst the stars, he could see that she was happy in her work and with her assignment.

"How's it going on the Standing Bear?" she asked. "what's it like being on a small Merian class starship setting outing the universe?"

Raith looked confused for a moment. "The Standing Bear? No, shes the USS Fontana. She's a great little ship. I'll admit that she's a bit on the coy side for a Federation starship, but shes's got great potential." He was still a little confused by how she could mix up the names of the starship. "It's definitely the Fontana."

Aria shook her head. "No, she's definitely the USS Standing Bear. She won't be the Fontana for long. She'll be getting a name change in the near future, trust your big sis on that one. Better get used to the idea little Ray," she said. Raith winced as she used her nickname for him.

She'd used it when they were growing up, as their mother had called him her little ray of sunshine when he was small. Nowadays she often used it to spite or wind him up. But, he then remembered that she hadn't used in ages...

"Really, you're going with that again? Anyway, it's the Fontana. Why the hell would they change her name anyway? That's just a dumb idea if you ask me. The only reason a starship should have a name change is if its a recognized name in the Fleet like Enterprise or Defiant or Excelsior," he said as he kept rowing the small boat further into the middle of the lake.

"USS Standing Bear, it has a nice name to it," she said. Looking around, Aria realized that they were headed to the middle of the lake and this gave her a chance to talk seriously with him. "Hey, anyway, stop here a moment, its a nice spot for us to have a chinwag."

Raith slowed the boat to as best a stop that he could do and pulled the oars in for a moment. As he did he looked around suddenly realising that there were people in the distance starting together around the edge of the lake, but he couldn't make out who they were from the distance. "So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked Aria.

"So, listen up little Ray, because there's something I need to talk to you about regarding that day on Mars," she began. "There's something I need to tell you about it and how it will affect your future..."

Raith looked at his sister and gave here the weird look as he wondered what she was going on about. "You mean April 5th 2385? What else do I need to know? You already know that I'm working on my own investigation into the whole situation..to try and find out what suddenly turned those synths on their masters and then turn the whole Mars Defence perimeter on the planet?" That day was still painful for him in many ways.

As the rowing boat gently bobbed around on the water, Aria continued. "I wanted to give you two things. A Present...and a warning. And you need to hear and see both of these little Ray because each of them is going to play a part in your future," she explained. She stopped for a moment as she pulled out a silver pocket watch from her satchel. She took care to make sure that it was still working and then showed it to Raith.

"What? What are you going on about?" he asked. He looked around again as he heard a noise as if the people from the shore were calling out to him. He took notice of one particular person, who seemed to be calling his name out. Only that person was calling his name out whilst the others seemed to be chanting. "And who the hell is that?"

Aria took her brother by the chin and turned his head back to face her. With a confused look on his face, she put the pocket watch in his hands and closed them over.

"Listen up little Ray. This was our fathers pocket watch. He gave it to me before I started service on the Charon and told me to keep it safe. He told me to make sure that one day, I gave this to you. Because it holds secrets that you will find important and helpful to your investigation about April 5th 2385..." Aria looked him in the eye as she made sure that he held the watch securely in his hands.

Raith looked down to see the pocket watch and still felt confused. He wondered why he didn't know about this and also wondered why she was giving this to him now. He looked at the watch to see an inscription on the back of it:

"Chance favours the Prepared Mind" it read.

As he looked up again at Aria, he once again heard the chants coming from the shore, now coming from all around the lake, where he saw hundreds of thousands of people standing there. The chanting was getting louder and the one person shouting his name was still out of focus. He still couldn't make out the detail. Raith also noticed that the water had become completely still and wondered what was going on.

"I...I have questions Aria. How will this help me? What secret does this pocket watch hold?" he asked. As he looked at Aria, he noticed that her face had started to turn a very dull colour of Grey, as if all the life was drained out of her. "What's going on? What's happening?" he asked loudly.

"Oh, this, don't worry about this. This is all part of the plan," Aria said, however, he noticed that her voice had started to sound more metallic and less human. "This is all part of a plan that was started a long time ago and you are a part of this little Ray."

Raith was now concerned as he wondered what was going on. Putting the pocket watch in his trouser pocket, he went to lean forward to pick up the oars and put them in the water. When he tried to do this, that's when he heard a loud clang and felt the pain as the oar struck something solid and not water.

Looking over the side of the rowing boat, he saw that the water was gone. Replaced by what looked like metal and circuitry and some metallic sounding hums and noises. Then as he looked once again at Aria, her face was torn open with metal and circuitry...just like a Borg Drone. he went to reach forward and Aria grabbed his hand, holding it tightly.

"This is the warning little Ray," she said, her voice now monotone and metallic, all traces of life gone from it. "You're going to meet someone on the Standing Bear. You're going to meet someone who was once Borg and knowing you so well, you're going to fall for her badly. This is the warning little Ray: Shes going to kill you. shes going to infect you with Borg nanites as you get close to her and she's going to turn you into one of these..."

Raith was now as scared as hell and when he looked away, he can see the hundreds of thousands of people now making their way across the now metallic lake to the boat. As the first few arrived, they held him down, each taking a limb each and making sure that he can't move in any way. Raith looked back at Aria and could see that she was standing up in the boat and that she was joined by a woman, who liked older than her. What he also saw was that the both of them were now full Borg Drones, as were the people holding him down.

A cold chill went through him as he heard the chanting become clearer:

"We are the Borg. Existence, as you know it, is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."

As he tried to look around, Raith also heard the single voice become louder and clearer as well as the Borg Chant. He looked around as best he could to try and see where it was coming from, not finding a friendly face in the now army of Bord Drones that he saw coming to the boat. What he did hear was

"No!!! Raith, fight it!!! You have to fight them!!! Please, don't turn him into one of them... MOTHER Please!!!"

The last thing that Raith saw was the older female Borg Drone stepping forward, leaning over him, the last words he heard were "He will make an excellent drone."

Seconds later, Aria and the Borg Queen were injecting Borg nanites into Raith as he screamed out as loud as he possibly could, praying that this was some kind of dream...

 

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