Chapter 27
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 06, Day 02, Hour 09, Minute 05.
"I must admit, the last time I saw you, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would be talking to you six months later... just with the small difference that the talk would be from Queen to Queen."
"And I must admit that six months ago the thought was far from my mind as well," Seven agreed.
Queen Erda of the Zamonan realm nodded her head slightly. Never in her forty-eight years would she have dreamed of meeting the Borg Queen, at least not like this. She pursed her lips. "And not just any Queen you are, no; the Queen of the Borg. Talk about raising through the ranks quickly."
"It was more a case of direct appointment," Seven said before adding, "I apologize for the guard drones. I do not want to give the impression that I do not trust the Zamonan."
Of course, Seven wisely didn't add the other security measures that had been taken, like the entire area being scanned and the position of every person in a thousand kilometer radius being continuously monitored, or the transporter lock on Seven and B'Elanna that had been established the moment they left Unimatrix 01. Or...
Queen Erda waved her hand dismissively to her side, in one-and-the-same gesture dismissing Seven's words and also indicating her own guard standing close by. "Guards are a part of royal life; you would be foolish not to have them. Now, down to business. I assume I don't have to introduce my Mate to you, nor Regent Dasia?"
"You do not, but allow me some introductions. You already met my Mate B'Elanna. I am introducing her again to let you know that her position changed as well. Seeing that she is my Mate, she is now Two of Many, Princess of Borg."
"Princess," Queen Erda greeted.
"Please, it's still B'Elanna."
"And this is our assistant, First Officer Pagsha Yahif," Seven continued.
"Pagsha is fine," Pagsha was quick to add.
"Pagsha," Erda said in greeting before gesturing to a door to her side. "Please accompany me to the meeting room."
Erda preceded them to the other room and once they were sitting at the table, Zamonan at one side, Borg on the other, guards behind them, did she continue. "I thank you for sending a message to Dasia to let us know why you were coming. It did soften the shock of seeing Borg ships actually stopping in our sector this time. I must say that I'm intrigued by your proposal, and I'm certain that there will be a considerable number of Zamonan that could benefit from your offer."
"I am glad to hear that," Seven said, pleased that the conversation was apparently going a lot smoother than she had expected.
"However, I had a different kind of cooperation in mind."
And then maybe it wasn't as smooth. "We are always open to suggestions," Seven said with a dip of her head.
"Good. I was actually thinking more along the lines of the Zamonan joining the Borg Collective."
Three proverbial jaws hit the table when hearing that.
"Good to see that even the Borg Queen can be shocked," Erda said with a laugh. "Actually, I'm talking about joining on a limited basis."
"I have to admit that I am quite surprised by your offer. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised never the less," Seven admitted. "May I ask why you are willing to go to such a far reaching commitment while you gave Captain Janeway much tougher negotiations on a deal that was basically already worked out?"
"Kathryn was talking for a ship far away from home that wanted things from us, without being able to give us something really worth anything in return. We didn't gain anything from that other than some luxury supplies that none of us really needed. One could say that we dealt with her out of kindness or even charity. But you now, as Queen of the Borg, can give us a lot. This means that we must be willing to give a lot in return as well. But let me tell you my concerns first so that you understand my offer. Frankly, the encounter with Voyager opened my eyes. We've always been hidden behind our dampening fields. Secure in the knowledge that if nobody can see us, nobody can harm us. But the encounter with Voyager proved us wrong. As you know, the shuttle that B'Elanna was in almost literally ran into one of our ships; it's the way B'Elanna found us. While we do have the space ships to protect ourselves against several ships the size of Voyager, sooner or later there is going to come the day that someone comes across us that has the technology to see through our dampening field, and has the power to overpower us. Or someone that doesn't have that technology, but does have the power and also happens to run into one of our ships."
Queen Erda hesitated before adding, "Besides that we have also not been blind to the threat that the Borg pose. We know about their tendency to assimilate to get new technology. Until now they hadn't found us, but now they know about us. But even if you hadn't brought them here, what if they were to assimilate a species that happens to have scanners that go through our dampening field? The Borg would come immediately to assimilate us to get the knowledge of that very same dampening field that has been protecting us until now. But now, with you being their Queen, we can give the Borg what they would take then; our technology, and after that time we are no longer of value to them because they already have the most interesting thing about us. The only thing they could use us for then is as drones. But why would they come back into territory they've already been in to get drones when they can assimilate new species and get new drones and new technology?"
"Valid points," Seven agreed. "However, the fact that the Borg already know of you is no guarantee that they will not come for you. True, they would prefer new species that also bring new technology, but if they need drones and have not located a new species, they would go back to the planets where they know potential drones still exist."
"But it would not be their first choice," Erda persisted. "But there are also two lesser, yet never the less not unimportant reasons for joining the Borg Collective. First, I realize only too well that you're still in the stage of having to prove yourself and your new ideas to the Borg. If we join, that will be an enormous boost for you. You can say to the Borg 'see, it works' and you can say to other species 'see, these Zamonan were only too happy to join.' By ensuring your success, I also insure that the Borg don't become a threat to my people again. The second reason is... as you know from your last visit, we keep the number of people that live on our planet low by colonizing other planets. The problem with that is that sooner or later those planets will fill up. I estimate that in about fifty years the other planets will have as many inhabitants as our Homeworld here does. At that point we would either have to go out searching for new worlds again, which would mean traveling outside this sector, since we already explored this sector and there are no livable planets left, or start allowing more people to live on the planets. But, if the Zamonan joined the Borg, people would stay on your ships, settle on other planets, our problem of overpopulation would be gone."
"That it would be, if enough people join the Borg," Seven agreed. "You were talking about joining on a limited basis. What basis exactly?"
"First, the Zamonan keep the control over the territory we now have; no Borg telling us what to do and how to do it. In short, we keep our lives as we have it now. You're welcome to open representative buildings on our planets so that both our lower level representatives have a place to meet and talk. You'll get free and total access to any and all technology we have. And any Zamonan that wants to join the Borg can do so. In return we expect to keep the control I just talked about, including there still being a Zamonan Queen; me. Besides that we would also get the protection of the Borg. Seeing that our joining the Borg would make this part of space part of the Borg territory, it is only fair that the Borg take over protecting it from threats from outside that territory."
"To do so at a satisfactory level we would have to pass through your space to patrol it, maybe even establish a base in your sector," Pagsha pointed out, remembering that Seven had told her before that if something came to mind she should speak up.
"Not a problem," Erda assured. "In fact, there are three planets left where we can't settle. You are more than welcome to establish a base there, or use any of the moons. I have heard that the Borg are very exceptional at terraforming planets and moons to their needs."
"That's a very generous offer of you," B'Elanna noted.
"That's a smart offer," Erda corrected. "If you have a base so close by you will be directly there if a threat does ever come. And if the Borg go the other way again..."
Erda shrugged. "Really, I have no illusions about being able to offer any real resistance. If the Borg have a base on one of our moons, or have to come here in ships; the only difference is that we might be assimilated a few hours later."
"If you think that way, would you mind if we open a base on one of the moons and besides that also terraform those three planets?" B'Elanna asked.
Seeing Seven also look slightly in her direction, B'Elanna continued talking to Erda but was at the same time also explaining to Seven and Pagsha a little plan she had just formed. "You see, eventually we want to reach the point where we have the Collective filled with people that want to be there, people that see being part of the Borg as a career move. But people like that you need to give a vacation from time to time. A vacation away from the ship or the planet they are on. Seeing that you have no problem with the Borg being so close to you, we could use those planets as vacation planets, after they are terraformed of course. Those planets would still be under your rule, still be Zamonan territory, just that Borg come there for a vacation."
"Our control, our rules?" Erda asked to clarify. "Again, no Borg intervention of how to run things?"
"Your rules," B'Elanna assured, before adding, "Well, with the exception that those planets would be open to all Borg, regardless of gender. And, of course, that we would appreciate it if the planets could actually be used for vacation."
"What kind of vacation are we talking about?"
"What would, and wouldn't, be allowed would be covered by Zamonan laws, so we are talking about vacations you deem satisfactory for the newly terraformed planets. All we ask is that you be reasonable and of course allow the vacations to take place in your territory."
"I'm sure we can work something out," Erda said confidently. "Seeing that they are planets that will be terraformed, we'll have to see up front what kind of vacation planets would be suited for the climates that can be created on them so that the terraforming can be done with ideas in mind. Forests, beaches... I can tell you up front that since they'll be under our control, the environment will have as much importance as it does on all our other planets."
"Again, it's for you to decide," B'Elanna assured. "But if you want, a Borg representative can meet with someone of the Zamonan at that time to give you some suggestions, since that representative will know the general likes and dislikes of the species in the Borg."
"We will appreciate the input," Erda assured. "So do we have an agreement?"
"Not quite yet," Seven said. She knew that she needed the participation of the Zamonan greatly, but not at any cost. "What you just talked about, especially the protection of you space is an ongoing situation. It seems only fair that the reciprocation counteract is ongoing as well. You talked about having representative buildings on your planet; we want the option of joining the Borg to be a continuous option. If six months from now a Zamonan has an accident and needs our assistance, we want that to then still be a possibility. We want it to become standard. If there is nothing left the Zamonan healers can do, then the healer actually tells the wounded Zamonan, 'I cannot help you any further, but if you want I can contact the Borg representative for you'."
"A fair request," Erda said, having a feeling that the healers would actually like having such a huge 'last resort' at hand.
"And one more thing," Pagsha said, feeling that there was room to press something else through. "My Queen wants all joining to the Borg to be on a voluntary basis, but we know that how something is presented can add to just how many volunteers there are. What we also want from you is an assurance that you will put this in the best possible light so that people will actually volunteer to join the Borg even if they aren't hurt."
Erda needed to think about that for a moment. Finally after a few minutes of silence she spoke up. "Alright, how about this? The tour of duty for Zamonan that join the Borg will for always be that one year minimum you are offering now, longer if they want. As your Queen and Princess were told last time, we have an exchange program in which people can change places for a year with people on one of the other planets to see what life is like there. The joining of our space program is pretty much the same. Both programs are completely voluntary, yet about ninety percent of the Zamonan do join both programs somewhere during their younger adult years. We make sure that we have enough volunteers by selling both programs as an adventure."
Queen Erda smirked before adding, "As you probably can guess; adventure sells with the young ones. We would add a third program to that of which we would be just as enthusiastic; join the Borg for a year. If we can get the same participation level of about ninety percent, and I'm sure we can, this would give you a continues stream of Zamonan joining and leaving the Borg. You could have hundreds of thousands of Zamonan in Borg service at any time, and yet it won't affect the amount of Zamonan on the planets because after that year they come back again and join the planetary life."
"Unless they decide they like the life with the Borg and decide to stay," Seven pointed out. "In that case the number of Zamonan on the planets would actually decline."
"Easily solved," Erda assured. "If too many Zamonan decide to stay with the Borg, we simply start becoming less enthusiastic in 'selling' the program to the young ones. The number of participants drops, which means less people that join the Borg and more people that stay on the planet without even ever having tried the life of the Borg. I'm certain that by being more or less enthusiastic about the program, depending on the situation, we can get a steady stream of Zamonan in the Borg that we're both happy with. You get your Zamonan, and we keep the level of people we want on our planets."
"An ongoing deal like that could be beneficial to you in more ways than just getting new people to join," Regent Dasia spoke up for the first time. She had been the only Regent chosen to join the negotiations because she had a good knowledge of Seven and B'Elanna.
"First, it would be a deal that continues to stand, that continues to prove to people day after day, after day, that the Borg really do let people go again when the term of service is up. Secondly, it would prove to people that the Borg now stand by the deals they make. You told me yourself how you, Seven, joined the Voyager crew. How the Borg had made a deal with Voyager, only to break it the second it wasn't needed anymore. But if you have a standing deal with us, a deal that you honor and keep to, instead of just simply assimilating us all... it would prove more to people than you could ever do yourself by saying 'trust me.'"
Seven looked to both her sides first, getting a short nod from B'Elanna and Pagsha in turn, before looking back at Dasia and giving her the smallest of smiles. "You have a very valid point. Very well, we agree to your conditions of this negotiation, if you agree to ours. I am certain that we will have more negotiations at a later point to deal with situations like resources, or certain jobs your space ships could perform for us. But those are not of importance right now and I do not want to cloud the main agreement with them."
"Sounds good to me," Erda agreed. "Basically, you get the people you need, and we get to keep our life on our planets as we have it now, and the security provided by the Borg. If you agree, we can now end the official part of these negotiations and move on to dinner. During which, I'm sure, there will be some totally unofficial talk about things like those resources and those ships."
"Dinner sounds like an excellent idea," Seven agreed.
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 06, Day 04, Hour 13, Minute 12.
She wanted to die.
It hurt. It hurt so damn much. Every day, every minute.
To her it was the proof that irony truly was the ultimate bitch. Here she was paralyzed from the neck down, not being able to feel her own body... and every square millimeter of it hurt. You could cut off her arm and she wouldn't feel it, but she did feel the needles, the fire, the crawling ants.
Phantom pains, the healers had called it. At first she had hoped that this meant that her feeling was coming back... but that hope was quickly dashed when the healers had softly explained to her that phantom pains normally meant that feeling wouldn't come back, that you only got phantom pains when the nerves had been damaged beyond repair.
It hurt. It hurt so damn much. Not only the physical pain that she wasn't feeling yet still felt, but also the emotional pain. She had been one of the best sword fighters in the province. Her bow skills had been a little less, but still above adequate. One of the strongest, if not the strongest Zamonan on the planet. She had won the yearly wrestling contest four years in a row. She had been the best wrestler her village had produced in, well, ever. And now all she was, was a 'had been.'
Death would be so welcome, but unfortunately the Zamonan didn't believe in mercy killings. So here she was. Suffering pain every minute of the day, waiting for the day to come that life would leave her. But there was that bitch irony again. Because she had been so healthy before, she would continue to live for many a year yet. She wanted to cry, but she didn't. She was a warrior, and the only fight she still had was to keep the tears from falling. She prided herself on the fact that this was a battle she had won every day yet. But...
It hurt.
Voices. Voices were good. Normally it meant people coming to see her. People that would keep her mind off the needles, the fire...
"She's in here," Dasia said, before entering the building. They took a moment to look at the woman on the bed.
"Nice muscles," Pagsha spoke up after a moment. When she saw both B'Elanna and Seven roll their eyes she was quick to add, "No, I mean, for someone that has been bedridden for four months she still looks like someone that has been working out every day."
"Oh, but she did indeed lose some muscle mass already," Dasia said. "You should have seen her before. She was one of our most promising warriors, only hampered at times by her youthful recklessness."
"How old is she?"
"Twenty two," Dasia said. "Though she sure had built up a reputation."
Pagsha could not believe that this mountain of a woman was only twenty two years old, that this huge woman was actually three years younger than Pagsha herself was. Pagsha knew that the Zamonan had an average lifespan equal to her own species and also equal to the species that Seven was, so she knew that twenty-two was considered young. Sure, the face did look youthful, but that body. She had to be at least a full head taller than Pagsha and B'Elanna, and muscles covered her entire body. There were no clear fat reserves to be seen; even her breasts looked small; about the size of a cupped hand. And the woman still looked like that after four months of lying in bed: amazing.
"I'm still amazed that B'Elanna was able to floor her, and break her jaw back then," Dasia continued, oblivious to Pagsha's thinking.
"Well, she was touching Seven, and I did kinda see red because of that," B'Elanna admitted. In hindsight, when Katzi had come to apologize, B'Elanna too had wondered how she had managed to take Katzi out with one blow. That was until Seven had reminded her that it hadn't been 'just one blow.' She had tackled Katzi to the ground and then had started swinging at the woman; getting a couple of good hits in before Seven had been able to stop her. It had been the last blow that had broken the jaw.
"She was touching Seven?" Pagsha asked. "In what way?"
"In an improper way if you don't know if the person is bonded," Dasia explained. "She had put her hand on Seven's behind. See, the problem is that Katzi has a little bit of a name as a womanizer. She has slept with... well, I don't know actually; I stopped counting after fifteen. Anyway, she was sure that she could also bed this blonde stranger and didn't take much effort to find out if she was bonded."
"And I took exception to that," B'Elanna added.
"Is she trying to speak?" Pagsha asked when she saw the lips of Katzi move.
"Actually, she 'is' speaking," Dasia corrected. "She can move her lips, but can't make any sound. I have learned to read the words she is saying so if you don't mind I'll be her voice for you. And right now she was saying that we should really stop talking about her as if she isn't here. I agree with her, and I apologize to you, Katzi."
Looking back at the three women with her Dasia gestured to the side of the bed. "If you stand there she can see you."
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
"Why?" Dasia voiced for Katzi a few minutes later. The question had been a reply to the statement that if Katzi wanted, the Borg would heal her. Give her her mobility back, her feelings. Her body would feel as it had before; gone would be the needles and the fire. Returned would be the normal sensations of touch and feeling warmth and coolness. And unlike the others she didn't even have to serve in the Borg for a year. They would simply heal her and that would be it.
"Because we owe you a little thank you, and this is a perfect way in which we can say thanks," B'Elanna explained. "You see, back then, Seven and I hadn't actually made the step yet of seeing each other as Mates. But your actions, and us having to answer questions made us realize that, yes, we were Mates. I have no idea how long Seven and I would have gone on without taking that step, but you forced us to take it right there, and we are both glad we did. We know that you acted selfishly; wanting Seven. But the fact is that we still are thankful that you did."
Then she added with a grin, "And I personally can't blame you for wanting Seven; I can only compliment you on your taste. Just that I didn't like the way you went about acting on that want."
"I will take the deal," Dasia voiced when Katzi spoke after a minute of silence. "I will join the Borg for a year, just like the others."
"Why serve?" Seven asked.
"Because I owe you a thank you as well. Your Mate knocked some sense into me. After she hit me I realized that no matter how much I liked the girls, I shouldn't just assume that they like me too. We both owe each other a thank you, which means that you helping me without any action from my side would be nothing more than charity. I don't want charity. I want to earn the help I will get. I will spend that year with the Borg."
"If that is really what you want, then you are more than welcome," Seven assured.
Continued...