Chapter 51
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 01, Month 06, Day 01, Hour 13, Minute 08.
They were in the Royal Quarters sitting around the coffee table when B'Elanna asked slowly while in thought, "So what you're saying is that you think it would actually be better if we didn't take them? Instead we should use these other guys?"
"Right," Pagsha agreed. "I know that the strength and reliance of those others seems like something to worry about, after all, you wouldn't stand a chance against them one on one. But they are really slow. Once you manage to get around them you can keep ahead of them all the time. You can just keep running around killing off those others. Their power goes to you, and then in the end you are actually five times as strong and resilient as those slow pokes and you can easily kill them."
B'Elanna looked at the board and hummed. "Yeah, I can see your point. But then, why are those six even on the board?"
The Ghdibrian smiled and let herself drop back against the couch. She smiled again, this time at Katzi who had just handed her a drink before sitting down beside her Mate and looking at the board as well. "Thank you, Kupiaxoc."
Katzi merely caressed her lover's face for a moment.
Pagsha put her feet on the table much like Seven had. She took a moment to look at Vasha, who was lying curled up in Seven's lap and was sleeping like a little angel.
Looking back at B'Elanna she explained, "Because until now I was only explaining the basic way of playing the game to you. The way I explained it is how most novices on the street would have been able to play it. When first learning how to play Tacticus, most people normally rightfully ignore the Pillars. In fact, on those occasions it's often agreed to not even put them on the board."
"You can do that?" B'Elanna asked as she looked at the board that existed out of 900 squares, arranged 30 by 30, and that held 210 pieces on either side. Most of which took up only one square. But fourteen on either side took up two squares, and the six Pillars did justice to their name and took up four squares, in a 2 by 2 fashion.
"Sure. That's why I suggested this game. There are clear and strict rules on how to play with what pieces. But the fun part is that part of the game exists out of 'negotiating' beforehand what kind of pieces will be put on the board. There is actually a lot of negotiating with this game; all before the start, and none after the first move. Only the General and the Ruler are mandatory, for the rest you can negotiate about units. You can even negotiate about the amount of units of a certain kind. Or someone that really loves using, say, the pillars, can agree with someone that this other player can use a unit kind they really like if the first player is allowed to use the pillars. Oh, and it's mandatory that each side has the same amount of units. So if one side picks the pillars that might mean that the other side can pick another unit kind, but only six of them to match numbers. But, if both sides agree to use a same kind of unit, then both sides have to use the same amount of them. Not necessarily all of them, but the same amount on either side. All if this makes it possible for the game to basically be a totally different game every time you play it, and it also helps in deciding how long the game will last."
Pagsha put her feet down again and leaned forward to indicate a little group on her side of the board. "If we want a fast game we can decide to only play with these guys here."
"And just how serious is that negotiating?" B'Elanna asked. "Is it a 'sure we can do that' affair, or is it a 'let me put my knife on the table' kind of affair?"
Pagsha smiled. "Well, it all depends on how seriously you are playing. Just between friends that want some fun it will be more of a 'how about we leave those and those off' or a 'why don't we play a quick game with only the first level pawns'. Um, that's something that plays a part in the game as far as strength of the units is concerned. But it also helps in the negotiating. The levels makes that easy. The full board like this would be an all level game. So I might say to you, 'want to play an all level game of Tacticus?' Or more commonly, though not an official term in the game was to say 'want to play a full board of Tacticus'? And you might reply by saying, 'eh, let's only use the first three levels. I'm not in the mood for a long game'. But for the professional players... well, sometimes the negotiating can actually take longer than the game itself. There was one occasion about thirty years before I was born where the negotiating actually lasted a full week. Not every minute of the day of course."
"A week?" Katzi asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. That's why I suggested this game. Um, not for the negotiating itself, but because it's so versatile. You can leave certain kind of pawns off and you will have a totally different game than you would if you had left others off. If you want a quick game you can play with only a small portion of the pawns. And if you want to make it even faster yet you can even agree to play only on a smaller part of the board, indicated by those thin colored lines between the small squares. See how it enables you to also play on a 20 by 20 board, and even on a 10 by 10 board."
"Sounds confusing," B'Elanna admitted.
"Only because I'm explaining the base elements all at once which make it sound like one huge and confusing game," Pagsha assured. "The thing to keep in mind is that while the game is very flexible like that, it still has clear rules. If you decide not to use the Pillars, then by definition the Defenders are the strongest units in the game. And so on. Plus another fun part is that you can play it with two people, or with four. If you play with four then you still have two sides; two playing two. But part of the fun there is that each player can only play with certain units. One player of one side, say Katzi, is in command of the Ruler, and the troops that then fall to the ruler. And I would then be in command of the General and the troops that fall to the General. That's why there are actually four colors. If there are only two players then you are in control of both colors on your side."
"You said that this was a turn based game," B'Elanna said. "So that would be one turn each, right? So that would mean that one side gets two turns, and then the other side?"
"Close, but no," Pagsha partially agreed. "When Katzi and I are playing you two for instance then your side gets a turn, then our side, then the second player of your side, then the second player of our side. But those turns have to always be in sequence. The player in command of the Ruler always goes first. Now, our combined goal is clearly to beat the other side, you two. To do so we can communicate. So I can suggest to her that she keeps a certain unit kind to the back because it helps my play. We can talk strategy as we go along. Which you would hear. But then again, maybe we agreed secretly before playing the game that we would talk certain strategies to confuse you. Or we might have secret signs. We might even communicate silently over PADD. All part of the game."
Pagsha hesitated for a moment while frowning. "Um, I guess that with the Borg an adaption of the rule would be that we can also communicate secretly over Borg link if we want to talk real strategy. Anyway, in a lot of ways this game borrows from real wars. Miscommunication is part of a war. You might overhear communications of the enemy, but is it real or are they trying to fool you? You might also not hear communications because the frequency is coded, or even hidden. So keeping strategies secret, or talking openly about it because you want the enemy to react to those moves instead of making their own strategies... all part of the game."
After having explained that, she admitted, "But for recreational use between friends it's generally played by simply whispering to each other. I would ask Katzi to keep those units back, or help those other units. Which she might or might not do."
"Zamonan don't whisper," Katzi reminded.
"It's just a game love," Pagsha reminded on turn. "Plus I'm just explaining how it was normally played. If we are sitting like we are now whispering wouldn't be of use anyway if the others want to hear; we all have enhanced hearing."
"Good point," Katzi admitted. "I guess that small details like that would be adapted the first couple of games. After all, we also have the enhancements that make it possible for all of us to remember every single move made in the game."
"Right," Pagsha agreed as she looked back at the board. "Now, just because I ask Katzi to keep certain units back doesn't mean it's certain. I might need her to save some units of mine, but it might be that she can't do that because she can't risk sacrificing her units because she needs them in a trap. And more importantly, each move she uses to help me means one move less she can use to aid in her own play. After all, some units like the pillars might be able to beat almost all others, but it still only gets one move at a time. And also only one removal... that's what we call if you take out a pawn of an enemy... at a time. I might be sitting in this enemy's nest where I could kill ten units that can't get away. But I can only do it one move at a time. So, what to do? Use my moves to take out some not so important opponent units, or use my moves to help Katzi's embattled important pawn? A truly skilled player, or team of players will be able to play the game to steer the other side so that the Ruler and the General of the other side are basically fighting each other."
"And can they do that literally?" Seven asked.
"Sure," Pagsha said. "For instance, I can have this perfect trap in mind. Katzi doesn't know that though. She has just moved some of her pawns into my trap. So I sacrifice her pawns by attacking them before they force me to spring the actual trap and thereby showing it to the other side."
"To come back to the Pillars, you have still not explained why someone would prefer to actually leave them on the board," Seven pointed out.
"Ah, right. Well, that's because the Pillars are very hard to play, but if you mastered their use they can actually win the game for you. You see, a Pillar can only move two squares at a time; basically only their own size. But like I said, the entire game exists out of one move at a time. Sure, a pawn may move more squares in that one move, but it is still only one move and then it's the opponent's turn. Let's take the Scout. It can move up to ten squares in one go, if you want. But once you moved it, your turn is over. Alright, so you just moved a unit a big part of the board, but it might also just have been a wasted move because the Scout is the weakest pawn in the game and it can be beaten by all the others. This also means that you have to make sure that you don't place it in striking distance of any other enemy pawn."
"Right," Katzi agreed. "That's the one big fault I saw right away when you explained the unit to us." When the others all looked at her, she explained. "On Zamona we have a profession that you could call messengers. Not really scouts, but it comes close enough. We have communicators of course. But just like with the rest of advanced technology, they are only to be used if it's really important. But not to put in an order for some extra iron or something like that. Things like that are done on PADDs that are then taken to other villages by these messengers. But they always needed to be escorted by warriors because the messengers were trained in things other than fighting."
"You used PADDs?" B'Elanna asked surprised. "Um, on the planet I mean. I know you used them on the ships. Isn't that also advanced technology?"
Katzi nodded. "Yes. It's one of the few technological concessions, just like the concession of using the replicators to create meat. Writing and reading a letter is all nice and good. But written words simply don't compare. For a mother to read that her daughter found a Mate simply doesn't compare to seeing a PADD in which that daughter is smiling because she's so happy and then actually introduces the new Mate. It also improves communication. Recording a PADD is easy. Something you can do in the evening when you have nothing to do. But writing a letter is also easy... easy to put off until tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The only conditions are that treaties and final deals and such should be on paper, and the PADDs have to de delivered just like the letters are."
Katzi looked at her Mate. "Sorry for the interruption. Please continue."
Pagsha leaned in and stole a quick kiss. "Eh, I think if I explain it more like that it will only become confusing. It's a pity that the Borg found this game irrelevant and all rules and conditions were destroyed. How about I write down the rules as far as I remember them, and also the strength and weaknesses of all pawns? Then we can give it another go in a couple of days. The only reason I created the board now and showed it was to see if you all would be interested in playing it."
Katzi merely nodded.
"Sounds interesting to me," B'Elanna said. "I really like the fact that you can play it in so many ways. It should give us something to do on those evenings that we don't want to go to the holodeck again."
"Or we can combine both," Seven countered. "We can play it while sitting on the porch. The board and pawns could be holographic and the game would be stored in the buffer if we call it a night. That way we can play full board games while not having to sacrifice whole days at once for it."
"Good idea," B'Elanna approved. There was a long moment of comfortable silence before B'Elanna suddenly sat forward. "Alright, just to learn some. Why don't you tell me when I make an illegal, or stupid, move?"
"Sure," Pagsha happily agreed. "Anyone else want to join?"
"I'll watch," Katzi declined.
"And I seem to be incapable of moving," Seven added while softly caressing Vasha so not to wake her.
"I can move the pawns for you," B'Elanna offered.
Seven smiled. "Thank you, but no. I was merely using my daughter as an excuse for being lazy and not wanting to think too much. I will observe as well."
"No specific opening move?" B'Elanna asked Pagsha.
"No. Well, first it's decided which side starts by flipping a coin or something else that gives a 50/50 chance. But you go ahead. Once we are playing you'll see that a lot of rules become clear if you think of conventional warfare. There is no mandatory first move. You might decide on a swift attack, or a strong defense. As said before, you can 'remove' your own pawns if they are in your way, but obviously that's not something you prefer doing. Plus the pawn goes to your opponent to be added to the 'win' tray. Which, as I said, adds to the strength of the Ruler and General. But sometimes you might need to remove your own units because they are in the way and you won't want to waste turns by rearranging them."
"Alright." B'Elanna moved one of the Scouts, which was a Humanoid on a horse, its maximum reach of ten squares.
Pagsha moved one of the Defenders.
"Why did you do that?" B'Elanna asked.
The Ghdibrian smiled. "Well, since we are only playing to learn, I'll actually answer that. So early in the game no play is truly set yet. So what I want to do is make you think things. I don't really have a use for moving the Defender there, but now you can't but wonder what kind of strategy I have that involves the Defenders. I don't, but you are already put on the wrong foot."
"Ah," B'Elanna merely said. They exchanged several moves in silence, with the exception of Pagsha pointing out once that moving a unit would open a possibility to take out the weaker unit behind it by the enemy pawn that was in reach.
"So," Pagsha said casually while looking at Seven. "Tomorrow is the first performance of Unimatrix 01's first ever orchestra. Are you planning to attend?"
"Do you think I should?" Seven countered. "I did not get an invitation."
Pagsha chuckled. "Seven, you are the Queen. People don't invite you, not because they don't want you there, but because they think that they are not worthy of you being there. They don't dare to assume that you might take time out of your busy schedule to come watch some amateurs fool around."
Seven frowned. "I, B'Elanna and I have opened several establishments. We have eaten ceremonial first dinners at restaurants, we have toured newly designed decks. B'Elanna even gave her last name to the biggest park of Unimatrix 01."
"After she showed how much she was impressed by the park and someone overheard her joke to you about naming it the Torres park," Pagsha countered. "Seven, you may be a normal person for people like us, for friends, but you 'are' the Queen. Yes, you sometimes join the Hive and become just one of many voices. But even there you are treated special unless you specifically state that you merely want to sink into the lower levels of the Hive. No matter what subject, people will be honored if the Queen comes to an opening, or in this case a first performance. But most of the times they won't send you an invite because they don't want to bother you. They think that, yes, for them it's a huge and important thing. But it's still only a group of amateurs playing some instruments. Surely that's not worth taking away some of the limited time of the Queen."
"They are hardly amateurs," Seven countered, the others knowing only too well that Seven was not reacting to the rest of the statement because she was still thinking about it. "They were some of the best on their planets."
"That's not how they see it," Pagsha disagreed, absently countering one of the moves B'Elanna had made on the board. "I mean, yes, they have enough of an ego to know that once they were the best. It's normal. Anidan has a huge ego as well, simply because she knows she is the best. These musicians deserve that ego as well. But the thing is that it has been years since they were assimilated. For some of them it was a couple of decades. They need to first change that ego back from knowing that they 'were' the best to knowing that they 'are' the best. They would never dare to assume at this point that they are good enough to perform for the Queen."
"But if I were to visit them on my own accord, this would be a whole different matter," Seven said in understanding.
"If you ask me you should attend a lot more things like that," Pagsha continued after another move on the board. "It has a lot of benefits. First of all it would aid in your goal to not be a Queen that separates herself from her people. Yes, joining the Hive helps there a lot. But still, just imagine the honor people get when you walk into their performance, or eat at their restaurant and then compliment the chef on their great creation. It would also be a lot like what we talked about not long ago. About people not being able to apply for a job in the ATSD teams, or the Primary Auxiliary Fleet, or the Royal Guards. People won't invite the Queen, not because they don't want you there, but because they think they are not worthy of the honor. So you will honor them all the more by actually going there. Just imagine being those musicians. Just imagine someone coming to tell you that the Queen is in the audience."
"They would crap their pants?" B'Elanna asked amused.
Pagsha stuck her tongue out at her friend. "And just for that, there goes your General."
"Hey," B'Elanna exclaimed while looking at how Pagsha's own General now stood in the spot where B'Elanna's General had stood. "How did you do that?"
"A rule I hadn't told you yet. It's one of the special abilities of the General. Where the Ruler can take the place of every friendly unit on the board, the General gets power with every pawn it removes, as long as it's your turn. If I take out one pawn, I can now move two squares for my next attack if a unit is in that reach. If I manage that, I can move three squares." Pagsha put her finger on one pawn. "One." She took away the pawn and went to a second unit, two squares away. "Two, three, four,"
"Hey, that's one of your own," B'Elanna objected.
"I know. I told you that you can do that. Real wars remember. Don't generals sometimes sacrifice units to be able to attack the enemy? By sacrificing this one pawn of mine, I can now move on to this one of you, and then this, and this, and I reached your General. So by sacrificing one single pawn of mine I was able to take out several of yours, not the least of which is your second most important unit in the game. In fact, if you and Seven were both playing me, the one that plays the General would be out of the game. All of those units would fall to the player that has the Ruler. And on top of that, because my side still has the Ruler and the General we now get two turns for every one turn of you. Oh, but you are still in the game as far as being allowed to talk strategy with your partner."
"But with me only being able to play half of the time, I pretty much already lost," B'Elanna objected.
"Not really. It just means that it's harder. After all, all the other units are still on the board. It just means that Seven would have to take extra care to keep the Ruler safe. But, since we are only playing with two people you still have the same amount of moves as me. Oh, and obviously, I would only make a move like that if I'm sure that you can't take my General in turn. Because once my turn is over my General is only capable of moving one square at a time again."
"So I might be able to capture it in my lines by moving my defenders from here to here?"
"That would be worth a try," Pagsha agreed.
The game continued in relative silence, so Seven felt that it was a good time to bring up what she had wanted to tell Pagsha for some time now. "Pagsha. I want to thank you for your suggestion. More to the point, I want to thank you for your suggestions; multitude. Not just now, but in general. You are a huge part in my reign. A part I could no longer do without."
Pagsha merely looked at her with so much surprise that it could almost be called shock. So Seven continued. "While I also mean your advice on subjects having to do with changes made to the Borg, I am talking more about things that seem smaller, yet are much more important in the long run. Do you know just how many things I have copied from you? I saw you always touching the Siill you interact with, just for a moment. I did not understand why and researched it. Now I do the same, and the Siill admire me for it. You are the one that suggests which events I should attend, you are the one that taught me that knowing about the behavior of a species does not compare to actually showing them that you understand and respect their ways."
"I, um, buh, well, um, I really don't know what to say," Pagsha admitted.
"You do not have to say anything," Seven assured. "I just felt that you should know how much I appreciate all the help you give me. I have a feeling that I do not tell you often enough how glad I am for your help, how big a part you play in my reign. The Borg do not realize just how many potential Queens they have in their midst. They would not have to look far."
Pagsha got up and moved to hug her friend, making sure not to wake Vasha. She placed a kiss on Seven's cheek. "You are so sweet. But you are also very wrong." She moved back to her seat beside her lover. "It's so very easy to do the fun things. It's so very easy to touch a Siill to show appreciation. But it takes an incredible person to give the other orders and not go insane."
To kill hundreds of thousands of people and still be able to sleep at night. Nobody had said the words, but they still were clearly thought by all of them.
Seven smiled. "You would be amazed at how much one is capable of doing if one has the right people to lean on when things are hard. You, my friend, are one of those people I lean on and I do not even want to think about not having you around to show me how to interact with my people."
"Alright, enough of the mushy stuff," B'Elanna spoke up with a fake growl. "Pagsha, how about we start anew? It seems that I basically lost already as it is."
After a last smile at Seven, Pagsha carefully took the board and slowly turned it until her side was were B'Elanna was sitting. "Looks can be deceiving. Here, you play with mine and I'll play with yours. And I'll show you that with this game a disadvantage doesn't mean you can't but lose."
"I play with yours and you play with mine?" B'Elanna repeated with a wink. "Cool. You want to shoo Katzi off the couch so that we have more room?"
Pagsha's face quickly turned red by a healthy blush.
"Oh, I'll move," the Zamonan said easily. "Long enough for me to get my sword and cut you into little pieces that is."
B'Elanna grinned and lifted her hands. "In that case I'll just stick to playing with Pagsha's game pieces."
"Good, because my Little One is all mine."
Now B'Elanna laughed. "I know, but she blushes so cutely."
Katzi grinned. "Well, alright, you have a point there."
In the meantime, Pagsha covered her face with her hands, trying to hide her, according to lover and friends, really cute blush.
Continued...