Chapter 60
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 01, Month 11, Day 28, Hour 13, Minute 01.
The decision had been made that the best way to contact Starfleet was to use the scheduled contact that was coming up through the MIDAS array. Not that the Borg didn't have the technology to send a message to the Federation; they did and then some. The reason was threefold. First, Starfleet would not have the living crap scared out of them by receiving a signal on a Borg carrier wave. Second, normally Admiral Paris was there at initial contact so that he could speak to his son, and also brief Janeway personally on some of the more delicate things going on in the Federation. And lastly, it had given the Voyager crew one week 'shore leave' on Unimatrix 01 in which they could relax, and could also witness themselves for a longer and unguided time the new society that was Unimatrix 01.
"Kathryn, good to see you again," Admiral Paris said with a small smile. "You look... relaxed. Things are going good I hope?"
"Admiral Paris, how secure is this transmission? I have some very classified information; even more important than Omega."
Janeway could see the shock, and then curiosity.
"Hold on," Paris finally said. A few seconds later the screen flickered, and Janeway guessed that some kind of encryption had been put in place. "Alright, the transmission is secure. What is it Kathryn?"
Janeway lifted her hand in invitation and Seven stepped into view. "Admiral, may I introduce? Seven of Nine, presently known as One of Many; Queen of Borg."
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The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 01, Month 12, Day 5, Hour 13, Minute 50.
Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko was not a happy person in recent days. People called it a tactical retreat, but in Sisko's mind it was running away. Oh, sure, he knew he had no other option. He knew that he had to leave DS9 to the forces of the Dominion and the Cardassians so that he could take the war to them from a different location. But it still hurt. He had already been on route to Earth when the message had come. Every single Federation ship that could reach Earth before a certain day and time had to go there; high priority. They also first had to make a quick stop at the Mars Utopia Planitia Shipyards to have cloaking devices installed. That Starfleet command had so clearly given the order to have cloaking devices installed had told everyone how severe the situation was.
The fact that Federation starships were designed to be fitted with cloaking devices was a secret that was only known, but never really talked about, by Captains and Chief Engineers. So for Starfleet to actually take the action of fitting cloak devices to the ships was a very severe step. But the last bit of information had been the thing that had everyone literally fearing for their lives. It seemed that Starfleet Intelligence had managed to find out that the Borg were coming back, and were estimated to arrive at a certain day and time. This time the Federation wanted to be ready.
It was because of this that the USS Defiant was waiting, along with over three hundred other Starships, cloaked and ready to attack as soon as the order was given. The Starfleet flagship USS Enterprise E was also amongst this fleet of ships, and Sisko couldn't help but look up from where he was standing at the viewscreen. He saw nothing but space of course, but he knew that somewhere there was waiting Starfleet's most powerful warship, and he was just as sure that just like on his own ship, every single person on that ship had already written their last will. For nobody, not even Jean-Luc Picard, a person that had actually been a Borg drone for some time, had any illusion of being able to stop the Borg if they decided to come in force this time.
Both Sisko and Picard agreed that with the idea of using the combined Starfleet force, and upgraded weapons to ships like the Defiant and the Enterprise, they might be able to destroy up to five Borg cubes; if they were lucky.
Sisko was just about to turn away from the view screen when he noticed a small point of light getting bigger very fast.
"Sensors are picking up a ship traveling at warp fifteen... and twenty-three warp cores," Worf said, with clear disbelief in his voice.
"I'm not surprised, judging from the size of that thing," Jadzia Dax noted as she indicated the viewscreen with her head, and the huge ship that had just dropped out of transwarp.
They looked at the ship in silence, all of them having the distinct feeling that the last day of their lives was about to get even shorter than it had already seemed.
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"Why am I not surprised?" B'Elanna asked rhetorically as she looked at the viewscreen.
"You can't really blame them for having ships waiting," Janeway defended. "Good intentions or not, you are the Borg. The Borg have proven to be hostile."
"I have no objections to the ships," Seven assured. "I do however have an objection to them hiding behind cloaking devices, considering how the Federation normally pretends to pride itself on using no cloaking technology." Before Janeway could say something, Seven spoke up again. "Hive, do you want me to leave?"
{The situation has not changed.}
{The Federation's actions have been anticipated.}
{We stand by our original conditions.}
"Thank you."
"They aren't worried about those ships?" Janeway asked.
"No, and neither was I," Seven said confidently. "I merely asked if the Hive had a problem with the situation because if the Federation is hiding ships, who knows what else they have planned."
Seven pointed at the viewscreen before adding, "I know that you cannot read Borg, Kathryn, but do you see those symbols in red under the ships? Those are the numbers of the different beam cannons that are targeted on each individual ship. Those ships do not worry us; they are not powerful enough to damage us, and we can already consider them destroyed if it comes to that. It is up to them to see if they force us to take that step."
"But for now we are going to leave them their fake feeling of security," B'Elanna added. "Ten more minutes before scheduled contact."
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Once the contact came, they were surprised that they were greeted by Admirals Hendricks and T'Lara. "Where is Admiral Paris?" Janeway asked. "He said that he would negotiate these talks."
"Captain," Admiral T'Lara said, all but telling Janeway to shut up by tone of voice alone. Then the Vulcan continued. "Admiral Nechayev felt that Admiral Hendricks and I were better suited to deal with this situation."
"And the Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet did not feel that she herself would be the best person to handle this meting?" Seven asked surprised. She didn't ask because she was insulted by lower level contact; she knew that often those with a lower level were easier to negotiate with anyway. But she was used to two years of Borg diplomacy by now, and fact was; whenever the Borg showed up, it were the highest leaders of the society that opened the first negotiations. And Fleet Admiral Nechayev was the highest ranking Starfleet officer. The second highest authority in the entire Federation in fact; right under the Federation President.
Many people said that because of this the Commander-in-Chief was actually the highest ranking person in the Federation. This because while technically the President of the United Federation of Planets was the commander of all Starfleet forces, in reality the President normally always followed the suggestions of the Fleet Admiral, in this case Commander-in-Chief Nechayev. This for the simple reason that the position of President was an elected one, while the Commander-in-Chief stayed in office, often for decades, and therefore often had literally decades of experience on how to deal with certain issues. It had been the balance the Federation had deliberately chosen. Have a position of command that was held by a seasoned person that did not have to worry about winning a popular vote. And have one level of command, the Federation President, above this person so that they could be taken out of office if the power of command went to their head. It would not be the first time in history that a military leader would think they were a god because there was nobody to stop them. Hence the Federation President having more power, on paper, than the Commander-in-Chief.
"With all due respect," Admiral Hendricks said diplomatic, "Admiral Nechayev is busy with dealing with the Federation President, and other people that need their hand to be held because they found out that a Borg ship would be appearing only minutes away from Earth. When captain Janeway contacted Starfleet, she told us that the Borg Queen was interested in starting negotiations with us?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of cleaning the air, so to speak," Seven countered. "There is nothing we would need to negotiate for since we do not need anything from you. That I am here now is merely because of the fact that my friends are from the Federation and I promised them that I would bring them home, and the fact that I do not want the Federation to continue to live in fear of a Borg threat."
"Then maybe we can meet in person?" Hendricks suggested. "Unless you want to… have conversations over the viewscreen."
Seven looked to her side where B'Elanna was standing. Something didn't feel right to her. But then, they were already expecting Starfleet to try some things in an effort to get an upper hand in the talks. B'Elanna shrugged and Seven looked back at the viewscreen.
"We will beam down to Starfleet headquarters in fifteen minutes. We will materialize on the front square. Please, do not do anything foolish; we will have an active scan going at all times, and an automatic transporter lock."
Hendricks nodded his head slightly. "I assume that you'll be taking security with you?"
"I will," Seven agreed. "However, exactly because of security I will not tell you what this security is."
Both Admirals clearly did not like that, but they never the less agreed. "Fifteen minutes."
The communication was ended and the people on the bridge of Unimatrix 01 looked at each other for a moment. Finally it was Katzi who spoke up. "You know Seven, from all the meetings I saw you have with government representatives, that felt the strangest yet."
"There is something else going on here," Seven agreed.
"Do you want to wait, not be the first to go down?" Katzi asked.
Seven smiled. "What, and deny you the privilege of assuring my safety in an unclear situation?"
"Seven,"
"I am only kidding. The security measures we have in place are sufficient; let them think they have the upper hand… for now."
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They materialized at the agreed upon time, on the agreed upon place. From the Voyager crew only Janeway was with them; being that her rank as captain was the only one with a high enough clearance to be present during talks that Starfleet had labeled 'classified'. From the Borg side there were Seven, B'Elanna, Pagsha, the four Royal Guards, and a secondary security detail of ten drones that had formed a circle around them before they beamed down.
They had only spent seconds in the transporter room, so Janeway didn't have much time to look at the guards. Now she did, and she noted that the secondary security detail existed out of black-clad Individualist drones of several different species, all of whom had a beam weapon in a holster on their hip, and something that looked like a disruptor rifle slung over their back.
The Royal Guards didn't have the hip holster with weapon, nor did they have the disruptor rifles. But they certainly weren't unarmed. Janeway could see weapons attached to the uniforms that hadn't been there on any other occasion where she had seen the guards. The interesting part was that this was different for each of the four guards. Clearly they were carrying the weapons they preferred to use, and not some standard weapon. The most noticeable was the person she herself had come to respect greatly over the last week; Katzi of Erdania Village.
The tall woman also had a sword clipped to her back that looked a lot, but not exactly the same, as the Japanese Katana that Janeway knew from her Starfleet history lessons. The handle and sheath were black. A dull black that somehow seemed to absorb the light. That was the detail that told Janeway that the sword was made with one thing in mind; being used. Black that didn't reflect light and might give you away at night. The sword had no decorations at all, safe for a purple braid that hung from the handle. But even that bit of dark color would easily disappear into the blackness of night if needed. A sword to be used, not impress. A sword meant not to hand to you to look at, but to chop off the reaching hands.
Beside that the Zamonan also had a long machete attached to the outside of both legs. It was clear that the length had been especially made, or at least selected, for the woman's body. The tip of the blades ended at exactly the knees while the handholds ended exactly on the side of the hip. Clearly making the knives as long as possible, yet making sure that they would not restrict the woman's movements.
Janeway had been inside the circle of guards, but outside the square of Royal Guards. But then, even Pagsha had not been inside that square. It seemed that the title 'Royal' Guards was indeed a very precise one. At situations like this the Royal part was more important than who those royals happened to call family.
Lined around the front square were Starfleet security who also had heavy weapons at the ready. Clearly trust was far to be found on either side.
Hesitantly Admirals Hendricks and T'Lara came closer and Hendricks addressed Seven. "One of Many," then he looked around at the many armed people. "If I may suggest? We have a conference room in this building that is especially designed for highly confidential negotiations. Maybe we can go there? There would be less possibility of someone getting nervous and doing ill-advised things."
"Very well," Seven merely agreed, seeing the logic of it. Especially since some of the Starfleet security were clearly nervous from seeing Borg drones in real life for the first time.
They were led inside and through a maze of corridors. About ten minutes later they finally stopped in front of a door. "This is our secured conference room," Hendricks explained as he gestured for Seven to enter.
Seven hesitated for a moment before speaking up. "If you do not mind, I will not enter that room."
"Why not?" Admiral T'Lara asked.
"Because history has taught us that if someone is as desperate as you are for me to enter a room, then it is a room that they think will give the people that want me to use that room an upper hand. What is it? A dampening field, phasers build into the walls, gas injectors?"
Before either of the admirals could speak, Seven suggested. "There is a room of similar size four doors down this corridor. Why do we not negotiate there?"
"What? How... how do you know that?" Hendricks asked. Then he looked at Janeway, wondering if the Captain had given the Borg the schematics of Starfleet headquarters. But no, that could also not be it; she had been lost in the Delta Quadrant before the recent modifications had been made.
"I am Borg," Seven merely said as she walked further and waited for the admirals to join her.
Hendricks looked at the rest of the Borg party before suggesting, "Due to the nature of these talks, I would suggest that your security detail waits outside."
Seven indicated the four Royal Guards. "These are the Royal Guards. They will be coming with me. The rest of the security detail will take up position on several different places in this corridor."
Then she indicated Pagsha. "This is my Royal Advisor. She will also accompany me. Though it is your call, I would also suggest that you allow Captain Janeway to accompany us since she is an eye witness to some of the things I might need to discuss."
"I assure you that in that room your guards will not be needed," T'Lara objected. "I give you my word on that."
"The matter is nonnegotiable; where I go, they go," Seven said resolutely. "If you object to that then the only option is for me to go where they go... when they leave."
The admirals looked at each other for am moment before finally nodding. "Captain, you are with us," Hendricks said before preceding them into the room.
Once they were inside, Hendricks closed the door, and then locked it by entering a code in a security lock.
As he did so, Seven took a moment to look around the room. It was basic; only having a long table that held six chairs on either side, and a viewscreen to one of the walls.
Hendricks walked around the table to where T'Lara was already waiting. "Well then," he said, not even bothering to sit down, "Now that we're here, let's talk about the terms of your surrender."
It was actually Janeway that spoke, and even then it was only one word; "What?"
Ignoring Janeway's reaction, Hendricks continued. "It was very perceptive of you to object to the first room. But did you really think that it was the only room with security measures in it?"
"Actually, I did not 'think'; I know," Seven countered. "And to answer your question; no it is not the only room with security measures. It was however the only room in which there is a cyanide gas system installed that has a failsafe system that activates when the system is deactivated in any way. The security measures you have in this room are irrelevant. Now, if I may suggest, why do you not stop trying to maneuver yourself into a superior position and instead we start talking about smoothing out any misconceptions there may be about Borg plans for the Federation."
"I disagree," Hendricks persisted. "I think the security measures are very important. Like the one that there are now twenty automated phasers aimed at you."
B'Elanna shook her head when hearing the threat. "When I was at the Academy here I disagreed with a lot of stuff, but at least I didn't think that those people were stupid. So I really wonder how two total morons could possibly become Admirals in Starfleet."
"And you, Lieutenant are hereby under arrest for being AWOL, and that is just to begin with," T'Lara noted. "I personally find it a very intelligent move to be able to capture the Borg Queen."
"Um, excuse me, but did you just have a brain fart," B'Elanna said in disbelief. "Borg? You know, those beings that are on such a high technological level that they literally have it built into their body? Do you really think you can come up with anything that we cannot counter?"
"Besides," Pagsha added, "Just what do you think that capturing our Queen would accomplish? Do you really think that the entire Borg Collective would roll over and play dead just because the Queen has been captured?"
"It is more about what that Queen is willing to do so that we don't kill her," Hendricks countered. "The way I see it she's at our mercy. Just one word and she is dead. So, let's talk about what you need to do to keep alive."
"Very well, give the order," Seven suggested. "I think it will be the fastest way for you to find out that one tenth of a second after we beamed down here, we put a dampening field around me in a ten kilometer circle. Not a single beam weapon in that area will work anymore. With the exception of our own specially calibrated disrupters of course. So, should we start negotiations, or should I start getting annoyed?"
"Phasers, stun targets," Hendricks merely said with a smirk, only to lose that smirk when nothing happened.
Seven lifted an eyebrow, but before she could speak, T'Lara did. "It is a good thing that in Starfleet we believe in having backup plans." With that she made a movement with her hand and it was clear that she pushed a button under the table. Seconds later a part of one of the walls opened up and a group of at least thirty security people ran into the room.
The reaction was immediate. Seven and B'Elanna both took a few steps back and away from the table, and the four Royal Guards changed position to where they now formed a diamond shape around them, with Katzi at the front, two other guards at the sides, and one behind them to protect that side even though there was no threat there; one never knew what would come next and one had to be prepared. Pagsha on her turn had also stepped back and was now standing behind the wall of security that involved her Mate. She took out her disrupter, but realized that by the time all of this had happened, the first of the Starfleet security troops had already reached them.
Starfleet security knew that Borg drones were strong, and that you had to use advanced hand-to-hand training to outfight them. But they were not prepared to meet Borg drones that were trained in martial arts and were moving with the speed of individuality.
Katzi only had a second to react. She knew that using her disrupter was of no use. By the time it would have been activated and aimed, there would be more targets around her than she had time to deal with. So she did what was second nature to her and she reached over her shoulder and pulled out her sword. A hand reached for her, and was cut off with an almost casual sweep as she brought her sword into position to gut the second opponent. The down stroke cut a third person at knee level and he too fell too the floor screaming in agony. She turned her sword and made a sweep upwards, five more targets were hit. Six strikes later the blade stilled.
It had been over in less than fifteen seconds. Katzi was armed with a razor sharp sword, and had been trained in the use of swords ever since she had been a child. While the security detail had only been armed with knives at best, and mostly merely had their numbers; which Katzi had used expertly against them. She swirled her sword once, twice, to remove most of the blood and gore from the blade and stepped up to the highest ranking security member. She held the tip of her sword under his chin. "Your choice. At the moment none of you is dead and all can be treated by our doctors. Yield and you live, be stubborn and all of you die. Choose, now."
The Commander showed more intelligence than the admirals had and he merely nodded while letting himself drop back onto the floor.
"Good choice." Then she looked at Seven. "My Queen, some of them only have minutes left."
"Thank you, my friend." Then Seven was quiet for a moment as she contacted the Hive. Moments later the injured security people, including separated body parts, disappeared in the green light of Borg transporters.
Katzi glanced at her sword and decided that it was clean enough for now. Luckily Zamonan steal didn't rust and cleaning could wait. With a movement that could be called negligible, if you didn't realize that it took years of practice to be able to make it look that easy, she returned the sword to its sheath on her back. A last look told her that security was under control for now, and she took a step back, which brought Seven and B'Elanna more to the front.
Seeing that the injured had been beamed away, Janeway couldn't help but notice, "You could have beamed out at any point?"
"I could have," Seven agreed. "If we had not foreseen possible complications then we would have beamed out as soon as the admiral here suggested that we should talk about my surrender. We did not, and we were not beamed out because we were not considered in any real danger. Though I must admit that I had not expected Starfleet to resort to the most basic of means and try a rush attack."
Seven turned to look at the admirals, but it was Janeway that spoke to them first.
"Are you insane? Even if you did manage to capture Seven, did you forget that there is a starship hanging up there that is powerful enough to literally destroy Earth with one shot?"
"Watch your words, Captain," T'Lara warned. "I don't think that they will destroy Earth when we have their Queen in custody."
"But talking about that ship," Hendricks added, "No matter how big the wall is, if you take enough sledgehammers to a small enough part, you can still create a breach and get inside." Suddenly he tapped his communicator and ordered, "Engage Alpha."
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{Engage Alpha.}
The crew of the Defiant heard the order but couldn't really believe it. They were really ordered to attack a ship that was half was wide as Earth's moon, but probably just as big in square kilometers because the ship was mostly rectangle in form.
"Prepare for plan Alpha," Sisko said reluctantly, having the distinct feeling that he was about to commit suicide. Plan Alpha was crude and basic, but also looked like it was the only option. It simply meant that all ships would target the same spot and then pound away at it; hoping that the sheer power would be able to break through the shields and reach the unshielded parts inside the ship.
Despite being refitted with cloak systems, Starfleet ships still had to decloak before being able to fire. It was because of that that the Enterprise-E had been selected for opening first fire; it was the ship bound to have to suffer the first counter fire. Only seconds after decloaking, the Enterprise fired one phaser shot, marking the target. Five seconds later all the other ships decloaked and opened fire with all they head.
The Defiant never let its weapons rest. Over one minute worth of continued rapid fire phaser pulse cannon fire was mixed with a continued stream of phaser bank fire, while the quantum torpedoes kept firing as well. Even the probe/photon launcher shot its one shot; firing it equivalent of 120 standard photon torpedo rounds.
Even while other ships had already stopped, the Defiant and the Enterprise continued. But eventually it was even over for the Defiant. The entire torpedo armament was launched, and the phasers had drained energy to the point where the warp core had automatically shut down to prevent a self-destruct.
"We are so dead," Jadzia Dax said in disbelief as she looked at the huge ship that had only sustained a little superficial damage, which was already automatically repairing.
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"That was severely unwise," Seven said as she watched the scene unfolding on the viewscreen.
"Considering that your people aren't reacting, I would say that our assumption was correct," T'Lara countered. "Your people do not know what to do now that you are in our power."
Seven frowned. People could not really be that stupid, could they? "We just beamed your security detail out of this room and into a sickbay on our ship. And you really think that I could not do the same myself if I wanted to? You really think that you have any say about me still being here?"
"I don't see any reaction from your side," Hendricks persisted.
"That is because the ninety seconds are not over."
"Ninety seconds?" Hendricks repeated.
"That is the timeframe in which the Primary Auxiliary Fleet has to be ready for departure in case of a red alert. It seems that our captain has decided that this is a good situation to give the Auxiliary fleet something to do."
"What Auxiliary fleet?" Janeway wondered.
As an answer, Seven pointed to the view screen. "In four, three, two, one."
As on cue it suddenly looked as if Unimatrix 01 had coughed out thin needles on all sides. But then the scale set in. Compared to the size of Unimatrix 01, those 'needles' had to be about two hundred meters in length.
"Those are…" Janeway started in shocked whisper.
"Bioships," Seven added. Then she looked at the admirals. "Every single bioship has beam weapons that are 150 times as powerful as your Galaxy class."
"That must be hundreds of them," Janeway couldn't help but notice.
"One thousand actually," Seven corrected. "Unimatrix 01's Primary Auxiliary fleet exists out of one thousand bioships. Of course, for smaller side missions we normally use the Secondary Auxiliary Fleet, which exists out of cubes and spheres."
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Sisko had seen the secure files that Voyager had sent to the Federation after encountering species 8472, had seen how a single one of those ships had destroyed a Borg cube with a single shot. And now three of those ships were facing them directly while their own weapons were still depleted. "Status on those phasers?"
"Banks are still slowly recharging, ten percent now," Worf spoke up.
"Try to," Sisko was stopped when suddenly a message came over everything that could carry sound in some way, including the ship's computer speakers.
"Federation starships, we are the Borg. This is Captain Wolkav Zakad'e; commander of the Borg starship Unimatrix 01 speaking. You have just initiated an unprovoked hostile activity against us. Be advised that we will react in kind if you do not abide by our demands. You will lower your shields and surrender your ships. You will be boarded, and you will follow the commands given to you by the boarding drones. Do not resist: resistance is futile."
Only seconds later forms started to appear on the bridge, despite the shields still being up.
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"Nice words, but," Hendricks started.
"But, I feel that my patience has been tested enough," Seven interrupted. "Admirals, you seem to be determined to provoke me into hostile action for some reason. If you really want me to act that badly, I will. As of now you can consider yourself under... protective custody. I will not call you prisoners of war because that would indicate that there is actually a war."
"You can't just," T'Lara started.
Seven merely rolled her eyes, and one command later the two admirals disappeared in a sparkle of green light.
"You were in contact with the Borg at all time?" Janeway asked.
"Yes," Seven merely agreed.
Janeway sighed. "Seven, I have no idea what just happened here. I..." She shrugged, truly at a los for words.
"Something strange is going on," Seven agreed. "If the people in charge of Starfleet were truly this stupid, they would have lost the Dominion war long ago. Maybe we should find someone else to talk to."
Seven walked over to the door, followed directly by the rest. She tried opening the door, only to sigh when the button did not work. "I am getting tired of this." Suddenly she plunged her assimilation tubes into the control panel.
"I thought you no longer had those," Janeway noted.
"No, I said that new and Individualist drones no longer have assimilation tubes. They have something we now call access tubes. B'Elanna has those as well. They can still be used to interact with technological units like I am now. However, I myself actually still have assimilation tubes. As will my daughter when the time comes. Again, part of the agreement made with the Borg. Even if we do get to the point where there is not a single drone left with assimilation tubes, the Queen will always have them. This as an emergency back-up, that if worse comes to worse, she can assimilate people and these new drones will then have assimilation tubes again so that the Collective can survive."
Having explained, Seven opened the door.
Janeway literally took a step back when the door opened to reveal two huge Siill warriors that had clearly been guarding the door.
"Clia'W, Dlk'E, where is your commander?" Seven asked.
"My Queen, our commander and the rest of the team have secured the corridor to the exit," one of the three legged beings replied. "The security detail that beamed down with you has been assigned other locations to guard in this building."
Seven stepped forward, between the two guards. Janeway saw that once again, Seven took a moment to touch both beings for a second before speaking up again. "Thank you. Fall in behind the others."
"Thy will is our command, My Queen."
Seven smiled. "My will is to know that my back is guarded by some of the best that the Siill have to offer."
As they walked to the exit they came across more Siill warriors. Each existing out of a pair of them that was guarding a key location on way to the exit. The last team, along with their Zamonan commander, was guarding the exit itself.
Janeway looked at the woman that was certainly not of the normal Zamonan body build. In fact, the woman was even shorter than Janeway herself; literally only coming up to half of the height of the three meter frame of the Siill that were standing at her side.
"My Queen," the Zamonan said with a grin.
"Maindi, are you having fun?" Seven asked with a smile.
"The best," the Zamonan said before giving Katzi a sweet smile. "Katzi, nice to see you."
Before Katzi could reply, Pagsha joined them at the front of the group and merely tapped Katzi on the arm, making Maindi laugh.
"Don't worry; I know only too well what's written there, and just who my one-time lover firmly belongs to. Besides, I have my own Little One to keep me busy; which is really funny because she's a full head taller than me."
Pagsha smiled. "As long as that's clear, then you should come by some time. Catch up with my Mate, maybe join us in training. She told me that you were very able to use your size in your favor in a fight. I would be interested in learning a few things about that."
"I'll be in contact," Maindi assured before looking back at Seven. "Please forgive me the indiscretion, my Queen."
"There is nothing to forgive," Seven assured. "I do not mind friends talking for a few moments when they meet after a long time, as long as there is no emergency going on."
"Well, it may not be an emergency, but I did get a message just before you arrived that the situation is considered secure."
"Very well, in that case, let us go and find a real party to talk to."
As they moved outside, Janeway clearly noticed the change. The Royal Guards once more formed their standard square around Seven and B'Elanna, while the security detail that had joined them in the corridor formed a protective ring around the group in general as soon as there was room. A little further away there was another ring of guards, but these were further apart from each other, and they sometimes broke rank to move people out of the way; sometimes literally carrying them away. Only to then come back and take their place in the circle once more. Janeway also saw that each entrance to buildings was guarded by Siill warriors, and she could only assume that there were even more drones inside the buildings.
"You've simply gone and occupied Starfleet headquarters?" Janeway asked in disbelief.
"Not at all," Seven disagreed. "We did not simply occupy Starfleet headquarters; we occupied Starfleet headquarters, Starfleet Academy, The Federation Council, and... all of Earth actually."
"What?" Janeway asked in a shocked whisper.
"At the moment there are half a billion drones on Earth. All strategic locations have been occupied; main cities like here in San Francisco are under our complete control as well. It is only in rural areas where you might not be able to find Borg drones within ten minutes if you are looking for them."
"That's impossible."
"Not if you happen to have a starship that carries two billion drones," B'Elanna spoke up with a grin. "Then you can spare a few to secure places and prevent people in those places from doing foolish things."
Janeway didn't know what to say. She had been on Unimatrix 01 for over a week. She had seen the vastness of it. She knew that the ship itself was powerful enough to destroy Earth. And on top of that she now knew that it carried a thousand bioships. Still, despite that she had somehow missed just what exactly was following Seven around at any moment of her life. The blonde literally had enough power with her in Unimatrix 01 to conquer entire sectors of space. While she may not have enough drones with her to occupy every planet in the Federation, she sure had enough bioships with her to go and hold every Federation Homeworld hostage, simply by going there and shoot every ship out of space that tried to leave. Only to then beat the planets into submission by destroying city by city until the point of surrender.
Soon she noticed that there was a clear target to their walking, and that they were heading to the central gathering area. The central gathering area lay between Starfleet headquarters and Starfleet academy so that both could use it for mass gatherings. As they came closer, Janeway saw that the gathering area was filled to capacity; clearly used as one of the places where to bring people to be able to control them.
Room was created by the Siill warriors and Seven made her way to the speaker podium. There a huge ten meter high viewscreen was located, including a sound system, so that even the person standing at the very back would be able to hear and see the speaker.
"There must be over twenty thousand people here," Janeway noted. Remembering from her days at the academy that the square was designed to hold ten thousand people that were sitting in nice and orderly rows of chairs. Now with them standing huddled together the number had to easily be double.
Continued...