© 2002 by
Federation Space and the author Tam Otlan
The SS Sentinel
was cruising through space at warp three. She was a rather large cargo ship that
at first glance looked like it was about to come apart at the seams. In truth,
her outer hull was purposely battered to make her look like a typical transport
ship. Though she had a Federation registry number, she was in fact privately
owned.
The reality was, she was loaded with state-of-the-art technology all paid for by
her Captain, Linus Frank. He had made a lot of money smuggling over the years
and believed in putting that money back into his business.
"Sir, I'm reading an unknown ship coming this way. It suddenly appeared on our
scanners without warning."
Linus moved around his bridge, uncomfortable sitting while issuing orders, he
liked to speak to his crew like they were people, rather than simply hired help.
"Are we within visual or weapons range?"
"Visual only. We won't have weapon lock for another...twenty-three seconds."
"Onscreen."
The viewer changed to show a rather large, wedge-shaped vessel coming directly
towards them. There was nothing familiar about the ship, but it gave Linus a bad
feeling.
"Raise shields, charge weapons and hail them. Standby on the cloaking device as
well. We may have to run."
"No answer to our hail. All defensive systems are online."
Making his way to the tactical readout, he looked over the information scrolling
past and saw that the ship was slightly larger than his, but it was generating
substantially more power.
"Captain, we are receiving a hail, audio only."
[We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your vessel. We will add your
biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt
to service us. Resistance is futile.]
“Get us out of here! Now!”
“They locked a tractor beam on us, it’s bleeding our shields.”
Linus began punching in commands on the tactical board; trying to make things
happen faster than if he just issued orders.
“Firing quantum torpedoes and phasers. Derrick, I need damage reports for us and
them.”
“No effect on their shields, we have lost sixty percent of our shields already.
Failure in less than ten seconds.”
Bringing up every weapon system he had on the Sentinel, Linus locked all their
weapons on the Borg tractor beam.
“Firing missiles, plasma and quantum torpedoes, disruptors and phasers. Pray to
whatever gods you believe in gentlemen, if this doesn’t work, we are dead.”
The Sentinel unleashed its entire arsenal on the location of the Borg tractor
beam, and for a few seconds they managed to break free.
“Warp speed now!”
The Sentinel shot past the Borg ship without the benefit of a course, and they
all breathed a sigh of relief. Linus pressed his palms against his eyes and
sighed deeply.
“Alright, set course for Bajor, warp eight. Keep an eye out for the Borg, I want
to know immediately if they are following us.”