Chapter 13

I just nodded as I was still a little nervous that they might fire on me. I followed Wren’s ship to the area where she landed. “I am not about to open my ship to a lot of gun-happy idiots,” I told her.

“Yeah, I understand, I’d be the same way. I’ll have to get the entire council here before you do. If I am right, you have the most important person on board,” Wren said.

I just shook my head. I still wasn’t sure about all of this. From what I could see, the ones with the weapons looked more like killers than guards.

So I sat and ate as I watched Wren as she re-digitized all that were stored on her ship. Damn, I thought now that really saved space. I saw a lot of reunions and whole families that discovered that they were all there.

A few hours later, Wren came to my hatch with twelve men. “I’m not so sure about this Wren,” I said as I saw that there were more than just the twelve and Wren.

I pulled and Wren was on board. “Damn, that is quick. I am sorry that they will not trust you. I will disconnect and bring them out,” Wren said.

Wren had them out then outside. An alarm was going off as I looked at a reading. “I have to go, the portal is back and moving this way,” I said.

Wren took my hand and held it a moment, then nodded her head, I then sent her out, then we rose to the atmosphere in ten seconds.

“Get us some distance Rommie,” I said as we moved trillions of miles, then the portal passed over us.

We came out not too far from the portal back to Janeway’s universe. Even with all the improvements, I was afraid that the energy beings were going to be tougher. I chuckled that was a laugh, tougher than the Borg.

I had Rommie get us moving, though it wasn’t too fast. When the portal came after us, it always messed us up.

I smiled when I saw that the energy beings were hanging back quite a ways. After losing a number of their kind, I guess they were more cautious now. That’s when I detected one trying to slip through the defenses.

For once, I wasn’t that mad at them and just charged the weapon enough to cause pain. I swear that I could hear screaming as it darted away. Then I started to take more readings, something was off.

Sure enough, I found two grasping the ship’s outer skin. Now I was starting to get mad. I pointed at the two energy beings and let loose a blast again, hearing screaming.

They had gotten through with two, I had better make sure. I started to curse as I found a few more on the engines, near the nose. At least I had them outside and not in.

After ridding the ship of all of them, then checking the hull three times, I had Rommie move us to the portal.

Far across the emptiness of the between space, the supreme leader was perplexed. They had carried out the plan to perfection, how had the solid detected? Have all move away from the solid’s ship. We are in perilous trouble.

The leader’s aide came to him quickly, hearing the leader’s urgency. What is wrong leader? Are they defeated?

No, this is not the one that imprisoned us here. It is the full-powered offspring of it. The more we try to defeat it, the stronger it grows. It is already more than half as strong as its sire.

Leader? This one is far more violent than the first. Will it come after the rest of us?

Of that I can not be sure, though it might be possible. In all the thousands of years we have dealt with its kind, this is the first that has actually destroyed any of us. We must exercise caution with this one. Whatever it is doing, it gains each time it renters our space.

The aide was worried. I will advise all scouts to avoid it at all costs as it may cost their life energy.

Yes, the supreme leader said. That would be the most advisable for the moment. There has to be a way to defeat him, though losing more of us is not the way.

The aide was nodding its head area, I will personally go out there myself supreme leader. I will also punish any that do not agree with your orders.

The supreme leader nodded as its aide streaked off to advise the scouts to cease and desist their attacks. He had also grabbed a boost in case they didn’t agree.

Arriving, the aide saw that there were about ten that were disabled, it looked extremely painful from what the aide saw.

At first the aide thought that they were going to fight the orders, then they saw the injured. This, above anything else, convinced them to back off.

We appeared not far from where we went in, I was surprised when there were no Borg cubes or spheres. The other thing was that for now we had lost Janeway.

This was enough to piss me off even more. Why the hell didn’t they realize that I was trying to save all the universes.

I sighed, yeah, they were fighting to stay alive against the Borg.” Alright Rommie, check for any damage then see if you can find Janeway’s ship. Seems like sooner or later we’ll actually catch them,” I said.

“I have now recalculated all the sensors; I am getting a residual trail that wasn’t there before. It may have to do with the new equipment that you had me install,” Rommie said.

This perked me up a bit as I thought that the new sensor wasn’t that good. “Finally, I said, “we might actually find them faster this time.

We followed them for a few days, seeming to draw closer. At least I thought that we hadn’t encountered any of the queen’s ships so far.

Then I knew that I had to open my mouth as we came upon ten cubes that were closing on a planet.

“Alright Rommie, take out those closest to the planet,” I said, then watched the five disintegrate.

“John, I have several missiles loaded with nanos, now targeting for total destruction,” Rommie advised me.

I breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone, though, it turned the other five on us.

“So you are once again interfering with our plans,” I heard the Queen, glad that she could no longer beam a holo-gram in.

“Well, since you did this without permission, I feel that is wrong. I hope that the silence that I have provided you is tearing you and them apart!” I snapped.

“So you are trying to destroy the Borg, that hardly seems possible,” she said as Rommie destroyed four of the five cubes.

“Oh yeah, I am better than I was,” I said as the Queen started to scream as I was tearing all her connections loose. “Gee, got a problem?” I sneered as the Queen started to blubber out almost nonsense. “Like you, I also learn, possibly faster than you.” Then I broke the connection.

I watched as Rommie got a bead on the last cube and destroyed it. I nodded as I had Rommie begin searching for Janeway’s ship again.

I looked at the planet as we pulled away. I just hoped that I hadn’t signed a death warrant for the planet. I was hoping that all the ships I had destroyed, and that many were safer now. Still, I was a little guilty that I was leaving these people at the Borg’s mercy.

So we started to look for Janeway’s again. I thought we were getting closer when we picked up a trail. A trail that went on for a long way then doubled back, causing me to throw up my arms in near defeat.

Rommie went as far as she could, detecting nothing. How in the hell was I going to return her weapon if they kept running, it seemed from me? I had Rommie looking everywhere but behind us, a delay of almost a day.

Not realizing it, I had mistakenly turned the scan behind us, picking them up. To say I was pissed was an understatement. I remembered something that played on the edge of my mind though I couldn’t quite grasp it.

Damnit! The harder I tried to recall, the further from my memories it seemed to fly. I remembered something about her having to go on a Borg cube, though I couldn’t see why.

I shook my head as Rommie started to back track us on Janeway’s ship path. Sometimes I swore, it didn’t pay to try and save the universes.

I figured that Janeway had at least a week on me. Without really knowing where she was going, I couldn’t use the trans-warp. For the first time I didn’t need it, though I did.

It wasn’t long before I could see that her trail was growing weaker. I had Rommie plot a course, then we went to trans-warp for a minute. We came out a few million miles from what appeared to be a nexus.

My eyes opened wide when I saw what had to be thousands of cubes and spheres. So I guess that the Queen hadn’t been lying after all, so good on her, I guess.

So as far as I could see, I had two extremely bad things that I could see. First, Janeway’s ship was heading directly into it. Secondly, I was sure that the Queen had been trying to track me for a while.

For some reason, I felt that she and the rest of her slaves. Would be lying in wait for me. Whatever she had planned, I was sure that my life would be over.

I started to think of a few scans that I hadn’t before. Then I started to add to the scans that we had now. I thought I was through, then I started to add a stealth scan for every wave band.

I was glad that I did, as Rommie started to pick up tens of thousands of cubes. I nodded, yup the bitch Queen had definitely been busy.

I thought of launching a few missiles into the hoard of cubes. I figured they might wipe out a few hundred more, but then they’d all be after me.

I was still figuring how they had gotten past my stealth as I had improved it several times. I was beginning to think that the Queen had sensitive people that could detect me.

I thought more about it, then decided it was probably the Queen. She seemed to find me whenever she wanted to try and taunt me. Plus, it probably didn’t help when I tried to hurt her.

Nt really the smartest thing I had ever done but to me, it was a bit of fun after all. I was hoping that she had more human in her or whatever she was before. Being alive, she had to have emotions, right? Hell, I was probably wrong, though emotions meant making mistakes.