A Captain Decision Ch. 12

"Alright, as soon as you can we need to test the theory. Moving this slowly, I am afraid that we might never catch up to them. From what I last saw, we need to get this done as soon as possible," I told Rommie.

I sat there thinking it over, then I shook my head. It was going to take far too long this way, first though before we tested the theory, I needed to strengthen more.

I had gotten my mind stronger though at even double what I had been, I felt a little exposed. I went over the ship again, improving everything that I had fixed before. I found a few things that I felt they might get through.

Then I started again, I didn't want any unwelcome surprises again. I felt my mind was far better than it had been, though I felt it was still vulnerable to the Queen. I went on to make it three times as strong, finally feeling that I had a better chance.

We were finally a good distance from the ship when I had Rommie open the trans-warp. Even as we were moving into it, I saw that the cube ship accelerated toward us. Shit I thought, the damn thing was far faster than I thought it was.

We'd barely managed to get the portal closed when another opened a great distance behind us. Oh, I forgot that the Borg had trans-warp also. It was then that I noticed that the cube ship couldn't keep up with us.

I also noticed that they were about to fire on us. I looked at the image of the ship, then watched it implode. A moment later, an image of something trying to breach the ship.

"So, you wish to make an enemy of the Borg, so be it," the voice said then faded.

Damnit! I had wanted to keep a low profile, so much for that.

I had a feeling that nowhere we went, the Borg were going to be there. I shook my head. I should have expected that nothing was going to go right. First, whatever they were between universes. Then the Borg, the weapons that were capable of destroying everything.

Why the hell couldn't it just be easy, huh? No, never get a damn break. I swear that creation or god or something supreme out there was out to get me.

I had to at least get a bead on Janeway before I went after the Borg that pissed me off. I needed to up my defenses again. It seemed that the queen had gotten through too easily.

I thought about it, having thought that the Queen would try to take my mind. Wait, didn't she need to touch me? This brought a smile to my face, yeah that wasn't going to happen.

I came out of the trans-warp a great distance away from where I had been. "You got any readings on Janeway's ship," I asked.

"Not as of yet, though it appears that they were here a day ago. They have developed a type of masking for their engines, am adjusting now. John!" An excited Rommie said. "I have a bearing on them. They seem to have a type of trans-warp also."

I was nodding, "as I remember, they got it not long before they headed back to the Alpha quadrant," I told Rommie.

"Do you think that we will catch them? This quadrant has a very heavy concentration of Borg here," Rommie said.

I thought about it as I strengthened my mind again. I had felt the Queen, so I knew I wasn't high enough. I also made the hull more impervious to the nanmites. I went through everything, making it better.

A few minutes later, I had several alarms going off, looking I saw at least ten cubes heading our way. I reached out, crushing five of the cubes as if they were nothing. I took another four when the queen's voice came over the com.

"So, you are far stronger than I thought, when we assimilate you, we will be undefeatable," she said.

I started to laugh, "that's if you can get close to me. As I see it you have lost ten," I reached out, crushing the last. "Now eleven ships, that's a lot of Borg that are no more. Keep coming, Borg bitch, if you want to lose more, oh yeah, by the way."

I could feel where she was, so I started to snap connections to her as fast as I could. I could feel her scream as I disconnected.

"Follow Janeway's ship, maybe we've cleaned up a little of the trash." We moved past the huge debris field not detecting any signals of any kind.

"We are getting closer," Rommie said, as I took the opportunity to strengthen Rommie even more. I then kept going as I felt a few that the Queen hadn't detected, then I found a few more. This worried me as I started to go through her piece by piece. I stopped, as I thought I didn't need to do this.

I looked at all that was Rommie and felt all of her become completely untouchable by the Queen and her machines. I then looked over everything else and thought the same about that. Now there was no way, not after I did that. I just worried that my own mind was accessible. I wondered if I could do that for myself.

I started on myself like I had the ship, in no time, I felt that nothing from the Borg could touch me.

I felt that we were getting close to Janeway when another bunch of cubes appeared. "Let's see if the stealth works," I told Rommie.

I smiled as all ten were debris in minutes. I knew that the stealth was giving the Queen fits.

Then I also noticed that she wasn't trying to talk to me. So, I went to her. "Hello Queen failure, enjoying my gift? Hard to shift to another body when you can't get contact out hm?"

Several drones were rushing as they do to me. They tried to inject me, shoot me, crush me. I laughed as nothing worked. I reached up and pulled quite a few connections loose.

The Queen started to convulse as I stood there with a large smile on my face. I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "enjoy." Then I was gone.

Alarms were going off when I got back, "are we still in stealth Rommie?" I asked.

"We are John, orders?" She asked.

"Hold a moment," I said as I crushed ten ships the furthest away. I then had Rommie move us a few billion miles away.

"Now in position, Captain," Rommie said. I nodded as I watched what the other ten cubes were going to do.

They started to scan the area with several types of scans. Then they started on another set, the third set was as ineffective as the first two.

As of yet, nothing they were using was anywhere what we were using. I grew bored, so I just crushed the last ten, they had no idea what I was doing or was using, good.

I had Rommie move me toward where Janeway's ship had gone. Damnit, they were actually out of the area.

"Alright let's see if we can find them," I told Rommie as we entered, trans-warp.

I half expected to see several cubes when we entered it. It suddenly hit me they had to use a conduit, I didn't, as I made my own. A minute later, we were out, we almost immediately picked up Janeway's ship.

The thing about that was they were being chased by several cubes. I was behind them in less than a minute, two cubes vanished a moment later.

This didn't even slow them, as several more appeared, several that were debris in a moment. One of the cubes had a tractor beam that Janeway's ship soon destroyed, as I did one of the last cubes.

This time the cube turned to fire at where I had been. I also noticed that Janeway was hauling ass out of there as fast as possible. That's when I noticed that this ship was a little tougher than the ones before.

I just shook my head as I made a slashing motion as the cube was ripped apart. You'd think that, as supposedly smart as the Borg were, that they'd stop sending cubes to be destroyed.

I was about to turn and go after Janeway when I got another message from the Queen. "You have been lucky so far," she started. "You obviously think that this is a game. That will soon be at an end."

"Now that is funny, you've lost what forty cube ships? That's what ten thousand little slave Borgs? Seems like you have lost over four million of them. At this rate you won't have any, I bet the network is so quiet now," I laughed at her.

"We have plenty more where that came from," the Queen said. I saw that the Borg were trying to back track where I was and hack me. I sent back a surge that fried a lot of their circuits. "Nice try but no dice." I then cut it off as I knew that there would be cubes there in no time.

I had Rommie move the ship almost a trillion miles further into the system, then I waited. I was right as a few different types of ships entered the system.

I reached out feeling that these were heavier shielded. I just shook my head as I crushed the first two as if they were paper.

The last one stopped almost as if it was scanning for me. I watched all the readings that Rommie was detecting. Still, I saw nothing that I could see that could detect us.

I decided to move off as I entered a trans=warp portal. As I suspected, it gave chase as soon as we vanished. Hmm, this one was a little faster though we were soon out pacing it. That's when I noticed the readings on their conduit. I smiled as I fired an energy missile, it struck the side of the conduit before the Borg ball ship.

I watched satisfied as the conduit wrapped and crushed the ship. Ah, I thought now that was satisfying.

We came out of trans-warp not far from a planet, it had mostly machines on it. Then I got Borg readings, then a huge number of ships that were leaving the surface. I remembered what I had done to the Magog as I reached out. First, all the ships exploded, then the planet seemed to catch fire. Three minutes and the atmosphere looked more like the surface of a sun.

"Keep as close to Janeway's ship as you can," I said as I felt the strain of what I had done hit me. I could feel the ship accelerate as the darkness started to close in on me.

"I will watch out for you and the ship," I heard Rommie say as I felt consciousness fade.

I don't know how long I was out though, as I was swimming my way to consciousness. I felt a pair of arms that were holding me, a soft pair of arms. I opened my eyes, staring into Rommie's.

"Not that bad of a way to wake up," I said. "How long," I asked as I stretched."

"Only about five hours, it appears that you didn't use as much as you first thought," Rommie said. "We are still following Janeway's ship though they have now halted yet."

I nodded as I got to my feet and looked over the readings. "I can see that them not stopping, has worked to their advantage."

"Yes, it appears that they are changing their signature. It seems that they change it every five minutes. If it wasn't for the cloak I might suggest something of the same nature," Rommie said.

We were finally starting to catch up to Janeway's ship when several alarms started to go off. I had to do a double take when I saw what was heading for us or rather chasing us.

"Is that what I think it is? I asked Rommie.

"Yes, it is apparently a dimensional portal. Readings indicate that it is comparable to the last one that took us from the woman Wren's universe," Rommie said.

"Can we outrun this one?" I asked.

"No, no matter which way we go it is following us," Rommie said.

"Alright, since we can't run take us to it," I told her.

I felt the ship turn, then we were heading straight for it. At least this time when we passed through it, it wasn't a violent ride.

Emerging between universes, I saw another portal open not far away. I also felt the energy beings from before.

"How long, Rommie?" I asked.

"Another thirty seconds, the energy beings are closing," she said.

I nodded and pointed at the beings as they were almost upon us. I let loose a few jolts of energy watching as the front three vanished, blowing the others back.

"Are we near to where we were," I stopped as I saw the carnage that was before me. "Can you detect Wren's ship," I asked.

"Not yet beginning to search all areas that still have the enemy ships. Warning, warning, Wren's ship is under attack, many of her systems are failing," Rommie said.

"Take us there," I yelled as we were there in seconds. I could see that her ship had taken a hell of a lot of abuse. There had to be forty ships firing on her 'til I pointed then there were only twenty then ten.

This, of course, got their attention, though it didn't do any good as those were gone in seconds.

"Wren!" I started to yell, "Wren! Are you OK?" I was yelling as loudly as I could.

A moment later, a weak voice came back on the radio. "Glad to see I was able to get to you. After you left, I thought I could finish," here she let out a chuckle. "Yeah, like you, I did too much, the ship's wrecked, I can't transport."

"Hang on a minute," I said as I pointed at her ship. I felt most of the hull seal up, as one of her engines corrected itself. "There that ought to help," I said.

Wren sat up, her eyes wide, "I can do a little, though nothing like that. Trigon report."

A mechanical voice came from behind her, "structure of the hull is now complete. Weapon build is now at fifty percent. One engine is at one hundred percent, the other at fifty-one percent and rising."

Wren just shook her head at me, "as I said, I can do some, though nothing like that. What say we take out the rest, then rescue my people?"

I nodded as we slowly started to eliminate the rest of the fleet. Wren nodded to me as she moved close to orbit. I heard her computer telling her that they had a thousand.

I was confused as I looked at the ship, they were only three hundred feet, "How can you fit so many?" I asked.

"I found a way to digitize them several planets back. Also, got that ass of a stepbrother captured," Wren said with a wicked looking smile.

I thought about it, it wouldn't be bad if I could do something to all that were after Mary and I like that. I shook my head no, it wouldn't do to have a number of people wondering why others had memory loss.

"Are your systems better? I was afraid that I hadn't done enough," I asked Wren as she started looking over all the readings.

"Most of the systems are repaired, can you come here?" Wren asked.

"Like you can? I don't think so, the way I move is fairly different from the way you do," I told Wren. I sighed, "I'll try."

I looked at her ship as I thought of it, then pop, I was there next to her. She actually gasped a bit, as she'd had no warning at all.

"Did that take much energy?" She asked.

I thought about it then reached inside, causing Wren to smile as she nodded.

"No, it appears that it didn't take much at all," I said, causing Wren to smile again.

"I see that we do at least one thing the same, looking inside to see our energy. We are perhaps more alike than we thought," Wren said.

"Perhaps," I said as I started to scan Wren, that started her giggling, "Hmmm," I said. "You have an overabundance of what we call mental energy, and your mind is over-stimulated by it."

"Strange," Wren said, "I was overexposed to trans-warp energy. I started to develop these abilities after that."

My eyes were wide when she said that. Obviously, their trans-warp energy was far different from ours.

"Can I look at where you were exposed? Something is different here," I said.

We went back to see her trans-warp engines, holy shit I thought they were completely different from mine. They seemed to be completely running on mental energy. I put a hand to the engine casing and felt the energy within throb and reach for me.

I felt all my abilities almost double, then triple. I had to let go as I stumbled back away from it. Even stranger was when Wren grabbed my arm to steady me, she started to glow.

We both looked at each other, then we were blown apart from each other. We were shaking our heads when her A.I. comp appeared.

"Master Wren," it started. "I have retrieved all but five of the humans there. The digitization has no more room."

"WHAT!? How is this possible? Is the system damaged or incomplete," Wren said, a worried look on her face.

"No master Wren, the system is operating at optimal levels. We have just run out of space," the A.I. said.

"Damnit!" Wren said, then she was turning toward me. "Can your ship take a few people to where they need to go?"

I thought about it, then asked Rommie, "how much room do we have?"

She appeared next to a shocked me, "we have the space for quite a few. Though I am afraid that we do not have the transfer system that she does," Rommie said.

"We can do that if you can make ready, then I have a little unfinished business," Wren said. She had a look of extreme anger and something on her face.

"Alright," I said, then was back aboard my ship. Rommie had told me the type of energy they would need as I readied the area. An hour later, I told Wren that we were ready. A humming sounded in the room we had prepared, then five casket like life pods appeared.

That's when I saw the level of Wren's revenge against the world. "Trigon ready all eight of the shatter bombs. Open a channel."

A moment later, a red-faced something that looked a little like a human appeared. "What have you done!" The alien was screaming at Wren.

"I have delivered the same mercy that you gave the Earth. Now I will deliver the same justice that you gave all those that were on earth when you dropped shatter bombs. I have enough to erase your entire planet from existence. Goodbye, never again will this happen again, drop all of them Trigon," Wren said.

"Compliance master Wren now dropping all eight," Trigon said.

The red-faced emperor was screaming at Wren and the techs, then the screen went dark.

I watched as the bombs hit, the atmosphere and water were gone in seconds. The land masses were suddenly flame then liquid. We had moved further back as the planet started to shudder then crack. In the end, the planet started to fragment, then crumble.

"We need to go to this place," Wren said as she showed me a picture, then we were in trans-warp. Wren was surprised when her trans-warp and mine appeared to be the same.

The entire trip took a few minutes, so I knew that we were going quite a distance. We came out not far from a blue world that seemed to be a hive of activity. Though I wasn't too happy about the huge number of ships that appeared.

I could see that they all had weapons, though Rommie assured me they were weak compared to us. "I have told them to not fire on you as your ship is as powerful as mine," Wren said.

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 redigitized 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.