Chapter 7
The Sphere continued through transwarp.
Lei sat at a set up table in a separate Borg room. With his elbow on the table, his forehead cupped in his hand in despair. Darpa entered.
Darpa: "Where are you from?"
Lei, looks up at him: "The distant past."
Darpa, walks over: "You don't expect me to believe that?"
Lei: "No. I guess not."
The sphere drops transwarp to normal space. Two Federation starship's, the Sentinel, and the Enterprise-E, hover over and trek along side it in escort.
Lei enters the Control Center of the Sphere where Jackie is conversing with a viewscreen transmission. Her isolinear chip sticks into the console, rendering the Borg Sphere out of contact with the Collective.
>Madden: "We're detecting some intense magnetic asteroid fragments in the sphere's dual couplink compartments. We may want to study it to possibly find out what the Borg were planning."
Jackie, Lei, and Darpa beam onto the Enterprise-E. Captain Picard hears of their travels and arranges to meet with them. Lei, Jackie and Picard take a stroll down a hallway.
Picard: "I understand ones desire to go to extremes in order to save someone so dear to them... But we've taken an oath to the Federation and its rules."
Jackie: "But--"
Picard, stops: "We simply cannot have every Federation officer stealing runabouts everytime someone they care about is taken by the Borg."
He then walks off, leaving them.
Lei: "Man, they still haven't cured hair loss in the future?"
Jackie, crosses her arms in depression: "You don't understand. Captain Picard is one of the most respected people in the Federation... Maybe he's right. Maybe I shouldn't have done what I did."
Lei becomes uncomfortable for a second.
Lei: "Err, come on Jackie. Darpa was the only important person in your life. It was understandable and, I think, justifiable. I break the rules all the time."
Jackie glances at him and smiles. Her mind becomes lost again.
Jackie: "Hold on, I want to catch up to the Captain and talk to him some more."
She runs off. Lei finds that he has no idea where he's walking until someone grabs him over to behind a corner, slamming him against the wall.
Thine: "You've been injected with Borg nano probes."
He's faced with two shady Federation officers.
Swine: "Maybe the Borg let you go on purpose."
Thine: "Maybe they're trying to assimilate the Federation again."
Swine: "Section 31 doesn't like that."
Thine: "Section 31 doesn't like that at all."
Lei: "What? I have no idea what you're talking about. Leave me alone!"
He tries walking away, but they shove him into the wall again.
Swine: "No one gets away from us."
Thine: "Those who try fail."
Lei: "Well I'm proud for you."
Swine: "You're to come with us to be examined."
Thine: "Probed."
Swine: "Scanned."
Thine: "Dissected."
Lei pushes them aside, walking past them: "I don't think so."
He stops in his tracks, realizing that those two probably won't quit so easily.
Swine, takes out a phaser: "Come with us please."
Lei makes a run for it. Swine shoots as Lei ducks his phaser beam around a corner and it hits the wall.
Lei jets down a corrider, pushing past people, leaping over pushcart plasma containers.
Ogawa: "Hey watch it!"
Thine and Swine are running until they're stopped by the containers. They then run around them and continue to run until Lei comes out from a corner punching Swine across the face.
Swine, falls: "Ugh!"
Thine takes out his phaser, but Lei grabs his hand in its moving direction and increases an arcing direction to the corner of the wall. The phaser is knocked out as Lei jabs a fist for Thine's face.
Thine: "Argh!"
He leans back to dodge it, grabbing Lei's extended arm. Thine punches Lei in the side.
Lei: "Grgh! You're not..."
He pulls Thine over, spinning around and elbowing him in the face.
Lei: "...getting me!"
Swine recovers, coming over but Lei uses his position to swing around back-wristing Swine across the face, knocking him over.
Lei pushes his foot into Thine's back shin, collapsing Thine to the floor.
Lei: "Tell your Doctor's I took a late vacation."
He leaps over Thine, running off down another corridor. He knows he hasn't lost them yet.
Thine and Swine slowly get up in pain: "He's a danger to the Federation."
Lei stops running finding a group of many Starfleet officers. They're checking equipment, walking to the Transporter Room.
Geordi: "Alright people; the teams from the Sentinel have already started complicated procedures dismantling the fragments. We think they're tied into the Sphere's propulsion systems."
The transporter chief beams out supplies sitting on the transporter pad. Lei pushes through the group making his way into the Room.
Thine: "There he is!"
Swine: "After him!"
Thine and Swine push through the group aswell.
Geordi: "What the hell is going on?"
Lei shoves the transporter chief aside and accesses the already-set controls: "This shouldn't be too hard."
He runs over to the transporter pad and is beamed out.
Lei beams onto the Sphere in a corridor. A couple Federation Officers working on transwarp initiators, notice him.
Nelk: "Stop right there!"
Lei runs, past a few inactive Drones, making his way to the Control Center. He starts tapping at the control panels.
Lei: "Let's see if I remember how to do this..."
Thine shoves Swine away from the transporter controls in the Enterprise's Transporter Room.
Thine: "He's getting away."
Swine: "He's gone..."
The Sphere stretches, trying to jump to Transwarp. It hits a Transwarp Conduit violently.
Lei, falls: "Augh!!"
In the Sphere, Borg placed asteroid fragments piece apart through the transwarp emitters out into the transwarp domain.
As the Sphere flys through, the Conduit walls become irritated and spiked.
The Enterprise and the Sentinal pick up dangerous readings.
Madden: "He just jumped to Transwarp..."
Jackie: "Commander! He doesn't know what he's doing!"
A man approaches Lei at the Control Center.
Nelk: "You have to recalibrate the initiaters first!"
Lei: "Huh?"
An erratic white current of energy streaks through normal space, lining the subspace conduit. The Sphere can't maintain Transwarp and drops to normal space, dragging the current of energy.
The Sphere slows to a stop, as the thick current of energy has extended two lightyears. It just sits there, tempramental in the time continuum.
Lei looks on the view screen: "What is that?"
Nelk: "I don't know, but it can't be good..."
He grabs Lei's shirt in anger.
Nelk: "You're coming with me, pal!"
Lei knees him in the side and shoves him over a control deck.
Lei feels his molecules separating as he's suddenly beamed out and onto an alien Vessel.
Torn: "What exactly is the Federation planning here?"
The vessel is Romulan and it cloaks out of sight.
Lei: "Aah! Where am I?"
Torn: "I'll ask the questions here."
She points to the viewscreen.
Lei: "That was an accident. I'm sorry-- I..."
He thinks about what he has done, even though not sure of the details. But he has a feeling it probably wasn't good...
