And Old Dead Borg Friend

Posted on Tue Dec 3rd, 2019 @ 4:53pm by Lieutenant Daln Hadren

423 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Demons in the Dark
Location: Corridors on Deck 10

"Come on! Keep moving!" Daln was getting personnel out of the decks without life support. Ops had told him that soon they would have no gravity in these few decks, and they were already wearing oxygen masks to breathe. It was getting colder, and they had a few more turns to go before they reached the turbolift.

The first group reached the turbolift just as the gravity went out. Daln went weightless, and tried to push his way to the bulkheads. A couple stragglers rounded the bend just as the turbolift came back.

"Is that everyone?" he asked.

"Yeah." It was clear the young woman was out of breath; her oxygen tank was beginning to empty.

"Okay, get in there. I'll follow."

The two women entered the turbolift, leaving Hadren alone. He pushed off towards the science offices, knowing that there would always be one scientist who was too stubborn to leave their beloved experiments. The thing was, experiments didn't work in a zero-g environment with no atmosphere.

He was just rounding the bend when he thought he heard a voice behind him. He looked and there was no one there. He kept going, but then he heard it call his name: "Daln," it whispered.

Hadren went back and saw his old friend Garrett from the Zeus. He was in the process of turning into a Borg, with a large, bloody hole in his chest. A sense of dread overcame Daln, and he had to remind himself that Garrett was dead.

"You're dead," Daln said. "I saw you die."

"You mean you killed me," Garrett countered. "You didn't want to think you could save me, so you killed me."

"You were almost assimilated!" Daln yelled, starting to panic. "I would have had to kill you anyway!"

"You didn't even try," the Half-Borg sneered. "You knew about the doctor's idea. You didn't want to bother. I thought we were friends."

The Betazoid closed his eyes. "This can't be real, it can't be," he said to himself.

He felt a hand around his throat. "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Garrett raised his hand to extend the tubules, but Daln drew his phaser and fired into the Borg's stomach. The phaser was inside the shields, and killed him.

The Borg floated away, smiling, and said, "I knew you were a killer," before dying.

Daln closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened them, Garrett was gone.

Shaken, Daln headed back to the Science lab to get Teaque, the last scientist.

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