One Last Trip Home

Posted on Wed Feb 12th, 2025 @ 6:53pm by Lieutenant Elias McEntyre
Edited on on Wed Feb 12th, 2025 @ 6:55pm

876 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Resistance is Necessary
Location: McEntyre Ranch - Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
Timeline: MD001-1400 Hrs

Elias panted as he approached the front door of the estate. It had been a running phaser fight getting from the transport site on the other side of the ranch to the main house of the McEntyre Estate in Dallas. He had to get home, had to save what remained of his family. His mother was there, along with his young brother, Clay. All alone while everyone was running from the Borg.

These…Borg, they had been called by Fleet Command, had been beaming in by the hundreds across the world and through the system. It was chaos and madness. They adapted to the phasers, the lasers, anything with energy they adapted too. At one point it was down to bare knuckles to keep them at bay and even then it was a losing fight. His Security Force, a dozen or so, all assimilated by the Borg, transformed into…monsters, like mechanical zombies.

Elias braced against the door, phaser rifle in hand, shouldered, stock pressed against his armor. He took a steady breath then turned and kicked in the door. A thunderous crack echoed as the door gave way. He moved in slowly, cautiously, sweeping the foyer with his rifle, before he slowly made his way through the ground floor. Empty, trashed, like the ranch hands and the staff had fled. It made sense, nothing for them to do in the end of the world.

He paused in the library, staring at the grand fireplace, a portrait on the wall, that of the MACO, General Josiah McEntyre, the first of the McEntyre Dynasty. Stern, attentive, facing Elias it seems from the distant past. Elias took a moment, saying a prayer, reciting the MACO Creed in his mind before he picked up his weapon and continued on.

He moved through the kitchen, past the massive pantry and up the servant stairs to the second floor. He could feel the thrum of the house shields in his feet, hearing it faintly. He stops, his ears twitching as he hears voices from down the hall. Clay’s room, the last room at the end of the hall. He bolted down the hall, boots echoing on the real wood floors, before he got to the door. He stops, listens before gently pushing open the door.

Inside was chaos. It looked like a struggle had taken place. Two of the Security Forces that were on staff to his father were lying dead on the floor. Beyond that, curling in the corner, huddled to the floor was Clay. The small boy was frighten beyond all belief, tears streaming down his face and right in front of him, his mother, Silvia, looking as if she had been slain trying to protect the boy. She looked aged, black veins covering her body. The first signs of Borg Assimilation, nanoprobes rewriting the body.

“Jesus” Elias swore under his breath as he swung his rifle onto his back and dashed over to pick up his brother. Clay looked at him eyes wide, tears streaming down his face and matting his fur. He was shaking in fear, tail drooped down.

“Big…Big Brother…what…where Papa?” He asked through choke breath.

“I don’t know, but I’m here, it’s goin’ be ok, little buddy.” All Elias could do now was reassure him they both would be ok. There was a shuttle on the other side of the estate, in a small barn that acted as a hanger for the ranch.

Carrying his brother on his hip, he gathered up some of his toys and what books and clothes he could stuff into a bag, putting that on the opposite shoulder to his rifle.

He hugged his brother tightly before he turned around to leave, stopping when he heard a low whine of machinery and the clunky steps of someone struggling to lift themselves up. Slowly turning around, Elias and Clay both look in object horror as their mother rose, a Borg, her body sprouting parts and looking like a demon from hell, gray, putrid, riddled.

“Mama?” Clay asked shakily, as Elias turned Clay’s head so he didn’t have to see what he was about to do.

“Boys…” Their mother spoke, but not in her gentle cadence but in the cruel mechanical chorus of the collective. She started to slowly lumber towards the two, Clay’s cries growing louder as Elias backed them both up to the door frame before Elias withdrew his phaser pistol, aiming with a shaky hand.

“Mama…I’m sorry.” He whispered as he fired, striking the Borg which had once been their mother. Sparks flew as she collapsed to the floor in a tangle. Dead, but for the best.

Elias closed the door so Clay would have to see, holding him tight as they both fled the estate and into orbit on the shuttle heading for the last ship in the system.

Elias plotted towards the Utopia Planitia yards, his best guess as to where the fleet would be gathering to evacuate.

They had escaped, but at what cost. Earth gone, the Federation in shatters and Starfleet on the run.

Hope would survive as the McEntyre brothers had, but it'd take everything to see the light spark once again.

 

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