Extending the Olive Branch
Posted on Fri May 23rd, 2025 @ 11:47pm by Captain M'Raz & Lieutenant Commander Jason Reeves & Lieutenant Micheal Taggart & Lieutenant H'iri
1,214 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Resistance is Necessary
Location: Just Outside the Sol System
Timeline: MD003 - 0500
The Nebula Class starship, the USS Broker warped back to the outskirts of the Sol System. Never had the system felt so foreign, so quiet. She called out to her crew. "Anyone pick up any lifesigns?"
What seemed like moments later, a trio of Borg ships, moving in precise formation made directly for the Broker.
Based on all of the information that Istrade had gathered, the Borg had superior weapons and technology. Sending three ships, shaped like cubes towards the Broker would be overkill. Therefore, she concluded that it was a welcoming committee. Istrade ordered, "Go to red alert. Keep a secure channel open and send everything to the Jane Addams. I believe that they were using the call sign to the USS Normandy."
A willowy operations officer, who seemed to stiffen as the ships approached, responded, "Aye Captain. Secure channel open to the Normandy."
"Great!" Istrade replied excitedly. "Now, hail the Borg."
Upon hearing the channel open to the Borg, Istrade firmly but politely opened, "This is Captain Marissa Istrate of the USS Broker. I would like to open peace discussions with you. I fear that there may have been some gross miscommunications between our culture and yours and I would like to work together with you to build a better future for all of us."
The answer, lacking emotion, came through, loudly and abruptly. "We are the Borg. Prepare to be assimilated."
"We have no desire to be assimilated. We do work cooperatively with other races and cultures. Can you tell us why you have come here?"
The answer was quick in coming and lacking any real answer to the Captain's question. "Prepare to be assimilated." Drones began appearing in key areas of the ship, known to them now after the takeover of Sol system, and two at the front of the Bridge. "Resistance is futile."
Istrade ordered, "Form up! Intruder alert! Security, I want teams to repel them on all decks. How in the hell did they get through our shields?"
Security answered, "We don't know."
"Fire all phasers and torpedoes!" Istrade ordered. "Also, send an encoded message to Raz. Tell him peace is impossible with the Borg!"
While the phasers hit and the drones began assimilating the crew, the lead Borg vessel responded, its advanced weaponry targeting the engines and weapon systems with the intent of crippling the Broker. "Resistance is futile," the voice came across the open channel, though the sound was less clear than it had been before owing to the damage inflected by the enemy.
On the Bridge, more drones appeared targeting the senior staff first and then one came toward the Captain, a female human, once an aide to a council member, and now, studying him with a merciless gaze as she moved forward.
Istrade's eyes went wide. She then sent out what she suspected was her last communication. "The Borg do not kill people. They make them into Borg. I recognize a council member's aide. She was Beatrice Mullins. She was a shy thing. Cameras, tape this and send!"
She grabbed something heavy and tried to hit Beatrice with it, hoping it would slow her. She then called out on the internal comms, "Anyone who hears this, abandon ship! Computer commence self destruct sequence, authorization Istrade Alpha Omega, Three, Five, Delta, Eight." The Captain knew that she had to avoid the Borg until the Broker was destroyed. She may have been wrong about the Borg, but she took responsibility for her mistakes, even if it was the final one.
[Meanwhile, On the Jane Addams]
The message went out, the operations officer on duty felt the touch of a Borg's hand after she pressed send. But the message went and on the Jane Addams, the message was received. Raz rose slowly to his feet, hands clenched, as he listened to the message. "Display the images," he ordered.
H'iri did as she was told. The aide who was altered showed clearly on the screen. Where her left arm had been was now replaced by machinery. There was a stange glowing bionic mechanical thing over her eyes. The power behind her was unmatched as the crew could watch her not being affected by anything the Captain or anyone else threw at the former aide.
Tears started to fall silently from H'iri's eyes. This was a fate worse than death.
Reeves leaned forward in his seat as the images came up on the main viewer. The look of his face was one of horror, but not completely surprised. Starfleet had a way of wanting to go with the peaceful approach at times. The Broker had a crew compliment of seven hundred and fifty. Which didn't even include any guest or whoever else just happened to on board for this apparent suicide mission.
Raz remained standing, keeping vigil over the end of the Broker and her crew, and sighed inwardly. If these Borg did this with everyone that means that every captain who met at Wolfe was known to the Borg now. And anything they had talked about, well, they knew that as well.
Micheal sat at his helm console, transfixed by the horror he was seeing on the screen. He was glad that they were not closer, or he would have felt each soul crying in terror, then go suddenly quiet. It was a feeling he never wanted in his head again.
[On the Broker]
The shock of a full swing meeting an impenetrable force field rebounded; Beatrice, implacable and undisturbed, continued to close on Istrade.
Istrade called out, "Computer time on self destruct?" She tried to back away from Beatrice, making certain to dodge anything that was within her touch. She had to survive long enough to allow some to get away. The Captain, however, must go down with the ship. She must die. The Federation secrets, such as they were, needed to be preserved. She looked around for a phaser. Worst case scenario, she could turn it on herself.
"Ten seconds," the computer responded, "Nine ..."
The Second Officer, who had given up firing his phaser was the next to be taken, and with him, went the knowledge of what had happened among the Captains. One moment cursing the alien intruders, firing his phaser, and the next utterly still.
"Eight ..." the computer continued. "Seven ..."
Hoping that she could stop the Borg from accessing information, she first fired on the Second Officer, her phaser on the kill setting. Not waiting to see what happened, she turned the phaser on herself, crossed herself, and then fired, hoping that God would forgive her for this suicidal act.
Her phaser blast connected and her Second Officer died but not in time. He fell to the floor will the computer counted down ... "Three ... Two ... One ..." And then the Broker was gone in an explosion that destroyed those Borg still aboard the ship. It did nothing, however, to the three ships that watched her die.
Captain M'Raz
Commanding Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant Commander Jason Reeves
First Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant Micheal Taggert
Chief Helm Officer
USS Jane Addams
Lieutenant H'iri
Chief of Operations
USS Jane Addams
Captain Marissa Israte (Deceased)
Commanding Officer
USS Broker
Lieutenant Hiram Karcher (Deceased)
Second Officer
USS Broker
and
The Borg
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