Interlocuters [✱21]

Posted on Tue Jul 21st, 2026 @ 1:48pm by Lieutenant Commander Alph & Locutus of Borg & Major Victoria, Daughter of Kalath & Lieutenant Akaar Zuul & Captain Three of Five & Warrior Choq, Son of None & Sergeant Jepok
Edited on on Tue Jul 21st, 2026 @ 1:50pm

2,095 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: UnderMind [4]
Location: Borg vessel connected to IKS Praxis' Claw
Timeline: After 'Silence on the Bridge'

The Borg vessel was quiet, and from what they could tell of the distance they'd already crossed in the last few minutes, large. "So has anyone actually been aboard a Borg ship before?" Kalath asked the team, her bat'leth ready to take down any drones that might appear.

"Only an abandoned one." Alph admitted, his optical senses working hard to perceive any change or detail that might foreshadow a threat.

"Once, when I was a young man. We ventured aboard a scout ship that was found in Imperial Space. We did not spend long aboard, we planted tricobalt charges and left before detonating them." Choq explained.

“I haven’t, except in security simulations.” Akaar added, he wasn’t eager to change that but clearly the team must add this experience to their list. “Until now,” he sighed.

"Not since I was unassimilated." Captain Three of Five observed.

"Alright then. Everyone stay on your toes. If it's not one of us, don't hesitate to get slash-y." Kalath ordered.

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Akaar chuckled nervously as he gripped his blade handle harder.

Ahead of them, it soon became obvious that a large multilevel utility room of some sort awaited. The sounds of mechanical activity were obvious even from a distance, and soon they could see that the Borg were working to reassemble what they had taken from the Klingon ship here. Against the angular wall, away from the unguarded walkways, the final product was obvious, augmented by Borg technology, it seemed that the work was nearly complete.

"My thinking is we don't want them to finish whatever it is they're doing." Kalath said. "Anyone disagree?"

"The limited information available to us aboard the Klingon vessel suggested that the device they were disassembling was most likely some sort of slipstream propulsion core. I believe it is in the interests of all sentient life to ensure the Borg cannot escape and proliferate further." Alph added.

"I concur." Three of Five agreed.

"I would suggest we create a distraction elsewhere to lure the drones away, but there is no guarantee they will divert themselves to it." Choq thought aloud to the group. The revelation was strange. As far as he knew, the KDF did not possess slipstream technology, but a Son of None was never the first to know of such developments.

“Oh hell, Borg Slipstream…” Akaar chimed in unsettled at the thought that Borg could slip in and out of anywhere in Federation space if they fail here. “Hold on, didn’t they already assimilate Slipstream? I recall Voyager’s logs say Arturis informed Captain Janeway that his people had been assimilated and they were the slipstream inventors.” He recounted, Voyager’s journey was a reading hobby of his. “Why would they be doing this now?” It wasn’t really a question he expected an answer to but they should consider it for later.

"There is every possibility the knowledge was destroyed to prevent the Borg obtaining it, a number of our most advanced research and development facilities have procedures in place to annihilate their work in the event of imminent assimilation or other hostile takeover. However even if they did, knowledge alone is not enough to replicate the technology. Given the relative scarcity of required exotic elements and the prolific nature of their transwarp network, I believe that it would be illogical for the Borg to expend significant resources on a travel method that facilitates speeds slower than those already available through the aforementioned network." Alph rationalised.

"That is a correct assessment of the collective's approach, at least insofar as it was when I was a drone." Three of Five confirmed.

Akaar frowned, "while that may be true, Slipstream has to be faster than Transwarp, but that's a conversation for another day," he prepared himself for their next major engagement.

"Commander Alph, how many drones in there?" Kalath asked the android, expecting him to have the most accurate reconnaissance abilities.

Alph moved to the edge of the corridor they were clustered in trying to remain out of view. He stuck his head out, and his neck extended a few inches. He looked around for a moment, and his neck withdrew. "I count fifteen drones. Eight seem to be working on the device, the other seven seem to be working towards supporting its function indirectly. Or possibly engaged in other tasks in proximity, it is difficult to tell." Alph said.

"Hmm. And what would happen if we just opened fire on the device from here with our phasers?" Kalath asked as a follow-up.

"Not advisable. Even without power the components are likely highly explosive. A benamite explosion could destroy this vessel and the Klingon ship." Alph said.

"Right. Melee combat it is. Are we all ready? If you don't want to go toe-to-toe with the Borg, nobody will blame you, but know that this is going to get ugly." Kalath told the team.

“Can we sneak up to them and swipe them off their feet?” Akaar suggested, not quite convinced it would work but hopeful.

"Any close approach carries the risk of assimilation. We will need to prioritise our safety over theirs." Choq said in response. He did not want to harm these Borg either, but he knew there would likely be no choice.

"I wasn't envisioning that we run at them screaming, Lieutenant." Kalath said with driest sarcasm. "Any attempt we make at stealth is going to be out the airlock as soon as one of them notices us. And as Mr Choq correctly points out, we don't have the luxury of going for a non-violent approach." She turned to Choq. "You're also right, but we're going to stop short of cutting off heads. I suggest targeting knees and ankles. They can't keep doing whatever they're doing if they can't move themselves."

Akaar blinked, "I did say sneak, not screaming and targeting feet, well legs," he told Kalath who may have heard him wrong. That strange audio anomaly that distorts words in the air could be present. He knew of these from interacting with humans, they often speak of hearing one thing while another was spoken.

"Prepare to charge." Kalath said quietly, raising her bat'leth. "We go in three, two, one, now!" She whispered loudly, leading the team around the corner into the large room, moving for the first Borg she found.

As they approached, despite their stealth, a Borg who stood back from the work as if surveying turned to them, and a green forcefield snapped into place between the approaching Starfleet crew and the working Borg.

"You are here to disrupt our efforts. I cannot allow that. You will negotiate." The Borg instructed.

Kalath tapped the lower end of her bat'leth against the field, it shimmered and buzzed. Near as she could tell, they weren't getting through it. She looked at this Borg, noticing he had vulcanoid ears. He wasn't one of the recent assimilations. "Not very Borg of you. I didn't think there were any 'I's' in your collective. Except the Queens. And maybe this is a little judgemental on my behalf you don't strike me as a Queen." She looked back to the others for a moment, just to ensure they weren't still about to strike.

"Don't hear that often," Akaar commented and glanced around what the drones were doing, he wondered if he could figure out their plans considering they were now closer.

"And all that aside, your collective is famous for considering negotiation irrelevant, no?" Kalath questioned the unusually individualistic Borg.

"I am Locutus of Borg. We understand the state of the collective. We seek consensus to avoid further conflict. If an accord can be reached, we will agree to release the drones we have assimilated from Species 5008. If consensus cannot be reached, conflict will resume." The once-Vulcan Borg told Kalath in a slow, even tone.

Akaar blinked. "Locutus of Borg, how is he a Vulcan," he stopped and figured that all drones were just drones Borg protocols could simply reprogram any of them to be any persona that the Queens had created regardless of species.

"Locutus is a designation applied by the collective to an individual leadership node when necessary or appropriate, generally an individual drone with specific skills or knowledge, as was the case with your Captain Picard. It is not dissimilar to the selection of Queens to serve as a manifestation of the collective. He was not the first, and evidently not the last." Three of Five explained.

Choq watched the individual Borg as he spoke. He did not know enough about their history to understand why this was so, or its significance.

"What kind of accord are you seeking?" Kalath asked warily. "Because as much as we don't want to hurt those drones, cutting off a few arms and legs is both fixable and most likely preferable to giving you what you want. And we've gotten pretty good at unassimilating, there's no reason we would need your cooperation."

"The radiation you have detected but have been unable to identify originates from a deep layer of subspace, where transwarp travel is performed. It is destructive to drones and destroyed most of our number. We have been trapped in this region of subspace since the collapse of the transwarp network after the destruction of Unimatrix 01. Only the passage of the Klingon ship intersecting with that realm of subspace through misaligned slipstream travel allowed us to intercept it. If we can complete the installation of the device and activate it, we can transition our vessel out of transwarp space. That is our objective. Your assistance will allow us to return to normal space before the radiation begins to impact our new drones. If you do not comply, they will begin to degrade as all the drones aboard this vessel have." The Vulcan explained. It had a clear, authoritative voice.

"If you all agree to leaving the Collective and regaining your individuality, I suppose we could help. Otherwise you'd go back to the hivemind and continue assimilating." Akaar countered, voicing his opinion.

"We will surrender the recently assimilated. Those Borg who were not taken from the Species 5008 vessel will not be surrendered. We will agree not to assimilate any other individuals against their will." Locutus made a counter-offer. "To make peaceful cooperation conditional on the abandoning of our way of life is a violation of your laws." Locutus added in his even, metallic tone.

Alph looked warily at the Borg, noting that the other drones continued to work in the background. "I believe his interpretation could be challenged in court, but by the letter of the law he is correct. If they do not threaten to assimilate the unwilling, we cannot force them subject themselves to de-assimilation. Regardless of how unwise that course of action may be."

"How will we know you will honour this agreement the moment your vessel is free and clear as you'd no longer require cooperation to achieve your objective?" Akaar inquired. "I propose you, your crew and your vessel will have to come to our station. Once the Klingons are returned, we should tow their vessel back to Deep Space 13 for repairs and a formal hearing can be held about that peaceful cooperation and not to assimilate the unwilling agreement can be discussed. Not to mention that all your crew must voice their desires, we'd probably need confirmation that there is no Hivemind forcing a continued Borg way of life upon them." He gestured at Locutus. "Forgive if we don't believe you at your word with all the history between the Federation and the Borg."

"Forgiveness is irrelevant," Locutus said, "We will comply."

"Alright then." Kalath said, surprised how easily that had gone, and not trusting the Borg for a moment. "We'll all be done here a lot quicker if our people help. I'm going to head back to the Klingon ship to brief our commander and retrieve our engineering team. Mr Alph, help them out. Mr Zuul, keep close and make sure all our people have the fable of the scorpion and the frog in the forefront of their minds."

"You got it," Akaar nodded at the Major.

"The assistance of your crew will increase our efficiency significantly. All damage to the newly assimilated may be avoided." Locutus said.

"Yeah, let's hope so." Kalath said, turning. "Three, you and Sergeant Jepok come with me. We'll be back as soon as possible." She said to her own people. "Alph, get in there and start looking around so we can hit the ground running."

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