Bab 73: A Favor Repaid
My eyes opened slowly, and I found myself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling, though that had happened to me far too many times now that I was not bothered by it. Waking up at all was a gift with how injured and infected I was. My body felt strangely weak, but that was not enough to stop me from sitting up. A familiar yap reached my ears and Nyka jumped onto the bio-bed that I was laying on.
"Rebecca! Finally, you're awake!" Echo said from my side, standing up from the floor.
Looking around, I realized that I was in Sick Bay. What bothered me, though, was that Katye was laying on a bio-bed next to me with Echo between us both. Nothing seemed wrong with her visually, but my medical knowledge was limited.
"Why is Katye here?" I asked.
"A backlash from her helping Danara to cure you. She said that the strain would have her unconscious for two months, and she entered that state a day and a half ago. It's been a little over three hours since we entered Fluidic Space due to Seven of Nine's tampering with the deflector dish. Janeway woke up two hour ago and relieved Chakotay less than an hour ago. Raven has gone to Cargo Bay Two to help B'Elanna..."
"Raven to Echo. We have a problem!" Echo's comm badge chimed.
Echo, who had been explaining things to me, was suddenly stopped by Raven's message.
"Rebecca to Raven. What's wrong?" I asked, tapping my badge.
"Thank God, you're okay. B'Elanna and I can't approach the terminals as your visions suggested. There is a Borg shield keeping us from getting close," Raven replied.
Instantly, I realized where we were in the episode. If Raven was trying to get to the Borg Terminals, that meant plan Scorpion was in full extents... with a hiccup. I could only growl since I had just woken up and a major problem had sprung up.
"Cut power to the cargo bay or the deck if you need to, but you must block Seven of Nine's signal to the rest of the Collective!" I said, tapping my own badge. "I'll handle her directly."
"You just woke up, Rebecca. I'll handle the Borg," Echo said.
"No, stay here with Katye; she's defenseless right now," I said firmly.
Echo clenched her jaw and looked at Katye then nodded her head. I was still a little shaky and weak, but my stubbornness prevailed as I walked out of Sick Bay. The turbo lift was not far away, so I took it and leaned against the wall while I took it up to the Bridge.
Unfortunately, the turbo lift stopped, and I was thrown against the wall as Voyager had been by a heavy attack. The lights went out and I let out a groan from the impact, realizing just how fragile I was currently. It was easy to guess that Voyager had just been attacked by Species 8472, but that information did little to help me out of the situation that I found myself in. The doors would not open, the computer would not respond, and my mana reserves were so low that I could not teleport, or even reach out to the Yin Realm and move through the walls. That did not mean I was helpless or had to call for help, but I could get in trouble for the method I chose to use.
"Forgive me for this, B'Elanna," I said, transforming my artificial fingers into a sharp blade.
With a swipe of my hand, I cut through the doors of the turbo lift and half of two others along with a bit of the flooring since I was between decks. I was able to break away the pieces of the doors and crawled out onto the upper deck which was thankfully Deck Two. Using the last of the stored mana in the metal, I changed my fingers back to normal as I pushed myself to my feet.
The Bridge was not too far away, so I needed to keep moving. I was nearly there when the ship rocked from another hit, but this one was weaker than the one which disabled the turbo lift on me. I stumbled into the corridor which led directly to the Bridge and stumbled into a scene unfolding.
"Ready, Captain," Tuvok announced.
"Do it," Janeway ordered, staring at the viewscreen.
There were over two dozen bio-ships chasing behind Voyager. I remembered this scene; it was just moments before the Borg broke their alliance with Janeway. A green torpedo was launched and exploded in the center of the group. It took a few seconds, but all of the bio-ships shined with a green glow, and then exploded with enough energy to rock Voyager lightly.
"Thirteen bio-ships have been destroyed. The others are in retreat," Tuvok said.
"I have regained full contact with the Collective," Seven of Nine announced.
"What are they saying?" Janeway asked.
"All remaining bio-ships in the Delta Quadrant are returning to realm. The Borg have prevailed," she replied with a hint of smugness.
"With a little help from us," Janeway retorted. "Now, it's time you fulfilled your..."
Janeway was trying to be reasonable, I knew, but I was not in a state to let her finish her statement. I was barely stronger than anyone else on the ship since my body was still weak from however they had healed me, and my mana reserves were at rock bottom. If I allowed Seven to get to Tom's station, we would be facing a lot more trouble than we could handle, so I rushed from the corridor and tackled her.
Bright side, I managed to knock her down with the element of surprise... Down side, she managed to catch herself slightly on Tuvok's station console and turn to face me. She tried to raise her right arm, but I blocked it and thought I was safe since she could not inject my neck. It was a classic TV trope where the Borg always assimilated people by injecting their victims in the neck, but was that really the only place it could work? The answer was no; they just needed access to the bloodstream, and sadly, I learned it the hard way as two blackish silver tubes pierced my forearm.
Since my rebirth, even before finding out about being the Embodiment of Chaos, I had been able to experience several morbid questions I had asked myself when I had been a normal person in a dead-end job. What is it like to be shot? What happens when you are thrown into the vacuum of space? What would it be like to be assimilated by the Borg?
Answers in order? It was surprisingly more of a stinging sensation than I had expected. Strangely, my body swelled, and my blood boiled despite the negative hundred degrees Celsius temperature. As for the assimilation, it was a cooling sensation that spread out from the injection points, which changed to a freezing sensation before going completely numb.
I saw the spot on Seven's neck erupt with electricity as she screamed in pain, just as she had in the show. She fell unconscious and the tubules retracted from my skin, but there was nothing that I could do. I slumped over and tumbled off Seven as I heard Janeway shout for someone to help me. Before anyone could, though, there was a flash of white light and I suddenly found myself in Cargo Bay Two, next to Chakotay and in front of Raven. I had barely understood where I had been teleported to before Raven summoned her Soul-Construct.
"Don't..." I groaned, right as she stabbed me with one of the arms of her construct.
"It's the only way," she replied with a grim smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, well, quite the pickle you are stuck in," a teasing voice chuckled.
Raven noticed that B'Elanna seemed frozen in place, so with the voice from behind her, she knew what was going on since Rebecca and Katye had told her about their interactions with Sancu. Looking behind her, she saw Sancu 'standing' next to a frozen Chakotay in the cargo bay. She climbed out of the jeffries tube access that she was in with a sigh.
"You could say that, but isn't this problem caused by you or the other members of Tori's pantheon?" Raven asked.
"Actually, it was because of Rebecca's idea to lock away Janeway's and Tuvok's memories. When they were momentarily connected to the Collective, the Borg Queen scanned their memories and noticed a few blanks that could not be hidden as your impact on the events could not be properly shifted. She is a unique entity within this universe, so she was suspicious and ordered higher levels of protection when interacting with the Voyager crew," Sancu replied with a casual smile.
"Unique entity?"
"Yes, she is a recurring villain throughout all of the Star Trek franchise, so she needed to be able to challenge Rebecca and Katye. While she has no mana herself, she does understand it and is searching for a Vazukuru to assimilate," he said.
Rebecca had been the one to tell her time, and time again, to pay attention to the phrasing whenever Tori's pantheon was involved. Hearing that the Borg Queen was looking for a Vazukuru to assimilate, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Rebecca!" she gasped.
"Yes, Seven of Nine has just injected her nanoprobes into her bloodstream. Originally, the plan had been for you to be the one assimilated, but when Chaos leads, things change at the drop of a hat. When you won my game, I promised you a favor and I am here to offer it. I'll sever Seven of Nine's connection to the Borg Collective for you, but if you don't want to fight a Borg-controlled Rebecca, you need to use your Soul Construct to stop her quickly. The longer that you hesitate, the more of your mind the Borg Queen can control as an exchange, that is, if you agree... You can still reject my offer and fight Rebecca who is already lost to the assimilation process, but the chances of survival for you, Katye, and Echo are .000000000000001% if you refuse," Sancu said with a grin as his thumb toyed with his cane.
Facing off against Rebecca weekly had firmly planted in her mind that there was no chance against her, even if the three of them combined their strengths. The best that she, Katye, and Echo could hope for was to escape if Rebecca lost control. There was no stopping the Chaos Storm that was her core, except by Rebecca, herself. She knew that she only had moments to accept or reject his offer, so she needed to follow her gut.
"Fine, I agree... Do I need to go there, or can you bring her to me?" Raven asked within less than a minute.
Sancu smiled and replied, "Since you are so willing, I'll bring her to you."
Sancu disappeared with a tap of his cane and, where he had been, Rebecca was now laying on the ground after a white flash of light as the world around them resumed. Chakotay was shocked by Rebecca's sudden appearance, Raven did not pay him any attention and summoned her Soul-Construct. Rebecca's skin was already white as a sheet and her veins were turning a greenish black at a rapid rate. Without hesitation, she stabbed one of the arms of her construct into Rebecca's stomach, phasing into pure mana instead of piercing her skin.
"Don't..." Rebecca groaned.
"It's the only way," she replied with a grim smile.
Raven's mind connected to the nanoprobes within Rebecca's bloodstream, and she began taking them over at an incredible rate. Unfortunately, there was still a limit to how many she could control even with the aid of her Soul-Construct and there were simply too many nanoprobes inside of Rebecca. Borg appliances had already started forming, first among them could replicate more nanoprobes at a rate similar to what she could convert. Her only option was to try to use the nanoprobes under her control to funnel the Borg-controlled nanoprobes into her through her Soul-Construct while expanding her influence.
Thankfully, the Borg-controlled nanoprobes were eager to chase a stronger source of mana since Rebecca's reserves were still at rock bottom. They hungrily raced into Raven's body anywhere her controlled nanoprobes went. Her first place of attack was the developing nanoprobe replicators, but it was a losing battle as she began to 'hear' the Voice of the Collective.
{Two Vazukuru detected aboard the Alpha Quadrant vehicle, Voyager!... Connection to one is being overwritten by an outside force!... Outside force is the other Vazukuru!... Adapting...!} billions of voices overlapping said directly into Raven's mind.
{You'll take her over my dead body!} Raven growled back at the Collective.
There was a change within the Borg-controlled nanoprobes inside of Raven's body as they regrouped and started forming multiple nanoprobe replicators with the majority of the ones inside Rebecca racing towards her. She sneered to herself while destroying the last of the replicators within Rebecca then sent her nanoprobes on a kamikaze-style attack while also using that chance to control more and send them to do the same thing.
This was Sancu's favor. She could exchange herself for Rebecca and finally be the one to save her. While she would likely be the enemy the next time that they saw each other, she was happy to know that she had helped. Rebecca would find a way to save her, and even if she did not, Raven could care less. Rebecca had been the reason why she had never stopped fighting in the fifteen years that she had known her, so if this was truly her end, she would accept it with open arms.
Her nanoprobes' instructions were simple. Attack those without your energy signature, focusing on the replicators first. She kept converting more to her as she lost others to the fight and was quickly taking over those within Rebecca. Her nanoprobes outnumbered the remaining ones of the Borg, a hundred to one, when she could no longer resist the call of the Collective.
"I love..."
Before Raven could finish her sentence, she vanished in a flash of white light. Chakotay and B'Elanna, who had come out of the jeffries tube when she noticed that something was happening, could only stare in confusion at Rebecca, who was lying unconscious on the ground...
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone