章 120: Dark Frontiers, Part 6
Echo made a loud, dramatic gasp and her body attempted to curl up defensively, but conduits got in the way. It could not be helped as the memory of her death was fresh in her mind as it had just been an instant since her body was vaporized by the explosion of mana, from her perspective at least. Nyka hopped down onto her chest and snuggled around Echo's head, attempting to calm her down. Despite her rich past of trauma, being a slave of Queen Nia and turned into a spy and assassin from a young age then following Katye and Rebecca into another universe, nothing had prepared her for truly experiencing a violent and awful death.
As Echo slowly regained control of her body, the necklace hanging around her neck crumbled. Unfortunately, aside from the ash from the necklace, she found herself completely naked, though it was not surprising. Using the Ouroboros Pendant meant that her body would be recreated at its peak state wherever the necklace was, which happened to be in the Territorial Domain that she had created yet left Nyka behind to maintain while she continued her exploration.
"Well, this is an unexpected consequence," she grumbled to herself as she looked at her left hand.
Pure tan skin covered her hand... devoid of Borg implants. All of her Borg implants were gone, so she no longer had a way to contact Rebecca as well as no way to connect with the machinery around her. There was no way that she would trust her ability to hack into a Borg console with her personal understanding; she could not even hack a console on Voyager without relying on her implants, so she knew that she was stuck.
"I'm okay, Nyka," Echo said softly as she rubbed the fox's ears. "Grab my ring for me."
The fox gave a soft yip then leapt off her chest. A second later, the fox returned with a ring in her mouth which she placed carefully on Echo's chest. Echo grabbed the ring and put it on immediately then summoned her main exo-suit as it required no other action than thinking about it. The suit that she had been wearing, no doubt destroyed in the explosion that claimed her life, was one of Raven's first models that had been collecting dust.
While the familiar, and stronger, suit was comfortable, Echo could not relax with the predicament that she found herself in. After using her question to Sancu to discover exactly how the Ouroboros Pendant worked, she had not expected that the Borg implants that she was used to would disappear; peak bodily condition, with the lowest amount of mana and Soul Power to retain consciousness, in her mind, did not involve the double-edged sword that were the Both implants.
"It's a good thing that Katye tries to think of everything," Echo sighed then summoned a data pad from her ring.
On it, there were numerous strategies for different situations, but it was doubtful any of them saw these turn off events. Though she was significantly weakened by her revival, she only needed to meditate for some time to recover. Again, Echo split her mind into six parts, five devoted to meditation, while the last mind was reading through Katye's data pad. There were numerous plans, all laid out before adding Voyager's expertise to the situation. She read through it all, comparing what she had learned firsthand versus Katye's estimation.
It would not be easy to dig herself out of this hole that she had dug for herself, but she had to. As she read the last of the possibilities that Katye came up with, she could not help but smirk, knowing her Fairy Queen knew her all too well. She put it away and completely focused on meditating, allowing her to fall into a deep meditation.
Inside her Soul Realm, which she rarely entered, she found an unexcepted change. What had long appeared as a swirling mass of icy blue clouds, accented by a black background, now looked as if the shifting icy blue energy had taken the form of a fox, though it was clear that there was more than one tail even though not a single could form before dissolving. The icy-blue fox's tail appeared more like a peacock's tail fan as the tails were more smoke than solid.
(Does this mean what I think it means?) Echo could not help but wonder to herself as she woke up from her trance...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A massive explosion shook the Borg Space station, right in the center of it. Many systems were offline, but we did not move. I was frozen in shock that Echo had basically killed herself in an attempt to kill Raven, though she had not succeeded as I could vaguely sense my Borg connection to her. While Echo's pendant was missing, Katye found Raven's still in the box where we had stored both of them.
"Calm down, Becca. My plans included her pulling a stunt like this," Katye said, trying to calm me down.
"A 'stunt'? Killing herself is a stunt?!?" I snapped.
"She likely severely injured, if not killed all of those enhanced drones that Raven warned us about, as well as Raven, herself. On top of that, she ensured that she was not captured and gave a reason for the Borg to believe that not only is she truly dead, but also that we are not here as it takes a week for her to be revived. She likely stashed her pendant somewhere on the space station under Nyka's watch, so we just have to wait," she replied.
"Why the hell would she do something so crazy?!?"
"Really?" L'Naan mocked with a deadpan stare.
"She has a point, Octavia kom Skaikru," Katye chuckled. "If she pulls this off, she's truly 'one-upped' the battle against Iseto."
The statement was like a cold bucket of water dumped on my head. My anger was still there, but I had done crazier things in the early years of our adventure, and without a 'second-life token'. Fae chimed, saying Voyager was hailing us, so I had to calm down.
"We don't even know the complications that come along with using it. All we know is that it takes a week for the pendant to revive the one attached to it, in the location of the necklace," I grumbled, ignoring Janeway's call.
"She needs to stay within range of her traps to set them off, and best-case scenario, she delivered us Raven; pretty impressive planning, no?" Katye retorted, making L'Naan laugh.
I huffed with annoyance, then sighed, "Cunning vixen... Put Janeway through, Fae."
"What happened?" Janeway demanded.
"Echo used plan 'D'... and set off a massive explosion in the heart of the rune factory where Raven, the Anomaly Stone, and the bulk of the mana-enhanced drones were all located. She should be fine, but we have lost contact with her for a week, and there is a chance she could be in danger if her Domain is exposed before she recovers. Let's leave it at a Vazukuru trick that can't easily be replicated," I said with anger in my voice.
"I did have a set of scenarios with this idea in mind, so we need wait a week and monitor the station from a distance. She may need more time, so I even have a synced clock with the times to set off specific traps. It would be best if we move away for now and lower the risks of being exposed," Katye sighed. "Once she starts things, we can swoop in and grab our people directly and then retreat."
"Can we run simulations on your ship with our training device?" Tuvok asked.
"Sure, the data is already in Fae, so it won't be difficult to set up a holo-deck-like simulation, and with Echo gone, we have two free," I agreed as it would be a good way to spend my time before we could act.
"I suggest that we move out of short-range sensors then update Voyager. It will take some time for them to get it, but shorter than the week we'll be staying here," Janeway suggested.
"Agreed, and if you would like to conserve energy, you're welcome to join us at mealtime. It's much easier to refill our core than yours at the moment," I offered.
"Thanks, we'll likely take you up on that offer," Janeway replied. "Tom, move us away from here. We'll set up a schedule for running the simulation after we message Voyager and transmit it to you later for your input."
"Understood," I replied before cutting off the communication link.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Are the others here?!?" the Queen demanded.
Seven could not hide the concern in her eyes as she looked down at Raven, who was laying on a special horizontal alcove. The explosion in the rune factory had been so powerful that over seventy of the enhanced drones were killed, cutting the number in half, and despite being significantly stronger than the drones, Raven was in the center of the explosion, so her shields still collapsed in the final moments. Her exposed skin was severely burned, but more frightening was that her hands and forearms were gone as they had been outstretched, trying to strengthen her mana shield. There were currently three drones working on repairing the damage, but it was proving difficult as there was lingering mana inside her body disrupting their efforts.
"I don't know. I did not tell any of them my intention to leave Voyager," Seven replied.
"When would they strike?" the Queen questioned.
"Right away. Rebecca is not one to bide her time when her lovers are involved, especially against the Borg as she doesn't underestimate your ability to adapt."
"'Our' ability, Seven; you are one of us, after all," she corrected with a smile that did not reach her eyes.
Despite there being no point in hiding it, Seven suppressed her annoyance at her statement, keeping her expression neutral. The only reason that she had rejoined the Collective was because the Queen threatened Voyager and the Fae Dragon. She had expected to be reassimilated, yet only a neural probe had been attached to her, linking her mind to the Collective while her individuality remained intact. Since then, she was regularly questioned about the Fae Dragon crew, especially Katye, who had stabilized and fused with Omega. Seven could not understand the Queen's logic, but a part of her held onto hope that Katye and Rebecca would rescue her along with Raven eventually.
"What if Katye was in charge? What would she do?" the Queen asked.
"I'm not sure," Seven said dismissively.
The Queen smiled, reading Seven's unconscious thoughts, and replied, "She would plan. She would calculate every possible outcome. The main question is whether or not Echo was alone. Her skills are specialized in stealth, and, with her implants, she can overcome her lack of understanding of technology. She could have avoided our sensors and stayed on the ship that brought you, but whether she could hide the others is something that you don't know.
"Yet, with Rebecca's connection to Echo and her death in the explosion, there is no way that she would not lash out if she was here. Katye would have had to sedate Rebecca, if she wanted any chance of controlling her temper as Rebecca is considered the strongest of all of them. The longer things are quiet, the more likely that Echo acted on her own when she discovered the rune factory and the enhanced drones. All of them have a strong sense of duty for allowing Raven to be assimilated, and Echo even has the conviction to kill herself to protect the galaxy from the Borg."
Seven could not help it this time and glared angrily at the Queen, knowing that she was her pawn.
"You must be tired, Seven. Please, regenerate, and we can continue our conversation later," the Queen said like she was a caring mother.
A/N: Before anyone demands my death for the cliffhanger lol I will be releasing the final part of this mini-arc once I get it back from my editor. I gave it to him late last night, and he hasn't had time to look at it yet. Otherwise, the next release date will be December 1st 😊
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