บท 94: Echo's Favor, Part 1
"Are you sure about this?" Janeway asked.
"I am... Echo has sensed that Raven has moved within fifty light-years of us, but she can't get a better read than that without using her 'Eye' which is leading us in the wrong direction," I replied.
"We can go with you. This isn't something that you have to face alone."
I smiled bitterly and glanced out the windows in her Ready Room. "We do... There is nothing Borg related in our visions for months. This is an effect because Raven sacrificed herself for me and, if we don't face it, this danger will come for Voyager, if not the galaxy. I don't have a plan or know what we are heading into, but we must go; all four of us agreed. We are going to bet our lives on saving her, just like she saved me. Once we have her back, we'll catch up, even if I'm stuck on core duty the whole time."
She placed her coffee cup on the table in front of us and sighed. "Once you have her back, message us and we'll rendezvous with you, even if it means some backtracking."
"Thank you, Kathryn," I replied with a light smile.
We talked a short time longer before I excused myself, or that had been my intention. Janeway followed me out onto the Bridge where all of the main stars of the show, except for the Doctor and Neelix, were present.
"The Fae Dragon and her crew will be leaving Voyager to go after their missing crewman, Lieutenant Raven Reyes. While I offered to assist her with Voyager, Captain Cox has refused my offer due to the danger that the rescue mission poses and that they will be heading in the opposite direction of us," Janeway announced to the Bridge staff, causing frowns across most of those present.
"No matter how powerful you think you are, you and your ship will not be enough to take on the Collective. The Queen has been searching for Vazukuru for hundreds of years; she won't let you take her easily," Seven stated.
"All the more reason why we need to go after her. Raven's powers are very dangerous in the hands of the Borg and it's our responsibility to fix that. For whatever reason, Echo's abilities are telling us that she has left Unimatrix Zero One and is within fifty light-years of us, so we are going to take this chance," I replied.
"What if it is a trap?" Chakotay asked.
"The Borg do not 'trap' their opponents," she said, dismissively.
"We know that it is likely a trap which is why we can't ask you to follow us," I agreed with Chakotay then turned to Seven. "The Borg would not normally rely on such tactics, but like you said, they have been searching for our kind for hundreds of years. Raven knows that we would do anything to save her, so the Queen knows that as well."
"You still need help. Someone needs to stay onboard your ship if your entire group was needed to board the Borg ship," Chakotay argued.
"I'll help. You'll need the best pilot that you can get with this crazy mission and you don't need to look further than here," Tom bragged.
"I would be the most logical person as I am already familiar with the Fae Dragon systems and I have the most understanding of the Borg," Seven said, matter-of-factly.
I looked over my shoulder, giving Janeway a wry smile as I knew what she was trying to prove. The crew of Voyager had fully accepted me and the rest of my group, so they had no hesitation when we needed help. We had put our lives on the line for them numerous times, so they wanted to repay the favor, but it was not that simple.
"I appreciate your offers, but like I said to Captain Janeway, I can't, and won't, risk the safety of Voyager on a dangerous mission that we are flying blind into. Starfleet just found out you all are still alive… your families just got hope again. I'm not taking that away from them just for the hope that I can reunite with mine. I've been proud to call this ship my home and its crew my friends for three years in case this is truly goodbye, but the Fae Dragon won't go down without a fight. We'll catch up with you all when we have Raven back," I said with confidence.
My words had the desired effect as they accepted my decision, with only Seven who still seemed like she wanted to argue with me, and it was easy to guess why. Not only was there logic to her original argument, but from her perspective, she did not have family in the Alpha Quadrant and, whether or not she realized it herself, we were the closest people to her. She did not want to lose us to her former family that still haunted her nightmares.
"Good luck, Rebecca," Janeway said with a light sigh, knowing that her final attempt to get me to accept her help had failed.
"You too, Kathryn; get this crew home. May we meet again," I replied with an outstretched arm towards her, as a custom from my last 'life'.
"May we meet again," she returned the goodbye as she clasped my forearm.
I smiled at her and nodded my head before we let go of each other. As I turned around, my eyes met with several people, B'Elanna, Tom, Chakotay, Harry, Seven, and Tuvok. All of them had been childhood heroes of mine and I always wanted to join them in their adventures, and I had. Now, they all respected me and cared about me, wanting nothing more than to help me in the face of a challenge to get back someone that I loved. I made my way to the turbo lift and entered it, then called out the gold coin from my storage ring, gripping it in frustration. There had been only one requirement for Echo's favor, and that was to not involve Voyager in this challenge in any way.
I walked off the turbo lift and headed for the Fae Dragon. I had already alerted Echo that I was on my way back, so when I boarded the ship, she was ready to take off. I continued onto the bridge and found all the members of the crew at the different stations. Nyka was laying across Echo's shoulders at the Conn Station with Filigree sitting on the top of the console, watching her work. L'Naan was at Tactial while Katye stood behind the Operation Station, monitoring the specialty sensors.
I sat down in the empty Science Station as Echo left the Shuttle Bay. She activated the cloak before we set our course at maximum speed. We had to make sure that they would not follow.
After dinner where they told me about everything, we spent the night discussing what we might face. In a way, it was like we were back in 'The 100' and guess how the events would play out... Every change that we made was countered by another unforeseen situation. Ideas and guesses were fine, but that was all they were in the end; there were too many Chances of what could be ahead of us.
We spent a week and two days flying on Echo's course before we finally got close enough for Echo to lock onto a location. Instead of a Borg cube, Raven's trail led us to a Borg planet, and only a specific continent. She needed to beam down to the planet before she could pick up a stronger trail, so we stayed cloaked in the asteroid field of the solar system where Raven's trail led to.
"You're supposed to be the Star Trek expert... What does a Borg World look like?" L'Naan asked after we settled in a 'safe' location.
"I don't know. I stopped watching Star Trek after Enterprise, and nothing before that ever showed a Borg world, only ships," I replied.
"She's right, the Borg were boogeymen that struck out when they wanted to; there was never an assault on them during the shows, by anyone other than Species 8472. We have no idea what it's like down there," Katye agreed.
"We can't expect the 'hive' mentality to ignore us if we are going to beam down to the planet. This is a trap, we know it, they know it... so, how do we make that our advantage? Raven built all of our exo-suits, so invisibility is out," Echo remarked.
"She knows about it, but I did the enchanting work which is why only my suit has it; the enchantment is above the Grand Master rank I've realized, but it was something that was important to me in my early stages of development, which is why I was able to unlock the spell early," Katye replied.
"Maybe, but it's Raven we're talking about, even if it's Borg Raven. Mana detection sensors, elemental modulating shields, mana disruption fields... we've all seen her notebook, so there is no telling what she has been able to do in the past six months that she's been with them," I argued.
"We need more information if we are going to have a chance to rescue her and, like it or not, I have the best chance to move around undetected," Echo said.
"No offence, but your technical knowledge isn't that great. You might be able to move around unseen, but the moment that you try to connect to their systems, you're bound to be exposed," L'Naan stated.
Echo huffed and shot her a glare, but did not argue. I sensed her annoyance through our connection then a thought struck me. Standing up from the table without a word, I walked into the kitchen and pointed my left hand at the replicator. A set of injection tubules erupted from the Borg implants that covered my hand and pierced into the screen with a maroon glow, connecting my mind to the device. I disconnected myself from the console after replicating a bottle of strawberry Spirit Wine, Raven's favorite, and carried it over to the table.
"Ghuy'," L'Naan exclaimed softly as all three had watched what I had done.
"When I first woke up in Unimatrix Zero, Raven didn't know why I was there. To her knowledge, she had purged the Borg nanoprobes from my body, never expecting hers to assimilate me. They are still tied to her mana signature and naturally designed to interact with technology, just like her Soul-Construct... Echo's and my weakness of not understanding technology can be solved with this, and the Borg don't know it," I explained, pouring drinks for all of us.
"What if it has the same weakness that hers did? The Parlor robot was able to take over her mind and attack you. I imagine that the 'Will' of the Collective is much stronger than that," Katye replied.
"We don't know, but Fae might be able to help us test that theory," I said with a shrug.
::I can.::
"Why haven't either of you tried that before? You had the memory of Seven of Nine doing exactly that," L'Naan asked, dumbfounded.
I picked up my cup and took a drink to avoid replying while Echo looked away.
Katye laughed as she grabbed her drink and said, using the same mocking words of Ishu before he had a personality flip after the first lich, "Because, they think more like a beast than a 'man'."
I huffed at the remark, making Katye smirk, but it also reminded me of another thing that I had yet to check on. I pricked my thumb with one of my artificial fingers and drew out Ishu's symbol on the palm of my hand then summoned him. A ghostly blue hand ripped out of the void and pulled the rest of his body into our Realm. Immediately, Ishu knelt to ground respectfully, causing Katye to sit up straight and look at him with confusion.
"You summoned me, Mistress," Ishu said.
"Say hello to everyone, you remember Katye, of course," I replied as she turned her confusion to me.
"Of course. Hello, Lady Katye, Lady Echo, and Lady L'Naan."
"I'm going to need some explanation," Katye said.
"Me too. What caused the personality shift after you saw me destroy the first lich?" I asked.
"I've been a Greater Lord Spirit for over ten thousand years because none of my contractors have ever lived for the Hundred Years of Service that my penance requires. You must be truly favored by a True God that is guiding your path to recover your former strength. I may finally be free of this curse if I serve you properly," he replied.
"I thought you told me that it was a number of uses... which we are past after Sancu's challenge," I said with realization.
"Apologies, Mistress, it was a lie. At that point, I would have recovered enough strength to sever our contract by damaging my Soul. It was how I chose to end this existence," he asked.
While I did feel bad for the ghostly chimera-slave assassin, I could not help but mock, "Did Tori really have to give everyone a tragic backstory?"
Echo smirked at my statement while Katye chuckled lightly.
Before Ishu could be offended, I explained, "Ishu, I'm not guided by a True God. I'm thrown into crazy 'universes' based off of stories of my childhood, where a Pantheon of Gods occasionally pop in and change something if things aren't hard enough. We're within the Inner Realm of a Nova-ranked God. Everything around us, including the universe outside of this ship, is his creation except for Katye's and my True Souls."
His form did not even waver, simply extinguishing like a candle blown out. Echo and I chuckled while Katye was confused by what had happened.
"Doesn't that get old?" L'Naan sighed, remembering my antics.
"Meh, not really, but once he accepts that, I probably won't be able to do it again; it doesn't get much crazier than that," I smirked and finished my drink. "Back to the matter at hand, I think Echo's plan could work, but you need to practice against Fae for a few days minimum, depending on your progress. We'll stay here, cloaked, and monitor the solar system to get a read on the Borg activity. Any objections?"
"No," Katye replied.
"Could you add invisibility to our suits as well?" L'Naan asked.
"No, the enchantments are already set, and it was difficult for Raven and me to overlap our runes which is why I have the oldest model," she replied.
"I don't need it... Nyka and I have a trick or two that we've been saving," Echo said.
I looked at her with a smirk because I knew that it was something that she was waiting to perfect before she used it against me in a sparring match.
Katye knew it too, so she added one more condition, "You have to test your tricks against both of us as well."
"Deal," Echo agreed with a smile.
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