Entering the shuttlebay, Dinah glanced back at me and then motioned me to the side.
I followed and she turned to me, her voice low,
"Zeph, I need you to be completely honest with me here," she said, "Can you do this?"
Taking a deep breath, I slowly let it out, "I hate them," I told her quietly, "If there was a button to kill every last one of them, I'd push it before you were done explaining what it was. But yes. I can do this."
Actually, maybe not. That would keep me from killing them all in person after all.
She frowned slightly, "Are you sure? I can't have you freezing up over there or start ripping the place up. I know how strongly the Borg affect you."
"I'm surprised they don't affect you the same way," I said quietly, "You lost people to them. As many or more than me."
"I hate them too," she admitted softly, "They terrify me. The thought of another cube or... more... returning for another assault at the Federation still has me waking up screaming at night at times. But this is something we need to do. It may find us a way home, a way to beat them. And I need you on this, Zeph, you're the best engineer I know and I served on the Enterprise. And you're almost as smart as you think you are."
I snorted at her, "What do you mean almost?" I answered, repeating the usual teasing interchange.
Dinah smiled briefly but her tone was completely serious, "But I can't have you with me on this if you're too afraid to think straight."
Her tone made me actually stop and think about it for a second. Could I? If I couldn't, then going would risk all their lives.
"I can," I told her equally as seriously, "Seeing that cube came at me cold. It all hit me at once. I am doing better now. And I'm not afraid. I'm furious. They are intruders. Interlopers. Invaders of my territory and they all deserve to burn."
Dinah frowned slightly before she nodded and raised a hand. I touched my snout to it.
"Alright, let's go," she said and headed for the large shuttle with everyone else waiting.
Everyone else was already gathered by the ramp of the shuttle, wearing environmental suits and carrying the gauss rifles. Well, not Harry Kim but Ensign Morales and Crewman Johnson were both holding one.
"Alright," Dinah said as she walked past them onto the shuttle, "Check your timers, we have one hour, forty three minutes before we have to be back onboard. This is going to be a smash and grab, no time for anything fancy. Harry, you're piloting, I'll show you where we can enter. Our goal is to get Zephyr to the interesting bits so he can pick what we can salvage."
"At any sign of life over there, we pull out," I continued as I followed her onto the shuttle's cargo area, "And leave the present behind. Harry, you're on present duty."
He nodded and patted the hexagonal cargo carrier he had hanging from a strap over one shoulder, "I got it, sir."
We all piled into the shuttle. Dinah and Harry moved into the small cockpit and I settled down on the deck before reaching up and taking the helmet from my harness, putting it on and activating the suit, feeling the strong nano fabric clamp down around my body. Then I turned my head to Morales, "So what do you think of the guns?"
He grinned and put his own helmet on before his voice came through the com channel, "Lot more fun to fire than a phaser, I'll give you that, sir. And anything on the other end is going to be mighty unhappy about it. Not as useful as a phaser, but it does its job very well."
"I prefer the phasers," Johanson said before sealing her own helmet, "More versatile, but it sure seems like it may be better against the Borg."
"That's the hope," I said, "And why Lieutenant Navari asked me to design a kinetic weapon, that hopefully it will be more difficult to adapt to. But like she said, any sign of life, any movement at all over there and we're pulling back and giving them a surprise on the way."
They both nodded and went to check over their weapons.
I brought up the sensors of the shuttle in my helmet, watching the massive black cube slowly grow in my view and I felt the fire within.
To burn them all.
"Does not look damaged," I instead mused, "Not sure they were in a battle."
"Any thoughts of what could have killed it?" Dinah asked over the com channel, "Harry, see that lower edge? There is an entry port there."
"Well..." I said slowly, using the distraction, "Not yet. But we are about two lightdays from the edge of a charged nebula. If it wandered in there and got zapped..."
"Ouch," Dinah answered, "Yeah, that'd likely do it. Those have discharges the size of Earth."
Nebula could pick up a charge, the same way as a thunderstorm on a planet. Lots of gasses moving about creating static friction. But without a planet or even star around to ground to, the charge could build a lot higher.
And if something happened to drift into it, for example a ship...
Dinah was right. I don't care how tough the Borg cubes are, you're not tanking that. Hell, if that's what happened, the fact that they're here at all means that they were either on the edge of a discharge or just got hit by a small one. The usual thing that happened was the ship unlucky enough to get zapped was to turn into its component subatomic particles.
"Circle around once first, Harry," I said, "Give us a full sensor reading of the cube. If there's any energy signatures, any heat at all, we're leaving."
"On it," he answered and the shuttle started to change course.
The massive three kilometer cube grew larger in my field of view than I ever saw in the past. Closer and in more detail.
I forced myself to relax, to not dig my claws through the deck. To pay attention, to watch. The surface was even more covered in gribbles than you could see. It's like it wasn't really a hull at all. More like the ship just stopped and the outer layer was just shaped according to whatever was beneath it.
"No energy readings, no heat signatures," Dinah said, "Alright, bring us inside."
I watched as the shuttle moved around and headed for a small opening in the cube. I'm not sure what it was. A way to bring onboard small ships maybe. A shuttlebay, a hangar, whatever it was it was empty and open to space.
Nothing to see. A metal box with an opening further in.
Dinah walked back into the cargo space, "Alright," she said and checked her weapon, "Morales, you're with me. Johnson, bring up the rear. Harry and Zephyr in the middle."
She motioned and Morales hit a button, cycling the atmosphere out with a dull roar before the ramp slowly started to lower.
The outside was pitch black. I switched my helmet to thermal.
Almost as dark then.
"I should go first," I protested with a growl, "If something comes at us, I may be in the way for you to get back."
"Tough," Dinah said and started down the ramp, lights kindling to light on the shoulders of her suit as she raised her weapon, "Let's go."
