By Coral
Disclaimer: All Paramount's... not my fault if they don't finish the story!
Confusion. Lack of cohesion. Only one voice. No others.
Where are the others? The connection to the collective had been severed.
There were no others. No voices. No harmony. No perfection.
Chaos. How long it had been this way, the drone could not tell.
Maybe it was many time units; maybe only one. Since the connection had
been severed, time was different. It passed in flashed of images and
snatches of disjointed voices that should make sense, but wouldn't. They
were unassimilated pieces of data, pieces of the whole that refused to submit to
the harmony. Why were they refusing? To be organised was to reach
harmony, to achieve perfection. This drone was no longer perfect.
The others were gone, no voices whispered their seductive siren song through
"Let me just-" space to help form the whole. One mind "I
can't let you through-" was weak, pitiful. It was only upon
assimilation "I can help her, Doctor" that the mind realised its
potential and became powerful. It was one mind now, alone "I'm not
sure anything will help!" without the security of immortality and
perfection. It would give anything to become one with the perfection
again, to leave "Then how will it hurt? Just lower the forcefield"
the chaos of its mind behind. The disjointed voices were louder now, as if
approaching. They were weak. Conflicted. Erratic.
Assimilation was their only "I can give you five minutes, no more"
chance for perfection. It would assimilate them, add their voices to its
own, join with them. Voices, where were "Kathryn, can you hear
me?" the voices, where were the Borg? Vocal communication is chaotic,
inefficient. A neural transceiver "It's Chakotay. Voyager's
fine, and Tuvok and B'Elanna have recovered" would be required for maximum
efficiency. It could be administered by-
-physical contact registered-
-by-
*a boat* The image was out of context. Disordered. In contrast to
harmony. *a rose* It made no sense, but should. *a smile* Human .
Their biological and technological *a man* distinctiveness was added *Chakotay*
Chakotay? A designation. For what? Not Borg. A man.
Not a drone. A designation. His designation is irrelevant. It
conveys no meaning. No meaning. What, then, of the other images it
suggests? A story, a hand, a container of water? Irrelevant.
He is nothing. We are malfunctioning. He is not part of the harmony.
Not of the Collective.
Irrelevant-
-physical contact registered-
"Chakotay?"
"Kathryn?"
-physical contact registered-
"Kathryn?"
-visual input received-
*a face* Concern. Concern is irrelevant. It shows weakness.
Damaged drones must be terminated. Their continued existence detracts from
the perfection of the Collective. We don't want to be terminated.
I don't want to be terminated.
"We don't want to be terminated-"
"Terminated? Kathryn?"
"We are - damaged. We can - no longer hear - the others. We
must be - terminated. We do not wish-"
System error. The will of the individual is irrelevant. There is
only the Collective. Nothing "You won't be terminated" else.
Nothing else. This drone must be returned "She's becoming
agitated" to the Borg. Assimilate. Assimilate this vessel and
"Watch out, Commander!" use it to "I'll have to sedate her.
Get the other side of the forcefield and raise it" return to the -
-physical contact registered-
"Welcome back... *Kathryn*. See you soon."
-return to... return to...
END