Ohhhhh, and there comes the heartbreak and bitterness. Even though Maren had to know, I imagine it probably would be a shock. Poor Adele has no idea what's going on there under her nose.

I don't know how I feel about the Tesseract as a ship, but then again, I tend to have a very fixed view on starships. I can't imagine someone that young having that level of responsibility, for either Icheb or Maren, but it should be fascinating to see how that works out.

As an opener, it's definitely solid. It tells everything the reader needs to know about the mission, about Adele's position in it, and it sets up Icheb as her XO, which is a bolt move by Starfleet, even accounting for his brilliance. I like Adele's dry sort of wryness in her opening log, especially; if she keeps that up, I have a feeling I shall enjoy her immensely. It's good to see Janeway and good to see her passing the metaphorical flag to the Delta Quadrant, as it were, too.

Overall, definitely a solid opener.

The end of the story! So here comes the monster review:

Many of the chapters were rather gripping and the interpersonal stuff was spot on. Take the Maren/Icheb part of the story and I like how they slowly evolved to overcome their differences. In terms of the characters I would guess that the big five are Beckley, Adele, Icheb, Maren and John. They seemed to receive the most amount of story and development, while everyone else merely augmented them (with the possible exception of Bashir who I think will play a far more prominent role in the next story).

You take an interesting style of focusing a lot on the characters and less so about the general plot. In fact I'm amazed the story was so gripping given throughout most of the story, the plot developments were minimal: Aris 4 incident and those destroyed cubes, the Tyndorans, Icheb being captured, and the Borg Resistance. They were probably the biggest features which drove the plot forwards. What you seemed to have done is instead lay down the groundwork for your universe, the ship and the characters. That's no bad thing either, because stories either develop the plot substantially and focus less so on the characters or do the opposite (like in this story).

You've obviously left the really hard tasks of explaining the Borg Resistance, how Icheb is involved in all this, how the Borg survived, and what the Borg intend to do for the next story. That strategy has paid off in this story, but it sets the tone for the second story in that it will probably be more heavily biased towards plot development and so forth.

Another important thing I noticed is that you have created a solid premise. We have this Starfleet ship, a mixture of Borg and Starfleet technology, and despite the sometimes minimalist description, it conjured up some very vivid images in my mind.

Another intriguing feature of this story is how its pace varied wildly. The mood of the story usually determines the pace. Sometimes the more emotive/drama scenes were more slow thoughtful pieces, while at other times they were heavily dialogue driven. Some of the more descriptive/exposition scenes tended to lull me into a certain pace of reading and then something really important or serious happened. You're good at controlling the stories tempo and getting the exposition/descriptive/dialogue balance right where the plot and the character development called for it.

Going back to the big five I thought Beckley and Adele were to very different, separate characters while Icheb, Maren and John were all like compliments of each other. Icheb and John being polar opposites (except both have feelings for Maren), while Maren is somewhere inbetween the two. A lot of the drama in this story was very heavily dependent on the Icheb, Maren and John triangle and the three character's development sort of fed off each other. Aside from Icheb, I think the most intriguing character is Beckley, using only exposition you've created a very sinister and at times strange character. As for Adele she always came off very emotive for a captain (even more so than Janeway), and at times she was surprisingly caring and considerate but could lay down her authority rather effectively...

Next up I would like to address one plot holes. This is more minor and not so much a plot hole but more a continuity thing, in that towards the later chapters it seems to be that at least two weeks have passed by since the start of the Tesseract mission. But in the last scene of the story, Janeway said three months have past? Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention to the chronology of events in this story, but it just struck me odd this discrepancy.

To sum up, giving the intriguing mysteries, the big five characters, interesting premise, engaging drama, Bashir, the Icheb/Maren/John triangle, some cool concepts and technologies, references and scenes with some of the VOY crew, the Borg and the Resistance Borg. I give this story 4 and half stars.

Looking forward to the second story!

Nice little chapter building up the tension, while I'm still eager (and waiting) to know for how the Federation started this Borg civil war. I also feel that the Maren and Icheb characters are evolving, they're going in this direction and its almost like they are moving beyond past traumas with respect to the immediate present. So it's clever how you are moulding them into something different...

Finally Icheb's problem is explained! Very clever I might add, and you've clearly given this story a lot of thought. I sense the beginnings of some sort of potential power struggle between Beckley and Adele... Intriguing stuff, even more so despite all the revelations of the last five chapters!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally Icheb's secret is revealed (more or less), no wonder Maren is such a nervous wreck giving Icheb's condition. I also get the feeling that later on this story (or the next) some of the VOY characters (Janeway, Seven and the Doctor) will come into prominence. Great story!

Something odd is definitely happening to Adele if her telepathic senses are growing stronger and gaining in range. You're really stepping up the intrigue and plot now, and I like it!

Good teaser! The encryption is cracked but something really serious gets in the way of unraveling the mystery regarding the Tyndorans and possibly the Borg. It's really cool to see Beckley kiss-ass to but I personally think his attempts to make allies won't work out. Icheb already smells a rat...

I'm not sure whether to say 'go John!' or 'naughty John!'. Mind you things look perilously close to forming a love-triangle between Icheb, Maren and John. At least John had some restraint though... I also enjoyed how you made fun of that cliched 'raising an eyebrow' Vulcan response during that party; Maren's thought-process was spot on there.

Another cool thing about this story: you make the ordinary interactions between the main characters really interesting, even for simple things like a dinner or a night-out. Tells me these characters are pretty lovable or gripping...

Ho ho! Julian is probably up to something, innocent, with Adele, and I sense this may be a precursor to first a friendship and then a relationship? I doubt the latter giving Adele (despite her nice personality) is more curmudgeonly than Picard when it comes to relationships (especially with ones subordinates)... In any case Adele might not be aware of Bashir's cunning or shrewdness...

Question; do Tyndorans have three eyes instead of the usual two? So are the Tyndorans lying about what they know or some of their actions; like damaging subspace and destroying Borg cubes? As for Ordi'te's right-hand man giving Adele that chip... Very strange indeed.

I like this intrigue and mystery, something this story packs in droves!