ACT ONE
FADE IN:
14 INT. BORG PROBE - VINCULUM ALCOVE
Captain HERNANDEZ lies on the cold hard metal of the alcove in which the Vinculum is housed - shuddering and gasping.
SOUNDS come from all directions - the strange grinding, slithering sound of machinery coming to life. Zakdorn male science officer HELKARA looks around in horror - the housing of the Vinculum itself is shifting as if alive.
HELKARA
What the hell is going on?
Takaran female security chief KEDAIR looks at the CABLES winding their ways towards the boarding party across the walkway, which is their only path between this Vinculum alcove and the main body of the Borg ship.
KEDAIR
The ship’s adapting. It’s about to
start either assimilating us, or
killing us. I’d rather not stick
around to find out which.
Human female engineer LEISHMAN and Mizarian male paramedic RAVOSUS reach down to help Hernandez up from the deck.
LEISHMAN
C’mon Captain - we have to get you
out of here.
HERNANDEZ
The Queen! She’s here - on this ship.
Leishman looks around her - all bio-mechanoid components of the ship are coming to life, and coming for them.
LEISHMAN
Yeah, I think we got that.
The party starts to get moving...
15 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
A THUNDERCLAP hits the Aventine, rocking everyone at their stations, as the ship is hit by weapons fire.
DAX
Shields! Tactical, report!
The giant IMAX-style viewscreen shows the formerly crippled Borg probe suddenly BLASTING them with rapid-fire shots.
BOWERS
Taking fire from the Borg ship!
DAX
Return fire! Target their weapons.
BOWERS
Firing...
As seen on screen, Aventine fires back with its targeted phaser cannons, blowing out the enemy weapons emplacements.
DAX
Helm, evasive pattern sigma. Give
tactical a clear shot at the other
side of the Borg ship.
Bolian male THARP, now returned to the helm station, makes the ship SWERVE around, avoiding more shots from the Borg, until it comes at it from the other side. Then Bowers fires again, taking out the weapons emplacements on this side.
DAX
Cease fire. Damage report.
MIRREN
Weapons overload. Shields offline.
Direct hit to the main deflector -
minor damage, but we’ve lost
the ability to enter slipstream.
DAX
That was probably their plan.
MIRREN
There’s more, Captain. We’ve also
lost long-range comms. Complete
system failure.
DAX
Sam, start beaming our people
back. I want them off that ship,
on the double.
BOWERS
Aye, Captain.
(works panels; frowns)
Scattering fields are going up in
the core of the Borg ship. I can’t
beam them out. And the away
team report they’re under attack!
DAX
From who?! They said all the
drones were dead.
BOWERS
From the ship itself, sir.
Off Dax’s horror...
16 INT. BORG PROBE - VINCULUM WALKWAY
Helkara urgently leads the boarding party across the narrow walkway, which is slithering with cables trying to grab at their feet. Behind him, Leishman and Ravosus guide the semi-conscious Hernandez. Kedair brings up the rear.
KEDAIR
You three, get Hernandez to a
beam-out point. Go!
HELKARA
What about you?
KEDAIR
I have to set the detonator on
the transphasic mine. I’ll be
right behind you. Go!
Helkara nods his understanding, and continues to lead the rest of the party across the walkway to safety.
Kedair turns back to look at the Vinculum alcove, which is now bulging and squirming and pulsing, like a living creature with all its bio-mechanical viscera on display.
She steels herself, pulls out her Capellan kligat (as seen in DS9 12x14 “Duty Calls”), raises it high... and CHARGES.
17 INT. BORG PROBE - CORRIDORS
Helkara leads Leishman, Ravosus and a now mostly recovered Hernandez through the maze of corridors on the Borg ship. The Zakdorn science officer is trying to remain confident, but really has no idea where he is going or how to get out.
All the while, the sounds of GRINDING gears, SLITHERING cables, RUMBLING machinery and SCREECHING metal echo through the ship, putting everyone’s teeth on edge. As they round a corner and face a DEAD END...
HELKARA
There should be a passage here!
Leishman grabs the starting-to-panic Helkara and guides him back the way they came.
LEISHMAN
We were warned about this. The
ship’s reshaping itself, trying to
corral us.
As Helkara hurriedly consults his tricorder, CABLES slither out from the walls...
...and GRAB Ravosus by the arms, legs and throat. As the Mizarian desperately fails to scream for attention, the cables tighten and begin to draw him back into the wall...
HELKARA
This way.
LEISHMAN
Wait - where’s Ravosus?
They turn back to the dead end, just in time to see the strangling paramedic being SWALLOWED UP by the wall of the Borg ship, the last sight of him his eyes wide in terror. Hernandez winces, feeling his fear and the ship’s fury.
HERNANDEZ
He’s gone. Follow me.
Determined now, the Columbia’s former captain leads Helkara and Leishman back down the corridors.
Hernandez leads them through a narrow passage, one they have to turn sideways to squeeze through, but through the far end of it they can see...
...a trio of Starfleet TRANSPORTER ENHANCERS awaiting them.
More black cables slip up through the grilled deck plates and wind around Leishman’s legs. She looks down in fear...
LEISHMAN
Something’s got me!
Seeing this, Helkara reaches for his phaser, but Hernandez puts her hand out to stop him.
HERNANDEZ
No! You might hit Mikaela.
HELKARA
(looks up in horror)
I think we have bigger problems.
Hernandez turns back towards the transporter enhancers...
...and sees the narrow passage CLOSING IN on them, the walls drawing closer together, their escape slipping away.
Hernandez hears a voice in her head...
BORG QUEEN (v.o.)
Resistance is futile.
HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
We’ll see about that.
The cables holding Leishman begin to drag her down...
HERNANDEZ
Grab my hands, both of you!
They do - Hernandez grabs one wrist with Leishman and the other with Helkara. Hernandez stares at the cables...
...and they let Leishman go, slithering back down through the grate and into their hiding places.
Turning back in the direction of their escape, Hernandez leads the other two by the hand, and forges into the dark.
Ahead of them, the passage begins to open up again as she fights to force the walls apart with the power of her mind.
HELKARA
I don’t understand...
HERNANDEZ
I’m still tuned into the Borg
Queen’s frequency. Anything
she can do... I can do better.
A black cable WHIPS out and wraps itself around Hernandez’ arm. She glances at it - it unwinds and WHIPS away again.
A BULKHEAD slams down right in front of them. Hernandez grits her teeth... and it dissolves into black dust.
A DECKPLATE falls from under Helkara’s feet - Hernandez flexes a finger, and a new deckplate rises into its place.
Finally the passage opens up enough - and the transporter enhancers are there. Hernandez quickly leads Leishman and Helkara into their circle, and taps Helkara’s combadge.
HERNANDEZ
Boarding party to Aventine! Two
for emergency beam-out.
MIRREN (comm)
Acknowledged. Stand by...
Then Hernandez steps back out of the circle again.
LEISHMAN
Where are you going?
HERNANDEZ
To save Kedair.
Before they can argue, TRANSPORTER EFFECTS take them away.
Hernandez closes her eyes and concentrates...
18 INT. BORG PROBE - VINCULUM ALCOVE
Kedair SCREAMS as a cable PIERCES her leg. Another cable LOOPS around her other leg and YANKS, and Kedair is lifted off her feet.
The Takaran woman finds herself suspended by three limbs, facing down at the deck, where the ARMING CONTROL for the mines rests. She desperately tries to reach for it with her one free hand - the cables yank her higher out of reach.
A thick DRILL comes at her from the side, RIPPING into her torso. She SCREAMS even as her green flesh automatically begins to heal over the wound.
The cables around her legs TIGHTEN - and we hear the bones in her legs BREAK. She SCREAMS again.
BORG QUEEN (v.o.)
Resistance is futile. Strength is
irrelevant. You are small. We
are endless. You are one. We
are legion. You will join us.
HERNANDEZ (o.s.)
You think so?
The machines tearing Kedair’s body apart spontaneously CRUMBLE. Rivets fall out of their holdings. Components CLANG to the deck plates. Cables unwind and slither away. Kedair lands in a twisted, mutilated lump on the deck.
Dragging her agonised, bloodied face up to look, she sees Hernandez striding purposefully towards her.
HERNANDEZ
Can you move?
KEDAIR
Both my legs are broken.
(flicks eyes towards...)
You have to set the detonator.
We have to frag this ship.
Nodding, Hernandez reaches the arming control and sets it. Then she comes back to Kedair, and crouches down.
HERNANDEZ
This won’t be fun.
Hernandez grabs Kedair’s twisted limbs and WRENCHES them back into the right places. Kedair SCREAMS through her teeth, GASPing for air. But now she can begin to heal.
KEDAIR
How long?
HERNANDEZ
Sixty seconds.
KEDAIR
Are you insane? That’s not -
Kedair’s eyes FLARE as a CABLE shoots out from somewhere, aiming to pierce Hernandez right through the back. But the human woman gestures, and the cable turns to dust.
HERNANDEZ
You were saying?
Kedair is speechless. Hernandez reaches down and HEFTS Kedair up, supporting her around the shoulder.
HERNANDEZ
Are you scared of heights?
KEDAIR
No...
HERNANDEZ
Good.
And she LEAPS off the walkway, out into the open space at the heart of the Borg ship, carrying Kedair and LEVITATING in open air. With the power of thought alone, she propels them across the gaping canyon below them.
KEDAIR
How in the name of Yaltakh are
you doing this?
HERNANDEZ
Easy. I just imagine I’ve already
done it.
As they travel impossibly across open space, it looks like they are about to SLAM into a wall of Borg machinery. But at Hernandez’s look...
...the walls OPEN before them and the two women fly between them with nothing in their way.
KEDAIR
Ten seconds. No pressure.
Hernandez brings them back to land in the circle of the transporter enhancers, and taps her own combadge.
HERNANDEZ
Hernandez to Aventine - two to
beam up!
MIRREN (comm)
Energising.
Just as the transporter beams begin to form around them, they look back through the path Hernandez cut through the Borg ship, all the way to the Vinculum suspended over the cavern - just in time for the transphasic mine to EXPLODE.
19 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
Dax is on her feet, gaping at the main viewscreen, which shows a massive EXPLOSION of blue fire ripping apart the Borg Probe from the inside out (although not completely destroying the ship). She turns urgently to Mirren...
DAX
Tell me we got them.
MIRREN
Ensign Riordan confirms Captain
Hernandez and Lieutenant Kedair
are aboard. The lieutenant is
being rushed to sickbay.
DAX
Sam, five second delay on the
chain pulsar. Tharp, maximum
warp back to the nebula, now!
Both work their panels...
20 EXT. SPACE
The Aventine ramps up to warp... and JUMPS away into the distance.
Only moments after it has gone, the tiny red star of the CHAIN PULSAR weapon that has been holding position BLOOMS brighter, SHOOTS towards the burning Borg Probe...
...and EXPLODES it in a massive conflagration that leaves only spinning debris and billowing gas.
21 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
Allowing herself a small sigh of relief, Dax takes her command seat again, with a glance to Bowers at tactical.
BOWERS
And you wonder why I don’t let
you go on away missions.
BLACK OUT
END OF ACT ONE