ACT THREE

FADE IN

30 EST. PALAIS DE LA CONCORDE - DAY

Early morning in Paris, but still in the depths of winter. 

31 INT. PALAIS - MONET ROOM

Admiral AKAAR, chief of staff PIÑIERO, press liaison JOREL and personal assistant SIVAK huddle, exchanging padds and reports back and forth. Bodyguard WEXLER stands silently by the door. President BACCO sits at the table, watching...

SEVEN OF NINE, who holds a padd but is not paying attention to it. She is staring out of the window, not at the Eiffel Tower clearly visible, but at whatever she feels beyond it. 

FLASH

The white sun in the depths of Axion - the Omega Molecule. 

FLASH

Seven staring with awe into the harmonic resonance chamber (from VOY 4x21 “The Omega Directive”). 

FLASH

Seven gazing out of the window. Bacco approaches...

BACCO
Everything alright, Professor? 

Startled out of her reverie, Seven turns her ire on Bacco. 

SEVEN
I have asked you many times to
refer to me as Seven of Nine. 

BACCO
(tightening)
I was attempting to be respectful.
You might give it a try. 

SEVEN
It is not respectful to refuse to use
the name by which a person has
repeatedly requested to be called.

BACCO
(pause; licks lips)
You do have a point. And I don’t
care for that. I apologise, Seven. 
(Seven nods)
You seem distracted. Do you have
any clue yet as to why the Borg
turned around without attacking?

SEVEN
I know precisely why. 

AKAAR
Madam President... I believe I may
have the answer to your question. 

Seeing that Seven is still staring out of the window, Bacco nods and turns to join Akaar instead.

BACCO
What have you got, Admiral?

AKAAR
At the very moment the Borg turned
around, Starfleet vessels all over
the Federation suffered a system
malfunction that rendered them
unable to move or fire weapons. 

BACCO
Was it some new Borg attack? 

AKAAR
No, ma’am. In fact it was not a
malfunction at all, but a planned
response to a very rare situation.
I recall reading about it when I
took command of the Wyoming... 

As Akaar continues to explain to Bacco, Seven continues to stare out of the window, not needing any explanation. 

32 INT. SHIKINA MONASTERY – KAI’S OFFICE

Militia Major ROCHAN barrels through the door, brandishing a padd like he’s won an Oscar. 

ROCHAN
They’ve gone! The Borg have gone! 

Then he suddenly realises what he has done. He stops dead in horror, looking around at the important people in the room - PRALON, prylar KIRA, plus KASIDY YATES, her daughter REBECCA, and JASMINE TEY (who is playing with Rebecca). 

ROCHAN
Oh... Prophets... I’m so sorry,
Eminence, I got the report from
General Lenaris and I just - 

PRALON
That’s alright, Major Rochan.
Prylar Kira received a similar
message from the space station. 

KIRA
It is amazing... The Borg reached
the very edges of Bajoran space...
and then they turned back. 

PRALON
The Prophets protected Bajor, as
we all knew They would. 

REBECCA
Mommy... if the bad people have
gone away, does that mean daddy
will be home soon? 

KASIDY
I’m sure he’ll be home as soon
as he can, sweetheart. 

Rebecca accepts that and goes back to playing, but Kasidy exchanges a look with Jasmine. She hasn’t heard from Sisko yet, doesn’t know if he is alive or dead. Jasmine reaches out and takes Kasidy’s hand, holds it tight. 

33 INT. DS9 - MAIN OPS CENTRE

The turbolift rises into Ops, and Ro steps off it, with Bashir, Tenmei and Aleco behind her. Ro heads down the steps, greeting Cenn at the central Ops table. 

RO
Report, Major.

CENN
Welcome back, Commander. Starfleet
reports remain consistent - all Borg
vessels are heading for the Azure
Nebula, ETA seven hours.

CANDLEWOOD
Observe! 

Candlewood works his panels, then he directs everyone’s attention to the main viewscreen, where appears... the MAP. The red line is visibly receding while they watch, heading back from Bajor, left to right, towards the nebula. 

CENN
(to Ro)
Told you. 

Ro reacts uncertainly. An ALERT - Cenn checks his panels. 

CENN
Incoming signal, from Aventine.
They’re using the comm relay
Mister Candlewood set up. 

Candlewood stands at his station, and makes a flourishing bow of total modesty. Tenmei smacks him upside the head.

NOG
Actually, Commander, there’s a
sub-channel buried inside the
signal... and it’s marked for
Doctor Bashir’s attention. 

BASHIR
...for me? 

RO
Send the sub-signal to the office,
and put the main one up there. 

Offering confused thanks, Bashir heads to the office. Cenn works his panels, and the main screen changes to show the Azure Nebula, the Enterprise, Titan and Voyager, and Axion. 

34 INT. DS9 - COMMANDER’S OFFICE

As the door closes behind him, Bashir heads to a wall panel, and works the controls. The screen changes... and shows DAX, sat alone in her ready room on Aventine. 

BASHIR
Ezri...

DAX (screen)
Hi, Julian. How are things? 

BASHIR
Everything’s fine. Better than
fine. Have you heard? The Borg - 

DAX (screen)
Yeah, I’ve heard. Listen, Julian.
There’s stuff happening here, not
all of it good. So, while I have
the chance, I just want to say...
sorry. You were right. Not about
everything... but about a lot.

BASHIR
Ezri, that’s okay. Don’t worry
about it. And I’m sorry too. But
what’s going on? Can you - 

DAX (screen)
I can’t say much. I don’t know
much. But whatever it is, I
guess you’ll know in about...
(checks reading)
...seven hours. Be safe, Julian. 

BASHIR
You too. If you can. 

Dax smirks knowingly - little chance of that - then cuts the signal. Bashir stands back, pondering what was said. 

35 INT. AVENTINE - READY ROOM

Dax likewise slumps back from the screen, pondering. 

BOWERS (comm)
Captain to the bridge. 

It never ends. Dax gets up and heads out... 

36 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE

As Dax emerges from her ready room and approaches, Bowers stands from the command chair to meet her. 

BOWERS
Captain Hernandez is hailing us
from Axion. All of us. 

DAX
Okay. On screen. 

Bowers nods to MIRREN, while Dax turns to face the giant screen, which reveals...

...Hernandez standing on the floor of the Quorum, with the rows of Caeliar lined up behind her. 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
Hi, Ezri. 

37 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE

Riker stands on his bridge, with Troi and Vale back where they should be at his either side. 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
(continuing)
Will...

38 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

Picard, with Worf on one side and Beverly on the other. 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
(continuing)
Jean-Luc...

39 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE

Chakotay in his seat, with PARIS and CAMBRIDGE nearby. 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
(continuing)
And... I don’t believe we’ve met,
but you must be Chakotay.

CHAKOTAY
(cold nod)
Captain Hernandez, I presume. 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
I’m glad I caught you all, as
this concerns you all. 

40 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE

DAX
What’s going on, Erika? Have the
Caeliar agreed to help us? 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
After a fashion. But first, I should
apologise to each of you, and
your crews, for misleading you.
Please believe me that it was
in everyone’s best interests.

41 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

PICARD
(assuming 
the worst)
Misleading us? About what? 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
It would take too long to explain.
Besides, you’ll see soon enough. 

42 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE

HERNANDEZ (screen)
(continuing)
Will, Ezri - thanks for treating
me like part of your crews. It
was nice to feel like I was home
again, back in Starfleet. Hadn’t
realised how much I missed it. 

RIKER
Captain, what’s going to happen? 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
I honestly don’t know for certain.
If I fail, then we’re all about to
have a very bad day. 

43 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE

HERNANDEZ (screen)
(continuing)
And if I succeed... well then,
something brand new awaits
us all. Wish me luck.

Chakotay watches sternly. He still wants revenge, death and destruction, but if there could be something else... 

HERNANDEZ (screen)
Oh, one last thing... for your own
safety, I recommend you move
your vessels to within one kilo-
metre of Axion - immediately. 

Chakotay looks sideways to Paris, who heads to the helm. 

CHAKOTAY
Bridge to engineering... Vorik, time
to show us what you’ve got. 

VORIK (comm)
Aye, sir. 

44 EXT. SPACE – AZURE NEBULA

Thrusters along Voyager’s hull push it gradually closer to the Caeliar city-ship. The other three ships do likewise. 

45 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

Hernandez stands on the floor of the Quorum. She takes a deep breath, raises one hand with fingers spread.

HERNANDEZ
It’s time. 

The tips of her fingers begin to glow with power...

46 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

CHOUDHURY reacts to alerts on her tactical station... 

CHOUDHURY
Massive energy surge from the
Caeliar city.

Picard wonders with dismay what that means... 

47 EXT. SPACE - BORG ARMADA

A dozen Borg vessels of various configurations zoom through open space at high warp...

...but then space RIPS OPEN into a dozen SUBSPACE TUNNELS, each one perfectly matched to a Borg ship. 

The apertures suck each Borg ship inexorably in, sealing up behind them just as quickly. 

48 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

The Caeliar city-ship, the four Starfleet ships... and a dozen SUBSPACE TUNNELS open up nearby. 

PANNING around, we see more subspace tunnels opening up, thousands of them surrounding our heroes at every angle. 

49 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE

HELKARA reacts to alerts on his science station...

HELKARA
Subspace tunnels! Hundreds of
them! Thousands! 

50 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

From every subspace tunnel, a BORG VESSEL emerges. Another tunnel, another Borg cube shooting out of it at point blank range. And another, and another. 

In a matter of seconds, Axion and the four Starfleet ships are surrounded by Borg ships in their thousands, enough to blot out the stars. 

51 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

CHOUDHURY
(off panels)
Captain... Borg vessels are
emerging from the subspace
tunnels. Thousands of them.
I think it’s the entire armada.
We’re surrounded, sir. 

Picard sits in his command chair, hard and cold. As far as he is concerned, Hernandez has betrayed them all. 

PICARD
Raise shields. Arm all weapons.
Prepare to fire. 

BLACK OUT

END OF ACT THREE