ACT FOUR

FADE IN

52 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

Hernandez stands calmly, her fingers GLOWING with the power running through them, her eyes SHINING with the godlike energies she is harnessing. Inyx steps up beside the human woman, takes her spare hand. He is worried for her. 

He looks up, and four images hover in mid-air, virtual view screens revealing the bridges of the four Starfleet ships - Picard et al on Enterprise, Riker et al on Titan, Dax et al on Aventine, and Chakotay et al on Voyager. 

A fifth screen shows the external view - with the Borg armada surrounding them on all sides. 

53 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

The entire Borg armada surrounding our heroes. 

BORG VOICE (v.o.)
Particle Zero-One-Zero detected.
Directive Omega is in effect. 

BORG QUEEN (v.o.)
Assimilate Particle Zero-One-Zero
at any cost. All other priorities
and directives are rescinded.

54 INT. BORG CUBE

The four-sided viewscreen rotates slowly, revealing the Caeliar city-ship and the four Starfleet ships. 

BORG VOICE
Source is protected. Target’s
shields must be eradicated.
Directive Omega is in effect. 

55 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

CLOSE UP on a Borg cube as it fires a GREEN BEAM of death. 

Another Borg vessel as it launches giant balls of RED FIRE. 

A third Borg ship as it fires all its various weapons...

We are sitting alongside the four Starfleet ships as every Borg vessel in sight fires its weapons at full power...

...and every one of them fizzles powerlessly against the Caeliar’s energy shield surrounding the Starfleet ships. 

PAN AROUND slowly to see thousands of Borg ships firing in unison, not a one of them actually hitting their targets. 

56 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

Choudhury interprets the readings on her tactical console. 

CHOUDHURY
Captain, the Caeliar’s shields are
absorbing all the Borg firepower.
Not a single weapon is getting
through. I can only tell they’re
firing on us at all by visual. 

WORF
Perhaps the Caeliar are as power-
ful as Captain Hernandez claimed. 

PICARD
Perhaps... 

57 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

Hernandez remains where she was, concentrating. She smiles. 

HERNANDEZ
Found you. 

Another OVAL of mirror-perfect quicksilver appears behind her, like the one from earlier in the episode. She turns... and steps through it. It dissipates behind her. 

58 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE

Dax reacts to this with horror. Aventine’s viewscreen is split - half the external view, half the Caeliar Quorum. 

DAX
What’s going on? Where’d she go? 

59 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

Picard understands what just happened. He speaks with awe.

PICARD
To the source. 

60 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE

Riker reacts with worry... 

RIKER
Inyx! Show me where she is!

INYX (screen)
As you wish... 

The Caeliar gestures, and the image on Titan’s viewscreen dissolves... instead revealing the depths of a Borg cube.

61 INT. BORG CUBE - POV

Our POV rushes through the Borg ship, past the haphazard forest of metal tubes and wires and slithering bio-mechanics and throbbing sickly-green energy...

...until we find the VINCULUM suspended over the chasm at the cube’s heart, and the single walkway leading to it, as in DS9 “Friendly Fire”. Hernandez walks calmly across it. 

In the Vinculum Alcove, a phalanx of BORG DRONES stand guard, all staring menacingly towards the approaching human woman. Above the Vinculum itself, the headless body of the BORG QUEEN is suspended by prehensile cables. 

The head and shoulders of the BORG QUEEN are slowly lowered from the forest of cables until the slinky metallic spine slips into the body, bringing the entire body to life...

...and the Borg Queen holds out a black metal hand, smiling and seductively beckoning Hernandez closer. 

62 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE

Chakotay likewise sees this on Voyager’s viewscreen... 

FLASH

Janeway leans out of the shadows, revealing a Borg Queen...

FLASH

CHAKOTAY
No! You have to stop her! She
doesn’t know what she’s doing! 

INYX (comm)
I assure you, Captain, Erika knows
exactly what she is doing. And if I
could have stopped her, I would
have, please believe me. 

63 INT. BORG CUBE

Hernandez reaches the end of the walkway, with the Borg Drones surrounding the Vinculum, and the Queen gazing down upon her. The human woman looks up at the Queen, and she is undoubtedly afraid, but determined to go through with this. 

...so she steps up to the Borg Drones, as they move to surround her in a sinister circle of black... and from all sides, they INJECT her with ASSIMILATION TUBULES. 

EXTREME CLOSE-UP on Hernandez’s face as she willingly submits to the Borg, to their stabbing injections and tearing hands and shrieking machinery...

The SUSURRUS of Borg voices rises up, cut through with the Queen’s seductive, condescending silk... 

BORG QUEEN (v.o.)
Did I not say you would join us? 

BLACK OUT

HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
I’m the only one who can do this. 

64 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

Earlier, when Hernandez was explaining her plan to the full Caeliar Quorum. Inyx stands beside her as she speaks... 

HERNANDEZ
None of you can do it for me. Your
bodies are made of catoms - you’re
immune to assimilation. The Borg’s
nanoprobes need organic material
to latch onto. The other Starfleet
crews can’t do it either - any
other organic being wouldn’t last
long enough to act as the link. 

The Caeliar look down upon her from on high, with their permanently frowning alien faces... 

65 DARKNESS

Hernandez in the darkness, with her eyes closed... 

HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
Only I can do this. I have to hang
on. Can’t give up, not yet... 

She winces, gasping in effort as the BORG SUSURRUS steps up its hammering at her psyche...

66 INT. BORG CUBE

The walls and walls and rows and rows of Borg drones, the BORG SUSURRUS a constant background noise...

BORG VOICE (v.o.)
Resistance is futile. You will be
assimilated. 

67 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

The rows and rows of Caeliar lined up, all with their eyes closed and concentrating on the shared consciousness of the gestalt, a low melodic choir-like HUM filling the space. 

INYX stands alone on the floor, his own eyes closed as he holds fiercely to his connection with Hernandez... 

INYX (v.o.)
I am with you, Erika. Hold on. 

68 DARKNESS

Encouraged by her friend, Hernandez opens her eyes...

...and sees the BORG QUEEN standing opposite her in the dark. The Queen looks at her in confusion and mild alarm. 

69 INYX

...pushes psychically, forcing his will through the link... 

70 BORG QUEEN

...flinches backwards, surprised by this equal force... 

71 FLASHBACK - VOY 10x20 “DODO”

The Caeliar city-ship Mantilis crashes to the surface of the frozen Delta Quadrant world of Arehaz... 

72 BORG QUEEN

...angry, unwilling to let these memories be dragged up... 

73 FLASHBACK - VOY 10x21 “ALPHA”

In the icy cave, the last two Caeliar, SEDÍN and LERXST, hover ghost-like, a semi-transparent collection of catoms barely holding the near-humanoid shape of a true Caeliar. 

As Lerxst begins to break down further, Sedín turns on him with a scream-howl of hunger... 

74 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

All the Borg ships firing and firing, their barrage bouncing harmlessly off the Caeliar’s shields... 

INYX (v.o.)
Our dark, savage reflection. So
much sorrow and anger and fear,
such a desperate yearning... 

75 INT. BORG CUBE

The walls and walls and rows and rows of Borg drones...

INYX (v.o.)
(continuing)
...But it does not know what it
seeks. So it consumes everything
and is never satisfied. 

BORG VOICE 
You will be assimilated. Your
technology will be adapted to
service us. Resistance is futile. 

76 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

Inyx frowns - not angry but sad. 

INYX (v.o)
How tragic. Such a shame.
It doesn’t understand at all. 

From his central place in the rows of the Quorum, their leader ORDEMO offers his own thoughts to the gestalt... 

ORDEMO (v.o.)
All it sees is power to be taken.
Do we know who it is? 

INYX (v.o.)
It’s time we found out. 

Inyx concentrates harder... 

77 DARKNESS

Hernandez stares down the Queen standing before her, eyes aglow as she channels the power of the Caeliar... 

As the Queen stands there, her features and adornments - the metal tubing, the teeth gripping into her flesh, the mottled grey skin, everything that makes her the Queen - dissolves away until the human beneath them is revealed. 

And Hernandez recognises her with sorrow - it is Lieutenant KIONA THAYER, the senior weapons officer of the Columbia. 

HERNANDEZ
Kiona... 

78 FLASHBACK - TTN 10x14 “TIME’S UP”

Lt Thayer at her weapons console on the Columbia, firing at the Romulan ships that are attacking them... 

79 FLASHBACK - TTN 10x16 “WHATEVER IT TAKES”

Lt Thayer as one of Major Foyle’s team, as they coerce the Caeliar of Mantilis at gunpoint to do what they want... 

80 FLASHBACK - VOY 10x21 “ALPHA”

Lt Thayer as one of the few surviving humans staggering into the icy cave, only to find the devolved Caeliar ready to launch upon them in a cloud of blue flickering lights... 

81 DARKNESS

Hernandez is sad for her officer. 

INYX (v.o.)
I’m sorry, Erika. But Kiona was
only the raw materials. The
soul of the Borg... is Caeliar. 

With a change of angle, the Queen is back as herself. She staggers, unsure what is happening to her. The Caeliar are breaking down her essence. Hernandez concentrates again... 

...and the image of the Queen changes again. The grey skin becomes more mottled, turning a purplish colour. The metal tubes sprouting from her head morph into the gently pulsing breathing tubes that drape over a Caeliar’s shoulders...

...until she is SEDÍN, the Caeliar. (In case it wasn’t clear, the same actress will have been playing all three roles all along - the Borg Queen, Kiona Thayer, and Sedín.) 

82 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

Inyx frowns, sad for his old colleague and friend. 

INYX (v.o)
Sedín... my friend and companion
of millennia. I’m so sorry. What
has become of you? 

83 FLASHBACK - TTN 10x15 “GODS OF NIGHT”

Sedín looking on disapprovingly as Inyx welcomes Hernandez and the Columbia away team to Axion...

84 FLASHBACK - VOY 10x21 “ALPHA”

The ethereal, half-discorporated Sedín turns on Lerxst with a scream-howl of madness and hunger...

85 FLASHBACK - VOY 10x21 “ALPHA”

The vaguely humanoid-shaped cloud of blue flickering lights that is all that remains of Sedín, descending upon the exhausted and desperate humans...

86 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM

INYX (v.o)
You consumed Lerxst. You forced
yourself upon the humans. You
became nothing but appetite
and hunger and desperation... 

87 DARKNESS

The figure of the Borg Queen is merged with Kiona Thayer and Sedín, all three images superimposed as one person...

...and she SCREAMS in rage. 

88 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

The Borg armada’s futile attack on Axion and the Starfleet ships continues, growing even more powerful if possible...

89 INT. BORG CUBE - VINCULUM ALCOVE

The Borg drones that had surrounded Hernandez now back away in confusion, their assimilation tubules retracting in defeat. Steadying herself, Hernandez looks up to the Queen, who is lowering to her level in an uncoordinated tangle... 

HERNANDEZ
Can’t you see what you’ve done
here, Sedín? You’ve forgotten
everything you stood for.

The Queen touches down on the deck, immediately stumbling and falling at Hernandez’s feet, confused. Feeling sad for her, Hernandez crouches down by her, speaks gently. 

HERNANDEZ
Have mercy on all these souls
you’ve stolen. You’ve held them
long enough. You’ve done enough
damage - to them, to the galaxy,
to yourself. This has to end. 

SEDÍN herself looks up from the deck of the Borg cube, and sees INYX crouching down over her, calm and soothing. 

INYX
It’s time to let go, Sedín. Let
yourself rest. Let the light fade. 

As the Queen looks up in confusion... 

90 DARKNESS

The tripled figure lets go... and dissolves into nothing. 

91 INT. BORG CUBE - VINCULUM ALCOVE

The Borg Queen at Hernandez’ feet dissolves into BLACK DUST that slips between the deck plates and into the ship. 

Hernandez stands, looks at the Borg drones arrayed around her, who are hovering in confusion...

...and suddenly panic floods them all. No longer a white-faced monotonous horde, each drone reacts individually, coming to the realisation of what and where they are... 

...and they SCREAM. 

Hernandez steps out onto the narrow walkway, looks out across the chasm to the walls of drones...

92 INT. BORG CUBE - CORRIDORS

Down every corridor and in every corner of the ship, every Borg drone comes to awareness - and SCREAMS. 

93 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA

The Borg armada has stopped firing, but now the SCREAM of billions echoes across space...

94 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE

On Titan’s bridge, Deanna Troi also SCREAMS, crumpling to her knees. Riker is instantly at her side... 

RIKER
Deanna! What’s wrong? 

TROI
The Queen... she’s gone. She
doesn’t exist anymore. 

VALE
Isn’t that a good thing? 

TROI
No, it’s not... because without
anyone to control them, the
Borg are going insane! 

Off everyone’s horror... 

BLACK OUT

END OF ACT FOUR