ACT FIVE
FADE IN
95 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE
The half-Vulcan contact specialist T’RYSSA CHEN is on her knees, screaming. CRUSHER runs to her side, while Picard seethes in a fury...
96 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
The Ullian helm officer OFELIA MAVROIDIS has tumbled to the deck, vibrating in the midst of a fit. TARSES hovers over her, making sure her airways are unblocked...
97 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE
The Betazoid ops manager KENTH LASREN has collapsed over his console, where he coughs up thin streams of vomit. Counsellor CAMBRIDGE pats his back like a child...
98 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE
Deanna Troi is on the deck, with her husband by her side. The voices of the Titan crew around her are swamped out as the roar of a billion Borg voices overwhelms her...
VALE (b.g.)
Rager, we need a medic right now!
Keru, tell Doctor Ree to check on
all psi-sensitive crew members!
TUVOK (v.o.)
My mind to your mind.
Troi looks up in surprise, and realises that Tuvok is gently cradling her face in the traditional mind-meld pose.
TUVOK (v.o.)
My strength becomes your strength.
My calm becomes your calm. Are
you alright, Counsellor?
TROI (v.o.)
Yes, Tuvok. Thank you. Are you?
TUVOK (v.o.)
I have not been. But with your
help, I will be.
She smiles, accepting his apology. Meanwhile Riker rages at the viewscreen, which depicts Hernandez on the Borg cube...
RIKER
Damn you, Erika Hernandez! What
have you done?!
99 INT. BORG CUBE
Hernandez stands on the vinculum walkway, gazing out across the chasm towards the screaming, wailing, anguished Borg drones. She smiles sadly.
HERNANDEZ
Please don’t worry, Will. This is
all part of the plan. In fact, you
gave me the idea. All of you.
Her eyes GLOW with power, and she STEPS OFF the walkway, into the open space of the chasm, levitating in mid-air.
HERNANDEZ
I can feel them, all over the
galaxy. Trillions of minds free to
breathe again for the first time
in millennia. Some of them are
panicking, some are celebrating,
some are filled with rage.
(beat)
Inyx, I can’t finish this without
your help. We’ve come this far.
Take the final step with me.
ORDEMO (v.o.)
This is wrong, Erika!
100 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM
Back again to when Hernandez was explaining her plan. Ordemo looks down at her from the rows of the Quorum...
ORDEMO
(continuing)
More, it is heresy! The purity
of the gestalt is sacrosanct.
HERNANDEZ
You need this, Ordemo - just as
much as the Borg do. Look at you
all. You haven’t changed in aeons.
You’re stifled. An evolutionary
dead end. You exist in complete
seclusion, never interacting with
the rest of the galaxy.
ORDEMO
It is how things are done, Erika.
HERNANDEZ
That’s exactly the problem! I’ve
only spent the last three days
with Starfleet, and it’s already
clear to me. They’ve come further
in the last two-hundred years than
you have in four times that, and
you had one hell of a head start.
101 INT. PALAIS - MONET ROOM
President Bacco looks at the portrait on the wall of her very first predecessor in this office, JONATHAN ARCHER...
HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
Since I left them, my people have
built a Federation of more than a
hundred different species, all work-
ing together in common cause.
102 FLASHBACK - TTN 1x20 “CARRION”
Hernandez exploring the corridors of Titan, practically gawking at the delightful variety of species...
HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
Species of all shapes and sizes,
all walks of life, people who look
and act nothing like them...
103 FLASHBACK - DS9 12x20 “FUTILE”
Hernandez at the meeting of the captains on Enterprise - which includes WORF, a Klingon in a Starfleet uniform...
HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
Even people who used to be our
enemies. They’ve brought them
all together and built something
bigger than any of them alone.
104 FLASHBACK - DS9 12x21 “FRIENDLY FIRE”
Hernandez at the helm of the Aventine, operating its slipstream drive for the first time...
HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
They’ve learned how to cross the
galaxy in a matter of seconds, and
perform a million other miracles.
105 INT. CAELIAR QUORUM
Hernandez trying to persuade Ordemo and the Quorum...
HERNANDEZ
And all this in less time than it
took you to find a new homeworld.
ORDEMO
There is value in patience, Erika.
HERNANDEZ
Yes, and also in diversity. Think
of your Great Work, Ordemo. You
lost so many in the Cataclysm...
just think what you could do with
so many new voices added to the
gestalt. All the new ideas and
perspectives - how they would
enrich and revitalise you. Take
a page from our book for once.
It’ll save the Federation, it’ll save
the Borg... and it’ll save you.
Hernandez has made her argument. Now she stands there as the Caeliar exchange ideas silently between them, via their shared gestalt. Finally, Inyx turns to her with a smile.
INYX
We are with you, Erika.
She smiles, relief mixed with trepidation...
106 INT. BORG CUBE
Hernandez hovering in mid-air, arms wide in a crucifix...
107 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE
Picard glowers at the Enterprise’s viewscreen...
PICARD
You’re not disbanding the Borg
Collective... are you, Captain?
HERNANDEZ (screen)
No... We’re assimilating them.
And on the screen, Hernandez’ entire body begins to GLOW.
Picard is HIT with a sledgehammer wave of emotion, as he feels what is happening...
108 INT. PALAIS - MONET ROOM
At the other end of the room from Bacco... Seven of Nine staggers back from the confab of admirals and assistants, dazed and trembling. As everyone wonders what’s going on, Seven hits the wall carrying the Monet painting...
...and collapses to the floor.
109 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE
Still both on the deck together, engaged in their mind-meld, Troi and Tuvok GASP as the wave hits them too, and they struggle to contain it...
On the viewscreen, Hernandez continues to glow...
110 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE
As Lasren continues to react, Paris instead looks at his captain, sitting quietly in the command chair with the white glow of Hernandez shining on his face.
And Chakotay is quietly crying.
111 INT. BORG CUBE
Hernandez smiles and glows...
And elsewhere in the Borg ship, the rows and rows of Borg drones stare into the light...
HERNANDEZ (v.o.)
Open your eyes. See the future.
It’s here. Its time has come.
ZOOM IN on one Borg drone’s mechanical eye-piece...
...THROUGH it, and into...
112 BORG BLOODSTREAM
Grey and lifeless, flooded by BORG NANOPROBES as we have seen them before... and all the nanoprobes begin to glow with the same white light.
And then they TRANSFORM, turning inside out and emerging as tiny white CRYSTALS glowing with white light...
ZOOM BACK OUT...
113 BORG DRONE
All the implanted technology, its very skin, is glittering with the same tiny pin-pricks of white light. The drone GASPS in an almost religious ecstasy as its very core existence is recreated...
114 PICARD
On the deck of the Enterprise bridge, no pride or formality as he WEEPS openly in a huddled ball of raw nerves. Crusher shields him from view on one side, Worf on the other...
115 CHAKOTAY
In the command chair of Voyager, also weeping. He places his fingers to his own lips, and blows a KISS...
116 TROI
On the deck of Titan’s bridge, staring into Tuvok’s eyes, and beaming wide with a blissful happiness...
117 DAX
Gazing in awe at the massive viewscreen of the Aventine, which shows an external view of the entire Borg armada, every ship of which is also beginning to glow white...
118 RO
Staring at the same view as relayed to the main viewscreen of DS9 Ops...
RO
They’re so beautiful...
119 SEVEN OF NINE
Curled up on the floor of the Monet Room, Seven shudders, her eyes wild and terrified...
PIÑIERO (o.s.)
Seven! Can you hear us?
JOREL (o.s.)
Maybe she’s having a seizure.
AKAAR (o.s.)
A doctor is on his way.
120 HERNANDEZ
Eyes aglow with power, hovering in mid-air...
HERNANDEZ
Who are you?
A VOICE responds - a blend of the Borg massed voices with the choral hymn of the Caeliar gestalt...
CAELIAR VOICE
We are the Caeliar.
Hernandez smiles.
121 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA
The Caeliar city-ship itself GLOWS with blinding white, silhouetting the Starfleet ships and the Borg armada...
...and the Borg ships begin to TRANSFORM in the same way as the individual nanoprobes in the bloodstream had done. Each Borg vessel shifts and turns itself inside out so that instead of its grey, blunt geometric shapes...
...they are now giant shining CRYSTALS glowing white. Four thousand of them, a beautiful image in the darkness...
122 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE
On his hands and knees on the deck, Picard lifts his head, his face streaked with tears but his breathing steadying...
PICARD
Everything’s changed.
And he begins to LAUGH with the sheer emotional catharsis. From where she rests likewise on the deck, T’Ryssa Chen observes this with bemusement...
CHEN
Well, as long as he’s happy.
123 INT. PALAIS - MONET ROOM
While everyone else is keeping their distance, Bacco strides the length of the room to approach Seven of Nine, who is still fetal on the floor beneath the Monet.
Her bodyguard WEXLER intercepts her physically, grabbing her arm to hold her back. She pierces him with a look...
BACCO
Steven, stay close... but get your
hands off me.
Reluctantly, Wexler does as he is told. Bacco approaches, crouches down by Seven. Wexler remains her shadow.
BACCO
Seven, it’s Nan. Are you alright?
Can you hear me, Seven?
Slowly, Seven uncurls and looks up at Bacco - and her BORG IMPLANTS are gone, replaced by normal human flesh with only a faint flicker of the white lights. Bacco gasps...
BACCO
Are you alright, Seven?
SEVEN OF NINE
My name is Annika.
Off everyone’s reactions...
124 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE
Picard struggles to his feet, because standing in front of the viewscreen with its image of the transformed Borg ships is HERNANDEZ herself.
HERNANDEZ
Jean-Luc...
125 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE
She is also on Titan’s bridge...
HERNANDEZ
Will...
126 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
And on Aventine’s...
HERNANDEZ
Ezri...
127 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE
And on Voyager’s...
HERNANDEZ
Chakotay... I just wanted to speak
to you one last time before we go.
To tell you that I’m okay... and
to say goodbye.
128 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE
PICARD
Before we go? You mean you and
the Caeliar?
HERNANDEZ
You don’t need to speak of us as
separate entities anymore.
129 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
HERNANDEZ
(continuing)
I am one of the Caeliar now. We’re
“joined”, you might say.
Dax smiles...
HERNANDEZ
(continuing)
We have been for a very long time.
I just hadn’t been able to accept
it until now.
130 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE
RIKER
Erika, what happened to the Borg?
HERNANDEZ
There are no more Borg. Not
here, or in the Delta Quadrant, or
anywhere else for that matter.
There are only Caeliar now. And
if you’ll excuse us, we have a
new mission to begin.
131 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
DAX
What mission?
HERNANDEZ
To find and protect cultures of
peace and non-violence, so that
perhaps someday in the distant
future, the meek really can
inherit the universe.
132 INT. TITAN - BRIDGE
RIKER
Good luck.
HERNANDEZ
Thanks. You too.
133 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE
CHAKOTAY
(whispered,
to Janeway)
Goodbye.
The image of Hernandez disappears from all four bridges...
134 EXT. SPACE - AZURE NEBULA
Four-thousand-and-one SUBSPACE TUNNELS tear their way into existence, surrounding all the vessels gathered at the Azure Nebula...
...and all the former Borg vessels disappear into them. The giant shining Caeliar city-ship does likewise, disappearing back the way it came. All the tunnels seal up...
...and there are only the four Starfleet ships remaining.
135 INT. AVENTINE - BRIDGE
Dax observes this on her viewscreen, and whispers...
DAX
Did we just win?
BOWERS
Don’t jinx it.
136 INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE
After a moment’s silence, Worf turns to Choudhury...
WORF
Cancel red alert.
The remark seems to break the floodgates, and CHEERS and LAUGHTER and exclamations of relief fill the bridge. Picard turns to Beverly, and against all propriety, hugs her tight in full view of his crew.
BEVERLY
Was she right, Jean-Luc? Are the
Borg really gone?
PICARD
Yes, my love. They really are.
BEVERLY
And are you alright?
PICARD
I really am. We all are.
Off the scenes of celebration on Enterprise’s bridge...
137 INT. VOYAGER - BRIDGE
...to similar scenes on Voyager’s bridge. But as Chakotay sits alone in his command chair, quietly wiping tears from his eyes as he watches the others celebrate without him, he whispers to himself...
CHAKOTAY
Now what?
FADE OUT
END OF SHOW