Delta Life
| BorgSpace | |
| Episode name | Delta Life |
|---|---|
| Season | Assimilations |
| Episode number | Delta's Story |
| Writer(s) | Maija Meneks |
| Year | 2334 |
| Stardate | XXXXX |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | A Second Chance |
| Next in series | The Doctor Is In |
| Previous in timeline | N/A |
| Next in timeline | N/A |
Summary
Born on the Grikite colony world of Bridi, Kitra and Leeta are twins with a talent for engineering. Twins are uncommon among the Grikite race; and these particularly close twins were hired together to Astro-Engineering in the town of Grishna when their schooling was complete.
Kitra, as the dominant twin of the pair, wants to /do/ something to strike out against the Borg, even if it only a symbolic defiance. To this end she convinces her sister to join the militia with her, although in truth it is the marines stationed on the planet who would oversee any military response should the Borg strike a backwater planet like Bridi.
The Grikite are members of a three-species alliance known as the Combine. Far from Bridi, the Borg increasingly press the Combine. Normally the Bridi shipyards are a bustling place where luxury liners and workhorse freighters are constructed. However, to fight back, a new class of vessels called "Borg Killer" are under secret construction. Unfortunately, the Borg learnt of the attempt at resistance (perhaps via assimilation), and thus Bridi is attacked by three Battle-class cubes.
The Borg Killers are not the defense that twelve years of Combine planning had hoped they would be. Instead, the ten finished ships, plus their eleventh half-constructed sister, all are destroyed, along with the Bridi shipyards. In return, the Borg trio lose a single attacker, with a second heavily damaged. Then a luxury liner in orbit sacrifices itself to ram the damaged cube, destroying it and seemingly cooking the remaining Battle-class in the resultant radiation burst.
Unfortunately, "seeming" is insufficient when dealing with the Borg; and especially when that Borg ship a Battle-class cube. Despite massive casualties and lack of reinforcements, the assault is renewed, this time directed at the surface.
On the ground, the marines stationed on Bridi hold their own at first. However, the inevitable slowly happens until, in the end, even a sleepy town like Grishna comes under attack. Where the marines were unsuccessful at repelling the Borg, the local militia, of which Kitra and Leeta are members, have no chance.
As the story closes, amid the confusion of battle, Leeta is hit by a Borg disruptor. Instead of fleeing, Kitra remains by her sister, even as the latter slips into unconsciousness and drones loom overhead.
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Story Notes
In the BorgSpace stories, 12 of 19 has always been depicted as close, so much so that for all practical purposes she is one mind that just happens to be housed in two bodies. The individual bodies can function alone, although very poorly; and certainly not at the caliber required for an engineering drone. One of the primary aspects of writing this story was to show that even before assimilation, the persons then known as Kitra and Leeta were close. It was perhaps inevitable that even assimilation could not tear them apart, only force them closer together.
Now, about the title. All the Assimilation mini-series stories incorporate their respective characters' BorgSpace subdesignations. Delta probably represented the greatest challenge, and I will be the first to admit that the final title here was a bit of a stretch. In this case, "delta" is equated with the Greek symbol (a little triangle); and that symbol is often used in scientific notation to stand for a change in status. Thus, "delta T" represents a change in temperature; and "delta v" designates a change in velocity. And "Delta Life"? Well, Kitra and Leeta did undergo quite a change in lifestyle....
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