Captain's Tale
| The Reject's Table | |
| Episode name | Captain's Tale |
|---|---|
| Season | N/A |
| Episode number | Story #5 |
| Writer(s) | Maija Meneks |
| Year | 2347 |
| Stardate | |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Tolkien III |
| Next in series | |
| Previous in timeline | Tolkien III |
| Next in timeline | N/A |
Summary
The fifth story of The Reject's Table round-table of first-time captain stories opens with 4 of 8 awaking to a silent cube. Recently assimilated, he was originally slated to be assigned to the engineering hierarchy. However, due to unforeseen circumstances that left Cube #347 missing several drones, including a member of the Hierarchy of Eight, the drone to be designated 4 of 8 was declared to have the appropriate Captainly mental fortitude and reassigned to Command and Control. Usually the Captaincy is a rotational position among the Hierarchy of Eight, but given the newness of 4 of 8 and the fact that none /like/ to be Captain, records were flubbed, and the newly awake drone finds himself as head babysitter.
As Captain wakes up the cube, he learns that the assignment Cube #347 has been given is to travel to a system which once belonged to a species now extinct outside the Collective. Once there, memory crystals are to be retrieved from a tagged asteroid and returned to BorgSpace proper for analysis.
Few of the drones which fill hierarchy head positions are familiar to the contemporary BorgSpace series. However, of those which are familiar:
- 45 of 300 has been transferred aboard at the same time as 4 of 8 and other replacement drones. Once awake, 45 of 300 claims the Weapons position which he will subsequently keep for a long, long time.
- 12 of 19 is tapped to head engineering hierarchy. However, she has been in this position for five of the last seven cube assignments. She demands to not be in charge for the next full rotation of Eight, and to emphasize this point she subdesignates herself Omega.
- 2 of 20, infamous G'floo! addict and member of the Group of 20, finds himself rotated in to be Assimilation.
When Cube #347 arrives at the target system, it is almost hit by a superstring. The near-miss not only causes moderate damage, but flings the cube into an alternate reality where it encounters the Ferengi-ruled Federation Hegemony in the form of the battle cruiser Rules of Acquisition. Betazoid Empathic Attack Units are threatened; and Cube #347 is attacked, albeit by standard weaponry. Just when it looks bleak, Cube #347 is saved...by Cube #347. Strike-class Cube #347, to be exact.
After contact is made between the sub-collectives, it is learned that the alternate reality arose due to infection of the Borg Collective by an individuality virus carried by a drone designated Hugh, released as a Trojan horse by Jean-Luc Picard. The alternate Cube #347 is not a cube of misfits, but rather an elite sub-collective embodying Oneness. Soon it becomes clear that the superstring system is soon to become a bloody battlefield between Federation and Collective, and that Cube #347 will not be sufficiently repaired to be flung back to its home reality. In an effort to bolster the chance of success by the alternate Collective, the sub-collective of Cube #347 offers to look at the individuality virus and attempt to devise a counter - an individuality virus can't affect those who are already near individuals, after all. Or at least that is the rationalization.
An antivirus is devised, thus allowing the local Collective to have the upper hand, driving away the Federation Hegemony. Hooray! Cube #347 goes home, re-repairs what is broken along the way, and acquires the memory crystals. The end!
Favorite Quote
- "Why do the most deadly threats come in the smallest packages?" - 5 of 8 (Second)
Add your favorite quote here!
Entity of the Week
None
Story Notes
The Reject's Table provided me (the BorgSpace author) with the chance to explore Captain's time shortly after assimilation. The BorgSpace series itself occurs long after this primary character has established himself and is confident in his actions. The early Captain is quite a bit different, in that respect, as well as how he presents in the bar, or at least that was my aim.
At this point in the BorgSpace series, I was still settling into writing, and had not quite codified various concepts. For instance, in Captain's Tale, the Doctor character is given the job to take apart the individuality virus. Later in the main BorgSpace series, it becomes well established that such a task would belong to the assimilation hierarchy, not drone maintenance.
Another thing I'll point out is how Babylon 5, a favorite sci-fi series of mine, managed to sneak into this story. Specifically, the "Jovian Sunspot" drink, which was seen in the Babylon 5 episodes of Deathwalker and A Spider in the Web.