Dark Frontier, Part 1

On a white sand beach, a beautiful caramel-skinned beauty was sitting cross-legged as she meditated. Ocean blue waves crashed softly against the shore and a constant gentle breeze was blowing. Raven was fully immersed in her training, when suddenly, her appearance changed, though only for a split second. 

In that moment, her skin paled to an unhealthy level, almost taking on a greenish hue. Black cybernetic plates covered nearly every inch of her body below her neck with neon green crystals covering much of her back and the points of her joints. Her dark brown hair was replaced with a series of tubes that connected lower into her back. Her eyes were a deep maroon as they fluttered open. 

Any other person could have missed the change with how quick it appeared, yet Susanna noticed and appeared next to Raven. "Congratulations. You're able to break my control and connection." 

"It doesn't matter," Raven sighed. "I still need to be able to do it instantly, and without the Queen noticing." 

Finally breaking Susanna's control, Raven received a flood of memories from her 'body', as the 'mind' within Unimatrix Zero was the part of her before she was assimilated. In an instant, she knew how her body had been mutilated, how she had been compelled to assimilate more into the Collective, and the ways that she had empowered them as a whole. Although she returned to her natural appearance, she could not help but look down at her hands, imagining them covered in black plate metal... and the blood of countless innocents that her contribution allowed to be assimilated. 

"It does matter. You have the ability now to break away from the Collective, and you have the perfect cover to activate your puppet 'mind'," Susanna replied. 

"What do you mean?" Raven asked. 

"Istar knew that you would be in Rebecca's future the moment that he placed her in your original world. From that moment, he has been planning your advancement to help you stay alongside her. Everything within this 'universe' was ultimately to give you this chance, but it's not a step easily taken..." 

"You mean..." 

"I do..." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Computer, coffee, black, and a cup of Yridian tea, hot," Janeway said as she walked towards the replicator. 

I hummed and dropped onto the couches along the back wall. Looking out the window, Janeway joined me a few moments later with our drinks. 

"You know something," Janeway said. 

"I do," I replied and blew lightly on my cup of tea. 

"Then this is something you've seen?" 

"Long before Raven joined the Collective... I could tell you how things played out, Kathryn, but even if 'we' weren't a part of your future and I warned you with our level of trust, you'd still make the same decisions," I retorted. 

Janeway sighed and asked, "Do you not want me to go after a transwarp coil?" 

I sipped on my drink as I weighed out the options. "I do want you to go after it. It fits within my knowledge of the future and will cut off years of your journey." 

"Do you know how much I hate your remarks on the future?" Janeway retorted with clear annoyance. 

"And yet, you keep asking..." 

She sighed, "What will you tell me?" 

"Remember that we don't exist, trust Seven, and talk to me throughout everything; I'll let you know if I see a problem ahead," I answered simply. 

"You've got to give me more, Rebecca," Janeway stated. 

"I can't... Seven hasn't even recovered the data nodes from the ship and analyzed them. As hard as the path that I 'know' you would take without any involvement of my crew, it will only be harder with Raven in the Collective. Telling you what I know, at this point, is just a hopeful outcome and would not help you, I truly believe that," I replied honestly. 

"Will you help us when the time comes, or do I keep pretending that you don't exist?" 

"Of course, my crew and I will help. The Borg are my responsibility after allowing Raven to be captured, and I plan on undoing as much of her influence as I can before we leave the Delta Quadrant. I'm not exactly sure how I will do that currently, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve that I can't use lightly or easily which could possibly help." 

"I appreciate that, and I'm sure that the rest of the galaxy does as well. The idea of the Borg being able to wield power similar to you and your ship is intimidating to say the least." 

"That's an understatement," I chuckled, sipping my drink. 

 We talked for a bit longer before I returned to the Bridge while she remained in her Ready Room until Chakotay called her down to Cargo Bay Two. She had me join her, and I could not help but frown as I sensed several strong sources of mana when the doors opened. I could tell that they were a device of sorts rather than something living, but that did little to relax me. 

Janeway, noticing my look, asked, "What is it?" 

"Mana sources... at least three of them," I replied, then tapped my badge and said, "Rebecca to Katye. Please come to Cargo Bay Two. We need your assistance with something important." 

"Understood. I'm on my way," she replied. 

I led Janeway over towards the strongest mana source and looked over the large chunk of black metal and glass. Although the piece of technology was broken significantly, I could still recognize the vinculum. I pulled out a special tricorder from our ship which could analyze minor magical devices. Immediately, I picked up multiple runes that had been carved on the inside of the vinculum, but the technique seemed different than what I had seen of Katye's and Raven's past creations. 

"What can you tell?" Janeway asked while Chakotay walked up to us. 

"I've found evidence of magical formations, which are the base for any device that we create, but they seem different than the ones that Katye and Raven have made in the past. Weaker, yet more stable... Clearly, they have been damaged as we only have a piece of the vinculum, and yet, my tricorder says that something is still active. Katye will need to examine it more closely for any more information since I have no skill with enchanting," I replied after activating my Wind Domain to prevent eavesdropping. 

"The Borg have adapted your unique technology?" Chakotay asked with surprise, and a bit of alarm. 

"It seems so," I sighed, closing my tricorder. 

The cargo bay doors opened for Katye, who frowned immediately, just as I had. She walked over to us, pulling out her tricorder, and started scanning the vinculum as she remarked, "I see why you called me down here." 

"It's not like I'm going to figure out the difference between this enchantment and the ones that you and Raven have created," I retorted with a shrug. "No one but the four of us can hear our conversation, by the way. I figured that it would be a smart precaution considering the magnitude of this." 

"Thank you, Rebecca," Janeway sighed with a bit of frustration, no doubt about the situation. 

"Hmm..." Katye mused as she worked on her tricorder, ignoring us. 

I noticed a sparkle in her eyes as she realized something, and after a few minutes her fingertip turned violet, then, in a blur of motion, she traced out a few dozen runes in the air, then tapped the group, and circled a spot on the metal, leaving a thin trail. When the circle connected, the light faded and the part inside the circle slipped forward to her outstretched hand. 

"This is why the enchantment is different," she said as she showed us the inside of the piece that she had cut which had a neon green crystal in the shape of a rune. "Crystalized runes can be made from powdered mana crystals that are placed in a mold then solidified with a light burst of mana, allowing them to be mass produced. After that, they simply need to be arranged properly by anyone to activate the enchantment." 

"The Borg are mass producing enchantments like yours?!?" Janeway could not help but exclaim. 

"They may very well be, but it is not as alarming as you think. There are significant disadvantages to forming them this way, with the biggest being that they require much more room to be placed properly. Take our exo-suits for an example; if we had used crystalized runes to make them, the amount of space needed to properly layer all of the enchantments correctly would be on the scale of Voyager's volume, though in a spherical shape, and being spread over that much would significantly weaken the defensive ability of the shielding. 

"There is also the fact that Raven should be the only being in the Collective able to properly wield mana to solidify the crystal runes, unless they've captured another Vazukuru, so there is a significant limit to how much they can produce compared to the number of ships that they have to retrofit. Even with the massive leap of her reserves when we last saw her a year ago, compared to when she was assimilated, her reserves should still be below ours, though not by much. Even if the Collective had both Becca and I, we would be hard pressed to make enough crystalized runes for significant improvements to the entire Collective... 

"And, judging by what I've detected, these are minor enchantments with a single enhancement of five percent at a perfect understanding, which even I could not claim, and this was one of my past-life's specialties. My best guess of the enchantment on the vinculum is one of Raven's first masteries, which boosts the efficiency of a device. Raven's mastery when she was assimilated would be around one and a half percent, and, while the Borg aren't known for their innovation, Raven is, so I could imagine that she may be up to two and a half percent if the majority of her time has been devoted to crafting them. 

"If I were the Queen, with the limitations of this method, I would focus on minor enchantments to vital pieces of technology... like the vinculum, which connects all Borg together, and the main processing system, to speed up their adaptability. Their biggest strength, and philosophy, I believe, is quantity over quality, so that would be the fastest way to improve with that mindset," Katye explained. 

"Nerd," I teased, knowing that there was something she was leaving out, but did not want to directly call her out. 

"Muscle-head," she retorted with a look that told me I was right, yet this was not the place to discuss it. 

"Did we have a lucky coincidence to learn this information, or have they been able to push these changes throughout the Collective in the year and a half that Raven has been gone?" Chakotay could not help but ask. 

"That I can't tell you, Commander, but sadly, I do believe it's the latter. Mass producing crystalized runes could explain the rapid development of her mana reserves when we last saw her. The Queen is likely working her to the brink of death before sending her to regenerate and repair the damage that it causes," Katye explained grimly. 

My anger surged at her words, and gray flames sprung to life on my shoulders and horns. 

Katye placed a hand on my shoulder with no hesitation, turning the flames white, and said reassuringly, "We'll get her back, Becca. Echo and I are close to unraveling... the Anomaly Stone, and then, we just need to set up a secure location away from innocent people." 

I took in a deep breath, and extinguished the flames as I released it, then sighed, "You're right." 

"Captain," Katye said, turning to Janeway, "I would like to ask permission to work with Seven to analyze the Borg data nodes. The two of us are the top experts of the Borg language, so I can help her decode faster, and possibly, more accurately." 

"Of course," Janeway agreed. 

"Save anything with mana for me to examine properly," Katye added with a glance at me. 

"Yes, Heda," I retorted, rolling my eyes. 

"Jok yu," she responded as she walked away. 

I gave a wry smile and chuckled, "Relationships are complex, especially ones as old as ours." 

Janeway smirked and shook her head. "I want a report on Katye's and Seven's findings in the morning." 

"I'm sure that they will have something for you by then," I agreed with a light sigh, knowing that Katye would work throughout the night. "Can I mark the pieces that she wants to study further and have them brought to the Shuttle Bay?" 

"Of course," she agreed. 

"Thank you, Captain," I replied before walking over to Harry, who was in charge of the salvage operation. 

My conversation with Harry did not last long and I pointed out the three objects that they had collected which Katye wanted. After that, I headed to the Shuttle Bay to tell Fae what was going on so that she could tell Echo and L'Naan when they returned. Without much more I could do, I returned to the cargo bay to regenerate, despite the work going on. 

I opened my eyes in the beautiful world of Unimatrix Zero, but I could not help but sigh heavily, my guilt flaring as I remembered Katye's words. I was here because of one cocky mistake, and Raven was the one paying the price. I knew the pain of pushing myself to the limits of mana usage, so the idea that she likely had been going through that every day was like a stab to the heart. All of her suffering was my fault. 

"If it helps, she can't feel pain while connected to the Collective," Susanna said, appearing behind me. 

"How would you even know that?" I grumbled. "Drones don't retain their memories when they come here." 

"Actually, there is an obvious way for a 'drone' to regain their memories while here; break my connection to them," she stated simply. 

"You mean…?" I asked with a hint of excitement. 

"It would be better if you talked to her directly. There are some matters that you need to discuss," she replied, opening a portal for me. 

I did not hesitate and ran through it. Raven was on the other side, standing on our private beach as she looked out, watching the waves crash against the shore. She turned to me and gave me a light smile that did not quite reach her eyes. My heart broke, knowing that she had lived through horrors that could break a lesser man, but I walked up to her still and wrapped my arms around her. 

"I'm sorry," I said softly as she leaned into my embrace. 

"I know, but this path was before me from the moment that we entered this universe. If not that mistake, something else would have happened and put everyone in more danger. Honestly, it was probably the best outcome," she replied. 

"I would still rather not be the cause of your assimilation," I retorted. 

She chuckled, "If you hadn't, we wouldn't have these moments together. I also wouldn't be able to get your help with freeing myself from her control." 

"Then you can do it?" 

"I can. It's not quite perfect, but with your help, I can cover the switch. To do it by myself, I would probably need another five to ten years of practice before I would be confident that I could fool the Queen." 

"Will you still get the inheritance or whatever that you wanted?" I asked, letting her go so that I could look at her properly. 

"I will," she confirmed with a light smile. 

I laughed with a big smile as I picked her up and spun her around. Placing her back on her feet, I promised, "Whatever you need, I'll make it happen. Katye and Echo are close to discovering the code to pull you to us, and I have the ability to ask Sancu a question, so I can find out how to prevent her from taking you back with the Anomaly Stone. It won't be long before you are truly in my arms again." 

She smiled with a few tears in the corners of her eyes, then kissed me. "I knew you would help me and get me back... but there's a catch." 

"There always is when my brother's goons are involved," I chuckled. 

"Yes, well, I need you to..."