"Now, if I'm to have any chance of developing something by the time we reach the Borg ship again."

"I will come to sickbay momentarily," he said as he cut the connection.

A moment later, Ensign Allen's voice broke in. "Commander Worf, I have the admiral."

"Patch her through," Worf said as he sat behind the captain's desk.

He turned the screen to face him as the Starfleet insignia was replaced with the face of Admiral Janeway. Worf had never met the woman, but even on the small screen she appeared to be a formidable presence. She seemed particularly tense at the moment, in fact. Worf suspected that he knew why.

Not one for simple pleasantries, she got right down to business. "I have recently received a communique from Seven of Nine, Commander Worf. She reports that her long-range scans do not show the Enterprise at the rendezvous coordinates. I a.s.sume you have an explanation for that as well as for why your captain is not the one speaking with me now?"

"Yes, Admiral," he said stoically.

"And the reason?" she asked.

"We have engaged the Borg."

11.

SARA NAVE SAT IN SILENCE IN THE CONFERENCE lounge along with T'Lana and Lieutenant Nelson from engineering. It was an odd trio, to say the least. Nave had known Nelson only in pa.s.sing; the few conversations they had were centered around warp core specifications. She always found the information enlightening but not exactly interesting. T'Lana, meanwhile, had already proved to be a hard nut to crack, and Nave wasn't ready for another go-round. It was easier just to sit silently and wait for Commander Worf than try to bother coming up with any topics for discussion. Regretfully, that left her with her own dark thoughts.

Nave's heart was in a very strange place. After she had heard Lio's dying screams, she had alternated between excruciating grief and numbness. Now she was in limbo, wanting to mourn, to cry, but she couldn't. Because now she had hope of rescuing Lio, and now her mind was busy churning out a hundred different scenarios of how she would find Lio on the Borg ship, how she would feel when she saw him, how she would ultimately save him.

Intruding on all this was the single sinister thought: Was it possible that the Borg had simply killed him?

No. No. The Borg would have sent him back, like the others. Once they had finished using him for his comlink connection with the ship, they would have identified him as the leader of the away team and a.s.similated him for his tactical knowledge. What would be bad for the Enterprise meant hope for Nave.

So she was forced to hope that the Borg transformed him-the last thing he would have wanted. Since she had transferred to the Enterprise, she had occasionally overheard a senior officer making a comment about Captain Picard's time as Locutus, about how horrifying it had been for him and for the crew. About the sense of violation the captain must have felt.

Am I being selfish, wishing the same for Lio, just so that I can bring him back?

Anxiety clutched her midsection, made it difficult for her to draw in a deep breath.

Behind her, the conference room doors opened. She did not turn; she knew from the sound of his step that Commander Worf had returned from sickbay.

Immediately, she straightened in her chair and forced her dazed, grief-exhausted mind to still. You need to remember only one thing: you're going to the Borg ship. No matter what happens to Lio, you'll have the chance to avenge him and your friends. And you'll have the satisfaction of helping to stop the Borg.

She did not allow herself to consider for one second the possibility of failure.

She glanced up as Commander Worf took a seat at the head of the table: the captain's chair. Nave was surprised by how much she thought it suited him and worried that she was betraying Captain Picard in the process. Nave saw Worf and the counselor exchange quick looks. Apparently they had agreed to a truce: Worf's expression was determined; T'Lana's was of course more difficult to interpret, though it was definitely not unkind.

Despite her emotional turmoil, Nave was curious. After Commander Worf had ordered T'Lana to the ready room, the Vulcan had emerged first. Although she revealed no emotion, tension enveloped her like a cloud. But the counselor had remained on the bridge and sat quietly, as if nothing had happened. Worf had emerged a few minutes later and said he was going to sickbay, while T'Lana had remained maddeningly unreadable. Nave was not even sure she liked the woman.

But the larger question still hung in the air. What had he discussed with Admiral Janeway?

At that point, she banished all personal thoughts. Worf was ready to start the oddly attended briefing. She hoped she would find out the answers soon enough.

"As you all know, we will be heading back to the Borg cube," Worf said. "I have spoken with Admiral Janeway and, though she is displeased at how the situation has evolved, she agrees with my plan."

"Plan, sir?" Nave asked, realizing she was jumping the gun. She was just too afraid that whatever the commander was now planning would leave her out of the mix.

Worf had obviously guessed her concern. "You will have the chance to avenge the losses of your crewmates, Lieutenant," he a.s.sured her. "But we need to be cautious about this. We need to do it in a way that Captain Picard would never suspect."

"Surely the captain would never expect that you would disobey his orders in the first place," T'Lana said.

Worf paused for a moment. A rare smile played on his lips. "You are still new to this crew, Counselor. I a.s.sure you, the captain knows we're coming. We just need to make sure that he cannot see us returning."

Nave thought she knew what the commander was implying, but it was impossible. At the same time, it was a course of action the captain certainly would not antic.i.p.ate. "Are you suggesting that we'll be...cloaked, sir?"

"Yes, Lieutenant."

Nave nearly laughed when she saw the questioning look on T'Lana's face. Surely the Vulcan wouldn't know how to process this information. It was clearly against the terms of the Treaty of Algeron for the Federation to possess a cloaking device, unless in a situation specially sanctioned by the Romulans. Honestly, Nave was a little confused herself. Where would they obtain a cloaking device in time?

Even taking Worf's communication with Admiral Janeway into account, there was no way she could have gotten through all the red tape to get permission from the Romulans already. In spite of the threat of another Borg incursion, bureaucrats simply did not move that quickly.

T'Lana was the first to speak. "The Defiant is the only Federation starship equipped with cloaking technology."

"That is not entirely correct," Worf said, evoking a look of shock from Nave and one of utter curiosity from T'Lana. Nelson alone looked as though he knew what the commander was talking about. Worf nodded to the lieutenant to explain.

"The Federation has been studying cloaking technology for over a century," he explained. "While the treaty forbids us to use the technology on our ships, it doesn't mean we can't possess it."

"That interpretation is a matter of semantics," T'Lana reasoned. "One that the Romulans would surely take issue with."

"True," Worf said. "But considering the recent coup in the Romulan Senate, combined with their unwarranted attack on the Federation-namely this ship-the Federation is taking a new look at their relationship with the Empire."

"Surely, the treaty has not been rescinded," T'Lana said.

"As far as Admiral Janeway is concerned," Worf said, "it is for the time being." He turned to Nelson. "Lieutenant."

"Cloaking technology has been encrypted in all starships' computers constructed within the past decade," Nelson explained. "The thought being that the technology should be available in cases of extreme need. The encryption does requires an admiral's access codes."

"Which we now possess," Worf added.

"So we're going to cloak the Enterprise?" Nave asked.

"Not exactly," the lieutenant replied. "To cloak the entire ship would require a ma.s.sive amount of energy, which we don't exactly have at the moment. Since the saucer section is most damaged, we're going to have to separate from it and cloak only the stardrive section. Commander La Forge is working off the decrypted schematics and installing the cloaking device right now. He's the only one onboard with proper clearance for the procedure."

"Meanwhile, Doctor Crusher is working on a neutralizer injection, a way to take out the Borg queen once and for all," Worf added. "In the meantime, we will need to evacuate all extraneous personnel to the saucer section. Counselor, I will leave you in command of that section. Your orders are simple: remain at this position, outside of the Borg sensor range, until we return. If you pick up any movement by the Borg, you will turn the ship around and head to the coordinates Admiral Janeway has ordered the fleet to ma.s.s. Do not attempt to slow the Borg ship. Your goal is to join the fight where you can be of the best advantage."

"Understood," T'Lana said with a nod. Nave didn't doubt for a second that T'Lana would do exactly as she was told.

Worf looked out at the three officers. "Lieutenant Nelson will be in command of the auxiliary bridge while we are on the cube. In the meantime, we must prepare for the separation."

"Aye, sir," the officers responded.

As T'Lana and Nelson left the conference room, Worf motioned for Nave to remain with him. "Once the cloak is active, we will be arriving in the vicinity of the Borg ship within the hour, Lieutenant," he said. "I need you to designate a security team. I will, of course, be leading the rescue efforts. But you will be responsible for coordinating them."

Thank you, Nave almost said. Worf had held the position of security chief several years earlier; he knew what was necessary in order to pull a team together on short notice. Perhaps Nave only imagined it, but it seemed he understood how important it was to her to organize the rescue efforts to find the captain. To find Lio.

Instead she answered, "Aye, sir. I've already thought about it. I'll want Chao, Leary, and Diasourakis." She'd worked out with Sandra Chao before; Chao was an ensign, only a year out of the academy, but she was tough and fast and smart. Margaret Leary was an experienced security veteran, and while Nave didn't know Gregory Diasourakis personally-he had transferred to the Enterprise only a month before-his Starfleet file was littered with commendations.

Worf grunted in approval. "Good choices. You will need to be sure your team is drilled in certain facts. First, phasers set on stun are useless against the Borg. Weapons must be set to kill. Second, when the Borg were last on the Enterprise, they learned to adapt to the frequency of our weapons. After we fired a few times, they became impervious, and so we had to constantly recalibrate our weapons. Your team should be prepared to do so as well."

The first fact worried Nave. She had a.s.sumed that all she had to do, if she encountered Lio on the Borg ship, was stun him and return him to the Enterprise. "I'll be sure to inform them." She paused. "Do we have any way of locating the captain, sir? Will we be aware of his position?"

Worf shook his head. "Our primary goal must be to find the queen. Commander La Forge's team is currently trying to calibrate our scanners to determine whether we can single her out from among the drones. If we can destroy her, then the entire Borg colony will be disabled, and we can then try to locate the captain and Lieutenant Battaglia." He paused, then, with a look Nave could not interpret, said, "If we locate the queen, the captain will almost certainly be nearby."

"The neutralizer injection you mentioned Doctor Crusher was working on. Will that kill the queen?"

"Not exactly. The injection would transform the queen back into a drone-if it works. If it does not work quickly, or as planned, we will resort to conventional methods."

"Kill her, you mean."

The Klingon shot her a humorless look. "I believe that is what I said."

"Sir..." Nave began hesitantly. "You've fought the Borg before. I know that when the Borg overran the Enterprise, a lot of crew members were a.s.similated and...lost. What do you think our chances are of recovering Lio...Lieutenant Battaglia? Of actually bringing him home?"

"The same as our chances of bringing home the captain," Worf answered at once. But his tone held little hope, and he would not meet her eyes.

Worf sat in the command chair on the auxiliary bridge as the stardrive section disengaged from the saucer. He had never conducted a saucer separation before, though he had taken part in the procedure many times. The entire process was fully automated, but it still seemed unnatural to him to divide a ship and leave part of it behind. It was the equivalent of severing an arm or a leg to him. More to the point, it was almost unfathomable to leave behind most of the crew when heading into battle. True Klingon warriors would never consent to being left out of the fray. Then again, if the skeleton crew aboard the stardrive section with him failed, those aboard the saucer section would join in the battle soon enough.

"Separation complete," Nave reported from the conn of the auxiliary bridge.

"Very good, Lieutenant," Worf said as he tapped his combadge. "Worf to the main bridge."

T'Lana's voice replied. "Aye, Commander."

"Hold this position as instructed," he reiterated his previous orders. "Once we activate the cloak, we will have approximately two and a half hours to conduct our mission. If we do not contact you by the end of that time, or you read any movement from the Borg cube, you are to leave the area immediately."

"Understood," T'Lana said.

Worf briefly wondered if he was expecting too much to think she would wish him well in battle as she had wished the captain before his mission. He quickly put the idea out of his mind and severed the communication. This was not the time for such silliness. He pressed his combadge again and opened communications with La Forge.

"I've activated the cloaking device," La Forge reported from engineering. "It's coming online now."

If everything was going according to plan, the stardrive section would be in the process of disappearing from the main bridge's viewscreen. He could almost feel the antic.i.p.ation from the crew seated around him. This was likely their first time on a cloaked ship. Not that they would be able to tell the difference from within the ship, but it was an odd sensation. Worf had experienced it many times...o...b..ard the Defiant. To be totally invisible to sensors gave one a feeling of power. Though some would say that sneaking up on an enemy was not an honorable way to conduct battle, it was a necessity in some cases. And he could think of none more important than this.

"The cloak is holding," La Forge reported. "We're invisible."

Worf set his eyes on the viewscreen in front of him. "Lieutenant Nave, set a course for the Borg cube. Maximum warp."

"Already set, sir," she replied. He heard the determination in her voice.

Worf then echoed the command his captain had used so many times before: "Engage."

Beverly Crusher moved rapidly down the corridor toward the transporter room. She had been working in one of the labs in the stardrive section up to the last possible moment and was positive that she had found success. Now, as she went to join the away team, her mind was utterly focused on her next challenge. A medkit was slung over her shoulder; a hypospray was securely fastened to her belt, a phaser beside it.

She was doing this, she told herself, for strictly professional reasons: for the sake of science, of research, for the sake of any sentient beings that might ever run the risk of being a.s.similated by the Borg. It had nothing to do with her inability to sit idly and wait for word of the away team's success or failure; it had nothing to do with her desire to go to the Borg ship and find Jean-Luc herself, to make sure-even if she had to do it herself-that the queen was destroyed and he was rescued and brought back to the Enterprise in one piece.

Be truthful. You're doing this because you want to go to him and not leave his side until you're sure he's safe and completely Jean-Luc again.

Yes. But I have another very good, very logical reason.

Fleeing the Borg when they had boarded the Enterprise was the second most frightening memory of her life-almost as frightening as the moment she had first set eyes on Locutus. But she felt no fear now, only horror, for Jean-Luc's sake. She was too busy trying to imagine where he was, what he was feeling...and what he had gone through.

In midstride, she realized that she was still wearing her lab coat. Chagrined, she pulled it off without slowing her pace and flung it over her arm. She could not afford to be late: she needed time to make her case.

Two more steps, and she was in the transporter room. Worf stood in hawkish profile at the transporter console, next to Ensign Luptowski. The Klingon turned as she entered-and just behind her came Sara Nave, as tight-lipped and tense as Beverly had ever seen her. She was attended by three security crew members. Beverly recognized Chao, a muscular, dark-haired woman, and Leary, pet.i.te but formidable, but not the third, a thirtyish man with dark auburn hair and remarkably blue eyes who bore the relentlessly calm demeanor of a seasoned officer.

All of them, including Worf, were armed with ominous-looking phaser rifles.

As they all came to a stop and faced Worf, Nave shot Crusher a look and smiled in grim approval. Somehow, she had sized up the doctor; she understood what she was about to do, and she approved. Beverly shared a long look with her, then glanced back at Worf.

The Klingon turned to her. When Beverly had first met him, many years ago, his features had reminded her of an owl's: fiercely penetrating eyes beneath swooping brows that created a perpetual scowl. Worf briefly caught her gaze, then looked pointedly at the medkit slung over her shoulder.

"Thank you, Doctor. Is the injection in there?"

"No." She touched her belt. "It's here." She paused. "Actually...I'm going with you, Worf. When I was preparing the injection, my tests indicated that the feminizing hormone is in fact contained in a nutrient gel secreted by the drones' bodies, triggered by the loss of a queen. If I can get a sample of drone tissue-now that their body chemistry has altered to produce the hormone-I'm confident I can find a way to alter their DNA." It was Jean-Luc, actually, who had provided the clue, when he had spoken of the drones' protectiveness of the queen. Not a directive, he had said. Something deeper. Those words had haunted her until she at last realized what that "something deeper" was: DNA. "And if that's done..."

He lifted his chin, adamant. "I am afraid you must stay, Doctor. It is too dangerous for you to go."

"If you fail in your mission, it will be too dangerous to be on this ship, Commander. It hasn't been safe since we all agreed to accompany the captain on his search for the Borg queen." She pulled him aside and softened her tone. This was not a conversation for the junior officers to witness. "Hear me out, Worf. If I alter their DNA, it could spread to all the Borg in the Alpha Quadrant. They'll never be able to produce another queen. We could stop them for good."

"I understand." Worf reached for the medkit. "But I can administer the injection. And I can take the sample."

"I have to do this," Beverly said sharply, stridently, as she pulled away from him with determination in her eyes. She knew that she was being unfair. She was counting on his Klingon sensibilities to kick in. Truthfully, anyone could make the injection. There was no need for a medical professional to administer it. Her request was personal. And she knew that Worf would see it that way, as more than a simple battle with the Borg. This was a fight to save the man she loved. In his eyes, it would be a deeply honorable action. "Please," she said softly. "I have to do this."

The tension in his features eased; the corner of his lip quirked in the small, exasperated gesture she knew so well.

"La Forge to Worf."

Worf pressed his combadge. "Go ahead, Commander."

Geordi's voice was uncharacteristically flat, defeated. "We tried to pinpoint the queen on the Borg vessel, but there just wasn't enough time. If we had another hour, I could probably pull it off. She's a very small needle in a very big haystack. I'm sorry, Worf."

"I know that you did your best, Commander," Worf said. He kept the channel open and turned to Luptowski at the transporter controls. "We will need to drop the cloak to beam to the cube. As soon as we are away, Commander La Forge can reinitialize the cloak. However, the Borg will be immediately alerted to our presence. If their behavior remains consistent, they will instantly perceive us as a threat and attack. Our only option, as I see it, is to beam into the same coordinates as the captain and the first away team had. Tactically, it will not be a strong position, but we won't have time to beam any farther away from the queen's chamber."

"Agreed," Nave said with a nod.

Worf addressed his security team. "We will provide cover for Doctor Crusher so that she can administer the injection to the queen. Once the Borg are disarmed, she will gather samples." He looked pointedly at Crusher and frowned. "You will need a phaser rifle."

The doctor shook her head. "I'll have to make do with the phaser. The rifle is too c.u.mbersome with the medkit." Her hand fell on the hypospray. "Besides, this is all the weapon I need."