Opening my eyes, I was back on Voyager. My mind was a mess with all the information Raven had told me and the danger it represented. We were in for a difficult fight, and it was one that we could not ignore unless we were willing to doom this galaxy.
Stepping out of my alcove, I noticed that Seven was in hers, next to mine. That meant that there was a good chance that Katye was back on our ship, so hopefully, I could find my entire group together. As I made my way to our ship, I tapped into my connection to Echo and woke her from her training, asking her to gather everyone together.
By the time that I climbed the stairs, the smell of bacon and sausage reached my nose, alerting me to Katye's cooking. Echo, L'Naan, Filigree, and Nyka were sitting at the table while Katye was working over several pans with a small stack of food next to her. I stopped by the fridge and grabbed a bottle of Spirit Wine before joining the others at the table.
"A bit early to drink, don't you think?" L'Naan remarked.
"Oh? What time is it?" I asked dryly as I poured myself a cup.
"O'two hundred hours," she replied.
"Were you actually sleeping?" I retorted after sipping my drink.
"No."
"Then shut it. You want this information as much as the rest of our group," I growled with annoyance.
"What has you so rattled, Becca?" Echo asked with confusion as I had kept the barrier between us strong.
Katye came around at that time with a tray of breakfast foods, bacon, sausage, eggs, and biscuits. "We can discuss this over a meal, no fighting, no arguments. We're in this together, no matter what," Katye said.
"You stopped my message," I realized, looking at Katye.
"'Katye will be working late. The Borg ship that we fought has signs of enchantments, so she's analyzing the data to see how bad it is. Once we have an idea of what's going on, we'll talk about 'Dark Frontier'.'," Katye quoted as she sat down. "Your message would have had them bugging me about what's going on while you retreated into Unimatrix Zero, and I had plenty of work to do."
"Fine, my message wasn't the best, but my information will trump whatever you uncovered," I retorted.
"I knew about the fight with the Borg vessel, but we destroyed it rather easily, no?" L'Naan asked.
"We did... which allowed us to discover some troubling facts. The Borg are most likely mass-producing crystal runes to enhance all of their ships and worlds," Katye replied, helping herself to some of the food, which allowed the rest of us to get some. "The vessel had enchantments that improved the vinculum and computer processor, but not the conventional ones that you are used to. What the Borg have done with Raven's talents is create a way to mass produce enchantments. Although they are still on the minor level of improvements, the potential is staggering with the amount of resources that they can throw at such a project. They're only hindered by Raven's mana pool to activate the crystal runes used for the enchantments."
"Crystal runes? None of your enchantments use anything that I would consider crystal runes," Echo interjected.
"Because Raven and I would prefer to spend the extra effort and mana to inlay the enchantments into a mana crystal directly as the effects and usage are far stronger using that method. Raven, alone, could not equip the entire Borg fleet with high level enchantments like the ones that we take for granted, but this method could be used to strengthen their fleet systematically and quickly. Crystalized runes are what you use to protect a site, a large body of space, a stronghold.... not something that you want to use individually or on something easily moved. There is a limit to what they can achieve using them on their ships, nowhere near comparable to Fae, yet it will be more than enough to strengthen the Borg to allow them to swallow this galaxy and possibly more, if left unchecked," Katye explained.
"And 'she's' planning for it," I added then downed another cup of wine. "The Borg have created a factory of sorts where they are manufacturing these runes and, while Raven is the main source of solidifying the runes, they have figured out a way to use the Anomaly Stone to also fix the molds, though at a slower rate than what Raven can do. Even if we rescue Raven now, the galaxy is still in significant danger if we do nothing."
"How do you know this?" Katye asked.
"Raven has achieved initial success with her Mental Puppet technique, so she was able to recover her memories from her 'body'. She told me about the factory and begged me to destroy it... this episode will give us the perfect opportunity to do so, but we have to remove her from the Collective quickly afterwards. Stopping the current retrofits that are happening are all but impossible, but they are still minor improvements, and, with only the Anomaly Stone, production will be crippled. She's been keeping her stronger enchantments sealed under layers of mental shields, but the Queen has broken through many of them. Sancu gave her enough time to prioritize all of the enchantments that she knew along with major weaknesses of ours before she was fully assimilated and helped her create those shields. That's why he could guarantee us two years, because he could strengthen those shields as long as her Will does not give up, preventing her, and Echo and I, from truly joining the Collective," I said.
"Snake bastard... his promise was meaningless since he controlled the cards from the beginning," Echo growled with frustration.
"They always do, Echo. The universes that we travel to are creations of my brother, and the tools that he uses to teach us of the harsh reality of the 'outer' world," I snarled and threw my glass at the far wall, away from everyone.
"Rebecca!" Katye snapped, standing up.
"You don't understand!" I shouted. "There is only one way to get her back! We have to kill her! Otherwise, it will take her another five to ten years to perfect the technique to fool the Queen, long after Voyager should be back in the Alpha Quadrant. After our attempt to capture her, the Queen rigged her body with a bio-bomb, similar to what they used against Species 8472, but will assimilate anything that they infect. If we use the Anomaly Stone to take her away from the Collective before she has true control of her body, we will be assimilated, along with anyone else in half a light-year radius. If she switches to her Mental Puppet and the Queen notices, she will kill Raven."
"The Ouroboros pendant… This was Istar's plan from the beginning," Katye mused with a grim smile.
"Exactly… we either send Voyager on its way for 'End Game' and wait around for Raven, or kill her, which will give her the perfect chance to activate her technique, and then we can safely bring her back to our side. She asked me to kill her because of what she is working on right now.
"Your guess of the Queen's plan is almost spot on, but there is one missing piece. The Queen has breached enough of her mental shields that she has the enchantments to create the basic exo-suits, and she has been applying them to drones. They have an army of over a hundred enhanced drones, and every week, Raven adds another one to their ranks. If we don't do it now, the special army will have the strength and numbers to conquer the galaxy and more," I explained.
"This is bullshit!" L'Naan snapped. "They put the entire galaxy at risk just for some trial!"
"This 'galaxy' wouldn't exist without the trials in the first place. This is just a sad fact of our lives, L'Naan, and one that will continue until Rebecca and I are strong enough to return to the Endless Firmament," Katye sighed.
"We also aren't going to shy away from this challenge because it's our responsibility, and ignoring it now would only make things much harder for us and the rest of the galaxy," I added.
L'Naan huffed with frustration, but did not complain further.
"What's your plan?" Echo asked.
"We see if we can follow the script. Janeway wants the transwarp coil, and the ship needs it to stay within the show's timeline, but the question is, will the Queen still take interest in Seven? If she doesn't force her to 'return' to the Collective, the only way that we will be able to convince Janeway to use the coil to get to the heart of the Borg territory is to tell her, and likely the entire crew, about the factory and possibly even the enhanced drones, which will go over like a lead balloon," I said with a sigh.
"Still... It would be better to tell her now rather than later when you need her help," Katye advised.
"I know, and it's probably what I'm going to do tomorrow, in a manner of speaking. It's just... this is my fault, and now, I have to tell one of my childhood heroes that I've put this galaxy in danger, and I can't even say the one bullshit excuse that Tori and his goons were going to make it happen no matter what, that we constantly say to make ourselves feel better. Even after we get Raven, we can't erase the change that she's made to the Collective, so we either need to destroy the Borg or beg Tori's group to step in and clean up the mess," I complained.
"Istar does have a solution for the impact of Raven's influence, and one that will be given to you at the proper time, without any conditions aside from using it at your digression," a familiar, annoying voice said.
"Always such a pleasure to have you aboard, Sancu," I remarked sarcastically.
"Oh? Then perhaps I will appear more often," the snake-man commented.
"Please don't," I replied immediately.
"Why are you here, Sancu?" Katye demanded.
He gave his usual smirk while I sighed and answered, "It is likely my doing. I'm using my promised question to ask how to prevent the Queen from taking back Raven using the Anomaly Stone; I've already told Raven that I would."
"It is, and also why I'll hint at Istar's solution for the Borg. The moment that Raven frees herself from the Collective, her code will change due to the fundamental change of her biology. The code that Echo and Katye have been trying to uncover will work only for her new bloodline which she will activate upon that moment," he explained.
"You've lied to us this entire time!" L'Naan snapped.
"No... if I hadn't swallowed my pride and asked Katye for help, it likely would have taken ten or more years for me to understand the grimoire. I can recreate the spells, but truly understanding them, and the ability to pick out the hidden codes? It's only thanks to her guidance that I'm this close, and this is my path," Echo said, unwilling to hide her faults anymore.
"Echo, I must say, you've been the most unexpected variable of this universe for the rest of my group. Only Istar had predictions that showed that you could be a significant variable; a lesson that his other students and I needed to learn as we have all underestimated you. We expected something from Katye and Rebecca that will cause us to shift the plan that Istar laid out, yet you have diverted it as much as the pair. Your 'character' had been rigid, unconforming, before you joined the group, yet you have bloomed far beyond what any of us had expected," Sancu praised.
"You can take your compliment and float yourself," Echo retorted angrily.
Sancu chuckled at her statement, not at all offended by it. "Well, I won't overstay my welcome as your question has been answered."
He tilted his hat to us and then disappeared with a tap of his cane and a white flash. After a collective sigh, the rest of the 'night' wound down and everyone went back to their training after a little more conversation about handling Dark Frontier. Although I technically was off duty, I brought Katye's report to Janeway at the beginning of her duty shift.
"Good morning, Rebecca," Janeway greeted as I walked into her Ready Room.
"That's still up for debate with the information that I need to tell you," I replied, holding out the data pad with Katye's report.
"Katye did not make it seem like things were that dangerous currently," Janeway commented, taking the pad and looking it over immediately.
"The information that I'm talking about didn't come from her, but rather Raven. As I told you, when I regenerate, I'm able to go to a Mental Plane that is known as Unimatrix Zero, which only a small percentage of drones can access, and Raven is among those that can. She has been working on a technique which would allow her to separate her mind completely from the Collective, which is similar to the mental shields that she has in place to prevent Echo and me from becoming true drones. Yesterday, she achieved minor success with it, allowing her to gain the memories of her 'body'. To say that what she has told me about her time with the Collective was concerning, is an understatement on the scale of saying the Kazon are far more unified and advanced than the Federation. If we don't stop her soon, there is a good chance that the Borg will be able to conquer the galaxy, and more, even with Vazukuru's support," I explained solemnly.
Janeway looked at me with clear alarm in her eyes, setting the pad down on the table, and said, "Tell me everything... from what she told you to what you had seen originally."
"Yes, Captain," I sighed with a nod then started a lengthy explanation.