Runner Up 7 20501.26
We Seek Perfection - Mandrak
© 2005 by Federation Space and the author pen named Mandrak
"Halt" Said Lt. Kurt Williams, who was on his way up the turbolift to the bridge. He triple checked his uniform for any signs of something that might even be considered a wrinkle.
"Phew" He said. He found one on his left leg, just above his ankle.
It is a good thing I caught that! He thought.
He found a reflective part of the turbolift and checked his hair, not one strand was out of place. He also looked at his teeth, and made sure they were perfectly white.
"Okay, resume." He said to the turbolift. When it reached the bridge, he hid toward the back of the turbolift until exactly 1800 hours.
Don't want to show up early and get the captain mad at me. He thought.
When the clock changed he walked out onto the bridge to meet his new captain, Jeff Harris.
"Welcome to the USS Liberty, Lt." Said the captain.
"Thank you sir. It is a pleasure to be here." Responded Kurt.
"Why don't you head down to the security office to meet your COS?"
"Yes sir!" Kurt said saluting.
With that he headed down to the security office.
"Greetings, I am the new security officer. If you don't mind, I would like to ask for some information on the mission."
"Of course... I have done a bit of reading on you, and am pleased that you are serving here." He stood up and handed him a PADD.
Whoa! That guy is huge! He has got to be over 7"! I can see why they picked him to be the COS. He thought while taking the PADD.
"The Borg!? I thought we defeated them on Stardate 20305.01!"
"Apparently Star Fleet Intelligence was wrong on where they come from. The Borg did not originate in this galaxy. They seem to be attacking from here." He said handing him another PADD.
"These Borg are a completely different enemy. You will find that there are very few species that you recognize. Right now, they are in the Sol System, near Pluto. Their transwarp drive allowed them to completely slip past our sensors. To people watching, it was like they just appeared from nowhere. As we speak we are headed to the Sol System at warp 8.3." He continued.
"This is incredible; it defies everything I have learned in the Academy. Is their goal still the same?" Asked the Lt.
"Yes they are still bent on assimilating everything in the universe." Responded the COS.
"What is our ETA?" He asked.
"We should be arriving there tomorrow. You should read up on these materials, but make sure you get a good night sleep." He said handing him yet another PADD, this one obviously had an additional storage device plugged into it (So it could hold more Data.).
"Head to your quarters, and as much of this as you can, but make sure you get enough sleep. Tomorrow will be the beginning of the war for us."
"Aye, sir!" With that he headed out of the room.
On his way to his quarters he met up with someone he knew from the Academy.
"Joh- Commander!?" He yelled out to his former best friend.
"Is that you Kurt!?" Responded Cdr. John Andrews, the CTO of the USS Liberty.
"Yeah! Great to see you! How did you get ahead of me so fast, sir?" He asked with a big grin on his face.
Andrews looked puzzled for a second and then realized that Kurt as only a Lt. "Well, I guess I have distinguished myself as a superior officer." He said trying to hold in his laughter.
"Ha ha! I have done well as a security officer, but you must have done something pretty special to achieve Cdr. so quickly.. sir." He said.
"I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you." Responded Andrews.
"Ha ha ha! Yeah right. Come on! Tell me!" He said.
"Seriously, it is top secret; I may be able to tell you after all this though." He said.
"Oh Alright, I guess I can wait that long." Kurt said, sounding somewhat disappointed.
"Well you are looking pretty sharp in that security uniform... except for one thing..." Said Andrews, with a serious look on his face.
Kurt’s heart skipped a beat. "What!? What is it!?" He demanded.
"Your fly is undone." He said doing his best to hold in a smile.
It Is!?! I must have looked like a total idiot all this time! In front of all those people! The captain, everyone on the bridge, the COS, and everyone in there, that guy I ran into before heading to bridge. He thought as his face turned a rather interesting shade of red.
"Oh No!" He yelled while he checked it, being as discrete as possible.
"Hey! It is not!" He yelled out rather loudly.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You should have seen how red your face turned; I could have mistaken you for a tomato. Ha ha ha!" He said letting all his laughter out.
Kurt closed his eyes to blink; when he opened them he had Andrews' neck in his hand, and was beating on him violently.
"You idiot! How could you do that! I hate you, I hate you! I can't believe you were ever my friend!:" He said.
Two security officers grabbed him by the arms and started pulling him away.
"Kurt! Kurt! Hey Kurt you okay?"
He heard from nowhere in particular.
"Smack!" was heard, and he saw Andrews' face.
"What? What happened!?"
"You started staring off in to space. You just froze there for like 20 seconds. Are you okay?" Asked Andrews.
"Yeah, yeah, I am fine." He said.
He cleared his mind of all that had just seemed to happen. He had had those things before, back in middle school. The doctors said he was just daydreaming.
Kurt’s eye started to twitch.
"Now what?" Asked Andrews.
"Well, you, you, you have something right there." He said pointing with one hand, and pulling out a lint brush with the other.
Kurt brushed off Andrews' shoulder with the lint brush, and all Andrews could do was laugh.
"You know since you are a security officer, shouldn't you be carrying around a phaser in that holster?" He asked.
"Well, I have a little one in my pocket, so if I need one, I have it."
"Well okay, but when we get to earth you might want to consider carrying a small lint brush, and a normal phaser." He said laughing.
"Yeah, I guess I could do that. Well, I have to go, plenty of material to read." He said holding up his PADD.
"Alright, I will see you around." He said.
Andrews headed into his quarters.
Nice place! Bigger then the one before. I think I could get used to this place. He thought.
He sat down on the bed, set it to the comfort level he liked, and then started to read the materials. At exactly 2200 hours he went to bed. He had to get his 8 hours of sleep; a personal requirement of his, unless he had no other choice.
Health before duty. He thought.
The next morning, he got up at 0600 hours, and spent 5 minutes making his bed. He went into the bathroom, spent 40 minutes inside and came out all ready to go. Except for breakfast he ate his breakfast as carefully as humanly possible so he did not get a stain on his uniform. He finished it in 8 minutes and spent 5 minutes brushing his teeth. He went as quickly as he could to the turbolift and down to the security office. When he got there it was exactly 0700 hours.
"Lt. Williams reporting for duty."
"Right on time Mr. Williams." Responded his COS, "How much of that reading did you get done?"
"All of it sir."
"Really? That’s good." Said his COS, "We will be arriving any minute now."
Klaxons sounded all over the ship as the ship went to red alert.
"Maybe it would be best if you headed to the bridge." Said the COS.
"Aye, sir." Kurt said as he left the room.
On his ride up to the bridge, he checked his fly.
Well, it seems I am pretty good at remembering that at least. He thought
When he got to the bridge he headed over to the security station and relieved the ensign who was there.
"It seems your plan has worked Mr. Thomas." He heard the captain say.
Kurt had no idea what the plan was, all he knew was the Borg were not attacking them.
"Now, Mr..." The captain looked over at the security station to see who was there. "Williams, please head down to the security office, the COS will give you your orders.”
I just came from there. He thought.
"Aye, Captain." He said. With that he made his way down to the security office (again).
"The captain sent me down here sir; he said you would have orders for me."
"Yes, sorry to send you up there for no reason, I was unaware of the plan until now... Anyway, you are to take this team of people and these explosives to the Borg ship and plant them in these locations." He said handing him a PADD and a small package of explosives. "The team is waiting for you down in transporter room 1." He said.
"Aye, sir." He said.
He went down to transporter room 1 and found the team; they each had their own explosives to plant.
"Okay, everyone ready?"
"Yes sir." Came the response form his team.
"Energize."
“Captains personal log, Stardate 20411.09:
Many things have been happening these past few days. We have discovered that the Borg are not only a threat to our galaxy, and may not have even originated here. If this is true, we have no way of knowing how many other galaxies the Borg may currently be attacking and assimilating. The danger of the Borg is larger then ever now.
On another, lighter note, the new members to our crew seem to be working out quite well. Ensigns Scott and Jones are settling into engineering quite nicely, and have even suggested several things to help defend the ship against the Borg.
Lt. Williams… Don’t know where to start on him; he sure is a piece of work. Mostly good; he is a fine security officer, and knows what to do in an emergency… but there’s something about him, he is a perfectionist, but he takes it to an extreme. When I first met him, he was carrying a lint brush in his holster, instead of a phaser. I’m sure he’ll turn out just fine though.
I have assigned him to lead an away mission to destroy a Borg cube. We are going to be using crude explosive devices, much like the Composite-4 used back in old earth. It is a bit more powerful, but the Borg should not be able to detect it as a threat.
As I am speaking, the team is getting ready to… oh, the team just left. I am needed on the bridge.
End log.”
Lt. Williams and three other crew members materialized in the Borg ship. The Borg took no notice of them because they had not yet given the Borg cause to see them as a threat.
And hopefully we won’t have to. Thought Kurt.
“Alright, we want to make this quick; in and out. Do not fire unless it is a last resort. One shot, one kill. We have modified our phaser rifles and should be able fire 3 per rifle. You all know your assignments, and where you are to plant these explosives. We will rendezvous here in 15 minutes. Good luck.” He said.
With that the team of four split up and headed in separate directions.
Phaser fire was heard all throughout the cube. “What’s going on!?”
[Sorry sir, one of the drones started attacking me.]
“Great! Now we are probably a threat! The time we have is probably cut in half now! Double time!”
Kurt’s pace doubled. He tried to evade the Borg as much as possible. Suddenly three drones surrounded him.
“We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”
Kurt shot the one behind him and tried to make his way around the others.
“Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own.” Two other drones said as they marched in.”
“Kurt to all team members. I can’t get through, they have blocked me off.”
[Same here, sir.] Came the response from someone else on the team.
“Alright, abort mission! Repeat, abort mission!” He yelled.
I was sure this would work, too!
All four members of the team began heading back to the beam out location, without setting their charges.
When they all arrived back, Kurt requested an emergency beam out.
[I’m sorry, we can’t do that, the Borg have put up a dampening field. I can’t get a lock on your signal.]
“Blast! Okay, you three say here, I am going to see if I can shut down that dampening filter.”
He found the power distributor for the area and tried to phaser it. No success, the Borg had adapted to his phaser frequency.
“Alright then, I’ll have to be a little more persuasive.”
He set the charge he had with him, and got behind cover. The explosion shook the ship.
“Kurt to the Liberty, how about now.”
[That did it, the other three are out, get back to the beam out location.]
“On my way.”
Unfortunately, when Kurt turned to run the other way, he was no longer where he was before.
An assimilation chamber!? How did I get here!? The Borg must have beamed me out!
“You will be assimilated.”
As they forced him into the chair, he yelled out. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“We seek perfection.” Were the last words he heard for a half an hour.
“He just disappeared from our sensors!”
“What!?” Yelled Captain Harris.
“He was there one moment, and gone another.”
“How!?” Demanded Harris.
“I don’t know!”
“We have to get him back.” Yelled the CTO.
“And we will. Bring the weapons to full power. Fire at the shield emitters!” Ordered the Captain.
The USS Liberty sprung into action, firing at the Borg cube.
“They are returning fire, shields at 97%!”
“Bring us about, attack pattern Beta 3.”
“State your identity”
“4 of 12.”
“Go to section Gamma Beta Three and repair the shield matrix.”
“We will comply.”
The Liberty finally got the shields down, but could not find Kurt’s signal.
“Bring the sensors to full, and scan again. He can’t have just disappeared.” Ordered the captain.
“Wait, I am reading his life sign, very faint, it appears… he’s…”
“What!?”
“He’s been assimilated.”
“Beam him aboard at once! Directly to sickbay with a level ten force-field around him.”
“He’s aboard.”
“Get us out of here.”
“Aye, sir.”
After they were safely out of the Borg vessels range, the captain and the CTO went down to sickbay to see how Kurt was doing.
“Status report, Doctor.” Ordered the captain.
“I am going to have to perform a great deal of surgery to remove all these implants. Some of them, I do not recognize at all. They are obviously Borg, but I have never seen them.”
“Of course, we have not seen them in quite some time… who knows what they’ve been up to.” Said the CTO.
“Repair conduit 14.” “Switch to arm utility 3.” “Find plasma torch…” Thousands of voices, all at once in perfect harmony, perfection.
Suddenly, the voices stopped. Kurt was in sickbay. There was only one voice, and even it was intermittent.
“I must return to the collective.”
“You are not going anywhere.”
Two more people entered the room. They began talking.
The voices… they are gone. I must return to the collective.
“He should be back to normal… as normal as anyone can be after an experience like this.”
“Kurt, can you hear me? It’s your old buddy, John.”
“I recognize you. It is good to see you… thank you, for rescuing me.”
“Hey, no problem, you would have done the same for me.”
“Yeah, yeah, I guess I would have.”
“Captains personal log, Stardate 20411.11:
Things have been difficult of late with Kurt Williams. He seems to be coming back to the ship fairly easily. But people don’t act the same around him. He does not have any of the implants showing on his face or hands. But people know he was a Borg drone.
The fight with the Borg has also been difficult. We were hoping to gain a tactical advantage with that first strike. But without that, the fight has been difficult. I do however-“
“Captain to the bridge!”
“On my way.
Pause log.”
“It seems someone is trying to leave the ship by means of a shuttle craft.”
“Stop them!”
“I am trying sir, they’ve locked out controls to the shuttle bay.”
“Beam the person out. Do whatever you must do! We are at war! Who knows what’s going on!”
“They’ve set up a dampening field… I can’t get through… they’ve left the shuttle bay.”
“Hail them.”
“It’s him sir… it’s Kurt!”
“What!?”
“It’s Kurt, and he’s hailing us!”
[Please, do not try to stop us.]
“I can’t let you go through with this!”
“We must. We have to rejoin the collective.”
“Why!? There are people onboard this ship who care about you! Do not leave us! You don’t know what you’re doing!”
“We know exactly what we are doing. There may be people on your ship that care about us, but the Borg have offered us so much more.”
“What!? What have the offered you that you don’t have here!?”
“Perfection.”
“Is that what they’ve given you? Perfection? Twisted your mind to the point you don’t care about anything else?”
“Captain, you do not understand. How do you know this is not what I have always wanted?”
With that, the shuttle warped out.
“Captains personal log, Stardate 20411.24:
A great deal has happened in the past few days. Many lives have been lost, both of the Federation, and of the Borg. I wish things were not this way, but I can’t… I can’t do anything to change it.
This war will go down in history as just another battle with the Borg. And maybe that’s all it was. But I believe it was much more.
The Borg came here in search of perfection. Most of us survived without having to… achieve it. Many lives were lost in this battle. Some striving for perfection, some trying to avoid it. Lt. Kurt Williams was not trying to avoid it. It is something that he has been striving for all his life, and he finally got it. I don’t know if the Borg… truly are as evil as we depict them. Perhaps there struggle is actually admirable…
Many people look at the Borg as an unstoppable force, devouring everything that they can in the hopes of achieving perfection. I believe that too. But I also must wonder… if that is such a bad thing.
End log.”
