Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/shadow-inthehandsoftheprofits

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From: [e-mail] (William Gracie)
Date: 09 Jan 95 10:26:02
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: DS9 story (Shadow arc-(7)): In The Hands of the Profits (Quark)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Soft-Tech [phone]
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                       In The Hands Of The Profits
                       ***************************
                                  by
                          Raymond N. Cooper


   "Status report, Ensign Umhal!"
   "We've sustained no damage, Commander, that shot wasn't aimed at us."
   "Benjamin..."
   The Commander whirled around at Dax's use of his name.  Outside, near the
Borg battlecube, a Romulan Warbird was decloaking.  Disruptor beam after beam
erupted from the warbird, blowing holes in the battlecube, at least, until the
Borg adapted.  A tractor beam shot out from the cube, locking on to the
warbird, draining the vehicle's shields.
   "Hail the warbird, Ensign."
   "Aye, sir."
   The main viewer buzzed into life.  "I am Commander Benjamin Sisko, of the
United Federation of Planets.  Do you require assistance, Romulan Warbird?"
   Static was replaced by the sight of a blond female Romulan, with sharp blue
eyes.  "I am Sela, of the Romulan Star Empire.  I have business here.  It is
none of yours.  I have no need of assistance, human."
   The line closed off.
   "I tried," was all Sisko could say as he turned back to watch the cube.
   "I've never been this close to one..." Dax murmured softly.
   Sasha moved up to her.  "You should see inside one, Lieutenant.  They're
even more impressive inside.  I could arrange a guided tour, if you'd like?"
   Dax glanced sideways at the girl.  It was impossible to tell if she was
joking or not..., unless this was the help she had been getting...
   "No, don't do any more... close down..." Sasha muttered to herself.
   The Borg cube stopped attacking the warbird.  Dax looked out at the suddenly
motionless scene outside, then back at Sasha.  "How did you do that?" she asked
quietly.
   "I'll tell you later..." Sasha looked remarkably uncomfortable.  "Ben, if I
could see you and your senior staff in your office...?"
   Sisko nodded, clenching and unclenching his fists, staring out at the Borg.
He was surprised to suddenly find himself in his office, seated behind his
desk, with his senior crew looking equally surprised, gazing around in wonder.
Sasha waved a hand, and seats appeared.  She motioned everyone to sit
down;everyone did.  The girl wandered around the office, looking out at the
stars,staring out towards the cube.
   "I think it's about time you knew what's been going on here over the last
few weeks."
   "About time," Odo muttered in agreement.
   "You see," Sasha continued, "my race of non-corporeals ascended several
thousand years in your future.  We did it through hard work, individuality,and
a common purpose.  Basically, we were ready for it.  You see, through
Federation - Starfleet, more specifically - intervention in our species'
development around this time, we began to think things differently.  We began
to perceive the worlds around us as not just resources, but as homes, as
beauty.  We saw flowers no longer as carbon materials of no use, but as a
calming object, as life.  We saw life - sentient life - differently.  We became
aware of little things, of how one event could shape events not yet to come for
perhaps thousands or even millions of years.  For us previously, we had nothing
but the mind.
   "You see, we were Borg.  The beginning of a new race, the Individuals.  It
was due to the interception of Hugh by the Enterprise that began our long
journey to self-awareness.  Oh, yes, we could have been classed as sentient
before, but after hugh, well, we knew exactly what we were, how we came to
be,we had a sense of self.  We... became aware, that's the only words I can
find to describe it.
   "It was a wonderful feeling.  For so long, the Collective had stagnated,
stayed our evolutionary development so we could bring Borg 'culture' to the
rest of the universe.  And I do mean universe.  We were not happy with just
this galaxy.  The Colletive had already dispatched a scout cube to the
Magellanic Clouds, but transmissions on the subspace bands ceased three years
after leaving the main Collective.  We were to kill other species, not save any
part of their cultures, just assimilate everything.
   "Eventually, though, there was a civil war between the Borg.  The Collective
decided they were losing too many assimilants to the Individuals, and came
after us.  We fought long and hard, and struck the Collective hard. We were on
the brink of extinction when a second intervention from Starfleet saved us: we
were joined by mankind, the Cardassians, the Romulans, Bajorans,even the
Dominion in our fight against the Borg Collective.  We triumphed. Just.  The
Collective disappeared.  However, our numbers were depleted severely, the
Individuals all but gone.  The Federation, realising what reasonable Borg could
mean for it, and the other cultures around it, sent us assimilants to build our
numbers back up.  We spent a thousand years looking for enlightenment, and we
found it.  We were granted ascendancy.
   "I began looking through time lines, the alternate ones, that is.  And I
found one where the Collective had beaten the Federation, and was moving on to
other surrounding cultures.  I asked permission from the Seniors if I could
travel to this time line, and do for it what I could.  They agreed, on the
condition I didn't use my powers openly.  I was at Wolf 359, Ben.
   "I knew you would pick me up.  The alternate time line I exist in most of
the time now split off from there.  I saved the Hathaway, and picked up the
survivors from the Melbourne, the Saratoge, the Gage, and various other
starships.
   "But that doesn't explain why I'm here now, does it?  I came here
now,because I finally found out where the Collective went to hide from us.
Here. Now.  They're these... shadows you keep finding.  They've come back here
to work on their ascendancy in peace here, until they've finished, then come
back to our time, and wipe us Individuals out.  They've split up into what seem
to be mini-Collectives here, each dedicated to one bit of work.  That's why I
brought these Borg along.  In the future, not too long from here, we found a
battlecube that had been `Individualized' in a battle with non-corporeals.  We
never knew it was us.  It must have been interfacing with the mini-Collectives
of the shadows that did it.  They are close enough to true individuality now,
but retain the final portion of their Collective.  As soon as ascendancy
occurs, they're going to link up again.  And they'll be unbeatable this time -
unless the Q's pull their fingers out."
   Sisko stared at the girl.  She had been staring out at the battlecube for a
while, and now she hung her head.  "I really thought we'd seen the last of the
Collective here.  I really thought we had.  And now they're back, they're using
your mental energy to boost themselves into ascendancy.  They've been getting
you to jump through hoops.  Kira, you saw the future.  They've been living off
your horror.  You're lucky Bareil came up.  Julian, you had your wildest dream
backfire on you.  Dax and Kira trying to get into your uniform. Then they tried
to kill you.  I gave you some valuable information from that encounter.  I hope
you can find something in it to defeat the shadows.Ben, they brought your wife
back to you, and made her try to kill you.  They had a feast with those
emotions.  I was there when Jennifer died.  She didn't know what happened.  She
wasn't aware of anything when the ship exploded.  I made sure of that for you.
Dax, they made you hear Jadzia.  They separated your minds, made you fight,
made you want to leave to silence the voice.  I've stopped the voice for you.
Odo, I know how hard it's been for you recently,after Jadda was killed.  But
you have to understand - there was nothing you could have done about it.  If
the Kai hadn't ordered the mob, the shadows would have killed him in his cell,
and you would have been replaced as chief of security.  O'Brien, you should
have stayed where I told you to.  If