| The Next Generation | |
| 152 | |
| Descent | |
| 46982.1 | |
Red Alert! The Enterprise has received a distress call from Ohniaka 3 - they're under attack! This looks like a job for... The Bald Avenger and his comical pal, Laughing Boy. There's a big ship that matches no known configuration orbiting the planet, and lots of dead people below. Nothing appears to have been stolen, just all the people slaughtered. Maybe it's insurance fraud? Data opens a jammed door expecting to see an insurance assessor, but instead it's... a Borg! A live, nasty, hostile Borg - not like the meek plaything that Hugh was. Actually there're lots of them...
The Borg attack, and Riker and Worf take down their fair share while an unknown crewmember discovers why you don't get a ContractShield™ if you don't appear more than once! The heroes are clearly winning and when one of the Borg falls, another says "I will make you suffer!" Pardon? Borg do not say "I". More strange events - one of the Borg grabs Data, and in a moment of anger, he throttles it to death and slams it against a wall. He's not supposed to feel anything!
Meanwhile the strange ship attacks the Enterprise, and then turns and runs. Little do they know, but the Enterprise is the fastest thing with two nascells - they don't stand a chance! Wrong! Somehow they open a subspace distortion and disappear. Hmm, the Borg have a sense of self and then manage to warp away in some unknown manner. Are they still part of the collective? Better call in the Bitchy Blond Admiral, she'll know what to do! She wants to know why Picard - or should I say Locutus - didn't destroy the Borg when he had the chance...
Data relieves himself of duty, and starts looking for other emotions. Is this an emotion? No. Is that an emotion? No. Whom shall I ask? Oh Troi... She tells him that classifying emotions as either positive or negative is too proscriptive, and that in these free-wheeling times he should experiment - let's get angry with Mr Data! He tries bouncing around a holodeck simulated Borg, but that's no fun, not like the pleasure that he got from choking the life out of a real one! Scary stuff...
Battlestations again, the Borg are attacking another Federation colony, and this time they're bound to catch them. Missed 'em by that much, Chief! Not quite, the Enterprise gets caught in the subspace energy matrix and is hurled through a wormhole-like tunnel, and when they're spit back out into normal space they're a long way away. The Borg don't waste anytime, and turn to fire, beaming an assault force directly onto the bridge. Another unknown is blown away, and the Borg take the opportunity to quietly sneak off. I hate it when that happens.
In a very un-Borg-like manner, they didn't claim their dead, they just left them littering the bridge. It's really rude when people won't pick up their own litter. Look, one of them isn't quite dead. You're not fooling anyone you know, we're going to give you to Dr Social Conscience for medical experiments! She wakes him up with a big dose of something nasty and he says "My name is Crosis". Nick Crosis perchance?
One of these crew is not like the others, one of these crew isn't quite the same, one of these officers won't be exterminated, and Data is his name. The Borg have had a change of heart, rather than assimilating puny fleshy ones, they are just going to destroy them! Crosis activates something on his arm, and then tells Data that he can help him to "Find emotion". The Borg evangelist does quite a good job... "Did it feel good to kill?" "Yes." "Would you kill Geordi to feel it again?" "Yes!" Oh shit! Couldn't they just give him Wes, then we'd all be happy.
Elvis has left the building. Would you believe Data in a shuttle with the Borg prisoner? Are they heading for Graceland? I don't think so! Follow that shuttle - into the transwarp conduit! Didn't the Excelsior have a transwarp drive in "The Search for Spock"? You remember, the one Scotty stalled! This one works better, and propels them 65 light-years in ten seconds! That's faster than subspace radio at Warp 9.9999!
There's no sign of the shuttle, but a few worlds with all the life wiped out hints that the Borg have been busy. A quick scan, and they trace the miscreant android to a planet that conveniently happens to have a natural interference belt that makes the sensors useless. Beam down anyway! It's in a field - the shuttle that is. Riker jacks the bonnet and feels the engine, "It's not hot". Brilliant deductive work, Wil. Lots of other teams beam down, complete with phaser-rifle wielding commandos, leaving Bev in charge of the Enterprise. Oh no, not again...
Anyone for a little walk? Picard, Troi, Geordi and a grunt with a gun, hike through the mountains. "Captain, I think I've found something" says Troi. What subtle feature could the counsellor have sensed? A huge building! The tricorders can't scan the interior, and the grunt with the gun is wildly searching for his ContractShield™! The inside looks like a meeting hall...
Now why would they have a damping field on the inside? Time to go! Not so fast, the grunt fails to find his shield and the rest of the team are captured by a hoard of angry Borg. "Stop" someone yells. Here's Lore! It doesn't look like he's alone either, as Data steps from the shadows and says "The sons of Soong have joined together - and together, we will destroy the Federation.''
