16 
“Intruder alert. Deck twelve, section forty-three alpha.”
Holding his phaser rifle across his chest, Worf charged toward the commotion as the Enterprise computer relayed its newest warning. It was difficult not to be distracted by the bodies of fallen shipmates all around him, but he pressed on. Whatever boarded the ship had moved through this section with ease, rebuffing whatever hasty attempts at resistance personnel here could mount with little or no warning.
A surprising aura of uncertainty gripped him, halting his advance. He searched for an enemy but found none. Then why did he feel… fear? There was a palpable energy in the air along with a fetid odor that reminded him of death, but Worf also sensed something else. A presence? It came upon him without warning, but he knew on some level this was not a natural reaction. It was too sudden, and without immediate justification. Intellectually, he knew it had to be the intruders, whatever they were, attempting to manipulate his emotions and provoke a response, perhaps even to somehow incapacitate him. Worf could not deny the impression was profound, despite a life spent learning to control such feelings in battle. Other members of the crew would almost certainly be affected to a greater degree. This seemed borne out by the increasingly erratic phaser fire coming from around the turn at the far end of the corridor.
Shadows danced in erratic fashion across the bulkheads as he drew closer, and he approached a final curve almost at a full run. Catching sight of the first salvos of phaser fire, he raised his rifle and sidestepped around the corner as the Enterprise’s assistant security chief, Lieutenant Christine Vale, and a male Tellarite, Ensign Ronlav, fired their weapons toward a figure in black, flowing robes farther down the corridor. The phaser beams passed through the intruder without inflicting any noticeable damage, and only then did Worf see that the figure seemed to be shimmering as though enveloped in a column of transporter energy or perhaps shifting in and out of phase. Its face shrouded by a large hood, black robes and shadows obscured the figure as it began moving forward.
Worf aimed his own phaser rifle at the intruder and fired. Once more, the energy beam passed through the figure, doing nothing to halt its advance.
“Pull back!” shouted Vale, slapping Ronlav on his shoulder before backpedaling up the corridor toward Worf, who stepped up in a bid to provide covering fire. Vale joined him, and Worf realized she had set her weapon’s power level to maximum. It cut through the wall just ahead of the intruder and she guided it toward her target, but, as before, the attacker’s form seemed to shift so that the beam passed through, chewing into the bulkhead behind it.
“Watch out!”
It was Ensign Ronlav, moving to put himself between Vale and the intruder just as it seemed to lunge forward. Moving with incredible speed, it reached out to touch the security officer. The Tellarite attempted to duck out of the way but his attacker was faster, appearing to solidify as arms clothed in thick, dark robes embraced him. Silver energy flashed from the point of impact, and Ronlav cried out as it expanded to sheathe him. Worf watched the ensign withering as if all the fluids in his body evaporated in an instant. Skin shriveled, cracked, and fell apart, revealing crumbling bones before he was gone, disappearing in an expanding cloud of particles that rained to the deck.
“No!” Vale fired her phaser again, though Worf knew it was a futile gesture. The weapons were useless against this adversary. He was certain Vale understood the situation, but he recognized she was lost in the heat of battle.
The intruder paid no heed to the weapon, continuing its advance until it was almost on top of her. Worf moved to pull her out of the way before she ducked to avoid the attack, pivoting toward him and extending her arm for him to grab. He could not get there before the figure’s shadowy embrace swallowed her. Vale shrieked in pain, her body vanishing in a flash of energy. The echoes of her final screams were all that remained, filling Worf’s ears as the intruder turned its attention to him.
From where he sat in his command chair, Riker studied the hellish vision on the bridge’s main viewscreen. The vortex created by the Borg sphere seemed to turn back on itself and now was projecting energy in all directions.
“Data, what the hell is this thing?”
Having moved from his seat in the command well to one of the science stations at the back of the bridge’s upper deck, the ship’s first officer replied, “I cannot identify it, Captain, except that it is a temporal anomaly unlike anything previously recorded. Its chroniton readings exceed our ability to measure, but I am detecting waves of temporal distortions impacting the fleet’s remaining ships and continuing to spread outward. Earth and the Moon are in the immediate path, and the waves show no sign of dissipation.”
Mulling this as he rose from his chair, Riker asked, “Are you telling me this thing is sending out temporal distortion waves that can cross the entire solar system?”
“It would seem so, sir.” Data turned from the workstation. “What I cannot explain is why none of the distortion waves seem to be targeting the Enterprise. I have examined the dispersal pattern as each new wave exits the vortex, and we are being avoided, sir. Deliberately.”
Riker ascended the ramp to the bridge’s upper level, moving to stand next to Data. “Why can’t we track whatever these things are once they’ve boarded the ship?”
“The internal sensors are registering energy disruptions at the point of entry through the main hull,” replied the android. “However, the life-forms themselves are somehow able to evade our scans. I suspect it is a form of temporal phasing. Our deflector shields have only limited effectiveness, and I suspect our internal force fields will not be any better.”
“I can feel them,” said Deanna Troi, rising from her seat next to Riker’s chair. “But I’m not sensing any emotion like rage or a desire to kill. Whatever they are, it’s like they’re driven by simple determination. Pure focus. A will to accomplish some goal.”
“Goal?” Riker frowned. “Killing all of us seems like the goal, but why? Are they just more Borg, or something else?”
Troi shook her head. “Definitely not the Borg. There’s nothing like that here, except perhaps their desire to complete their objective is almost machine-like. Even with Borg drones, I can sense something, but there’s nothing like that here. The only emotions I’m sensing are in our own people reacting to the intruders.” She paused, wincing as if in pain. “Fear, panic, pain. Emotional reactions are spiking across the ship. People are terrified.”
“Captain!”
It was Lieutenant Rager, looking up from her flight controller’s station and pointing toward the viewscreen. On the display, Riker and everyone watched as one of the other Starfleet ships, a Galaxy-class vessel like the Enterprise, seemed to fall in on itself as a wave of energy distortion washed over it. Within seconds, two smaller vessels—from the few that remained of the fleet assembled to defend against the Borg cube—followed suit.
“The Excalibur, sir,” reported Yar. “Along with the Sao Paulo and the da Vinci. The rest of the fleet is breaking off its attack and taking evasive action.”
“Conn,” said Riker, still reeling from what he had just witnessed. “Pull us back. I want some maneuvering room. Lay in a course for Jupiter Station and stand by for full impulse.” Thinking about Data’s earlier report, he added, “Just in case, have a fallback course for Starbase 7 and be ready to go to warp.” Located in the Andor sector, the installation was one of several designated rally points in the event of an emergency requiring evacuation of the Sol system. Prior to today, it had been seven years since the option had even been contemplated during the Borg’s previous attack on Earth. Before that, more than a century had passed since such a relocation was put into motion.
At least then we knew what we were facing. Riker chewed on that thought as he returned his gaze to the bizarre vortex on the viewscreen. Seven years earlier, a single Borg vessel had stood poised ready to inflict an all but mortal wound into the heart of the Federation. Now, in this moment, that enemy had been vanquished by something perhaps more powerful. Their attacks made those by the Borg pale in comparison.
“Data, is there any way we can close that vortex? Collapse it somehow?”
His fingers moving across the science station’s console almost too fast for Riker to follow, the first officer replied, “Given the variables relating to its creation and whatever is powering it now that the Borg sphere has been destroyed, I am not certain conventional weapons or other resources at our disposal are sufficient to close or collapse it. However, we may be able to inflict sufficient damage to mitigate its effects. I recommend using our remaining transphasic torpedoes, detonated at equidistant positions around the vortex’s event horizon. That placement would provide a consistent disruption across the fissure itself.”
“Prep the torpedoes and program the firing pattern,” ordered Riker. On the viewscreen, the vortex continued to spew forth its waves of temporal distortion. He couldn’t help his mounting frustration at not knowing who was behind this apparent attack. What were their intentions? Whoever they were, how did they define victory? They were destroying ships, and now they were inside his own vessel. What could—
“Tasha,” he said, struggling to order the frenzy of his thoughts colliding with one another. “Are any of the other ships reporting boarding attempts?”
Studying the information relayed to her station, the security chief shook her head. “I’m not seeing anything, sir. So far as I can tell, we’re the only ship being attacked directly.”
Before Riker could even try to ponder what this might mean, the ship’s computer reported, “Warning. Intruder alert, deck thirty-six. Emergency force fields activated.”
“Main engineering,” said Yar, her attention focused on her console. “I’m routing security teams there now.”
No sooner did she make her report than the ship’s intercom blared to life. “La Forge to bridge. We’ve got intruders down here! Protective force fields aren’t stopping them!”
The Enterprise’s chief engineer started to say something else before the sounds of phaser fire erupted from the speakers, followed by shouts of alarm along with alert tones emanating from the ship’s engineering section. Panicked voices in the background were unintelligible, but there was no mistaking the fear behind the words Riker could not decipher.
“Warning. Coolant leak in main engineering. Magnetic locks ruptured. Antimatter containment field disruption.”
“Geordi,” called Riker. “Geordi, are you there?”
“They’ve disrupted the coolant system,” shouted La Forge. “I’m trying to get it back online but the bypasses are fused. If I can’t stop the leak, we’re looking at a warp-core breach inside of three min—”
Static drowned out the rest of the engineer’s report as the frequency went dead. Still working at the science console, Data turned to face Riker.
“Captain, I am detecting no life-form readings in main engineering.”
Geordi? The question felt to Riker like a gut punch. Everyone down there? Gone?
“Warning,” said the computer. “Warp-core breach imminent. Estimated time to detonation two minutes, forty seconds.”
Troi said, “That’s not enough time to evacuate the entire ship.”
There was no need for such a declaration. Riker, along with everyone else on the bridge, had already reached the same conclusion, but hearing it somehow made it real. The harsh, brutal truth of the report served to underscore what was about to happen and how helpless any of them were to stop it.
On the other hand, they were not powerless to act with what little time remained to them.
“We’re not going out without a fight,” said Riker, moving from the upper deck to the command well to stand before the captain’s chair. “Data, are the torpedoes ready?”
“Affirmative. Six torpedoes programmed and ready to fire at your command, sir.”
From Yar’s security console came a new tone, and the commander’s expression darkened as she checked it. “Captain, new energy distortion waves coming from the vortex. They’re heading for us.”
“Conn, evasive maneuvers!”
Even as Lieutenant Rager began attempting to maneuver the Enterprise away from incoming danger, Riker cursed under his breath. Had their adversary somehow divined what he and his crew were planning? Could they stop it?
Don’t give them a chance, he commanded himself.
“Antimatter containment field is at twelve percent,” said Data. “Failure is imminent.”
The entire ship shuddered around them. It was as though the Enterprise knew its own death was at hand. Only then did the finality of what was about to happen settle upon Riker. This was it, the end. Nothing could save them, but perhaps their final act might serve some purpose and save someone else from a similar fate.
He sensed Troi moving to stand beside him, felt her take his hand in hers as she gripped his arm. Pressing against him, she squeezed his hand, and her voice was in his head, soft and serene as she reached out to comfort him.
It’s all right, Imzadi. We’re together. That’s all that matters to me now.
He shared a final, longing look with her, each comforting the other in these last moments before he redirected his gaze to the vortex roiling on the viewscreen. Bracing himself, Will Riker drew one last deep breath.
“Fire torpedoes.”