The Enterprise
“LOOK!”
It was Leybenzon who shouted it, but they all saw. They weren’t sure what it was they were seeing, but they all saw.
The Borg cube was losing its shape.
No one on the Enterprise had ever heard of or seen the old Earth toy called a Rubik’s Cube. If they had, they would have been reminded of it by what they were witnessing now.
The Borg cube was twisting back around on itself, entire sections swiveling around, trying to imitate some sort of bizarre geometric shape.
“The virus,” Picard said with growing excitement, rising to his feet. “It’s the virus. It’s permeating the entirety of the Borg consciousness. The whole of the Collective is trying to re-create an imaginary geometric shape that can’t exist in the real world!”
The Borg starships were doing likewise. They endeavored to reconfigure themselves. They spiraled toward one another, hoping to combine into some semblance of a shape that simply could not be imitated. The Borg refused to accept that as a reality. If it existed in any realm—even that of the imagination—then it had to be assimilated and reconfigured into the reality that was the Borg.
The Borg cube was unable to maintain its cohesion. Neutronium might well have been able to shield the Borg from any attack that came from without. It was powerless against an attack from within, though, as its very molecular structure began to split apart. Atomic explosions erupted all along the surface. The Collective was unaware, devoted only to the overwhelming impetus to solve this unfathomable geometric progression.
The influence of the virus reached its breaking point…
…and it broke.
The Borg starships flew apart in all directions while the Borg cube imploded. It crumpled in on itself, then expanded, and then contracted once more as it shook violently.
Despairing, desperate, Picard was calling over the comm unit, “Enterprise to La Forge! Enterprise to Ambassador Spock! Enterprise to Seven of Nine! Come in!”
“Enterprise, Spock here,” came a surprisingly laconic voice.
Even as he watched the Borg cube in its death throes, Picard felt relief sweeping through him. “Ambassador! Are you all present?”
“Negative. Mister La Forge is with me, albeit injured. Seven of Nine was absorbed into the Borg cube.”
Picard’s heart sank. His mind raced, trying to determine some way to rescue her.
It was too late.
The Borg cube shredded, smashing itself to pieces.
The threat was gone. So were Seven of Nine and Kathryn Janeway.