It took a moment or two for Lieutenant Devron to realise where he was.  It was dark and he was still feeling a little groggy.  The Blue Danube playing in the background, reassured him he was still in his quarters; confirmed by bringing the light up to 20%.  The last thing he could recall was what could possibly be described as having the point of pickaxe through the cranium. The initial sharp pain was gone; replaced by a dull ache and a slight ringing in the ears.  Did he imagine the screaming?  And if he hadn’t, were had it come from?

He sat up swinging his legs across and placed his feet on the floor; whilst trying to figure out what had woke him.  The flashing light was an indication someone was attempting to contact him.  “Devron here.” He finally announced. “What’s the matter doctor?”  The answer had him grabbing some clothes and rushing out the room.

**********

In sick bay he found Doctor Andrianakis; who was dressed in her usual lab coat, but appeared to have a nightgown on underneath, which came to just below her knees.  She was standing by the Bio-bed along with the EMH fusing over the young Betazoid engineer.

“Why didn’t you contact me earlier?” Jason asker her. “What exactly happened?”

“First off we did, but you never responded and I rather had my hands full!” The Greek women sounded tired, frustrated and angry. All of which she was right now. “Mr Toff here suffered a massive brain haemorrhage, cardiac arrest and pulmonary embolism. It was touch and go as to whether we could save him.”

“What caused all that?” Devron asked a little shocked.

“We’ve got absolutely no idea.” Responded Andrianakis. “But we suspect some external for of some kind.”

“Running through dozens of tests has drawn a blank.” Added the EMH. “We’ve had four other crew members in here complaining of varying levels of headache and nausea.  All happening at apparently the exact same moment as Mr Torf here.”

“Well you can add me to that list.  What ever happened put me out to.” The Lieutenant informed them.

“That isn’t the weirdest part though.” The doctor moved to one side revealing that the sleeping engineer was tapping away with his right hand.  Four taps pause, seven taps pause, three then eight; followed by a thirty second break then repeated from the beginning. “Started that about ten minutes ago.”

“Four, seven, three, eight.”

The EMH passed him a PADD containing a long scrolling list of things the ships computer had so far discovered associated with the number 4738. This so far contained over two thousand entries and climbing.  Which included such things as:

• Number of stars and other celestial bodies in the Omicron-Hydra Nebula.
• Decay rate in minutes of Xycoti 217.
• Mass of Peregrine 441 in Tonnes.
• Total land mass in square kilometres of Palios IV.
• The height in meters of Mount Sha-h-rax.
• The crew complement aboard 3 different Federation vessels.
• The Prime Factors, which are: 2, 23, 103.
• It was also the length in seconds of a fairly popular Klingon opera.

None of which appeared to be of any help or relevance to the current situation. “Computer, narrow down this list to anything connected with our present mission.” Jason called out.  Seconds later the list was reduced to just four items, and right there at the top of the list was. ‘Borg Cube designation 4738.’ “Bingo!”

“What did I miss?” Questioned Andrianakis; as the lieutenant dropped the PADD on to the other Bio-bed; and raced out of the room. She walked over and picked up the device to look at it. “Oh crikey!”

**********

Just a few short minutes later, Ensign Cho had joined him on the bridge.  Despite being woken and dragged out of bed at a little after 2:15am, the young Korean looked remarkably bright and alert; with everything about her neat and presentable.  Jason would have to ask her how she managed it. His hair was a mess, he had three day stubble and his uniform jacket looked like he’d slept in it.

Right now he had her scanning every communication channel and wave length imaginable to pick up any sort of signal from the Borg Cube.  After around twenty minutes, she finally had something.

“….Tartarus II been neutralised?” Then a pause and the message repeated.  “USS Jaxartes, do you read me.  Have the Borg Drones on Tartarus II been neutralised?”

“This is the USS Jaxartes.  We read you but you’re very faint.” Replied Cho. “Can you boost the signal from your end?”

“No can do Jaxartes.  Using my own power as it is.”  There followed a brief coughing fit. “Not long now.”

“Anything we can do?” Interjected Devron.

“I knew this was a suicide mission the moment I set out.”  The Drone coughed again, longer and harder this time. “I wasn’t Borg anymore and I’m not human. But they had to be stopped.”

“We can pick you up.” Devron waved a signal to his helm officer to start making the necessary calculations for a quick hope over to the gas giant and the Borg Cube currently orbiting it.

“All power gone, systems wreaked and this thing is going down fact.” There was more coughing accompanied by wheezing now. “Good luck and tha…”

Despite Ensign Cho’s best efforts she was unable to re-establish contact with the Cube.  Ensign Harris was able to get a fix on its position and reported its imminent collision with the upper atmosphere of Tartarus III. It took nearly half an hour for the massive Borg vessel to finally disappear below the swirling pink mass of the gas giant’s clouds.  Jason closed his eyes. ‘No.  Thank you.’