elles_letters | Fic: "For the Sake of One (You)," Chapter 2, TVXQ/DBSK/Tohoshinki

Beta: ligerliger
Rating: R/NC-17 later
Summary: Captain Jung Yunho of the USS Valiant wants nothing more than to take his ship out into deep space and leave the memories of Earth behind; however, when he and his crew come across a destroyed Borg cube and a drone in need of help, he finds himself battling old demons and unexpected emotions. In the end, it’s the drone, struggling to remember what it means to be human, who teaches him about forgiveness, healing and maybe even love.
Warnings: Violence and language. Excessive fangirling in the author's note. I just wanted to write a story about the Borg. OTL Fic takes place in the TNG/DS9/VOY-era.

chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | side story one | chapter four | chapter five | chapter six | chapter seven | chapter eight | chapter nine

Chapter Two: The Flight of the Bumblebee

The first thing Yunho saw when he entered the chaotic sickbay was three of his officers trying to separate his third-in-command from a determined Borg drone.

“What’s going on?” he shouted above the din.

“Fucking bastard won’t release Changmin,” Yoochun shouted. He and Jinki had managed to pull the drone’s heavy body off Changmin, but it still had his assimilation tubules embedded in the Vulcan’s neck. The ship’s doctor was crouched next to Changmin, attempting to do what he could to disconnect the tubes.

“Disable it!” Yunho commanded.

“We can’t. It’s shielding itself with a forcefield.”

At that moment, three security officers armed with phaser rifles entered sickbay.

“Shoot it,” Yunho ordered the officer closest to him. The officer raised his rifle and fired three quick shots at the drone. They were blocked effortlessly.

“He’s adapted to our weapons fire, sir,” the officer told Yunho.

“Already? It usually takes them three to five shots to adapt.”

“We tried shooting it with our phasers before you arrived,” Jinki admitted. “It didn’t stop him.”

Another officer, using his rifle as a club, approached quickly and attempted to knock the drone out. The Borg caught the gun in mid-swing and ripped it from his hands. The officer stood momentarily stunned before being sent flying across the room. He remained where he landed, winded and disoriented.

Nobody noticed the ship’s doctor moving stealthily behind the drone until he reached out and shot it with a hypospray. Hit with the medicine, it convulsed, removing its tubules from Changmin’s neck, before shutting down completely. The drone collapsed, rolling off of Changmin’s body, and slumping to the floor.

Yunho tapped his combadge. “Captain to transporter room, lock on to the drone’s signal and beam it off the ship.”

“We’ll have to drop out of warp first, sir,” the transporter chief reminded him.

The doctor straightened and stared at Yunho in shock. “Captain, he needs our help!”

“He needs to be off my ship!”

“I may need him in order to help the commander.”

Yunho looked quickly over to where Changmin lay, panting and gasping for air. He rushed to kneel by his side.

“Are you okay?”

Ripping the helmet of his environmental suit off, Changmin gently ran a hand along his neck. He pushed gently against the ragged puncture wounds and appeared to be satisfied by what he felt.

“I am not severely injured,” he replied. “The drone was unable to assimilate me.”

“We could use some help over here!” Yoochun called out. He, Jinki, and the doctor were struggling to lift the heavy drone onto a nearby biobed.

Yunho stood and, suppressing the disgust he felt, assisted the others in getting the unconscious drone off the floor and onto a bed. The doctor rushed to turn on the bed’s scanners and analyze the Borg’s medical condition.

"He's barely alive. He won't make it without immediate surgery."

Yunho turned on the doctor. "It's here to help with Lt. Cmdr. Changmin, not to receive a check-up. See to him first."

"No need, Doctor." Changmin rose from the floor, obviously still a bit dizzy and lightheaded, and went to join the others at the biobed. "As I said, the drone was unable to assimilate. Aside from minor injuries from the altercation, I am fine."

"Not that I don't trust your judgment, Commander, but I still want you to be checked out." Yunho turned to face his ship's doctor. "Prepare the drone for transport, Doctor ...." Yunho began. He hesitated. He hadn’t had much interaction yet with his chief medical officer, a young medical genius who’d spent most of his time on-board locked away in his labs.

The young doctor straightened before saluting quickly. "Kim," he answered. "Dr. Kim Junsu."

"Dr. Kim," Yunho repeated. "Get as much information as you can in the next minute; we're beaming it off this ship."

"No, sir," Junsu said firmly.

"Excuse me?"

“Captain, I cannot and will not let you remove this drone from my sickbay.”

“Are you forgetting, Doctor, that I am the commanding officer of this ship? I expect my orders to be followed.”

“No, sir, I have not forgotten; however, as the chief medical officer, I have the final authority as to the care and treatment of all my patients. I am bound by oath to help him.”

"Bridge to sickbay," Yuri called over the on-ship comm. The distress in her voice could not be missed.

"This is the captain," Yunho replied. He stared in annoyance at the doctor who had taken advantage of the interruption to attend to the unconscious Borg.

"Sir, we've detected another Borg cube. It's on an intercept course."

Yunho could feel his stomach drop at the news. Years of training kept his fear out of his voice, however. "How much time do we have, Lieutenant?" he demanded.

"Three and a half minutes."

Yunho frowned before looking meeting Junsu's nervous eyes. "Looks like it's this drone's lucky day. We can't drop out of warp with the cube after us. You may treat it, Doctor; however, security will remain with it at all times. I don’t want it going anyplace else on the ship except for sickbay. And the second it’s declared medically sound, it will be beamed down to the nearest, deserted habitable planet. Let it figure out what to do with itself then. Understood?"

Junsu nodded in agreement. “Understood. Thank you, Captain.”

"Don't thank me until we've gotten away, Doctor. Changmin, stay here and get treated."

"Sir, in light of the current events, I would be more helpful on the bridge," Changmin started to argue.

"Absolutely not," Yunho told him. "Not until we're certain you haven't been linked to the hive mind." Yunho turned to exit sickbay, motioning for Yoochun and Jinki to follow him. "Take care of the lieutenant commander, Doctor. His wife married him for his mind."

+++

Captain's log, supplemental: While we've yet to see visual signs of the other ship, our scans show we are being pursued by the Borg cube. With our chief tactical officer in sickbay, it will be up to me and the remaining members of the bridge crew to think of a way to outsmart our most dangerous foe.

"The cube is closing in, Captain," Yuri yelled as the officers returned to the bridge. "We can't shake it."

"Evasive maneuver beta-gamma-three, Lieutenant." The ship sped ahead, darting up and down, right to left, in an attempt to lose the other ship.

Jinki sat up in his seat, stiff with fear. "Sir, the cube is now in visual range."

"Put it on screen."

He did so, filling the large viewer at the front of the bridge with the image of the fast approaching Borg cube. This cube was nearly three times larger than the destroyed vessel they had left behind and was running at full power.

Yunho turned to face the officer who was manning Changmin's tactical station. "Ensign, aim phasers at the cube. Fire at will."

"Aye, sir," the officer acknowledged. Yunho watched as they fired and as their weapons were absorbed harmlessly by the cube's shields.

"Dammit," Yoochun cursed next to him. "That didn't even shake them. Fastest ship in the fleet and we're barely outrunning them."

"Fire again, ensign!" Yunho shouted, trying his best to ignore his first officer. The phaser fire hit the cube again before being absorbed by the cube's shields. Suddenly, the cube fired its own weapons, hitting the Valiant directly.

Yunho braced the arms of his command chair as the bridge shook from the impact. "Damage?"

"Our shields are down to 74 percent, Captain," the tactical officer replied. "No damage to the ship."

"They're going to chase us until we wear ourselves out. Ensign, arm a photon torpedo."

"It won't do any good," Yoochun mumbled next to him. Yunho turned and looked at the tight, fearful look on the man's face. Turning back to look at the screen, he gritted his teeth and stood to lean on the command railing.

"Fire the torpedo, Ensign."

Unlike the phaser fire, the torpedo was able to pierce through the cube's shields and explode off its port side. The ship didn't slow, though, continuing its high-speed pursuit of the Valiant.

"Fire again!" Yunho ordered. He watched as another torpedo flew from the ship, this time detonating harmlessly off the cube's shield bubble.

"They've adapted," Yoochun announced.

"Ideas, people," Yunho shouted. "Give me anything you've got."

The bridge fell silent, and Yunho glanced around the bridge to study the panicked faces of his crew. These were scientists, not soldiers. Brilliant minds used to studying life, not trying to destroy it.

"A Trojan horse," Yunho heard Hyukjae mumble to himself.

He looked to his communications officer. "Lieutenant?"

"Another Trojan horse, Captain."

"I'd rather explore other options before we allow the ship to be assimilated."

"Not the entire ship, sir. We've learned that their shields can defend them from an attack from the outside, but they can't do much on the inside. If we can find some way to blow them up from the inside out — send an armed torpedo, maybe — we'll be able to escape."

"How will we do that?" Yoochun asked, breaking his eyes away from the view screen.

"Beam one on board?" Jinki offered.

"We’d have to lower our shields, and there’s no way we’d be able to get it past theirs."

"We could send a shuttlecraft," Hyukjae answered. "Arm a torpedo, set it to self-detonate, load it on a shuttle, and let them assimilate it."

Yunho glanced back at the screen and the cube that was quickly closing the distance. "If they get close enough to lock onto the ship, we're through."

"I've worked on torpedos before, sir. I can get it armed and on a shuttle in two minutes."

Yunho nodded toward the turbolift. "Get to it, Lieutenant. Cmdr. Park, go with him." Hyukjae shot up from his seat and ran toward the lift, followed quickly by Yoochun.

"Captain, the ship will overtake us in a minute and 50 seconds," Yuri warned shortly after the two officers left.

"Do what you can to evade them."

The Valiant zigged and zapped through space, the crew trying its best to lose the heavily armored ship that remained on its tail. Everyone on the bridge already knew the outcome of this fight should their plan fail.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Yoochun's voice piped up through the comm. "We're ready, Captain."

"Launch the shuttle," Yunho ordered.

The small craft shot out from their shuttle bay and headed straight for the cube. It was taken in by the massive vessel nearly instantly.

“They’re attempting to assimilate the shuttle,” Jinki reported.

“The torpedo was set to detonate 15 seconds after launch, Captain,” Hyukjae added over the comm.

They watched, the bridge completely silent except for the beeping of sensors, and waited. If the Borg disabled the weapon before it blew up, the entire ship's assimilation would be guaranteed. A few tense seconds passed, and soon the stillness began to pull at Yunho’s already stretched nerves.

“Lieutenant, Commander, what’s taking so —”

Yunho was interrupted by flashing light that was followed by a massive BOOM that shook the whole ship. The vessel rocked as it was carried along by the explosion’s shockwave. Yunho looked up at the screen to see that the cube had been blown apart. The bottom half of the cube began drifting out of control in space, debris surrounding it like a dark cloud.

"How many torpedoes did you fill that thing with?" Yunho yelled to his first officer when he returned to the bridge.

"Just one!” Yoochun answered defensively. “It must have gone off near their engine."

Yunho turned back to the view screen and watched the burning ship as it tried to regenerate. He beat down the twinge of guilt that lanced his heart. He’d never been responsible for the destruction of an entire ship before, and watching it burn was hard to do. But they were drones, he told himself; nothing more than robotic puppets that brought death and destruction wherever they went.

"Jinki, scan the area."

"Nothing, sir. We're clear."

With that, Yunho collapsed into his command chair. He could still feel the adrenaline coursing through his system.

"Helmsmen, resume our course," he ordered, drained. "Full impulse."

+++

Chief tactical officer’s personal log, stardate 45040.1: The captain has ordered me to take two days leave from duty and to remain in sickbay following my attempted assimilation by the Borg drone we found. However, I must note that his cautiousness, while understandable, is not needed. I have remained fully in control of my will and my mental capabilities. The drone was unable to force me into the Collective, which causes me to question the strength of his own link to the hive mind.

"Feeling better?" Yunho asked, popping into the small private room in sickbay where his tactical officer was resting.

Setting aside his reading, Changmin took in the sight of his exhausted captain, noting the bags underneath his eyes and the strained smile.

"I am feeling much better than you look, Captain."

"Changmin, please. It's been a hard two days." Yunho slid down the wall and nearly dropped to the floor. He stretched his long legs out crossed them at the ankle as he tried to get comfortable.

"I apologize. Still, the fact remains that you need rest."

"I'll rest when I'm sure the Borg won't pop out of the next nebula we pass and try to take over the ship. Where's the doctor?"

"Tending to the drone."

Yunho frowned and rolled his eyes. "Why is he so hell bent on saving that thing?"

"It is his job."

“His job is to see to our crew.”

“Which is perfectly healthy.”

“Why are you okay with all of this?” Yunho asked with a huff.

“Why are you so suspicious?”

"Are you forgetting that it tried to assimilate you into the Collective?"

"Of course not, Captain. But that was merely an autonomous reaction. A reflex.”

“And do you think telling the Collective we were on his ship was a reflex, as well?”

Changmin contemplated this. "You think the drone alerted the Borg of our presence?"

"What else could have?"

"It is possible that they were on their way following the initial explosion."

"Right when we happened to be there?"

"It's not improbable, Captain."

“Your logic seems a bit faulty, Commander.”

Changmin bristled at that. “Captain, it is much more likely that the cube stumbled upon us while in route to the damaged ship than the cube arriving so quickly after our discovery of the drone.”

“They have technological capabilities we can’t even begin to imagine,” Yunho said softly, his tone soothing.

“But they still aren’t able to travel through space instantaneously.”

Yunho smiled, his face still worn out but softened by the look of affection he gave the other officer. “As rational and well-thought out as you always were, Changmin.”

The Vulcan frowned. “You insulted me to test me?”

“Small test. You passed with flying colors."

Before Changmin could respond, Yoochun entered the sickbay and slumped against the wall next to Yunho. His normally immaculate hair and uniform was in disarray and it was obvious he hadn’t seen the inside of his quarters in the past 48 hours either.

“Commander,” Changmin acknowledged. “You look like a mess.”

Yoochun wanted to roll his eyes, but they felt 10 times heavier than normal. He settled for a half-hearted sneer. “You’re still as comforting as ever. I saved your life, remember?"

"Your efforts were appreciated, sir, but I was hardly in any danger."

"Oh, that's right. Our new friend snuck a peek inside your mind and decided he didn't want to bother with it."

Changmin frowned and looked crossly at Yunho. "Is he saying that out of stress or is he insulting my intelligence as part of your test?"

Yunho gave his friend a sheepish grin. "We've been worried, Changmin. We haven't been able to check on you these last few days. We found ourselves missing your logic and complete lack of human warmth."

"I suspect that the drone's inability to assimilate me had little to do with my own appeal," Changmin sniffed. "Rather, I believe he is unable to assimilate anyone. I think he's been cut off from the Collective."

"Are you sure?" Yunho asked.

"No. But it's the only theory that makes sense. Reports have stated that assimilation by a drone is immediate, with the victim being connected to the hive mind in seconds. It's been two days and I am still unaffected. Add that to the fact that the drone is having trouble regenerating on his own, and that's the most likely theory."

They could hear the sound of the surgical bay doors whoosh open just then, and soon Junsu strolled into the room, eyes glued to a PADD.

"Commander, I believe — Captain!" Junsu startled at the sight of the captain in his sickbay. He wasn't ready to face the man quite yet following his bordering-on-insubordinate behavior before.

Yunho gave the eager officer a reassuring smile. He stood and straightened his uniform. "Report, Dr. Kim. What can you tell us about the drone?"

The doctor's face grew serious as he looked back down at his PADD. "He suffered second-degree plasma burns over 50 percent of his body, not to mention severe radiation poisoning. I had to rush him into immediate surgery to repair damage that was done to his bone marrow and most of his organs."

"Will he live?" Yoochun asked.

The doctor beamed down at him. "He has a very good chance of surviving. His Borg implants have done an excellent job at protecting his biological components."

"Can we see him?"

"Of course. Follow me." He led the two officers into another private room where the drone lay on a biobed, strapped down by a level-one force-field.

Yunho frowned as he studied the heavily plated body. "How was it able to survive the blast?"

The doctor reached over to lift the drone's right arm. Nearly a dozen attachments and scanners had been implanted into the limb. "It's my opinion that he's a scout drone. The Borg have altered and outfitted him with a number of different devices that would sense and protect him from external conditions. He had a level-three personal force-field around himself when he first came to sickbay. I believe that, combined with his distance from the warp core when it breached, helped him to survive the levels of radiation on the ship." The doctor lowered the arm gently before looking back up at the captain. "He wouldn't have been alive for much longer if we hadn't gotten him out of there. It makes me wonder how many others we could have saved."

"Don't lose too much sleep over that, Doctor," Yoochun murmured.

The doctor flushed before looking back down at his notes. "He's Human underneath all those implants," he continued. "Early to mid-twenties as far as I can tell and healthy besides his injuries."

Yunho looked down at the body lying on the biobed and tried to see the resting drone as the doctor described him. He was undeniably Human, with large eyes — one hidden completely by his ocular implant, a strong nose, and a small mouth. His skin was beginning to regain its color; the deathly white skin common to the Borg was beginning to be warmed by slight flush of pink on his cheeks and forehead. He was short for a Human, Yunho noticed. His growth probably stunted by the combined stress of the implants and not receiving ample nutrition.

He looked back up at his CMO. “Has it regained consciousness?”

“No.” Junsu handed over his PADD to Yunho. “As you can see, I’ve been tracking his brain activity since he’s been on-board. His brain is active, but I’m unable to get any sort of response from him.”

“Would it survive a beam out to a habitable planet?”

Junsu inhaled sharply and looked at Yunho shock. “Captain, you can’t be serious.”

“I think I’ve made it clear how I feel about it being on my ship.”

“But he’s still unconscious. He’d be vulnerable to whatever elements he was exposed to.”

“It survived a full warp-core explosion.”

“Barely.”

"I've made my decision," Yunho stated firmly, giving the doctor a pointed look. He gave the PADD back to Junsu having barely studied the drone's progress. "This ship is not about to become a ferry to a lost little Borg. Once it's medically stable, we'll leave him on the nearest M-class planet. It can remain there to wait for his big brothers to pick him up."

Junsu bit back his arguments. He knew it would do him no good to continue arguing with the captain. He was still new to Starfleet and had a reputation to build. Unfortunately, it appeared he’d be doing so at the possible risk to the drone’s life.

“Aye, sir.”

“Thank you, Doctor. I want to be notified the moment it’s ready for transport.” He nodded to the both of them. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go crash. I want to grab some sleep before we drop him off."

"Rest well, Captain," Yoochun returned.

"You too," Yunho shot back. "That's an order."

Yoochun gave a quick salute before watching Yunho off. When he turned back to face the young doctor, he noticed the look of curious confusion on the other man's face.

"Got a question, Doc?"

Junsu seemed to shake himself out of his reverie before grinning shyly. "I just don't really understand him," he said with a sigh.

"What don't you understand?"

"He's one of the most respected officers in the fleet and has served on dozens of humanitarian missions. This is a science vessel, not a battle cruiser. Why is he refusing to help him?"

"You thought he'd be cheering for the thing to make a full recovery?"

“I’m just a bit surprised by his behavior,” Junsu admitted.

“It’s not that surprising, Doctor. The captain had family at Wolf 359.”

Junsu's eyes widened in surprise before giving way to pity. Wolf 359. Nothing else needed to be said.

The Battle of Wolf 359 hadn’t been a battle at all; it had been an annihilation. A single Borg cube had destroyed 40 Starfleet vessels in only a few short minutes. More than 11,000 officers and civilians had been lost.

Yunho had been a lieutenant on the USS Kyushu when it had been called to join an armada stationed between Earth and Mars to halt an oncoming Borg attack.

They hadn’t been ready for battle. The ship had been on a diplomatic mission and was carrying nearly 100 civilians, including children. Yunho himself had members of his own family on board. But the order had come from the top; all nearby vessels were needed to assist to help protect Earth.

They had fired only five shots before the Borg had blown a hole straight through the saucer section of their ship. They had tried to retreat, and when that failed, the entire crew was ordered to abandon ship. The dozens of tiny escape pods — propelled by engines a fraction of the size of the starships — had scattered in a rush to escape.

Few managed to do so.

Yunho had watched as the cube blew up the first pod. Then a second and a third. By the time he'd turned away, eight pods had been destroyed.

It wasn't until later, after the pod he was in had zipped away safely into the black of space, that the dreadful had realization hit him.

He had no idea where his sister and fiancée were.

A/N: I know things are moving slow, but bear with me! Yunho has issues and he's gonna have to deal with them soon. Wolf 359 is a real, fictional battle in the Trek verse at which the Federation had their asses handed to them by one ship. It caused a lot of angst for a lot of characters.

ASSES! HANDED TO THEM! =( (I wanted to post this short clip for people who were interested and/or don't know much about the Trekkie verse. Hopefully it will help you visualize stuff. That and I just love this clip.)

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Kim Jaejoong - All Alone

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sheilapiglet.livejournal.com

I don't know why I keep thinking of the anime Gundam while reading this...I remember they had an "escape pods being destroyed" scene too...hehe....anyways, just realized that ch.2 was up after I already commented on ch.1....anyways, still similar questions=P now I understand why YH hates drones so much...I can't wait for Jae to prove to him that not all of them are so bad=P

From:

elle's letters

Fic: "For the Sake of One (You)," Chapter 2, TVXQ/DBSK/Tohoshinki

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