“We’ll be leaving here soon to head for the nearest system,” Chris began. “I think it best if we…”

“Bridge to briefing room,” Some one interrupted over the comm system.

Chris activated the communications system, and said, “Harriman here.”

“Sir, we’ve detected a Borg vessel on a direct intercept course at warp thirteen.”

Chris stood in alarm, and yelled, “Red alert! All hands to battle stations!”

The senior officers entered the bridge, and Chris continued with, “As soon as the Borg ship comes out of warp, begin rotating shield modulation. Send the proper defense information over to the Excelsior, but put a bug in it so that it will delete itself and reset the Excelsior’s systems back to normal in six days.”

Chris sat down in the command chair with Sarah to his right and Terry to his left.

“Ada, scan the ship and see if it might have any weaknesses,” Chris ordered the ship’s security officer.

After a few minutes, Ada said, “Sir, I’m not sure how its possible, but…all life signs on that Borg vessel are humanoid, not Borg. Also, the ship seems to have a Federation signature. It has identified itself as the USS Resistance."

Chris looked at the viewscreen in astonishment. “Open a channel. This is Captain Chris Harriman of the Federation starship Dragon. Identify yourself.”

Suddenly a very familiar face appeared on the view screen, whose face became equally astonished as Chris thought his own face might look like that right now. It was a younger face, but…it was Chris’s face none the less!

Finally, the mirror image on the view screen said in a painful sounding voice, “Dad?”

Chris was at a loss for words. “What the hell is going on here,” he finally asked. “What year is this?”

“2299,” Chris’s apparent ‘son’ replied.

Chris decided he better tell his ‘son’ where he came from before he never got another chance to.

“Actually, we are from another dimension,” Chris finally told his ‘son’. “We are looking for a way home…I’ll explain the rest later, just tell me why there are no Borg on your vessel.”

“Well, let me start from the beginning. The same year the Enterprise encountered the first Borg vessel, the Borg came in hordes. Literally hundreds of Borg cubes came, attacking every known race in known space. It took them a day to reach Earth. All that remained of the Federation was a band of ships, which we later named the Federation Resistance group. We teamed up with the remaining Romulan, Klingon, Gorn…any one who was left.”

“Nine years ago we were almost wiped out by the Borg. Our only hope was using our last ships to capture a Borg vessel and convert it so that we could use it. With our only remaining twenty-two ships, we succeeded. And for Nine years the last remaining resistance group has remained on board this converted Borg ship.”

Now Chris really was at a loss for words. It felt like a Romulan War Bird had just hit him on the head at warp nine. He didn’t know why, but this seemed a much worse devastation than the previous dimension. Then he thought that is was probably because in the previous dimension, at least the human race was still very large.

“I…oh my god…This is…” Chris tried to talk, but he never seemed to succeed in getting it all out. Chris didn’t want to spend another minute in this galaxy, but he knew they had to in order to be able to make it home on the next jump.



“We will protect you while you explore this dimension,” Chris’s ‘son,’ John Harriman said.

“You shouldn’t put your life at risk like that,” Chris told him. “Risk your life for some one who’s not even supposed to be here.

“No,” John said. “I let you die once, but I’m not going to again. I’m going to make up for running from a fight, leaving you to…die.”

“What happened, John,” Chris asked, wanting to know the whole story.

“The year I took command of my first ship, we went into battle. The Borg did not densely populate Earth at the time. We never found out why, but we took it as an advantage. Only four Borg cubes were in orbit while every other cube usually near Earth was away on some mission.”

“How ever, we soon found out why. We sent in all of our remaining fleet. How ever, the instant we got there, twenty-two Borg cubes emerged from Transwarp and immediately began attacking us. I was in Command of the Galaxy while you were in command of the USS Dragon, which was a Galaxy class starship as well.”

“Your ship was heavily damaged, as was ours. You ordered me to run! You said you’d leave with the rest of the fleet! Thirty four ships made it out of that battle…out of two hundred thirty!” John was now using a lot of emotion in his voice as he remembered painful days.

“Ever since then, we’ve been on the run just trying to conserve what ships we had left.”

The senior staff remained quiet a long time after words, not daring to break the silence of the briefing room.

Finally, John continued his story. “Ever since we captured this Borg vessel, which was the most advanced Borg vessel nine years ago, we’ve been modifying it so that we may live on it and then one day recreate this once beautiful Galaxy.”

“As a matter of fact, we were on our way to the great barrier before you appeared. We are going to leave this galaxy and find another Galaxy to populate. Then one day, we will return, and retake the Borg. I know I won’t live to see it…neither will my children. But it will happen one day…”

Chris felt his hatred for the Borg increase more so than he had ever felt for any one or thing. He also was glad that the Borg never sent a full invasion force to take on the Federation.

“I’m sorry,” was all Chris could say.

“Don’t ever let this happen in your own dimension,” John said as he stared at Chris. “To be sure of it, I will give you data on two of the Borg weapons. One is a type of phaser that cuts through the hull of a ship like butter. The other a type of high yield torpedo. Use them against the Borg.”

“I can’t do that. I do not wish to pollute the time line,” Chris interjected.

“And you won’t,” John said. “Why do you think they succeeded so well during the Wolf 359 incident? They used these weapons during that battle.”

“How do you know,” Chris asked.

“Because ten years ago, a Borg vessel from you dimension came to our dimension looking for re-enforcement’s against a species they called Species 8472, who could destroy them. The Borg here took over that ship not caring about the other dimension. That information was on our ship when we took it.”

“Senior officers to the bridge,” James said over the comm system. “Two Borg spheres approaching at warp ten.”



“We are Borg. Surrender your ships and prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”

“Not their usual warm welcome, but close enough,” Sarah remarked. The bridge was a flurry of movement now.

“We are receiving a message from the Resistance,” Ada reported. “They say they will be able to easily handle these two spheres.”

“Very well,” Chris replied. “Helm, keep us away from the battle. Tell the Excelsior to do the same.”

“Aye Captain,” James replied.

The battle was short. The immense Borg cube was more than a match for the two smaller spheres.

“Sir, John says that we should move out immediately before reinforcements come,” Ada reported.

“Very well,” Chris said. “Helm, follow the Resistance, Warp seven point five.”