Chapter Text
There was no advantage of surprise when the second guard patrol came upon them. Elnor offered them the chance to live all the same. Their answer was given as they reached for their weapons, and Elnor’s world became nothing but the sum of their respective choices: his to fight and theirs to die. Blaster fire lanced through the shifting, angled shadows of the Artifact, close enough that the scent of singed cloth hit the back of Elnor’s throat a moment before his blade sliced through the neck of the woman before him.
Another blaster shot, this one wide; the ex-Borg, Hugh, had his arms locked around the neck of a guard, hauling him off balance. It was an inexpert hold. It would take only a moment for the guard to regain his footing and bring his weapon to bear on the shorter human. In the instant it took Elnor to make that observation, he’d thrust his sword low into the man’s chest, splitting his heart.
“Are you hurt?”
Hugh shook his head and released his hold. The body collapsed to the floor.
“I’m fine.” Hugh glanced at the door to the queencell, now a featureless wall at their backs. He scooped up his discarded lantern and started forward. “This way.”
Elnor fell into step beside him. “Thank you for disrupting his aim. But let me do the fighting.” There was no response from Hugh, save to stop at the first juncture they came to, watching and listening. Elnor appreciated the caution, but they had to keep moving.
“Which way?”
“There are only so many places on this cube we can hide.” Hugh looked up at him, a tense resolution reflected in his eyes. “Sooner or later, the guards will track us down, and it won’t be pleasant when they do.”
Hugh swallowed, then visibly steeled himself. “Head down this corridor until it branches off left and right at the wall. Turn right. Then keep going until you reach the transit conduits. They’re not safe to traverse, but they interfere with the internal sensors the Free State installed. No one uses them. Lay low there.”
“I don’t like this plan.” Elnor strained to see farther ahead than the next two intersections of walkway, but the gloom of the Artifact was easily a match for eyes more accustomed to Vashti’s harsh sunlight. “What will you be doing while I’m hiding?”
Hugh’s mouth curled in a sallow smile. “I’ll most likely be under interrogation by a very irate Romulan commander. Now get going.”
Elnor shook his head, refusal on his lips before Hugh had finished speaking.
“No. We’ll stay together. And if they find us…”
“Listen to me, Elnor.” Hugh words were whispered, hissed like an angry sand-adder. “The guards you just killed were not standard security for this facility. Whatever’s going on, whoever’s looking for Doctor Asha, they’re already on this ship. And if they find us, they can torture and kill you with impunity.
“I’m a Federation citizen, protected by a treaty it took the Romulan Free State and the Federation seven years to hammer out. If nothing else, it means they can’t just kill me. Not without risking the loss of this cube and all the resources on it. And at least while their attention’s on me, they’re not going to look for someone they don’t know exists.”
“You’re counting on a paper shield to protect you,” Elnor said, frowning. “I hate this - it’s wrong. You’re only in danger because you came to Admiral Picard’s aid. And… I swore to him I would protect you. You shouldn’t face them alone.”
“If you die, I’m facing them alone anyway.” Hugh shoved the lantern into Elnor’s hand and gave him a push toward the corridor. “Go. I’ll find you when I’m able. We’ll plan from there.” It wasn’t a tone that allowed for further argument.
Elnor wanted to renew his protest, but he had nothing to counter Hugh’s logic or his knowledge of the situation. But… he could give him a warning, something Admiral Picard must not have had time for.
“Hugh. Doctor Asha’s a synth. We don’t know where she came from, but the faction pursuing her already hunted her sister to Earth and killed her. Please be careful. I’m worried the usual rules of this place may not apply.”
Hugh nodded his thanks, then set out into the dark. Elnor watched him for another moment, then ran, every inch of distance he put between them a betrayal of his oath.
Elnor’s path ended in an echoing warren of tunnels, all branching off from a massive central corridor where the ship’s artificial gravity pulsed weak and untrustworthy. It was beyond Elnor what the Borg had used this place for, but it was easy to see why Hugh had thought it would be a good hiding place, especially for one trained in stealth.
The tunnels whispered to each other, carrying snatches of distorted words and low, strange sounds he couldn’t begin to identify. They must have branched to every part of the cube when it was operational; the maddening noise wouldn’t have been a factor for a crew of drones that cared for nothing unless they were instructed to. Elnor tucked himself away in the crook of a tunnel, trying to focus past the noise for the approach of guards.
Until he heard - faint and echoing, but already unmistakable to his ears - the cadence of Hugh’s voice among the ghostly murmuration.
Thought and deed were very often one with Elnor; he was following the thread of sound through the tunnels a heartbeat later. The treacherous gravity hobbled him, forced him to measure every step. He caught the thread as Hugh’s voice cut off, replaced by a snarled Rihan profanity and the beep of a comm channel opening.
“Colonel. Both patrols sent into Subsector 11 were butchered. We found the half-meat Director, but there’s no sign of Picard or Asha.”
“Bring him to me.”
“What do you want with Dr. Asha?” The crack of the answering blow echoed diffusely through the tunnels, overlapping Hugh’s grunt of pain. Elnor’s fingers itched for his sword, even as he noted Hugh’s attempt to establish his ignorance of the situation. He should not have left him alone. They could have taken these guards together, surely, found someplace to hide and plan. Instead, he’d left his sworn charge to the mercy of people who’d had the very concept trained out of them.
The guard sneered a threat on the heels of his abuse, but they were moving away and the words were indistinct. Elnor followed, scrambling down the tunnels in pursuit of that fragile connection to Hugh. He knew he was becoming hopelessly lost, but he supposed it didn’t matter when he could hardly tell up from down in this accursed place as it was.
His chosen tunnel ended in open air, a few meters short of a platform holding the moorings of stripped machinery with a healthy drop down onto a walkway below. Nowhere left to run… but he could hear Hugh from somewhere below and not so far away.
“What are they doing here?” For the first time, Elnor heard fear in Hugh’s voice. His jaw clenched. He measured the distance to the ground - if he landed properly, the chances of injury were slim. If he needed to jump...
“That depends on you.” The voice of the Zhat Vash colonel again. “Be an obedient little drone, and they’re only witnesses to your good example.” The faint, high-pitched whine of an energy weapon powering up filled the deliberate pause. “Where have you hidden Picard and the synth?”
Elnor didn’t even have time to draw a full breath before the echoing disruptor blast stopped his breath on a fearful gasp.
Hugh!
But no, the interrogation continued: the Zhat Vash pressing for answers, Hugh all but silent in the face of her torment, and Elnor growing more frantic as it became obvious the woman was more cruel than patient.
“Kill them all.”
Gravity tugged at the pit of Elnor’s stomach as he jumped. A sharp, warning line of pain speared him from ankle to knee when he hit the walkway, but was swept away in the tempest of adrenaline and the heart-stopping cacophony of blaster fire. He ran as fast as he could, his sword in hand and his heart in his throat, praying he was not too late.
Elnor found Hugh on his knees, a slumped outline among the shadows. He crouched beside him, curling one arm protectively around his shoulders, though it was far, far too late to shield him now. Hugh was alive and unwounded, but the terrible, empty grief on his face killed Elnor’s relief between one breath and the next.
He followed Hugh’s fixed gaze to the carnage of a dozen scarred, broken bodies scattered carelessly across the floor, lying twisted where they’d fallen. Elnor saw Hugh’s blank gaze mirrored again and again in the lifeless eyes staring up at the dark nothing above them. So many lives cut down, with almost no blood to mark their slaughter, only the stench of ozone and seared flesh.
Elnor swallowed hard against the ache in his chest. They had miscalculated the cruelty of the Zhat Vash, and these bystanders who’d had no part in Picard’s mission had died, unknowing, to protect his escape. And Hugh… Hugh had gambled his life for Elnor’s and wound up forfeiting a piece of his soul instead.
Elnor firmed his grip on Hugh’s shoulder, offering what sparse comfort there was to be found in mutual grief. The chirp of his comm badge saved him from his fruitless search for words.
Hugh finally looked at him. “Your friends. They’re worried.”
His voice was a resigned whisper.
He expected to be abandoned, Elnor realized. Hugh thought Elnor would fly away on his ship and leave him to this ruin, to face any consequences still to come on his own. As Picard would have done, had Elnor not followed. As the Federation had done years ago, not just to Hugh and the former Borg on the Artifact, but to Seven’s Icheb as well.
Captain Rios’ firm voice broke through Elnor’s unhappy epiphany.
“Hermano, time to go.”
Elnor tapped the badge. “Go without me. This will not happen again.” He turned his gaze to Hugh as he spoke, let the resolve in his voice carry a promise. “My help is needed here.”
He knew the others wouldn’t understand his decision, and he would not explain what had happened. Raffi and Captain Rios were good people, this he believed; if he told them about this slaughter, they would have been willing to give aid. But there was nothing they could do here. There wasn’t a way to safely evacuate the others on this vessel, and he knew without asking that Hugh wouldn’t leave his people behind any more than he would have sacrificed Elnor or Picard for his own safety. And so there was no use in delaying them, not when they were far more vital to Picard’s mission.
A pause, then Rios spoke again. “Everybody here thinks you’re crazy.”
“And brave.” Dr. Jurati’s voice, faint and off-side.
“And brave,” Rios echoed.
No. Hugh was the brave one, the one who endured the dangers of this hostile alien relic for the sake of others. Elnor could not have turned his back on this desperate isolation and ever felt at peace with himself again.
Hugh was looking to him now, a dull mix of confusion and disbelief on his face. Elnor rose and extended his hand, unsure if Hugh could trust him now, but desperately hoping he would. Relief washed over him when Hugh gripped his wrist and pulled himself to his feet; Elnor was committed entirely to this fight, but he could not navigate this place alone. Impulsively, he slid his hand around to the nape of Hugh’s neck, offering him a moment of warmth against the chill of the Artifact, the grounding contact of skin against skin. Hugh was not alone in this fight either. Not now, not ever again.
Hugh’s eyes, one night-hued, the other blue as summer skies, met his, and he nodded wordless understanding to Elnor’s silent vow. He took Elnor’s hand and led the way once more into the shadowed maze of the Artifact.
“Adios, kid.”
Rios’ farewell followed them into the dark.
Hugh moved with purpose, outstripping Elnor’s longer stride in moments. Elnor could see the grief and shock falling away as righteous, avenging fire rose within him.
“Are we going back to the queencell?” Elnor ventured.
“I’d forgotten the immense power hidden there,” Hugh affirmed. “Maybe I was afraid I’d be tempted to use it. But now…” Fury pulled his voice taut as a drawn bowstring. “I promised to defend and protect the xBs. I failed them all. I’ve been a fool!”
Hugh grabbed Elnor’s sleeve as they rounded into another corridor, pulling him close.
“We are going to take this cube away from them forever!”
Elnor believed him entirely. Hugh was a light that burned star-bright in this oppressive place. A hope that would not be snuffed out or compromised, no matter the adversity. Elnor did not see how the two of them would enact this impossible plan, but his faith that Hugh would reveal the path to him was absolute. It was clear to him now - Hugh’s cause must be his own. This rare strength of spirit and compassion could not be allowed to wither, neglected in darkness.
Before Elnor could form the words to pledge his oath, another voice knifed through the air.
“That sounds like a treaty violation to me.” The Zhat Vash colonel stepped into view. Her cruelly satisfied smile made Elnor burn to cut her head from her shoulders, but he stayed close to Hugh, waiting for her guards to reveal their full number.
“Did you really think you were not being watched?” she gloated. “And not just a treaty violation - open insurrection. I’m grateful. I’m authorized to kill you now.”
Elnor heard Hugh suck a breath, felt him start forward to take payment for his fallen from this serpent’s hide. Elnor raised an arm to hold him back, never taking his eye from the enemy.
Let me do the fighting. Hugh had protected him before. Elnor drew his blade to do his part.
He was Qowat Milat in that moment, in heart, if not in fact. He finally knew, finally felt in his very soul what it was to be qalankhkai, to pledge his sword without hesitation or resentment. To feel the rightness of a cause so firmly that it resonated down to his foundations. To know his life would be a small price to pay in service to another if he could in any way be the weight that tipped the scales to hope.
He understood.
And he let it slip through his fingers.
He allowed himself to be baited, distracted. Then the Zhat Vash was beyond reach, and Hugh lay on the cold deck plates, his life bleeding away between his fingers.
Again, Elnor had no words for him. No oath to reassure that Elnor would defend those he left behind, no comfort as Hugh choked out his final instructions. There was a spear through his heart, striking him dumb and breathless, leaving him helpless to do more than desperately press Hugh’s questing palm against his cheek, as if he could somehow cup the guttering candleflame of his life in his hands and protect it.
Hugh died thanking him for a brief moment of hope. Elnor did not even have the words for goodbye.
Elnor had abandoned him, in the end. He pledged his sword to a man who shielded him with his life, and all his vaunted oath was good for was to leave him gasping out his last breaths to a mute fool. That thought, that shame chased him deeper into the ship. He left Hugh’s body there, defenseless. He didn’t know what happened to dead xBs here - were they butchered for the last of their implants, like Seven’s friend? Dumped into some recycling shaft without care or ceremony? Or just left to rot until someone noticed?
These were thoughts to torture himself with, an indulgence he couldn’t afford.
He needed to find another xB and take them to the queencell, as Hugh had said. What would need to be done once there, he didn’t know. He could only hope the xBs would remember the power behind the queencell, as Hugh had.
Even that mission was beyond him, he realized, as klaxons began echoing through the cube. The Zhat Vash knew their quarry now, and they had the advantage. Elnor couldn’t have found his way back through the twists and turns of the ship to the relative safety of the transit conduits, even without this danger at his back. He fled blindly, ducking into whichever shadow or corridor would keep him from sight of the swarming guard patrols.
It was a hunt that went on for hours, until Elnor found himself at a dead end, breathless and exhausted.
No.
He would not end things here, waiting meekly for his capture and death. He pressed his palm to the blank metal, seeking any kind of handhold, trying not to look at the drying streaks of scarlet across his fingers.
The wall shifted under his hand. Elnor leapt away, wide-eyed as the panels retreated into the deck plating, opening the way for him. He didn’t understand… but there was also nowhere else to go. He stepped through and found himself within an incomplete room - the far wall was missing, leaving the room open to a drop that vanished into a depthless gloom and a view of a distant tower of identical alcoves and open walkways, a metallic cliffside crawling with frantic figures.
Elnor went low along the floor; distant or not, he was not going to chance being spotted by his hunters. He pressed himself into the farthest corner, knees drawn up to his chest to make himself as small as he could. The room was dark and bleak as the rest of the cube; the only object within was a desk terminal, the transparent touch screens still active. Technology that was beyond his use.
Elnor bowed his head. He could not give in to despair, he could not make his failure complete. But he could see no way forward, not alone.
A glimmer in the dark caught his eye. A bauble dangled beneath the desk, below the eyeline of anyone standing upright, but within easy reach of whoever would be working the station. A transparisteel “dogtag” bearing the emblem of the Fenris Rangers, identical to the distress beacon Seven had given Picard.
Elnor looked to the desk again, skimming the correspondence on the dimly-lit screens. Saw Hugh’s sign-off at the bottom. His gaze flicked back to the sealed door, then down to the dried blood slowly flaking away from his skin.
Even in death, his rrhadam showed him the way.
He activated the beacon, enfolded it in his stained hands as he curled himself around a fresh wave of grief and anger, and prayed for the strength to endure until help arrived.
Elnor followed in Seven’s wake as they assailed the cube anew, leaving a trail of dead guards to mark their path from the bleak office chamber to the queencell. Elnor didn’t think it was the same way he’d come with Hugh; he was alert for Hugh’s body, but saw no sign, not even blood to mark where he fell. He vowed to find him, if they survived whatever Seven had in mind. If nothing else, his rrhadam would be laid to rest with care and dignity.
He watched as Seven became one with the Artifact, consumed with such awe at the terrible wonder of the sight that even her heartbroken rage and the possibility of his own assimilation couldn’t quell his curiosity.
Seven turned away from his questions with a ghost of the same exasperation that he’d seen on the face of so many of his sisters in the Qowat Milat.
“Annika still has work to do.”
Even the dismissal was familiar enough that he could not suppress a smile. He drew close as she recovered from her severed connection to the xBs, for he was not yet finished with his questions.
“Can you find Hugh? Please?”
When she looked to Elnor this time, her eyes were her own again. He could see she already had an answer for him.
“Follow me.”
Her march out of the queencell was as unerring as the path to it and the journey was brief.
Four xBs stood vigil over Hugh, like the honor guard of a Proconsul lying in state. One crouched beside his body, a tentative hand on his shoulder, as if fearing a firmer touch might somehow do more harm.
They were entirely unlike Seven and Hugh to Elnor’s eyes. All four were chalk-pale, hairless, and encased in black exo-armor. The scars marking the former sites of their implants were so fresh that they seemed more wounded than healing. The slightest of them was missing their arm below the elbow. They were so vulnerable, so forlorn, that Elnor wondered if they had gone looking for Hugh on their own or if Seven had deliberately directed them away from the fighting.
Seven went to one knee beside Hugh’s body, gently displacing the worried xB. Hugh still had one hand to his throat; Seven pulled it carefully away, revealing unmarked skin darkened by a smear of blood.
Elnor’s heart leapt. “He… Seven? Is he...?”
She shook her head.
Hugh’s eyes stared up at nothing, blank and glassy. Elnor remembered standing at Hugh’s side among the slaughtered xBs, surrounded by those empty gazes. He remembered the oath he’d never given voice to. He looked away as hot tears blurred his vision.
“You idiot,” Seven murmured. It took Elnor a moment to realize the words were for Hugh. Gently, more gently than Elnor would have believed of her, she closed his eyes. “You gave them too much.”
The smallest of the xBs crouched beside Seven, gripped the sleeve of her jacket urgently with their good hand.
“Hugh must not die.”
The words were spoken with a mechanical reverberance, but none could have mistaken the beseeching tone as they (“she”, Elnor realized) pleaded with the only authority left to her for the life of her friend.
Seven flashed the xB an intense look, then turned back to Hugh.
“We’ll see. Help me get him to the Grey Zone infirmary.”
Seven and the other three xBs lifted Hugh’s body like spear bearers at a funeral procession and moved into the gloom of the corridor. The smallest trailed at their heels. Elnor fell into place on the same side as her maimed arm, alert to danger, his heart drumming in his chest with barely contained hope.