[Mikester92]

{UFP} Short Story Competition - Special Edition
Voting Period Open from the 29th of August to the 10th of September.

The {UFP} Short Story Competition: Special Edition, has now officially ended. Please read over the following six stories and cast your vote in favor of the story you feel deserves the winning prize (please note that the poll data will not be displayed until after the poll expires.) The winner of the competition will obviously go to the person with the most votes, and his/her name will be announced shortly after the voting period ends.

To all those who are competing: good luck, and happy voting to all!

**The stories produced below are all unique works from various members in the fleet, they are therefore not allowed to be reproduced or copied without direct authorization from the writer.

[Mikester92]

Resistance is Futile
Author: TBA

Lieutenant Paul Porter has gone missing, The Enterprise is on full tactical alert, and Federation ships have been dispatched all over Federation space. The Borg Incursion has arrived. As a member of the Enterprise’s security detail you find yourself in the midst of containing a Borg invasion. Lieutenant Porter, your best friend for over 15 years, approaches you - assimilator in place and ready to attack! You decide to...

Yell Porters name, and then I yell it louder and for what seems like a hundred times, "Porter, Porter, PORTER," louder and louder each time. But Porter shows no emotion nor any facial expressions, he looks like he has no idea who I am.

I've never seen Borg before, I've heard horrible stories about the Borg, assimilating whole species, planets and civilizations, Now my best friend in the whole world is a Borg. What am I to do?

Aiming my sniper rifle at Porter's chest, I red sight in on him. Feeling as though I should not fire at him, I say a little prayer for my friend and I fire. Nothing happens, his Borg shield has adapted to my weapon. I quickly reach to re-modulate the weapon.
There is no re-modulator on the weapon, I yell "Holy" feeling a sharp pain in my chest, I fall quickly and pass out from the pain.

The Pain, I am in so much pain. I awake to a bright greenish glow, not being able to move. I can hardly see out of my eyes, the pain is so great, I pass out again.

Voices, thousands of voices, so comforting, like a mothers voice to her newborn baby, Resistance is futile, Resistance is futile....

[Mikester92]

The Sacrifice
Author: TBA

Lieutenant Paul Porter has gone missing, The Enterprise is on full tactical alert, and Federation ships have been dispatched all over Federation space. The Borg Incursion has arrived. As a member of the Enterprise’s security detail I find myself in the midst of containing a Borg invasion. Lieutenant Porter, My best friend for over 15 years, approaches me - assimilator in place and ready to attack.

I pull my phaser rifle over my shoulder and fumble with it trying to reach the trigger, my heart is pounding and my hands are sweaty, making the rifle hard to grip. As my best friend - now Borg drone closes in, I fire, only to find they have adpated, "This is the end" I thought to myself, as the drone picked me up. I felt the coldness of his cybernetic body parts through my uniform, Then i heard the assimilation tubules extened from his arm.

They couldn't have been more than two millimeters my entering my neck, when an explosion on the Enterpirise shook us apart. Suddenly, the borg turned, and headed for engineering. I stood up and ran for the nearest jefferies tube and started climbing to the bridge. About half way towards the bridge i saw a group of other crew members climbing through jefferies tube forty two, "Hey!" I yelled and the last member turned around. "We Got a Survivor here" she shouted to her group, then waved me to come to her.

"Im liuetenant Anders, this is ensign Hayley, thats engineer Adama and thats our medic Roslin" She said while pointing to various members of her group. "Im ensign Vasir" I said,"I was on my way to the Bridge" but before i could say more Anders cut me off. "The Bridge?! Everyone up there is dead or assimilated, We need to get to the shuttle bay and get off this ship!" "Whats going on?" i asked.

Engineer adama looked at me and said in a deep texan voice "That explosion we felt was caused due to the captain and the rest of the bridge crew trying to take back engineering, one of them missed and hit the containment field around warp core we've got about seven minutes before it breeches. The last thing the Captain did was seal off all the borg, and wiped the computer clean, We need to get off this ship before it blows". "LETS MOVE!" shouted lieuteant Anders and we began hurrying to shuttle bay 4. We got there without incident and we all hurried into one of the shuttles.

"We have a problem" said Adama, "We can't open the shuttle bay doors from here", "can we do it manually?" i asked, "Yes but the force field is down, anyone who does it would..." then he was interupted by the computer. "Warp core breach in 2 minutes". "Alright" I said "I'll do it" and I started walking towards the rear of the shuttle. Suddenly we heard thuds on the shuttle. Roslin pulled out her tricorder and began to scan, "We have life signs!" She said, "Adama, Open the shuttle bay do-" and before Anders could finish speaking, Roslin cut in "Im also detecting alot of Cyber... Their borg!". "Warp core breech in 1 minute". "Can you beam me out there Adama?" i asked "Yes, but we only have enough power fore one transport" he said. "No, I'll do it, im the senior officer here its my responsibility" said Anders. As she walked into the shuttles transporter pad.

"Its on a Timer, Beam out in 5... 4... 3...". Then i pulled her out of the way and took her place. "Speak well of me" I said to her as i was beamed out side of the shuttle. i ran to the Manual release of the shuttle bay door. "Warp core breach in 30 seconds" said the computer. "HEY, BORGIES!" i shouted and the borg started to head my way. "Resistance is Futile" I said and pulled the manual realease and grabber on to the ladder. The borg flew out into space. i started taking my last breaths as the shuttle flew off, and i closed the shuttle bay doors. I looked out one of the windows in the shuttle bay and noticed how Beautiful earth was, The clouds, the sea and the land masses, Knowing the sacrifice of the Enterprise and her crew, Even me, had at least delayed the destruction of paradise.

"Warp core breach in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

The End

[Mikester92]

Acting on instinct
Author: TBA

Lieutenant Paul Porter has gone missing, The Enterprise is on full tactical alert, and Federation ships have been dispatched all over Federation space. The Borg Incursion has arrived. As a member of the Enterprise’s security detail I found myself in the midst of containing a Borg invasion. Lieutenant Porter, my best friend for over 15 years, approaches - assimilator in place and ready to attack! I decided to shoot. The Borg adapt quickly and my Starfleet training has taught me there is no time for hesitation. The heat from the phaser burst at max setting at such a close distance was intense and singed the hairs on my hand. Porter’s mechanized flesh melted to what was left of his skin and he fell into the smoke that had gathered on the floor of the Jeffries tube from a nearby damaged power conduit. The red light from his ocular implant pulsed twice and faded.

As I turned back to the deflector control I could hear the actuator servos on his claw prosthesis click and whirr in a slow postmortem spasm. I entered the final sequence to begin the main deflector overload. Weapons and shields have been down for only a few minutes and the Borg have been reported on seven decks including main engineering and the bridge. The last message any of us in my squad had before internal communications went down was to initiate a main deflector overload. I was the only one to make it this far and it was up to me to input the command sequence. The overload would send out a massive Antiproton shockwave that would hopefully destroy or incapacitate the Borg cube. It would most certainly destroy the deflector in the process and this section of the hull. “Thirty-five seconds till charged” the computer said matter-of-factly. There was no room for error. I couldn’t take the risk that a drone would beam over and shut down the deflector once they detected the buildup.

The smoke began to clear and the actuator clicking had ceased. I looked at Porter’s face and focused on the half I recognized. Through his pale skin I could see his new blue Borg veins and wondered if they had changed the color of his blood. “Twenty-eight seconds”. His left eye was open and his lips were pale and expression-less. I shot him in his heart without thinking - as I had been trained to do. It didn’t occur to me until I saw the phaser wound on his corpse that it was a few centimeters from the scar. “Twenty seconds.” I double checked the configuration of the deflector dish. Porter took a Bat’leth cleave meant for me right to his sternum on a planet in the Laurentian system. The Klingon’s weapon cleaved through the phaser-rifle he had raised to block it and the blade landed in his chest. I turned and shot the Klingon without thinking that day too out of instinct and training. But Porter’s decision to jump in front of that blow was not an involuntary response. It was bravery, pure and simple. “Fifteen-seconds.” It was his dedication to his friends and shipmates that made him volunteer for the dangerous shuttlecraft patrol to map the recent Borg incursions. The last time I saw him was three days ago. When he was reported missing yesterday there had been no time for grief. We were already in battle with a Borg sphere. “Ten-seconds.” I tapped my com-badge to see if communications had been restored. They hadn’t. Porter once told me that it wasn’t enough to simply exist. A person has to live life with purpose. Porter’s purpose had always ever been in service to others. “Five-seconds.” I gently slid closed his eye-lid with my fingertips. “Four.” I imagine if he could he would have forgiven me… “Three”… for acting on instinct and training… “Two” … when I saw him advance upon me with his assimilation module…. “One” … and killed my best friend.

[Mikester92]

An old school approach to the Borg
Author: TBA

The alarms are relentless. Intruder alerts are broadcasting non-stop from all decks of Enterprise-F warning the Borg have beamed aboard. There aren’t enough security personnel to handle an invasion of this magnitude and if that wasn’t bad enough, some of the crew has already been taken and assimilated, stacking the odds against us even more.

This scene is being repeated on Federation ships all across the galaxy. Our worst nightmare has become reality. The Borg have returned.

While all of this may seem daunting, for me it gets even worse. Just ahead I can see Hawk, my best friend since childhood. Although I can recognize him, it’s no longer really Hawk. He is now one of the Borg.
OK, so his real name isn’t Hawk, it’s Paul Porter and he is a Starfleet lieutenant and like me, assigned to the security team aboard Enterprise. That is, he was before the Borg snatched Hawk from the ship and turned him into…into THIS. Seeing him now as a drone causes me to grow even angrier than I already was.
Hawk got the nickname because of his ability to shoot. His aim has been deadly accurate for as long as I can remember. We used to go hunting together back home in the Georgia foothills, and I can’t once remember Hawk ever missing his target. At first the nickname was Hawkeye, but eventually it was shortened to just Hawk, and it stuck.

As I watch him methodically make his way down the corridor, my mind goes back to the days we spent on Earth playing humans and aliens. I can’t help but think of the irony because Hawk always wanted to play the part of the alien, even though he knew the humans always won. I can’t help but wonder if the humans will win this time, and at what cost.

This was the opportunity I had awaited, although my best friend was not supposed to be the guinea pig. I knew one day I would meet the Borg. I also realized it could become necessary to subdue a drone without killing it and set out to devise such a method. My research told me this would work, but what if it didn’t. I would be killing my best friend.

I reached to the rear of my utility belt and grasped a squared off unit that vaguely resembled a pistol. The black unit had a grip and trigger like a pistol but the barrel was large and square with no cylinder for the projectile. It was old. Very old. In fact the unit dated back to the 20th century.
As Hawk drew near and raised the probe with which he planned to assimilate me, I pointed and fired. Two barbs attached to wires shot from the unit, hitting Hawk squarely in the shoulder. He began to shake violently, then fell to the ground, motionless.

I checked for more drones, then raced to where Hawk lay. A quick check for vital signs told me he was still alive.

Lifting Hawk in my arms, I headed to a nearby turbolift in route to sickbay. I knew Doc could fix him up. It had been done before and was now common knowledge in Starfleet. We simply had to neutralize the upper-spinal column neurotransceiver. From there, the implants, or at least most of them, could be surgically removed. With a little luck he would be Hawk again.

In sickbay I was asked how I subdued Hawk and explained it to Doc. The captain was called to sickbay and I retold the account to him. “It’s a primitive 20th Century weapon they called a Taser,” I said. “It basically shoots a few thousand volts of electricity through a human body, interrupting the nervous system. In this case I was also hoping it would interrupt the neurotranceiver. Looks like it worked on both accounts.”

“Good job, Lieutenant, but what if it hadn’t worked? That’s your best friend,” said the captain.

Smiling, I told the captain, “Well, sir, I would have asked him first but figured I’d get that same old “resistance is futile” spill, so I made the decision for him. Besides, I’ve known Hawk a long time. I think he’d have done the same for me if the roles were reversed.”

“Most decks are reporting success in repelling the Borg attack, Lieutenant, but you are still needed to finish the job. I suggest you return to duty as quickly as possible until the job is finished.”

“Understood, sir. On my way.”

As the captain returned to the bridge, I turned, looked down at Hawk, and smiled. “Well, buddy, this is just like playing out in the yard back home in Georgia. Looks like the humans have beaten the aliens once again.”

[Mikester92]

A Final Task
Author: TBA

Lieutenant Paul Porter has gone missing, The Enterprise is on full tactical alert, and Federation ships have been dispatched all over Federation space. The Borg Incursion has arrived. As a member of the Enterprise’s security detail you find yourself in the midst of containing a Borg invasion. Lieutenant Porter, your best friend for over 15 years, approaches you - assimilator in place and ready to attack! You decide to...

As the tears welled up in his eyes, Commander Logan raised his compression rifle and fired, hitting Porter square in the chest. His mind raced, dredging up every single situation where Borg drones had been recovered from the collective, but he knew deep down that Porter was too far gone. Barely anything remained of his friend, his organs having been replaced by biomechanical implants. Logan looked deeply into Porter's eyes as the drone's knees crumpled. Individuality flourished behind the single visible biological eye, and then extinguished, the last spark of life leaving the body.

"Goodbye Paul..." Logan whispered to himself. The words were lost amid the shrill alarms and screams echoing down the corridors.

Logan looked around and took in the scene around him. The harsh red lights illuminated the bodies of his fellow crew members, lying in different states of transformation. He could see implants sprouting from his shipmates at an alarming rate, as they succumbed to the nanoprobes which were rapidly taking over the USS Enterprise. He silently cursed the Admirals at Starfleet Intelligence who had brought this fate upon them.

A week ago the Enterprise had been given a mission of the highest priority. The ship was to be used as an isolated labratory, a safe place to study some advanced Borg nanoprobes which had been discovered on the hull of the USS Voyager after it had returned from the Delta Quadrant through the Borg Transwarp Conduits. The mission had been proceeding safely, until a subspace signal - apparently white noise - was recieved from the Delta Quadrant. That was when all hell broke loose.

Logan began limping towards Engineering, ignoring the pleading eyes and hoarse cries from the fallen around him. He needed to complete one last task before he succumbed. He could already hear the faint whisper of the collective calling him, a seductively sweet melody of voices. He could feel the nanoprobes crawling through his skin, changing him cell by cell.

The nanoprobes - they were the key to the demise of the Enterprise. They had been dormant when they had been discovered, leading the scientists researching them to relax in their containment protocols. If they had known the power these nanoprobes possessed . . . but it wouldn't have mattered. The subspace signal activated them, and they multiplied. They breached every single security protocol that could be set in place, and still they multiplied. They were agressive unlike anything ever seen before, advanced beyond the current abilities of the Borg. A trap perhaps, set by the Borg from Admiral Janeway's future, brought along with her shuttlecraft onto the waiting USS Voyager.

As Logan turned into Engineering, he could hear the voices of the collective clearly now. They were strong, and he was merely one voice among the many. He screamed at the multitudes, daring them to stay away, but his voice was carried away by the storm, the thoughts of the others. It took every ounce of his strength to enter the commands into the console, and confirm with his authorization. He heard the hum of the forcefield fall away.

"ASSIMILATE THIS!"

As he fell to his knees, Logan levelled his compression rifle at the Warp Core, and fired.

[Mikester92]

Preparation...
Author: TBA

Lieutenant Paul Porter had gone missing, The Enterprise was on full tactical alert, and Federation ships had been dispatched all over Federation space.

The Borg Incursion had arrived.
As a member of the Enterprise’s security detail i found myself in the midst of containing a Borg invasion. Lieutenant Porter, my best friend for over 15 years, approached me - assimilator in place and ready to attack!

I decided to...

...do what I knew, what I hoped, he would have done for me in the same situation. I flipped up the phaser rifle’s power-setting to maximum and took aim. Through the sight i looked at what had become of my good friend and pain shot through the very core of my soul.

Even his eyes, which had always radiated with the same intensity with which he lived his live, were dark, greenish, and devoid of any life. Nothing remained in them that was Paul Porter. He was already dead.

As i was about to press the firing stud though an angry red beam lashed out from behind and to the left of me striking Paul between the eyes.

A second later, the corpse of the now truly dead Lieutenant fell to the ground, smoke rising from the hole in his head.

Looking over my shoulder i saw Lieutenant Daniels lowering his rifle, while scanning the corridor ahead for more targets. Then, satisfied we had a moment at least, he looked at me with a sad expression.

I knew lieutenant Daniels was aware Paul and I had been friends since before we applied for the Academy, and I assumed he thought I would have hesitated shooting Paul myself if he hadn’t.

As i opened my mouth to assure him i would have, he cut me off raising his hand. “I know Ensign. I have no doubt you would have done your duty. But i was forced to shoot a good friend once... “ he said, not finishing the sentence.

He didn’t have to. “Thank you” i said softly, casting one last look at the corpse, letting the anger replace the sadness i was feeling. Lt. Daniels walked passed me into the corridor ahead checking his rifle’s charge.

“We’ve got orders to make our way to engineering. It is the most valuable target for the Borg and we are ordered to defend it at any cost.” He said looking back at me, any emotion that had been there moments ago gone, his face cold with determination.

“Aye sir!!” I said, snapping to attention with my rifle ready for action. With a nod of acknowledgement he turned around and cautiously walked on into the dimly lit corridor.

Checking my rifle’s charge once more and taking out the tricorder in my free hand i followed him. The tricorder didn’t provide me with much information. It showed the outlines of the corridor and two dots in the approximate middle of the tiny screen: me and the Lieutenant.

“They must have set up some kind of dampening field sir. Tricorder’s not picking up anything beyond a few meters.” i told my commanding officer.

“I know Ensign. Put the Tricorder away and rely on your own sensssss...” Lt. Daniels said, but stopped mid-sentence, just as he stopped moving.

Startled at the suddenness of his halt I stopped moving as well and in the ensuing silence I heard whirring noises that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Then he keeled over and hit the floor like a ragdoll. Stunned my view went down with his body and when I looked up from his fallen corpse, I was just in time to see a green bolt of energy scream towards me.

Instinct was all that kept me from dying that second, just as the Lt. had seconds before. From around the corner at the end of the corridor a prosthetic artificial arm with a weapon attached to it fired again and again at me forcing me to leap backwards first and then sideways into a door opening which had luckily been jammed open.

I landed on something soft, rolled with the motion of my fall and came up in a crouch with my weapon pointed at the doorway.

Vaguely a thought on how good Starfleet training was passed in and out of consciousness before my brain allowed my eyes to send through the image of the scene into which i had leaped.

The room i had jumped into had been one of the smaller crew mess halls that were located in several places throughout the Enterprise-E, and clearly the Borg had already been there.

Several corpses, mauled so badly not even the Borg with their nannites and their technology could make use of them, lay scattered and splattered on the floor and behind a pile of furniture.

A thick oozing layer of red, pink and green blood covered every inch of the floor, and now myself as well.. I came close to losing the content of my stomach at that moment but the sound of the approaching drones snapped me out of it.

The whirring of their servo’s, the thumping of their heavy footsteps, the piercing green beams from their ocular implants zipping across the door-opening all pounded on my consciousness to bring me to a state of hyper-awareness.

Never before had i been aware of so much at one time. Time slowed to a crawl to me at that time. Even before my consciousness was aware of it i pulled out the handy work me and Paul had worked on in our spare time since when we heard the Borg were coming.

I put my finger through the metal ring on the top of the Apple sized device and pulled. The pin attached to the ring came free and released a spring mechanism that ejected the safety from the device. This activated a timed detonator inside the device. Sprinting to the farthest corner of the room i counted off the seconds...

Step step step step step…

1....
Borg drones start filing through the door...

2....
I Jump over and behind the pile of tables and chairs landing on my knees...

3....
Raise my hand holding the device and taking aim for the doorway with the Borg…

4....
Throw.... The device making a nice arc across the room towards the Borg...

5...
Duck down behind the tables and chairs, arms covering my head...

time seemed to slow down even more, coming to a virtual halt just so my mind could think ridiculous thoughts…

Somehow in the course of ducking down for cover i imagined the Borg looking oddly and confused at what i had thrown into their midst.

I imagined their scanners searching for energy signatures inside it and finding none...

i imagined them wondering about the object and scanning its composition. I imagined their eyes go wide as they realized...

<<<BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!>>>

The explosion that ripped through the room was devastating in every way.

The blast wave hit the stack of tables and chairs I was crouching down behind and pushed it towards the far wall behind me, not effected by my presence.

Only the fact that the open doorway was closer to the explosion than i was kept the force behind the blast from squashing me between the pile and the wall.

The blast hit me hard enough to fill my vision with hundreds of fireflies and empty my lungs of all the air in it.

For what seemed like forever i frantically fought to remain conscious, start breathing again, and see through the fireflies and the dusty smoke from the blast.

As it turned out my vision cleared before the cloud from the blast did and my lungs sucked in the acrid smoke along with the much appreciated oxygen from the air. Only by sheer force of will was i able to keep myself from coughing and pushing away at the debris that was covering me in panic.

I knew that if any of the drones was still functioning, it might be a good idea not to appear on its sensors before i knew where it was and was able to defend myself again.

I grinned involuntarily at the devastation the handmade grenade me and Paul had put together in preparation for this confrontation with the Borg. It had been Paul’s idea, and that thought was more than a little gratifying.

Hearing nothing i dared shifting my position a bit so i could look past the debris and saw that nothing more substantial than dust and rubble was left in the room. Where the Borg had been a large gap in the floor revealed the piping and wiring running between decks and the doorway had been enlarged into a round gaping hole in the wall.

This allowed me a look into the corridor from which the Borg had come but nothing seemed to move there either.

I pushed away the debris pinning me down and to the wall and managed to get onto my feet surprisingly quickly. Searching for my rifle didn’t take long either.

After checking the rifle for damage and trying in vain to beat the dirt and blood off from my uniform I took another good look at the devastation around me and grinned stupidly once more at the thought of this being Paul’s final payback for what they had done to him.

In the backpack I had on my back there were 9 more of the grenades and I was confident that at least two or three of them would prove effective before the Borg found a way to adapt to them.

As I was about to cautiously head back out of the ruins of the mess hall my heart stopped at the surprisingly loud sound coming from the Delta pinned to my chest.

“Lieutenant Commander deuZige report to transporter room 3 for immediate away team duty.” The beheaded voice of the ship’s chief of Security, Lt. Daniels, barked.

I blinked twice, as the intrusion of real life into the virtual world I had immersed myself in became complete and I answered the order.

“Aye sir, on my way” I said, and then dropped the phaser rifle.

“Computer, end program” I ordered looking up as if that’s where the computer’s “ears” were. Instantly the gory scene of the destroyed mess hall disappeared and was replaced by a yellow grid.

Behind me a door opened offering passage into the corridor outside. With one more sigh I stepped out and headed for the turbo-lift. In it I found Paul heading in the same direction.

“You’ve been picked for this one too huh?” he asked me lightly. “Yup..” I replied adding; “Be careful Paul, those Borg are nasty pieces of machinery. When they…” he held up his hand to cut me off.

“We have beaten them once, and we will do so again. Don’t worry, just have faith in your training, and besides… we’ve got some surprises for them when things get really bad don’t we?” he said, finishing the statement with a wink.

His eyes shone with the confidence and determination he lived his life with daily. With a sigh I nodded as the turbo lift opened and we walked to the transporter room.

Waiting for us there was the security detail we were member of and which was tasked with boarding the USS-Enterprise E to assist its crew in defending the Federation’s flagship from Borg intruders….

The end (to be continued?)

[deuZige]

Wauw the level of all entries is awesome!! I wasn't even tempted to vote for myself!!

[Stormy]

The talent level in this fleet is pretty high. Anyone who wins a competition here has worked for the win.

[Caymen Greener]

All of these authors need to be in the Simm game if not already. Speaking of which, maybe I need to enter one of these contests some day...

Caymen

[Stormy]

You may enter as soon as you return from Tatooine.... provided you do not get assimilated first. Resistance is futile.

[deuZige]

-,- Resistance is fun!

[XanderP]

I'd just like to say well done to all of the writers. These are all great.

[Kyuusaku]

Excellent turn-ins by all. I'm really saddened that my vote can only be for /one/ entry.

Kyuu

[mihajlo]

These are all great but A Final Task is my favorite