dropped the next two. And, again, two more explosions seconds later.

“Man! They still haven't slowed down!” cried Boris.

It was true. The Borg cube quickly recovered from the blasts and were only getting closer. Finally Boris said “Save the last mine. Kaltag, begin firing phasers back at them. See if that will slow them down any.”

Minutes later, it still hadn't. The only effect it had made was wearing down the phaser power. “Dang!” shouted Boris. “Can this day get any worse?” A rhetorical question, of course, but it was soon answered. Moments later, the Borg began firing forward at the Defiant.

“Dang! Steele, all power to engines and rear shields! We've got to outrun these freaks!”

Back on the Borg ship, a completely different conversation was taking place. Balto had been tied down to an odd looking table-thingy, and various Borg were walking around him, doing things. What though, Balto couldn't tell. Eventually, a different Borg walked up to him. A female. Ah, thought Balto. That must be the Borg queen. “What do you want with me? Why don't you just assimilate me and get it over with?”

“Because,” said the queen “We don't want you in our collective. Granted, we could get your entire specie's information, because you are the first of your kind we've gotten. But we have a much better purpose in mind for you.”

“And just what is that?” asked Balto.

“We want you to be the next Locutus. I presume you've heard of him. You know him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. We've tried twice to get one, both from the Enterprise, but both times we've failed. Now we've got you.”

“Who was the second attempt?”

“Lieutenant Data. Heard of him?”

“Yes, but I have one question. Why me?”

“Because it fits in with our plan better.”

“What... what's your... plan?”

“I guess I can tell you, because you'll soon be one of us. We long knew of that wormhole of yours, but it leads from the Gamma quadrant to the Alpha quadrant. We, however, are from the Delta quadrant. But then, we found a stable wormhole that leads from the Delta quadrant to the Gamma. We realized we could then travel from our quadrant to yours in seconds. Those ten cubes we sent we the first of our invasion. We have four dozen more cubes coming. And after the battle we had with your fleet a year ago we realized we could crush your entire quadrant with that many cubes.”

“You're planning to take over the entire Alpha Quadrant?” Balto asked in horror.

“Absolutely. And don't think you'll be able to stop us. Remember, even if you somehow manage to defeat the cubes already there, and the four dozen coming, we still have hundreds more we could bring.” Balto began panicking. It was bad enough they were turning him into one of them, they were going to use him to help destroy the Alpha Quadrant! He just couldn't imagine personally assimilating his crew and his friends. With that, he decided he was getting out of there, no matter what happened!

The Defiant finally arrived at a Star Base. Boris said to Kaltag “Quickly open a channel with the Star Base!” As soon as the channel was opened, Boris said “I'm commander Boris from the Iditarod! We've got a Borg cube on our tail! We need assistance immediately!”

The man on the screen said “I'm sending our four most powerful ships right now. What condition are you in?”

“Bad! We've got one torpedo left, phaser power is drained, shields are at 12%, and life support systems are failing!”

“Dock immediately! And the ships are on their way.”

“Um.. I've got a stupid request. Could you not destroy the cube? Our captain is on it.” At that point the view screens in both the Star Base and the Defiant switched to a view inside the Borg ship. Boris almost choked when he saw Balto with machinery on him. He had been assimilated! Balto then said “I am Locutus of Borg. Lower your shields and prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”

“This is bad.” said Mel.

“I told you, four ships won't be enough to stop that thing!” said Boris. They had docked the Defiant at the Star Base, and Boris was now arguing with the Commander Bryon there. The cube had basically laid siege to the Base. It had just stopped in front of it and stayed there. Bryon wanted to send out the four ships he had promised to Boris, but Boris was now having second thoughts. It had wrecked the Defiant just destroying two of them, so Bryon thought that four ships could certainly handle one, but these ships weren't designed to fight the Borg. Finally Steele said “Look, we need to get a fleet to DS9, so wouldn't it be best to just risk it?”

Boris couldn't believe his ears. “Weren't you the one who wanted us to get the captain back?”

“Yes, but it doesn't make any sense just sitting here! We need to save the people on DS9, even if it means destroying the ship our captain is on.”

Boris sighed. “You're right. Commander Bryon, send out your ships. And also, get your fastest ship and go get a fleet large enough to take on nine Borg cubes!”

While Bryon's ship went for help, Steele made a plan. He began explaining it to the crews of the ships. “Boris, Kodiak, and I will board the cube, grab our captain, and beam back to the Defiant. As soon as we are off, you attack. We'll ready the Defiant and join you. It's a simple enough plan, so I assume you understand. Go!” While the crews went to their ships, Steele and Boris began briefing Kodiak as to how to handle Borg. Steele said “You stay on a frequency on your phaser until the Borg adapt. When they do, change frequency. When you've used all your frequencies, you'll have to switch to hand-to-hand, but be careful. Borg are strong.”

By time they boarded the cube, Kodiak was good and freaked out. But Boris said “Don't worry. Borg only attack when you threaten them. But when 'Locutus' saw them, he ordered all the Borg to attack. “So much for that theory.” said Steele, and for the next five minutes, they were stuck playing cat-and-mouse with the Borg. When they finally found Balto, the Borg had adapted to every frequency of every phaser they had. And they were closing in. Steele shouted “Grab him! I'll hold them off!” Kodiak and Boris grabbed Balto, and were about to run when they saw Steele swarming with Borg. “Just go!” he shouted. “You've got him! Don't worry about me! Just get back to the ship!” Then the Borg realized 'Locutus' had been captured, and they went after him. Boris and Kodiak had no other choice. Before they beamed back, Boris caught a glimpse of Steele getting something injected into his neck.

Back aboard the Defiant, Boris saw all the ships in attack position. Boris gave the order to attack. A few minutes later, the cube exploded. As Boris watched the explosion, all he could think about was Steele, still on the cube.

In the Sick Bay, Balto was on a bed recovering from surgery. Most of the machinery had been removed, but some parts had to be left so he could survive. His right arm, which was cut off when he was assimilated, was replaced with a robotic arm, but Boris had insisted it be covered with realistic artificial skin. And also, his right eye was also robotic, with a little machinery above it (basically he looked like 7 of 9, only he was a dog and he wasn't as cute). Balto slowly woke up. Doc and Boris were sitting beside him. “What happened?” he asked.

Boris told him the story about how him, Kodiak and Steele went to rescue him. Balto asked “Are they alright?”

“Uh... Kodiak got away fine, but Steele stayed behind so we could escape.” Boris told him that story too, including that the cube was destroyed.

Balto was silent for a while. He finally said “Odd. I was always under the impression he didn't like me. He really did that?”

“Yes.”

Balto said no more. Boris then began explaining their plan to get back to DS9. Suddenly Balto said “No! That won't work! Before I was assimilated the queen told me their plan!” Then it was Balto's turn to tell a story. He told them about the Borg's plan. Then he said “I know how we can stop them.”

“How?” Boris asked eagerly.

“You won't like it at all. We need to collapse the wormhole.”

Boris couldn't believe it. “How do we do that?”

“How many mines do we have left?” asked Balto.

“One.”

“We chuck it down the wormhole's throat, then detonate it!”

DS9 was in terrible condition. Parts of two pylons were blown off, and the Borg had begun boarding. And, to make things worse, the Borg had adapted to everything they had, and over half the station had been assimilated. The only person who wasn't fighting off the Borg was Morn, who was still drinking. Sisko was fending off a Borg in Ops when Dax said “Sir, there's some ships coming in!”

Sisko knocked over the Borg and looked at the screen where he saw a massive fleet of Federation ships.

“The crazy dog actually did it!” he said.

Soon the huge fleet began beaming men onto DS9 to help get rid of Borg, then the ships went after the cubes. All of them, that is, except the Defiant. It flew straight through the battle and toward the wormhole. When it was just close enough to open it, Balto ordered the ship to stop. Boris asked why, and Balto said “To wait for the Borg army to enter.”

“But... how are we supposed to know when that is?” asked Doc.

“You aren't. I am. I was one of them, remember? Wait.”

So they waited. “Um,” asked Star. “Why are we going to wait for the fleet to enter the wormhole?”
“ Because if we do it now, it will just collapse the wormhole. If we wait until they enter, it will destroy the fleet.”

They continued waiting.

“NOW!” shouted Balto. The mine went flying into the open mouth of the wormhole. Soon thereafter there was a loud explosion. “You hear that boys?” asked Balto. “That's the sound of the Alpha Quadrant becoming safe.

It took several days to weed out the remaining Borg, but