The Search for Apples [part 18] - Mission Complete

T'Kala's Final Personal Log

Perhaps most unnerving was the realization that my mind was no longer just mine; it was part of a larger collective.  Yet, the most settling of this deprivation of individuality is that one is surrounded by other minds that have already gone through such an experience.  Thus, after accepting it, I felt comfort in knowing I now shared a consciousness with others.  In the academy, I felt torn in two directions: my human side wanting to rebel, my Vulcan side craving order and discipline.  There, within the minds of those stranded on the surface of this demon planet, I felt at ease... perhaps for the first time.  There was order and chaos, a union of biology and machine.  If this was to be my fate, I decided it was one that had been exaggerated, perhaps by human fear of loosing one's self.

Individual thought and emotion converted itself to data, flowing into the collective conscious I was now apart of; and yet, it didn't.  Somehow within the collective, there was a sanctuary, a "safe" area, isolated and bordered off from the rest of the consciousnesses of the drones.  I followed the binary wave to this place - to the safe harbor of this small shack.  Eva guided me here - she had saved me both from the physical limitations of my biology on this Demon planet, as well as saving my conscious from the allure of the collective.

Our link provided all I could convey and all she was sent here to do.  Within nano-seconds, I understood her mission and its importance to all of our futures, and I realized my part in the scheme of fate.  At once, we were one being... a melding of minds.  I felt the emotions she felt for Devon and Kabrina and knew she felt my feelings for them as well.  I felt such strong emotions for Tryn - a being I have never met, and a deep love I've never allowed myself to feel.  What I saw in Eva changed me forever.  I stared into her ocular implants as she came closer to my face and felt relief when she smiled at me.

I knew what she needed me to do but felt such sorrow in my heart for what she had to do for us all; and for the first time I can remember, tears streamed down my face.  Eva slowly wiped them away as the tubules extended from her other hand and inserted themselves into my neck.  Instantly, I felt the rush of the advanced Borg nanites flow into my being and start transmitting out past Eva's firewall.  Their instruction set would set the Borg drones into a self-repair status, eventually allowing them to leave this planet and join the greater Borg collective.  There, the advanced nanite instructions would set the Borg back in their quest for perfection and stop them from destroying everything in the attempt to do so.

Eva was sent back to deliver this crippling blow to the enemy that had assimilated the future, and it was a journey only one from her lineage - a lineage of genetic manipulation traced back to the Eugenics Wars - could make.  Tryn had known this about her, whether Eva realized it herself or not.  After salvaging enough parts from the Borg to create a trans-dimensional warp conduit, then collapsing it to create the rift in space-time, only he was able to successfully navigate to the correct point in time - and only she was able to make the trip.  How he found her and how he was able to navigate the time continuum was a mystery to Eva, but their love... that was genuine.  He gave her something she needed for this journey: a piece of his powerful mind and what's more... He gave her hope; and that's all she'd ever had on this mission: hope.  And now, I feel (actually feel) hope for our own future.  This gift, among many others, Eva Api-Lyron bestowed upon me.

The nanite rush began to subside, from a roar to a trickle.  Mission complete, Eva's organic components began to degenerate, as mine did the opposite.  My mobility back, I sat up and came to catch Eva's failing body.  She looked up at me and smiled a quiet smile, before I could no longer hear her voice.  The silence in the cabin was deafening.  I could no longer hear the collectiveness, no matter how hard I tried to reconnect.  This, was Eva's last and final act: she disabled my cortical transceiver and gave my soul back to me.



Only after many counseling sessions have I come to an acceptance with my individuality.  I still retain some mannerisms and colloquialisms I gained from my time in the collective, and they do resurface from time to time (my mother hates them!)...  My mother...  Through this ordeal she has been by my side, reminding me of the Vulcan teachings and mental exercises.  In some ways, I feel this entire complexly interwoven adventure has been for the sole purpose of bringing my mother and I closer.  In any case, my mother has welcomed her half-Vulcan, half-human, half-Borg daughter back into her life and I've discovered adhering to my Vulcan upbringing beneficial to my recovery.


Half-Borg: Something (that while initially terrifying) has yielded opportunities I never believed would have happened.  I've become quite a commodity in the scientific community as a 'liberated drone' (their term, not my own).  And I have even been working at the Daystrom Institute with Seven of Nine - one of the first liberated Borg.  With Star Fleet now understanding more about how the Borg assimilate drones due to the techniques Eva used on me, they are now been able to revive and liberate more captured individuals.

Despite my attempts to ascertain information on the Temperal Department of Investigation, no more relevant has been forthcoming.  I believe their involvement in this matter has been concluded, although, sometimes I feel as though my actions are being watched.  And so, Eva's gift to the galaxy remains largely unknown.  I do believe she would have wanted it that way.  Cautiousness of the timeline not withstanding, Eva Api-Lyron set out what she meant to do, whether anyone knows it or not:

She saved us all from a horrible fate, and gave us hope for the future...