And she was wearing a Starfleet cadet’s uniform. Today, Vaughn recalled, was to be her first day at Starfleet Academy. Searching his soul, Vaughn realized that he felt somewhat ambivalent about his daughter’s career choice. Was she flattering him? Trying to emulate him? Or was he simply upset by yet another reminder that his inability to say no to Starfleet had made him an absentee father? Vaughn never had any doubt that Ruriko understood him, or had at least learned to love him in spite of whatever grave character flaw kept returning him to the field.

Vaughn reached out and touched the image of his daughter. How he longed to talk to her. To congratulate her for passing the Academy’s stringent entrance exams. To offer her periodic encouragement and sympathy over the next four grueling years.

If only this mission didn’t require subspace radio silence.

Ruriko, who had always been more than just the job, had been able to walk away from the field. Vaughn knew that he could not, at least not until death or senescence made the question moot.

He sincerely hoped that Prynn would take after her mother in that regard as well.

Uridi’si,

2369 Old Calendar

Vaughn stood on the bridge of the U.S.S. T’Plana-Hath,beside the captain’s chair—the chair that his departed friend T’Prynn might have occupied by this point in her career, had she lived. On the viewer, Uridi’si’s two suns had just risen above the planet’s limb, painting the oceans every imaginable shade of green and blue.

Captain Sotak turned his chair toward the tactical officer. “Is the A.I. still contained within the planet’s magnetosphere?”

The young woman at the tactical station displayed the no-nonsense attitude Vaughn had come to regard as typical of Vulcans who’d had little experience around humans. “The subspace jamming satellites are functioning normally, Captain. The U.S.S. Valkyrie,orbiting at antipodes, confirms this as well. The cyberentity cannot leave the planet’s magnetic field lines. At least, not via subspace channels.”

“Very good,” Sotak said, swiveling his chair toward Vaughn. “Commander, this is your mission. How would you like to proceed?”

“We need to destroy the physical substrate the A.I. is using to run its computational cycles,” Vaughn said. “Have your engineers found a way around the force field the thing has thrown up around itself?”

“Negative,” Sotak said. “Not without compromising the safety of the several hundred people who are trapped inside the mining station dome.”

Vaughn silently cursed the mining station’s force fields, though he understood well the need for such strong defenses so close to the Cardassian border. Orion pirate raids were also a recurring problem in this sector.

But he also knew that the situation was far from hopeless. “Commander Tenmei has been working on an alternative way around the A.I.’s defenses, Captain.”

The turbolift whooshed open at that moment, depositing Ruriko onto the bridge. She was back in uniform for the first time in two decades, now that Prynn had emptied the nest by enrolling at Starfleet Academy. Vaughn could see that the job and its accoutrements still fit her well. Except for the gray in her hair and the stiff-collar design of her uniform, it was as though the intervening years had never occurred.

Ruriko took her place beside Vaughn and the captain. “After all these years it’s hard to believe that we’ve got to take down Cren Veruda’s A.I. all over again.”

“I still have to wonder why it’s reconstituted itself only now,” Vaughn said.

“I suspect we’re dealing with a single rogue copy of the software matrix,” Ruriko said, “which has been contained in an isolated system until very recently. Something must have changed that, and now it’s growing again like kudzu. And since it’s essentially an artificial life-form, it has an instinct for survival. It’ll seize control of every computer it can reach if we let it.”

Vaughn scowled. “When we didn’t hear from the thing for thirty years after the first time we disabled it, I sort of assumed we’d seen the last of it.”

“Obviously not,” Sotak said.

Ruriko nodded. “An artificial intelligence capable of networking itself across the subspace bands is also capable of secreting copies of itself in unexpected places. Say, within the computer of a freighter on its way to the mining station down there.”

It could spread itself across the universe like dandelion seeds on the wind,Vaughn thought. If we’re careless. Or unlucky.

Vaughn noticed a look of surprise on the tactical officer’s face, which she promptly hid behind a wall of Vulcan calm. “I’m detecting a significant fluctuation in the local subspace fields. The disturbance is localized less than fifty thousand kilometers from the planet.”

Sotak’s brows rose in curiosity. “On the screen, Lieutenant.”

The blue-green world vanished from the viewer, replaced by an image of an irregularly shaped vessel which the tactical overlay revealed to be more than twice the length of the T’Plana-Hath.And it was heading toward the planet. A chill seized Vaughn’s soul the moment he saw the alien ship. Beside him, Ruriko stifled a gasp.

“Analysis?” Sotak said.

The tactical officer appeared to be doing her best not to appear frustrated. “The vessel just emerged from some sort of transwarp fissure. But it corresponds to no known configuration.”

“I’ve seen this type of ship before,” Vaughn said.

Ruriko nodded gravely. “Me, too. It’s Borg.”

Maybe we don’t have to be careless,Vaughn thought. But we’re already unlucky.

Both the T’Plana-Hathand the Valkyriewere no match for weaponry of the small Borg vessel. Within minutes of engagement the T’Plana-Hathwas crippled and the Valkyriehad fallen back several thousand kilometers.

Vaughn, Ruriko, and Sotak watched helplessly as the Borg vessel sent a shaft of blinding energy down into the Uridi’sine atmosphere.

“The Borg vessel is linking with the mining station. It appears to be conducting a transfer of data.”

Vaughn realized then that the entire mission was a failure. “Veruda’s brainchild must have somehow made contact with the Borg before we cut off its access to the subspace bands.”

“Why would it wish to draw the attention of the Borg?” Sotak said, clearly puzzled. “The Borg would only seek to assimilate it.”

“Or maybe,” Vaughn said, “the A.I. thinks it’s sophisticated enough to assimilate the Borg.”

“Combining all it knows about Cardassian armaments with the Borg’s most lethal technology,” Ruriko said. “God only knows what a merger like that could do to the Federation.”

“We may already be too late to prevent it,” Sotak observed. “The Borg should be able to upload the A.I. in seconds.”

Ruriko shook her head. “Ordinarily, yes. But the data feed is being attenuated by the mining station’s forcefield. It’s going to take a couple more minutes at least.”

Vaughn looked into Ruriko’s eyes. “Is the prototype ready?”

“Readyis a relative term. Remember, my command telemetry can be jammed the same way we’re jamming the A.I. So I won’t be able to control it remotely. I’ll need to deploy the weapon on-site.”

Vaughn swallowed hard. “Assemble your away team, Ruriko.”

“Already done. Unfortunately, the transporter’s out, so we’ll have to rely on the Valkyriefor our beam-in. And we can’t beam anywhere until we pierce the mining station’s defenses.”

The tactical officer was suddenly as close to beside herself as Vaughn had ever seen a Vulcan get. “The Borg vessel has ceased its data upload.”

So the A.I. has copied itself onto the Borg vessel,Vaughn thought. Very bad.

“And it’s powering up its weapons again!”

Sotak called for a red alert, but it quickly became clear that the T’Plana-Hathwas not the Borg ship’s target.