05 April 2424 | USS Syl'Tara <NX-97841>, Kateira Suddeth, commanding
"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Of course, it would be the Borg that they would be rushed to. Captain Suddeth let off a sharp reply in expletive-laced Hyskari before closing communications. The 'Tara was one hell of a ship, but she was not meant for this. Not yet. "Helm, bring us to bearing one-sixty-five mark fifty-seven. Let's go over and under, see if we can't catch them off target!"
By the time the quick "aye!" came from her helm officer, the captain sometimes humorously known as Captain Speedeth was already on her orders to Tactical to raise both shield bubbles and prepare the modulating phased cutter beams, and she even had Engineering spool up the slipstream drive in case they needed to beat a hasty retreat. It was only after all of this that she finally turned to her comms officer. "Lieutenant deSoto, dispatch a subspace message to Starfleet Command: we have engaged the Borg and require immediate assistance."
Kateira Suddeth was the right woman to command this anti-Borg ship. She knew, particularly after the still-painful trauma of the events on her homeworld twenty-three years ago, how long the odds were against the 'Tara holding the Borg here, particularly in the ship's present condition. She also knew how determined her crew would be to see the mission through, and she knew that she had the finest crew in the fleet - no matter what the Enterprise-F and her captain may claim.
She may have been the right woman for the job, but it would turn out to be a case of being in the absolute worst place at the absolute worst time for Captain Kateira Suddeth and her experimental ship.
15 May 2426 | Starfleet Command, San Francisco, Earth
Admiral Alexander M. G. Tucker, known to most of his colleagues as Al, tossed aside a padd in disgust. On it, the final evidence that the ship which had started devastating the outermost colonies was indeed the presumed-destroyed Syl'Tara, greatly altered by the Borg. With a heavy sigh, he finally said "Jesus, Kate." Tucker had made sure she got the 'Tara assignment over quite a few candidates higher on the promotion list. Even Admiral Kim turned it down in favor of her. The two had a working relationship that stretched all the way back to when his ship had made first contact with Hyskara in 2388.
Finally, the time came for the conference of captains he had summoned for the unenviable task of hunting down one of the most powerful Federation ships ever designed, augmented by the technology of one of their most fearsome enemies, and commanded by a captain who, if not by name, they all knew. He scooped the padd he had tossed aside back up before quickly striding out of his office to the briefing room.
As he did, he remained firm in the conviction - comforting to him, though rather macabre on its face - that his colleague and his friend had died in the battle two years ago...