Preparing For The Enterprise Christmas Party

I assemble the senior staff for a meeting. I'm not sure if they are going to like what I tell them.

"Hello everybody." I start, "At this time, we need to make some arrangements for an event coming up soon."

"It's not the Enterprise Christmas Party is it, Captain?" asks Riker.

"I'm afraid it is, Number One." I answer.

A collective groan comes round from everybody, even Data, and he has his emotion chip turned off.

"I thought you liked the party?" I ask them.

"We do." answers Deanna, "But the preparation seems to take forever, and it is only September."

A murmur of agreement trickles around the room.

"Well, it's best if we can sort these things out early." I tell them, "We have to decide how we are going to hold the party. Last year we had it in The Sands holographic nightclub. Now this year, I suggest..."

Seven stands up and interrupts me.



"I know how your party shall take place, Locutus."

Everyone turns round, astonished. Geordi almost wakes up and Worf looks disgusted.

"Indeed?" I ask, "Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on that?"

Seven gets a small disk out and places it in the videoviewer.

"What you are seeing is a recording made by my Cube Leader, Borg Queen 01." she starts, "It was recorded specially for the time the Party was to be discussed so that she could tell you what to do."

A few unprintable comments are made by various members of staff at this time. Ensign Britney releases a few colourful expletives that are hardly Starfleet protocol.

I must say, I agree with her, though!

The screen comes on with a familiar face.



"Greetings Locutus and other Enterprise staff." starts the Borg Queen, "I hope you are well. As my representative Seven of Nine will have informed you, I have instructions for you as to how the Enterprise Christmas Party will be carried out."

"I can't believe her nerve!" comments Deanna.

"You will listen!" Seven snaps back, "Anyone who fails to listen will be assimilated. Now be quiet!"

We carry on listening.

"Earlier this year." the Borg Queen continues, "I had a meeting with the Alpha Borg Queen, who is the Supreme Leader of the Borg race. She was aware of the Party that you had every year, and asked if she could come this year. Naturally, I said you would be very honoured to have a guest...WOULD'NT YOU, LOCUTUS?"

My head falls on the table in shock. Beverly treats me for the bruise I get as we continue to listen.

"So I can see you're excited about that, Locutus." the Queen speaks, "This is what will happen. One of your holodecks will be made to look like a Borg Cube. Our resident group The Strolling Drones will play, Borg will serve meals and drinks while you welcome our Great Leader as a special guest of honour at the party. I will escort her there, and you will greet her. I look forward to seeing you at the party in December."

The picture goes off, and Seven speaks to us.

"There you are, Locutus." she says, "Our Supreme Leader will be visiting a human starship for the first time. It is a great privilege for you. Start preparing for the event."

Seven leaves the room, quite pleased that her message has been delivered.

I, in the meantime, continue to bang my head on the desk.

"There, there, Jean-Luc." Bev says to me quietly, "Perhaps it will all go quite well?"

"I'm sure it will, Beverly" I answer somewhat sarcastically, "The Alpha Borg Queen is likely to assimilate everyone if she doesn't like the vol-au-vants or I put a step wrong if I have to dance with her."

No one can say anything as they agree with me.

What a memorable Christmas Party THIS is going to be!


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Editor's Note:

For those who didn't see the answer in my comments in the previous post, the world's longest running police drama is the Scottish series 'Taggart'. It's been going 25 years, and is still called that even though the actor who played the title character died years ago.