"...how has it gone in the past when you have evacuated planets?"

"Pretty well compared to the alternatives, still not great."

"...well, that's not nearly a good enough answer for me to approve doing it to my planet. I'll talk to the ship. I'll read whatever you have on how you might take its weapons without crippling or startling it. If you don't want Linus to have been wholly right to mistrust you -" She shakes her head and doesn't finish.

"I ..." he feels like he really messed up here but he's not sure how. 

"I don't think Linus has an the available information or was making an informed decision about whether to trust me. We have never done involuntary evacuations of a planet and this situation def-initely won't change that. We also really really don't want to meddle in a way your people don't want."

"But... that ship could make a difference, a big one. The tech could maybe even make the difference between your planner being assimilated someday. The ship feels like.... someone's pointed a weapon to your head and you don't want to risk that weapon going off but there's a bunch of Borg coming for all of us anyways that the weapon could stop and... There's so so many other people. More people get assimilated on average every week then their are people on your planet. The ship is pointed at you but the Borg are pointed at everyone."

He is tearing up but trying not to let this show since he doesn't want her to feel emot-ionaly man-ipulated.

"I understand that under these circumstances it will be enormously tempting to destroy people's lives for any marginal improvement in the chances of success as long as you destroy them slightly less than the Borg will. It is a completely reasonable priority to have. But Lucien -

"- Samaria currently has a means of suicide."

"Oh."

Lucien wipes at his eyes.

"Even with the stakes I really really don't want Samaria to be worse off for having met us."

"I appreciate that. I am here to work out how that can be."

In almost a whisper: "I don't know what will happen if we have to choose."

"I'm sorry."

Lucien cries silently.

He doesn't really have anything to say - a defense would feel hollow.

"Perhaps we'll be fortunate when speaking to Jovah."

Lucien nods.

"I'll pack."

Lucien will as well - they leave the next day. 

On the first day of the voyage Isabella receives a message from Lucien with documentation of the Orbital Warp Bomb project - a planetary anti-Borg suicide option that's more thorough than their standard ones. It's too expensive to use in general, but if they're going to take Samaria's current option than that excuse rings hollow to him.

"Thank you."

Lucien hates being thanked for this but understands why she did.

"I want to find a better way than this."

"We'll know more when I've talked to the ship. I don't know how flexible it can be."

They don't make any stops on this voyage, only dropping out of warp when they're in the Samarian system.

"Where should we drop you?"

"Sinai."

"Do you want an escort?"

"Alleluia might want to talk to you, now that there's more common knowledge."

This is very reasonable and he is not at all looking forward to it.

"Okay to bring Kurm?" he asks - he's supposed to bring security unless there's a good reason not to.

"I don't see why not."