IKC FHew 7C6110
Re-born – Watching and Waiting
by Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Ensign Jason Hawk
Post Details
Thor'nan sat at the child's side, watching her sleep. His Mek'leth sat next to him, just outside the girl's reach. She looked so innocent, but he knew better. The Borg were honorless cold blooded killers. They were ruthless in their pursuit of perfection.
Hope twitched in her sleep, fingers moved and arms jerked as the young girl was fighting her demons once more. The dream came again, she had tried to run so fast. Her heart was pounding in her chest and each time she looked back they were getting nearer. An echo of her fathers voice pounded in her ears telling her to run. This time though shadows feint and grey seemed to run along side of her. Then she was caught, again she fought, bit and scratched but it made no difference they still won in the end.
Marie walked in to fetch a hyperspanner from her toolkit. She saw the mek'leth on the deck and looked coldly at Thor'nan. "That will not be used while I have any say in it."
Jason walked inside just as Marie informed Thor'nan about the use of his Mek'leth. "Nor mine." He said just as coldly. While he had been surprised when the Borg tech first appeared he wouldn't let anyone not even Ro' harm the girl while there was still a chance she could be saved.
Thor'nan looked at them, unapologetic. " I hope it doesn't come to that, but if this child endangers the ship or her crew, then I will have no choice. But it is only as a last resort. " he said.
"Then move the blades to somewhere she cannot see them. Unless you like frightening little girls." Jason retorted coldly.
Hope's mind awoke but she heard voices hushed and arguing. They were arguing over her so she kept her eyes tightly closed and pretended to be still asleep. Tears stung behind her eyelids making her want to cry out but if she did they would know she had been listening.
She heard the scrape of metal on the floor but kept very still and quiet. She tried not to think that the one they called Thor'nan might be standing over her right now wanting to kill her. If only the floor would open up and swallow her up.
"What are you doing down here? " Thor'nan asked them.
"I am here to make sure nothing happens to the girl. I care for her safety." Jason said calmly.
Thor'nan stood and motioned for Jason to join him a short distance away. The girl was awake. She was listening.
"Her safety is important to me. Perhaps I should have kept the mek'leth hidden. I was raised Klingon; I had a weapon in my hand since I was her age. But I have a son who isn't much older than she is; I honestly don't know if I can harm her. But if she turns we could all become Borg. I can't let that happen. You noticed that I sedated her instead of shooting her when the transforming began. " said Thor'nan.
"Yes I noticed. I also noticed that you like me reached for your weapon first. It was instinct. But she is not Klingon. She is a human girl raised as a Human. Unlike you who were raised as a Klingon and are not phased by weapons laying around. She must be terrified. I know you were raised Klingon but sometimes you have to remember your Humanity." Jason said calmly o as not to spark a fight especially around the child.
Marie had followed the conversation with only passing interest but she could feel the tension building, She decided it was time to intervene.
"The fly-boy's right," she said. "She's terrified. She's in a foreign location surrounded by unknown people. I'd be terrified right now too. But the pseudo-Klingon is right too. Yes, she could turn and assimilate us all. She won't though."
"I hope you're right. I will keep the weapons out of sight so I don't frighten her any further. Keep working on the problem. Save the girl. " said Thor'nan.
"She's not old enough. An adult Borg can assimilate almost immediately after being assimilated. Not so for children. Remember, the Borg don't produce off-spring. They had no reproductive processes. But just as human and Klingon children can't reproduce, so it is with the Borg. Children are put into maturation chambers on assimilation until they're developed enough to become part of the Collective and fulfill all that the Collective requires of them - including assimilation."
"The reason for haste here is that the sooner we can get the nanites out of Hope's system, the less of them we'll have to remove. They multiply and spread at a fantastic rate so the quicker we get to what's there, the less of them can take over. Every adult Borg the Federation has brought back from the Collective still has nanites in them. They're so integrated into their systems that they can no longer be removed. The individual could not survive without them. With children, Federation surgeons have had more success but time has always been the vital element."
"By all means stand guard, Klingon. That will make you feel much more comfortable with the situation. If you like, I can make you up a bed so you can sleep here while others stand guard. Have your hand poised on your mek'leth but I agree with the fly-boy, keep it out of sight. For all we know, the sight of it and the responses it provokes could be triggering defence mechanisms in the nanites as we speak which are speeding up the assimilation. Not that I mean to frighten you or anything...."
The exchange was interrupted by May'Bel, who stalked into the medbay, looking at the girl. Those who knew him recognised the wariness and tension in his movements. His face was unusually grave.
He walked over to the girl and faced her. He drew a disruptor, but didn't point it at her - holding it so she could see it.
"You know what this is, girl?"
Hope who had feigned sleep slowly opened her eyes. She sat up and looked at them all in the room hoping that someone would be her champion and protect her. she had heard them all talk about her as though she were no better than an insect to be squashed. She was so afraid and all she needed was her father. She said nothing but nodded slowly as she stared at the weapon. She had seen them before and they had held no threat, until now.
"Does the sight of it frighten you?"
Caught up in the trauma of it all she could only stare at him. She had been frightened to death over the last few hours and now something else to scare her with. She wondered what to do. It was all to much. So she did something her mother didn't like her doing at all and shrugged her shoulders.
May'Bel shrugged.
"I would never use this on a simple human girl. And if you... became something else... it might be no good anyway."
He re-holstered the weapon. Then he took two palm sized metal cylinders off his belt and held them up so she could see.
"Do you know what these are?"
She looked at them, they could be anything from chocolate bars to her favourite saren biscuits. Some how she didn't think they were either of those and shook her head slowly and said nothing.
He nodded.
"Excellent! Then you have no reason for concern."
He walked across to the medbay wall clipping the two cylinders to the hull, tapping a few buttons on each one to activate it.
Thor'nan watched him plant the demolition charges on the outer hull with a warrior's eye. If detonated, anything that survived the initial blast would find itself vented into space in a matter of moments.
When he was done, May'Bel pulled the remote detonator off his belt, and offered it to Thor'nan.
"Better safe that sorry," he said simply.
Thor'nan took the detonator and nodded.
Hope fought back a tightness in her throat and stinging tears that threatened to overwhelm her again. She had once read that it was a sign of weakness to a Klingon and that they didn't like emotions or was that Vulcans? She couldn't remember, maybe it was both.
What ever they had planned for her she knew it wouldn't be good and so with nothing else to do Hope lay back down and curled herself in a tight ball. She had turned her face away from the others and kept very, very still as her tears soaked through into the mattress. She tried to think herself invisible and with any luck if she didn't move, they might not see her at all.
As May'Bel stalked out of the room, he brushed by Jared, who bustled in with an armful of equipment. The TiQ apologised as he passed the warrior. May'Bel said little.
Jared put the equipment down on a table.
"Right, OK. This might help us out a little. First, we've... um... why are there..."
He stalled mid sentence as he noticed the demolition charges on the wall. Then he glanced over at the girl on the bed and the grave faces of the adults, and clicked.
"Oh. Oh, I see. Well... that's... thorough. A little extreme perhaps, but... anyway..."
He began setting up one of the make-shift devices.
"Right. Borg I do know a little bit about. I've spend some time down that end of space before. Used to be such an... optimistic species..."
The last comment was said rather reflectively. Then he turned back to his device, and switched in on.
The girl's skin immediately changed - faint veins of green light appearing across it's surface, following her blood vessels.
Her eyes flicked open and every nerve in her body seemed to twitch just once. She wondered what was going on now. Why didn't they just kill her and get it over and done with.
Jared grabbed his federation tricorder out and scanned the girl.
"Good. That's excellent. Containment mode is very good news."
He noticed the curious looks on the adult's faces.
"Ah... you see, Borg nanites are actually rather communicative little chaps. They're always relaying information back and forth, and they're a bit too small to be very good at telling friend from foe. Which means if you speak a bit of Borg nanite - metaphorically speaking - they're generally more than willing to let you know what they're up to."
"These ones are in containment mode. It means they're staying inside the girl and focusing on her. Not great for her, but good for the rest of us, because it means they shouldn't go wandering or try and assimilate anything else. If they change state, this device should alert us. Plus... as you can see the theta wave emissions from this thing are lighting them up like a city at night. If they start infecting anything else, you'll see the green glow spreading."
He looked at the girl, curled up in foetal position.
"Is she ok? She looks kind-of... frightened. Who's been talking to her?"
"May'Bel." Jason said simply but the look on his face as he continued to look at the charges could have killed.
Marie had been keeping well in the background while May'bel set his bombs. She did not approve of what he was doing but there was no point in arguing...not if you wanted to avoid a few broken bones. Anyway, despite her assertions to the contrary, deep down she was not at all sure that young Borg could not assimilate. It was one thing to kill an innocent girl; it was another completely to leave themsleves defenceless against assimilation.
What Jared had to say made her sit up and listen. She didn't know what to make of the TiQ but he seemed to know his way around the quadrant. She suspected he made up much of what he said as he went along but...what he said made sense and his actions usually worked in their favour. Even back on that proto-Romulan planet (or was it proto-Vulcan?) he'd acted. Well, he'd gone rogue...but in some way she still didn't understand, he'd saved them.
So, containment mode? That just means.... It means we have a window of opportunity.
She walked over to Hope. "He's a funny little man but he's on your side," she said pointing at Jared. "The big brutal looking one won't hurt you - he's just taking the usual precautions."
Hope wanted to say something but couldn't. So many things were happening so fast that she had difficulty grasping it all. Her young mind was trying to figure out what the word precautions was and if it was another word to be afraid of. Hope lay on the mattress again suddenly not feeling to good and longing to go home.
by Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Ensign Jason Hawk
Post Details
| Title | Watching and Waiting | |
| Mission | Re-born | |
| Author(s) | Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Ensign Jason Hawk | |
| Posted | Wed Dec 07, 2011 @ 4:11am | |
| Location | Crew Hold, IKC FHew | |
| Timeline | Current |
Hope twitched in her sleep, fingers moved and arms jerked as the young girl was fighting her demons once more. The dream came again, she had tried to run so fast. Her heart was pounding in her chest and each time she looked back they were getting nearer. An echo of her fathers voice pounded in her ears telling her to run. This time though shadows feint and grey seemed to run along side of her. Then she was caught, again she fought, bit and scratched but it made no difference they still won in the end.
Marie walked in to fetch a hyperspanner from her toolkit. She saw the mek'leth on the deck and looked coldly at Thor'nan. "That will not be used while I have any say in it."
Jason walked inside just as Marie informed Thor'nan about the use of his Mek'leth. "Nor mine." He said just as coldly. While he had been surprised when the Borg tech first appeared he wouldn't let anyone not even Ro' harm the girl while there was still a chance she could be saved.
Thor'nan looked at them, unapologetic. " I hope it doesn't come to that, but if this child endangers the ship or her crew, then I will have no choice. But it is only as a last resort. " he said.
"Then move the blades to somewhere she cannot see them. Unless you like frightening little girls." Jason retorted coldly.
Hope's mind awoke but she heard voices hushed and arguing. They were arguing over her so she kept her eyes tightly closed and pretended to be still asleep. Tears stung behind her eyelids making her want to cry out but if she did they would know she had been listening.
She heard the scrape of metal on the floor but kept very still and quiet. She tried not to think that the one they called Thor'nan might be standing over her right now wanting to kill her. If only the floor would open up and swallow her up.
"What are you doing down here? " Thor'nan asked them.
"I am here to make sure nothing happens to the girl. I care for her safety." Jason said calmly.
Thor'nan stood and motioned for Jason to join him a short distance away. The girl was awake. She was listening.
"Her safety is important to me. Perhaps I should have kept the mek'leth hidden. I was raised Klingon; I had a weapon in my hand since I was her age. But I have a son who isn't much older than she is; I honestly don't know if I can harm her. But if she turns we could all become Borg. I can't let that happen. You noticed that I sedated her instead of shooting her when the transforming began. " said Thor'nan.
"Yes I noticed. I also noticed that you like me reached for your weapon first. It was instinct. But she is not Klingon. She is a human girl raised as a Human. Unlike you who were raised as a Klingon and are not phased by weapons laying around. She must be terrified. I know you were raised Klingon but sometimes you have to remember your Humanity." Jason said calmly o as not to spark a fight especially around the child.
Marie had followed the conversation with only passing interest but she could feel the tension building, She decided it was time to intervene.
"The fly-boy's right," she said. "She's terrified. She's in a foreign location surrounded by unknown people. I'd be terrified right now too. But the pseudo-Klingon is right too. Yes, she could turn and assimilate us all. She won't though."
"I hope you're right. I will keep the weapons out of sight so I don't frighten her any further. Keep working on the problem. Save the girl. " said Thor'nan.
"She's not old enough. An adult Borg can assimilate almost immediately after being assimilated. Not so for children. Remember, the Borg don't produce off-spring. They had no reproductive processes. But just as human and Klingon children can't reproduce, so it is with the Borg. Children are put into maturation chambers on assimilation until they're developed enough to become part of the Collective and fulfill all that the Collective requires of them - including assimilation."
"The reason for haste here is that the sooner we can get the nanites out of Hope's system, the less of them we'll have to remove. They multiply and spread at a fantastic rate so the quicker we get to what's there, the less of them can take over. Every adult Borg the Federation has brought back from the Collective still has nanites in them. They're so integrated into their systems that they can no longer be removed. The individual could not survive without them. With children, Federation surgeons have had more success but time has always been the vital element."
"By all means stand guard, Klingon. That will make you feel much more comfortable with the situation. If you like, I can make you up a bed so you can sleep here while others stand guard. Have your hand poised on your mek'leth but I agree with the fly-boy, keep it out of sight. For all we know, the sight of it and the responses it provokes could be triggering defence mechanisms in the nanites as we speak which are speeding up the assimilation. Not that I mean to frighten you or anything...."
The exchange was interrupted by May'Bel, who stalked into the medbay, looking at the girl. Those who knew him recognised the wariness and tension in his movements. His face was unusually grave.
He walked over to the girl and faced her. He drew a disruptor, but didn't point it at her - holding it so she could see it.
"You know what this is, girl?"
Hope who had feigned sleep slowly opened her eyes. She sat up and looked at them all in the room hoping that someone would be her champion and protect her. she had heard them all talk about her as though she were no better than an insect to be squashed. She was so afraid and all she needed was her father. She said nothing but nodded slowly as she stared at the weapon. She had seen them before and they had held no threat, until now.
"Does the sight of it frighten you?"
Caught up in the trauma of it all she could only stare at him. She had been frightened to death over the last few hours and now something else to scare her with. She wondered what to do. It was all to much. So she did something her mother didn't like her doing at all and shrugged her shoulders.
May'Bel shrugged.
"I would never use this on a simple human girl. And if you... became something else... it might be no good anyway."
He re-holstered the weapon. Then he took two palm sized metal cylinders off his belt and held them up so she could see.
"Do you know what these are?"
She looked at them, they could be anything from chocolate bars to her favourite saren biscuits. Some how she didn't think they were either of those and shook her head slowly and said nothing.
He nodded.
"Excellent! Then you have no reason for concern."
He walked across to the medbay wall clipping the two cylinders to the hull, tapping a few buttons on each one to activate it.
Thor'nan watched him plant the demolition charges on the outer hull with a warrior's eye. If detonated, anything that survived the initial blast would find itself vented into space in a matter of moments.
When he was done, May'Bel pulled the remote detonator off his belt, and offered it to Thor'nan.
"Better safe that sorry," he said simply.
Thor'nan took the detonator and nodded.
Hope fought back a tightness in her throat and stinging tears that threatened to overwhelm her again. She had once read that it was a sign of weakness to a Klingon and that they didn't like emotions or was that Vulcans? She couldn't remember, maybe it was both.
What ever they had planned for her she knew it wouldn't be good and so with nothing else to do Hope lay back down and curled herself in a tight ball. She had turned her face away from the others and kept very, very still as her tears soaked through into the mattress. She tried to think herself invisible and with any luck if she didn't move, they might not see her at all.
As May'Bel stalked out of the room, he brushed by Jared, who bustled in with an armful of equipment. The TiQ apologised as he passed the warrior. May'Bel said little.
Jared put the equipment down on a table.
"Right, OK. This might help us out a little. First, we've... um... why are there..."
He stalled mid sentence as he noticed the demolition charges on the wall. Then he glanced over at the girl on the bed and the grave faces of the adults, and clicked.
"Oh. Oh, I see. Well... that's... thorough. A little extreme perhaps, but... anyway..."
He began setting up one of the make-shift devices.
"Right. Borg I do know a little bit about. I've spend some time down that end of space before. Used to be such an... optimistic species..."
The last comment was said rather reflectively. Then he turned back to his device, and switched in on.
The girl's skin immediately changed - faint veins of green light appearing across it's surface, following her blood vessels.
Her eyes flicked open and every nerve in her body seemed to twitch just once. She wondered what was going on now. Why didn't they just kill her and get it over and done with.
Jared grabbed his federation tricorder out and scanned the girl.
"Good. That's excellent. Containment mode is very good news."
He noticed the curious looks on the adult's faces.
"Ah... you see, Borg nanites are actually rather communicative little chaps. They're always relaying information back and forth, and they're a bit too small to be very good at telling friend from foe. Which means if you speak a bit of Borg nanite - metaphorically speaking - they're generally more than willing to let you know what they're up to."
"These ones are in containment mode. It means they're staying inside the girl and focusing on her. Not great for her, but good for the rest of us, because it means they shouldn't go wandering or try and assimilate anything else. If they change state, this device should alert us. Plus... as you can see the theta wave emissions from this thing are lighting them up like a city at night. If they start infecting anything else, you'll see the green glow spreading."
He looked at the girl, curled up in foetal position.
"Is she ok? She looks kind-of... frightened. Who's been talking to her?"
"May'Bel." Jason said simply but the look on his face as he continued to look at the charges could have killed.
Marie had been keeping well in the background while May'bel set his bombs. She did not approve of what he was doing but there was no point in arguing...not if you wanted to avoid a few broken bones. Anyway, despite her assertions to the contrary, deep down she was not at all sure that young Borg could not assimilate. It was one thing to kill an innocent girl; it was another completely to leave themsleves defenceless against assimilation.
What Jared had to say made her sit up and listen. She didn't know what to make of the TiQ but he seemed to know his way around the quadrant. She suspected he made up much of what he said as he went along but...what he said made sense and his actions usually worked in their favour. Even back on that proto-Romulan planet (or was it proto-Vulcan?) he'd acted. Well, he'd gone rogue...but in some way she still didn't understand, he'd saved them.
So, containment mode? That just means.... It means we have a window of opportunity.
She walked over to Hope. "He's a funny little man but he's on your side," she said pointing at Jared. "The big brutal looking one won't hurt you - he's just taking the usual precautions."
Hope wanted to say something but couldn't. So many things were happening so fast that she had difficulty grasping it all. Her young mind was trying to figure out what the word precautions was and if it was another word to be afraid of. Hope lay on the mattress again suddenly not feeling to good and longing to go home.