IKC FHew 7C6110
Resistance is Futile – Boarding action
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Post Details
24 hours had passed since the shockwave and the FHew was limping home. She had almost no reserve power and her crew were working hard to keep it all together. Even Ro' had taken up a sonic wrench to do repairs. So the people were spread across the ship.
No one would have believed, in those dark hours, that the ship was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as the crew busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a scientist with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency the crew went to and fro over the ship about their little repairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of the day. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this ship with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
Ro', his face hidden behind the darkened mask tried not to watch the spark of the arc wielder, only the effect it had after it passed. Pulling the point away from the metal, he lifted his visor and blew on the hot patch, impatient for it to cool. The aft bulkheads had taken a pounding even though they were furthest from the shockwave. they were also the least armoured section of the ship. A Klingon who admitted to needing rear shielding is a Klingon who admitted turning his back on an enemy.
The panel glow faded and Ro' pulled of his aspirator. He pressed the release button on his mobile control and the SIF field dropped. Ro' listened carefully but there was no sound of escaping atmosphere and the pressure seemed to remain stable. He decided against any pressure testing until they got to the station. He banged the bulkhead happily with his fist and picked up the kit to move to the next section.
Germite had checked on 'Iw'a'na' and Jason on his way to his own bunk. They were both out cold, and both would surely complain about it to him if they were able, but he knew these were patients who did not accept bed rest without tranquilisation. He paused as he passed Marla and Tierk's room. There was definite sounds of pain from within, but no one was calling out for help, so he felt best to leave the newly weds.
His room was shared with Thor'nan and May'bel both of who were busy somewhere. He crouched down to the bottom bunk, which was almost on floor level and immediately began to drift off.
Thor'nan was in fact on the Bridge. He was trying hard to bring the shields back on line, but the damage to the navigational array had been extensive. Cha'a' was finishing off repairs to the Cloak, so they should at least be able to hide from an enemy before long. But hiding wasn't what the FHew did best. At least his friend Lach was trying to repair the power relays to the disruptor cannons. He glanced over at the sensor array again. There was... something... happening with it, but he couldn't tell if it was a normal glitch, something related to the Nihlus explosion, or a new thing.
May'bel ground his teeth. He scooped up the latest offering and dumped it, once again, into the reclimator. He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to put his fist through the obstreperous piece of Federation technology.
"Rokeg Blood Pie!" he demanded. The Replicator hummed and a blue glow resolved into a short crust pastry. Without looking, May'bel could tell all of the Rokeg meat would be in neat little chunks amidst perfectly seasoned gravy, albeit very salty gravy. What was wrong with the Federation? Did they fear even their food being adventurous?
Jared pulled another section of Computer hardware out on it's shelf. There was the usual carbon scoring, from a myriad of battles. Klingon systems, like their bodies, were riddled with redundancies, and it was not hard to find bits to replace the simple components to get the computer running smoothly. He'd already got the atmospheric processors back on line, and was now working on the sensors.
A small, almost imagined movement caught his attention. He leant in and looked at the sensor relay. There seemed to be a hack, some fine filament wires between the sensor array pallet controls. It was too fine to be Klingon, and seemed too deliberate to be an accidental event. He adjusted the mono-eye piece that was attached to the strange headgear he always wore in the core. The magnification snapped the filaments into perspective. They were deliberate, certainly, and seemed to be targeting the same relays in both short and long range sensors. He snapped the eyepiece again to get a closer look and suddenly leapt back.
Nanites! There were Borg nanites in the core! Not many certainly but what were they doing?
A hum in the air and a faint ozone smell announced the arrival of a drone. Jared leapt back so far and fast that he managed to grip the railing of the deck above and pull himself up. He glanced behind him but the Drone was making no effort to follow him. Instead it pulled out the draw of communication controllers and placed it's control arm inside. There was a sparkle of energy as the Drone took control of the communications.
Jared gritted his teeth. He couldn't let the Borg take command of the core. On the other hand, he was also aware that he was unarmed, and the thought of the borg learning the ancient technologies he knew... well it didn't bare thinking about. He couldn't aford to get assimilated...
... but only a day earlier he'd somehow survived a suicide assault on a Nihlus Alpha-Cruiser, and something inside him was feeling the tiniest bit... invincible.
Jared vaulted off from his vantage point, and kicked off against the opposite wall, landing on the drone's back and grabbing on like a monkey. The drone jolted forward, taken quite off guard, and then began to reach around, it's heavily mechanised limbs struggling to reach the agile figure clinging to it's back.
As it struggled to reach for him, Jared deftly reached around and started grabbing at it's chest, pulling out tiny components, one by one.
The Borg were creatures of efficiancy and statistics. They were notorious for adapting fast, but they only adapted when the numbers said it was needed. That was why the first few shots of a disruptor always worked - it generally wasn't till the third or fourth drone that the collective rated the attack worth adapting to.
Secondary nodelinker. Adaptive phase-inductor. Transductive meta-bridging switch seems to be wedged in tightly, but... there it comes!
This meant that if borg drones had a weakness that was very rarely exploited, it wouldn't be corrected or adapted. Which was why if you happened to know enough about the Borg to know the process for initiating self-destruct on a drone, and you never used it more than once or twice on any group of Borg, it would always work.
With a deft grab, Jared removed the final component of the sequence - the Primary nodelinker - then he let go of his opponent, dropping to the floor and rolling away. He managed to get to his knees as the thing turned and took a step towards him, and then smiled as it's auto-destruct triggered, annihilating the drone in a shimmer of deadly green.
He breathed out in relief. Then he dropped the borg components, allowing himself a moment's smugness.
It was a moment that, as it turned out, Jared couldn't afford. A moment too late he heard the hydraulic whine of the second drone moving behind him, and before he could react he felt himself grabbed the the collar and lifted off his feet.
He flailed in vain as the drone turned him around to look at his face. He glanced at it's chest to look for the secondary nodelinker, but before he'd even spotted it, he noticed the drone's other arm - the one with the implantation tubes - coming up and around.
Adrenaline giving him abnormal speed and agility, he grabbed the arm holding him and flicked his legs up to lock them around the drone's other arm - a few inches below the implantation tubes. For a moment Borg and TiQ were locked together immobile - the strength of the TiQ's entire body holding the drone's implantation arm back away from him. In that endless moment Jared found noticing the minute details. Noting the flat expression of the drone. Observing that it had already taken what looked like mild battle damage. Wondering why the Borg was holding a data-pad in it's implantation hand.
But after a few seconds, Jared started to realise just how much stronger the drone was, and he could feel his muscles beginning to give. With only moments to think, he suddenly realised he was going to lose this fight. Very shortly, the Borg would be starting to learn the basics of pinpoint singularity charges, Iconian gateways... even the deplorable word.
Jared desperately glanced around. On the bench beside them, amongst a few toys May'Bel had asked him to "tinker" with, lay a solution. Of a sort.
There wasn't any real time to deliberate. There was little other choice.
He reached out with one hand, dislodging various oddiments, but managing to grab hold of May'Bel's grenade. Flipping the safety catch open with his thumb, he pressed down hard on the arming button. As the light began to flash urgently, he held it up between his face and the borg's. It would take both of them. After a moment, he released his leg-lock on it's other arm. Implantation didn't matter that much at this point.
The implantation never came. Instead, Jared watched in shocked silence as the Drone simply placed the data-pad in his work-apron pocket. Then, with the same hand, it grabbed hold of the grenade and wrenched it out of Jared's grasp. Then it dropped him.
The TiQ landed roughly, rolling onto his back and looking up and the drone as it regarded the grenade, it's vast array of sensor hardware telling it what Jared already knew from the frantically flashing light - they had only moments before it killed them both.
Then, with a greenish shimmer, the drone teleported out, taking the grenade with it.
Jared lay there on the deck for what must have been at least twenty seconds. What he had just seen made no sense. He wondered for a moment if it had been some kind of dream, or hallucination. Perhaps he'd got a whiff of something chemical from the core. But the borg components he'd pulled out of the first borg's chestplate still lay on the floor nearby.
And he could feel the data-pad in his apron pocket.
Warily, with no idea what to expect, he took it out and examined it...
Tell was explaining to the port manifold the many and varied origins of it's heritage, exactly how well acquainted it's mother was with the entire Klingon Home fleet and some hints as to where, biologically, it should find itself if it didn't comply to her ministrations. Then she hit it with a hammer.
She was winding up for a second round of abuse when an uncomfortable green glow lit engineering. Hammer still in hand she stared in horror at two drones that had materialised in her engineering bay. One moved directly to the core and activated the scram sequence, taking main power of line and dropping the FHew suddenly out of Warp. the second had moved to the fusion reactor interface and was disengaging the locks on each, disconnecting them from the power grid.
They either hadn't seen Tell, or did not perceive her as a significant hampering to their plans. Tell looked at them, her arm still holding the raised hammer she was about to use ont he housing.
"Just who the hell invited you?" asked Tell, keeping her voice low and threatening. "I thought I got rid of you the last time you came aboard. So what is it to be this time? More skin advice? Or how to win friends and influence people?"
Tell spun and twirled the hammer as easily as if she was a gunslinger in an old western. She then threw it fast and expertly at the drone who was trying to activate the core and it hit him directly on his temples. Its eye reeled with the unexpected shock as this was closely followed by one of her knives which went straight through the Borgs neck. He was dead before the floor came up to meet him.
She managed to get to a weapon somehow and flattened herself against a panel and waited to make her next move. Fear had gripped her in the pit of her stomach as it had done not so long ago when she had faced this once before. One Borg down and one to go.
The other Borg sensed her so that when she fired her weapon at it, it had no effect what so ever. It had stopped what it was doing and made its way over to it fallen comrade just as Tell made her way to the next column. She intended to come up behind the Borg and surprise it if she could.
The Drone rose from its felled colleague and, even as the body vapourised, returned to work on a panel. There was a shimmer in the air and Tell came up short. It had erected a forcefield around itself and the Warp Core. Tell had worked on it as a defence against the Borg while she had been looking after Hope. She had not expected the Borg to use it to keep her out.
She banged at the field in frustration. Apart from a shimmer it gave no response, nor did the Borg inside who was now working to disengage the Warp engine from the EPS.Tell knew she needed to get to the Bridge to warn someone.
HIchop was in the first officer's quarters. With his promotion had come a private room of his own. At first it had smelt uncomfortably of human female, but he would soon sort that out. Now he was grabbing a few hours rest before he took over on the repairs and relieved Ro'.
There was the same buzz in the air, and his eyes snapped open. in the middle of the room was a lone Borg drone, scanning the room. It locked eyes on HIchop, even as HIchop's fingers closed around the disruptor next to his bed.
The Drone crouched, reaching towards him.
Assimilate this Hichop thought as he fired his disruptor directly into the Borg's hand at point blank range. The Borg's hand and most of the arm blew off as the Borg fell back. HIichop jumped to his feet, hand burned and bloodied from the close range burst, he switched to his D'k'tahg. In a single roll HIichop was off his bunk and onto his feet.
The Borg grabbed HIichop 's hand with the blade. Even one handed the Borg were strong. Both were now locked in a battle of strength with the Borg on the ground damaged and HIichop pushing from above while bleeding. Then the idea hit him. He moved his back leg so it now resting on the neck of the Borg while kneeling on the the other. Their arms now raised about head hight HIichop brought his bloodied hand to the Borg's face and started clenching his fist. It caused a significant amount of blood to poor from it and into the Borg's mouth. The question now was would it choke to death or would he faint from lack of blood first. Unfortunately, and perhaps because he had just woken, he had forgotten Borg don't need to breath.
The Borg shifted until the blade was pressed against a section of his damaged shoulder and then simply released his grip. The blade plunged hilt deep into the shoulder, but the Borg did not even flinch. Instead it brought it's left arm around to the the side of HIchop's head. there was a sharp pain in his neck and he felt something cold flood his blood stream and then felt no more.
A corridor leading to the Cargo Bay
Marie had been in the Forward Torpedo bay when the Borg arrived. A pair of Drones had arrived and in an instant one had disengaged the weapon from all the power and control linkages while the other had gone to work on the mechanism inside. Marie had shoved her Flux router into one of them, hoping the jolt would be enough. It hadn't been. While they had been happy to ignore her at first, a direct assault had prompted a direct response. Marie ran down the boom connecting the torpedo room to the rest of the ship. While she ran, she tried to raise someone on her comms unit to warn of the attack. No-one responded.
Marie tried her comms unit again but only to get the same result: nothing. She couldn't tell if it was working or...where was everyone?
She knew, for certain of only one other person on the FHew. Well, maybe person wasn’t quite the right word. It was Borg drone pursuing her. Thankfully it was only one. That was little consolation. One drone could as easily assimilate her as ten.
She’d thought of maybe using the Janeway manoeuvrer but it was notoriously unsuccessful. It was very soon apparent that this Borg had no intention of ‘regaining his humanity’. The tubules extending from its wrist were evidence enough of that.
Marie had even tried blasting it with a disrupter when she had enough of a head start, but with the usual results; it had taken a few hits then its body shield had shifted and adjusted to the disrupter’s harmonics. Now she might as well throw it at the thing.
Even if she were a hulk like HIchop she wouldn’t try rushing it. That was just asking to be assimilated.
That only left the Rincewind Option: run like hell and don't look back. So here she was speeding down a corridor while desperately trying to raise someone. Anyone.
As a defensive strategy it contained one inherent flaw: she was rapidly running out of corridor to escape down.
Ahead loomed the door to a cargo bay. She could lock herself in there but that was only a temporary reprieve. Sooner of later hunger or thirst would force her out. Then she noticed which cargo bay it was. Damn! Why did I choose this one to run to? It isn’t the one I store our supplies in. It had been full of electronic parts till they had been dumped to escape the Nihlus.
Then a thought occurred to her. What if...?
She slid to a halt in front of the door and banged the door opener. All too slowly the doors opened as the Borg came closer. He – well, it had once been a he – was taking his time. Presumably the Hive knew as well as she did that she was trapped.
Marie waited: waited until the drone was almost on her.
He reached out towards her.
Marie dropped under the extended arm and rolled under the door. She banged on the control on the other side. When the drone tried to follow, she ducked to one side. He rose and looked round.
By now, Marie had gone.
She was back on the other side of the door. The door was almost closed. The drone made to roll under but Marie kicked him viciously. The drone pulled back.
Marie hit the control to open the air lock. She kept an eye on the door. It was a cat and mouse game now. Every time the drone hit the door release, she closed it again. The poor door mechanism screamed in protest as it was ordered to open and close, open and close, open and close.
Relief streamed through Marie as she heard air being sucked out of the cargo bay. It was only a matter of time now.
She did not know when the drone was sucked into space. It did not cry out, it did not plead for mercy; it just went.
Marie slid down the wall until she was sitting with her back to it. Still she kept an eye on the door in case the drone had somehow managed to survive.
It seemed like an hour she sat there, maybe more. In truth it would have barely been a few minute. Only then did she head back down the corridor to see what had become of her comrades.
Germite woke up. There was someone in his room. Thor'nan and May'bel were his roommates, but they should be working. His next thought was Cha'a', but, again, she had a job to do and wouldn't be screwing off harassing him when there was work to be done. Whoever it was could just go away. He needed his rest. He rolled over to go back to sleep when he felt a hand clamp down on his arm. Germite grabbed the hand with his left hand. He felt the metal parts of a Borg drone covering the hand. The grip tightened. The only advantage that Germite had was that he was on a bottom bunk and it was harder for the drone to get down to his level. He felt himself being pulled. He tried to pull away, but the drone's grip was firm. There was need for a change in tactic. Unfortunately, he wasn't like the Klingon crew, he didn't keep any weapons close at hand. He pushed towards the drone. The drone's grip loosened for a second, but that was all Germite needed. He slipped free and ran out the door.
All crew quarters opened onto the boom corridor between the bridge and the rest of the ship. Germite arrived in the corridor a moment before the Drone. He had a choice; run for the Bridge or deeper into the body of the ship.
Germite turned and ran towards sickbay. He figured if there was one Borg on board, there were probably more, but Germite's responsibility was the sickbay and that was where he would go. He skidded to a halt when he entered the room. There was a Borg already there, but his attention wasn't on the door or Germite. His attention was on the Borg infested Targ.
The Targ was now firmly chained to the wall with a variety of cables. The Drone seemed to be monitoring, but not interfering with it. It kept it's back to Germite. There was a noise form the corridor and Marie slid to a stop next to the doctor.
Pounding footsteps had drawn Marie to sickbay. They were human...well, they weren't Borg anyway. She ran blindly, looking only to find someone else alive on this benighted ship. She saw Germite up ahead and braked quickly. Running into him would not be a good option here.
Germite stared at the Borg and the Targ. He had to try something. He looked in a drawer for some sort of weapon, but it was mostly full of medical tools. A laser scapel, a dermal regenerator, and a sonic screwdriver. He wondered what it was doing in sickbay, it looked more like an engineering tool than a medical instrument. He set it aside and continued looking, nothing of any real value. He looked to Marie, "We've got to stop them. Or at least disconnect them."
“Damn,” Marie swore. “I thought I transported all the targ off the ship while we were outrunning that wave thing. Oh, well, better late than never.”
Germite ran his hand through his hair. "No, just the one's in the targ pit. This particular targ," Germite pointed to the targ with the drone standing nearby. "has been infected with borg nanites. HIchop thought we could use it as a borg detector. Apparently, it managed to work as a borg beacon."
Now that she’d paused for breath, Marie considered their options. “I don’t suppose you have any idea what it’s doing?”
Germite let out a deep breath, "I woke up, there was a borg drone in my room. I got away from him. I ran to sickbay, there was another borg drone here. The targ has apparently tapped into the ship's systems." He pointed at the targ again.
"I see," she said. Actually, she didn't but it seemed appropriate. “By the time I got to the transporters – assuming I didn’t get assimilated along the way – it might well have finished it’s task. Better not to risk it. Alright, a scalpel to the side of the neck should do the trick.”
Germite grabbed up the metal scalpel and move as quietly as he could moved behind the Borg drone. He moved to reach around its throat to cut a surgical end to its life, but the drone's hand lashed out with lightning speed and grabbed his wrist. It turned, still holding his wrist and looked at him as if considering a specimen under a microscope.
"You're new," It...she said.
A confused expression crossed Germite's face. "New? What are you? An honorary member of the crew?"
The Borg's face remained impassive, "We remember being a part of this crew before they killed us."
The voice had changed. For some reason Marie could not quite put her finger on she thought that this was the Queen talking. It was not the use of first person plural as such but the tone, the tenor of the voice. It was imperious.
“Before?”
The Borg looked at the Quartermaster, "Don't be concerned, Marie. This Drone will not harm you or the crew. We wish only to improve the quality of life for all species."
“That’s all you ever want to do. I don’t particularly want to be improved. Not in the way you envisage.”
Too many thoughts were running through Marie's head. Who were they? Were they an old crew who’d been assimilated? Was this a trap? At cross purposes came a voice asking Had Ro’ been in a crew which was assimilated? If so, how had he escaped?
A new voice took that thread up. Was this how he became a captain? it asked. Did him who goes on about Klingon traditions get his command by betraying those around him to the Borg? Then he stepped into the power vacuum! She dismissed that one as unworthy. She might not think much of her almighty captain but that.... No! That notion she would not entertain.
The Drone maintained it's vice grip on Germite, without damaging his wrist. Behind it the Targ was shuddering.
Hichop's head spun. For a moment he opened his eyes and was disoriented. Then memory swung into place and he rolled quickly to his feet. Too quickly, in fact, for the momentum carried him in a full circle and dropped him to the floor again. He was able to see that he was alone in his room again however.
Staggering slower to his feet he checked for what the Borg had done to him. "Nothing" he said astonished. Someone must have rescued him, but he knew this was an illogical thought. He had felt the cold of its metal in his neck.
He hit a wall comm. "Hichop to Captain Ro". Nothing. "Hichop to anyone" Another opportunity to think "Nothing". Then the obvious questions filled his head; Where we're all the Borg? Why was the ship's comm not functional? Why did the ship still seem Klingon? And the big one, why was he thinking at all?
Feeling stronger he grabbed his weapons and headed to the Bridge. He almost collided with Tell in the corridor outside. the pair didn't need to say anything. they could see by the other's expression both was quite aware of what was going on. They turned and moved onto the bridge.
Bridge
Thor'nan turned as the pair burst in through the rear door of the Bridge. As far as anyone on the bridge knew it was condition normal. No internal or external sensors had gone off.
Thor'nan looked at the pair and frowned, "Nuq NeQ?" [What do you want?]
Suddenly there was a flickering and the Bridge went dark. A moment later the emergency batteries kicked in bathing the room in an even dimmer shade of red. Tell knew that there were only about ten minutes of reserve power left.
At the same moment a pair of green glows appeared either side of Thor'nan. His instincts were keen. He turned and landed a double handed blow into the Drone as it appeared, sending it staggering backwards, but this meant turning his back on the other. Before anyone else could get to him, the second drone had plunged a pair of tubules into Thor'nan's neck and he collapsed.
"Who the hell invited our friends to the party?" spat Tell as she moved rapidly from panel to panel trying in vain to redirect power from anywhere she could think of. It seemed as though the Borg in engineering were always a step ahead of her.
Come on Tell, think. she told herself Get ahead of them
She muttered curses under her breath as power began to flicker and die in front of her eyes.
"They're all over the place like flaming B'etrovian locusts. I've been locked out of engineering and if I can't get back were done for."
Tells fingers moved in rapid succession at a rate of warp speed. Suddenly and with out warning she found she could transfer power. The engineer thought for a moment that just perhaps she was able to gain the advantage but something puzzled her. It was too easy and she knew what that meant, more trouble.
"Ok" she said as a matter of fact. "We have power. Use it before we loose it." she snapped at them.
Tell didn't take her eyes off the panels and switched from one back up to another in the hopes of hiding reserve power from the Borg. She longed to get back to her engine room god knows what was going on in there, something diabolical that was for sure.
"We have no helm control," called the Beq at the Con. "According to the Board the Warp drive isn't even on line."
HIchop stood watching the Drone at tactics. Having knocked out Thor'nan, it had remained stationary, just watching them. The first Borg was now standing again as well, just watching them.
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Post Details
| Title | Boarding action | |
| Mission | Resistance is Futile | |
| Author(s) | HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene | |
| Posted | Mon Sep 03, 2012 @ 12:23am | |
| Location | Fhew | |
| Timeline | After Nhilus, before the Starbase |
No one would have believed, in those dark hours, that the ship was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as the crew busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a scientist with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency the crew went to and fro over the ship about their little repairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of the day. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this ship with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
Ro', his face hidden behind the darkened mask tried not to watch the spark of the arc wielder, only the effect it had after it passed. Pulling the point away from the metal, he lifted his visor and blew on the hot patch, impatient for it to cool. The aft bulkheads had taken a pounding even though they were furthest from the shockwave. they were also the least armoured section of the ship. A Klingon who admitted to needing rear shielding is a Klingon who admitted turning his back on an enemy.
The panel glow faded and Ro' pulled of his aspirator. He pressed the release button on his mobile control and the SIF field dropped. Ro' listened carefully but there was no sound of escaping atmosphere and the pressure seemed to remain stable. He decided against any pressure testing until they got to the station. He banged the bulkhead happily with his fist and picked up the kit to move to the next section.
Germite had checked on 'Iw'a'na' and Jason on his way to his own bunk. They were both out cold, and both would surely complain about it to him if they were able, but he knew these were patients who did not accept bed rest without tranquilisation. He paused as he passed Marla and Tierk's room. There was definite sounds of pain from within, but no one was calling out for help, so he felt best to leave the newly weds.
His room was shared with Thor'nan and May'bel both of who were busy somewhere. He crouched down to the bottom bunk, which was almost on floor level and immediately began to drift off.
Thor'nan was in fact on the Bridge. He was trying hard to bring the shields back on line, but the damage to the navigational array had been extensive. Cha'a' was finishing off repairs to the Cloak, so they should at least be able to hide from an enemy before long. But hiding wasn't what the FHew did best. At least his friend Lach was trying to repair the power relays to the disruptor cannons. He glanced over at the sensor array again. There was... something... happening with it, but he couldn't tell if it was a normal glitch, something related to the Nihlus explosion, or a new thing.
May'bel ground his teeth. He scooped up the latest offering and dumped it, once again, into the reclimator. He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to put his fist through the obstreperous piece of Federation technology.
"Rokeg Blood Pie!" he demanded. The Replicator hummed and a blue glow resolved into a short crust pastry. Without looking, May'bel could tell all of the Rokeg meat would be in neat little chunks amidst perfectly seasoned gravy, albeit very salty gravy. What was wrong with the Federation? Did they fear even their food being adventurous?
Jared pulled another section of Computer hardware out on it's shelf. There was the usual carbon scoring, from a myriad of battles. Klingon systems, like their bodies, were riddled with redundancies, and it was not hard to find bits to replace the simple components to get the computer running smoothly. He'd already got the atmospheric processors back on line, and was now working on the sensors.
A small, almost imagined movement caught his attention. He leant in and looked at the sensor relay. There seemed to be a hack, some fine filament wires between the sensor array pallet controls. It was too fine to be Klingon, and seemed too deliberate to be an accidental event. He adjusted the mono-eye piece that was attached to the strange headgear he always wore in the core. The magnification snapped the filaments into perspective. They were deliberate, certainly, and seemed to be targeting the same relays in both short and long range sensors. He snapped the eyepiece again to get a closer look and suddenly leapt back.
Nanites! There were Borg nanites in the core! Not many certainly but what were they doing?
A hum in the air and a faint ozone smell announced the arrival of a drone. Jared leapt back so far and fast that he managed to grip the railing of the deck above and pull himself up. He glanced behind him but the Drone was making no effort to follow him. Instead it pulled out the draw of communication controllers and placed it's control arm inside. There was a sparkle of energy as the Drone took control of the communications.
Jared gritted his teeth. He couldn't let the Borg take command of the core. On the other hand, he was also aware that he was unarmed, and the thought of the borg learning the ancient technologies he knew... well it didn't bare thinking about. He couldn't aford to get assimilated...
... but only a day earlier he'd somehow survived a suicide assault on a Nihlus Alpha-Cruiser, and something inside him was feeling the tiniest bit... invincible.
Jared vaulted off from his vantage point, and kicked off against the opposite wall, landing on the drone's back and grabbing on like a monkey. The drone jolted forward, taken quite off guard, and then began to reach around, it's heavily mechanised limbs struggling to reach the agile figure clinging to it's back.
As it struggled to reach for him, Jared deftly reached around and started grabbing at it's chest, pulling out tiny components, one by one.
The Borg were creatures of efficiancy and statistics. They were notorious for adapting fast, but they only adapted when the numbers said it was needed. That was why the first few shots of a disruptor always worked - it generally wasn't till the third or fourth drone that the collective rated the attack worth adapting to.
Secondary nodelinker. Adaptive phase-inductor. Transductive meta-bridging switch seems to be wedged in tightly, but... there it comes!
This meant that if borg drones had a weakness that was very rarely exploited, it wouldn't be corrected or adapted. Which was why if you happened to know enough about the Borg to know the process for initiating self-destruct on a drone, and you never used it more than once or twice on any group of Borg, it would always work.
With a deft grab, Jared removed the final component of the sequence - the Primary nodelinker - then he let go of his opponent, dropping to the floor and rolling away. He managed to get to his knees as the thing turned and took a step towards him, and then smiled as it's auto-destruct triggered, annihilating the drone in a shimmer of deadly green.
He breathed out in relief. Then he dropped the borg components, allowing himself a moment's smugness.
It was a moment that, as it turned out, Jared couldn't afford. A moment too late he heard the hydraulic whine of the second drone moving behind him, and before he could react he felt himself grabbed the the collar and lifted off his feet.
He flailed in vain as the drone turned him around to look at his face. He glanced at it's chest to look for the secondary nodelinker, but before he'd even spotted it, he noticed the drone's other arm - the one with the implantation tubes - coming up and around.
Adrenaline giving him abnormal speed and agility, he grabbed the arm holding him and flicked his legs up to lock them around the drone's other arm - a few inches below the implantation tubes. For a moment Borg and TiQ were locked together immobile - the strength of the TiQ's entire body holding the drone's implantation arm back away from him. In that endless moment Jared found noticing the minute details. Noting the flat expression of the drone. Observing that it had already taken what looked like mild battle damage. Wondering why the Borg was holding a data-pad in it's implantation hand.
But after a few seconds, Jared started to realise just how much stronger the drone was, and he could feel his muscles beginning to give. With only moments to think, he suddenly realised he was going to lose this fight. Very shortly, the Borg would be starting to learn the basics of pinpoint singularity charges, Iconian gateways... even the deplorable word.
Jared desperately glanced around. On the bench beside them, amongst a few toys May'Bel had asked him to "tinker" with, lay a solution. Of a sort.
There wasn't any real time to deliberate. There was little other choice.
He reached out with one hand, dislodging various oddiments, but managing to grab hold of May'Bel's grenade. Flipping the safety catch open with his thumb, he pressed down hard on the arming button. As the light began to flash urgently, he held it up between his face and the borg's. It would take both of them. After a moment, he released his leg-lock on it's other arm. Implantation didn't matter that much at this point.
The implantation never came. Instead, Jared watched in shocked silence as the Drone simply placed the data-pad in his work-apron pocket. Then, with the same hand, it grabbed hold of the grenade and wrenched it out of Jared's grasp. Then it dropped him.
The TiQ landed roughly, rolling onto his back and looking up and the drone as it regarded the grenade, it's vast array of sensor hardware telling it what Jared already knew from the frantically flashing light - they had only moments before it killed them both.
Then, with a greenish shimmer, the drone teleported out, taking the grenade with it.
Jared lay there on the deck for what must have been at least twenty seconds. What he had just seen made no sense. He wondered for a moment if it had been some kind of dream, or hallucination. Perhaps he'd got a whiff of something chemical from the core. But the borg components he'd pulled out of the first borg's chestplate still lay on the floor nearby.
And he could feel the data-pad in his apron pocket.
Warily, with no idea what to expect, he took it out and examined it...
Tell was explaining to the port manifold the many and varied origins of it's heritage, exactly how well acquainted it's mother was with the entire Klingon Home fleet and some hints as to where, biologically, it should find itself if it didn't comply to her ministrations. Then she hit it with a hammer.
She was winding up for a second round of abuse when an uncomfortable green glow lit engineering. Hammer still in hand she stared in horror at two drones that had materialised in her engineering bay. One moved directly to the core and activated the scram sequence, taking main power of line and dropping the FHew suddenly out of Warp. the second had moved to the fusion reactor interface and was disengaging the locks on each, disconnecting them from the power grid.
They either hadn't seen Tell, or did not perceive her as a significant hampering to their plans. Tell looked at them, her arm still holding the raised hammer she was about to use ont he housing.
"Just who the hell invited you?" asked Tell, keeping her voice low and threatening. "I thought I got rid of you the last time you came aboard. So what is it to be this time? More skin advice? Or how to win friends and influence people?"
Tell spun and twirled the hammer as easily as if she was a gunslinger in an old western. She then threw it fast and expertly at the drone who was trying to activate the core and it hit him directly on his temples. Its eye reeled with the unexpected shock as this was closely followed by one of her knives which went straight through the Borgs neck. He was dead before the floor came up to meet him.
She managed to get to a weapon somehow and flattened herself against a panel and waited to make her next move. Fear had gripped her in the pit of her stomach as it had done not so long ago when she had faced this once before. One Borg down and one to go.
The other Borg sensed her so that when she fired her weapon at it, it had no effect what so ever. It had stopped what it was doing and made its way over to it fallen comrade just as Tell made her way to the next column. She intended to come up behind the Borg and surprise it if she could.
The Drone rose from its felled colleague and, even as the body vapourised, returned to work on a panel. There was a shimmer in the air and Tell came up short. It had erected a forcefield around itself and the Warp Core. Tell had worked on it as a defence against the Borg while she had been looking after Hope. She had not expected the Borg to use it to keep her out.
She banged at the field in frustration. Apart from a shimmer it gave no response, nor did the Borg inside who was now working to disengage the Warp engine from the EPS.Tell knew she needed to get to the Bridge to warn someone.
HIchop was in the first officer's quarters. With his promotion had come a private room of his own. At first it had smelt uncomfortably of human female, but he would soon sort that out. Now he was grabbing a few hours rest before he took over on the repairs and relieved Ro'.
There was the same buzz in the air, and his eyes snapped open. in the middle of the room was a lone Borg drone, scanning the room. It locked eyes on HIchop, even as HIchop's fingers closed around the disruptor next to his bed.
The Drone crouched, reaching towards him.
Assimilate this Hichop thought as he fired his disruptor directly into the Borg's hand at point blank range. The Borg's hand and most of the arm blew off as the Borg fell back. HIichop jumped to his feet, hand burned and bloodied from the close range burst, he switched to his D'k'tahg. In a single roll HIichop was off his bunk and onto his feet.
The Borg grabbed HIichop 's hand with the blade. Even one handed the Borg were strong. Both were now locked in a battle of strength with the Borg on the ground damaged and HIichop pushing from above while bleeding. Then the idea hit him. He moved his back leg so it now resting on the neck of the Borg while kneeling on the the other. Their arms now raised about head hight HIichop brought his bloodied hand to the Borg's face and started clenching his fist. It caused a significant amount of blood to poor from it and into the Borg's mouth. The question now was would it choke to death or would he faint from lack of blood first. Unfortunately, and perhaps because he had just woken, he had forgotten Borg don't need to breath.
The Borg shifted until the blade was pressed against a section of his damaged shoulder and then simply released his grip. The blade plunged hilt deep into the shoulder, but the Borg did not even flinch. Instead it brought it's left arm around to the the side of HIchop's head. there was a sharp pain in his neck and he felt something cold flood his blood stream and then felt no more.
A corridor leading to the Cargo Bay
Marie had been in the Forward Torpedo bay when the Borg arrived. A pair of Drones had arrived and in an instant one had disengaged the weapon from all the power and control linkages while the other had gone to work on the mechanism inside. Marie had shoved her Flux router into one of them, hoping the jolt would be enough. It hadn't been. While they had been happy to ignore her at first, a direct assault had prompted a direct response. Marie ran down the boom connecting the torpedo room to the rest of the ship. While she ran, she tried to raise someone on her comms unit to warn of the attack. No-one responded.
Marie tried her comms unit again but only to get the same result: nothing. She couldn't tell if it was working or...where was everyone?
She knew, for certain of only one other person on the FHew. Well, maybe person wasn’t quite the right word. It was Borg drone pursuing her. Thankfully it was only one. That was little consolation. One drone could as easily assimilate her as ten.
She’d thought of maybe using the Janeway manoeuvrer but it was notoriously unsuccessful. It was very soon apparent that this Borg had no intention of ‘regaining his humanity’. The tubules extending from its wrist were evidence enough of that.
Marie had even tried blasting it with a disrupter when she had enough of a head start, but with the usual results; it had taken a few hits then its body shield had shifted and adjusted to the disrupter’s harmonics. Now she might as well throw it at the thing.
Even if she were a hulk like HIchop she wouldn’t try rushing it. That was just asking to be assimilated.
That only left the Rincewind Option: run like hell and don't look back. So here she was speeding down a corridor while desperately trying to raise someone. Anyone.
As a defensive strategy it contained one inherent flaw: she was rapidly running out of corridor to escape down.
Ahead loomed the door to a cargo bay. She could lock herself in there but that was only a temporary reprieve. Sooner of later hunger or thirst would force her out. Then she noticed which cargo bay it was. Damn! Why did I choose this one to run to? It isn’t the one I store our supplies in. It had been full of electronic parts till they had been dumped to escape the Nihlus.
Then a thought occurred to her. What if...?
She slid to a halt in front of the door and banged the door opener. All too slowly the doors opened as the Borg came closer. He – well, it had once been a he – was taking his time. Presumably the Hive knew as well as she did that she was trapped.
Marie waited: waited until the drone was almost on her.
He reached out towards her.
Marie dropped under the extended arm and rolled under the door. She banged on the control on the other side. When the drone tried to follow, she ducked to one side. He rose and looked round.
By now, Marie had gone.
She was back on the other side of the door. The door was almost closed. The drone made to roll under but Marie kicked him viciously. The drone pulled back.
Marie hit the control to open the air lock. She kept an eye on the door. It was a cat and mouse game now. Every time the drone hit the door release, she closed it again. The poor door mechanism screamed in protest as it was ordered to open and close, open and close, open and close.
Relief streamed through Marie as she heard air being sucked out of the cargo bay. It was only a matter of time now.
She did not know when the drone was sucked into space. It did not cry out, it did not plead for mercy; it just went.
Marie slid down the wall until she was sitting with her back to it. Still she kept an eye on the door in case the drone had somehow managed to survive.
It seemed like an hour she sat there, maybe more. In truth it would have barely been a few minute. Only then did she head back down the corridor to see what had become of her comrades.
Germite woke up. There was someone in his room. Thor'nan and May'bel were his roommates, but they should be working. His next thought was Cha'a', but, again, she had a job to do and wouldn't be screwing off harassing him when there was work to be done. Whoever it was could just go away. He needed his rest. He rolled over to go back to sleep when he felt a hand clamp down on his arm. Germite grabbed the hand with his left hand. He felt the metal parts of a Borg drone covering the hand. The grip tightened. The only advantage that Germite had was that he was on a bottom bunk and it was harder for the drone to get down to his level. He felt himself being pulled. He tried to pull away, but the drone's grip was firm. There was need for a change in tactic. Unfortunately, he wasn't like the Klingon crew, he didn't keep any weapons close at hand. He pushed towards the drone. The drone's grip loosened for a second, but that was all Germite needed. He slipped free and ran out the door.
All crew quarters opened onto the boom corridor between the bridge and the rest of the ship. Germite arrived in the corridor a moment before the Drone. He had a choice; run for the Bridge or deeper into the body of the ship.
Germite turned and ran towards sickbay. He figured if there was one Borg on board, there were probably more, but Germite's responsibility was the sickbay and that was where he would go. He skidded to a halt when he entered the room. There was a Borg already there, but his attention wasn't on the door or Germite. His attention was on the Borg infested Targ.
The Targ was now firmly chained to the wall with a variety of cables. The Drone seemed to be monitoring, but not interfering with it. It kept it's back to Germite. There was a noise form the corridor and Marie slid to a stop next to the doctor.
Pounding footsteps had drawn Marie to sickbay. They were human...well, they weren't Borg anyway. She ran blindly, looking only to find someone else alive on this benighted ship. She saw Germite up ahead and braked quickly. Running into him would not be a good option here.
Germite stared at the Borg and the Targ. He had to try something. He looked in a drawer for some sort of weapon, but it was mostly full of medical tools. A laser scapel, a dermal regenerator, and a sonic screwdriver. He wondered what it was doing in sickbay, it looked more like an engineering tool than a medical instrument. He set it aside and continued looking, nothing of any real value. He looked to Marie, "We've got to stop them. Or at least disconnect them."
“Damn,” Marie swore. “I thought I transported all the targ off the ship while we were outrunning that wave thing. Oh, well, better late than never.”
Germite ran his hand through his hair. "No, just the one's in the targ pit. This particular targ," Germite pointed to the targ with the drone standing nearby. "has been infected with borg nanites. HIchop thought we could use it as a borg detector. Apparently, it managed to work as a borg beacon."
Now that she’d paused for breath, Marie considered their options. “I don’t suppose you have any idea what it’s doing?”
Germite let out a deep breath, "I woke up, there was a borg drone in my room. I got away from him. I ran to sickbay, there was another borg drone here. The targ has apparently tapped into the ship's systems." He pointed at the targ again.
"I see," she said. Actually, she didn't but it seemed appropriate. “By the time I got to the transporters – assuming I didn’t get assimilated along the way – it might well have finished it’s task. Better not to risk it. Alright, a scalpel to the side of the neck should do the trick.”
Germite grabbed up the metal scalpel and move as quietly as he could moved behind the Borg drone. He moved to reach around its throat to cut a surgical end to its life, but the drone's hand lashed out with lightning speed and grabbed his wrist. It turned, still holding his wrist and looked at him as if considering a specimen under a microscope.
"You're new," It...she said.
A confused expression crossed Germite's face. "New? What are you? An honorary member of the crew?"
The Borg's face remained impassive, "We remember being a part of this crew before they killed us."
The voice had changed. For some reason Marie could not quite put her finger on she thought that this was the Queen talking. It was not the use of first person plural as such but the tone, the tenor of the voice. It was imperious.
“Before?”
The Borg looked at the Quartermaster, "Don't be concerned, Marie. This Drone will not harm you or the crew. We wish only to improve the quality of life for all species."
“That’s all you ever want to do. I don’t particularly want to be improved. Not in the way you envisage.”
Too many thoughts were running through Marie's head. Who were they? Were they an old crew who’d been assimilated? Was this a trap? At cross purposes came a voice asking Had Ro’ been in a crew which was assimilated? If so, how had he escaped?
A new voice took that thread up. Was this how he became a captain? it asked. Did him who goes on about Klingon traditions get his command by betraying those around him to the Borg? Then he stepped into the power vacuum! She dismissed that one as unworthy. She might not think much of her almighty captain but that.... No! That notion she would not entertain.
The Drone maintained it's vice grip on Germite, without damaging his wrist. Behind it the Targ was shuddering.
Hichop's head spun. For a moment he opened his eyes and was disoriented. Then memory swung into place and he rolled quickly to his feet. Too quickly, in fact, for the momentum carried him in a full circle and dropped him to the floor again. He was able to see that he was alone in his room again however.
Staggering slower to his feet he checked for what the Borg had done to him. "Nothing" he said astonished. Someone must have rescued him, but he knew this was an illogical thought. He had felt the cold of its metal in his neck.
He hit a wall comm. "Hichop to Captain Ro". Nothing. "Hichop to anyone" Another opportunity to think "Nothing". Then the obvious questions filled his head; Where we're all the Borg? Why was the ship's comm not functional? Why did the ship still seem Klingon? And the big one, why was he thinking at all?
Feeling stronger he grabbed his weapons and headed to the Bridge. He almost collided with Tell in the corridor outside. the pair didn't need to say anything. they could see by the other's expression both was quite aware of what was going on. They turned and moved onto the bridge.
Bridge
Thor'nan turned as the pair burst in through the rear door of the Bridge. As far as anyone on the bridge knew it was condition normal. No internal or external sensors had gone off.
Thor'nan looked at the pair and frowned, "Nuq NeQ?" [What do you want?]
Suddenly there was a flickering and the Bridge went dark. A moment later the emergency batteries kicked in bathing the room in an even dimmer shade of red. Tell knew that there were only about ten minutes of reserve power left.
At the same moment a pair of green glows appeared either side of Thor'nan. His instincts were keen. He turned and landed a double handed blow into the Drone as it appeared, sending it staggering backwards, but this meant turning his back on the other. Before anyone else could get to him, the second drone had plunged a pair of tubules into Thor'nan's neck and he collapsed.
"Who the hell invited our friends to the party?" spat Tell as she moved rapidly from panel to panel trying in vain to redirect power from anywhere she could think of. It seemed as though the Borg in engineering were always a step ahead of her.
Come on Tell, think. she told herself Get ahead of them
She muttered curses under her breath as power began to flicker and die in front of her eyes.
"They're all over the place like flaming B'etrovian locusts. I've been locked out of engineering and if I can't get back were done for."
Tells fingers moved in rapid succession at a rate of warp speed. Suddenly and with out warning she found she could transfer power. The engineer thought for a moment that just perhaps she was able to gain the advantage but something puzzled her. It was too easy and she knew what that meant, more trouble.
"Ok" she said as a matter of fact. "We have power. Use it before we loose it." she snapped at them.
Tell didn't take her eyes off the panels and switched from one back up to another in the hopes of hiding reserve power from the Borg. She longed to get back to her engine room god knows what was going on in there, something diabolical that was for sure.
"We have no helm control," called the Beq at the Con. "According to the Board the Warp drive isn't even on line."
HIchop stood watching the Drone at tactics. Having knocked out Thor'nan, it had remained stationary, just watching them. The first Borg was now standing again as well, just watching them.