The Investigation (Part 4 of 4)

Posted on 16 Aug 2013 @ 9:17pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Verity Thorne

1,721 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Sickbay/Science Lab
Timeline: MD 01 - 2325 hrs

Previously, on The Investigation (Part 3)...

The last image of the sensor logs was particularly disturbing; a cluster of ten to twelve escape pods attempting to flee from the cube were pursued and tractored by the giant Borg ship, then were subsequently dragged inside one of the menacing docking ports against their will. The log recording suddenly fizzled out and turned to static again, signaling the end of the visual log and the final moment of the stardrive's life.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Having left the Bridge, John made his way down the science lab, entering the room to see a group of shocked faces crowded around one of the consoles. Whatever had happened was enough to spook even the usually vocal Quinn into silence, something that didn't bode well with the XO.

"Apologies for my tardiness....have we made any progress?"

It was Scarlet that finally broke the tense silence, straightening up and looking to him with a grim expression, her jaw tight. "Borg," she finally spoke the word they were all thinking. "Cloaked Borg."

The word Borg was enough to send shivers down the XO's spine - he, much like every sentient being in the galaxy had no desire to ever become the cybernetic abominations that were the Borg. But the idea of them having cloaking technology made them even more dangerous - at least before, you knew if they were coming.

"Cloaked? Captain Saalm we have to inform Starfleet - the Borg just hit a whole new level of problematic."

"Agreed," Lirha replied in complete agreement with her XO. "And something about this seems very strange..." Every intelligence and tactical report about the Borg during her Academy days suggested that the Collective had no need for cloaking devices or deception; in fact, such a concept was counterproductive to their normal tactics of intimidation and conquest. Simply put, the Borg had never needed to conceal their presence, especially if they considered themselves to be superior lifeforms.

Turning to Scarlet, Lirha began to issue orders. "Report to the bridge and send a Priority One encoded message to Starfleet. Inform them of our findings and the survivors we have rescued. This nebula is most likely interfering with our long-range communications but we should be able to quickly configure a probe to deliver the message."

Scarlet nodded, but remained where she was for the moment to hear out the rest of the meeting as she would until they'd all been dismissed. "Aye, Captain"

"Commander," Lirha continued, looking back at John, "do you think there is any chance those people in the captured escape pods are still alive?"

John had studied the Borg in great depth during his time at the Academy, in fact, he had been one of the few instructors at the Academy who were qualified to teach the associated courses to new cadets on how to deal with the Borg should they ever be encountered. Shaking his head, he was quick to accept the likely possibility.

"I highly doubt it ma'am - it would be inefficient of the Borg to delay assimilation, more than likely anyone they caught were quickly added to the Collective."

Markum's fists were clinched so tight his knuckles were white and his jaw was clinched tightly. A fire in his eyes glowed brighter than most had ever seen before. "Borg. When I was on the Thor, we tangled with some. They are heartless abominations that only care about collecting more into the hive."

Lirha pursed her lips in sorrow and frustration as her thoughts drifted back to the pleasant casual meeting she had had with Captain Sutherland back in Venture's ready room in the Rojar system only several days ago. The thought of the woman and members of her crew being assimilated was horrifying, and an uncomfortable, helpless feeling washed over her - one that she did not like at all. "There must be something we can do...some sort of rescue operation? If I remember Fleet history correctly, several Starfleet crews have had success recovering previously-assimilated personnel...USS Enterprise, USS Voyager, USS Medlin... We cannot just leave those personnel in the Collective's mercy..."

"All of which were in a much better tactical situation than we are Captain." John replied with a stern look on his face. He understood the urge to try and rescue their fellow officers, but going up against a tactical cube was purely a fool's errand.

"We are already stretched thin with the rescued crew from the Venture, and we simply don't have the firepower to challenge a Bo...."

The XO stopped in his tracks halfway through a sentence. He had been thinking over the engagements of Starfleet vessels against the Borg that he had memorised almost word for word in his youth. There was always one common factor.

"The Venture is a big ship...a Galaxy class starship armed to the teeth and filled with over a thousand people...a good target for a Borg vessel. Galileo...is a tiny science ship with less firepower and a vastly smaller crew...we wouldn't even show up on their radar...."

Becoming more and more excited as he continued through his thought pattern, with a ship so vastly inferior, perhaps the Galileo would be able to sneak up on the Borg and rescue any survivors without starting a firefight.

"Ma'am...if we could find the Cube, chances are they would never consider us a threat...that could be our window!"

Lirha's hopes shot up as she contemplated John's assessment and idea. Her passionate and emotional Orion nature completely agreed with him, but her command training forced a moment's pause while she considered the idea. "There was a former-Borg Starfleet officer recovered and un-assimilated by USS Voyager...Annika Hansen..." she began to think out loud.

"In Voyager's records, it was discovered that she was originally captured by the Borg during her parent's survey mission of the Collective in the Delta Quadrant." she recalled. "Apparently, their small survey ship - the USS Raven - was able to operate within a thousand kilometers of an assimilation cube and even board it for several days before their scientific attempts were seen as a threat. They used multi-adaptive shielding and bio-dampeners to conduct their research undetected, and it was not until an ion storm damaged their craft's shielding that they were discovered and assimilated..." she glanced over at John and the rest of the team to see if anyone was following her thought process.

Scarlet frowned, folding her arms as she thought on it, holding her breath. "Wouldn't they have assimilated that information and 'learnt' from it?" she asked, concerned. "And it sounds like that was a pretty small ship with less firepower too, smaller and less threatening than ours, and the Borg still stopped to assimilate them." She looked between them, unsure.

Lirha cast a sideways glace at the 2XO then shook her head. "The Borg only stopped to assimilate them once their camouflage had failed due to unforeseen factors..." she explained. "That was over 30 years ago and we no doubt have more advanced and sophisticated equipment on board than USS Raven did in the late '50s. As for assimilating information," Lirha recalled her time as an intelligence chief before her assignment to Galileo, "in theory, if they learned and adapted from every encounter, their invasion of Sector 001 should have been flawless."

Markum listened carefully to the exchange of ideas. "Skipper, if the Cube were to see us as a threat, we could arm some Warp Capable Probes with shielding emitters to a metaphasic setting so to confuse the Borg's shields and place Photon Warheads in them to detonate say...a second or two after impact.... the combination of being struck by something going at warp and then a delay that allows the photonic blast to erupt within the Cube itself instead of against its shields could be devastating. It would only work a couple of times, but well placed shots would be all we really need. "

"It might at least be enough to slow the Borg down long enough for us to run like hell...Mr Quinn - liaise with the Armoury and get it done."

John knew that any fight against the Borg, however unlikely, was not going to go well for the tiny Nova class without all the necessary preparation. Even with the combined efforts of the entire crew, there was no guarantee any of this would even work.

"Aye-aye, Skipper." Quinn stated

Nodding to the veteran engineer-turned-COB, John focused less on the external fight, and more on what would happen if the Borg decided to pay Galileo a little visit.

"I will liaise with Security - I taught the Borg familiarisation course at the Academy, I'd like to hope that I at least remember a little of it. The last thing we want is a running fire-fight against drones if we can avoid it"

"Excellent, make it so, commander. I want you to brief the crew on our plan in the next few hours." Lirha replied firmly to her XO. "We do not have much time to waste and we are a sitting target as long as we linger here near the debris field." she glanced around at all of the other personnel present. "We need to get to work. Dismissed."

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant jg Allyndra illm Warraquim
ACMO
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Cmdr. Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor/2XO
USS Galileo

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
COB
USS Galileo

Lt. Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

LT Delainey Carlisle
Asst. Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

LTJG Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

CN Siren Hex
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Scarlet Blake

WO Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Scarlet Blake

PO2 Verity Thorne
Chaplain
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Scarlet Blake

WO Riley Cameron
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by John Holliday

EMH Mark-X
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
NPC'd by John Holliday

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