AT-4 Rescue Team Delta (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on 14 Nov 2013 @ 10:16am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Lieutenant JG Tykhin Vess & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 3rd Class Thanis Rothgra & Legatus of Borg & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & 6 of 8 & 5 of 8 & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis

2,387 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: Borg Cube - Subjunction 22, Grid 8-9, Repair/Engineering Conduits
Timeline: MD 06 - 1331 hrs

[ON]

USS Galileo - Transporter Room 1

With all the other away teams now successfully transported over to the cube on their various assignments, only one group remained. "Delta team," Lirha addressed the final five crew members present in the transporter room, "proceed." She stepped to the side to allow them to step up onto the transporter pad and beam over. "Please recover Lieutenant Peers and our journalist. It would be bad press for us to lose him to the Borg." she weakly joked, her best attempt to lighten the tense mood in the room. "Good luck, and keep your comm channels open."

Tykhin just shook his head and avoided looking at the Captain. He checked his bio-cloak, intelligence tricorder, phaser and hypo-sprays were in place. Then Tykhin stepped up onto the transporter pad and glanced in Asahi's direction.

Following orders, Cameron hopped up next to his teammates, grasping the rifle tightly as he prepared for the transporter cycle. It was now or never - reaching down to his arm, he activated his bio-cloak, and awaited the start of their mission.

Asahi had a game-face on by this point. Already having double-checked his own gear, he stepped up onto the transporter pad. The Captain's joke almost went unnoticed, as he was much too concerned about the mission at hand, which was almost a shame. Asahi liked jokes. His eyes met Tykhin's for a short moment, as he nodded, returning to his own mental preparations.

Gabriel settled into place on the pad. Rather than his equipment, his hand went to the collar of his uniform. His fingers slipped under it, touching the small, gold cross he wore there before he straightened up.

"Give 'em Hell gang." said Willis. "Energizing."


Borg Cube - Subjunction 22, Grid 8-9, Repair/Engineering Conduits

As true as anything else aboard a Borg vessel, the repair conduits were function before form. Naked cables hung in a haphazard yet perfectly ordered pattern, crisscrossing the walls and floor, linking from larger implant to smaller subprocessor with startling efficiency. Occasionally an electrical discharge would ark from one component to another, nothing to worry about but certainly not up to the standards required for Federation engineers.

The lighting here was better than in some areas of the cube, and it was easy to see the complex systems that dwelled here outside of the usual habitable areas of the Cube. Few drones moved through these conduits, the auto-regenerators taking up the bulk of the work. It appeared as if a ghost ship, devoid of life, or at least, individual life.

As he materialised, Riley turned to check his surroundings, keeping his finger close to the trigger of his rifle until he was certain that there was nothing coming to get him. Sighing in relief, he lowered the weapon and reached for his tricorder.

"Well...this is where we're supposed to be.....right in the belly of the beast."

Tykhin grimaced. He pulled out his tricorder and began scanning for their targets. "Let's just get out of here before we become lunch."

"At least we skipped the teeth." Swallowing uncomfortably, Thanis hurried to the nearest standing console and tried to make sense of it. "For now," he added, worrying his lower lip. Function over form was certainly nice in theory, but form helped people like him make sense of function and the bits and pieces of various cannibalized ships did not make for an easily sussed out system.

Asahi, on the other hand, had held his breath at the sight of the innards of the cube. He had no time to let his mind wrap around this possibility. There would be time for more star-shattering thoughts when he was back on the Galileo.

"Lunch. Hah." Releasing his breath at the quiet laugh, he glanced about for signs of potential dangers. If they were in the engineering areas, wouldn't there be a drone or two down here? And he was in charge... when was the last time he was in charge of anything at all?

"Everyone keep your eyes peeled. Keep together. I don't want to split up and lose half the team to something we didn't see coming. And keep to the sides. Best not to become a target." He had hoped none of what he had just said was necessary at all, but he felt, on some level, that he had to say it. "Tykhin, picked anything up yet?"

Voices. Were they there, really, or another product of memory and blood loss? Why would there be voices? The drones had no need to speak and the ship- the ship... Zaren struggled to focus, exhaling through Lilou's nose. Not enough air. Not enough space. The crate was not big enough to hold a person, even of Lilou's relatively small stature. And... there were so many sources of pain and discomfort, it was difficult to sort one from another. Nervous, They nudged the lid of the crate up and peered out. Oh, sweet merciful spirits- people! Uniforms. They had never been so happy to see regulation cuts in Their entire experience. "How-" They began as the grey mist circled and clouded Them once more and the lid fell closed atop Them.

Tykhin looked up at the voice and peered at the crate, then his tricorder. "Yes, sir" He said and pointed.

"That... was faster than I thought it would be." Asahi narrowed his eyes at the crate, cautious to immediately run in and pluck whoever it was out. He glanced toward Stark. "What do you think? Ambush? I didn't think Borg were capable of something like that, but I'm not going to rule out a possibility."

Gabriel Stark shook his head with a frown, but he kept his rifle raised all the same as he moved over to investigate. He remained silent though, wanting to keep their group as quiet as possible as he walked forward.

Thanis had stiffened at the console he was trying to decipher, twisting to see what they were talking about. There were a collection of small storage crates stacked against the wall. Why would the Borg ambush them from a box rather than, oh, say, the entirety of their ship? As would likely happen any minute now, the longer they stayed here, the more probable that eventuality became. "A person couldn't fit in any of those," he whispered.

"The bio-signature is Peers," Tykhin assured the group, gesturing to his tricorder. "But there's something really wrong with her... I sense her, so she's not Borg, but..." he said and shook his head, almost like he was seeing things, as he glanced back in the direction the voice came from.

Asahi would have quite possibly given the young trill a glare of some sort, had he not been so focused on the crates. "I could fit in there if pressed... and I'm not about to discount a tricorder reading." He gestured toward Tykhin. "But... Rothgra was it? I'm not discounting anything. Everyone's uneasy, but we need to proceed with caution." He narrowed his eyes at the crates. "Alright, Stark, with me. You probably have better eyes than I do.... just in case something comes out and tries to assimilate us." No chances.

Gabriel nodded and moved with him, but his expression on his face was the equivalent of a shrug. He had to resist the urge to just go and open the damn box instead of standing around it.

"Cameron, Rothgra, try to locate some of the Venture's crew and the... journalist we're after. I'm not too familiar with Borg tech, but there may be some... way of tracking them down? Any information we could possibly use to our advantage, whether it's about them, or any intel or tech specs... anything." Asahi was clearly leery at the whole situation, but there was no reason to back down now. "Tykhin... keep doing what you're doing. Maybe we'll get lucky again and find someone else."

"Y-yes, sir... be careful," Tykhin said, frowning. "I feel two... three... people... But the tricorder only shows one body... Interference?" he tried to rationalize. "I'm confused..."

Gabriel watched the others and finally couldn't take it anymore. He looked to Kita, shaking his head. "Let's get this open," he whispered. He closed the gap between them and the crate, using the butt of the rifle to help lever the top off. His breath caught at the sight inside. "Lieutenant!" his voice was hoarse in the need to stay quiet as he reached in and grabbed the young woman. He pulled her out, breathing harder as he knelt down to cradle her upper body in his lap, taking in the state of her. "Peers..."

Asahi gave the silver uniformed man a raised brow. "That's a lot of people for one body." But, before he could ask further, Stark had already cracked open the crate. He paused, muttering under his breath. "Impatience is gonna get us killed."

The movement had jolted them awake, but They could not focus, could not clearly see his face except through the green-veiled lens. Her uniform had been sliced open from ribs to hips and gaped, bloody, as he cradled the small form. Blood crusted around the implant on the left side of her face. Raw burn marks marred the dermaglyphs around her temples. In his arms, the body shivered uncontrollably, not from cold, although it was cold. It was freezing. On the outside. Boiling on the inside. And the edge of the line where her abdomen had been opened like a suitcase and then zipped closed again oozed a strange combination of ominously tinted gelatinous goo and thick, dark blood. "Happen to have... medkit on you?" Her teeth chattered around the question, her voice low in her throat.

Asahi cringed at the sight, glancing over to get a beter look. "We have one, but we'll have to get you back to the others for it." He paused. "Asahi Kita, by the way. I don't think we've met yet." He nodded toward where they had approached from. "Let's get back to the others before something sticky happens... and get her patched up."

"Kita," the name was more of a wheeze than a word. "We are... pleased... to meet you." Speaking was becoming as difficult as climbing down the lift shaft had been with blood pouring out of Them.

Stark gathered the trembling body in his arms, lifting her carefully and holding Lilou close to him at the same time. "Got you now," he said on a low voice, keeping his anger at her state locked deep down inside of him.

Tykhin looked pale and shaken as Asahi and Stark brought Peers back. He was fixated on Peers and took a step back from her. "She has Kixana'ra" he said in a harsh whisper. Their universal translators gave 'demons' as the closest synonym. "There are others in her mind."

A dark laugh barked out of the tiny mouth. "Not demons. We are Zaren," They said, spitting blood to the side, and outstretching an arm for the medkit. "Peace. Please."

Tykhin hesitated and looked suspicious, but saw the look on Asahi's face and sidled forward with the medkit. He looked down at the tricorder in one hand and concentrated, trying to ignore what he sensed. Tykhin punched a few buttons and the tension ebbed in his shoulders.

"Four gods, there's a... a symbiont in her," Tykhin said, struggling for the word as he tried to interpret the readouts. "I'm pretty sure it's telling me that's the symbiont from Zaren in her, sir," he said, and crouched down beside Peers.

The tricorder beeped started flashing instructions in red. "Not good," he said and put it down to crack open the medkit. "The computer recommends emergency beamout directly to medical for her," he said. "I can follow the secondary directions, sir, but she can't stay here for long."

It was exactly what They wanted. To be off this Cube. To be free and safe. So why were They shaking Their head? "Tarishiana Barel's child is somewhere on this ship," Selik and Velen banded together for the sake of the child, dragging the others along into conscience. "That child must be saved. And Raifi... Raifi is somewhere nearby. We saw him... I don't know how long ago. Holliday is their mouthpiece. I don't know what happened to the others; I didn't see..." They shut Their eyes, breathing shallowly. "We owe them swift deaths if they cannot be saved. It is better- nng..." The whine squeezed out between her teeth. "I can help. Just... let me talk you... through it. Ah."

This was a lot of information for Asahi to absorb in a few seconds. However, with or without the tricorder, he knew the woman would have needed medical assistance. "Lieutenant Markos is searching for Barel as we speak, and child with her." Or so he hoped. "We're searching out Raifi as well, but Tykhin is right, you need immediate medical attention." His knowledge of Trill was subpar, at best. "... Both of you? ... Yes. We'll search for Raifi after we get you beamed out of here."

"Here." With a grimace, They unfolded, gingerly stretching out Lilou's legs and pressing the side of her head to Stark's chest. With her knees away from her abdomen, she peeled the sticky edges of her uniform apart. "Just... recut and... use the... dermal regen- erator to seal it closed. Straight. This time." They felt nauseous. "So We don't... tear it again." Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. "Kita- can you risk... beaming me out? Won't their... sensors...?"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Tykhin Vess
Intelligence Officer
USS Venture

Lieutenant JG Asahi Kita
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

WO Riley Cameron
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - John Holliday]

PO2 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Scarlet Blake]

Crewman Apprentice Thanis Rothgra
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Lilou Zaren]

Senior Chief Petty Officer Arthur Willis
Engineering Computer Specialist
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Markum Quinn]

Legatus of Borg
Narrator
[PNPC - John Holliday]

LTJG Lilou Zaren
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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