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

Posted on 14 Nov 2013 @ 10:18am 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 & 5 of 8 & 6 of 8 & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis

2,519 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: Borg Cube - Subjunction 22, Grid 8-9, Repair/Engineering Conduits
Timeline: MD 06 - 1352 hrs

Previously, on Rescue Team Delta (Part 3)...

"Aye and hopefully I won't blow my hands off if I get the wrong sequencer here...."

Cameron muttered as he moved into position with what he hoped was the power relay assembly. Grabbing a plasma cutter, the engineer removed the outer casing of one particular component, moving the shards of metal out of his way as he locked eyes on his target. Attaching one final probe and picking up his tricorder, the engineer closed his eyes as he tapped the command sequence, and the forcefield fizzled into nothingness.

"Hey...wha...och it looks like I got it!"

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

"Those two are incredible," Tykhin said to Asahi with a gesture to Cameron and Rothgra. His eyes did not leave his tricorder and the data mining progress for a moment.

"Yes, sir," Thanis had hurried over to Cameron's side, ignorant of Tykhin's commentary. "How long will it remain down for?"

"Well, I'd say somewhere around about 7.2 minutes, but that's just an estimate - I managed to disguise the shutdown command as a routine maintenance cycle, thought it might help keep us safe."

Cameron disconnected his probes and began returning them to their respective locations on his belt before folding his tricorder away into it's own holster.

"Then we better hustle." With a nod of agreement with Tykhin and a grin. "Hopefully we'll stumble right into exactly who we need to run into. If that registry you found was correct, which, I'm thinking it is, we'll be able to at least find them." Getting them out was, of course, another story.

Gabriel moved on ahead, keeping slightly in front of the others on instinct. He had his rifle balanced in one arm, because frankly if they needed to shoot, they were all screwed anyway. In the other, he kept his tricorder scanning, a flash alerting. "I have a match for Venture crew," he nodded to a door up ahead. "One signature. And Zaren. Raifi. Whoever he is now," he shook his head lightly with confusion.

Tykhin handed Asahi two of the special hyposprays they were given to disable drones.

Thanis gathered his tools to his sides as he stayed close to the others. What had Stark meant 'whoever he is now'? Assimilation... they could reverse it. The doctors could. They'd done it for the Captain. Why shouldn't they for a Trill? Still, he had no idea what he was supposed to do... be a distraction? Bait? No. The cloaks. Unless the cloaks stopped working. His heart was thundering in his ears.

Moving forward, Gabriel dropped to a crouch on instinct when he saw the source of the tricorder's warning. He saw four drones, two of which were the Galileo and Venture crew. They'd have to knock them all out together in order to get their two back without the collective realising. He frowned, passing out an extra hypo to those who needed them before motioning those who were up for taking the other three out to follow as he moved forward with a slow but steady and silent step, his body low and ready to move quickly if needs be. It got the blood pumping, that was for sure.

Tykhin glanced at the three engineers with them and sighed inwardly. He almost failed his field training, but at least he had field training. He handed his tricorders to Rothgra, and pointed out the downloads running as he did. Then he pulled out one of the hyposprays for himself and another for Cameron. He looked at Asahi expectantly as Stark started out.

Asahi fumbled about with the two hyposprays for a moment, deciding to pocket his tricroder in order to better focus on what he knew he'd have to do. His eyes met the drones for half a split second, before he registered exactly what it meant, especially with Stark trying after them so quickly. Frowning, gave the others a nod, confirming Stark's movements, before he silently followed after the security man. The distinct feeling of so much for being in charge loomed in his mind, but there really wasn't a time for that. Maybe he'd invite said security man for a chat, a beer, and a stern glare when they got their asses out of this.

Silently, the engineer attempted to catch up to Stark, hypospray in hand. Unless he had picked up more of the hyposprays while the others weren't looking, the security officer was going in without one. Unfortunately, the thing that managed to slow Asahi down were his attempts at being stealthy. He may have been used to rolling in and out of jeffries tubes swiftly, but one didn't necessarily have to be absolutely silent in order to do that.

Tykhin followed quickly behind Asahi, moving as quietly as he could. He tried not to think of all the reasons he did not like field work, could not make himself accept the realities of field work. Some seemed to take to the deception and the instrumental violence in it, the coercion, without trouble. Something in him rebelled though, as if after all the concessions he had made after joining Intelligence Branch, embracing field work would cross some invisible line. The last vestiges of himself would be lost and he would be...

Focus he admonished himself mentally as he almost walked into Asahi. He watched Stark and Asahi pick their targets and moved a bit farther down the hall to the recessed regeneration pad. Ensign Hatsumi's body rested there, inert for all intents and purposes, a cybernetic instrument for the Borg. It sent a chill down Tykhin's spine. He raised his hypospray to just short of the drone's neck and watched Asahi for the signal.

Asahi's creeping tactics worked surprisingly well, but he chalked that up to sheer dumb luck. He nodded towards the others, before attempting to move in on his own.

Gabriel forced himself to take long, slow breaths to keep himself relaxed and steady as he waited for them all to be in position; despite his instinct being to hold his breath being this close to a drone. It was unnatural. Everything was screaming in him to shoot its fricking head off, he couldn't help it. When they were all close and still enough next to their drones, he lifted his free hand, checking they'd all seen it before dropping the hand sharply to indicate they should all go for the jugular, so to speak, and press the hypos to the drones. Gabriel hopped back on his feet just in time to avoid a drone falling on him.

When he saw Asahi move in, Tykhin pressed his hypospray against the Borg's neck. The drone started to drop, and hit the deck beside Tykhin, one more noise in a chorus of dull thuds on duranium decking as the team hit their targets.

Asahi was thankful he had picked a shorter drone to go after. His focus may not have been on Stark's rather successful capture, but he knew very well where that hypospray was going. If the drone was any taller, he may have had to stick the hypospray elsewhere, and he was fairly certain injections in the rear weren't nearly as effective. He pressed the hypospray into the drone's neck, eyes clamping shut as he half expected to hit the wrong spot and it all go to hell.

Cameron felt like his hands were made of jelly. He could handle a live plasma conduit without breaking a sweat but the drone whose neck he hovered near with a simple hypospray was possibly the most frightening moment of his young life. With a sharp intake of breath he dosed the drone, leaping backwards as he did so as to avoid being turned into a pancake.

Thanis barely managed to stifle a sharp gasp as the others injected their hyposprays. It was shocking. And not a little bit exciting. They'd caught some borg! Well, former crew members who needed to be returned to the ship for restorative care, but still... It was possible! Really possible. He stared at the too pale Trill lying at Kita's feet; he was safe now. Or could be. Thanis hurriedly returned his gaze to the tricorders with their download times and various other data. "One minute twenty seconds til the next evacuation cycle," he whispered.

"Sir," Tykhin addressed Asahi. "Permission to stay behind for one more cycle when the rest of you beam out to continue the data theft. The federation may never get another chance like this, it could put us years ahead in weapons, propulsion, and nanotechnology, and give us new defenses against the Borg."

The shorter engineer popped an eye open, staring down at the sedated drone in front of him before giving a response. "... You're not going anywhere alone, Tykhin." He paused, but only for a beat, mind already made up. "Stark, Cameron, Thanis, you three get the hell out of dodge with our ah... patients? Crewmates. Yes."

"Ye dinnae need tae tell me twice - I'm ready to get the hell outta here!" Cameron replied, sighing in relief as the drones slept soundly at his feet, hopefully for a long while yet.

Thanis nodded. He didn't like the idea of them staying behind, but he wasn't brave enough to volunteer himself to stay any longer. He was useless here anyway. What was he going to do - quote Warp statistics at them to death?

Stark shook his head firmly. "Sorry, Sir, can't do that," Gabriel motioned to them. "I'm Security. My duty is to maintain the safety of the away team, especially the team leader. Leaving two officers alone here without their security detail is endangering members of the team. I should stay, Sir."

Asahi paused, thoughtful look on his face. Stark was right, security detail was needed, but at the same time, keeping more members in the Cube was just as dangerous. "... Fine, but you'll follow my orders from now on." Not that he expected anything life-threatening to happen...

"Yes, Sir," Stark put the emphasis on the word Sir, impossible to tell if he were making a point or not, because as far as he could recall, he hadn't disobeyed a single order thus far. He remembered helping a bleeding girl out of a box when no one else would go near it. That was about it.

Kita pressed a hand to his commbadge. "Ma'am, Delta Team reporting in. We have Raifi Zaren and a few more coming aboard now. Contacting Officer Willis for transport now." Another pause, before he switched channels. "Willis, we have an evac of six for this cycle. Please standby till next cycle for the rest of our team members.

Asahi rolled his shoulder back in nervousness. "I'll go with you and see what we can find. I'm all for poking around and figuring out what we can find, but I'm not sending anyone down anywhere alone."

"Let's find somewhere to hide then. Maybe behind those crates where we found Peers? All we have to do is monitor these downloads," Tykhin said quietly. "Sir, you have no idea how much data we're pulling. Cameron and Rothgra just made possible the biggest intelligence find of the decade. Transwarp, weapons, shields, nanotech, I'm getting kiloquads of data."

Nodding, the engineer led the way over toward the aforementioned hiding spot. He paused only for a tiny instant, processing the intelligence officer's words. "... So, we hit the information jackpot, huh? Damn." Definitely things he would have wanted to sift through at some point or another. "... I can see why it's worth waiting the extra cycle for it..."

Tykhin hunkered down with a nod. "Look at the transfer rates," he whispered. "Still... We're both going to end up in the counselor's office for this, volunteering to stay longer on a cube," he whispered with a wry look.

"... Yeesh. Well, hopefully we won't get unlucky in the next few minutes, huh?" Asahi snorted, shaking his head. "Oh I dunno, this whole plan was kinda crazy. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"We have..." Gabriel looked at his tricorder with lifted eyebrows. "Another seven minutes to get your stuff before beam out," he gave them a count before scanning the area. He wondered briefly as the others did their data hacking. Perhaps it was peaceful once the trauma was over. As a Borg Drone. Perhaps it brought the nightmare of the trauma of the actual assimilation to an end, the drifting and emotionless life of work in the hive, and all you are added to a larger mind. Hadn't he read about a group of drones who had been separated from the Borg, recovered, but then chose to on occassion still link their minds together? Perhaps the real fear was from the idea of it being a kind of death from the life that is known, rather than the fear of what is after. Gabriel had never feared death though. He'd never really cared enough one way or another. Maybe that was why he didn't care here either. He could be on a pirate ship, or any other enemy ship, and he'd feel the same - 'let's get the fight done, and afterwards we'll either be dead or at the bar'. He unconsciously touched the gold cross under his uniform collar. He wondered if the Chaplain would have a view on it.

Tykhin nodded and watched the downloads as the minutes ticked by. It was just babysitting at this point and he was eager for it to end so they could beam out.

It seemed they were lucky enough not to run into anymore drones for seven full minutes. Asahi was thankful for that, if only because he wouldn't have to worry about running his ass off while they were downloading things. They may have been able to handle a few drones, but alerting the whole Cube to their presence might have been... deadly. "... Please tell me it's done and we don't have to wait another cycle. I'm all for knowledge, but I don't want to be here much longer."

"The tricorders are full, no need to stay," Tykhin confirmed.

"Excellent. Let's get out of here before we change our minds again." Asahi nodded, hand to his commbadge. "Willis, we're ready for evac of three."

=^=Evac of three confirmed. Stand bye.=^= Willis confirmed the lock. =^=Energizing.=^=

[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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