The Hunters.. or the Hunted?
Posted on Mon May 30, 2016 @ 1:08pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers
2,070 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
The Fall
Location: USS Victory
[This post takes place 28 hours after the briefing with Admiral Macedo is concluded]
It hadn't taken long at all for word to spread through the Victory's crew of their Captain's history with the Borg, specifically in that she had in truth been a part of the Borg collective. For her part, the Captain utterly ignored the side-long glances and soft whispers, she had been their Captain for this long.. a small detail from her past was of no importance in the 'now'.
Since accepting the Admiral's orders to attempt to gather intelligence on the Borg to better facilitate attempts to strengthen what remained of the Federation's colonies and outposts here in the Delta Quadrant, activity aboard the Victory had been at a high. Admiral Macedo had provided authorization for the onload of whatever supplies the Victory requested, and they had been taking on replenishment ever since. Food, medical supplies, additional repair parts, and weapons had been streaming aboard. The ship was now once more fully stocked with photon and quantum torpedoes and would soon have a full load of all supplies which had been requested.
It would be easiest to approach the derelict Cube which had been detected during their approach to Helios Colony several two days earlier, however there was the very real likelihood that the Cube had by this time completed sufficient repairs to resume it's course and return to Borg space. If the ship was still in the same location, it would still be a dangerous proposition to approach. Sensor scans indicated that the massive vessel had been severely damaged, but for the Borg repairing the vessel was merely another task to complete. If the Cube had been determined to be too badly damaged to repair, a signal would have been transmitted to the Hive and without a doubt, another Borg ship would be dispatched to recover the drones aboard and take the damaged vessel under tow to return it to the Collective.
Time was short..
Exiting her Ready Room and stepping onto the Bridge, the Captain noted that the XO was not currently present as she moved towards the Operations station. "Are we on schedule for departure?" she queried the Ensign currently manning the station.
"Aye Captain," came Tom's reply. "On-load of the last of the supplies should be completed within 2 hours time."
"Very good. Send word to all sections for head count and readiness confirmation. As soon as everything has been stowed and all departments report in, we will be getting underway."
"Ma'am.." he answered with a nod. Turning to the console, the young officer sent the Captain's message out to all personnel onboard.
"Science department reporting in Captain." Yarin said from his station.
"We're all ready here, everything's onboard, everyone's here and raring to go!" Matt said from his console on the bridge.
A moment later Alec entered the bridge. He gave Rhea a nod and moved to take his position at the XO's station.
Penny was hot on his heels and tapped the conn officer, kicking him out of her chair and dropping in. "Helm ready," she said after a moment's checking, her hand brushing Thomas' gently.
From her station on the ship; S.C.P.O. Samantha Summers clocked in. "We're ready here, Captain," she said.
Alec gave a silent nod to the Captain but it spoke volumes. He still wasn't speaking to her.
"Anderson to bridge, Sickbay is stocked and ready and all medical stations report go," Nicole's voice said through the comm.
"Ops reports all systems are green," Tom reported, running his console through a final level five diagnostic.
Speaking to Penny, the Captain said "Well, all right then. Miss Naroot, break orbit and lets get underway. Set course back towards the last confirmed location of the derelict Borg Cube. I want full sensor scans all the way. When we are within 2 hours of the cube, take the ship to Yellow Alert and raise our shields, also bring all weapons systems online."
"You got it," Penny said. "Orbit broken and underway gotten." She pulled the ship into a tight arc and shot them forward, heading away from the planet at full impulse. "Course laid in, Captain, will go to Warp Seven as soon as we clear the system."
Kennit nodded, "Very well. Keep a close eye on the sensors as well as comm systems. We're heading off in search of the Borg; let's be sure we know they're around before they notice that we're coming."
Penny nodded. "Right-o. Planning sneaking in course and scanning as we go." She looked to Thomas for confirmation.
************** Sickbay *****************
Cassandra glanced at Nicole as she helped a nurse prep an emergency field pack. All three sickbays were in operation and all hands were on deck for the next few shifts. Nicole wanted to be ready, and Cass couldn't blame her. She stole away and snuck up next to the CMO, speaking quietly. "Are we ready?"
"Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam," (Today is a good day to die) Nicole grumbled. "So yes, I would say we're plenty ready. Everyone's got a sidearm, we've done inventory, all three Sickbays are operational. All that's left is the imminent threat."
Heads popped up at the familiar phrase. Cass glanced around and lowered her voice again. "Yes, perhaps a declaration of certain death isn't the right mantra to take up at this particular moment, hm?" She looked around again, seeing several nurses and a few medtechs looking their way and appearing rather disturbed.
"No, it's exactly the attitude to have," Nicole said, not bothering to lower her voice. We can't go in there timid and afraid. The Borg don't get jitters, and they don't shy away, and neither can we. If we're going to die, then we're going to die knowing what we're made of, and like the Klingons, we'll go in singing a battle song if we have to." She finally stepped closer and lowered her voice a bit. "So back me up on this."
"Fine," Cass said, holding up her hands. "Let us go bravely into that good night." She leaned against a counter, and started tapping a beat like a metronome with the butt of a hypospray, humming gently.
"It's a good day to die," Nicole said to the staff, subconsciously matching the rhythm of Cassandra's tapping, "to stand and fight until we're dead."
"A good to die," Cass added, "though if somebody ever said 'for what?' She smiled at Nicole's glare. "We forgot. So on reflection, perhaps, maybe not."
"Not helping," Nicole said.
"It's a good day to die," Nurse Rhodes intoned, doing his best Klingon opera impression, "though not as good as other days."
"A good day to die," Maggie chimed in, "but if there's one a little ways away...."
"Well then hey," Cass said, "we can reschedule, it's more than okay."
"C'mon get with the spirit!" Nicole groused, looking back at her staff. "It’s a good day to die..."
"To spurt our blood and spill our guts!" Dr. P'k'ala wheezed.
"A good day to die..." Nicole said.
Cassandra shook her head. "Out loud, it sounds completely nuts."
"But still," Nicole said, "blood could spill."
"After that, it will all go downhill," Maggie said.
Fairway and Kelson snapped off a salute, singing, "we will try not to die, but we will."
Everyone gave a brief chuckle. "And we'll fight," Nicole sang.
"Who knows why?" Cass said.
"Till we say--" the med staff called out.
"--with a sigh," Cass finished.
"It's a good! Day! To! Die!" They all finished.
Cassandra stopped tapping. The staff's spirits were up, their spines a little straighter, and even Maggie seemed to be less nervous. She pushed off the counter she'd been leaning against and walked back up to Nicole, leaning in and whispering, "that enough back up?"
"That'll do nicely, thank you," Nicole said.
"Well then, I think I'll go to the bridge and take my position," Cass said. She gave Nicole a supportive squeeze on the shoulder and left.
************** Bridge *****************
Cassandra emerged from the turbolift a moment later, coming down the side of the bridge. She briefly made eye contact with everyone as a greeting and sat down at an auxiliary station, bringing it online and assigning it to medical relay. Once she was ready, she turned to watch the people on the bridge, making note of the Captain.
The Captain nodded to herself, seemingly distracted by an apparent rough edge to the fingernail on her right ring finger. "Assuming the Cube is still operational, we will need the proper equipment to access and download data from the Cubes main systems," she said.
Alec had entered the bridge and quietly taken his place at the XO's station. His eyes drifted to Rhea as he thought of Taggert and the situation he had caused forcing Rhea to act. He personally thought Taggert should be confined to the brig but he had to grudgingly admit the man did have abilities that could prove useful in this present situation.
"We are going to need an away team ready to transfer to the Borg ship," the Captain said in a tone as mild as if she were discussing lunch plans. "We will want engineering crew capable of accessing and pulling the data core from the Borg vessel as well as security crew to keep an eye out in the event the ship and its crew are not as dead as we hope. Any volunteers?"
Tom paused at the Ops console, wondering what would happen if no one volunteered. Likely several officers and senior staff would be volunteered at the Captain's discretion. Tom decided he'd take matters into his own hands. "I'll go," he said.
Penny let out a squeak of concern but bit her lip and held her tongue.
Alec gave a sideways glance in Tom's direction and nodded. "Count me in as well Captain."
"That's two." She drawled in response. " All right then Number One." the Captain aid. "I leave the selection of the rest of the away team to you."
"Aye Captain. Any suggestions on how large or small the away team should be?" He personally was thinking no more than five.
"Make it two teams...we can cover more ground more quickly that way." The Captain told him.
Alec pursed his lips but made no argument. Though it was clear he wasn't happy. "Two teams. Aye Captain."
Yarin piped up from his station, "I will go Captain, it should be an educational experience, and if nothing else I can use the information gained to perhaps one day protect my species."
Penny's eyes darted between everyone then back at Thomas and her mind raced. *I should go. But if I go, he may feel protective of me, and he'll want to protect me, and that can cause a distraction and put him in jeopardy, but if I'm there I can protect him and I can take care of myself but looking after him might distract me, which means I should remain on board, however that could have him worrying if I'm not there and he doesn't know what's going on and I'll be worried if he's there and I don't know what's going on, which means I should go--*
Systems operating at 89% and falling
*Damnit...*
"Come back safe," Penny whispered in Thomas' ear, her big blue eyes recording every detail about his face.
Cassandra smiled to herself, glancing at Penny's soulful look at Mister Barnes. She caught the commander's eye and shook her head. Her place was protecting the ship.
************ Communicore *************
From his seat in the center of the Communicore, AJ kept tabs on the data coming in through the sensor and communications arrays. At present, it was mostly quiet , with the exception of routine shipping traffic. There was a Malon shipping freighter that was attempting to evade Borg space as it made it's way to a designated dumping ground before it's designated deadline. Several of his technicians had their heads together going over their reports and recommendations for potential routes and contingency plans during their voyage. AJ still consistently disagreed but held is tongue despite everything. He had been ordered out in order to oversee the department during his duty shift and ordered back to the brig every night for the duration as his punishment. To AJ though, this was his way of waging silent rebellion against something he felt was idiotic in the first place.
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