Error in Judgement

Posted on Fri Sep 9, 2016 @ 6:20pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers

5,060 words; about a 25 minute read

Mission: The Fall
Location: USS Victory

Continued from "Belly of the Beast"

======================
***************************************** Bridge *****************************************
Thomas jumped out of the turbolift and rushed down to his seat, Penny looking at him in shock as his hands flew over his console. "What's up?" she said.

"Distance," he said, slightly out of breath from running most of the way. "Doctor wants distance between us and cube."

Penny didn't need to be told twice. She immediately put the ship in reverse, shooting them backwards and away from the cube. She pulled them in a turn, swinging them around, and shot off at full impulse, getting as much distance as she could away from the cube without straining them too hard. She banked suddenly, tucking them into a small, nearby nebulae and waited for their next move.

***************************************** Sickbay *****************************************

Nicole came out of the prep bay and stood over AJ just as the surgical team arrived. She snapped her fingers and pointed to the drones. "Prep them. Outer layers removed. Refresh yourselves on my notes if you need to."

They nodded and spread out among the other drones as Nicole began to remove some of the pieces on AJ's skin. The nanites hadn't spread to all his systems yet, but she didn't envy him how he must be feeling right now.

Yarin got to work, scanning the Captain with his tricorder and doing a visual inspection of the many frequencies he could physically see before him. Once he had found her particular signal he relayed it to the Doctor telepathically, How should we attempt to block the Captain's signal from reaching the drones? I could try to disrupt her thoughts, with a loud enough psionic signal I could render her human brain effectively comatose for a short time.

Nicole put her hand to her head and put her instruments down. "Yarin, words please. Maybe later. Isolate her signal and block everything else. I need these drones cut from the collective completely."

Lt. Taggart was feeling little to anything, the pain receptors in his brain having been blocked by design, the Queen's control algorithms allowing her to block his pain while at the same time slowing the assimilation process - a control feature normally utilized to keep the newly acquired drone alive through amputation and addition of cortical implants, ocular implants, and so on. Certainly not designed for what was happening, a result of the Captain's unusual bio-chemistry combined with the alterations to her Borg implants made by Section 31's research teams. Kennit's self-awareness within the Collective allowed her to try and continue to protect her ship and her crew.

With each successive separation from her mind, the loss of the drones recovered from the damaged Borg cube was having an unanticipated effect on the Captain's mind. Oxytocin, vasopressin, and corticotropin-releasing hormones were are rapidly being released from her hypothalamus. The flood of hormones resulted in the Captain's pituitary gland producing and releasing massive amounts of another hormone, the adrenocorticotropic hormone, which in turn caused her adrenal cortex to release powerful corticosteroids into her blood stream.

In short: Rage; savage, consuming rage that rapidly took control, flooding her mind and body. Members of her crew were being lost to her. Alec unresponsive on a biobed, Taggart's pain radiating in the back of her mind.....a situation she could not, would not allow!

When she moved it was sudden, unexpected..and violent. One of the security officers sent to sickbay to provide additional protection tried to stop her and was lifted with one arm as if his 6 foot tall frame weighed no more than a book, and thrown across sickbay when Kennit burst into motion. She turned and headed straight towards where a very alarmed Dr. Anderson was close to breaking the Collective link, essentially freeing Taggart's mind from the Collective. Another security officer fired, the phaser beam blocked and absorbed by the Captain's shield generated by the nanites in her bloodstream without harming her, it did however turn her attention to the security force.. and that was not good for the security officers trying to stop her!

Of the six drones brought back to Victory to attempt to save them, three rose from where they'd been believed to be sedated and moved to protect their Queen even as she closed with four members of the ship's Security force.. a savage backhand blow sending one Security officer sprawling across the deck to slam into a vacant biobed and go limp, knocked unconscious by the force of the Captain's blow.

One thing was for certain, she was indeed.. considerably stronger than she'd ever revealed during medical testing..

The surgical team immediately backed away as the three drones sat up, scrambling to put distance between themselves and their soon-to-be attackers. Nicole, for her part, stood her ground and stared down the Captain as she approached.

One of the security staff present had the presence of mind to urgently call, "Sgt. James to Lt. Cmdr. Torres! Sir! We need additional security fields around Sickbay!"

In engineering that call from sickbay was the last thing he had expected. He nodded to Sam for her to contact security. "This is Torres what the hell is going on up there, and why are you calling me and not the Commander on the bridge?" he asked.

"Commander Hunter is incapacitated in Sickbay.. The Captain and away team returned with 6 borg drones.. Lt. Taggart has been assimilated and the Captain..." Sgt. James fell silent.. he didn't even know how to try and explain what was happening with the Captain.

"Mother f...." he uttered as he got up from his chair "I'm on my way." he said and moved the nearest replicator. "Computer I need item Torres PX90 from program Torres 216." After a few moments the item he wanted materialized in front of him. He removed it and made his way the nearest lift so he could get to sickbay. Hopefully before it was to late.

Arashi had been patrolling the area when he had heard the commotion from sickbay. He set his phaser to stun then walked in to see what was going on. He saw the unconscious security officers as he ran into the room. When he saw the Borg he realized that a stun setting wasn't going to cut it. He fired at a drone as it moved toward Lieutenant Anderson. "What can I do to stop these things. Lieutenant? They seem a bit relentless!" Arashi said.

Yarin suddenly snapped up and ran out Sickbay towards his personal lab, an idea taking over. After spending some time checking his designs, he programmed the schematics into the computer and waited for the replicator to finish its work.

At that moment, Nicole realized that despite all the planning and anticipated scenarios, there was one thing she forgot to do: Lock the doors. She mentally shrugged and looked the Captain in the eyes as the Queen came up to her, arm outstretched, fury on her face. "Computer," she said, "end program."

Her body vanished, as did Cassandra's and the surgical staff. The doors to her office opened and she stepped out, now on the other side of the room from the Captain, arm outstretched and her palm phaser, the only one not communicating with the ship, pointed directly at the Captain's chest."

"Your drones are safe," she said. "Stand them down and deactivate and we will restore them to functioning status."

The Captain/Queen turned, gaze locked with the Doctor as she walked with deliberate, fluid steps across sickbay toward where the Doctor stood with weapon outstretched. She didn't stop until she stood with the barrel of the Doctor's phaser mere millimeters from touching her chest. "Drones are irrelevant." the Captain answered. "You are running out of time."

What exactly she meant by that was not immediately clear. Did she mean that the medical condition of the rescued drones still connected to the Collective was deteriorating, or did she mean her own control was fading?

Cassandra stepped out of Nicole's office, wooden top in hand and kept her eye on the Captain as she made her way around the room towards the patients. She saw the Captain's face and glanced at Nicole, sharing a moment of silent communication.

Miguel arrived at the doors to sickbay, which he was hoping were open. Worse case scenario he'd have to manually open them. He saw a few of the guards outside it seemed as if they were trying to figure out what to do next. That wasn't good. "Here, it's a tranq' rifle disguised as a phaser rifle. It should trick any Borg... in theory. " he said to one of them. "I'm going inside and see if our people are safe. You don't let any drones, whether they're crew or not, out of this room." he ordered

He probably shouldn't be doing this, he reasoned, but he needed to see if the his friends were alright. Plus, maybe he'd give security a clear shot at the drones. He moved towards the door and watched it open. He was actually surprised that the door opened. Sickbay needed to be sealed immediately when an intruder alert was sounded. Maybe making some stronger doors for it would.... he stopped himself as he was going on a tangent. He took a deep breath and entered sickbay just in time to see the doctor holding a phaser at the Captain. Only the Captain didn't look anything like herself... no she looked as if she were Borg. "Running out of time for what?" he asked making his presence known.

The Captain turned her head to look at the new arrival, "the answer is irrelevant."

Nicole turned her aim and fired three quick, successive shots, aiming for the connecting wires near the base of the three drone's craniums. The arched their backs and collapsed as their connections to the collective broke. "Surgical team, go," Nicole shouted, as the surgical team rushed back into Sickbay, picking up the drones and putting them back on the biobed, as well as the injured security officer.

Nicole rushed over to AJ and continued where her hologram had left off. It only took another minute before she'd severed his connection to the collective. So long as the Captain remained a non-threat, it was downhill from that point.

Samantha Summers shook her head and got off from the table she had been lying on. She glanced over at Hunter whom was also stirring, then turned her attention back to the action. "HOLD IT !!!!" she shouted. "Why was I knocked down, and what in the blue blazes is going on here anyway?!?!?!"

"Cass," Nicole growled threateningly as she removed another implant from AJ. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was stupid questions, especially when she was performing microsurgery. Questioning the obvious wasted time. It was the main reason she stopped asking her patients, "what seems to be the trouble?" If she can't look and identify a fracture, or sprain, or illness, what good was she?

Cassandra quickly walked over to Summers and took her by the elbow, pulling her back. "You were debilitated because you were distracting a very tense situation, as you are now," she said, her voice quiet, but uncommonly stern. "You are a security officer, so behave like one; look at the situation, assess, and process. Whether this becomes the liberation of a half-dozen assimilation victims, or a Borg foothold on the ship depends upon what happens in the next few minutes. Now, you can stand here and ask questions of people who don't have the time to answer, or you can keep a weapon ready and watch the Captain carefully until Doctor Anderson tells us it's safe. Either way, hush." She picked up Summers' dropped phaser rifle and handed it to her.

Summers took the phaser from Cassandra and held on to it. "My apologies. I'll stand in a corner and be ready in case."

Cass smoothed her dress and walked over to Hunter as he sat up, rubbing the feeling back into his extremities. "I think, once this is all over, you and I may wish to have a discussion," she said, this time more gently.

The XO merely nodded, his curt motion and scowl reflecting the ire he felt at having been stunned.

After what seemed like hours, Yarin looked over his new toy and decided he had been successful. He had created a portable, modular field dampener that he believed could cut out the Captain's signals. He ran back to sickbay with his new creation, ready to activate it and place it near the captain.

Nicole ignored most of the goings on behind her, instead leading her team in focusing on implant removal. She'd finally dropped the last piece of superficial material into a surgical bowl. She pulled a privacy sheet over him and she and Maggie worked to get his clothes off as she checked for any more surprises, but when none were found she snapped her fingers and said the word she'd been longing to say. "Bag."

As Maggie tossed Nicole's doctor's bag to her, Nicole glanced around the room Yarin had returned, Thomas was still gone, and the rest were hugging the walls. *Good,* she thought. She snapped her bag open and reached in fast, grabbing the hypo she'd brought from her lab. She pressed it to AJ's grey, mottled neck and waited, trying not to hold her breath.

Thankfully she didn't have long before his skin began taking on a more pink appearance, and she let out a sigh. She turned quickly, tossing the hypo to the doctor at the next bed, and giving a nod to injecting the other three drones.

She then put her bag down and turned her attention back to the Captain. "You're next," she said.

The doctor knew the Captain's history, and they both knew that the first time around, what the doctor was about to attempt had nearly killed the woman standing before her, who was watching the doctor with an intense, almost hostile fire blazing in her eyes.

Nicole walked up to her and leaned in, keeping her voice low for their privacy. "There's only one way to win this," she said softly, her voice unusually compassionate. "Stay like this and you lose everything: your command, your humanity, and perhaps most importantly, Commander Hunter." She looked the captain in the eye, letting her words sink in. "Walk into my surgical bay and you can have those things back. Stay here, and lose everything. You have the choice."

Choice.

There was no choice. Not with the Collective a near overpowering roar in her head and programming which made it impossible for her to act In a manner which would cause damage, cause harm to herself.

"We have no choice." was the answer. The part of her which was still self-aware could not break that powerful control, all she could do was remain motionless..

Nicole watched the Captain for half a second then whirled around. "Yarin, whatever that thing is, bring it to the surgical bay. Maggie, I need instruments set up in the bay."

"What do you need?" Maggie said.

"Everything. Full lot. Go." Nicole walked past the biobeds, checking on each of the former drones. Their skin was returning to a non-grey state, and her scans showed the nanites were being neutralized and the remaining implants were dissolving into component parts. As she passed Hunter's biobed, she smacked him hard across his boot. "On your feet, man," she said, "I need you."

Alec pulled himself up, still feeling the effects of the trigger-happy doctor's stunner and got to his feet, mentally promising himself to see that the Doctor was called to task for her continual, flagrant violation of regulation (and courtesy).

"Be ready to lift and carry," she said to Alec, then turned to Summers. "Here." She tossed Summers the palm phaser she'd been holding on the Captain. "Have it ready. It's the only thing we can use against her."

Summers caught the phaser in mid flight. "Got it, and got your back."

She went back to the center of the room. "Medical team monitor the de-assimilated, Summers, stand guard inside the surgical bay. Shoot anything that tries to get out before I authorize it. Hunter, you're with me. Everyone else, bugger off."

She walked over to the captain and sized her up. "Sorry about this," she said, then snapped her finger at Hunter to stand on the Captain's other side. "Maggie, gurney."

As Maggie rushed over with an anti-grav cart, Nicole grabbed the Captain in a less than delicate way and when Hunter did the same, they lifted her bodily off the ground and dropped her, stiff as a board, onto the gurney. Nicole grabbed the runner and pushed, steering the Captain towards the bay, beckoning Hunter to follow.

He followed, not really knowing what else to do.

Summers followed the procession to the Surgical Bay, keeping her phaser at the ready.

"I'll be on the bridge minding the store. Keep me informed on your progress, Doctor." Miguel called out as he turned and exited Sickbay. He saw the security detail that was still on guard outside, especially the one that he had given the rifle. "Stay posted here, if antyhing goes wrong they'll need you." he told them and went to the nearest turbolift and then the bridge to assume command.

Arashi had been stunned by what had happened in the surgical bay. He had wanted to help but wasn't entirely sure what to do so he left the area and deicded to speak with the captain about what had happened when she got out of surgery or whatever was going on. He holstered his phaser and left without a word.

Cassandra walked over to Monsoon and Casey and took them gently by the arm, steering them out of Sickbay, clearing it for the medical staff.

***************************************** Surgical Bay *****************************************

Nicole and Maggie rushed towards the surgical bed and before the gurney had completely stopped were grabbing the Captain. "One, two three, lift!" Nicole shouted as they strained to shift the Captain onto the surgical bed. Maggie immediately pushed the gurney to the corner and pulled over several trays of instruments, surrounding herself and prepared to reach for anything at a moment's notice.

"Program-Hypo," Nicole said, holding her hand out. Maggie slapped a programmable hypospray in her hand. Nicole quickly pressed it to the Captain's neck and checked the bed's readings, then sighed. "Captain," she said, "I'm very sorry, but your body is rejecting the anesthesia. I'll re-administer as soon as I can, but this is going to hurt for a time."

"How can I help Doctor? I am not very familiar with human physiology." Yarin asked as he looked around.

Nicole huffed and let out an animal growl, her eyes glowing red. She glared at Yarin. "Turn. It. On." she snarled.

Yarin calmly activated his device, then stepped back to observe the results.

She composed herself somewhat and looked to her right at the others standing by the door. "Commander, I could use you over here," she said as she called for a laser scalpel.

His expression promising further discussion about the ramifications of her having shot him, Hunter replied, "what is it you think I can do?"

Nicole growled slightly again but this time kept it in check. "Come over here and talk to her," she said, her voice stern but measured as she tried to keep focus as he came around the surgical bed. "Keep her attention, keep her humanity at the forefront of her mind," she said, lowering her voice. "Yarin's machine, I'm assuming, is cutting her off from the drones and the borg ship, but I need her to stay focused on something important, and that's you."

Alec nodded, moving to the head of the bio bed where he could lean close in order to talk to the Captain, his voice pitched low and calm, not betraying the emotions he was feeling as he murmured softly to her.

"The last time someone attempted to remove the Queen's implants from her, it nearly killed her. However, this time we have two advantages," she said, pointing at the two of them. "I've performed this operation before, and you are, right now, the best anesthetic I could ask for."

Summers spoke up. "Doc, besides holding on to this phaser, anything I can do to help you along?"

Nicole bit back her reflex response, wanting to keep a serious mind for what she was about to dive into. "Be ready to shoot on my command. If I'm incapacitated, shoot anyway," she said, not quite looking at Hunter now. "We can't take any risks. Just...be ready and don't distract me."

Summers grinned at Nicole's comment. " *That* I can do. With pleasure. " Summers brought her phaser to waist level.

Nicole activated her scalpel and bent over, examining one of the implants by the captain's ear. "Let's begin."

The moment the scalpel touched Kennit's skin, she gasped sharply, body tensing and the monitors reflected the change, her heart rate jumping up accompanied by a sharp rise in blood pressure.

Nicole winced in empathy, but kept going. There weren't many external implants to deal with, and thankfully they were removed somewhat quickly. It was the ones inside that were going to be difficult.

As the final one dropped into a specimen tray, Nicole watched as the nanites in the Captain's system repair the flesh. Unfortunately that bit of help was about to disappear. The next piece to be removed was the main autonomy controller. If Nicole could just remove that without incident, the Captain's nanites could be deactivated and she could finally give the captain something for the pain, and begin real surgery.

The Captain's breaths came in short, strained gasps now. Her eyes had remained locked on Alec's face though the fire blazing in her gaze promised retribution rather than an attempt at help. Thus far she's made no sound in respond to the pain of the doctor's activities beyond the harsh rasp of her breathing. Now however, as the Doctor began to cut toward the main autonomy controller located at the base of the Captain's skull near the brain stem, a low groan of pure agony escaped. A small device, barely 3mm in size, the moment the implants connections were severed the Captain's eyes rolled back in their sockets, every muscle in her body to spasm violently in the throes of a powerful grand mal seizure. So strong, the sound of the bones in Commander Hunter's hand snapping as her fingers clenched down was quite audible along with his startled cry of pain.

"No, no, no, no!" Nicole shouted, retracting the scalpel and trying to pry the captain's grip off of the commander, as Maggie struggled to hold the captain down and read off the situation.

"Brain functions fluctuating," Maggie shouted over the alarms. "Higher functions ceasing and heartbeat irregular. We're losing her."

"Her implant is trying to prevent us from removing her from the collective by sacrificing the drone," Nicole growled, finally pulling the captain's fingers far enough for Hunter to fall backwards, clutching his hand. She tapped her combadge, "Anderson to Osika: Get in here and bring my bag. Out."

Kennit's back arched up off the bio bed, tendons in her neck standing out sharply beneath her skin for several long seconds and then she simply collapsed to the bio bed completely limp, another alarm sounding to alert the Doctor of a new and urgent concern: the captain was in full cardiac arrest.

"Cortical stimulators," she snapped and Maggie placed them on the Captain's head. She couldn't believe this was happening. Barely an hour into the process and the Captain was dying.

"She's dying," Nicole said.

"Doctor, what setting?" Maggie said, ready to input the numbers.

"She's dying," Nicole repeated, looking at the Captain's body. The incision she'd started had only half healed. The nanites were slowing down in their function as the Captain did. The implications struck Nicole like a bolt of lightening and she actually jumped a bit as if she'd been shocked.

"Doctor!" Maggie said, trying to get Nicole's attention.

As Doctor Osika rushed in carrying Nicole's bag, Nicole snapped her fingers at the other doctor. "Attend to Commander Hunter. His hand is going to require reconstruction." Osika nodded, tossing Nicole her bag and stepping in to help Hunter to his feet.

"Doctor..." Maggie said, unsure how to tactfully address the fact that her CO didn't seem to care about the Captain's death, already in progress.

"She's a drone," Nicole said, catching her bag, pulling out a padd and looking at Maggie. "Starfleet Medical had Voyager's EMH put out about six papers on Borg physiology, and one of them included the fact that a drone can be reactivated hours after death. Her entire body has been rewired as a queen, I'm wiling to bet her brain functions are protected as well. We can use that to have her 'out' for the surgery, then once she's clear, we can use the remaining nanites and neural pathways to reanimate her." She thumbed through the padd till she found the information she wanted and scanned it quickly.

"I...don't know the procedure," Maggie said.

"I do," Nicole said, returning the padd to her bag. "Just follow instructions and we'll get through this. Let's get her clothes off and get her on her stomach. We're going to need to operate on her spine next." She activated the surgical screen which rose up to shield them and give the captain some privacy.

The next four hours moved at a crawl. Nicole was going down the captain's spine, removing the primary linkages and implants from her spinal column, as well as from some of her internal organs. She was also filtering as many of the nanites out as she could, assured by the numbers that there would be plenty left to initiate her plans.

Every piece of metal that clinked into a tray was a miracle, and the only thing that gave her any hope was that the captain couldn't be in pain if she was already dead, and they weren't running the risk of killing her again.

Nicole ran her hand over the Captain's spine, checking for any shards or pieces she missed, and noticed her hand was shaking. Maggie was looking at her with concern and Nicole realized it had been some time since she'd had anything to sustain herself. She took a breath to steady herself and pulled off her gloves. "One moment," she said, turning he back on them.

She pulled out her flask and took two long swigs, draining the last of it. She felt her hands steady and her mind clear and she turned back to the table. "Let's close her up," she said as Hunter came back into the room, nursing his hand.

"How is she?" he said.

"Still dead, thankfully," Nicole said, then gave him a slightly apologetic look. "We'll be reanimating her shortly. We've removed all the critical implants. The rest will be inert so long as she's not reactivated."

"I just...I can't believe she never told me," he said.

"Would it change things if she had?" Nicole said.

Hunter didn't answer, but he looked at Rhea with a mixture of anger, betrayal and concern that Nicole was all too familiar with.

She and Maggie worked silently, repairing the damage they'd done to the captain's body, sealing the wounds and restoring her physical body. When her spine was once again safely ensconced, Nicole nodded to Maggie. "Charge 'em," she said.

Maggie set the cortical stimulators and fired a burst of energy through the captain. Her body convulsed but she remained flat-lined. "Up ten and again," Nicole said. Maggie re-fired, and the Captain's body arched up, slightly but she remained prone.

"Again," Nicole said, putting her weight on the Captain's rear, nodding at Hunter to hold her shoulders. She didn't want a convulsion to tear the sutures and rip the captain apart again. Maggie hit the button again, and again the captain tried to buck. They watched the screens stay flat for a moment, there was a blip, then another, and another.

"Blood pressure rising," Maggie said, rattling off the Captain's statistics. "Heart function returning to normal. Beat steady. Brain activity rising."

Nicole dared to breath a sigh of relief and lowered her head. She activated the surgical restraints to keep the captain immobile so she'd heal and knelt down in front of the surgical table, pulling Hunter with her so the captain would see them when she opened her eyes. "Let's try and wake her," she said. She took a hypospray from her bag, programmed it and pressed it against the captain's neck, then flipped open her tricorder, her eyes darting back and forth between its readings, and those of the biobed on the wall monitor.

The Captain didn't move. Her breathing hitched slightly, but other than that she didn't wake.

"What the hell.." Hunter asked. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"Because even in death, she's a stubborn bitch," Nicole growled.

"Your attitude isn't helping, Doctor," Hunter said, a clear warning in his voice.

Nicole scrambled to her feet and ran her tricorder down the Captain's body and back up, scanning her brain slowly, tapping a few notes into the surgical bed. "She's unconscious. That's all. Everything's working perfectly. The nanites are repairing her body and her brain is sending clear signals. The problem is her body's built up a considerable amount of fatigue. She's just....tired."

She shrugged and closed her tricorder. "To be honest, I say we let her sack a couple."

"Sack a couple?!" Hunter repeated incredulously.

"Yes," Nicole said. "She needs the one thing Captains get so little of: sleep." She turned to the other occupants in the room. "Yarin, Summers, dismissed. Maggie, I want everything brought to my lab for review, then close down. Leave the lights off and don't disturb her. Let me know when she wakes up."

Summers turned to Nicole. " Roger on that, I think I need some time on my own bed in my own quarters. How about you, Yarin?"

"I think it is time I spend some time in the holodeck." Yarin said as he nodded to the women in the room as he left.


~*~

 

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