We are the Victory. You will be Assimilated.

Posted on Tue Jul 2, 2019 @ 5:45pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers & The Doctor

2,525 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: En Route to Golemon V
Timeline: Two-ish hours after Dot Connections

[Nicole's Lab]

A hand jostled Nicole and she didn't move.

The hand shook her again and she groaned. "Sanu Cami, just a minute more..."

Suddenly an uncomfortable flick on the ear made her sit up and jerk back, alert but woozy. "What the hell..." She saw Penny and everything flooded back to her brain as it caught up.

They were in Nicole's private lab--the only place she deemed safe enough to work with the nanites. Nicole had grabbed a bottle of her elixir, downed a third of it, then set to work with Penny to reprogram and replicate the nanites into virus-wranglers.

"When did I doze off?" Nicole said, embarrassed.

"About ninety minutes ago," Penny said. "Right after you assured me you were 'perfectly coherent' and then called someone I've never heard of a 'tosser,' and then fell asleep."

"What time is it?" Nicole said, rubbing her eyes.

"0630," Penny said, putting all the materials in a case. "I've got it more or less finished. The nanites are replicating as we speak. I need to get to the bridge. We'll be arriving at the planet in about ninety minutes."

Nicole nodded, now clear-headed and all business. "Anderson to Sickbay," she said, tapping her combadge.

"Harper here."

"Faith, is the Captain still there?" Nicole said, locking things up as Penny left.

"Yes, Doctor," Nurse Harper said. "She's been asleep on the biobed since you left her. We've checked in on her periodically, and her readings are stable."

"Let her sleep," Nicole said. "She's officially on bed rest until she wakes up and causes a scene."

"Yes...Doctor," Nurse Harper said. As a member of Gamma shift, she wasn't as privy to Doctor Anderson's sense of humor so she still had trouble distinguishing her sarcasm from her sincerity.

Nicole closed the channel and left her lab, tapping her combadge again. "Anderson to Hunter."

On the bridge Alec replied instantly. " Hunter here, what can I do for you Doctor?"

"We need a senior staff meeting asap. We're about to assimilate a Federation Colony and we'll need all hands on deck."

There was a pause before Alec replied, "Excuse me. We're going to do what?"

"Assimilate a colony," she repeated. "Resistance is Futile." She closed the channel, running to her quarters for a quick change before the meeting.


[Briefing Room]

Nicole walked in and put her case on the table in front of her, taking her seat. A moment later the doors opened again.

Alec entered saw Nicole and nodded and took his customary seat as he didn't know if Rhea would be attending the meeting or not. "I hope for all our sake you know what you're doing, Doctor." No accusation, no flip or snide asides just a simple declaration of fact.

Nicole nodded soberly.

"I trust her," Camille said as she came in just in time to hear Alec. She took her seat next to Nicole and gave her a sweet smile. She then nodded to Alec. "Commander."

"Love makes fools of us all," Nicole teased quietly, smiling back.

"Hmmm. Yes. That may indeed be so." Alec replied. "However I didn't say I didn't trust her Lieutenant. I said I hope she knows what she is doing."

SCPO Summers entered the briefing room, first scanning for Lt. T'Mira, whom she trusted at a *long* arms length; upon not seeing her Summers took a seat. " Commander.." She said in greeting, then nodded at the others.

T'Mira followed Summers as she entered. She'd been the first one at the briefing using her photographic memory to put the faces and images and bios together. She mentally made a list of all in the room and what was said. She was aware that summers was watching her. She wanted to trust but it had been something that had bitten her in the behind one too many times.

Cassandra swept into the room and made her way fluidly over to a seat next to Camille, sitting down quickly. She crossed her legs, smoothed her dress and nodded to the others, keeping her own counsel.

Penny rushed in, sitting next to Nicole and whispering something in her ear before sitting back and keeping quiet.

Alec watched as Penny rushed in and whispered something to Nicole. "Something you would like to share with the rest of us Penny?"

Penny tilted her head, confused. "No, that's why I whispered it," she said innocently.

"Beep, beep, Penny," Cassandra said. She silently prayed the rest of the staff would arrive quickly.

Logan walked into the briefing room and sat down.

Miguel walked into the briefing room. He was wiping his face and hands on a dark cloth. It was obvious from his appearance he had been working on something messy in Engineering. Not sure how much of the meeting he had missed, he didn't say anything and just took a seat.

The Professor walked in a moment later, yawning and finding an empty seat by the end of the table.

Arashi just arrived and sat down at his seat while waiting for the briefing to begin. He had just woken up so he had looked like a cat drug him around the ship a few times but he managed to at least get in a shower and brushed his hair.

When Major Crowe entered and sat down, Nicole looked to Hunter for permission to start.

"Go ahead Doctor, the floor is yours."

Nicole stood up and walked to the front of the room. "As you all know, we encountered a ship that suffered a plague and the entire crew was killed. We've determined that the plague is manufactured by agents from the Alternate Universe operating within our own universe. We believe they have moved past infiltration and are resorting to simple extermination and conquering the remains." She paused, letting that sink in. Faces were ranging from sour to furious.

"We've established that the virus is primarily constructed of material from the other universe, however its interior structure produces a toxin using our universe's materials. That toxin is what kills the victims, then breaks down and is inert and undetectable almost immediately. The 40-hour incubation period is the time the virus needs to generate the toxin to lethal levels."

She took a breath and pressed on. "Because of its manufactured nature and its function as a weapon of mass murder, it is very likely there is no possible cure. Also, because the virus is modeled after a common illness, but from another universe, it's able to avoid the immune system, and our efforts to affect it have proven useless. However, that design advantage comes with a very significant disadvantage: the virus can't replicate. Once the virus is introduced into a population, whatever quantity of virions are present doesn't change. Therefore, if we are unable to cure it, we are going to try containing and counteracting it."

"I thought you said you couldn't," Cassandra said.

"I said we couldn't affect it," Nicole said. "We can't get it to stop producing toxins, nor stop being viable. However, it is still corporeal, and therefore we can see about physically restraining it--" she glanced at the case by her seat "--with nanites."

Heads turned towards the case as they realized what was in it.

"We've extracted a supply from the Captain and reprogrammed them. Their function is to assimilate a colonist far enough to self replicate and repair any tissue damage until the toxin is rendered inert. To stop the virus from producing it, they are also programmed to surround and isolate any virions they counter, and flush them out via any egress from the body, i.e. sweat glands, exhalation, evacuation, et cetera. Once out of the body, the virus will be isolated until it expires. The colonists affected will be put into a medical-induced coma so they don't feel a thing. We may have to temporarily assimilate the whole colony, but we should be able to save their lives in the process, and remove any implants and nanites later."

"The Captain is resting in Sickbay, but once awake she'll be able to monitor the nanites' progress. I'll be monitoring her health, but I need someone on the ground monitoring colonists and taking samples." She looked to Torres. "Commander, do we have a way to transport our EMH and have him operate on the colony, either independently or transfer him to a hospital's systems there?"

"No." Miguel said quickly. "However if the the colony has some holo-suites we might be able to adjust our subspace transmitters to send him to them. The we'd risk losing him in the transmission. Another possibility could be to use the EMH-backup module and beam down to the surface and plug it directly into a holo-device if they have one. I'll look into the most updated records we have on the colony to see if they have anything we can use, in the mean time I'll have my best holo-tech looking into making any modifications to either the EMH or the backup module," he told the Doctor

"All right, thank you. I'll have the EMH available for you," Nicole said.

Camille timidly lifted her hand. “What sort of controls will be in place to make sure the assimilation doesn’t go too far?” She knew Nicole’s plan involved nanites, and she trusted her, but this was more extreme than she was prepared for.

"The Captain and Penny are our firewalls," Nicole said. "Once the body is effectively clear of the virus, the nanites are instructed to wait for the stand down command, and then will de-assimilate the body and vacate."

T'Mira listened. If she thought the doctor was...a bit off before now she thought the woman was positively bonkers. Using Borg technology? "I realize that I am no medical expert but one cannot control the rate of assimilation and there is always the possibility of full assimilation. Based on the connection shared by the Borg...chances are that if full assimilation occurs we could have a cube or orb heading our way." She should keep her mouth shut but the plan was dangerous and most illogical. There was an alternative but knowing Humans as she did they would not appreciate the logic in it.

"I agree," Nicole said, sternly. "You're no medical expert." She let the verbal retort hang for a moment. "The nanites have had their programming stripped and have been reprogrammed very specifically, and the Captain can activate their kill switch any time. The nanites will not create drones that can communicate, nor a Borg subspace network. They simply do not have the code to do so. We'll be monitoring them constantly for signs that anything goes awry, but given the Captain's condition, if the Borg were attracted to a few nanites, we'd all be drones by now."

She looked T'Mira. "You could, however, work with Mister Logan on locating the shuttle they encountered on that station. If we can determine where it went, we can possibly find their base of operations. Likewise, if we can determine their delivery system on the planet, we might gleam some intelligence that way."

T'Mira said nothing. She just stared at the doctor serenely. She'd make an effort to research the woman completely.

Logan nodded, "Understood."

"Lt. Tanaka's teams and our marines should be ready for a fight if we find the hostile base. They've been operating for some time so they're most likely well entrenched and well defended."

"My team will be ready; I will brief my team as soon as the briefing is over," Arashi responded. "I will be ready as soon as the mission kicks off." He was anxious now to get his team together and get this mission started.

"The Professor, Lt. Levesque and myself will continue working on the virus in an attempt to combat it without more nanites. Any other questions?"

Summers nodded. "Is there anything specific you would like my section to look into in this endeavor, or stand by to offer assistance?"

"Stand by and prepare to assist Lt. Tanaka with anything he requires," Nicole said.

Summers nodded in acceptance at her, and then at Lt. Tanaka.

T'Mira was watched and then jumped in. "What of the diplomat? Can he help smooth things over with those we are to turn into semi drones?" She still wasn't convinced. People hated Section Agents but she was not fond of the Borg nor of the thought of being assimilated. "Also will they be given a choice if they will take the cure or not?"

"I'm not sure what he can do, but if he wishes to coordinate with Doctor Sanders in offering remote counseling, I'm sure she'd be willing to discuss it."

Cassandra nodded. "Absolutely," she said.

"As for a choice, no. Unfortunately, the nanites won't be able to distinguish between who wants to live and die, they'll work to keep everyone alive and find every virion and isolate it. This isn't a path I relish, but we are short on time and options, and this is our chance to save hundreds of thousands of lives."

"In other words their resistance to us is futile." There was a slight pause. "Fascinating." T'Mira typed into her data PADD. She didn't like this one bit. It was a treatment, but hey were forcing people to allow foreign nanites into their body. "I will leave some questions in the air: How many Starfleet regulations on freedom of choice are we breaking? Are we any better then the Borg by forcing those who do not wish to have nanites in their bodies to do so? What happened to freedom of refusal of treatment?" It didn't sit right with her. Perhaps not the best foot to get on with the rest of the crew but they were questions that needed to be asked.

"Allow me to bring them to the ground," Nicole said, her scowl hardening, squaring her shoulders as if she'd just been slapped. "Two, yes, and it went out the window when they were all forcibly infected with a weapon of mass murder." Her voice started to rise. "When someone takes a phaser blast to the chest, you don't ask them if they're interested in medical treatment, you jump in and stop their heart from failing!" She took a breath and reigned herself in. "However if it will assuage your concerns, I'll offer you the opportunity to transport down when this is over and conduct a survey, and anyone who would have preferred to be murdered in their beds, you can put a phaser to their head and complete the act yourself. Satisfactory? Excellent." Her head whipped around. "How long until we reach the planet?"

"Twenty-three-point-two minutes," Penny said immediately.

"Let's go!" she said to everyone, marching to her seat, grabbing her case, and heading out the door, Cassandra standing and following on her heels.

T'Mira sat studying the doctor. She made a few notes in her PADD. She looked over at Hunter who was getting ready to speak.

Hunter raised an eyebrow at Nicole and then looked around the room. "Dismissed," he said and stood up, leading them to their stations.

 

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