Queen takes Pawns

Posted on Fri Sep 6, 2019 @ 11:59am by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

677 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Research Station Omega

Outside the High Security Laboratory, Level 14

Heavy blast doors had been closed and sealed from inside the lab. Heavily armed security forces gathered at the sealed entrance into Level 14. Behind the closed doors, the unthinkable had happened. The prisoner had somehow escaped from within the agony booth and killed two of the security officers standing watch at the time. Worse, the other two guards had been somehow taken over. Internal sensors indicated that there were 4 life signs inside the High Security Lab. Dr. Jones, the prisoner, and the two surviving guards. The sensors indicated something else, the life signs of Dr. Jones and his two guards were altered. They were very similar to that of the prisoner.

The prisoner was a Starfleet Captain, one who had survived an encounter with a species called the Borg. While no Imperial ship had encountered a Borg vessel, they did have considerable information regarding this highly aggressive and hostile race gleaned from other civilizations throughout the quadrant. Some of that data was clearly inaccurate, as the belief that a former Borg could not assimilate others once the connection to the Hive had been severed.

Yet here they were. Standing guard at the only means of entering or exiting the laboratory level with four Borg inside. Internal sensors indicated that the environmental systems within the lab had been altered, the temperature had risen now to 39.1 °C (102.38 °F), with 92% relative humidity. Atmospheric pressure had been altered as well and was now approximately 102 kPa, and trace amounts of tetryon particles had been detected - most likely generated through the use of the laboratory equipment behind the sealed doors.
The Starfleet Captain had sealed the doors to keep further security personnel from gaining access, so they believed. In truth, the altered atmospheric conditions inside the laboratory had been deliberately optimized to optimal levels conducive to the operation of the Borg cybernetic systems within the Queen, and to further the development of her newly acquired drones. In spite of considerable attempts on the part of the station personnel, the Queen was linked into the station's systems and well aware of the gathering force on the other side of the sealed doors.

Her drones were nearly ready. Though there was no means of completing a full assimilation, that was not her intent. She merely needed the information which they held withing their minds, and their physical bodies to utilize against her captors. The drones were connected to an energy source now, drawing power to allow the nanites to multiply and complete the task of creating the initial neural network which would give the drones both additional strength, and the ability to withstand phaser energy by absorbing it into their system.

She waited. Aware of everything. Including the three Imperial Cruisers closing now to the station in response to the distress message which had been sent, and the approach of the Federation starship slowly creeping closer thanks to a network of gravometric sensors which monitored the gravitational eddies within the sector. Even a cloaked ship could not approach undetected. A MOST efficient technology, one which she had already detailed and studied at length, the specifications and schematics of the sensor net now part of her own knowledge.

There was something else here, buried within so many layers of security even with her own considerable abilities she had not yet succeeded in gaining access. The forces outside were insignificant. They would not break through the sealed blast doors, shielded with a powerful force field generated from within the lab for some time yet.

She wanted to know what was so important to have been so heavily buried within such a powerful encryption protocol, and she meant to find out.


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OOC: No tags to anyone this is just a scene setting of sorts for when ya'll finally stop picking belly button lint to spin into yarn for knitting and get in gear. *wink

And yes. The end there is more plot development and stage setting taking place for.. future major mischief events I have in mind. You'll like it.

 

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