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Discovery Shuttle Ozark-Spacedock
Day 1

Vila turned "off" her console and, in a single fluid movement, detached her phaser, set it for "max stun" and followed the others off the shuttle. She hated not knowing her enemy. It was much easier to kill Cardassians (and other Alpha Quadrant weirdos she'd run into in her time) because she knew how they fought, had learned their tactics, and how to outsmart them. THIS was new. She was crazy as hell, and she was always ready for a fight, but still. It was best to know what she faced.

Going in hot? OF COURSE she was. She moved forward. She'd considered pushing him aside so she could go first, but she was already on thin ice, and so she left it alone. He was fully capable of taking care of himself.

"I am ready," she murmured, her face tightening slightly as her jaw clenched and she prepped herself to fire at will.

She stepped off the shuttle, firing, as promised, at anything that wasn't in a Starfleet uniform.

"CAPTAIN," she yelled, moving him out of the way, and to the floor, firing as she went down, too. After a moment, when she was certain it was safe, she barrel-rolled out of the way slightly. "Sorry about that," she said, aloud, but stood up quickly, firing as she went.

Nearby, bodies littered the ground, and she bent quickly, pilfering a phaser rifle off of some poor redshirt schmuck. "Looks like you should've chosen better at the Academy, kid," she said, to no one in particular. She stood again, feeling slightly better having two weapons at once.

"TORRA?" She hollered. "Please check in!" She wanted to move down the corridors, but she realized that moving slowly and pointedly was her best course of action today. Even she recognized the need for patience and planning.

NPC Lieutenant Danjar-Torra Addams
[Spacedock - Ops]

The Grazerite, upon arrival at Spacedock Operations, didn't take exception to the fact that Lorut, her junior, took the vacant station - what the Bajoran woman lacked in rank she made up for with lived experience - something that the short-lived Grazerite knew was of more importance; so instead, Torra made use of her former medical training to help those injured - both in their group and those already in the Spacedock Operations room.

Torra was off in a quiet corner of the room with one such injured, her attention on her task not on the conversation of her superiors, when a shout of warning cut through her focus.   The Captain was in danger!?  A glance about showed Admiral Tuvok firing towards the trio of Command officers.    That made no sense to the Grazerite.  Did he think them Borg?!

A leap from Lorut took Captain Tekin out of harm's way but the others were not so fortunate.   While others dealt with the attacking Vulcan Admiral, Torra ran to the injured Command officers and dragged them out of the line of fire, behind a console, and then checked to see if they were still alive.  They were in a poor state but Torra did her best to stabilize them.

Hearing her name, Torra called back.  "I'm here.  I have injured that need medical attention."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck 1  Jefferies] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

Under the cover of the hissing steam, Rayek had quickly popped opened a jefferies panel that, according to the ship schematic he had memorized his first week aboard, opened to the side wall of the Captain's Ready Room head.  With his phaser still on maximum output he phasered a hole through that wall - avoiding the wiring and EPS lines and piping.  The hole was just large enough for him to wriggle his way through.  Once on the other side, then he reached back through the hole to refit the jefferies panel and 'tack-weld' it into place with short bursts of his phaser.

Rayek then backed himself into the far corner of the head standing just to the side of the hole he had made, ready to deal with any attacker that tried to approach via the head door or that hole.  He strained, holding his breath, trying to listen through the wall for movement in the jefferies tube.

[Main Ops - Spacedock]

His vision flashed as with a slight oomph Nevir's world spun as he was tackled by his own officer.  But the timing was more than admirable, as he was able to see the phaser shot sail over where he had just been standing.  He laid there on the ground stunned, barely registering that Vila just literally saved his life.  The Admiral wasn't so lucky, as he took a shot to the back and fell.  The Fleet Commander was also hit, but he ended up diving behind cover.

As the world began to make sense again, he could hear the action as phaser fire was exchanged.  Multiple shots.  And people were dropping as they had been caught unexpectedly.  Nevir looked across as he saw Torra dragging the limp body of the Admiral behind cover.  He hated to think that the man was dead.. but he assumed if Torra was moving him she noticed something he didn't.

"What is it?  Borg?" he shouted, pulling his weapon out. He heard multiple responses, but it was the same thing.  Tuvok had a bunch of officers with him, and he was firing into Ops.  He wasn't even trying to hide that he wasn't the real Tuvok.  As the Captain peeked over, he had to admit... there was nothing more unsettling than seeing the Vulcan give that creepy smile.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Nevir shouted, as he fired back from cover.  His response was a laugh.

"Just trying to correct a mistake Captain.  Your crew wasn't supposed to be able to get off your ship."

His voice was changing as he spoke, and when Nevir looked back up, he saw himself firing on his crew.  Finally the pieces fell into place.

"Changelings..." he muttered, as they engaged.

A giant shutter throughout the station alerted them to the fleet outside.  The Fleet Commander was shouting.  "Report!"

"Sir!  Station shields are down to 30%... we're losing shield coverage on the outer docking rings.  Phaser banks are fried, but we still have torpedoes.  There is a ship that has broken from the fleet... its the Titan. They... they can cloak?"

The station shuddered again... hard, and the officer who was reporting while in cover spoke.  "We're losing docking ring 7!"

[Six ships have been disabled and knocked out of formation. Two others have been destroyed with all hands. The five ships that came to our rescue were assimilated immediately and are assaulting Luna's defenses. Luna will be able to hold out, there aren't many powerful ships attacking her. We also know where the signal is coming from.]

(Going to push this a bit.  Don't want to lack too far behind)

Nevir had no idea how he made it, but a swath of stunned bodies carved a path from the shuttle bay to the central promenade.  And they weren't alone, as other security officers from the Starbase took advantage of the surge of new people to start securing areas on the Starbase.  The defenses of the Starbase were able to concentrate on the massive fleet pummeling them.  And as Nevir and whoever stayed with him ascended the turbolift to the Operations center, orders were changed from the President from aid to quarantine.

Nevir stepped onto the Operations center just as President Chekov signed out, for hopefully not the last time.  But it was clear from the reports in front of them that Paris was under assault and the Federation leadership was being evacuated.

"What's the status?" Nevir asked as he joined the Starfleet admirals who were suddenly in a position of being on the defensive.  The station was shaking and fires were everywhere.  All power from the lower decks was diverted to shields and weapons, bringing shield strength back to 60%... but that started dropping immediately.

"Six ships have been disabled and knocked out of formation.  Two others have been destroyed with all hands.  The five ships that came to our rescue were assimilated immediately and are assaulting Luna's defenses.  Luna will be able to hold out, there aren't many powerful ships attacking her.  We also know where the signal is coming from." Admiral Patel stated, bringing up a starmap of the system.

"The source of the signal is Jupiter, we believe there is a Borg cube there.  Or a couple of them based on how strong the signal is."

"The problem is we don't have any ships to send out there.  We tried to reactivate the Lemenche and her systems immediately were overridden by Enterprise. We had to disable her to keep her from blowing us up from the inside."

"We also don't have full control of Spacedock; the Borg crew are congregating to made it to the main reactors.  We have teams down there, but still there are way more of them then there are of us.  And we are losing our fight with the fleet."

"We need to stop that signal, Admiral.  We can't be completely helpless."

"We wouldn't have been if it wasn't for Admiral Jackass and his merry band of idiots."

That caused a silence broken with more shaking, as eyes went to the Fleet Commander who spoke up.  Admiral Patel's jaw set, and for a moment it seemed like there was about to be a conflict here.

"Admiral, with all due respect... he's right.  We said this was a terrible idea.  And Captain Benbassat died for saying it was a bad idea.  You brought us here and put us in the line of fire."

"That wasn't me, Captain.  There were a number of Admirals, including Clancy.  The only person who really fought against it was Janeway, until she suddenly decided to recuse herself, after Captain Tuvok gave his support for the project."

"It doesn't matter now... if we can't figure out how to-"

The Fleet Commander spoke up, looking at the screen.  "Admiral, there's a ship coming in... no wait, it's at Jupiter.  I don't think its controlled either."

"What makes you think that?"

"... because it's the Enterprise..."

The Captain looked shocked, and immediately checked the viewscreen towards the fleet.  Sure enough, the Enterprise F was still in the center, firing on Spacedock.  So Nevir turned back as the computer identified the ship.  NCC 1701.... D!

".... Picard got off the Titan.  Probably the same way we did.  They have to know something we don't." he stated, as the Admiral nodded.

"Then let's try to keep the Borg's attention on us..." the Admiral stated.

There were two things that happened about this time.  The first was that the Titan seemed to vanish from the fleet, both visually and its signal.  It was followed by flashes of phasers and torpedoes appearing out of nowhere as the Titan came into view flying through the fleet before... recloaking?

The second thing is that Captain Tuvok stepped into the Operations Center, both quietly and with an eerie smile on his face.  The three commanding officers hadn't taken notice as the phaser in Tuvok's hand raised up and fired at the trio.

Discovery Shuttle A-
Space Dock
Ops Station

She stared at the man. Was that supposed to be a...helpful response?!

"WELL, they're able to target us intermittently right now. Let me try something..." The Ops officer quickly entered the shield codes for DS9 but in the native Bajoran text language. It seemed to hold the best, for now.

As they got closer to Spacedock, Vila was a bit calmer-her backdoor code was holding, though she could tell the Borg tracers were fast working to decode it. Luckily, she spoke a dialect of Bajoran that had nearly died out during the occupation, so at least it was a stop-gap, though she had little doubt that the Collective would eventually figure it out.

"Systems are holding," she said. "Can someone take over here a moment? Need a headcall." She really just needed to move, not really pee, but it was a decent excuse and believable. She was itching for a fight, and she knew, in time, she'd get it so she needed to mentally prepare-get the little boxes in her head that she used to compartmentalize things emptied and ready to go.

[Shuttle Ozarks - En Route to Spacedock]

Nevir glanced out of the window at the other shuttle from Discovery.  The Blue Ridge, if he remembered correctly, these shuttles were named for mountains in North America.  To fit the theme of 'discovery' for his ship.  He shook his head to clear those unnecessary thoughts.  Instead, the Captain took Vila's seat as she excused herself.  He briefly shook his head; after the time spent on the holodeck, she was the last person he expected to need a head break, but he didn't say anything and concentrated on monitoring systems and chatter.

"This isn't good... the Sacramento and the Keldor just entered the system and went quiet.  They were responding to Spacedock's call for aid.  Those were just the closest two ships, at least a dozen others are on the way.  I don't think its limited to just the fleet ships anymore."

The cockpit lit up as one of the docking rings took a hit as they sailed under it.  The bombardment was now in full swing.  And Bay 47 lay just ahead.  The system panel lit up as the station began shuttle docking procedure. As they neared the edge of the bay, however, the comm went off.

"Discovery shuttle!  Its a trap! Stay away!"

It was too late to stop, and they could see into the bay.  There were small arms firing both in the bay, and now at the shuttle.  Nevir grimaced, but shook his head.

"A bit late to get that message.  We're going in anyway.  Phasers out, we're going in hot!" he shouted, as the shuttle was pulled in and landed.

"Be aware, guys... someone just tried to kill us.  Fight our way out of the bay and get to a security station, hopefully we'll find non-assimilated.  Our goal is to make it to Starbase Operations and see what they are doing up there."

With that, the Captain opened the shuttle doors, and started firing.

[Shuttle Ozarks - En Route to Spacedock]

"We have one big advantage; our fleet is not designed to be able to target craft this small.  This is why the Akira classes exist; fighters.  And lucky for us, those were retired from service." the Captain stated, as the shuttle shook from a nearby strike. They weren't the only shuttle in space, but there were very few left.  It seemed only the shuttles from the low-security areas were able to get out.

The Captain took a comm panel and changed the code to the maintenance channel, 99 Delta.  "Mayday, mayday, this is Captain Tekin Nevir of the USS Discovery.  We are in a shuttle under fire by our own ship.  The fleet is lost, I repeat, the fleet is lost.  Picard was right, we are under attack from the Borg.  Spacedock, do you copy?"

The shuttle shook again when the channel crackled (why did they program that??) and a familiar voice spoke up.  "This is Spacedock, we read you Captain.  We are also under attack, but we still have full control of our systems.  Its a mess here, but you're one of the first ships to actually report in."

"Its the fleet formation, with the Borg in control of Enterprise they have control of the entire fleet.  And thanks to our surviving science personnel, we think there is some sort of age limit.  None of our older crew members were assimilated, just the youngest.  Not sure where the cutoff is, but our youngest officer with us is..." he had to quickly pull up the records of Ramort, "25 in human years."

"25?  That actually makes sense.  We're mostly under attack by Ensigns and junior officers. We've- wait, the fleet stopped firing."

Sure enough, there was silence as the shuttle was just past the halfway point between Discovery and Spacedock.  There weren't any more shots near them, and Nevir had to look out the window.  "... why did they stop...?"

"Discovery shuttle, make for Bay 47.  The fleet is retargetting for us.  They mean to take out Earth's defenses.  47 should allow us to shield you while you make your approach."

"Acknowledged." Nevir stated, closing the channel.  He turned to his pilot.  "You heard them, shuttle bay 47, and push the engines as hard as they can go.  We need to be on the other side of those shields before they start taking hits." he stated, as the ship started reading a massive power surge coming from behind them, as the weapons of every ship in the fleet started to charge with targets on Spacedock.

The Captain nodded, even as holographic debris and shrapnel flew around him. "If I recall correctly from the announcement to the Ministers, the decision to stay neutral came directly from the Emissary.  We were too central to the conflict, either we ally with the Dominion and have Starfleet bombard us, ally with the Federation and have the Cardassians bomb us, or stay neutral and be a host to the controlling power at the time.  Obviously, all three of those were terrible options, but it was the difference between being at the top of the fire caves, or at the bottom of the firecaves.  Both got you burned, but one you could walk away from."

Nevir took her advice on aiming and had to force himself to reaim.  A group of cardies decided to spray and pray, and their overconfidence allowed him to pick them off easily.  He moved up in cover towards one of the structures of the Capital city.

"No... no you're right.  I am one of the lucky ones.  I made it through the Occupation with both of my parents intact. Not many in our generation can say the same. I'm sure there are people who would resent me for that." he answered.

He came out of cover and started firing at the Cardassians, giving the cover Vila needed.  Of the group of 5, he was able to knock down two, which when a kill shot was registered they vanished, and one was shot backwards but not registered as a kill. Of the remaining two, one fired back at him and the other.. vanished.

"Careful, possible flanking.  And we have a shuttle on the horizon." he said, gesturing towards the skyline.

"I'm going to drop rank for now, Miss Lorut.  What you are saying is a load of bull.  You do have thoughts, you are just hiding them.  I brought you here because I thought some good old-fashioned racial justice would make you less defensive about talking to me.  Thats also why I don't have anyone else here.  You said Starfleet doesn't understand... but I hope you don't think I'm more Starfleet than Bajoran." Nevir overcharged his phaser and fired a shot low... but it hit something flammable and explosive, taking out another guy as another group of Cardassians were coming from the alleyways.

[[USS Discovery-B - Deck Six - Beta Bridge]]

USS Discovery
Beta Bridge
She still wasn't convinced, but she DID know sabotage. Her preferred method was more like "phase the systems out of existence," though. Much faster, more precise. A pain in the ass for the repair team, but she didn't care.

She didn't know how to respond, though, so she simply nodded her understanding. Truthfully, her brain was trying to process what was going on. It was also trying to block out the memories. It was difficult.

"Neither am I. Just an observation," she said, coolly. This wasn't the time, but it made her point. The Prophets were useless-definitely in this situation, but really, in general, weren't they?

Frustrated at her own slowness, she pounded a hand against a panel. This was supposed to be easier. She was the best programmer the Resistance had had-while maybe not the best in the Fleet, she felt she was also pretty good at her job there. But this?! It was futile. "Can't I just phaser the consoles? It'll be so much faster, and they won't be able to access them at all. No one will," she said.
Vila understood the other Ops officer outranked her. She didn't care about things like that-she was naturally a Type-A anyway, and she knew that Addam's wheelhouse was in the actual physical hardware, while hers was the programs.

Vila smiled a little. FINALLY, someone with some leadership skills was doing something useful! Still. It wasn't in her nature to back down from a fight.

"We can still hold out, Sir. We have options...do we have any way to access dynamite? We can rig up a few corridors and blast them into the Nether...it means sacrificing some hulls, and crew, but..I'll do it myself. I've done it before...tied it to rafters at the Cardassian command stations. A few minutes later, and...well. Cardassians smell like burnt leather when they blow up," she said. It was macabre, and she said it without a hint of irony or glee. It was just her job-her way to cope. Of course, she'd cried for a week after and had been reassigned to computers and sabotage in other ways that were more remote, but...it had worked. It could work again.

"Get me an engineer who knows the inner hulls," she said. "I won't leave without trying it. You can go. I don't care. What is there left for me to lose? My life? It'd be welcome these days," she said.

Behind her, the Commander spoke up.
She raised an eyebrow. She hadn't realized he had a family. Interesting.

"The explosion will allow the Commander to evacuate his family. And you, yours. If the other ships are gone, then my brother and sister in law are, as well, and my ex-husband. All I can hope is that Bajor is safe," she said.

She moved her head when the Captain scanned her, but didn't say anything. She had no idea what the Scientist was talking about, and, frankly, she didn't care.

"Captain?" She asked. "Commander?" She turned to the Romulan.

If they denied, she'd go, but she wanted it on the record that she offered to stay, to fight to the death.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck Six - Beta Bridge] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

At one point in time the Romulan would have agreed with Vila.  Hard times called for hard measures; and as long as he survived and he succeeded in his goal - everything else didn't matter.  That had been his philosophy during  his time in the Tal'Shiar, 16 years ago.

But since that time, Rayek had overcome much of that Romulan conditioning and found a way connect to his ship's crew, so that their well-being was a priority.  Even now.

He frowned at Vila's suggestion.  "Ensign, while I understand your intention is to stop the Borg threat.  However, unlike you, I've put time into making connection with them.  They are an extension of my family now.  I will not easily give up on them."

He looked to the Captain hoping to get the man's buy-in on this.

"The Borg have taken people before .... and some have made it back... Picard,  Seven of Nine.   There are hundreds of liberated borg within the fleet.  While it may not seem like much, it is a start and progress will be made in liberating more... including our friends and family here today.   We can't be killing them needlessly."

[USS Discovery - Deck 6 - Beta (Battle) Bridge]

The Captain sighed, even with the pounding and forcing of the locked doors.  They really didn't have time to argue. It was admirable that the crew didn't want to abandon their ship, and were more than willing to give up their lives for the ship and crew.  He would be honored to have them serve with distinction... if he didn't think he would need them.

"I know that Rayek.  I'm not counting Ruth out yet.  But the truth is that this assimilation is different.  There aren't any metal objects sticking out of them.  There are no tubulars injecting nanoprobes into the computer. One of the biggest risks in bringing someone back from the Borg is removing that kind of implantation.  That gives me hope that they are not lost.  But also concerned because right now we don't know how they were assimilated in the first place.

"I won't lie to you all.  There is a very real chance that a good portion of the crew we spent years working with will be dead. We've already lost hundreds just with the Excelsior.  The Borg mean to annihilate us, and they seem to have no care for their own assimilated. The longer you stay here to fight, you're not just increasing the chances you'll die, you're going to increase the chance of depriving our crew of rescue.  Its taking increasing levels of stun to take these people down; eventually stun won't work.  And then what?  You are going to execute members of the crew?"

Nevir sighed, gripping his own phaser tighter.  "Vila, we are not going to do any kind of sabotage on this ship.  This is akin to a hostage situation, one where we can't afford to lose our people.  Disable the weapon systems, and they'll just consider Discovery a loss, and everyone, Borg and Starfleet alike, will die. Blow up a part of the ship, and you'll have directly killed some before the rest are killed by the other Starfleet ships. This," he gestured around him.  "This is just a resistance group.  But that," he pointed towards the front of the ship, where Spacedock would be.  "That's our cell. And if I'm right and Spacedock is not assimilated, it is a threat.  One that will be the next target between a Borg Starfleet and Earth.  If Spacedock falls, Earth falls.  If Earth falls, Bajor will follow."

"Moving as a big group is not a good idea.  They'll be able to track movement, and having a line of people crawling through a jefferies tube will bottleneck up.  So we're going to split up.  I will be heading straight for the shuttle bay... since the shuttles aren't part of the system, my Captain's code will override anything the Borg put up. I will give you all 10 minutes to get to the shuttles.  If you choose to stay here, your actions are your own, and you better pray that those you end up killing have no chance of survival. Otherwise, Spaceport is going to need assistance defending itself and Earth.  That's where I'm going.  Dismissed."

The Captain made sure he was one of the last to leave the Beta bridge, just to make sure no one was pinned here, and escaped down the jefferies tube just as the Borg crew burst onto the Bridge.  He locked the door behind him (as much good as that would do) and made the challenging climb and diversion through the tubes and side corridors.  Within 5 minutes, the Captain had made it to the maintenance shuttle bay and sealed the doors, leaving only the emergency tube accesses available.  Jumping in to one of the shuttles, he activated it, and sure enough, there was a lockout.  The Captain put in his override and the shuttle released the lock, giving him control of it.  There were only two shuttles in the maintenance bay, so he quickly did the same to the second shuttle.  He kept them both in standby, just to buy extra time before the Borg realized they were in the maintenance bay.

"And now we wait... to see what they all decide." he said to no one in particular.  The waiting was the hardest part, because it left him with seeing the look on his daughter's face over, and over.  In truth, the Captain was not okay.  There was turmoil, and an urge to race back to deck 1 and grab his daughter and rip the nightmare from her.  The most illogical a scientist got was with matters of the heart, and this was his.

Five minutes later, with everyone who was going with him already there, the Captain had the shuttle started and shot out of the bay, using the debris of the Excelsior as cover before making a beeline for Spacedock.  From the corner of the cockpit, he could see the ships in the farthest part of the formation moving, like a pair of giant wings turning to point at Spacedock.  Just as he feared.  Spacedock was the next target.

"I am only "rude" to people when I need to be," she said. "I don't take kindly to people who think they're better or smarter. They're not. Just in a different place. If the Fleet had counted my years of service to the Resistance, I'd be at least a Lieutenant," she said. After she'd left the Resistance and Militia, she'd served the Federation as a Civilian representative. They wouldn't count that, either, even though she felt like it was owed to her-her dorky ex-husband had had the audacity to haul her accomplished ass throughout BQ as if he were Neil Armstrong himself, after all.

"Fine. Talk," she said, standing against a wall. It was sure to be more of the same. "You need to learn to get along with others (she didn't-she did her job just fine)," "Have you considered counseling? (Yes. They're stupid and ask too many questions)," and "Another write up means you'll be back at HQ, doing yeoman work until we can flush you out (Cool, at least it was closer to Bajor than wherever the hell they were in this god-forsaken galaxy)."

"Then why aren't you a lieutenant?  You're not the only Bajoran in Starfleet.  The poster child of Starfleet for our people started her career as a Commander, following a long career in the militia and the Resistance before that.  Speaking of, computer, begin at Level 4."

The sky turned a bit redder and more ashen.  Nevir took a position behind cover as the sounds of approaching soldiers started to get higher.  He checked his phaser one more time while looking over at her.

"I didn't really get a lot of fighting done at my age.  The Occupation was just about over by the time I was 7.  My only actual fighting took place when I was 9 and even then, it wasn't that I was put on the line.  I just refused to stay back.  You, however, got into fighting early, according to your records.  So I expect you to do better than me." he stated, as the first shot hit nearby.  Cardassian soldiers were coming out of the cover of the city and trying to get for their position. Nevir waited for a gap and peeked out, firing in controlled bursts.  Two of the opponents immediately went down as Nevir returned to cover to avoid more shots.

"I'm not going to give platitudes to you.  Thats an insult to me and you, and you've already heard it.  So, I used my rank to drag you into my own physical training program and throw you in. But I'm talking to you Bajoran to Bajoran.  Survivor to survivor.  Let's start from the beginning... tell me your thoughts."

[Excelsior eliminated.]

[Bridge]

Saboteurs. Both on the Discovery and in the rest of the Fleet. No matter. The Drones would take care of the saboteurs on the ship and annihilate the remainder. Already there were reports of the Unassimilated attempting to congregate onto the  Discovery's Beta Bridge. Squadrons of drones were en route to rectify these anomalies.

The Excelsior, on the other hand, was another problem entirely. They had lost control of the ship to the Unassimilated and attempted to turn on the Borg fleet. Unacceptable parameters.  They would rectify the situation,  Drones 365970, 093298, 218634, and 421897 were given the orders to turn their ships on the Excelsior.

"œFire."

In a matter of minutes, the Excelsior was destroyed.

[Target: Eliminated]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The unassimilated vessel was eliminated.

"Excelsior eliminated."

"All vessels secure."

"Fleetwide assimilation complete."

Each member of the Borg crew acted as one, continuing thoughts of each other. The Discovery started to turn in formation with the rest of the fleet as it got into an attack formation... facing Spacedock.  Weapons were being primed on orders from the Borg signal, through the Enterprise. A message called out through the rest of the fleet, either by comm, or worse, by feeling.

"A message to those who resist. Your armada has been added to our own. Your weak and willful will soon be eliminated. Your strongest have all been assimilated. We are Borg. Starfleet now is Borg."

[[USS Discovery-B - Deck Six - Beta Bridge]]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck Six - Beta Bridge] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

While the Captain explained his decision to continue on to the Beta Bridge, Rayek tapped behind his ear in an attempt to contact his wife.  But even the 'off-the-books' comms lines were locked down.  Fvadt!

Rayek completely agreed with the Security Chief's suggestion, to exit out the lift's emergency hatch but the Captain had other plans.

As the doors opened to the Beta Bridge, Rayek was ready with his phaser rifle, ready to fire - his weapon on its heaviest stun setting - at any Borg movement from within.  But the room was quiet for now.  The console displays all showed the same green symbol overtop the Fleet Formation Mode wording.

Rayek was already on path towards the weapons locker when the Captain suggested exactly that.  It took only a moment or two to empty it of the half dozen rifles, and various stun and smoke grenades that were stored there.   He also activated the mobile transporter inhibitor which was stored there for exactly this sort of hostile takeover situation.  At least the Borg weren't going to be able to transport in now.  While Rayek did that,  the Captain, began sabotaging consoles; he also explained about the opposition to this Fleet Formation mode by several other Captains.

"Lorut, Addams - I hope you are helping the Captain in his sabotage there. " He called out figuring those two would know best what circuits to pull and chips to break.

Seeing that Lachlyn was covering the entrances, Rayek continued to gather the weapons scattered about the room - collecting the hand phasers next.  They were located under each console.   No sense in leaving them behind for the Borg to use on the crew.

In the midst of Tekin's explanation, a transmission came in from Captain Benbassat , clearly hijacked from the Borg.

While others watched the video feed, Rayek continued to move about the room counting the survivors so far.  Nine, on a bridge that had a capacity for  passing out weapons and grenades to those in need, listening as the Captain of the Excelsior attempted to rally the other ships to fight back like they were.    Unfortunately, for the Excelsior the fight was short lived.  An entire ship destroyed.  Assimilated and Free-willed alike.  Dead.

There were six rifles in the locker (plus his own).. that was not even one for each of the commissioned officers present.   Similarly there were only six hand phasers (plus what weapons the others might have already with them).  It wasn't common practice for officers to just carry weapons on them.  Department Heads yes, on duty security yes.... but not the average officer.  That's what the weapon stashes were for.

Rayek tried to do a weapons count and in doing so noticed that the Flight chief didn't look so well.

"Ensign Ramort, Chief Graham.  See to Lieutenant Grippen's injury.  I know you are not medics - just do the best you can."

His finally determination had him handing out rifles and type 2 hand phasers to the Captain, Lieutenants Addams and Lachlyn (if she didn't already have either on her presently), and Ensigns T'Prith and Ramort.   For the moment, with the man's injury, Rayek withheld handing the Risan pilot a firearm.  Nor did he hand anything out to Ensign Lorut, since he already knew from her barrage of attacks on the Alpha Bridge - that the Bajoran Ops officer had 2 hand phasers already.   The last rifle (other than his own) went to Chief Petty Graham and he kept the last hand phaser in reserve to pass to Lieutenant when the man was more steady.

She wanted to facepalm but instead merely nodded while kicking herself for not remembering the change in staffing due to the celebrations. Deck Six held the forward lounge where a large group gathered to watch the celebrations. Surely they were affected as well.

Captain Benbassat??

Tanner knew him. He golfed with her Uncle. The panic in his voice was intense and when he was silenced, everyone felt the weight of what it meant.

"The whole ship...they just removed the whole ship."She shook her head, rage replacing the sorrow of the action they'd just noticed. "They may not be here yet, but they're too close for comfort. We need to seal this bridge since they know we're here." She motioned to the emergency access conduit, "We can still head out there and can use the Jeffries to reach the closest weapons cache. Just lock it behind."

"Anyone coming with me?" Tanner asked, "Whatever is going on, they're focused on control. I doubt they'd expect kick back this quickly."

USS Discovery
Turbolift-Beta Bridge

Vila held up the phaser she'd taken off one of the Borgs, plus pulled out another contraband one from her top. One day, she'd explain to the Commander just how she hid them, but that wasn't a conversation for right now. "Here," she said, holding them out. "Hold one," she said, before bending to her boot, and pulling out a field knife. "Well armed. Don't worry," she said, with a shrug. "Put it in my file."

The Turbolift stopped. She wasn't about to get off, but she knew better than to question THIS, even if her first instinct was to go steal a shuttle and get the hell out of there. Oddly, her brain was also shouting at her to call Ben, but that would most definitely[/I] need to wait.
She sighed. "What have the Prophets ever done for us?" She said, stepping forward to help the Captain destroy the hulls in an effort to thwart the further takeover of the ship.

"You know I am on it," she said. She was finally calm, carefully but quickly pulling yellow and red wires. "Leave the green, sir," she said. "You don't want to go down from electrocuting yourself," she said.

"Addams, get the green behind me, please," she said.

"This is futile. Can't we just take a shuttle out of here?" She voiced the thought.

"Never mind. If I survived the Cardassians, what's a few million Borg?" She said.

[USS Discovery - Deck 6 - Beta (Battle) Bridge]

He struggled to contain himself and started to calm down, giving a sharp exhale at Vila's answer about the Prophets.  "I'm not in the mood to have a religious debate, Ms Lorut." he said, looking down at his work.  What was he doing?  He was close to locking out weapons control, which would render Discovery useless to the Collective... but...

"We can't continue.  You all heard what happened to Ben. If we disable Discovery, the Collective will just consider her a total loss and move us out of formation.  We have to consider the whole crew, even those who are..." he struggled to finish.  "Those who are temporarily lost."

He looked over at James's report and took a look at the readings. It was... curious.  He took the tricorder and scanned himself, comparing the readings to that of James's.  "It's there for me, but much more... reduced."  Without another word he turned the scanner on Vila and compared her scan with his.  "Her's is even less.  Wait, this can't be a coincidence."

Unfortunately, he was interrupted when he heard a pounding at the doors.  "That was faster, but not unexpected.  Look, sabotage isn't going to work, neither is taking back the ship.  We saw what happened.  We need to get off Discovery.. ideally without fighting more of our crew..." he trailed off, even with the pounding outside.

"The Dominion War... millions of casualties.  Our generation was reduced, and we doubled our recruitment.  The majority of the fleet is less than 30.  Thats why they got Kinley and Dem and... well you know."

"Let's get off the ship.  We need to get to Spacedock.  Not only is it not part of the fleet system, but it also has the smallest amount of young officers.  We need to get to a shuttle." he stated, tapping his comm badge to reset the channel to the only open channel that worked. 99-Delta.

"All hands, this is the Captain.  The Discovery is under occupation." Prophets he hated that word, and his face grimaced hard. "If you can make it to a shuttle, do so.  Escape pods and transporters are out.  If you can't make it, secure your area and bunker down.  I say again, Discovery is lost.  Evacuate the ship."

He primed his phaser, and pointed to an area of the deck.  "Jefferies tube, Deck 10 has a crawlway for maintenance, and we can hit the shuttle bay to get out of here."

Orders to a HOLODECK?! That was a first. Still, since she had the morning off, she had no way to skip out of it-she'd been assigned to the Beta shifts because there was less trouble for her to get into. Which was fine with her-it was also quieter, so she could mess around more.

She turned up in jeans and a sweatshirt, her brown hair hanging down-more casual than most people saw her-she didn't "mingle" much, though, anyway, so it would've been a surprise if she'd shown up in a three piece suit or something, anyway. She was still armed to the teeth, but this time-more openly, the holster slung around her hips. She entered after a knock.

"Ah, I miss those," she said. "I am here. Can't we just agree that I will stay out of the Ferengi's way, that you can put a note in my file, and be done with the charade?" She asked. "I need to call my mom, and you will know better than anyone else that you don't leave a Bajoran mother hanging."

Nevir smirked as he heard the doors open and close.  He turned around to her and stayed silent as she spoke.  He waited a moment after she finished, and then gave her a smirk.

"No." he said, finishing his fine-tuning of his phaser.

"Computer, privacy." he ordered, locking the holodeck with the Captain's security code. "Miss Lorut, I've read your file.  Lek isn't the first time you've been short with a senior officer.  Its not the first time you've been acting rudely against your commanding officers.  So clearly you are on the path to just be shuffled from ship to ship until you're drummed out."

"So, I think its time I took care of that." he stated, walking over to the control panel and activating a program.  With a shimmer, they were on Bajor.

"You're older than me... which means I know your history.  So... I'll deal with the wrath of your mother, I have for decades myself.  We are going to talk."

[Holodeck 2]

It really wasn't often that Nevir would use his authority to make unorthodox orders to his crew.  But in the case of an Ensign like Lorut, he felt he needed an unorthodox angle.  He had a crewmate who was having issues.  A chip on her shoulder.  And as much as he would never admit it openly... a Bajoran. They were a traumatized species and quite stubborn people.  And some more so than others.

So, he gave the order.  Ensign Lorut report to holodeck 2 on the Captain's orders.  Currently there was no program running on the holodeck, but Nevir stood in the middle, fiddling with a Bajoran Phaser.

[[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]]

[Bridge]

The Weapons locker codes for the Discovery were now being transferred to all available drones.  Good. She nodded in approval.  By the second, more drones were coming online, and she directed them to the key parts of their respective ships: Take the Bridge and Main Engineering. Eliminate all Unassimilated.

A security crewman attempted to rush her and overpower her, but instead with one smooth move, she took his own pistol and fired it into his chest, and then immediately shot two more Unassimilated who were in the way.

[Target: Eliminated.]

[Target: Eliminated.]

[Target: Eliminated.]

The remaining Unassimilated were retreating, with one stubbornly dodging each blast, before getting dragged into the turbolift. They were going to Beta Bridge.  She fired one last shot, right as the doors closed, then made her way to the Captain's chair.

Exeter, Curie, Artemis, Triumph"¦ One by one, Each ship was commanded by the Borg. She could hear each of them reporting back.

"œCollective: We have Discovery."  She stated to the Collective.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
Ensign Ruth Falleq-Tekin

Drone 056239.  She was only vaguely aware of who she was.  The Ruthie inside was pacified with the euphoria of assimilation. So the Drone she had become didn't see her father or anyone else on the bridge.  She saw ourselves, and the others.  And she recieved her instructions.

Elliminate all non-assimilated.

The Collective labeled its targets.  Captain.  First Officer.  Sec- Negative.  Second Officer Assilimated.  Chief of Security, Chief Scie- Chief Science Officer Assimilated. Helm Officer...

The Borg Drone pulled out the station phaser and raised it, firing on the Captain.  Then the next target.  Then the Captain again.  As long as they were still standing they were a threat.  As long as they were alive the Collective couldn't annihilate the Federation.

Very quickly the non-assimilated retreated and escaped through the turbolift.  The Drone walked over and sat at the First Officer's chair as the former Science Chief took the Captain's chair.  They had control of Discovery.  They also had control of Enterprise.  And control of every other ship in the network.  They were connected to each other on every ship, and even ships out within the system and sector.  There was a limit, of course, but as their Collective got bigger, more ships were being sent to eliminate defenses and threats to the Collective.

"Unsanctioned movement, turbolift.  Unsanctioned movement, Deck 11."

Thats when warp drive was taken down.  Resistance.  Priority Target 7 has not been eliminated.  Target 7 hadn't even been located.  It was a threat.  It was a big threat.

"Secure vital systems. Assess and repair damage.  Restore full functionality."

The Borg were now aware of attempts to disable Discovery.  And were moving to trap the saboteur.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

For a moment, when the Risan pilot had thrown himself in a tackle towards the Borg-doctor, Rayek thought that he might reach the locker first.   It wasn't to be though, as the drone-doctor recovered faster than even Rayek anticipated.  Before the Romulan could think to alter his action, the Borg who once was Broadshire, had a phaser rifle aimed up towards him.

With only two meters between them the phaser was fired, even as Rayek threw himself down into a feet first slide across the bridge's carpeted floor so that the phaser beam passed just overhead, his momentum closing the distance.  As he slid on his back towards the drone, the Romulan kicked out at the rifle in Dem's hand sending it flying before the assimilated medic could attempt to use it again; and then kicked a second time - this time towards the Borg's head in an attempt to 'stun' the drone long enough so that Rayek could get to his feet once more.

As he kicked, Rayek heard the Captain calling for a retreat to the turbolift.  Though Rayek hated to admit defeat here, the odds were not in their favor if they stayed.  Rolling away from the Dem-drone, Rayek rose to his feet and did a quick glance about to determine his best route of escape.   He spied the dropped phaser rifle on the floor between him and the pilot, in a direct path to the turbolift.  Convenient.  Rayek snatched for the weapon in passing and used it as a bludgeon to knock away other drones attempting to block his way to Lieutenant Grippen.

"Get up, Lieutenant.  We gotta go!". Behind them, Rayek could hear the Captain's remorse at having noticed Garrison's assimilation.

Rayek crouched by the turbolift doors and used the muzzle of the rifle pressed against the doorway to keep the lift doors open while the remaining unaffected officers made their escape into the lift.   "Move it everyone! Graham! Ramort! You too Lachlyn! We can't defend here."

Eventually they were inside the turbolift and on the way to the Beta Bridge. The ensign's frustrated question, didn't have an answer.  Rayek did however attempt to respond to the Captain.   "It seems this is the Changeling threat that Picard was trying to warn us about.  Somehow they have managed to assimilate a large portion of the crew."

The Romulan paused to think a moment.  "Captain, it is likely that the Borg will seek to secure the ship by taking over all three of her bridges, as well as engineering and the armory." Those would be his first targets in a boarding action if he had to take over Discovery.  He didn't say not to go to the Beta Bridge - he just needed the Captain to be aware that they would likely encounter opposition there as well.

"What weapons did we manage to salvage?" he asked, displaying the hard-fought for phaser rifle.  He'd needed to know what they had to work with if the Captain intended for this small group to take and hold the Beta Bridge.

USS Discovery - Bridge - Turbolift

So much had happened in a short amount of time. Tanner was reeling. Her mind was jumping from her teammates to her new role to the civilians aboard. So many variables.

Looking about the lift at the various faces, it became very apparent that she wasn't the only one thinking like that. Especially for those who had families.

"We-aa" She cleared her throat, "As you know there are some hidden weapon caches on the ship, a preemptive move in the instance we lost the armoury to a takeover." Taking a calming breath she continued, "None of the lower-ranking Security know of them and with my new promotion I was just privy to the information a bit ago."

"If we use the Jeffries tubes, we can move about the ship safer." Looking up, "We can exit the lift from the roof hatch. I'd be hesitant to leave through the doors, as we don't know what's going on outside."

USS Discovery
Bridge

She tried to protest. "NO!" But the Captain was bigger and stronger than her. In the end, she knew they needed to get away, so fired off a final shot as the door shut.

"What the HELL was that about?" She asked, the adrenaline in her system causing her to tense against the far wall.

(*this word is the Bajoran word for the s-word in Standard, according the Bajoran Language Dictionary on Wikipedia).

[USS Discovery - En Route - Turbolift 1]

Nevir tried to not let his thoughts wander, but his heart was aching.  His has practically just lost a daughter in front of him.  Step daughter, yes, but his nonetheless.  But he couldn't afford to despair.  At least not yet.  He lifted his head back up as if he just woke up, hearing the officers around him.  The small group of officers.

"Why are we still here?  How are we still here?  How are they assimilated?" he muttered, looking around.  "Beta Bridge is just a stop.. but a good one.  I didn't have anyone stationed in Gamma or Beta because the ship's MVA was disabled.  It will buy us some time... maybe enough to retake the ship.  That's why I needed you with us, Vila.  I need someone I know can handle terrible odds with us than sacrificing yourself on the Bridge."

"Rayek is likely right.  Somehow Changelings have found a way to infect Borg nanoprobes.  Dormant probes. I think.  I... I don't know.  But to time it so well... Prophets, they only needed to infect Enterprise."

The turbolift doors opened to the thankfully dark and quiet beta bridge.  The lights automatically came on as Nevir stepped out of the turbolift.  Without hesitation he went over to the ops station and got under it, ripping out the panels.

"Get the weapons from the bridge armory station.  And help me with these panels.  We need to isolate the individual systems from each other.  We might not be able to restore functionality to Discovery, but we can at least retake the Bridge.  Remember I said that there were a bunch of us Captains who objected to the fleet mode?  We've all talked about how to get around the system.  Or at least trying to block the system signals.  Fleet Mode uses line of sight, if we can find a way to block the signals we can try to blind them.  At least in theory." he stated, while ripping out cables and chips.

"Obviously we couldn't test anything without someone breathing down our necks.  But there are at least 10 ships out there with Command crews lightly doing something like this.  It just depends on who succeeds." he added, as he kept pulling.  So far he had no luck.  The systems had redundacies that he normally would have been able to use his command codes to get around.  Trying to pull out chips and wires was all blind guesswork.

As if on cue, there was a comm that cut in, startling the Captain.

"Can anyone hear me?  This is Captain Benbassat of the Excelsior broadcasting on Frequency 99-Delta.  To all who can hear, we have managed to retake control of our bridge."

"Ben!  Somehow not surprised he beat us to it.  So now we know we can take back Discovery."

"Hold on, Helm?  What's happening?"

The Captain stopped, looking up. He scrambled up and activated the Ops display, which showed the fleet formation.  The dot labeled USS Excelsior was starting to move away from the central circle, opposite of Discovery.

"They're controlling us remotely! They are taking us out of formation!  No, no!!"

"Oh Prophets no..." he answered, watching helplessly.

"We're being directed in front of the fleet. Now we've been targetted.  Tell my family-"

The signal cut off, and the icon on screen showed torpedos from four other ship impacting it, before it vanished.  A small boom was heard on the ship; the sensors registered the shockwave from Excelsior and mimicked the sound it would have made if there was sound to travel.  Nevir dropped his head and slammed his fist on the console.  It started to shake again as it came up.

Retaking the ship was no longer an option.  Even if they could, they would end up like Benbassat.  There was really only one option, but Nevir couldn't bring himself to say it.  They needed to run.  To get off Discovery.  He couldn't do anything now, he found himself fighting tears and shaking.

Hey Vadok, you can find your ATC here.

[[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

From his position by the Ops console Rayek regarded the Risian pilot as Malik left his seat and made questioned the future of pilots in Starfleet.    He listened as others, Miss Lachlyn and even the Captain attempted to suggest that this was just for demonstration.  Rayek was less certain of that.   "If you like I can transfer you to Security.  We are always in need of more targets... I mean personnel."  His feigned slip was meant to be humorous - but he'd been told often that he lacked the proper delivery for jokes.

In response to his earlier order, Torra was frowning at her computer.  "Um sir. " the Grazerite addressed the Romulan, "I don't know how to sign off my console while in this mode. I can't access any control at all."

Rayek refrained from rolling his eyes at how unnecessarily complicated the Fleet Formation Mode made the simplest of tasks.   "Belay my earlier order then Miss Addams.  My apologies, Ensign Lorut, seems you'll have to wait until after the celebrations for that break.   Sit back and try to enjoy the show."

The Romulan turned away from the Ops station to return to his seat when the proximity alert sounded.  He looked back to the Ensign as the details of the alert were announced.
The Titan's unexpected arrival was concerning.    The fugitive ship certainly wasn't here to join in the celebrations.

"Miss Lachlyn, I want you to prepare a security team in case Discovery personnel are called on to board that vessel."

Given his usual state of paranoia, Rayek wasn't surprised at Admiral Picard's warning.  The details were not what he might have expected but it wasn't a shock to learn that the Changelings were up to their tricks again.

He grimaced when the transmission cut off, seemingly because of the Fleet Formation Mode.  Rayek half expected Admiral Shelby's broadcast open up once more, instead a loud shrill tone seemed to encompass the bridge and ship.    While the Captain, called on his daughter to contact the Enterprise, Rayek  looked to Science.

"Commander Garrison, is there anything on your science display that can explain what that was?"  The Romulan knew he was asking a lot of the Science Chief since he was fully aware that the console locked down, but surely some sensor somewhere had to have recorded what that was.

There was no immediate answer from the Chief - which wasn't like the Commander at all.   "Commander!" he called out sharply in an attempt draw her attention.  When she did turn from her console to look over the Bridge, Rayek sucked back a breathe in fear.

Paranoid instinct immediately suggested that where there was one Borg, there would of course be more.   The Romulan did a quick visual survey of the bridge and noted the same stillness that had gripped Garrison in several others:  Ensign Falleg-Tekin, Ensign T'Prith (though that might just be Vulcan stoicism), and even the doctor seemed to have fallen prey to this spontaneous assimilation.

"Captain! The crew is being assimilated! As he spoke, the Romulan rose from his seat and sprinted towards the Bridge's Weapons locker - the same one the doctor was headed towards.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NPC Crewman Kitaa Horg
USS Discovery - Deck 5 - Alpha Hull Medical Facilities]

Assigned to keeping watch over the many various experiments that went on in the lab, was the role of the medical technician.  Kitaa's role.  A role she enjoyed, though you could never tell from her dour expression.

She had been listening to the Frontier Day celebration in a small room off of the side of the lab, as she watched the doctor work.  When it seemed that Dr. Phlome was going to depart for a bit - likely to see the fireworks and such - Kitaa gave the Denobulan woman a grunted nod, then suddenly cocked her head in surprise at the unexpectedly hijacked broadcast.   Admiral PIcard giving a warning about Changelings in cahoots with the Borg?  Sounded ominous.

Anything more to be warned about was cut up and soon after replaced by a shrill tone that caused Kitaa to go into minor convulsions as her being was taken over by the borg programming in her DNA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar
[USS Discovery - Deck 2 - Armory]

Helga had been listening to the broadcast  along with Dersch when the interruption by Admiral Picard occurred.  She glanced to him, wondering which ship would be called on to deal with the rogue Admiral.  What was it with Admirals and going rogue... first Leyton and now Picard... they certainly didn't set good examples for the younger generation.

When the shrill tone sounded throughout the ship, Helga found herself paralyzed as she was and her individuality stripped from her.  She was Borg.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

There was audible fear on the older Bajoran's face as he took another step closer to his silent daughter.  He was almost close enough to reach her when she finally turned around in her seat.  At about the same time as the others on the bridge.  The sight would render years of nightmare for the Captain.  Ruthie's red hair barely covered her pale, spotted part-Trill face, but those spots were connected with lines.  Lines crawling up her face like black veins and going down her neck into her uniform.  Her eyes... her eyes were pure black. Soon the white would reappear, but her eyes still looked changed.

"R-Ruthie?" he asked again, and finally she spoke.  They all did.

"WE.  ARE THE BORG."

"Prophets... no... " the Captain was rendered shocked, staring into the cold eyes of what was once his daughter.

The sounds of the comms started to come in; it seemed like Enterprise had opened full fleetwide communications and every ship could hear every other ship.  The Captains of the other ships were calling to their officers, or reporting that their crew was no longer obeying commands.  It wasn't just Discovery... it was everyone.

Nevir instinctively took a step back from Ruthie, visibly shaking as he did so.  The assimilated crew stood up as one.  For Ruthie, her individuality was gone.

Drone 056239 Reporting.  Primary Objective: Eliminate all Non-assimilated.  Secondary Objective: Take control of USS Discovery. Execute.

A hand grabbed his arm, he assumed it was one of the bridge crew, but as he turned he saw that it almost was... it was an assimilated security officer.  His arm was being held tight as the officer reached for his phaser.

"ELIMINATE ALL UN-ASSIMILATED."

Rayek's words woke him from his stupor as the situation was verified.  Most consoles had phasers within them as a relic from the Dominion War... they were easily accessible in case of boarding.  The phase rifles on the other hand were in lockers.  In which there was one on the bridge.  But even a phaser would be enough to kill.  Before the phaser could be brought to level, Nevir's Bajoran heritage kicked in, and he grabbed the security officer, shoving him back and causing him to stumble.  That would give him a few seconds at most as he dived for the Captain's Chair.

The viewscreen came back on for a few seconds, with Admiral Shelby reporting that they were under attack from within.  As Nevir grabbed his phaser he looked up to see the Admiral take two shots to her torso before the visual cut again.  There were too many officers on the bridge who were now basically Borg, and he aimed his phaser for the first target... which turned out to be his daughter.

He hesitated, the phaser shaking.  Was he really about to kill his eldest daughter?  Step daughter?  No.. his daughter.  He wasn't going to try to justify it.  He wasn't going to end her life.  He wasn't going to accept that she was gone.  Not yet.

Ruthie, however, did not seem to have the same concerns as she fired at her father, striking the Chair itself as Nevir dodged it.  It was red, she meant to kill.  Of course... the Borg were trying to take control of the ship.  That meant eliminating the threat.  He quickly assessed his surroundings.  There was his ready room, and the observation lounge, but without access to ship systems there was no way to defend, and they would be trapped.  No.. what he needed was numbers.

"T-turbolift!  Now!" the Captain shouted, as he dodged another shot and tried to fire back, with blue bolts of stun.  He was firing wildly; he couldn't bring himself to shoot his own crew.  He wasn't like certain other Captains, and he was damn proud of that.  But that pride might end up getting him killed.  He swung around and fired on the security crewmen on the bridge, knocking at least one of them out.  But the kid didn't seem to be hurt.  He was already struggling to get back up.  Lowest stun setting wasn't going to cut it.

"Everyone let's go.  Move it.  Stun setting only! Kinley... Prophets, not you too..." he stated, only now seeing the science officer also trying to kill him.  He and the others. That meant it wasn't just junior officers.  But he wasn't assimilated, and neither was most of the senior officers.  If there was a chance to be assimilated, he wouldn't be targeted for elimination.

One by one he watched his remaining crewmates pile into the otherwise empty while offering cover fire.  He turned to his side to see the one officer he actually expected to be defiant.

"Lorut!  Now!" he shouted, firing at one of the assimilated officers.  He watched that officer finally go down, and took a glance on his own weapon.  Stun level 6.  That meant even the low-setting kill mode might not take them down.  The Borg has already put in defenses against their standard weapons.  Of course the fellow Bajoran was almost outright refusing.

"Vila!  I'm going to need you!  Move it!" he shouted again, practically forcing her into the turbolift.  He was the last to step off, firing wildly until the door finally closed.  He then finally lowered his phaser, trying to hide the shaking.

"Computer... Beta Bridge..." he called out, and the turbolift thankfully started moving.

"Garrison... Ruthie... Dem... what just happened...?" he asked those still around, turning around and facing what remained of his bridge crew.

[[Bridge]]

[Bridge]

Now that Helm control was locked out, Malik and Alex had been made redundant at the flick of a switch. With nothing immediate to do, Malik simply stood stoically and watched the viewscreen awaiting further orders. He felt about as useful as a chocolate teapot. With a smirk he spoke up, "What do you think Starfleet will do with all the pilots suddenly out of a job?"

[USS Discover- Deck 1 Bridge]

"As if Starfleet could ever remove such a valued position," Tanner said with a shake of her head as Malik expressed his woe, "Computers have been known to calculate the best course but not always the right one. This is just a show for the ceremonies. I highly doubt in future this technology will be used regularly."

Or so she hoped. The thought of the tech being used regularly made her uncomfortable. As if the higher-ups were looking at a map of the fleet and merely using them like a point-and-click style game to command around the galaxy.

For reference:

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain smirked and shook his head.  "I believe Miss Tanner is correct.  At least for now.  It would cause waves if they started trying to phase out Starfleet officers.  Then again... a group of us Captains also said this would cause waves, and we were overruled.  We did have some Admirals agreeing with us... and strongly worded objections from a certain Commodore LaForge, but when the Admirals who agreed with us suddenly flipped and sided with the rest of the brass, this thing was going to keep going." the Captain stated, while Admiral Shelby was still giving details.  He couldn't help but notice that even she started to sound like she was trying to convince people... or convinced herself.

"Our next demonstration is the summation of decades of technological advancements..."

The fleet was just about in position, and the ships all moved at once, sailing from point alpha towards the Spacedock for a Fleet formation flyover.  There was nothing anyone could do, except watch the viewscreen, or watch the data coming in from the stations.  The displays were still active, just the controls were locked.  Which was good, since the ops Console suddenly beeped an alert... a proximity alert.  A ship was just warping in.  Once the signal was confirmed, Nevir stood up.

"Onscreen!" he ordered... but of course nothing happened.  They didn't even have control of what was being displayed; command functions were also locked out.  But the fleet formation mode also meant that not only could they see the ship that just warped in, but they could communicate with it.

"The... Titan?" he repeated, a bit dumbfounded.  Of all the possible places the Titan could run, it decided to join the rest of the fleet at Earth?!  By now the Captain understood that Captain Shaw wasn't the problem.  It was formerly decorated officers... some of the most famous of the modern era... that had suddenly decided to turn rogue.

"Well, there is one good thing about this mode... Titan is now under our control.  Or at least under the Enterprise's control.  Those people aren't going anywhere." he said, crossing his arms.  Thats when Admiral Shelby's broadcast was hijacked.  Not the visual, just the audio.

"Captain, there is a hail coming from the Titan on all channels.  All emergency channels." Ruthie stated, turning back to monitor her station as it came in.  Not that she could do anything more than inform her father.

"This is Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.  I come to you with a warning!"

"What the hell is he doing?  Right in the middle of Frontier Day?" Nevir practically shouted, actually looking annoyed if not upset.  The Bajoran was coming out.

"Changeling infiltration of Starfleet has made us vulnerable to our greatest enemy... the Borg!"

The Captain stood stunned.  Shelby on screen seemed to be doing a private transmission on her chair, leaving the rest of the fleet to hear the other activity on the Enterprise's bridge.  He shook his head, but then Shelby decided to do something unexpected... listen to him.

"Admiral Shelby, I know this message may seem desperate, even impossible, but you must trust us.  I hope you can see-"

The message finally cut off as the Titan locked out its own comms and joined the fleet formation.  Shelby looked like she was trying to allow Titan to transmit again when even the viewscreen cut out, with a message that communications were lost.

"What just-" the Captain was never able to finish his statement as a sudden, loud shrill tone seemed to echo through the ship, catching him completely off guard. It lasted for what seemed like hours, but was only seconds, before it seemed to fade to a less shrill but consistent tone.  The science station put up a notification of a massive energy spike coming from far in the solar system... and by pure luck it seemed to be emanating from the direction of Jupiter, but without being able to access sensor controls it was only an alert reading.

Nevir took a step forward when the tone changed pitch again, and the screens around them flickered with faint shapes of green.  There was a surge of resonance coming directly from the quantum slipstream systems that heralded what was about to happen.

The Captain looked around the bridge.  The eerie green sent a shiver down his spine.  And the panel shapes were starting to look familiar.  Not first-hand knowledge, but something from his Captain briefings.  Something that chilled him to the bone.

"Ruthie... try to send a message to the Enterprise." he ordered.  That was followed by silence.  A long pause of silence.

"Ruthie?" he asked again, this time turning towards where his daughter sat, with her back to the rest of the bridge.  She seemed to be frozen as a statue, with just slight twitches.  But she wasn't responding to him, neither as the Captain, nor as her father.

"Ruthie?" he asked again, now with a twinge of concern and almost fear in his voice.  She still didn't respond.  And she wasn't the only one.  Some of his bridge officers seemed to freeze as well, silent, with an almost imperceptible sound of attempts to breathe.  All throughout the ship, and indeed the fleet, some of the officers, specifically all of the younger officers, suddenly froze as well, as they were... changed.

((Alright all, this is where things get tricky.  Any being under the age of full development (for a human, that is 25 years of age, so it would be species equivalent), is now being assimilated.  If you are unsure where you stand, ask Rayek, they have the list.))