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[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.))

((OOC: Youtube video for refresher, this is happening during this post.))

[USS Discovery - Main Bridge - Deck 1]

The Captain remained silent as talks of power surges and sensor readings went through the bridge.  The ship itself began to slow as it took its position near the main docking bay with the other ships assigned to escort duty.  He looked up at the mention of the reading near Jupiter and walked over to the science station.

"The entire fleet should be here if they are anywhere near this sector." he commented, looking at what Discovery found.  The readings were unusual in that there seemed to be a small warp signature with a Starfleet ID code with a large quantum signature.  It was only there for a moment before the readings were suddenly... gone.  Nevir frowned but shook his head.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  I don't want to be the reason why today goes wrong while we're broadcasted across all of Federation space. Log it for after the celebrations are over.  It looks like a Starfleet signature, and there are about 20 or so ships with the quantum slipspace drive. I wouldn't be surprised if they are testing more ships with it." he stated, taking his seat.

Ruthie turned from her seat after her father sat down.  "Captain, Spacedock is on an open channel for a final ready check."

"Patch us through," he responded.

The viewscreen didn't change, but he could hear the roll call of ships being done.  It seems they just started.  Oh boy did they have a lot of ships to go through.  Luckily for Discovery, their position meant they were a part of the first group.

"USS Discovery"

"Captain Tekin Nevir of the USS Discovery, ready and standing by." he stated, as Starbase moved on to the next ships in the list.  It took about twenty minutes to get through all of them, more than 300 ships, but finally, they received orders to stand by.

"Here we go, guys." Nevir stated, taking a breath.

The comms were still open, but for now they were a one way channel.  A broadcast channel.  At first it was the Federation anthem playing, the full song.  That was then followed by fireworks igniting around the ships and Spacedock, and Nevir had to adjust himself in his chair, as they looked at the doors of Spacedock.  From there, they could hear the broadcast from the bridge.

"Spacedock, this is NCC-1701-F ready for ceremonial departure.  Admiral Shelby in command."

"Copy that, Enterprise.  You are cleared for departure. Happy Frontier day."

The doors opened, and the Odyssey-class USS Enterprise-F slowly sailed out of Spacedock, and immediately started its round around it.  Nevir couldn't help but smirk as the ship sailed out, looking surprisingly whole.

"Amazing... you'd never know that the ship barely functioned when it was brought back.  To think so much work was done for a ship that is having its last flight, and only because its the Enterprise." Nevir stated, as the voice of Admiral Shelby finally came through, and their viewscreen changed to show the Admiral in the Captain's chair on the otherwise huge bridge of the Odyssey class. Her words were preceded with the standard whistle indicating an all-comm message from the command officer.

"250 years ago today, the Enterprise NX-01, the first warp five capable vessel to be constructed by Human hands, made its maiden voyage. With it, a crew of 83 souls embarked on a journey. One of bravery, perseverance, and sacrifice that would lead to the birth of what we know today as Starfleet." 

They waited as the Enterprise F finished its circle of spacedock, and the Captain nodded to the helm.  "Alright, that's our cue.  Take flanking escort position.  Miss Garrison, check the status of Fleet Formation mode." he stated, as the ship moved with the rest of the escort fleet.

"A quarter millenium after the NX-01 took that first vital step, we gather on Frontier Day to take another. As we demonstrate our newest advancement, Fleet Formation Mode."

"Maybe the system won't work..." Nevir started, when he got confirmation that it was.  There was no going back now.

"USS Discovery, synchronization online." he stated, hitting the fleet comm while he confirmed that his ship was ready.  As soon as he closed the channel, he crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Now that its out of the bag... I frankly agreed with Lek.  This is a stupid idea.  Especially hearing it announced." he stated, frowning. Admiral Shelby continued.

"Synchronistic technology that allows every ship in Starfleet to operate as one." 

There was a shudder throughout the ship and all the bridge stations turned red, with a message on screen locking them out.

There was a lurch as the ship's helm controls were suspended and the ship was now moving under formation control.  Nevir looked down at his chair and tried to tap on the all comm.  Even that no longer worked.

"First issue... no means of communicating with the lead ship." he muttered aloud, while the Admiral carried on.

"An impenetrable armada. Unity and defense. The ultimate safeguard. In case of the unthinkable, fleetwide incapacitation, this system will protect our crews and our continued exploration of what still remains... our final frontier."

"On the precipice of the decommissioning of the Enterprise F, here is a look at some of Starfleet's most prestigious ships..."

"And that is why we're here." the Captain stated with a smirk.  "They wanted to show off a Prometheus as part of the fleet formation, and what better than the ship that helped bring peace to the Romulan Free State. Or at least that is the public image.  I'm confident I pissed off an admiral somewhere.  A lot of us Captains were concerned about the Formation and it looks like most of us are being put here front and center. Almost makes you wish you were on the Challenger."

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

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

Broadshire's mention of stress leave had the Romulan giving the man a slightly confused look.  Dr. Betaika's daily reports to the First Officers had Broadshire listed on medical leave, which yes stress leave was technically but typically standard medical leave and stress leave were reported separately.

Rayek had assumed the medical leave taken was to recuperate from the virus not stress-oriented.  Perhaps it shouldn't matter the type of leave taken but given the doctor's appearance Rayek was even less sure of the Broadshire's well-being but the Romulan having been pulled from duty himself was loathe to do it to another unless absolutely necessary.   The man claimed to be happy to be back to work... for now he would supposed that would be sufficient.  Perhaps this Frontier Day celebration would be just what the doctor needed.

At Broadshire's query about orders, Rayek nodded towards the VIP chair situated on the other side of the chair.   "I think it's only appropriate you be on the bridge to witness the Frontier Day speech by Admiral Shelby, and Discovery's escort of the Enterprise F."

Of course, none of the Command Officers would be really needed.  That was the whole point of the Swarm feature, the ships would be automated in their movements for the entirety of the escort.

It was at this time that ship status reports began coming in from the various departments.
As departments call in to him, Rayek noted their status on his checklist.   Medical and Ops were accounted for already

Shuttle Bay. Check.

Security.  Check.

Rayek smiled a bit at the young officer's enthusiasm. "Of course, whenever it suits you best.  For now, I will leave you to report your station's readiness to your Department Head." He said giving a slight nod in Kinley's direction as a prompt.

Lorut spoke up then - Ops officer was ready, and thus was chafing at the bit to get going.  She needed to learn patience.  He wondered if she would be open to meditation?

"I'm still waiting on reports from your department head, Science, and Engineering."

It was then that Lieutenant Banan sent Rayek a comm, reporting in that all Ops had called into him other than Ensign Lorut on the Bridge.  Rayek could hear a note of frustration in the man's voice.

Rayek tapped his commbadge to respond.  "Thank you Lieutenant.  Ensign Lorut reported Bridge Ops directly to me earlier.  I'll remind her that my orders were to report to her Department Head. tr'Lhoell out."

As the Romulan spoke, he looked towards Vila meaningfully. "Next time be certain to report to your Department Head as well, so he is not left waiting on your report."

Eventually, just past his 5 minute deadline - a fact that Rayek was not happy about, all departments called in and all was in readiness.

"Captain, the ship and crew 'stand ready' for your orders to disembark spacedock."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

While the Captain looked over final systems checks, Ruthie was expertly manning the controls of her station to run a diagnostic, using her talents as a linguist to check and double-check standard translations of the universal translator as part of the comms systems.  Many in Starfleet had been so used to universal translators that they normally don't realize when they speak in their native tongue.  How the computer knew when to translate and when to allow native language was one of the biggest secrets of the translator, but if even that glitched out, the crew could find themselves unable to communicate.  All green on the board, the young ensign smiled, glancing over at Lorut.

"Comm diagnostics are green, Ensign." she stated, before turning in her chair to view the bridge and her father.

Nevir nodded to Rayek at the confirmation and stood up.  He activated the all comm on his chair, and spoke.

"All hands, this is the Captain.  Today marks a historic milestone, both as a holiday and as an event.  Starfleet has created a smart fleet, a networking tool that links our ships together.  The general public doesn't know this, in fact most of the fleet doesn't yet know this, but this will be the first test run of what is known as the Fleet Formation System.  It is currently going to be controlled from the flagship for this demonstration. The Discovery has been given the distinct honor of escort to the Enterprise, and as such we will be one of the first ships connected to this formation.  Now, for our role, we will be taking position in our assigned position with the rest of the fleet prior to the flight of the Enterprise.  Enterprise will be doing a round around Spacedock and then we will take our position as escort to her.  This ceremony is more for show then work, which is why the Bridge has more officers here than normal.  Once they activate the fleet formation, we'll just be along for the ride.  So in that case, just enjoy the show.  Happy Frontier Day, Discovery.  Captain out."

With that, the Captain took his seat again, crossing a leg over another.  "Miss Falleq-Tekin, inform Spacedock of our departure.  Miss Lorut, clear all moorings.  Mr. Grippen, take us to our position, 241 mark 218 mark 14. All hands, prepare for departure."

"Spacedock has given us all clear, Captain." Ruthie stated, confirming her own orders.

"Let's do this!"

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

[Bridge]

Today was the day. Currently, Kinley was keeping an eye  on the scanners while the ship was heading  down to Earth for all the festivities, and it was pretty exciting that they were selected to be a part of the honor guard. It was certainly going to be one heck of a celebration. Dressed in her formal teals and nice lab coat, Kinley was currently trying to ignore the  jitters she was feeling. Not like that this wasn't one heck of a major event. She had done overtime to help finish the Breen translation matrix  in time for this event, which was already being brought up for the celebration, so she had felt a good amount of pressure about getting that done.

From what she had heard, Today was hyped to be something  really special. Not to mention an admiral came to do their inspections before the events had happened. She had her own thoughts about all the pomp and stuff, but it was a special occasion, so apparently it was warranted.

Noting the new ensign- Ruthie was it?- as she came onboard, Kinley nodded with a smile and gave the ensign her seat, standing instead by the big chair, looking out at the viewport and the distant starbase.   "œCaptain, Commander, it looks like we're pretty close to ready  with the scanners. Everything is running smoothly on that end. she reported.

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

Rayek had stood attentively by his command seat while the Admiral did her inspection of the Bridge.  He was ambivalent about the Frontier Day celebrations.  While he understood the Fleet's need to celebrate such a landmark accomplishment in its history, the paranoid Romulan thought it a folly to have so much of the Fleet's ships to be clustered in one location.   He didn't envy the chaos that was likely happening throughout the rest of the Federation with so few ships assigned to patrolling the Federations borders.   It was a perfect opportunity for those looking to avoid detection by Starfleet.

He offered a slight bow toward the departing Admiral and then smiled slightly as the new Ensign replaced the Admiral on the Bridge.   Rayek knew Ruthie somewhat from his time on Katra.  The eldest Falleq child would come visit her mother, Hrafn, the then Chief Science Officer on Katra, during her Academy summer break.

Rayek had been pleased to see she'd been assigned to the Discovery.

"Of course, Captain" The Romulan stepped forward after the Captain's request and gestured for Ruthie to follow him.

"This way, Ensign.  Given your specialization in Xeno-linguistics, I have assigned you to our Communications section, typically an Operations role but fitting for your particular expertise.  You will report to Lieutenant Banan for this task alone.  You will still report to Commander Garrison of the Science department for any other duties she may ask of you.  Is that understood?"

Afterwards, before turning back to his seat to allow her to opportunity to settle in, Rayek once more offered to the young Trill an approving smile.

"Welcome aboard, Ensign"

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Nevir smiled as he watched his daughter take her place on the bridge of his ship.  Was it a bit nepotistic to give her a spot on the bridge?  Probably... but he wanted her to be there to see such a celebration.

"Thank you, Miss Garrison, Commander. I have learned from Admiral Shelby that our key feature, the Multi-vector Assault Mode, is apparently too... out of date... to be compatible with the new fleet networking.  I have been assured that this is something Starfleet Engineering is working on for the future.  Its been manually disabled today for the ceremonies, and then we'll have the Corps of Engineers reconnect it while they test with our systems. Ops, keep that in mind when checking ship systems. It will be showing as an error until its reestablished." the Captain stated, looking up at the gathered ships near Earth Spacedock.

He had to admit, it was an impressive sight.  Not even at the lowest point in the Dominion war, nor even the attacks by the Borg, were there so many ships stationed above Earth.  Many of the Captains here shared his concerns about the number of ships pulled out of dry dock, and pulled from the Federation space for such an event.  He looked down at his PADD, which held the mission for after Frontier Day... a parade around the Federation planets as part of the example test fleet.  They wanted a ship visually impressive, and Discovery was lucky to be assigned.

Ruthie took her seat at the offered station, ending up near Vila.  She looked up at Rayek, and smiled.  "Thank you, Commander tr'Lhoell, its an honor to get this assignment, even if temporary." she stated, looking up the communications status and running a scan on the translator.

Captain's Log, Stardate 78288.5

April 16, 2401.  Two hundred and fifty years since the launch of Earth's first Warp 5 ship, and the first true starship to carry the name Enterprise. The first United Starship of the Federation. Every species holds the launch of their first starship in high regards, and for many of us, Bajor included, our firsts were centuries ahead of the Humans of Earth. The Enterprise wasn't even the first warp-capable ship; that honor went to a warp core with chairs tucked into a ballistic missile that coincidentally was named the Pheonix. But the NX-01 Enterprise did something that no other early warp vessel on any planet had done; it brought the species of the Federation together. That is why 250 years later a Bajoran captain is sitting on the bridge of a Prometheus-class Deep Space Tactical Cruiser waiting near Earth Spacedock for the celebrations of this anniversary.  One for the history books.

Discovery has been given an honor, however; we are to be an escort wing to the final flight of the USS Enterprise F.  And as luck would have it, as an escort we will be one of the first ships to display the Federation's newest soon to be revealed top-secret project. Oh which I am finally being given the actual information for... and to see exactly what is on my ship...

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Captain's Ready Room]

"Alright, there we go.. the multivector assault mode is disabled.  It doesn't really feel right to lose this ship's primary tactical advantage, Admiral.  Even if its only temporary." Nevir stated, handing over a PADD to the maroon and black-clad silver-haired woman currently standing in his Ready Room. The Captain of the USS Enterprise F, Admiral Elizabeth Shelby.

"You have no idea how much my engineering team has been trying to learn the ins and outs of this networking; Captain Galloway was swearing to burn it out of his ship if it was ever activated."

"Well, Galloway might not have much of a choice after today.  If it all goes well, it will be mandated on all vessels.  Those old ships like the Challenger are likely to be decommissioned if they can't be refit. Frankly, Captain, Discovery is no longer considered the cutting edge of ship design.  With these new designs like the Constitution III and the Inquiry, you'll be standing on a relic before you know it."

Tekin snorted.  "I'll take this museum piece over that copypaste fleet any day."

"I'll let the Admiralty board know that... see if we can't get you reassigned.  Anyway, that's all I need, Captain Tekin." Shelby stated, as the two of them turned and left the Ready Room.  The Bridge of Discovery was spotless for the ceremony, and every panel was given a restoration cleaning. At least the ship smelled nice now. Admiral Shelby made one more walk around the bridge before finally taking her leave and exiting through the turbolift, only for another person to step off the turbolift clad in science blue and with a shiny new pip on her collar.  Nevir looked up and smiled as his Trill daughter beamed back at him.

"Permission to come aboard da- Captain."

"Ensign Ruthie Falleq-Tekin.  Permission granted." he said with a smile, as he took a seat in his chair.  "Commander?  Would you show the Ensign to her station?" Nevir stated, calling out to his first officer.

"We have about an hour and a half left before showtime.  No room for errors here."

I will, of course, be as active as I can be.

Captain's Log, Supplemental

Thanks to the actions of both the away team and the EMH of the USS Jupiter, the majority of the crew, myself included, has been saved from a near-death state. Our own Chief Medical Officer and Acting Chief Medical officer were able to find a spaceborne extremophile that when coupled with the radiation from the nebula and star created what can only be described as an internal radiated virus. The longer we stayed in the nebula, we would have died from the inside out.  I have submitted our findings to Starfleet Medical with the suggested name of the Jupiter Radiation Virus, and the symptoms known as the Jupiter Internal Decay Syndrome.  I have also put in commendations for the crew's actions to find and restore us; something that the Jupiter was just too late to do for her crew.

The Jupiter is actually being diverted back to Katra Station for holding and study.  Starfleet has opted to wait for after Frontier day to start a study on the ship.  For us, however, we have been given a distinct honor. The Discovery is going to be part of the escort wing for the final flight of the USS Enterprise F. This means we have no time left but to head home at maximum warp.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing this display they have planned; its apparently sure to be one for the history books.

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

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
and NPC Lt Danjar-Torra Addams
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]

With a hiss the medication was delivered.

Rayek leaned back in his chair and waited for the treatment to take effect.  He looked up at the overly tall Grazerite as she did a check over his system before moving off towards the Risian pilot.   The Romulan glanced to the Captain, unconscious in the chair beside him.  This wasn't right...

"You need to treat the Captain next." Rayek stated.  Was it just his imagination that the fog in his mind was already beginning to lift?

Torra didn't paused on her route to the pilot, but she did take a position beside the helmsman which allowed her to look towards the Romulan Commander as she continued her work.   "I wish I could, sir; but until the doctors approve it for open usage, I'm limited to only distributing it to volunteers."

The Romulan felt a spur of anger at Torra's words.  That's ridiculous. He's going to die waiting for that approval; and he's in no condition to volunteer!"

The Grazerite hunched her shoulders in response to his outburst.   "I understand your frustration, sir.  This was why there was the disagreement about declaring Patient Zero as dead.  With both Doctor Thane and Sluchaynyy affected by the illness, none of the doctors have the authority to do anything outside of strict laboratory testing procedures. Which are unsuitable at the moment.  We need someone as CMO.  The Jupiter's EMH offered to assume the role but then got into an argument with our EMH." Torra stated with a bit of apologetic shrug.

Rayek grimaced at the situation.

"Which of the remaining doctors is most senior." he asked, praying she wouldn't say the EMH.

"That would be the exchange officer, Dr. Tanar Betaika." Torra supplied helpfully as she administered a dose of the treatment to the Risian pilot.

"The treatment is fast acting, so you should be seeing improvement in just a few minutes." Torra said to the pilot.

Meanwhile, Rayek had come to a decision.

"Computer record.  In the absence of Dr. Thane and Dr. Sluchaynyy due to illness, I , Commander tr'Lhoell, am temporarily promoting Romulan Exchange Officer Tanar Betaika to the position of Chief Medical Officer of the USS Discovery, effective immediately until such time as a more senior medical officer is well enough to fulfil the role.  Computer, recognize authorization of Rayek tr'Lhoell - Three Juliette Four Sierra Seven Three Five Golf Lima"

"Authorization recognized. Promotion of Lieutenant Tanar Betaika to Chief Medical Officer acknowledged. Report sent to Starfleet Command."

Rayek opened an internal comm channel "tr'Lhoell to Dr. Betaika.  I've just promoted you to Chief Medical Officer.   It is my understanding, that Lieutenant Addams needs a direct order from you to be able to administer the Jupiter treatment to any unconscious patient.   The Captain is presently unconscious and unable to volunteer to take the treatment."   Rayek informed.

There was a pause before the doctor responded.  "What are his vitals?"

Torra, who had finished with the helmsman, approached and scanned the Captain with her medical tricorder.    "Blood pressure and oxygen levels are critically low, as are his white blood cells.  His autonomic functions are on the verge of shutting down.  He has maybe an hour to live."

"Go ahead and administer the treatment to the Captain; as well as to any other whose vitals are weak.  Continue to monitor those patients and send regular updates back to Sickbay so that we can complete the proper testing quickly and get this treatment out to the entire crew."

Torra smiled appreciatively towards Commander Rayek and acknowledged her orders from Dr. Betaika.

"Yessir!"

With Rayek's help, Torra carefully leaned the Captain's head back, exposing his neck and pressed the hypospray with the treatment against his skin.  A hiss sounded as the Captain received his dose.

Torra then went around to the others on the Bridge.  Each had 'weak vitals' in her opinion so each got a dose of the treatment, and when she used up her 6 doses she requested for more to be transported to her location.

Rayek was feeling much better by this time and he knew what he had to do.

"Computer, I want you to monitor all life-signs on the ship and alert Sickbay when one falls to critical levels."  Those would be the individuals who would receive priority treatment.

At being informed that the Jupiter security away team had returned, Rayek called for a report.

He listened to the quick brief offered by Lieutenant Lachlyn and acknowledged her request to remain in the EV suit.   "I think that's an excellent idea.  I want your team in Sickbay to assist the treatment efforts.   You'll escort the doctors if they need to treat patients outside of sickbay and generally be on hand to assist."

Not long after this an odd transmission was heard over the comm.  It was Lorut.

Rayek altered the ship's status to Yellow Alert in acknowledgment of the warning but didn't remove the quarantine.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

It took a few seconds following the hiss of the hypospray, but the experimental serum started working its miracle on the Captain, and his lifesigns started to stabilize and then strengthen. It took an additional minute for the Captain to stir, and finally open his eyes to see nothing but black and stars of space as the ships left the nebula.  As he straightened up he winced; he felt like a corpse. But, he wasn't dead... and he wasn't dust.

"Commander?  Status?" he asked with a hoarse voice, as the bridge seemed to come back to life.

[[USS Jupiter - Bridge]]

PO2 Helga Tragnar
[USS Jupiter - Bridge]

The voice of the AI answered in a pleasant tone.  "Transport initiated from the USS Jupiter.".   Helga raised an eyebrow at that response.

The AI continued to answer the second part of her question.  "The ensign was transported to the Brig."  Helga blinked in surprise and dared to ask.  "Why?"

"The transport was ordered by the Lieutenant Commander in Engineering.". Helga sighed - knowing exactly who the AI was talking about despite the Away Team having to Lt Commanders.  This was Lek's doing.  Hmph... Helga didn't yet know what had prompted the animosity between the two but Lek it seemed had had enough of the woman.  She just wished he'd waited until the ship was out of the nebula.  If there were any navigation or powerflow problems, Helga was up on the Bridge alone now and with her limited enlisted training, she didn't know how to work any of them.

As if on cue, an alert chimed on the console recently vacated by Lorut.   "Just great."

She activated her helmet comms.  "Tragnar to Commander Lek.  I hope you've sent someone up to replace Lorut.  Her station has a warning going off."

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]

While Rayek waited on a response from Jupiter, he noted the Risian pilot get to his feet.  'Oh? Was he improving?'  After a moment or two of watching Lieutenant Grippen stagger about Rayek decided that the man was likely hallucinating.  This was confirmed a moment later when the pilot began banging on the viewscreen.

If not for the quarantine forcefield surrounding the Bridge, Rayek would have had the pilot beamed to Sickbay.  The pounding echoed in his ears ramping up the headache that was already present.

The Romulan wondered if he could get away with stunning the pilot to get him to stop... and claim it was for the man's own safety.  Eh, probably not.  Normally disruptive individuals would be handled by the security team that was shift on the Bridge; but like most, they too had succumbed to the illness.  That left just Rayek.  The Romulan stood up on unsteady legs and walked towards the pilot.

"Mr. Grippen!  I need you to get a grip on yourself.  Return to your seat."  Rayek reached out to the man to help guide him back.

It was as he was dealing with the Risian pilo,t at that moment, that the starfield view on the front screen suddenly changed to show the colorful streams indicative of warp travel.  What the...?!

Rayek looked over to Tekin.  But the Captain didn't seem to be in a state capable of activating the warp drive.

"Mr. Graham, what's going on? Did you jump us to warp?"

Rayek wasn't all that upset, since he had been hoping to go faster to get out quicker. He just needed to remind the human Helmsman that it was important to follow the chain of comment when it came to that sort of thing.

When it came to light that the Helmsman hadn't done so and was locked out of the controls, Rayek released Lieutenant Grippen to check the nearest console.   Someone had initiated the remote control of the ship, without the Captain's authorization.  Did they believe the Bridge completely incapacitated?  Well, almost - but not quite.

He would need to check the user's ID to figure out who had done so.  There were only 5 people aboard the ship with the access to that feature: the Captain, Rayek himself, Commander Thane, Lt Commander Lek, and Lt Commander Garrison; even Dr. Broadshire as Second Officer in-training, didn't have the authorization code to remote control the entire ship.  But finding out who had done so was a task for another time.

Because as they say... when it rains; it pours.  The Bridge received a comm message from Lieutenant Addams.

Rayek audibly groaned to hear that the damn Vulcan doctors were taking their sweet time in actually using the treatment provided.

"You've got to be kidding?!" Rayek complained aloud, something he normally wouldn't do.

"The rest of the crew doesn't have time for the ethics of Vulcans!  Give Patient Zero the treatment. In lieu of next of kin, I'm authorizing it.  Also send up a few doses of the treatment to the bridge.  I'll be a volunteer, and I suspect I'm not the only one."

NPC Lt Danjar-Torra Addams
[USS Discovery-B - Deck 9 - Sickbay >>> Deck 1 - Bridge]

Torra silently questioned the wisdom of rushing the treatment testing. But she understood why.  Each life was precious and when the known result of doing nothing was death, then it made it easier to take risks.

The Grazerite nodded her head in acknowledgement of her orders from the ship's First Officer.   The comm closed and Torra approached the knot of Vulcans who had stopped their discussion.  She wondered how much of the conversation they had heard.  Given the notoriety of Vulcan hearing probably all of it.   Still Torra repeated the Commander's orders.

"I'll take a half dozen doses up to the Bridge and monitor their condition from there."  There was silence for a moment while the Vulcans looked between one another before the eldest among them nodded.

It took a minute for Torra to gather the treatment doses, then another 5 minutes to temporarily take down the forcefield that Dr. Broadshire had set up to quarantine the Bridge.   Then she activated the site-to-site transport to arrive on the Bridge.  She was surprised to see they were at warp.

Torra headed towards Rayek, but looking around addressed the rest of the Bridge - or at least those that were conscious enough to hear her.  "I have a six doses of the treatment that needs to be tested.  Do I have any volunteers other than Commander tr'Lhoell?"

She met eyes with the haggard looking Romulan as she pulled out the hypospray.  He nodded and presented his arm to her.  With a hiss the medication was delivered.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Before he even realized it, the Captain has already faded.  An unconscious slump in the Captain's chair as Discovery jumped to warp with the Jupiter to put some distance between the nebula and them.  The Captain's lifesigns were weakening, and he was clearly in no condition to do... anything. 

Good evening, James.  You can find your Academy Training Course here.

[[USS Discovery, Bridge]]

[Engineering - USS Jupiter]

Lek heard the call from the Captain and his heart sank. Whatever had killed the crew of the Jupiter seemed to be sweeping through Discovery and there was nothing he could do about it. He opened the channel on his EVA suit and spoke as steadily as he could.

"Lek to Discovery, I'm an engineer not a doctor, but could it be that the nebula is causing the sickness? Jupiter is warp capable, can't we make a short warp jump to get back to normal space? It might not work, but it's at least worth a try."

Lek promised the give the Blessed Exchequer five bars of gold pressed latinum if escaping the nebula would save the crew of the Discovery.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

While he had the cough, the symptom that was really hitting the Captain was fatigue.  His arms and legs hurt, but he didn't feel like he could move them. Nor did he want to.  He was basically frozen in the Captain's chair, feeling like he was already passed a century of age.

"L-Lek?  Aren't you supposed to be on Jupiter?" he mumbled, his voice sounding weaker and more raspy.  "A nebula... we're in a nebula..."

[Bridge]
They had warp power now. But there were also greater problems.A sentient ship might be the least of their concerns, but it was certainly a concern. Acknowledged, Lek. Thank you. They would have to figure out what to do with the Jupiter later.

[color=teal' "œThe rest of the Discovery has gotten what they have. We're not sure how it got onboard there, and it's possible that it's infiltrated the ship itself, so we shouldn't be too

The computer seemed to pause, before it spoke again, almost regretfully.

"œI see. I will let you control this ship. I do not want to be dismantled. I have been left far too long to lose all my power here. I would rather not be left alone again."

"œThank you. If you could, move us into position besides the Discovery, that would be greatly appreciated.  Also, If your crew did have something to fight this virus, I think we need it sooner rather than later. but   " Kinley asked, bringing the Discovery into view. She pulled up a science panel, as old as it was, to view the star. It looked ready to flare.

[Morgue] - As the EMH
The EMH flickered into view as he was summoned. "œHello there. The computer has told me that you seek the formula. It has not been thoroughly tested, as the last crewman died before he could synthesize it but hypothetically, it should bring the virus in control long enough for a full antidote to be created for the ship.
[Bridge again- as Kinley]
Captain? We have full control of the Jupiter and she's warp capable. We need to get out of the nebula, now. You're not looking too good. It looks like there is a potential treatment in the databanks we'll be sending over to you.'

[USS Discovery, Bridge]

Malik continued to feel horrible as the captain ordered stricter quarantine protocols. Malik was pleased he didn't have to retreat to his quarters, as he didn't think he could make it more than a few meters without collapsing. His spirits were raised however when commander Kinley mentioned a potential cure and that the Jupiter was now warp capable.

"Finally, I suggest we leave, captain."

Another voice... Kinley?  She was a smart one... she would have made a good command officer... until she mentioned how he looked.  He opened his eyes a bit, not realizing they had been closed.  Jupiter was back online.  Good.  Maybe they can survive...

"Get out of here, Kinley.  We'll be right behind you.  Malik-" his voice cracked as his throat seemed dry, and he coughed.  "Set a course to follow... let the ship do it... in case you become incapacitated."

[Bridge | USS Discovery]

While everything was going on around him, Dem felt dizzy. Like he was loosing his grip on reality. He placed his head gently on the comm panel, overwhelmed with yet more imminent danger. Dem only lifted his head up it up to reply to Malik, informing him that no cure has been found for this mystery disease, or even the common cold. And plus, the ships in lockdown, meaning it would be very hard to get to sickbay. Just after Dem relied to Malik, Tekin initialised harsher lockdown procedures. Checking some information on his comm panel, Dem quickly turned around, destabilising his balance. Dem began to speak, with his voice wavering. "œSir, 70 percent of the non-essential crew are in lockdown. I have completely sealed of the bridge with forcefields."

"We have to find out why we were hit so fast and so suddenly... Dem... if we can't get sickbay to respond, the away team might have to.. or we activate our own..." he said, trying to speak.  But he was so tired.

Slowly, the Discovery pitched up to align with the galactic plane, and it moved to follow the Jupiter out of the nebula.  Now to see if they would even make it out before the crew succumbed.