Season 15: Episode 4 - Vox Populai

[Malik Grippen]

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.

[Beta Hull, Shuttle Bay]

Malik had followed with the rest of them and thankfully arrived unscathed into the shuttle bay and onto one of the shuttle's that the captain had already set to standby power and command unlocked. Alex could pilot the other shuttle with the captain onboard. Malik deftly ran through the pre-flight checks like a Risan of focus, commitment and sheer fracking will. Once the shuttle was ready for full power initiation, Malik turned to the open hatch and shouted to anyone still not onboard.

"Move it our lose it people, we are out of here!"

As the last passengers boarded, Malik closed the hatch and activated main power illuminating the shuttle's systems and engines to full. The Borg would be alerted immediately, but it didn't matter now. Malik, disregarding all standard safety protocols, punched the throttle and the craft darted out of the bay at break-neck speed. Anyone not strapped in would have been sent flying backwards to smash into the rear hatch.

It was out of the frying pan and into the fire. The shuttle entered the vacuum of space and into a hailstorm of phaser fire and photon torpedoes. Malik used all of this piloting skill to dodge and weave through the barrage and formed up beside the other shuttle as they headed at dangerous speeds towards Space Dock.

"We're on an express elevator to hell - going down! Wooooooo!" The Risan was in his happy place.

[Tanner Lachlyn]

[Jeffries Tube - Alpha Deck 5]

The movement through the Jeffries tubes was eerily quiet, and as the crew split up, an air of uncertainty hung over them, unsure if they would ever see each other again. Emily couldn't help but reminisce about her casual tour with Ensign Ramort, fervently hoping that this mission wouldn't turn out to be his last.

As they ascended, Tanner called out to Rayek, signaling him to pause. She gently pressed her hand against a panel and pushed it open. The ship's hidden security caches were relocated every six months to random locations. Using the Jeffries tubes made sense, given that the crew often found themselves in them during moments of trouble, and reaching a deck storehouse was far from safe.

"Here," she handed Rayek a personal forcefield to attach to his belt and asked if he needed any additional weapons or batteries. Tanner herself loaded up with a few more items, including a cargo vest with extra pockets and a device she'd been eager to test in a real combat situation.

Slipping her hand into the glove, a network of wires activated, emitting a soft purple glow when she secured it around her wrist. The lights dimmed after a moment, and she turned to Rayek, explaining, "I may have added a few things to the cache a bit ago. It's a nano-shield. Activates on command, capable of delivering substantial blunt force damage, and offers protection from phaser fire. I thought that if I didn't want to harm our borged crewmates, I could knock them out more easily with this."

She flashed a grin and continued, "Let's get you to alpha three. I'll follow closely to ensure you have backup. Once we have the status of your family, I'll conduct a sweep."

[Kinley Garrison]

[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."

[As Kinley Borg Princess One]

[Bridge]

Now that the ships were all taken, the next phase of the plan was in place; They had to deal with Spacedock. With each ship in position, all Targets locked, all that was left was to concentrate fire on the station, and find its weakness. It would not last long, Estimates gave that under full power, Spacedock would fall within several minutes.

"œFormation complete.  Advance. Target: Spacedock. Eliminate planetary defenses."

At the order, something  triggered an anomaly in the Princess known as One. She felt"¦ pain. Pain?  A flash of emotion? Horror?  Something felt off. A leftover remnant, perhaps.  She moved to quash that notion, possibly left over from whatever organic thoughts she may have once had. Something was trying to fight back. Trying to override. Something briefly broke through, causing a brief pause in the Princess after the order. It was only for a moment, however. A glitch.

She shook her head, The organic tendency to fight back was pointless and futile. They were defective remnants and the reason why she had failed the first time, why she was once separated from the Collective. This would not happen again. She turned to drones 056239 and 346572 and spoke the order she received from Vox.

"œFire."

[ USS Discovery - Primary Science Labs ]

Jettis sighed at Murphey's anxious attitude. "Yes. Let me just hurry up with creating explosives." Taking the offered sugar, he immediately turned back to the burner, which he'd manage to jerry-rig on by now. He hadn't realized just how much of their lives were absolutely ruled and controlled by technology. Of course, it was always in the back of his mind, but the fact he had to struggle to turn on a small flame or get some glass bottles made him think the conspiracy theorists who refused to use transporters or turbolifts might have been on to something.

Working as quickly as he safely could, and trying to squeeze out every bit he could manage from the few supplies he had. Matches were by far the easiest material to find in the lab without having to bypass some high level security codes and heavy metal crates. Eventually, with some scrounging for safe containers, he was left with a few cannisters, one markedly bright red, while the other was a simple silver. Turning, he offered a silver cannister to Murphy. "These are smoke bombs. Use them to hopefully make enough cover to move from room to room, try to make a rescue if you see someone who hasn't been... claimed... or if you're stuck in a room and need a way to out maneuver. You shouldn't breath it in, ideally, but just move fast and don't get lost."

He then held up a red one, staring directly into Murphy's eyes and soul, enunciating very particularly. "This is an incendiary. Listen to me - Do not throw this thinking it is a smoke bomb. If you need to block off a path, light it and throw it as far behind you as possible and keep running." He paused. "Make sure it's a room you won't need to return to, either. So ideally don't use it if you're in front of us."

With that, he handed one of each to Zero and Harrington. The smoke would be heavy enough to cover most rooms, but the blasts wouldn't be huge with the quick work he'd done. Still, in an enclosed space like a Starship, the size of the blast hardly mattered. Finally shutting down the burner, he turned to the others with a nod. "Let's go."

Though, he had absolutely no intention of leaving the ship, he was going to make sure they got there. It wasn't far, but as had been pointed out, would certainly be swarming by now. But if even a few shuttles could be saved... that was enough.

[meanwhile]

[Science labs]

As Murphy

Murphy gravely took the bombs from Jettis and nodded to the others. He had enough training in Basic training to know that this was incredibly dangerous and would probably get them kicked out of Starfleet if they survived this day.  Not that it mattered since they were probably going to be toast anyways. It was ages since those days in basic, but he wasn't going to drop these bombs now that this was their only real method to fight back. "œR-Right.

Terrified, Murphy and Harrington looked ahead of the passageways ahead. A squad of several  assimilated crew had been formed now, with Vinnie at the head, now holding a rather large rifle. and were headed towards them. Harrington took one of the smoke bombs and lit it, chucking it across the hall and landing at the feet of several of  them. It was now or never. "œRun! Thick, acrid smoke that made ones' eyes water filled the corridor, but it was enough to get past for now.

[Rayek trLhoell]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B - Deck Six - Beta Bridge >>> Jeffries Deck 5 >>> Ladder] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

[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 Romulan was grateful that the Captain did not order him to go.  It would have been an order he would of had to disobey.   As it was, Rayek now had the opportunity to break off without official reprimand.  He offered his Captain an acknowledging nod.  "Glohhaasi' mnekha"

Then while those leaving made their escape, Rayek set up an anesthizine trap by the Beta Bridge entrance where the Borg were attempting to break through.  Once that was accomplished he followed Lieutenant Lachlyn into the jeffries and up towards the Alpha hull, rather than down to the shuttle bays.

USS Discovery
Beta Bridge

While talking things out, the Bajoran had finished pulling wires. The Beta bridge was now as good as useless. It was going to be a HELL of a job redoing it all later, but luckily, that wouldn't be her job.

Vila sighed, but nodded. She knew when she was beat, and she also knew he was correct. She had no hope of anything if she were dead.

"Understood, sir. Ten minutes," she said. She looked to the others. "Does anyone need an escort?" She asked the assembled crew. "I don't need anything from my quarters." The only thing she kept in there of any value was aged Kanar, anyway. Her personal effects were back at Bajor; she'd sent them to her mother when they'd left DS9 last. She lived simply, spartanly, anyway.

"If not, I'll hold off who I can hear while you all go and collect your family and whatever else you need."

[Jeffries Tube - Alpha Deck 5]

The movement through the Jeffries tubes was eerily quiet, and as the crew split up, an air of uncertainty hung over them, unsure if they would ever see each other again. Emily couldn't help but reminisce about her casual tour with Ensign Ramort, fervently hoping that this mission wouldn't turn out to be his last.

As they ascended, Tanner called out to Rayek, signaling him to pause. She gently pressed her hand against a panel and pushed it open. The ship's hidden security caches were relocated every six months to random locations. Using the Jeffries tubes made sense, given that the crew often found themselves in them during moments of trouble, and reaching a deck storehouse was far from safe.

"Here," she handed Rayek a personal forcefield to attach to his belt and asked if he needed any additional weapons or batteries. Tanner herself loaded up with a few more items, including a cargo vest with extra pockets and a device she'd been eager to test in a real combat situation.

Slipping her hand into the glove, a network of wires activated, emitting a soft purple glow when she secured it around her wrist. The lights dimmed after a moment, and she turned to Rayek, explaining, "I may have added a few things to the cache a bit ago. It's a nano-shield. Activates on command, capable of delivering substantial blunt force damage, and offers protection from phaser fire. I thought that if I didn't want to harm our borged crewmates, I could knock them out more easily with this."

She flashed a grin and continued, "Let's get you to alpha three. I'll follow closely to ensure you have backup. Once we have the status of your family, I'll conduct a sweep."

Stopped momentarily at a hidden cache, Rayek accepted Lachlyn's offerings with a nod then rose an eyebrow at her gear.   Those were not standard issue.  Her explanation a moment later intrigued him.

"Would you happen to have the other to the pair?"

It was then that a variable pattern of clangs echoed throughout the tube, emanating as a vibration through the metal spinal of the ship.  It carried a message - though Rayek wondered at its inaccuracies.  He thought the Captain was headed to the maintenance bay?  Perhaps there had been a change of plan?

Rayek looked to Tanner.  "Who is Simon?"

Geared up, Rayek took lead this time and crawled his way to the nearest ladder up.  A glance down showed a disturbing sight.  A body lay at the bottom of the ladder.  From 6 decks it wasn't possible to tell if the yellow shirted crewman was a borg drone or not.  The well-being of his wife and child warred with his obligation to help an injured crewmember.

Fvadt! He hated his selfishness sometimes.

"I'll continue ahead.  Check to see if that's one of ours and if so find out who... so that maybe we can have the shuttle beam them to safety and medical care."

Then turning away from the injured below, Rayek climbed higher.  At the moment, his highest priority was finding Tess and Fvienn.

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

NPC Lieutenant Danjar-Torra Addams
[USS Discovery-B - Deck Six - Beta Bridge  >>>  Jeffries Tube]

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

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.

USS Discovery
Shuttle Bays

Vila stood, phaser ready, tense. Always. She scanned the corridors, and the people arriving-so far, so good. The sooner they could get out of here, the sooner she'd calm down. A little. Maybe.

"Ensign Lorut Vila, reporting," she sounded off.

[Beta Hull, Shuttle Bay]

Malik had followed with the rest of them and thankfully arrived unscathed into the shuttle bay and onto one of the shuttle's that the captain had already set to standby power and command unlocked. Alex could pilot the other shuttle with the captain onboard. Malik deftly ran through the pre-flight checks like a Risan of focus, commitment and sheer fracking will. Once the shuttle was ready for full power initiation, Malik turned to the open hatch and shouted to anyone still not onboard.

"Move it our lose it people, we are out of here!"

As the last passengers boarded, Malik closed the hatch and activated main power illuminating the shuttle's systems and engines to full. The Borg would be alerted immediately, but it didn't matter now. Malik, disregarding all standard safety protocols, punched the throttle and the craft darted out of the bay at break-neck speed. Anyone not strapped in would have been sent flying backwards to smash into the rear hatch.

It was out of the frying pan and into the fire. The shuttle entered the vacuum of space and into a hailstorm of phaser fire and photon torpedoes. Malik used all of this piloting skill to dodge and weave through the barrage and formed up beside the other shuttle as they headed at dangerous speeds towards Space Dock.

"We're on an express elevator to hell - going down! Wooooooo!" The Risan was in his happy place.

After the Captain secured the Jeffries hatch behind them, Torra temporarily split off and headed to the central hub of the tube system.  Of course, it was under watch by a Borg, but Torra for all her size could be extremely quiet, had approached from behind - and when the Borg sensing her turned around the Grazerite gave him a head swipe from her horns.   The drone collapsed so limply that Torra took a moment to check to be sure the crewman still had a pulse.  She sighed in relief before setting to her self-assigned task.  She struck her horns hard against the Jeffries tube metal plating.  It made a loud echoing sound.    She tapped out a message using Morse Code and another code she hoped others would understand.

... .. -- --- -. / ... .- -.-- ... / .- -... .- -. -.. --- -. / ... .... .. .--. .-.-.- / ... .. -- --- -. / ... .- -.-- ... / ... .... ..- - - .-.. . / .-.. . .- ...- . ... / .. -. / .---- ----- .-.-.- / --. --- / - --- / -- .- .. -. / ... .... ..- - - .-.. . -... .- -.-- .-.-.- / .--- . ..-. ..-. .-. .. . ... / .- .-. . / ... .- ..-. . .-.-.-

The morse code echoed throughout the ship along the Jeffries tubes.

Once the message was sent Torra stuck around for a few minutes more hoping to help guide any who might respond.
.
.
.

Shuttle
As the shuttle lifted off and away Torra sitting in the back was quiet.  Her message had helped a few know which way to go, but still she wished she could have done more.

[James Ramort]

[USS Discovery - Jeffries Tubes]

He crawled into the Tubes following the other members of the Crew, he heard the Captain exchanging some words with the First Officer behind him but he already was too far in to still understand them. The Tubes stretched for kilometers through the ship. Connecting every Deck and every Room.

The air in the packed crawlspace was heated. Partly because of the plasma conduits running in the walls, partly because of the unintended amount of people now passing through them. With every passing Crossing the group got a bit smaller but there were only so many routes available to take if you wanted to end up in the Shuttlebay. Ramort hadn't the most experience in the ships layout but at least felt comfortable enough to take his own route. His tour with Lieutenant Lachlyn hadn't been too far ago and he had crunched over PADDs with schematics even before he went onboard.

The whole experience was strangely calming. The narrowness of the Tubes meant escaping would be harder but at the same time it was so much harder for any Borg to approach him too. The only light came from the sparsely placed lights in the walls and the indicator lights of the Tricorders still running their tasks limited by their own processor power and the sheer amount of Data he had ordered them to process.
Eventually a lid up square came into view after another ladder had been climbed. Behind it the glowing of starting engines. Ramort quickly hurried out of the Hatch and sprinted to the open Door of the second Shuttle, taking a seat inside and readying his phaser in case any Borg showed up before they could get spaceborn and he needed to defend their start.

[M'Nia]

[Jeffries Tube - Alpha Deck 5]

The movement through the Jeffries tubes was eerily quiet, and as the crew split up, an air of uncertainty hung over them, unsure if they would ever see each other again. Emily couldn't help but reminisce about her casual tour with Ensign Ramort, fervently hoping that this mission wouldn't turn out to be his last.

As they ascended, Tanner called out to Rayek, signaling him to pause. She gently pressed her hand against a panel and pushed it open. The ship's hidden security caches were relocated every six months to random locations. Using the Jeffries tubes made sense, given that the crew often found themselves in them during moments of trouble, and reaching a deck storehouse was far from safe.

M'nia was making her way through the jefferies tubes. She had worked out a few routes in case of an emergency. This was certainly an emergency. She had heard rumors of emergent stash's of weapons and stuff but she was way too low on the ladder to be informed of that. Not to mention she wasn't security but engineering. She would keep her eye out for anything unusual. Hopefully she would make it to the shuttlebay.  This was a very scary situation. She was scared. No denying it! Still, she would be brave and do her best to get to the shuttle. She tried not to think about that a lot of her friends were assimilated. She had to compartmentalize for now. She would see a councilor afterwards, once everything was all said and done. She prayed to K'tal that she made it out ok. That she would see her family again even via communicator.

[Tanner Lachlyn]

Tanner handed Rayek a sleek nano-shield glove, a reassuring smile playing on her lips. She nodded in response to his orders to check the base of the ladder, bidding him a safe journey onward. With a nervous sigh, she began her descent.

Approaching the prone figure below, her keen eyes discerned the familiar features of Helga. Was she breathing?

Upon reaching the body, Tanner lightly touched her finger to Helga's neck, checking for a pulse. Faint but noticeable, a sigh of relief released from her nervously. Pulling out a tricorder she checked over her vitals and winced.

Tapping her combadge she opened a channel to the shuttle, "œLachlyn here. I found Tragnar unconscious, it looks like she fell but I'm unsure how far. She's got some pretty serious fractures to a few limbs and will need monitoring for her head trauma. Are you able to get her out?"

[Lorut Vila]

USS Discovery
Shuttle
Somewhere in AQ Airspace

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.

The Bajoran felt useless, even as she typed furiously into the panels, doing what she could to keep the shuttle from being taken over. She threw up every single block she knew, hoping it'd hold. She was also incessantly tapping her foot against the panels-her nervous energy and need to be constantly doing something was thwarted and she couldn't pace around-the two Borgs around made her weary. Of course, the toddler one was the least of her concerns-Ruthie was, actually, but she was doing what she could to distract herself.

"Systems are holding. For now. Every time I get ahead, they block me out. I don't know how long I can keep them working," she said. Damn it. She needed to MOVE, to run, to shoot at something, or drink, or scream.

"Any ideas??" She sighed.

[M'Nia]

Tanner handed Rayek a sleek nano-shield glove, a reassuring smile playing on her lips. She nodded in response to his orders to check the base of the ladder, bidding him a safe journey onward. With a nervous sigh, she began her descent.

Approaching the prone figure below, her keen eyes discerned the familiar features of Helga. Was she breathing?

Upon reaching the body, Tanner lightly touched her finger to Helga's neck, checking for a pulse. Faint but noticeable, a sigh of relief released from her nervously. Pulling out a tricorder she checked over her vitals and winced.

Tapping her combadge she opened a channel to the shuttle, "œLachlyn here. I found Tragnar unconscious, it looks like she fell but I'm unsure how far. She's got some pretty serious fractures to a few limbs and will need monitoring for her head trauma. Are you able to get her out?"

M'nia heard a body fall. Live or dead, assimilated or non assimilates she couldn't tell but her instincts said check it out so she made her way to where the person seeming landed. She also had heard voices. Decidedly non assimilated voices
. That was what she was waiting for. She made her way through the maze to come upon the lt and the commander. "OH wow! Am I ever glad to see you. Cmdr, So I got the captains message and was trying to make my way to the shuttlebay but, well you two are a sight for sore eyes! I have no idea how this is happening but I'm glad you guys weren't affected. I just dashed for the nearest jeffreis tube when things went nuts!"

[Dem Broadshire]

[As Kinley Borg Princess One]

[Bridge]

Now that the ships were all taken, the next phase of the plan was in place; They had to deal with Spacedock. With each ship in position, all Targets locked, all that was left was to concentrate fire on the station, and find its weakness. It would not last long, Estimates gave that under full power, Spacedock would fall within several minutes.

"œFormation complete.  Advance. Target: Spacedock. Eliminate planetary defenses."

At the order, something  triggered an anomaly in the Princess known as One. She felt"¦ pain. Pain?  A flash of emotion? Horror?  Something felt off. A leftover remnant, perhaps.  She moved to quash that notion, possibly left over from whatever organic thoughts she may have once had. Something was trying to fight back. Trying to override. Something briefly broke through, causing a brief pause in the Princess after the order. It was only for a moment, however. A glitch.

She shook her head, The organic tendency to fight back was pointless and futile. They were defective remnants and the reason why she had failed the first time, why she was once separated from the Collective. This would not happen again. She turned to drones 056239 and 346572 and spoke the order she received from Vox.

"œFire."

[meanwhile]

[Science labs]

As Murphy

Murphy gravely took the bombs from Jettis and nodded to the others. He had enough training in Basic training to know that this was incredibly dangerous and would probably get them kicked out of Starfleet if they survived this day.  Not that it mattered since they were probably going to be toast anyways. It was ages since those days in basic, but he wasn't going to drop these bombs now that this was their only real method to fight back. "œR-Right.

Terrified, Murphy and Harrington looked ahead of the passageways ahead. A squad of several  assimilated crew had been formed now, with Vinnie at the head, now holding a rather large rifle. and were headed towards them. Harrington took one of the smoke bombs and lit it, chucking it across the hall and landing at the feet of several of  them. It was now or never. "œRun! Thick, acrid smoke that made ones' eyes water filled the corridor, but it was enough to get past for now.

[Bridge | USS Discovery]

After hearing his orders from the collective, Dem walked over to the tactical controls panel. Sifting through the vast amounts of tactical information the collective had assimilated, Dem found it easy to synchronise with the other ships to attack spacedock, using a variety of armaments. Currently Discovery had scored three critical hits on the spacedock's superstructure, and one minor shot on the Titan.
An alarm sounded on his screen. Dem looked over and then talked to the collective

Shuttle has escaped from Discovery. Target with all necessary force.

Through the echoes of the collective, this phenomenon was happening fleet wide. Officers were starting to escape.

Doctor Betaika

[Sickbay "" Shuttlebay | USS Discovery]

Betaika lead the pair sporadically through the different corridors and access hatches, trying to evade the drone's detection. Well, that was the plan. Betaika now found himself in an armed conflict with at least 10 drones. Over the next few minutes, the trio sprinted towards the control deck, Betaika taking out many officers with a relatively high accuracy rate. Betaika remained calm and relied on the combat training that he had been subjected to over a century ago.
Eventually, he arrived at the control room, before dashing down the stairs and into a shuttle that was filling up with crewmembers, who had presumably been through the same thing. It was only once Betaika was safely in the confines of the shuttle when he processed what he had just witnessed.

[Rayek trLhoell]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery-B -  Jeffries Deck 5 Ladder >>> Deck 3] Stardate 78288.5  (April 16, 2401)

Tanner handed Rayek a sleek nano-shield glove, a reassuring smile playing on her lips. She nodded in response to his orders to check the base of the ladder, bidding him a safe journey onward. With a nervous sigh, she began her descent.

After donning the glove, Rayek continued his trek upwards to Deck 3 where he cautiously slipped out of the Jeffries tube in a corridor just down the hall from his quarters.  The corridor seemed vacant at the moment.  During the Frontier Day ceremony, most senior personnel, who were assigned quarters in this area, would have either been so there would be no reason for the borg to patrol this area.

To his knowledge, Tess had opted not to watch the festivities and so should have been in their quarters when the Borg took over.  The paranoid Romulan, who had been marked for assassination by the Tal'Shiar in the past because of his defection, had added additional biometric security to his quarters that should have prevented any
random entry into his home by most intruders.   However these were Borg  - and Rayek was concerned that his measures might not have been enough to keep his family safe.

As he came into sight of his closed doorway, everything appeared normal.

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

NPC Lieutenant Danjar-Torra Addams
[Shuttle]

Tapping her combadge she opened a channel to the shuttle, "œLachlyn here. I found Tragnar unconscious, it looks like she fell but I'm unsure how far. She's got some pretty serious fractures to a few limbs and will need monitoring for her head trauma. Are you able to get her out?"

USS Discovery
Shuttle
Somewhere in AQ Airspace

"Systems are holding. For now. Every time I get ahead, they block me out. I don't know how long I can keep them working," she said. Damn it. She needed to MOVE, to run, to shoot at something, or drink, or scream.

"Any ideas??" She sighed.

Torra glanced over towards Lorut to see if the Ensign, who was at the shuttle's Ops console, would answer the Lieutenant but the Bajoran seemed to be pre-occupied with something else entirely, so Torra turned to a tertiary console, signing on and then responded to the comm.

"Hold one moment while I check the shuttle transporter."

While normally transporting through the ships shields was entirely possible, Torra wasn't certain if the Borg had made any alterations to the ship's shield frequency - and if they hadn't it would only take the one beam out to alert them to the oversight and they would then immediately change it.   She would only have one chance at it.

"Affirmative. However, I need to confirm if there are any other possible survivors I can beam out.  I'll only have the one chance. Have you and the Commander found his family?  Do you need a beam out or are you and he staying with the ship? "

While she waited for the Lieutenant's answer, Torra began scanning for bio-signs.

"Ensign Ramort, is there anything in what you've discovered that I can use as a filter to scan for those that are not assimilated?"

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

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar/Drone 356698
[USS Discovery-B - Jeffries Tube Deck 11]

M'nia heard a body fall. Live or dead, assimilated or non assimilates she couldn't tell but her instincts said check it out so she made her way to where the person seeming landed. She also had heard voices. Decidedly non assimilated voices.
That was what she was waiting for. She made her way through the maze to come upon the Lt "OH wow! Am I ever glad to see you, Lt.  So I got the captains message and was trying to make my way to the shuttlebay but, well you are a sight for sore eyes! I have no idea how this is happening but I'm glad you guys weren't affected. I just dashed for the nearest Jeffries tube when things went nuts!"

(*edited to remove Rayek, as he didn't climb down... but up)

Drone 356698 could hear voices outside of themself.  It wasn't the Collective they heard.   It was non-assimilated.

Their eyes opened showing the black of Borg assimilation.   They attempted to reach out a hand in either direction to grab at both the Caitian and the Human that were present, while at the same time pulling themself into a sitting position.  "All non-assimilated must be eliminated."

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

NPC Dr. Misha Sluchaynyy
[Sickbay- Shuttle]

Doctor Betaika

[Sickbay "" Shuttlebay | USS Discovery]

Betaika lead the pair sporadically through the different corridors and access hatches, trying to evade the drone's detection. Well, that was the plan. Betaika now found himself in an armed conflict with at least 10 drones. Over the next few minutes, the trio sprinted towards the control deck, Betaika taking out many officers with a relatively high accuracy rate. Betaika remained calm and relied on the combat training that he had been subjected to over a century ago.
Eventually, he arrived at the control room, before dashing down the stairs and into a shuttle that was filling up with crewmembers, who had presumably been through the same thing. It was only once Betaika was safely in the confines of the shuttle when he processed what he had just witnessed.

Misha was quite winded after the harrowing run for his life, but thanks to Betaika they had made it!   He clapped the Romulan on the shoulder.  "Zank you.  Ve vould not 'ave made it vithout you."

[Malik Grippen]

[Bridge | USS Discovery]

After hearing his orders from the collective, Dem walked over to the tactical controls panel. Sifting through the vast amounts of tactical information the collective had assimilated, Dem found it easy to synchronise with the other ships to attack spacedock, using a variety of armaments. Currently Discovery had scored three critical hits on the spacedock's superstructure, and one minor shot on the Titan.
An alarm sounded on his screen. Dem looked over and then talked to the collective

Shuttle has escaped from Discovery. Target with all necessary force.

[Second Shuttle, in Space]

Everything was going fine as of that moment. They had managed to slip through the carnage unnoticed and unscathed; the Borg had a bigger mushroom-shaped fish to fry in the form of Space Dock. Yes, all was well considering the harrowing events they had just experienced on Discovery.

"You know, I think we're actually going to make it...."

The pilot's words instantly angered the space-gods as a torrent of phaser fire hit the shuttle sending a cascade of sparks and alerts on the interior. The shuttle rocked violent as it suffered another unexpected impact. Malik didn't have enough hands to manage everything as he ducked and weaved through ship-debris and flew erratically to avoid further fire. "Could use another set of hands up here! What's our status?" Judging by the rapidly rising smoke in the cabin from a fire, it wasn't good.

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

NPC Crewman Kitaa Horg/Drone 356700
[USS Discovery - Deck 5 - Alpha Hull Medical Facilities]

Drone 356700 continue their slow pursuit of the medic to the far end of the room.  With each every other step, because of the dermaline gel, the drone struggled to find steady footing.  But still Drone 356700 managed to make progress forward until there was only a step or two between them.   356700 could see the medic was attempting to load a hypospray, however the drone judged that they would be in range to crunch her skull before the medic could finish her task.

That was BEFORE the rolling chair caught the drone just as they were already dealing with the slick footing of the gel'd shoe.   The result was that the chair and shove, rolled the drone back another 2 meters, spinning.

Then even before the drone could leave the chair to continue their pursuit, the medic attempted an attack, being grappled from behind and held down in the chair.  "Resistance is futile"   Yet each attempt to turn about in the seat, spun the chair rather than bring the medic into range of her grasp, and before the drone could grab at the hand,  the hypospray was held to her neck and the dose delivered.

At first nothing seemed to make a difference then the drone, slumped into its rolling chair.  How long it would be asleep was questionable but for the moment the medics escape seemed to have worked.

[NPC Doctor Meelar Phlome | Deck 5 | Alpha Hull Medical Facilities | USS Discovery NCC 78393-B]

The moments felt like hours as Meelar immediately moved back, almost stumbling on her feet as she waited to see if the anesthizine would have an effect. To her relief, the Borg Drone that once had been Kitaa ended up slumping on the chair. There was a brief moment where she pumped her fists up, glad that her plan had paid off, but also happy that she would not need to fight with Kitaa any longer.

She needed to still act fast, as she had no idea how long the drug would keep her asleep. Her mind raced as she moved over once more to the cabinet, retrieving a first aid kit that was slung around her shoulder, and some more compounds. Amongst them, three more doses of anesthezine, and other substances that she believed could help her on synthesizing more. But not here. Not with Kitaa still around. She took another look at the scan of her tricorder. Then, she realized something as now she could think more clearly, making remembrance on what she had read.

And she gasped.

She made sure to scan herself for good measure.

Clean.

Before leaving the room in haste, she proceeded to extract a sample of blood of Kitaa. Her comment about'Resistance is Futile'had made her realize that she was most likely dealing with some kind of Borg infection. Out of the recesses of her memory, she remembered the now ancient writings of the incredibly famous, late Doctor Phlox, who had described a nanoprobe infection that had afflicted him and other humans during his time serving on the Enterprise NX-01. But this made no sense to her, as she was certain that Kitaa had not come into any Borg contact previously. And she was, surprisingly, not infected herself. Then again, she also knew that her Denobulan immune system was much more resistant to being overtaken by the cyborgs, if Phlox was to be believed once more. Perhaps, the effects would take more to manifest in her.

In any case, she exited the laboratory and closed the door after her, locking the door with a security code, hoping that it would keep Kitaa out of danger from herself and others. If there were even others. She feared that she could be the last one that retained her mental faculties on board. But she would need to test that theory first.

She loaded the hypospray with another dose of anesthezine, and carefully, stuck to the walls as she tried to call again,

"A-Anyone... this is Doctor Meelar Phlome... can you hear me?!"=/\=

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

[NPC Doctor Meelar Phlome | Deck 5 | Spinal Jefferies Tube | USS Discovery NCC 78393-B]

She had to find the escape pods. It was her only chance of leaving the ship, as working on a cure in the laboratories was not feasible. She had almost been discovered when she tried, barely being able to flee by hiding underneath a table. Her heart was racing, as even though she was stopping constantly at each bend, and doing her best to stick to the walls, the Borg were in constant movement. She knew that some were already suspicious, but either by luck or by fate, she had thus far remained in the clear.

After attempting to descend to Deck 14, she realized that turbolifts no longer worked. Thus, she now had a new plan to reach the Jefferies tubes. Namely, the Spinal one. If she could do that, and find the right path, then, she would be able to escape. Hopefully.

She felt guilty about leaving the ship like this, probably under control by the Borg already. Doing who knew what. But she had no military training. No way of fighting them. She did not even have a weapon. And she knew the Borg did, as she had found three dead crewmembers already. Two had been shot by phaser fire, and one had been killed by blunt force trauma with a blunt object. She had to fight back the tears of the scene, blaming herself for not being fast enough to save them.

Perhaps, though, if she had tried, she would already be dead. She braced herself and continued each time.

Finally, she came to one of the entrances to the Spinal Jefferies tube. Unfortunately for her, it was being guarded by a Borg. She needed a distraction to turn things in her favor. So, she took one of the bottles she had and tossed it towards the other side of the hallway where she was. As expected, this caught the attention of the Borg, who went there, and, much to her relief, turned towards the origin of the breaking sound, turning her back to her. She made her way past it, and quickly, attempted to open the door.

To her chagrin, the system took a moment to input the codes, costing her time as the Borg returned to its assigned post. At least, it had the decency to spout: "All non-assimilated must be eliminated." This gave her enough time to dodge out of the way as a volley of particle beams sent on her way. She scrambled through the door, closing it behind her, though in doing so, one of the beams did manage to graze her shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain. She was safe, though. For now. Wincing in pain, she changed the dose of her hypospray while gritting her teeth for an analgesic, then used some of the Dermalin gel she had left to apply to the injury. For now, it would suffice, as she made her way down the tube.

Please, please let the escape pods be there.

[James Ramort]

[Second Shuttle, in Space]

Everything was going fine as of that moment. They had managed to slip through the carnage unnoticed and unscathed; the Borg had a bigger mushroom-shaped fish to fry in the form of Space Dock. Yes, all was well considering the harrowing events they had just experienced on Discovery.

"You know, I think we're actually going to make it...."

The pilot's words instantly angered the space-gods as a torrent of phaser fire hit the shuttle sending a cascade of sparks and alerts on the interior. The shuttle rocked violent as it suffered another unexpected impact. Malik didn't have enough hands to manage everything as he ducked and weaved through ship-debris and flew erratically to avoid further fire. "Could use another set of hands up here! What's our status?" Judging by the rapidly rising smoke in the cabin from a fire, it wasn't good.

[Second Shuttle | Space between the Formation and Sol Station]

He wasn't the only other person in the Shuttle but he was closest to the Controls. Shuttle Operations had been part of mandatory Academy Courses and he was thankful for that right now. He jumped into the seat next to the Flight Officer taking to the secondary controls, tapping into the Shuttles Systems.

"We sustained minor damage to structural integrity and long range comms are down. The Plating around the primary power assembly is also gone, we can't take another hit like that without this flight getting pretty rough. I am directing secondary power reserve to structural integrity for now to keep us together. Also mapping the incoming attacks and Debris so you can plot around it."

The Computer first came up with some errors that it found to prevent an energy redirect but it was an easy barrier to work around. He routed the power through a secondary coupling into the force fields keeping the Shuttle together, even under the stresses exerted onto it by incoming fire.
Then he instructed the sensors to engage a continuous scan of the surrounding area of space, marking pieces of debris from both their own hull and the Exploded remains of other shuttles and ships. The scanners also picked up on the energy signatures building up in the Fleet. Most of them directed at the Space Station in front of them, Sol Station, some stray through also pointed at them.

"There is an energy buildup in at starboard, probably a charging phaserbank, we need to dodge!"

He sent the new map of the flight path of the shuttle back to Lt. Grippen. The surrounding Dangers clearly marked to circumnavigate. Ramort then focused back on maintaining the shuttles systems, no sense after all in dodging new attacks if the previous once were enough to tear them apart in space.

The thought of dying was not one he could allow right now. As long as he was still filled with Adrenalin, he needed to perform.
The Vastness of Space was never anything that scared him but he never quite imagined he would be so close to coming into direct contact with it. Science was usually the Division the most removed from the Dangers of Space Combat but here he was and here he had to go on for there to be a future to be worrying about.

[Dem Broadshire]

[Second Shuttle, in Space]

Everything was going fine as of that moment. They had managed to slip through the carnage unnoticed and unscathed; the Borg had a bigger mushroom-shaped fish to fry in the form of Space Dock. Yes, all was well considering the harrowing events they had just experienced on Discovery.

"You know, I think we're actually going to make it...."

The pilot's words instantly angered the space-gods as a torrent of phaser fire hit the shuttle sending a cascade of sparks and alerts on the interior. The shuttle rocked violent as it suffered another unexpected impact. Malik didn't have enough hands to manage everything as he ducked and weaved through ship-debris and flew erratically to avoid further fire. "Could use another set of hands up here! What's our status?" Judging by the rapidly rising smoke in the cabin from a fire, it wasn't good.

[Bridge | USS Discovery]

Dem continued to target the small escaping craft, managing to deal some critical blows. He coordinated his phaser fire with the other drones that were piloting the ship. Paired with the advanced weapons systems of the ship, Discovery made a formidable foe. Dem looked down at his controls, to see his hands shaking at the console.

Error. Re-establish link. Drone malfunction.

After a fast reset, there were no disenable changes. The system diagnostic reported a psychological error. This was the real Dem showing through.

Continuing operation despite error. Deviations will be corrected.

Dem would not know that before he was assimilated would be the last time his hands wouldn't tremor.