Season 14: Episode 12 - Conjoinment Crisis - Part Two - Crisis of Identity

[Lek]

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NPC Taev tr'Marrus
NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan
[RFS Valdore - Brig >>> Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded at Betaika's reminder of what was important - the Field Team.  During the medical teams brief incarceration, she'd overheard from the guards that the Field Team had contacted the ship and notified that they had been experimented on.  Rayek and the others were in dire trouble.

Taev nodded.  "We certainly did."   Then looked to Savel who was waving them over.  "Savel will brief you."

Saqa7 was so glad to see the Ferengi engineer.   Rayek had always spoken highly of him, both as a friend and as the Chief Engineer on Challenger back when both served on the ship.   So close was their friendship, that the Ferengi had stood at Rayek's wedding as his Bestman.   While Savel gave his briefing Saqa7 moved over to stand by the short man.

The American First Nations woman spoke to Lek in worry.  "After this, Rayek and his team are going to need our help.  They've been conjoined and have only hours to live."

An urgent chiming came through on the Science lab computers at that moment and on all the PADD's of the Medical and Science team.

When Saqa7 opened hers, she saw that it was a scientific log and briefing of the conjoinment process.   There were even schematics of a transporter-like device that was used in the process.

[Sickbay - RFS Valdore ]

As Lek listened to the briefing, his trepidation about his new assignment turned into a boiling rage to learn what had been done to Helga. He didn't trust himself to speak coherently as he seethed internally,, but he managed to choke out.

"Let me go over those schematics, there has to be a way reverse this abomination."

Lek knew he'd never been so angry as he was at that moment and he vowed silently.

"I will have vengeance on whoever did this, regardless of cost, time or consequence."

[Jael Sherem]

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar
and NPC Crell Moset
[Galantis - Outside the Facility]

Rayorik glanced up from his task of retrieving the downed guards weaponry, and looked over towards the Cardassian/Klingon hybrid that was Jaelga.  Normally, the Romulan might have frowned, upset to discovery that their hostage was for some reason unconscious, but the Vulcan's influence was muting his normal reactions so instead he merely acknowledged her statement with a mild request.  "Be careful with him - don't break him. We need him alive."

Her question about commandeering the Bird of Prey took a bit more thought to answer.   "Temporarily.   We need access to their transporters to get to our own shuttle.   Can't leave it here.  The modifications to the Valdore's shuttle might pass a cursory inspection but if we weren't to return then that ship could implicate the Romulan Free State."

However, Jaelga' seemed like she was listening to something else and this was confirmed when she seemed to speak to Torra.  He nodded, glad that at least some of the other team had managed to evade capture.  Her statement to Torra that 'they were conjoined TOO' logically implied that Torra had informed Jaelga that she was conjoined... likely with one of the other team members.  If it were based on proximity, it would most likely be with the Chief Petty Officer - Erei'erein Graham.

The Romulan/Vulcan blend was about to point out to Jaelga to ask after the Subcommander and Doctor Belmont, but she did so on her own.  The look Jaelga gave him suggested that Torra hadn't heard from them either.  "We can do a scan for their human bio-signs once we get aboard the ship."

As if in answer to his statment, the loading ramp descended.    Rayorik led the way in, warily, cautioning Jaelga,  with a hand signal to hang back.  She had their 'proof and prize' slung over her shoulder.

The entrance to the cargo area seemed clear and though ready for a trap, Rayek waved Jaelga in before leading way towards where the transporters would be located.  It was time to regroup and get back to their ship.

[Galantis-Outside the facility-birds of prey-transporter room-bridge]

Alex was surprised at how he was improving at navigating the conjoinment. He hoped that they could work together to be able to pilot the ship. "œTorra we got this we should be able to pilot the ship together." He took them up and headed towards the port. He hoped that they could get past the force field.

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Galantis - Outside the Facility - Bird of Prey - Bridge]

"Jaelga, continue firing on that spot.  The forcefield will give." The conjoined Vulcanoid spoke with assurance.  It had to! Or they were all dead!

Rayorik checked the stores on the Bird of Prey's torpedoes.  While Torralex piloted the ship,  and Jaelga kept up the barrage against the outer forcefield,  the conjoined Romulan/Vulcan prepared a directed low yield plasma torpedo.

"Increasing power to our shields" he called out.  "Loading plasma torpedo."

Once Rayorik confirmed that the torpedo was locked and ready he gave the order to Jaelga.  "Fire!"

The resultant explosion rocked the ship but it also created a hole in the forcefield.

"Get us out of here Mr. Graham/Ms. Addams and engage the Cloak"

[Jaelga Tragnarem | Bird of Prey | Galantis]

Jaelga brought Moset with her and at set him down as gently as possible in a good place where she can keep an eye on him, she removed her outer uniform, rolled it into a rope, and bound his wrists with it. It was, of course, the best kind of binding she could come up with.

Then she manned her station as Torralex arrived...and Jael, at least the more Cardassian part of her, squirmed at the sight, mouthing "Oh, you poor people." Then she turned her attention to coming on Tactical. Surprisingly, she found her way through easily enough...maybe it was Helga in her, and her inner Klingon helping things out. Then, she targeted a spot recommended by Rayorik and opened fire...and kept firing, determined to keep on punching until the force field went down. All the while, she kept turning her eyes toward Moset to make sure the old man was still there.

[Dem Broadshire]

Ensign Savel
[RFS Valador | Sickbay]

Savel acknowledged the message from the Cargo Bay that the container was in position, and the transport coordinates for it had been sent to Sickbay. As he waited for the arrival of the medical team and word about the engineer, he continued to watch the nanites slowly destroying the conjoined Klingon-Sark corpse.

Savel turned to the door as it opened, seeing the medical officers make their way inside. At last, they had someone of medical expertise to assist them. A nod was given in return to the CMO's greeting.

Potentially, yes. I am Ensign Savel. Allow me to brief you, Doctor." Savel waved over the group that had arrived so they could see the current state of the conjoined corpse. "As you can see, this body is decomposing at an increased rate; our working theory is the nanites are destroying the failed experiment. This leaves us little time to continue testing, even less than the time frame given to the infected away team members." Savel them directed everyone's attention to the viewscreen nearby the table.

"We plan to continue the original team's idea of transporting the nanites out. Only this time, as soon as they materialize inside of a shielded cargo container, they are hit with a burst of gamma radiation that could potentially disable the nanites all together. This should allow for you and your team time to reverse the condition they cause." Of course, it was only a theory by Savel and Taev that such a procedure would be possible at the moment. The medical team would have to confirm whether or not it could be done.

[Medical Bay | RFS Valadore]
"œWell you have made remarkable progress, Mr Savel." A chime emanated from the PADD he picked up upon entering the room. "œWell here we are, some schematics. Well Savel, you seem to be working on the transporters, so get as many people as you need to work on that. Everyone else can work on this radiation lead." Realising that storming in and taking charge was not a good look, the Doctor politely added, "œIf that's what you see best fit for this team, of course."

[Alexander Graham]

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge]

Hearing that the encrypted data packet was intel on the conjoinment process, Sunauth immediately forwarded it to the Medical and Science Teams - flagging it as urgent.

Then dared to take a glance at it herself.  What caught her attention was the device that the Cardassian scientist had used.   It looked like an upgraded transporter with Borg tech to insert the nanites into the unfortunate victims.   She hoped that with these the medical and science team with the help of engineering staff could figure out a way to reverse the conjoinment process.   It didn't look like an easy fix... and the Field Team's time was running out.

As the Valdore continued on its circuitous route towards the planetoid's system, t'Nennien had a disturbing thought.
"Riov,the Commander doesn't know we are on our way to assist.   If they're in a Bird of Prey escaping.. they'll likely use their cloak just as we are.   It's likely we'll bypass each other unless we set coordinates to meet."  But sending out such a transmission was risky.. it could get intercepted by the Cardassian's searching for them.

NPC Taev tr'Marrus
NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan
[RFS Valdore - Brig >>> Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded at Betaika's reminder of what was important - the Field Team.  During the medical teams brief incarceration, she'd overheard from the guards that the Field Team had contacted the ship and notified that they had been experimented on.  Rayek and the others were in dire trouble.

Taev nodded.  "We certainly did."   Then looked to Savel who was waving them over.  "Savel will brief you."

Saqa7 was so glad to see the Ferengi engineer.   Rayek had always spoken highly of him, both as a friend and as the Chief Engineer on Challenger back when both served on the ship.   So close was their friendship, that the Ferengi had stood at Rayek's wedding as his Bestman.   While Savel gave his briefing Saqa7 moved over to stand by the short man.

The American First Nations woman spoke to Lek in worry.  "After this, Rayek and his team are going to need our help.  They've been conjoined and have only hours to live."

An urgent chiming came through on the Science lab computers at that moment and on all the PADD's of the Medical and Science team.

When Saqa7 opened hers, she saw that it was a scientific log and briefing of the conjoinment process.   There were even schematics of a transporter-like device that was used in the process.

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Galantis - Outside the Facility - Bird of Prey - Bridge]

"Jaelga, continue firing on that spot.  The forcefield will give." The conjoined Vulcanoid spoke with assurance.  It had to! Or they were all dead!

Rayorik checked the stores on the Bird of Prey's torpedoes.  While Torralex piloted the ship,  and Jaelga kept up the barrage against the outer forcefield,  the conjoined Romulan/Vulcan prepared a directed low yield plasma torpedo.

"Increasing power to our shields" he called out.  "Loading plasma torpedo."

Once Rayorik confirmed that the torpedo was locked and ready he gave the order to Jaelga.  "Fire!"

The resultant explosion rocked the ship but it also created a hole in the forcefield.

"Get us out of here Mr. Graham/Ms. Addams and engage the Cloak"

[Galantis-Outside of the facility-birds of prey-bridge]

"œAye subcommander." Alex with control of the body was able to get them out of there and engaged the cloak. He was glad that even with being conjoined with Torra he still was able to pilot the ship. He wondered if it was weird for Torra to be doing something that they weren't specialized in. He acknowledged Jaelga with a slight nod as he was at his station.

[Rayek trLhoell]

NPC Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
NPC Taev tr'Marrus (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue // RFS Valdore - Bridge]

[Medical Bay | RFS Valadore]
"œWell you have made remarkable progress, Mr Savel." A chime emanated from the PADD he picked up upon entering the room. "œWell here we are, some schematics. Well Savel, you seem to be working on the transporters, so get as many people as you need to work on that. Everyone else can work on this radiation lead." Realising that storming in and taking charge was not a good look, the Doctor politely added, "œIf that's what you see best fit for this team, of course."

Leaving the Ferengi engineer, the Vulcan science officer and Saqa7 to look over the schematics, the medics were left with the more immediate problem of dealing with the nanites which were rapidly decomposing the Klingon-Sark body.

Working together with t'Nennien on the Bridge who had access to the cargo bay transporters and forcefield emitters, the plan was to transport the nanites into a cargo container and immediately erect a level 10 forcefield around the container.  Thereafter the medics would then subject the nanites to an every increasing burst of gamma radiation to test the hypothesis that it would destroy the nanites.

If the gamma radiation failed, then the team would be out of options.

"Transporting now."

There was the briefest of pauses as Sunauth multitasked.  "Level Ten forcefield in place.  They are all yours now. We'll be monitoring your progress from the Bridge."

NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]

[Sickbay - RFS Valdore ]

As Lek listened to the briefing, his trepidation about his new assignment turned into a boiling rage to learn what had been done to Helga. He didn't trust himself to speak coherently as he seethed internally,, but he managed to choke out.

"Let me go over those schematics, there has to be a way reverse this abomination."

Lek knew he'd never been so angry as he was at that moment and he vowed silently.

"I will have vengeance on whoever did this, regardless of cost, time or consequence."

Saqa7 nodded and handed him the schematics.  "You've got this!"

Lek's engineering brilliance did indeed find a solution and it was along a similar track as had been suggested by the Science and Medical teams.   The schematics and experiment log however indicated that a much stronger transporter buffer and power source was needed for conjoining (and in their case unconjoining) than what a normal transporter pad could support.

But that was not a problem for engineer like Lek.

With the team breaking out in small groups to focus on tasks, and with the approaching deadline, it quickly became apparent that they'd need to EVERY available engineer assisting in the work since the schematics showed that the power and buffer and storage capacity for an entire transporter unit (normally capable of transporting 7 individuals)  was necessary for conjoining  (and by assumption, unconjoining).   This meant four transporter rooms had to be completely rewired so their 7 individual pad buffers could combined, into one each.

It was suggested that a slower transport- which would disassemble, separate and reassemble - might make it easier and more survivable for the conjoinment victims (All while removing the nanites and irradiating them).

It was difficult to know for certain if a slower transport was better, as they had no means of testing on a live subject.

The most they could possibly do was to computer simulations.

"Computer, reset parameters.  Increase transport time by one tenth of a second, and... Go."

Gohun sat in a prison cell. The truth is that hard times does indeed change a person. Long days on the prison yard long nights. With that he grabbed his trusty harmonica and started playing. The Romulan reacted poorly to the sound and hit a button. Just like that there was a sound barrier between him and the guard.

Even the wayward Gohun was released from his cell to assist.  Saqa7, who had been assigned to go fetch the engineer and catch him up on the plan, handed him the schematic and urged him to do his best because lives were relying on him and his work.

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]

[Jaelga Tragnarem | Bird of Prey | Galantis]

Jaelga brought Moset with her and at set him down as gently as possible in a good place where she can keep an eye on him, she removed her outer uniform, rolled it into a rope, and bound his wrists with it. It was, of course, the best kind of binding she could come up with.

Then she manned her station as Torralex arrived...and Jael, at least the more Cardassian part of her, squirmed at the sight, mouthing "Oh, you poor people." Then she turned her attention to coming on Tactical. Surprisingly, she found her way through easily enough...maybe it was Helga in her, and her inner Klingon helping things out. Then, she targeted a spot recommended by Rayorik and opened fire...and kept firing, determined to keep on punching until the force field went down. All the while, she kept turning her eyes toward Moset to make sure the old man was still there.

Once or twice during her glances over, Jaelga might get the sense that the Cardassian was 'playing possum' and from the corner of her eye might catch glimpses of possible movement but there was no opportunity to do anything about it.  She was tied to tactical until the forcefield went down.

[Galantis-Outside of the facility-birds of prey-bridge]

"œAye subcommander." Alex with control of the body was able to get them out of there and engaged the cloak. He was glad that even with being conjoined with Torra he still was able to pilot the ship. He wondered if it was weird for Torra to be doing something that they weren't specialized in. He acknowledged Jaelga with a slight nod as he was at his station.

The Bird of Prey  (which was named in the computer system as the Zerayd - after the black-feather avainoid native to Cardassia), sped away from Galantis under cloak.

A glance to the long-distance sensors showed that at least two Cardassian patrols vessels were being rerouted towards Galantis and/or them.   It would take the closest ship at least an hour to potentially intercept, and though the ship was under cloak, traveling at high warp often left traces.   The fact that the Valdore had tracked this very ship to Galantis in the first place was proof of that.

"Mr. Graham, I know its counter intuitive but I want you to plot a course to the meet up point, but using an indirect route using as many obstacles as possible to make it impossible to determine our true destination." Rayorik directed.

The Romulan-Vulcan then turned to Jaelga complimenting the Cardassian-Klingon pair on their fine targetting "Excellent job."  and then noticed for the first time the Cardassian scientist on the floor.    It made sense now why Jaelga had arrived so quickly on the Bridge.

"We should..." Rayek paused. Interrogate was not a word that was approved in the Federation. "...question him further.   He might be able to provide more information on the conjoinment process.  But for now get him out of my sight."  Rayek knew under normal circumstances he would be furious and vengeful... but the Vulcan that was now part of him was managing to smother all that emotion, denying him that validity of being.   "Take him to the Brig."

The conjoined Vulcanoid then moved to the station beside Torralex, Ops - the most versatile of all stations, and began checking the engines status and other systems.   They would be running hard for the next few hours and he wanted to be sure the ship was capable of it.
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Rayorik was still seated at the Ops station, hours later as they approached the coordinates he'd received over encrypted coms.  Deciphering the message manually had taken time, since stolen BoP didn't have the proper Key for the code.  Fortunately, Rayek had the encryption key memorized - exactly for moments like this.  Even the Vulcan concurred with his resultant message and coordinates.

"Arriving at the coordinates now, sir." Torralex called out, coughing slightly and sounding pained.   Something about the unhurried way the words were spoken hinted to Rayek that it was Torra who was presently in control.  The pair seemed to switch almost every few minutes.   He wondered if that was why they seemed to be experiencing the pain and discomfort far more than he and Sorik.  During all this time, Sorik had remained quietly in the back of his mind allowing Rayek complete control of their body.

The Romulan-Vulcan tapped his comm badge.  "We are arriving at the outer edge of the rogue comet.  Finish up with Moset and get back to the Bridge."

Briggs/Belmont were still unconscious, just as they had been found hours earlier.  Torralex had briefly left the Bridge earlier on to see if there was anything they could do medically to help; but this condition was beyond the Grazerite's medical ability to 'fix'.  Put simply their immune system was at war with their entire body - and all that Torra could do was try to suppress the immune response long enough for the Field Team to meet up with the Valdore, who hopefully had a solution to their problem.

"Scan for any vessel in the area." Rayorik called out but he already knew the answer from 5 minutes prior.

"Two Cardassian patrol vessels are sweeping the system and could respond to our decloaking or an open comm within 30 minutes at top speed."  Nothing had changed in the last 5 minutes.  There was no sign that the Valdore was even out there.

"How are we for time?" Rayek asked, stalling because his paranoid nature couldn't trust that the Valdore would be there when they said they would be in the transmission.

So many things could have gone wrong and delayed the ship.  If the Valdore wasn't present when they dropped their cloak, then they would be announcing to the Cardassian vessels exactly where they were.
"We are precisely on time, sir."  Torralex answered gently.  (Torra again obviously).

The Grazerite looked over their shoulder towards the Romulan (Torra had worked with Rayek long enough to recognize his command style).  She also recognized his hesitation to put them at risk.  "Subcommander.  The Valdore is out there, just waiting for us to reveal ourselves.  Trust in them." she urged.

Rayek if he had full access to his emotions would have hated this part.   "Drop the cloak.  Keep your eyes on the Cardassian vessels."

[Savel]

Ensign Savel
[RFS Valdore | Sickbay]

[Medical Bay | RFS Valadore]
"œWell you have made remarkable progress, Mr Savel." A chime emanated from the PADD he picked up upon entering the room. "œWell here we are, some schematics. Well Savel, you seem to be working on the transporters, so get as many people as you need to work on that. Everyone else can work on this radiation lead." Realising that storming in and taking charge was not a good look, the Doctor politely added, "œIf that's what you see best fit for this team, of course."

Savel gave a nod in response to the doctor, as if to say a silent thank you. "I defer the medical decisions to you, doctor. You are far more qualified to make those determinations. If you see it as a viable option for your patients, then I shall proceed."

Savel then turned to the console he was at once more, making the final preparations as he waited to hear that the cargo bay had everything in place as well.

[Sickbay - RFS Valdore ]

As Lek listened to the briefing, his trepidation about his new assignment turned into a boiling rage to learn what had been done to Helga. He didn't trust himself to speak coherently as he seethed internally,, but he managed to choke out.

"Let me go over those schematics, there has to be a way reverse this abomination."

Lek knew he'd never been so angry as he was at that moment and he vowed silently.

"I will have vengeance on whoever did this, regardless of cost, time or consequence."

Savel made his way over to the engineer that had joined them in sickbay. "Commander, I recommend a small amount of nanites be transported into the container first. If my theory fails, so shall the shield and the cargo container the nanites will be transported into." Having reviewed the records of the last attempt at transporting the nanites, they seemed to react poorly to being pulled away from their programmed task. The less they pulled away for the purpose of this initial test, the better.

Leaving the Ferengi engineer, the Vulcan science officer and Saqa7 to look over the schematics, the medics were left with the more immediate problem of dealing with the nanites which were rapidly decomposing the Klingon-Sark body.

Working together with t'Nennien on the Bridge who had access to the cargo bay transporters and forcefield emitters, the plan was to transport the nanites into a cargo container and immediately erect a level 10 forcefield around the container.  Thereafter the medics would then subject the nanites to an every increasing burst of gamma radiation to test the hypothesis that it would destroy the nanites.

If the gamma radiation failed, then the team would be out of options.

"Transporting now."

There was the briefest of pauses as Sunauth multitasked.  "Level Ten forcefield in place.  They are all yours now. We'll be monitoring your progress from the Bridge."

Savel heard that everything was in place over the comms so he reached up to press his badge in order to respond since he had requested those items be put in place.

Acknowledged. Standby for initial transport. Please forward any reports you receive from that carbo bay to sickbay.

Then he turned his attention back over to Commander Lek. "Shall we proceed, Commander?" Wanting to wait for his word that he had not found any flaws in the plans while going over the schematics for what had been proposed.

[Lek]

NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded and handed him the schematics.  "You've got this!"

Lek's engineering brilliance did indeed find a solution and it was along a similar track as had been suggested by the Science and Medical teams.   The schematics and experiment log however indicated that a much stronger transporter buffer and power source was needed for conjoining (and in their case unconjoining) than what a normal transporter pad could support.

But that was not a problem for engineer like Lek.

With the team breaking out in small groups to focus on tasks, and with the approaching deadline, it quickly became apparent that they'd need to EVERY available engineer assisting in the work since the schematics showed that the power and buffer and storage capacity for an entire transporter unit (normally capable of transporting 7 individuals)  was necessary for conjoining  (and by assumption, unconjoining).   This meant four transporter rooms had to be completely rewired so their 7 individual pad buffers could combined, into one each.

It was suggested that a slower transport- which would disassemble, separate and reassemble - might make it easier and more survivable for the conjoinment victims (All while removing the nanites and irradiating them).

It was difficult to know for certain if a slower transport was better, as they had no means of testing on a live subject.

The most they could possibly do was to computer simulations.

"Computer, reset parameters.  Increase transport time by one tenth of a second, and... Go."

Even the wayward Gohun was released from his cell to assist.  Saqa7, who had been assigned to go fetch the engineer and catch him up on the plan, handed him the schematic and urged him to do his best because lives were relying on him and his work.

Ensign Savel
[RFS Valdore | Sickbay]

Then he turned his attention back over to Commander Lek. "Shall we proceed, Commander?" Wanting to wait for his word that he had not found any flaws in the plans while going over the schematics for what had been proposed.

[Sickbay - RFS Valdore]

Despite the complexity of what needed to be done, Lek was very impressed by how fast the modifications needed to unjoin the away team went. It was of major significance that Romulan transporters were known to use similar subspace frequencies that the Federation used. So, while he might not know singularity warp cores all that well, he did know transporters and having a close basis of reference help tremendously.

The critical elements of the modifications came down to the molecular imaging scanner and the rematerialization subroutine. Normally, this was a trivial task for a modern transporter. However, for this transport, the imager had to detect and separate two concurrent patterns, which increased the work load for the rematerialization subroutine exponentially. It was going to take every available joule of power not in use by standard systems to make this work.

Lek had triple checked all the work he'd personally done and then went back over the work others had done as well. He liked to think it was because he was being thorough, but deep inside, he knew it was because he had to save Helga. He could not be part of a plan that cost her life if there was any possibility of rescuing her. So when the Vulcan spoke, he had to blink for a moment to actually make sense of his words.

"This is so much guess work, how can I say yes to this madness. However, if I say no, I ensure that she dies and that would crush me."

He thought and with the slightest of hesitations he replied.

"Yes, please proceed."

[Tekin Nevir]

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge]

Hearing that the encrypted data packet was intel on the conjoinment process, Sunauth immediately forwarded it to the Medical and Science Teams - flagging it as urgent.

Then dared to take a glance at it herself.  What caught her attention was the device that the Cardassian scientist had used.   It looked like an upgraded transporter with Borg tech to insert the nanites into the unfortunate victims.   She hoped that with these the medical and science team with the help of engineering staff could figure out a way to reverse the conjoinment process.   It didn't look like an easy fix... and the Field Team's time was running out.

As the Valdore continued on its circuitous route towards the planetoid's system, t'Nennien had a disturbing thought.
"Riov,the Commander doesn't know we are on our way to assist.   If they're in a Bird of Prey escaping.. they'll likely use their cloak just as we are.   It's likely we'll bypass each other unless we set coordinates to meet."  But sending out such a transmission was risky.. it could get intercepted by the Cardassian's searching for them.

NPC Taev tr'Marrus
NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan
[RFS Valdore - Brig >>> Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded at Betaika's reminder of what was important - the Field Team.  During the medical teams brief incarceration, she'd overheard from the guards that the Field Team had contacted the ship and notified that they had been experimented on.  Rayek and the others were in dire trouble.

Taev nodded.  "We certainly did."   Then looked to Savel who was waving them over.  "Savel will brief you."

Saqa7 was so glad to see the Ferengi engineer.   Rayek had always spoken highly of him, both as a friend and as the Chief Engineer on Challenger back when both served on the ship.   So close was their friendship, that the Ferengi had stood at Rayek's wedding as his Bestman.   While Savel gave his briefing Saqa7 moved over to stand by the short man.

The American First Nations woman spoke to Lek in worry.  "After this, Rayek and his team are going to need our help.  They've been conjoined and have only hours to live."

An urgent chiming came through on the Science lab computers at that moment and on all the PADD's of the Medical and Science team.

When Saqa7 opened hers, she saw that it was a scientific log and briefing of the conjoinment process.   There were even schematics of a transporter-like device that was used in the process.

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Galantis - Outside the Facility - Bird of Prey - Bridge]

"Jaelga, continue firing on that spot.  The forcefield will give." The conjoined Vulcanoid spoke with assurance.  It had to! Or they were all dead!

Rayorik checked the stores on the Bird of Prey's torpedoes.  While Torralex piloted the ship,  and Jaelga kept up the barrage against the outer forcefield,  the conjoined Romulan/Vulcan prepared a directed low yield plasma torpedo.

"Increasing power to our shields" he called out.  "Loading plasma torpedo."

Once Rayorik confirmed that the torpedo was locked and ready he gave the order to Jaelga.  "Fire!"

The resultant explosion rocked the ship but it also created a hole in the forcefield.

"Get us out of here Mr. Graham/Ms. Addams and engage the Cloak"

[RFS Valdore - Deck 11 - Main Bridge]

The Captain had just entered the bridge when he got the announcement from who was quickly becoming his favorite Arrain.

"Alright then, Miss t'Nennien, find a suitable location and a way to send a message out.  Also, inform the Brig that the remaining officers can be released and confined to quarters unless requested by a senior officer. Speaking of, I want constant updates from Sickbay of those nanites." he stated, taking his seat on the big chair itself.

"Helm, find us a location around the system to wait, preferably in a location to be able to make long-range scans."

NPC Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
NPC Taev tr'Marrus (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue // RFS Valdore - Bridge]

Leaving the Ferengi engineer, the Vulcan science officer and Saqa7 to look over the schematics, the medics were left with the more immediate problem of dealing with the nanites which were rapidly decomposing the Klingon-Sark body.

Working together with t'Nennien on the Bridge who had access to the cargo bay transporters and forcefield emitters, the plan was to transport the nanites into a cargo container and immediately erect a level 10 forcefield around the container.  Thereafter the medics would then subject the nanites to an every increasing burst of gamma radiation to test the hypothesis that it would destroy the nanites.

If the gamma radiation failed, then the team would be out of options.

"Transporting now."

There was the briefest of pauses as Sunauth multitasked.  "Level Ten forcefield in place.  They are all yours now. We'll be monitoring your progress from the Bridge."

NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded and handed him the schematics.  "You've got this!"

Lek's engineering brilliance did indeed find a solution and it was along a similar track as had been suggested by the Science and Medical teams.   The schematics and experiment log however indicated that a much stronger transporter buffer and power source was needed for conjoining (and in their case unconjoining) than what a normal transporter pad could support.

But that was not a problem for engineer like Lek.

With the team breaking out in small groups to focus on tasks, and with the approaching deadline, it quickly became apparent that they'd need to EVERY available engineer assisting in the work since the schematics showed that the power and buffer and storage capacity for an entire transporter unit (normally capable of transporting 7 individuals)  was necessary for conjoining  (and by assumption, unconjoining).   This meant four transporter rooms had to be completely rewired so their 7 individual pad buffers could combined, into one each.

It was suggested that a slower transport- which would disassemble, separate and reassemble - might make it easier and more survivable for the conjoinment victims (All while removing the nanites and irradiating them).

It was difficult to know for certain if a slower transport was better, as they had no means of testing on a live subject.

The most they could possibly do was to computer simulations.

"Computer, reset parameters.  Increase transport time by one tenth of a second, and... Go."

Even the wayward Gohun was released from his cell to assist.  Saqa7, who had been assigned to go fetch the engineer and catch him up on the plan, handed him the schematic and urged him to do his best because lives were relying on him and his work.

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]

Once or twice during her glances over, Jaelga might get the sense that the Cardassian was 'playing possum' and from the corner of her eye might catch glimpses of possible movement but there was no opportunity to do anything about it.  She was tied to tactical until the forcefield went down.

The Bird of Prey  (which was named in the computer system as the Zerayd - after the black-feather avainoid native to Cardassia), sped away from Galantis under cloak.

A glance to the long-distance sensors showed that at least two Cardassian patrols vessels were being rerouted towards Galantis and/or them.   It would take the closest ship at least an hour to potentially intercept, and though the ship was under cloak, traveling at high warp often left traces.   The fact that the Valdore had tracked this very ship to Galantis in the first place was proof of that.

"Mr. Graham, I know its counter intuitive but I want you to plot a course to the meet up point, but using an indirect route using as many obstacles as possible to make it impossible to determine our true destination." Rayorik directed.

The Romulan-Vulcan then turned to Jaelga complimenting the Cardassian-Klingon pair on their fine targetting "Excellent job."  and then noticed for the first time the Cardassian scientist on the floor.    It made sense now why Jaelga had arrived so quickly on the Bridge.

"We should..." Rayek paused. Interrogate was not a word that was approved in the Federation. "...question him further.   He might be able to provide more information on the conjoinment process.  But for now get him out of my sight."  Rayek knew under normal circumstances he would be furious and vengeful... but the Vulcan that was now part of him was managing to smother all that emotion, denying him that validity of being.   "Take him to the Brig."

The conjoined Vulcanoid then moved to the station beside Torralex, Ops - the most versatile of all stations, and began checking the engines status and other systems.   They would be running hard for the next few hours and he wanted to be sure the ship was capable of it.
.
.
.

Rayorik was still seated at the Ops station, hours later as they approached the coordinates he'd received over encrypted coms.  Deciphering the message manually had taken time, since stolen BoP didn't have the proper Key for the code.  Fortunately, Rayek had the encryption key memorized - exactly for moments like this.  Even the Vulcan concurred with his resultant message and coordinates.

"Arriving at the coordinates now, sir." Torralex called out, coughing slightly and sounding pained.   Something about the unhurried way the words were spoken hinted to Rayek that it was Torra who was presently in control.  The pair seemed to switch almost every few minutes.   He wondered if that was why they seemed to be experiencing the pain and discomfort far more than he and Sorik.  During all this time, Sorik had remained quietly in the back of his mind allowing Rayek complete control of their body.

The Romulan-Vulcan tapped his comm badge.  "We are arriving at the outer edge of the rogue comet.  Finish up with Moset and get back to the Bridge."

Briggs/Belmont were still unconscious, just as they had been found hours earlier.  Torralex had briefly left the Bridge earlier on to see if there was anything they could do medically to help; but this condition was beyond the Grazerite's medical ability to 'fix'.  Put simply their immune system was at war with their entire body - and all that Torra could do was try to suppress the immune response long enough for the Field Team to meet up with the Valdore, who hopefully had a solution to their problem.

"Scan for any vessel in the area." Rayorik called out but he already knew the answer from 5 minutes prior.

"Two Cardassian patrol vessels are sweeping the system and could respond to our decloaking or an open comm within 30 minutes at top speed."  Nothing had changed in the last 5 minutes.  There was no sign that the Valdore was even out there.

"How are we for time?" Rayek asked, stalling because his paranoid nature couldn't trust that the Valdore would be there when they said they would be in the transmission.

So many things could have gone wrong and delayed the ship.  If the Valdore wasn't present when they dropped their cloak, then they would be announcing to the Cardassian vessels exactly where they were.
"We are precisely on time, sir."  Torralex answered gently.  (Torra again obviously).

The Grazerite looked over their shoulder towards the Romulan (Torra had worked with Rayek long enough to recognize his command style).  She also recognized his hesitation to put them at risk.  "Subcommander.  The Valdore is out there, just waiting for us to reveal ourselves.  Trust in them." she urged.

Rayek if he had full access to his emotions would have hated this part.   "Drop the cloak.  Keep your eyes on the Cardassian vessels."

SOME TIME LATER....

[RFS Valdore - Deck 11 - Main Bridge]

The Riov was not currently in his seat, instead in the time since they had arrived, Nevir was down with Arrain t'Nennien in the science station next to Ops, working on the sensors.  The comet was an excellent choice... now the Riov could fall back to his own science education to help them out.  He checked his positioning.  They were just obscured by the comet itself, and the sensor pod he had sent out was ready on the surface of the comet itself.  It just wouldn't last, so timing had to be perfect.

The call came... ship decloaking off the port bow.  He turned to the viewscreen to see a Klingon bird of prey decloak.  And the clock had started.

Without giving an order, he touched a control on his panel and the sensor pod on the comet burst.  No explosion, but a mess of particles that would make long-range sensors blind to them.  It wasn't foolproof, but it would buy them some time before the Cardassians took notice and made for them.

The Riov stood up, having finished his job, and took his seat in the chair.  "Hail that ship."

"This is the Romulan Free State vessel Valdore.  Prepare for transport. Welcome home."

[Dem Broadshire]

NPC Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
NPC Taev tr'Marrus (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue // RFS Valdore - Bridge]

Leaving the Ferengi engineer, the Vulcan science officer and Saqa7 to look over the schematics, the medics were left with the more immediate problem of dealing with the nanites which were rapidly decomposing the Klingon-Sark body.

Working together with t'Nennien on the Bridge who had access to the cargo bay transporters and forcefield emitters, the plan was to transport the nanites into a cargo container and immediately erect a level 10 forcefield around the container.  Thereafter the medics would then subject the nanites to an every increasing burst of gamma radiation to test the hypothesis that it would destroy the nanites.

If the gamma radiation failed, then the team would be out of options.

"Transporting now."

There was the briefest of pauses as Sunauth multitasked.  "Level Ten forcefield in place.  They are all yours now. We'll be monitoring your progress from the Bridge."

NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded and handed him the schematics.  "You've got this!"

Lek's engineering brilliance did indeed find a solution and it was along a similar track as had been suggested by the Science and Medical teams.   The schematics and experiment log however indicated that a much stronger transporter buffer and power source was needed for conjoining (and in their case unconjoining) than what a normal transporter pad could support.

But that was not a problem for engineer like Lek.

With the team breaking out in small groups to focus on tasks, and with the approaching deadline, it quickly became apparent that they'd need to EVERY available engineer assisting in the work since the schematics showed that the power and buffer and storage capacity for an entire transporter unit (normally capable of transporting 7 individuals)  was necessary for conjoining  (and by assumption, unconjoining).   This meant four transporter rooms had to be completely rewired so their 7 individual pad buffers could combined, into one each.

It was suggested that a slower transport- which would disassemble, separate and reassemble - might make it easier and more survivable for the conjoinment victims (All while removing the nanites and irradiating them).

It was difficult to know for certain if a slower transport was better, as they had no means of testing on a live subject.

The most they could possibly do was to computer simulations.

"Computer, reset parameters.  Increase transport time by one tenth of a second, and... Go."

Even the wayward Gohun was released from his cell to assist.  Saqa7, who had been assigned to go fetch the engineer and catch him up on the plan, handed him the schematic and urged him to do his best because lives were relying on him and his work.

Ensign Savel
[RFS Valdore | Sickbay]

Savel gave a nod in response to the doctor, as if to say a silent thank you. "I defer the medical decisions to you, doctor. You are far more qualified to make those determinations. If you see it as a viable option for your patients, then I shall proceed."

Savel then turned to the console he was at once more, making the final preparations as he waited to hear that the cargo bay had everything in place as well.

Savel made his way over to the engineer that had joined them in sickbay. "Commander, I recommend a small amount of nanites be transported into the container first. If my theory fails, so shall the shield and the cargo container the nanites will be transported into." Having reviewed the records of the last attempt at transporting the nanites, they seemed to react poorly to being pulled away from their programmed task. The less they pulled away for the purpose of this initial test, the better.

Savel heard that everything was in place over the comms so he reached up to press his badge in order to respond since he had requested those items be put in place.

Acknowledged. Standby for initial transport. Please forward any reports you receive from that carbo bay to sickbay.

Then he turned his attention back over to Commander Lek. "Shall we proceed, Commander?" Wanting to wait for his word that he had not found any flaws in the plans while going over the schematics for what had been proposed.

[Medical Bay | RFS Valadore]
Dem had spent these bustling past moments working as hard as he could on simulations, repeatedly suggesting different parameters to the team for the variety of variables that need to be controlled to split two bio signs. For the past 10 minutes, he had been silent, constantly checking the transport process, finally encountering no issues. After Lek gave the go-ahead to transport, the room turned and eerie quiet, as everyone was looking at the corpse in anticipation. He looked around him. This is why he joined Starfleet, everyone working together to solve what seems like an impossible problem. Dem looked at the rapidly decomposing body that he had spent so many hours of his life working on as little blue specs of nanites being transported shimmered out of existence, starting their journey to the secure cargo containers.

Dem switched his monitor to a readout of the transporters processes. A screen detailed the power levels and precision of the beam as it was active, indicated by different coloured bars positioned horizontally across.
"œTransport parameters are in normal range" he stated with a slight amount of vigour.

[Alexander Graham]

NPC Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
NPC Taev tr'Marrus (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue // RFS Valdore - Bridge]

Leaving the Ferengi engineer, the Vulcan science officer and Saqa7 to look over the schematics, the medics were left with the more immediate problem of dealing with the nanites which were rapidly decomposing the Klingon-Sark body.

Working together with t'Nennien on the Bridge who had access to the cargo bay transporters and forcefield emitters, the plan was to transport the nanites into a cargo container and immediately erect a level 10 forcefield around the container.  Thereafter the medics would then subject the nanites to an every increasing burst of gamma radiation to test the hypothesis that it would destroy the nanites.

If the gamma radiation failed, then the team would be out of options.

"Transporting now."

There was the briefest of pauses as Sunauth multitasked.  "Level Ten forcefield in place.  They are all yours now. We'll be monitoring your progress from the Bridge."

NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan (Science)
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]

Saqa7 nodded and handed him the schematics.  "You've got this!"

Lek's engineering brilliance did indeed find a solution and it was along a similar track as had been suggested by the Science and Medical teams.   The schematics and experiment log however indicated that a much stronger transporter buffer and power source was needed for conjoining (and in their case unconjoining) than what a normal transporter pad could support.

But that was not a problem for engineer like Lek.

With the team breaking out in small groups to focus on tasks, and with the approaching deadline, it quickly became apparent that they'd need to EVERY available engineer assisting in the work since the schematics showed that the power and buffer and storage capacity for an entire transporter unit (normally capable of transporting 7 individuals)  was necessary for conjoining  (and by assumption, unconjoining).   This meant four transporter rooms had to be completely rewired so their 7 individual pad buffers could combined, into one each.

It was suggested that a slower transport- which would disassemble, separate and reassemble - might make it easier and more survivable for the conjoinment victims (All while removing the nanites and irradiating them).

It was difficult to know for certain if a slower transport was better, as they had no means of testing on a live subject.

The most they could possibly do was to computer simulations.

"Computer, reset parameters.  Increase transport time by one tenth of a second, and... Go."

Even the wayward Gohun was released from his cell to assist.  Saqa7, who had been assigned to go fetch the engineer and catch him up on the plan, handed him the schematic and urged him to do his best because lives were relying on him and his work.

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]

Once or twice during her glances over, Jaelga might get the sense that the Cardassian was 'playing possum' and from the corner of her eye might catch glimpses of possible movement but there was no opportunity to do anything about it.  She was tied to tactical until the forcefield went down.

The Bird of Prey  (which was named in the computer system as the Zerayd - after the black-feather avainoid native to Cardassia), sped away from Galantis under cloak.

A glance to the long-distance sensors showed that at least two Cardassian patrols vessels were being rerouted towards Galantis and/or them.   It would take the closest ship at least an hour to potentially intercept, and though the ship was under cloak, traveling at high warp often left traces.   The fact that the Valdore had tracked this very ship to Galantis in the first place was proof of that.

"Mr. Graham, I know its counter intuitive but I want you to plot a course to the meet up point, but using an indirect route using as many obstacles as possible to make it impossible to determine our true destination." Rayorik directed.

The Romulan-Vulcan then turned to Jaelga complimenting the Cardassian-Klingon pair on their fine targetting "Excellent job."  and then noticed for the first time the Cardassian scientist on the floor.    It made sense now why Jaelga had arrived so quickly on the Bridge.

"We should..." Rayek paused. Interrogate was not a word that was approved in the Federation. "...question him further.   He might be able to provide more information on the conjoinment process.  But for now get him out of my sight."  Rayek knew under normal circumstances he would be furious and vengeful... but the Vulcan that was now part of him was managing to smother all that emotion, denying him that validity of being.   "Take him to the Brig."

The conjoined Vulcanoid then moved to the station beside Torralex, Ops - the most versatile of all stations, and began checking the engines status and other systems.   They would be running hard for the next few hours and he wanted to be sure the ship was capable of it.
.
.
.

Rayorik was still seated at the Ops station, hours later as they approached the coordinates he'd received over encrypted coms.  Deciphering the message manually had taken time, since stolen BoP didn't have the proper Key for the code.  Fortunately, Rayek had the encryption key memorized - exactly for moments like this.  Even the Vulcan concurred with his resultant message and coordinates.

"Arriving at the coordinates now, sir." Torralex called out, coughing slightly and sounding pained.   Something about the unhurried way the words were spoken hinted to Rayek that it was Torra who was presently in control.  The pair seemed to switch almost every few minutes.   He wondered if that was why they seemed to be experiencing the pain and discomfort far more than he and Sorik.  During all this time, Sorik had remained quietly in the back of his mind allowing Rayek complete control of their body.

The Romulan-Vulcan tapped his comm badge.  "We are arriving at the outer edge of the rogue comet.  Finish up with Moset and get back to the Bridge."

Briggs/Belmont were still unconscious, just as they had been found hours earlier.  Torralex had briefly left the Bridge earlier on to see if there was anything they could do medically to help; but this condition was beyond the Grazerite's medical ability to 'fix'.  Put simply their immune system was at war with their entire body - and all that Torra could do was try to suppress the immune response long enough for the Field Team to meet up with the Valdore, who hopefully had a solution to their problem.

"Scan for any vessel in the area." Rayorik called out but he already knew the answer from 5 minutes prior.

"Two Cardassian patrol vessels are sweeping the system and could respond to our decloaking or an open comm within 30 minutes at top speed."  Nothing had changed in the last 5 minutes.  There was no sign that the Valdore was even out there.

"How are we for time?" Rayek asked, stalling because his paranoid nature couldn't trust that the Valdore would be there when they said they would be in the transmission.

So many things could have gone wrong and delayed the ship.  If the Valdore wasn't present when they dropped their cloak, then they would be announcing to the Cardassian vessels exactly where they were.
"We are precisely on time, sir."  Torralex answered gently.  (Torra again obviously).

The Grazerite looked over their shoulder towards the Romulan (Torra had worked with Rayek long enough to recognize his command style).  She also recognized his hesitation to put them at risk.  "Subcommander.  The Valdore is out there, just waiting for us to reveal ourselves.  Trust in them." she urged.

Rayek if he had full access to his emotions would have hated this part.   "Drop the cloak.  Keep your eyes on the Cardassian vessels."

[Cardassian enclave-Galantis system-birds of prey-bridge]

"œUnderstood sub-commander." Alex got them on a course to the meeting point using an indirect route. He didn't question it but he had fun navigating through each of the obstacles. He was glad that they were able to arrive on time. He dropped the cloak and kept a close eye on the cardassian vessels.

[Rayek trLhoell]

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge] [Hours prior to meet up]

[RFS Valdore - Deck 11 - Main Bridge]

The Captain had just entered the bridge when he got the announcement from who was quickly becoming his favorite Arrain.

"Alright then, Miss t'Nennien, find a suitable location and a way to send a message out.  Also, inform the Brig that the remaining officers can be released and confined to quarters unless requested by a senior officer. Speaking of, I want constant updates from Sickbay of those nanites." he stated, taking his seat on the big chair itself.

"Helm, find us a location around the system to wait, preferably in a location to be able to make long-range scans."

"Aye sir." Sunauth answered and tied in the mainviewer to the former Tal'Shiar security cameras located throughout the ship, and called up a split screen view of both the activity in the Sickbay, and activity in the Cargo Bay.

Then between herself and the Helm officer, they found a passing rogue comet that could provide a little bit of  cover for the meet-up.   Sending the directions to this location in a message to Field Team however meant using an encryption which they had to hope the Subcommander would be able to decypher manually.   Normally, this would not be a concern since Sunauth knew the Subcommander almost prided himself on being prepared in this type of manner; however the last encryption update was received just shortly after his wife and son arrived - a day  or so prior.  Would he really have taken time away from his family to memorize an encryption code so soon after its release?  Should she instead encrypt the coordinates with the former encryption?  If he used the wrong encryption key to decipher, the coordinates he would calculate out would send the Field Team to an entirely wrong system.

She was betting the Field Teams' lives that he had the current encryption already memorized.   She sent the message.

NPC Taev tr'Marrus
[RFS Valdore - Cargo Bay]
NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]
[Hours prior to meet up]

Ensign Savel
[RFS Valdore | Sickbay]

Savel gave a nod in response to the doctor, as if to say a silent thank you. "I defer the medical decisions to you, doctor. You are far more qualified to make those determinations. If you see it as a viable option for your patients, then I shall proceed."

Savel then turned to the console he was at once more, making the final preparations as he waited to hear that the cargo bay had everything in place as well.

Savel made his way over to the engineer that had joined them in sickbay. "Commander, I recommend a small amount of nanites be transported into the container first. If my theory fails, so shall the shield and the cargo container the nanites will be transported into." Having reviewed the records of the last attempt at transporting the nanites, they seemed to react poorly to being pulled away from their programmed task. The less they pulled away for the purpose of this initial test, the better.

Savel heard that everything was in place over the comms so he reached up to press his badge in order to respond since he had requested those items be put in place.

Acknowledged. Standby for initial transport. Please forward any reports you receive from that carbo bay to sickbay.

Then he turned his attention back over to Commander Lek. "Shall we proceed, Commander?" Wanting to wait for his word that he had not found any flaws in the plans while going over the schematics for what had been proposed.

[Sickbay - RFS Valdore]

Despite the complexity of what needed to be done, Lek was very impressed by how fast the modifications needed to unjoin the away team went. It was of major significance that Romulan transporters were known to use similar subspace frequencies that the Federation used. So, while he might not know singularity warp cores all that well, he did know transporters and having a close basis of reference help tremendously.

The critical elements of the modifications came down to the molecular imaging scanner and the rematerialization subroutine. Normally, this was a trivial task for a modern transporter. However, for this transport, the imager had to detect and separate two concurrent patterns, which increased the work load for the rematerialization subroutine exponentially. It was going to take every available joule of power not in use by standard systems to make this work.

Lek had triple checked all the work he'd personally done and then went back over the work others had done as well. He liked to think it was because he was being thorough, but deep inside, he knew it was because he had to save Helga. He could not be part of a plan that cost her life if there was any possibility of rescuing her. So when the Vulcan spoke, he had to blink for a moment to actually make sense of his words.

"This is so much guess work, how can I say yes to this madness. However, if I say no, I ensure that she dies and that would crush me."

He thought and with the slightest of hesitations he replied.

"Yes, please proceed."

[Medical Bay | RFS Valadore]
Dem had spent these bustling past moments working as hard as he could on simulations, repeatedly suggesting different parameters to the team for the variety of variables that need to be controlled to split two bio signs. For the past 10 minutes, he had been silent, constantly checking the transport process, finally encountering no issues. After Lek gave the go-ahead to transport, the room turned and eerie quiet, as everyone was looking at the corpse in anticipation. He looked around him. This is why he joined Starfleet, everyone working together to solve what seems like an impossible problem. Dem looked at the rapidly decomposing body that he had spent so many hours of his life working on as little blue specs of nanites being transported shimmered out of existence, starting their journey to the secure cargo containers.

Dem switched his monitor to a readout of the transporters processes. A screen detailed the power levels and precision of the beam as it was active, indicated by different coloured bars positioned horizontally across.
"œTransport parameters are in normal range" he stated with a slight amount of vigour.

The nearly the whole ship waited with baited breath, from the Bridge listening in and working the transporter controls, to Sick Bay where the corpse was rapidly decomposing due to nanites, to the Cargo Bay where personnel stood ready with phasers should the radiation and forcefield not be enough to stop the Borg nanites.  Only the engineers focused on adapting the other transporter units to do the conjoinment separation were too busy to care about nanites.

In the Cargo Bay, confirmation that transport worked meant that their task was up next.  Swathed in hazmat suits and innoculated against any stray radiation, they positioned the gamma radiation emitters around the cargo container and began with a short, 0.25 of a second burst.  The result was almost immediate.  The nanites in the container showed signs of agitiaton and began deconstructing the container.  Their numbers right now were few.  How destructive could they have been if the entire nanite population had been subjected to the radiation burst?

"Increase the burst time by another 0.25 seconds."

The process was not fast, and they were pressured by updates from the morgue on the condition of the decomposing body.  "We've had to set up a level 10 field around the stasis field to ensure none of the nanites figure out a way to escape the body."

However, after a radiation burst of 1.75 seconds, the small sample of nanites stopped all activity.  They had a total exposure of 7 seconds.  Which time was the crucial element?  A total exposure of 7 seconds or the single burst of 1.75?

"Alright prepate the next batch.  We'll start this one at a burst of 2 seconds."
.
.
.
In the end, it was determined that a single burst exposure of 2.5 seconds was necessary to deactivate the units.

"Beam in the remaining nanites.  Set exposure to 3 seconds - just to be safe."

As Saqa7 watched the last of the nanites being transported out of the almost gelatinous mass that was the remains of the Klingon-Sark corpse, she could only hope that the nanites pulled from living tissue would respond the same way.   Only time would tell.

The work on the 4 transporter rooms to adapt them to the Cardassian schematic was ongoing, they would likely need every second until meet-up time to get the work done.   Unfortunately there was no way to test it prior, except by computer simulation.   Thankfully, the theory seemed to work... but would it work in person?

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]  [Hours later... at meet-up]

[Cardassian enclave-Galantis system-birds of prey-bridge]

"œUnderstood sub-commander." Alex got them on a course to the meeting point using an indirect route. He didn't question it but he had fun navigating through each of the obstacles. He was glad that they were able to arrive on time. He dropped the cloak and kept a close eye on the cardassian vessels.

The moment the cloak dropped Rayek should have felt his tension level rise, but again the Vulcan's influence kept that at bay.  Never had he felt so empty before.  As a result, he purposefully avoided thoughts of his wife and son.  To be this controlled and void of emotion when thinking of them would be heinous.

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge]

b]SOME TIME LATER....[/b]

The Riov was not currently in his seat, instead in the time since they had arrived, Nevir was down with Arrain t'Nennien in the science station next to Ops, working on the sensors.  The comet was an excellent choice... now the Riov could fall back to his own science education to help them out.  He checked his positioning.  They were just obscured by the comet itself, and the sensor pod he had sent out was ready on the surface of the comet itself.  It just wouldn't last, so timing had to be perfect.

The call came... ship decloaking off the port bow.  He turned to the viewscreen to see a Klingon bird of prey decloak.  And the clock had started.

Without giving an order, he touched a control on his panel and the sensor pod on the comet burst.  No explosion, but a mess of particles that would make long-range sensors blind to them.  It wasn't foolproof, but it would buy them some time before the Cardassians took notice and made for them.

The Riov stood up, having finished his job, and took his seat in the chair.  "Hail that ship."

"This is the Romulan Free State vessel Valdore.  Prepare for transport. Welcome home."

Rayek noticed the lack the relief that he should have felt at hearing Tekin's voice.

"Thank you, Riov but may I remind you transporters can't lock onto...."

His words were cut off as he heard the first signs of a transporter effect.  The next moment he was engulfed.

Awareness of physical time is not a thing in transport.  So Rayek had no clue how long he was held in that transport beam. He had no clue how hard Saqa7 and the rest of the science, medical, ops and engineering teams worked to detect and separate his unique pattern (based on his stored medical scans that were being used as a template) from that of Sorik in order to materialize him.  The fact that Romulan and Vulcan DNA was so similar made correctly separating his pattern all the more difficult.  Lastly, he was unaware the same process was being done to each and every conjoined member of his Field Team who were simultaneously beamed off the Zerayd along with him; even their Cardassian 'guest' was beamed out using a regular transporter.

[Transporter Room One]
...our signatures." He blinked at the sight of the transporter room and Saqa7's grinning face.

What he know was that he had never been so happy to see her face before.  Which said a lot considering for years he was in love with the woman - unaware for the longest time that her missing mate was another woman.  Saqa7 had been the spur that had lured him from his duty to his people when their use for him was deemed over.  She was the one that had plotted with Tess on ways to pull him from his depression at Saqa7's rejection and open his eyes to the love had been waiting for him to be aware.

He felt wetness on his cheek as the flood of emotions swelled within him.   Beside him on the transporter pad was Sorik, looking as unperturbed as ever.  Rayek laughed - a bit overwhelmed at the return of the full gamut of this emotions -  at the man's bland expression, before turning to Saqa7.

"Thank you so much! You've saved my life again." He strode from the pad to the adapted console where she stood smiling, and gave her a huge hug.  When he stepped back, he looked about the room, curiously not seeing his wife "Where's Tess?" he would have thought for sure Tess would have demanded to be involved and present for his rematerialization.  Something must be wrong -  the slight slip of Saqa7's smile confirmed it.

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar
[Transporter Room Two]

Helga upon unexpectedly rematerializing, looked about the room in confusion.  Beside her on the transporter pad was the Commander, Nira.   By the transporter console was a Vulcan science officer she didn't recognize; and beside him a figure she had been uncertain she would have opportunity to ever see again as herself and not some blended Cardassian.   "Lek!  You figure out the schematics!?  Of course you did.   You are brilliant.  Why do I ever doubt?!" She left the transporter pad and embraced her Ferengi mate.

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams
[Transporter Room Three]

The Grazerite, at returning to her body proper, was grateful to all the personnel who'd worked so hard to ensure their return to their normal selves.  She smiled warmly towards  Alex who had appeared on transporter pad with her.  She dipped her head towards him.   "We couldn't have made it to without.  Thank you for getting us here in one piece... well two actually."

In Transporter Room Four Kyle and Lisa were separated, but for how long?

While Transporter Room Five had the distinction of being the unit to bring Crell Moset aboard.  The Cardassian had tried to escape but was caught immediately and was now awaiting his turn to meet with the Riov in regards to the conjoinment experiments.

[Jael Sherem]

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar (blended with Jael)
NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams (blended with Alex)
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]

Once or twice during her glances over, Jaelga might get the sense that the Cardassian was 'playing possum' and from the corner of her eye might catch glimpses of possible movement but there was no opportunity to do anything about it.  She was tied to tactical until the forcefield went down.

The Bird of Prey  (which was named in the computer system as the Zerayd - after the black-feather avainoid native to Cardassia), sped away from Galantis under cloak.

A glance to the long-distance sensors showed that at least two Cardassian patrols vessels were being rerouted towards Galantis and/or them.   It would take the closest ship at least an hour to potentially intercept, and though the ship was under cloak, traveling at high warp often left traces.   The fact that the Valdore had tracked this very ship to Galantis in the first place was proof of that.

"Mr. Graham, I know its counter intuitive but I want you to plot a course to the meet up point, but using an indirect route using as many obstacles as possible to make it impossible to determine our true destination." Rayorik directed.

The Romulan-Vulcan then turned to Jaelga complimenting the Cardassian-Klingon pair on their fine targetting "Excellent job."  and then noticed for the first time the Cardassian scientist on the floor.    It made sense now why Jaelga had arrived so quickly on the Bridge.

"We should..." Rayek paused. Interrogate was not a word that was approved in the Federation. "...question him further.   He might be able to provide more information on the conjoinment process.  But for now get him out of my sight."  Rayek knew under normal circumstances he would be furious and vengeful... but the Vulcan that was now part of him was managing to smother all that emotion, denying him that validity of being.   "Take him to the Brig."

The conjoined Vulcanoid then moved to the station beside Torralex, Ops - the most versatile of all stations, and began checking the engines status and other systems.   They would be running hard for the next few hours and he wanted to be sure the ship was capable of it.
.
.
.

Rayorik was still seated at the Ops station, hours later as they approached the coordinates he'd received over encrypted coms.  Deciphering the message manually had taken time, since stolen BoP didn't have the proper Key for the code.  Fortunately, Rayek had the encryption key memorized - exactly for moments like this.  Even the Vulcan concurred with his resultant message and coordinates.

"Arriving at the coordinates now, sir." Torralex called out, coughing slightly and sounding pained.   Something about the unhurried way the words were spoken hinted to Rayek that it was Torra who was presently in control.  The pair seemed to switch almost every few minutes.   He wondered if that was why they seemed to be experiencing the pain and discomfort far more than he and Sorik.  During all this time, Sorik had remained quietly in the back of his mind allowing Rayek complete control of their body.

The Romulan-Vulcan tapped his comm badge.  "We are arriving at the outer edge of the rogue comet.  Finish up with Moset and get back to the Bridge."

Briggs/Belmont were still unconscious, just as they had been found hours earlier.  Torralex had briefly left the Bridge earlier on to see if there was anything they could do medically to help; but this condition was beyond the Grazerite's medical ability to 'fix'.  Put simply their immune system was at war with their entire body - and all that Torra could do was try to suppress the immune response long enough for the Field Team to meet up with the Valdore, who hopefully had a solution to their problem.

"Scan for any vessel in the area." Rayorik called out but he already knew the answer from 5 minutes prior.

"Two Cardassian patrol vessels are sweeping the system and could respond to our decloaking or an open comm within 30 minutes at top speed."  Nothing had changed in the last 5 minutes.  There was no sign that the Valdore was even out there.

"How are we for time?" Rayek asked, stalling because his paranoid nature couldn't trust that the Valdore would be there when they said they would be in the transmission.

So many things could have gone wrong and delayed the ship.  If the Valdore wasn't present when they dropped their cloak, then they would be announcing to the Cardassian vessels exactly where they were.
"We are precisely on time, sir."  Torralex answered gently.  (Torra again obviously).

The Grazerite looked over their shoulder towards the Romulan (Torra had worked with Rayek long enough to recognize his command style).  She also recognized his hesitation to put them at risk.  "Subcommander.  The Valdore is out there, just waiting for us to reveal ourselves.  Trust in them." she urged.

Rayek if he had full access to his emotions would have hated this part.   "Drop the cloak.  Keep your eyes on the Cardassian vessels."

The work on the 4 transporter rooms to adapt them to the Cardassian schematic was ongoing, they would likely need every second until meet-up time to get the work done.   Unfortunately there was no way to test it prior, except by computer simulation.   Thankfully, the theory seemed to work... but would it work in person?

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]  [Hours later... at meet-up]

The moment the cloak dropped Rayek should have felt his tension level rise, but again the Vulcan's influence kept that at bay.  Never had he felt so empty before.  As a result, he purposefully avoided thoughts of his wife and son.  To be this controlled and void of emotion when thinking of them would be heinous.

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge]

Rayek noticed the lack the relief that he should have felt at hearing Tekin's voice.

"Thank you, Riov but may I remind you transporters can't lock onto...."

His words were cut off as he heard the first signs of a transporter effect.  The next moment he was engulfed.

Awareness of physical time is not a thing in transport.  So Rayek had no clue how long he was held in that transport beam. He had no clue how hard Saqa7 and the rest of the science, medical, ops and engineering teams worked to detect and separate his unique pattern (based on his stored medical scans that were being used as a template) from that of Sorik in order to materialize him.  The fact that Romulan and Vulcan DNA was so similar made correctly separating his pattern all the more difficult.  Lastly, he was unaware the same process was being done to each and every conjoined member of his Field Team who were simultaneously beamed off the Zerayd along with him; even their Cardassian 'guest' was beamed out using a regular transporter.

[Transporter Room One]
...our signatures." He blinked at the sight of the transporter room and Saqa7's grinning face.

What he know was that he had never been so happy to see her face before.  Which said a lot considering for years he was in love with the woman - unaware for the longest time that her missing mate was another woman.  Saqa7 had been the spur that had lured him from his duty to his people when their use for him was deemed over.  She was the one that had plotted with Tess on ways to pull him from his depression at Saqa7's rejection and open his eyes to the love had been waiting for him to be aware.

He felt wetness on his cheek as the flood of emotions swelled within him.   Beside him on the transporter pad was Sorik, looking as unperturbed as ever.  Rayek laughed - a bit overwhelmed at the return of the full gamut of this emotions -  at the man's bland expression, before turning to Saqa7.

"Thank you so much! You've saved my life again." He strode from the pad to the adapted console where she stood smiling, and gave her a huge hug.  When he stepped back, he looked about the room, curiously not seeing his wife "Where's Tess?" he would have thought for sure Tess would have demanded to be involved and present for his rematerialization.  Something must be wrong -  the slight slip of Saqa7's smile confirmed it.

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar
[Transporter Room Two]

Helga upon unexpectedly rematerializing, looked about the room in confusion.  Beside her on the transporter pad was the lieutenant, Jael.   By the transporter console was a Vulcan science officer she didn't recognize; and beside him a figure she had been uncertain she would have opportunity to ever see again as herself and not some blended Cardassian.   "Lek!  You figure out the schematics!?  Of course you did.   You are brilliant.  Why do I ever doubt?!" She left the transporter pad and embraced her Ferengi mate.

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams
[Transporter Room Three]

The Grazerite, at returning to her body proper, was grateful to all the personnel who'd worked so hard to ensure their return to their normal selves.  She smiled warmly towards  Alex who had appeared on transporter pad with her.  She dipped her head towards him.   "We couldn't have made it to without.  Thank you for getting us here in one piece... well two actually."

In Transporter Room Four Kyle and Lisa were separated, but for how long?

While Transporter Room Five had the distinction of being the unit to bring Crell Moset aboard.  The Cardassian had tried to escape but was caught immediately and was now awaiting his turn to meet with the Riov in regards to the conjoinment experiments.

[Jaelga Tragnarem | Bird of Prey | Galantis]

As Jaelga worked on the system, she had noticed the ship's name...the Zerayd. That certainly wasn't a Klingon name. She recognized it in an instant, it was a Cardassian word...but she had no time to ponder it.

Her glances at Moset from time to time showed him moving or standing still; she could tell he had moved because he had moved a few inches at a time. However, he wasn't close enough to the door for her to act...yet.

Finally, she brought the cloak down to a familiar ship and kept watch on the old man. She wasn't paying much attention, only that at mention of transporting, she scoffed, what with shields and all...

[Lieutenant JG Jael Sherem | Transporter Room Two >- Transporter Room Five | RFS Valdore]

...the next thing she was aware of, she - no, she two - was standing on a transporter pad, completely whole and unconjoined. She saw Helga reuniting with...ugh, she was a little disgusted at the sight of a Klingon and Ferengi together, and then she looked around on the pad. There was nobody else...

"The old man! Crell Moset!" she said, startled. "He's the ringleader! Where...?!?"

She bolted around in a panic. He was too valuable to lose.

"We picked up an old Cardassian man in Transporter Room Five," said the transporter chief. "Now if you'll just calm down..."

But Jael was already bolting out. She was just in time to see Moset trying to escape but to be restrained by the Romulan guards. The sight made her, in spite of her hyperventilating, savagely satisfied. They both met their gaze for the briefest moment before he was gone. Still staring in the direction he went, shaking with fear, still hyperventilating, Jael finally collapsed in a faint from the shock of all she had been through.

[Lek]

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar
[Transporter Room Two]

Helga upon unexpectedly rematerializing, looked about the room in confusion.  Beside her on the transporter pad was the Commander, Nira.   By the transporter console was a Vulcan science officer she didn't recognize; and beside him a figure she had been uncertain she would have opportunity to ever see again as herself and not some blended Cardassian.   "Lek!  You figure out the schematics!?  Of course you did.   You are brilliant.  Why do I ever doubt?!" She left the transporter pad and embraced her Ferengi mate.

[Transporter Room - RFS Valdore]

Lek crushed Helga to him tightly and only just managed not to sob. There was no need for words, not that he had any. He'd never been more relieved in his life and didn't want this moment to end, so he made it last as long as he could.

[Dem Broadshire]

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge] [Hours prior to meet up]

"Aye sir." Sunauth answered and tied in the mainviewer to the former Tal'Shiar security cameras located throughout the ship, and called up a split screen view of both the activity in the Sickbay, and activity in the Cargo Bay.

Then between herself and the Helm officer, they found a passing rogue comet that could provide a little bit of  cover for the meet-up.   Sending the directions to this location in a message to Field Team however meant using an encryption which they had to hope the Subcommander would be able to decypher manually.   Normally, this would not be a concern since Sunauth knew the Subcommander almost prided himself on being prepared in this type of manner; however the last encryption update was received just shortly after his wife and son arrived - a day  or so prior.  Would he really have taken time away from his family to memorize an encryption code so soon after its release?  Should she instead encrypt the coordinates with the former encryption?  If he used the wrong encryption key to decipher, the coordinates he would calculate out would send the Field Team to an entirely wrong system.

She was betting the Field Teams' lives that he had the current encryption already memorized.   She sent the message.

NPC Taev tr'Marrus
[RFS Valdore - Cargo Bay]
NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]
[Hours prior to meet up]

The nearly the whole ship waited with baited breath, from the Bridge listening in and working the transporter controls, to Sick Bay where the corpse was rapidly decomposing due to nanites, to the Cargo Bay where personnel stood ready with phasers should the radiation and forcefield not be enough to stop the Borg nanites.  Only the engineers focused on adapting the other transporter units to do the conjoinment separation were too busy to care about nanites.

In the Cargo Bay, confirmation that transport worked meant that their task was up next.  Swathed in hazmat suits and innoculated against any stray radiation, they positioned the gamma radiation emitters around the cargo container and began with a short, 0.25 of a second burst.  The result was almost immediate.  The nanites in the container showed signs of agitiaton and began deconstructing the container.  Their numbers right now were few.  How destructive could they have been if the entire nanite population had been subjected to the radiation burst?

"Increase the burst time by another 0.25 seconds."

The process was not fast, and they were pressured by updates from the morgue on the condition of the decomposing body.  "We've had to set up a level 10 field around the stasis field to ensure none of the nanites figure out a way to escape the body."

However, after a radiation burst of 1.75 seconds, the small sample of nanites stopped all activity.  They had a total exposure of 7 seconds.  Which time was the crucial element?  A total exposure of 7 seconds or the single burst of 1.75?

"Alright prepate the next batch.  We'll start this one at a burst of 2 seconds."
.
.
.
In the end, it was determined that a single burst exposure of 2.5 seconds was necessary to deactivate the units.

"Beam in the remaining nanites.  Set exposure to 3 seconds - just to be safe."

As Saqa7 watched the last of the nanites being transported out of the almost gelatinous mass that was the remains of the Klingon-Sark corpse, she could only hope that the nanites pulled from living tissue would respond the same way.   Only time would tell.

The work on the 4 transporter rooms to adapt them to the Cardassian schematic was ongoing, they would likely need every second until meet-up time to get the work done.   Unfortunately there was no way to test it prior, except by computer simulation.   Thankfully, the theory seemed to work... but would it work in person?

[Medical Bay | RFS Valadore]
Dem sharply exhaled as the separation was a success. With his blood pumping with adrenaline, he found himself face-down on the console, breathing a consistent rhythm, thinking about what he had just been through. Eventually, he looked up to the science team, all also flooded with relief. Dem did not really want this moment to end.
"œHey everyone, some of us will be transferred soon back to Disco, you want to hit the Romulan canteen? A toast to our success?" Dem stated, cutting the silence of the room. He looked over his shoulder to find a nod of agreement from Betaika.

Dem suddenly realised that this would be the last to he would see the easy going doctor. He will miss that fossil. Dem chuckled at the first time he met him, in what seemed like an eternity ago. Betaika was getting irritated with his approach to medicine when a Romulan came in with plasma burns. However, Dem then remembered the heartwarming congratulations after the patient was stabilized, and the slow growing roots of their relationship started to form. But Dem was not blind. He had seen the way his other colleagues treated him, and how he was a social "outcast" even though he used to work for the Tal Shiar, or how he spent more and more time trying to grow relationships with the federation crew. "Maybe he will come with us?" Dem pondered as he started to pack up his equipment.

[Alexander Graham]

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge] [Hours prior to meet up]

"Aye sir." Sunauth answered and tied in the mainviewer to the former Tal'Shiar security cameras located throughout the ship, and called up a split screen view of both the activity in the Sickbay, and activity in the Cargo Bay.

Then between herself and the Helm officer, they found a passing rogue comet that could provide a little bit of  cover for the meet-up.   Sending the directions to this location in a message to Field Team however meant using an encryption which they had to hope the Subcommander would be able to decypher manually.   Normally, this would not be a concern since Sunauth knew the Subcommander almost prided himself on being prepared in this type of manner; however the last encryption update was received just shortly after his wife and son arrived - a day  or so prior.  Would he really have taken time away from his family to memorize an encryption code so soon after its release?  Should she instead encrypt the coordinates with the former encryption?  If he used the wrong encryption key to decipher, the coordinates he would calculate out would send the Field Team to an entirely wrong system.

She was betting the Field Teams' lives that he had the current encryption already memorized.   She sent the message.

NPC Taev tr'Marrus
[RFS Valdore - Cargo Bay]
NPC Erein (Ante-centurion) Saqa7 Mountain-Khan
[RFS Valdore - Sickbay - Morgue]
[Hours prior to meet up]

The nearly the whole ship waited with baited breath, from the Bridge listening in and working the transporter controls, to Sick Bay where the corpse was rapidly decomposing due to nanites, to the Cargo Bay where personnel stood ready with phasers should the radiation and forcefield not be enough to stop the Borg nanites.  Only the engineers focused on adapting the other transporter units to do the conjoinment separation were too busy to care about nanites.

In the Cargo Bay, confirmation that transport worked meant that their task was up next.  Swathed in hazmat suits and innoculated against any stray radiation, they positioned the gamma radiation emitters around the cargo container and began with a short, 0.25 of a second burst.  The result was almost immediate.  The nanites in the container showed signs of agitiaton and began deconstructing the container.  Their numbers right now were few.  How destructive could they have been if the entire nanite population had been subjected to the radiation burst?

"Increase the burst time by another 0.25 seconds."

The process was not fast, and they were pressured by updates from the morgue on the condition of the decomposing body.  "We've had to set up a level 10 field around the stasis field to ensure none of the nanites figure out a way to escape the body."

However, after a radiation burst of 1.75 seconds, the small sample of nanites stopped all activity.  They had a total exposure of 7 seconds.  Which time was the crucial element?  A total exposure of 7 seconds or the single burst of 1.75?

"Alright prepate the next batch.  We'll start this one at a burst of 2 seconds."
.
.
.
In the end, it was determined that a single burst exposure of 2.5 seconds was necessary to deactivate the units.

"Beam in the remaining nanites.  Set exposure to 3 seconds - just to be safe."

As Saqa7 watched the last of the nanites being transported out of the almost gelatinous mass that was the remains of the Klingon-Sark corpse, she could only hope that the nanites pulled from living tissue would respond the same way.   Only time would tell.

The work on the 4 transporter rooms to adapt them to the Cardassian schematic was ongoing, they would likely need every second until meet-up time to get the work done.   Unfortunately there was no way to test it prior, except by computer simulation.   Thankfully, the theory seemed to work... but would it work in person?

Erei'riov (Subcommander) Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Cardassian Enclave - Galantis system -  Bird of Prey - Bridge]  [Hours later... at meet-up]

The moment the cloak dropped Rayek should have felt his tension level rise, but again the Vulcan's influence kept that at bay.  Never had he felt so empty before.  As a result, he purposefully avoided thoughts of his wife and son.  To be this controlled and void of emotion when thinking of them would be heinous.

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Sunauth t'Nennien (Ops)
[RFS Valdore - Deck 13 - Bridge]

Rayek noticed the lack the relief that he should have felt at hearing Tekin's voice.

"Thank you, Riov but may I remind you transporters can't lock onto...."

His words were cut off as he heard the first signs of a transporter effect.  The next moment he was engulfed.

Awareness of physical time is not a thing in transport.  So Rayek had no clue how long he was held in that transport beam. He had no clue how hard Saqa7 and the rest of the science, medical, ops and engineering teams worked to detect and separate his unique pattern (based on his stored medical scans that were being used as a template) from that of Sorik in order to materialize him.  The fact that Romulan and Vulcan DNA was so similar made correctly separating his pattern all the more difficult.  Lastly, he was unaware the same process was being done to each and every conjoined member of his Field Team who were simultaneously beamed off the Zerayd along with him; even their Cardassian 'guest' was beamed out using a regular transporter.

[Transporter Room One]
...our signatures." He blinked at the sight of the transporter room and Saqa7's grinning face.

What he know was that he had never been so happy to see her face before.  Which said a lot considering for years he was in love with the woman - unaware for the longest time that her missing mate was another woman.  Saqa7 had been the spur that had lured him from his duty to his people when their use for him was deemed over.  She was the one that had plotted with Tess on ways to pull him from his depression at Saqa7's rejection and open his eyes to the love had been waiting for him to be aware.

He felt wetness on his cheek as the flood of emotions swelled within him.   Beside him on the transporter pad was Sorik, looking as unperturbed as ever.  Rayek laughed - a bit overwhelmed at the return of the full gamut of this emotions -  at the man's bland expression, before turning to Saqa7.

"Thank you so much! You've saved my life again." He strode from the pad to the adapted console where she stood smiling, and gave her a huge hug.  When he stepped back, he looked about the room, curiously not seeing his wife "Where's Tess?" he would have thought for sure Tess would have demanded to be involved and present for his rematerialization.  Something must be wrong -  the slight slip of Saqa7's smile confirmed it.

NPC PO2 Helga Tragnar
[Transporter Room Two]

Helga upon unexpectedly rematerializing, looked about the room in confusion.  Beside her on the transporter pad was the Commander, Nira.   By the transporter console was a Vulcan science officer she didn't recognize; and beside him a figure she had been uncertain she would have opportunity to ever see again as herself and not some blended Cardassian.   "Lek!  You figure out the schematics!?  Of course you did.   You are brilliant.  Why do I ever doubt?!" She left the transporter pad and embraced her Ferengi mate.

NPC Arrain (Centurion) Danjar-Torra Addams
[Transporter Room Three]

The Grazerite, at returning to her body proper, was grateful to all the personnel who'd worked so hard to ensure their return to their normal selves.  She smiled warmly towards  Alex who had appeared on transporter pad with her.  She dipped her head towards him.   "We couldn't have made it to without.  Thank you for getting us here in one piece... well two actually."

In Transporter Room Four Kyle and Lisa were separated, but for how long?

While Transporter Room Five had the distinction of being the unit to bring Crell Moset aboard.  The Cardassian had tried to escape but was caught immediately and was now awaiting his turn to meet with the Riov in regards to the conjoinment experiments.

[Transporter room three]

Alex was glad that he returned to his human form. He learned a lot while being conjoined with Torra. He was going to remember this experience for quite some time. He was confident that he was going to take the skills that he learned during the exchange and apply them to future missions on the Discovery.