Star Trek: Starbase 777 - medical-corridor

Just your average medical corridor, save for the corruption and two dead bodies just casually lounging there. Curiously, the antiseptic smell often associated with the medbay, persisted still. The team could see the intensive care unit entrance right in front of them.

Austin lead the group into the medway with his one remaining phaser drawn. He still didn't like the appearance of borg corruption in the room but was hapot the bodies didn't appear corrupted. "Rooms clear." He called back and then he went to inspect the bodies.

Five felt just a bit nauseous as he approached the room cautiously - hand on their phaser if they had one. "Are the bodies assimilated?" He could guess the answer, but wanted to ask.

Following behind the two was Niwa, cautiously following the trail of technological corruption which patterned the wall. Normally the clinical smell of a medical bay would have been reassuring, but here it felt quite the opposite. With her free hand (the other still holding the torch, the beam cutting through dim lighting), she extracted a medical tricorder from her pocket and flipped it open. Tricorder and torch, the nerdiest sort of dual wielding.

The bodies were not assimilated, but... hm. These ones were killed by the disruptor fire, rather than the stab wounds that they've witnessed before in the corridors and transporter room.

"I can hold the torch for you," Five offered, holding out their hand towards Niwayiva. "It may make things just a bit easier, at least, if nothing else."

"Oh, thank you," she replied to Five and handed the torch over, giving them a thankful smile. At least amidst how ominous being aboard this Romulan-Borg hybrid ship was, they now had at least a modicum of familiarity: the sound of a tricorder chirping away as it conducted its scans... Not that it really needed to, given that you could make out the details just by looking once you were close enough. Niwa knelt down just short of one of the bodies, head tilted to the side as she looked over the wound. She left a short distance in between them - Tal Shiar or not, the deceased here had still been people, and the least they deserved was respect in death. "Neither of them have been assimilated, no. But... While the bodies we saw on the other deck primarily had penetrating trauma as their cause of death, these two don't. The burns on their uniforms look like the beams from energy weapons... From a disruptor, probably."

"Disruptor," Five echoed, holding the torch up so she could properly see the wound. "I wonder why the difference, if we're assuming—" He swallowed as it sank in. "It's not uncommon for Borg drones to use disruptors," they said quietly, brows furrowing.

He stood over the bodies looking at them. "Yeah but it's odd isn't it? The fact they'd leave all the bodies untouched. I mean they've got the ship itself half assimilated and yet theirs just a bunch of dead bodies strewn about." He narrowed his eyes. "It just doesn't add up, does it?"

"Not at all," Five sighed, hand shaking. They tightened their grip on the torch. "I don't like this one bit."

"Disruptors are used by the Borg... Or the Romulans." The Vau N'Akat stood from her crouched position, teetering slightly from the weight of the medical kit upon her back before she caught her balance again. She was never going to complain about Keazayi asking for piggy-backs again. That was nothing compared to this. "And you're right, Commander. The Borg... Don't tend to kill, or if they do it's because they've absolutely had to. You can't add a deceased being to the collective: they serve no purpose. Do you have any thoughts on what we might be looking at? A rogue drone, severed from the Collective? Or one of the Romulans themselves... Turned against their fellow officers for... Whatever reason?" She suppressed a shudder, although from the corner of her eye she caught the slight waver of Five's hand. Truthfully, she was glad that she wasn't the only one. "Hopefully we'll find more answers beyond those doors..."

4

He peaked at the ominous doors. "I wouldn't be suprised if the Tal Shiar were experimenting with borg tech. I don't reckon it would be a coincidence that this is a Tal Shiar ship. If the romulans were to do something like that it would be Tal Shiar." He seized his theorizing there. "I suppose those doors will be able to aid us in our search for answers though."

"I think all are valid reasons," Five agreed, nodding along. They felt a little embarrassed. The only reason they offered in the first place was because they were supposed to know this stuff. Now, they just felt jumpy and queasy and about as useful as a puddle of jelly. "But I think right now it's a valid hypothesis that either 1. We have more than one assailant. 2. Someone had two different weapons. 3....some other thing. My head's scrambled," they complained quietly.

[Comms] "O'Riely to teams one and two do you lot copy?"

Austin's writer felt like this was the perfect time for Austin to start speaking as if he was an airline pilot. [Comms] "That is Aaaaaa-firmative O'Riely we are squawking on your frequency."

[Comms] "Were down in the security section right now, there's been a big fight down here at least two dozen romulans all dead, from stabbings. Furthermore the main armoury has been cleared out, looks like in a hurry too. There's Borg stuff in here too I don't know what it does yet. But be advised someone looted an armoury and is presumably at large with an arsenal."

Had Five half a mind, maybe they would've reacted to the report of twice as many dead bodies as expected. Or maybe the idea of someone at large with a gun. But they seemed entranced - mesmerized - by something else, something inside the unit itself, and started to wander off toward it, torch and all.

They stumbled in their effort to speed off, watching the stars speed by. Warp speed. They were trapped here, on a battered ship, a battered Borg ship no less, they were going to all be assimilated again— Fuck. They headed back into the room. (edited)