Star Trek: Starbase 777

The away team was beamed into the inner hall... or, well, one of them, given that the facilities in cubes were always repeated often to account for potential damages, having inbuilt redundancies that prevented them from getting stranded despite significant damage accrued. The air was stiff with humidity, warm and clammy and musty against exposed skin.

Maggie held out her tricorder with a breath and began scanning for well, anything. “Hoo boy.”

The humidity was what hit Essen immediately, as she remembered her water with her, but she didn't need some right now as she made sure she had a drink before she left. Her eyes scanned around like a hawk -- looking for any company that may have been in the vicinity. Initially though, it seemed just as the briefing had entailed. Nothing yet.

"this is... dank?" Paco commented as he pulled out his tricorder "Were Borg Cubes always this dank?"

Five gestured for Maggie and Paco to stay quiet while they were still surveying the area for activity. Any sign of life at all. That pull was back, the hum of activity in her circuits, a deep, deep sorrow dragging her down. Pity for those lost to the Collective — people turned drones, those who weren't lucky enough to be saved like she'd been. Her fingers curled tighter around her phaser. If this place wasn't empty, maybe they could do some good here.

Aoife raised her rifle after re-materalising scanning the immediate area for threats. The heat and humidity hit her instantly, her uniform beginning to stick to her like glue. "God it's like summer on Vulcan if you drenched everything."

"This is literally nothing like summer on Vulcan," Senang pointed out in a deadpan tone, side-eyeing Aoife with some mirth. "Borg cubes are known for their high humidity, yes. I'm not enough of an expert to comment on why," they told Paco.

Essen nodded to Five and Senang. She didn't dare make a sound, not now, not unless she knew it was safe. This could have been a trap, for all she knew. So she stayed as silent as she could while her eyes looked for anything -- nothing immediately that she could see though.

“Well.. at least my skin won’t be getting dry.” Seiyya commented to herself, still trying to get used to the sheer humidity. Being on a Cube was definitely still unsettling to her, as it should be. She glanced around, looking for any signs of danger.

As for Maggie, and anyone else using their tricorders: there was nothing here right now. In fact, aside from the beeping of the tricorders, and the people talking amongst themselves, there was... nothing. Even the machinery and mechanicms around them didn't so much as hum, laying dormant in humid silence. Life support seemed to be the only system actively online, as well as some lights far away, strong enough to illuminate the team as if by moonlight, but not large enough that the source could be discerned easily.

"Weird..." Paco quietly replied to Senang as he continued to scan. The heat wasn't that bad, oddly like back home on Earth where its usually around this temperature during the dry season. It's just that coupled with the humidity that got to him. Smells weird here. Paco didn't really want to comment much out loud since Fives gestured them to keep it down

Hal Gertie’s face shifted to be more serious, and he tightened his grip on his phaser rifle. As everyone was scanning, he glanced around with anticipation, making sure to keep eyes on the doorway and a lookout for any movement that wasn’t his team.

Essen made sure to step carefully and quietly towards part of the machinery, while not getting too close should it decide to scoop her or anything. She'd never seen the Borg tech up close... Seemed super complex at first glance. But she was no engineer. And she didn't dare touch anything that she or the senior officers didn't deem safe. Made mental notes of the machinery... Then stepped quietly to another part of machinery while keeping a safe distance.

“Nothing.” She muttered softly as the cold unfeeling cube came stood around her.

Vesta kept her phaser holstered, and looked around. It was odd, she had been expecting drones. Dead or deactivated drones maybe, but drone nonetheless. It felt wrong for it to be so empty.

"Scans find... nothing so far." Paco initially reported. "Maybe we should spread out?"

“Spreading out sounds good. Right now, it’d be like shooting fish in a barrel, and even though there’s nothing on scans we’d better be safe than sorry.” He was keeping his voice low, and had shifted his phaser rifle to be in a less immediately aggressive position.

"We'll probably have to. Make sure to stay on Comms and for god's sake don't wander off alone." Aoife replied to Paco. As she took a few steps forward in the hallway.

Essen returned to the team, and only spoke in a hushed voice, even quieter than everyone else. "Trying to find any access points, hatches, secret entrances, anywhere they can pop out of," Essen reported softly. "If we spread out we can't go alone-- yeah, you get me, sir," Essen piped in with Aoife.

"A suspicious lack of magical vibrations... For what purpose does this beast lie still?" He didn't bother scanning things; everyone else was already doing it. "Perhaps the combat able should be paired up with those of us who are not?"

Saeihr was glad that the waiting was finally over in equal measures as she was scared of the surrounding that she materialized in. The temperature together with the humidity was like a punch to the face, even though Saeihr was usually permanently cold. There was no one present that she felt she knew well enough to attach herself to them in particular so she simply tried to stick with the group as a whole, which made her especially unhappy when people started talking about splitting up. "I'm unsure what I can do, but I am an alright shot, usually... I think."

"I concur with you, wizard friend," Essen replied to Serin. "That's a compliment, by the way. Anyway, I agree. I'm combat able, who wants to go with me?"

“I’ll go with you.” She said to Essen, hand tightening on her phaser a little.

"Being called a wizard is always compliment, and friend even more." He smiled in a way that he thought was charming. And maybe it was! Depends on how much you like blue-haired wizard larpers.

3

4

The Vulcan felt some relief knowing she'd have someone from security with her. Plus, she knew Seiyya from the underwater mission too. "Hey, thanks," Essen thanked Seiyya. "We want anyone from science or engies? What you thinking, Wizard friend? You want in with our group so far?"

“Um, I can go with you guys.” She said at the mention of science.

"I'm an engineer, so I'd like to be with someone who's combat able. I don't have much experience beyond Academy basics." And even then that was a whiiile ago. Like, over ten years at least. Actually, if you counted the time travel shenanigans in his backstory, it was thirty-five years ago, if my maths is correct.

Essen shrugged. Well, it seemed like things worked themselves out nicely! "Alright! You're in then if you want," Essen said to Serin with a smile. "Same with you, Maggie! I'm combat able, and we got security, science and engie."

Paco was not expecting 'split the party' to be accepted as an idea, but knowing the situation at present, it probably made sense. D&D does have applications in Starfleet. While discussions were going on, Paco quietly followed Aoife along. We'll best to spread the science peeps out "Hi."

2

"It doesn't matter who is with who, since there are so many tactical officers. As long as we all take care not to end up alone, it should be fine," Senang said, finally taking his rifle down from where it was hanging over his shoulder, and taking it in his hands to show his alertness. "Remember, the goal is to find out why this ship is stranded here. That is our main objective. Let's avoid combat wherever possible."

T'She nodded, avoiding combat meant less chances for people to get hurt. They stood by Senang though, hoping to go with him.

Essen nodded in agreement with Senang. "You're definitely right on avoiding combat, sir," Essen replied. "Oh, and T'She, I promise not to get another concussion." HETFIELD cough cough. (edited)

"I guess you're coming with me Lieutenant?" Aoife said giving Paco a smile to reassure the nervous science officer. "Everyone keep on comms and we should regroup her in, half an hour or so? So don't stray too far."

Everyone's voices echoed mutedly throughout the vast hall, bouncing off the uneven walls with strange distortion.

5

Paco simply nodded to Aoife's question "We drank Guinness." that's the only casual normal person response he could give at the moment, too many things to think about... why the fuck does it smell so dank in here.

“Do not like that echo…” She muttered softly.

She held up her hand a bit... What was that distortion? As she shut her mouth, she looked around for what could be causing that distortion.

Vesta decided right there and then to go with Aoife. In part because she had been on an away team with her before, and in part because the other team of pretty women seemed to be already full.

"Quiet time." Paco signed, well it wasn't really signing, more like spelling it letter by letter.

"To even out the scientists, I will follow your team," Saren nodded to Senang, choosing to walk a tad bit closer to the forming amoeba of people. While uneasy with the idea of lifting his gaze away from some of the people... but he will just have to do whatever he had to do.

“Me neither.” She muttered, one hand on her hip and the other on her phaser. While yes, she did not want to initiate combat if at all possible… she also did not want to gain a bunch of new implants and also lose herself. So… best to keep her eyes peeled, like an apple that’s about to go into the world’s dankest-smelling pie.

Having already chatted with Serin and Essen, Hal Gertie decided it would be best if he went along with them. He moved up. “I’ll stick with you three if that’s alright. Two with more combat experience for two less experienced combat.”

Essen nodded to Hal Gertie, and gestured for him to join her. "The more the merrier," Essen spoke extremely softly. "Happy to have you on our team, friend."

Now he was hangin' with Essen and da gang! "Sure. What's your name, then, acquaintance?" He asked, speaking to Hal.

1

“That’s alright by us. The more eyes and people to watch out backs, the better.” She said to Hal, looking down the hallway in front of her just in case.

Five scooched over to stand with their good pal T'She. They felt more comfortable among familiar faces.

“Hal Gertie. Yours?” He whispered to Serin. He didn’t like the idea of making too much noise right now, but… he kind of had to know his team’s names for safety.

“Oh I’m Maggie.” She whispered to Hal and Serin, she figured they were doing names.

"I'm Essen, just as a refresher," she said. But everyone in the group knew that -- she just hoped to lighten the tension, just a little, and get a little more morale up.

"Serin-Eshi Ser Fah’Mohrs Ed Signor Seroth Seira Fandall Serin-De-Sieth. But you may call me Serin." Was that the Serin from his first or last name? We will never know.

"Alright, that makes four." He looked around the group to see who else he would need to keep his eye on. "What will our first steps be? We need to figure out where we can find more information."

The hall was vast enough that you could walk all the way from end to end in about ten minutes of straight walking, almost bisecting the cube in a way. It had walkways crossing it at right angles at many levels, and occassionally narrowed into smaller gates before clearly opening up again. This was a connection point of a sort, and there had to be some sort of a console to find information at, right?

“I’m Seiyya.” She said quietly before she looked around. This seemed to be a connection point between hallways.. there had to be consoles or something. “There have to be some consoles around here to look for information.”

The reverberating noises of people's voices sent chills down Aoifes back, or maybe it was just all the sweat. Regardless she unzipped her jacket in some vein hope of cooling off a bit. "Alright anyone who doesn't have a group yet your with me." She called out noting the few officers like Saeihr standing around unsure where to go.

"Consoles which can hopefully also tell us if someone is still here," Essen suggested. "If that's the case."

“I feel like if someone was still here we would know by now.” She mumbled.

"Exactly," Essen replied. "That's what scares me a little. It's almost too quiet. I feel like we're being watched. Is that just me or?"

Saeihr’s was glad to be given an instruction that saved her from standing around awkwardly. "Alright... Thank you." Saeihr moved in the vague proximity of Aoife. "Uuuh... Where should I walk?"

Hmm-mm-m. "All systems appear to be off, but I wonder if there would be some way to trace where power would have been directed?" Five offered quietly, still looking around.

"Wherever the other groups aren't going." Aoife replied with a hint of wit. "You're ensign?" She trailed off realising she didn't know the Ensigns name?

Vara'l had popped along with the rest of the group, phaser rifle clasped one handed as he followed the group. When people started to split up into groups, Vara'l frowned a bit but headed over as he elected to tag along with Aoife's lot.

“I mean. I feel like the Borg probably didn’t leave instructions? They’re a hive mind.” She said with a breath.

"I know that," she answered, the red light on her implant blinking pointedly. "Just. If there's any way to pick up on remnants. Or traces. Or anything to that nature."

"That's also what scares me," Essen remarked. "My mom was liberated, and I never was assimilated, so if there were any instructions, it could be only something that she -- meaning the Borg -- could understand." (edited)

There are consoles all around, actually, for a variety of purposes, and none of them seem damaged or broken. They're simply... not currently in use.

"Is there a panel anywhere I could open up? The arcane energies may be transported via the arteries of - wires and such, you know, in the walls." He looked around for a panel himself, and spotted a console. "Or I could look there, actually." He approached a console and tapped the screen. Or a button. Boop. (edited)

Hal Gertie trailed behind him, essentially looking like Serin’s bodyguard. He pulled out his tricorder and set it to continuously scan for life signs or any unusual disturbances, in case something out of range was coming into range.

"They'd probably left something on a console or something." Paco suggested with a shrug. So far as he knew, with him are Aoife, Vara'l, Vesta, and Saeihr. Nice, this was comforting. "Oh hey, consoles." Paco pointed out to Aoife while people were talking, Paco looked at one of the consoles nearest to him. "Let's see if we can get one of them online..."

The screen didn't immediately light up, though a mechanical hum that had been absent before did start softly filling the space.

Upon hearing the hum Essen went dead silent, as her eyes went back into hawk mode and looked around for anything that might have changed.

"Sure just be careful don't push anything you're not sure about last thing we want is to wake this sucker up." She followed behind Paco, and gave a nod to Vara'l glad that he had chosen to join them.

"Okey dokey." Paco answered to Aoife said as he, just out of curiosity, looked around for a panel he could open to see the insides to scan if that can give them any clues. (edited)

Slowly, as if rising from slumber, the screen turned on, displaying ones and zeros, intermingled with text in Borg script. It seemed to be asking for input.

"Saeihr... Saeihr t'Llairne, apologies Commander." She tried to stand up straight as she knew she was supposed to, but felt incredibly self conscious doing so, especially once she realized that Commander tr'Hara would be in the same group as her. Trying not to think too much she followed Aoife as well.

Saren came a little bit closer to take a look at the alive screen. Hm... "Do we have someone who is, uh... proficient in this?" he asked, tentatively.

"Hmmm. What do I... I don't know these runes. Is there anyone here who can translate?" Yeah, probably.

Essen shrugged. "If my mom was here, she'd know what this meant," Essen lamented quietly.

Five poked their head around Serin to study the console. Oh, hey. Guy right here named Five. What a funny little coincidence. (disclaimer it is actually a coincidence).

Wow, how utterly helpful. Saren then glanced towards Fives, and shifted his stance to give her some space by the console.

“I don’t love having that on…” She mumbled softly.

"Binary code.... I'm non-binary though." Paco randomly blurted out to himself as he scanned the borg text and binary code to translate something. The tricorders could probably translate Borg_Speak right? wait no actually. Paco looked over to Vara'l for a moment. "....do you.... uhm... can you interpret this?" Paco asked as he pointed to the console was that offensive? not sure. probably. definitely. maybe not.

Hal Gertie grimaced. “I could hook directly into it. But I’m not looking forward to having my brain pour out of my ears like soup.”

Alright, let's get a look here. Five stepped into the place graciously offered by Saren, looking at the console. She remembered how to understand this sort of thing. Of course she did. "I would politely advise against connecting to any part of this ship, Commander."

The comms came directly to her visor, and with it some bad news. She felt a shiver go down her spine. Few things scared her, the Borg were one of them. “Are we going to head towards it, or away from it?” She asked, steadying herself.

"Lieutenant Commander, don't try and directly interface with Borg technology." Vara'l responded simply before he'd looked to Five then back to them. "As the Lieutenant has said." At Paco's question, Vara'l proceeded over to the console and leant toward it as he peered at the console and attempted to make sense of what it said. "I'm no longer Borg, but I can give it a look."

"We're moving???" Paco asked Vesta. it was either that or there was somehow another Borg Cube-Sphere appeared, and that was not likely to happen, probably.

"The Lieutenant has it covered, I think," Senang said to Vara'l, motioning towards Five who was already hunched over the console.

“I feel like we should try to leave and come back with a fleet to blast this thing apart.” She mumbled, briefly transforming into Courage The Cowardly Dog.

Essen's intuition was not fully correct, but she definitely felt watched now. She kept her eye out, watching any and all of the entrances around. Not saying a word, she was on the defensive, and looked out for any company.

"If there are any people here, we owe it to them to try to help them." Five answered firmly.

"It is not a good idea, Lieutenant" he turned his head towards Maggie, frowning a little bit. Despite said frown, Saren's voice was gentle.

“That’s probably what they said before Wolf 369 too.” She said, clearly speaking out of fear more than anything else.

“The Eventide says that there’s a life sign heading for us, about two kilometers away.” She explained, trying to fight the urge to roll her eyes at the freaked out science officer. If she wasn’t prepared to deal with the bird then she shouldn’t have come. Nonetheless she was here now, so it really didn’t matter. “Try using your tricorder to see if it’s Borg,”

By the way, Five, the console was asking for some sort of method of identification. It read as being a tactical console.

Five didn't dignify that with a response. If people had responded with violence to her own group, she wouldn't be here. It hurt, knowing how quick others were to dismiss the fact that the drones were victims — acting out of their own minds, quite literally. "Yes, you all attend to whatever is approaching us. I've got the console handled, if anyone wants to watch my back."

Essen, keeping her eyes away from the team and towards the hallways leading here, only slightly turned her head so she could address Vesta. "Two kilometers?" She asked quietly. "Have they drawn in any closer?"

"Tactical console of some kind. It's asking for identification," Five said, stripping off the glove covering their mechanical arm. "I can.. try to interface, but there's no guarantee anything will happen. Or anything good."

“I mean 2km isn’t that close. It’s a 3km ship.” She said as she pulled out her phaser.

"Can I ask for backup, please?" Essen quietly asked. "Anyone who is combat able, help me keep an eye out for any company around us in the other directions? So that Five can interface safely."

"Twenty eight cubic kilometres." Aoife corrected before moving to a position where she could keep an eye on the hallway.

"Would it be safer if a ex-tactical drone interfaced, Lieutenant?" Vara'l inquired then as he looked about at the new information provided about the communications call. "Tactical and security officers, I want people watching the hallways, nobody watches alone and someone keep a tricorder scan." Vara'l requested then as he angled himself to also keep watch as he waited for Fives verdict.

"Thanks, sir," Essen kindly thanked Vara'l with a smile, before she looked back to the hallway.

Paco gave a thumbs up to Vara'l as he continued keeping watch of the tricorder scans, trying hard to identify whether or not the lifesign was a borg and where it was moving from in its way towards them

Whatever was on the ship with them was too far away to be noticed. The ship was a mess of hallways and rooms, and with many walls between it and the team, it was impossible to tell right now where it was,

Maggie took out her tricorder and began to scan away from Paco, trying to cover the whole ship.

Vara'l then tapped his combadge as it seemed like nobody else intended to respond to the ship. "Vara'l to Eventide, message received, we'll keep an eye out for the life sign's and their progression." The Romulan stated.

"I feel the question of if its borg or not, and/or if it going to kill us or not is moot." *Paco piped up. as he moved further down the hall opposite of where Maggie was heading for scans. * "Either way, we are finding them and getting them outta here with us... also safety nice, but I'm not comfortable with blasting anything until we know the thing is actually literally bad and dangerous at the very moment."

"Deep breaths, Paco," Essen softly urged Paco. "We should stick with what we do know for now. That means me, too." As she kept her eyes on the corridor in front of her, keeping watch.

Vesta nodded, even if it was a drone, it was just one drone and the away team had… yeah I’m not gonna count… more than one. It would be nice would it be to liberate a drone, if it even was one. But that still didn’t answer the question of why the cube was so empty.

"I've got it, Commander. We've gotten this far, haven't we?" ... Five glanced off to the side at those around her before taking her phaser from its holster. "Someone take this. Just in case."

"Paco is calm. and I know that we don't know a whole lot right now." Paco said to Essen as he continued scanning before approaching over to ~~Chives of Rake~~ Fives "I can keep a hold of it for you." He offered as he took the phaser off her. "Paco's now duel wielding." And from there, with tricorder in one hand, a phaser in the other, and one more in the holster, Paco went back to scanning

Tapping a few different things brought up a keyboard, and Five provided the identification necessary. Name, number, assigned task.. It almost felt mundane, in a strange way. This was technically something she did maybe hundreds of times before.

"Understood and we have." Vara'l responded, they hadn't really responded to the meat of what he'd said but he reckoned he'd gotten what they'd been putting down. That is if that was the right Terran saying of those his son had spouted at some points recently. He then watched carefully as Five worked through inputting everything that needed to be inputted. He'd also done that so many times at different tactical consoles during those times he'd been assigned as a tactical drone. So to watch as one was operated was...something. Though after a moment, he turned his focus to keeping an eye on the corridor and idly waited to see if someone responded to his comm message.

Keeping her rifle powered down, Essen gripped it tighter, as she looked into her periphery to see Five using the console. Her gaze returned back to the corridor. Well, so far no one came to greet the away team. So far.

The programming behind the console seemed... almost welcoming, confusing strings of code parting like the red sea to give a... limited view of what the console could probably do. In fact, the most it gave currently was a partial map of the cube, approximately 100 meters in every direction from where they currently were. Truly only a small part of the entire cube. It did get the amount of people in the area correct. Clearly, some other sensors had come online too, as everyone was visible, complete with an... overzealous amount of biodata. Species, blood type, cybernetic enhancements, body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, the works. The ship knew who everyone was, and where they were.

12

"I have a small map," Five reported, putting her glove back on. Part of her had thought she'd have to plug in somehow. Glad that wasn't the case. "Sensors are back online. We've been scanned. No doubt the drone here knows we are as well." ... "Your heart rate is very high, Ensign t'Llairne," she noted, glancing back. "Take a breath, alright? We've got the situation under control."

"Huh, only one hundred and twelve beats per minute. It used to be better." Aoife mused, realising she was getting old.

10

Damn. The Borg know Paco's close to having a panic attack right now, thats such a breach of privacy. ~~That wouldn't be a problem if Paco used NordVPN~~ "Dang... at least we have a map of whats a hundred meters away from us. that's a good start."

'Well, that couldn't be anything good,' T'She thought idly before the true depth of what this meant dawned on them. They knew that having the cube know their every location meant that they could not hide. They could not hide from the eyes of the C U B E.

"Oh... I'm sorry." Saeihr was startled by being mentioned and immediately started to take deliberate deep breaths.

“I’ve got a little handbook of calming techniques in high pressure situations, if you want a few suggestions?” The doctor offered, giving a meek little smile to the ensign.

“What is protocol with an active drone?” She asked softly. “Because I feel like we need to come up with a plan to ya know, stop it so we can maybe help whoever it is.”

Erguh, Vesta did not like the cube having all of her information one bit. “Can we locate the life sign!”

"Don't shoot it unless it becomes a threat." Aoife deadpanned, this was the usual procedure after all.

"Not on the map. It's only about 100 meters?" Could she zoom out at all? She tried that.

"Don't let them touch you, if they're not hostile don't fire unless under threat as that'll trigger a wider counter-boarding response." Vara'l started then as he looked to Maggie before he grimaced and continued on to say. "If they're hostile or you otherwise draw attention and have to shoot, be conscious you may well get only one perhaps two shots." With no response forthcoming from the Eventide, Vara'l looked over to Aoife and asked. "Can you try the Eventide?" He then elaborated. "I got no response and would like to confirm communications are down between us and the ship."

No zooming out, unfortunately. The programming was welcoming, but... controlled. Five was seeing what the computer wanted them to see... and nothing more.

"Don't be hostile and it won't be angry at us" Paco answered. "I think we can start spreading out to other rooms, and try to see if we can expand the map from there. That is if we can't get more map from here"

Aoife nodded in response to Vara'l and trapped her comm badge.

Maggie nodded as she tried to understand this, but she was both very scared and very not a tactical officer.

“Buddy system,” Mavna appended to Paco’s suggestion, “Stay in the line of sight of somebody at all times.”

Damn. Alright, good try. "I've gotten all I can get from this console. I would like to test communications between ourselves, and consider spreading out if they're functional." Five stepped back from the console, looking around at the rest of the group.

"Nobody go anywhere alone." The Romulan quickly stated when Paco said what they said. "If we're going to split to explore, we should explore in groups." Vara'ls jaw worked a bit then before he continued. "If not we should pair off within the group to look around together." He then looked to the medical lieutenant. "That, yes."

“The map being limited- that’s… very odd. It doesn’t make sense. With the computer communicating with the rest of the ship, it would make sense for it also to have a full view of the ship. Especially for tactical information.” As he thought, he narrowed his eyes, which… honestly made him look incredibly sad. “Maybe someone is specifically controlling the information we’re seeing.”

"Nothing sir, looks like we're on our own." Aoife replied as she got nothing from the Eventide. Possibilities warped around her mind about blocking comms, most likely some kind of dampening field or jamming.

"I thought we already established the groups" Paco asked, still sticking close to Aoife.

"What would be our targets, then? Given that currently there are roughly three teams, and our visibility is, ah-- quite limited?" Saren inquired from his post near the console.

"Maybe the computer already knows that we aren't supposed to be here..." T'She added, agreeing with Hal's sentiment.

5

"If we're sticking with them as initially outlined, pair up within the groups." Vara'l responded to Paco before he looked to Aoife. "Thats not good, I wonder if the shields are up, or if it's something more localised in response to our transport aboard." Vara'l looked between T'She and the Security officer then and nodded slightly. He'd then frowned a bit and pulled out his tricorder before he scanned the area again and considered what they knew of the map. Was there three areas closer too than the others from where they were, he wondered? If there was, that happened to make things...easier.

Essen listened this whole time. She made it a habit not to assume anything now, so she stayed quiet until she absorbed everything. The computer was limiting what Five saw, everyone was scanned -- that didn't settle Essen's nerves, but she kept calm on the outside. From Aoife and Vara'l's points, Essen kept her rifle powered down, and even loosened her grip on it. She didn't tear her eyes away from the corridor yet, but patiently waited until the groups were dispatched. "Everyone in my group ready?" She asked quietly. "Feeling alright?"

“I don’t like the Borg ship being on at all.” She mumbled. “I feel like the computer knowing we’re here means like we should pick up the pace here.”

"If the shields are up that means we can't beam out. We should try and find a shield generator and disable it otherwise we're stuck here." Aoife thought out loud in response to Vara'l.

2

~~Maybe Starfleet should invest in DeleteMe to help request the Borg and Ferengi data brokers to fuck off and stop selling your personal data~~ "But we weren't technically supposed to be here though..." Paco said before nodding in agreement with Maggie and Aoife "Either way we have to come up with something fast if we cant get comms back to the Eventide"

Seiyya nodded at Aoife’s statement, her posture rather stoic despite the situation. If they couldn’t find a shield generator, everyone here would be stuck on the Cube, and the Borg weren’t too keen on guests. She also nodded to Essen- she was feeling as alright as she could be given the stakes.

"Get me there and I can do it," he said, very confidently, despite not having worked with borg tech before.

“Maybe we could um, detonate one of our rifles in the shield generator? Unless we have explosives?”

Hal Gertie, listening to what Aoife said, took a look at the map again to see if he could spot anywhere a shield generator might be hiding. With luck it would be within a hundred meters…

"We'll get you there," Essen said to Serin. "You got this."

"Agreed." Vara'l responded simply at Aoife's words. "Borg cubes tend to decentralise a lot of systems, though I'd hope the destruction of the shield generator or a power nexus or some such'll do the job." The Romulan responded thoughtfully before he looked to Maggie. "Most likely, if we can avoid getting into a firefight before then."

"I've got a few grenades but blowing things up on a Borg cube runs the risk of us getting swarmed. We should only resort to explosives as a last resort." Aoife thought out loud, she sure as hell wasn't sacrificing a rifle when it would double nicely as a club.

"I suggest we allow engineering to look at a shield generator first... when we find one, perhaps they can do something about it without sacrificing a rifle." They added quietly, hoping that might instill some confidence.

"I agree," Essen concurred with Aoife. "Explosions are too dangerous with all of us on here without a safe way out yet. Only as a last resort."

"How about, no explosions, and let OPS and Engineering have a go first before we blow stuff up?" *Paco suggested with a shrug. *"If one thing goes boom, a bunch of other things go boom as well."

“I don’t know if letting anyone play around with a cube that is online is a good idea.” She said with a mumble. “Let’s just try to save the drone and then leave, then hopefully blow this place up.”

Vesta tapped her foot on the ground, nervously. They still had no idea where the life sign was other than that it was 2 km away and moving towards them. How fast it was moving though, and what direction it would come from were unknowns. It was frustrating and putting her on edge.

Ugh... Why were people so adamant about blowing the place up? Essen facepalmed with one of her free hands.

"...can we... not blow the cube up?" Paco felt Essen's sentiments

5

4

3

"Thank you," Essen said to Paco, in full agreement. "No explosions, please..." (edited)

"No need for fireballs when you've got my talents!" His confidence was... Encouraging? Maybe? Or perhaps foolish? You decide.

"No ones blowing up the cube, you'd need a quantum torpedo next to it's power core to do it anyway." Aoife said speaking up to stop the chatter. "Shield generator, maybe. If we have to."

T'She thought that maybe a tricorder would have greater range than the small map, so they decided to do... a scan of their current surroundings.

Mavna stood back and let the more tactical-minded members of the team figure out where they’re going and what to do. She did notice the nervous taps coming from Vesta’s direction, and gestured taking in a deep breath with her arms and hands, like one would when meditating, “We’re gonna be alright, Lieutenant. You still owe me a coffee date, anyway,” She said with a small smile.

"Gods give me strength--" he felt his left eyelid twitch. "Lieutenant, you chose to be on this mission - so I encourage you to keep it together and concentrate on our current objective, which is to figure out why this Borg cube is here in the first place. Let's not treat this like a hellscape and the potential lone drone like the devil with Liberated colleagues on our team, yes?.."

4

"And if we do encounter the life sign here our first thing isn't to fire at it or be hostile," Essen added. "We shouldn't assume anything."

She couldn’t help but smile, so this was the person from the chatroom. “I know we will, I’m not missing that coffee for the world.” She signed, almost playfully despite the circumstances. As she conversed with the medical officer she kept an eye on the conversations going on in the background, looks like somebody had finally called out that freaked out science officer.

"What if... we try to find where the shield generator-inator is... or the main computer the Borg use so we can deal with the other stuff later... and maybe after we find whoever the lone life sign that is not us is." Paco was not calm. Paco was not happy either. Paco wanted to do the mission and help whoever needed help before they can go back home.

“It’s the Borg.” She deadpanned to Saren.

She smirked, “Hey, me neither,” She folded her arms over her chest and looked pretty pleased with herself, “Besides, if anything does happen, you’ve got me, you’ve got T’She, you’ve got…the new guy…” She didn’t know Lekraan’s name yet, “We’ll be good.”

"Might work," Essen replied to Paco. She spoke from experience when she said what she said next. "For all we know, this life form could be suffering somehow. And we need to see from their point of view before we jump to hostility." Oh, Ekek'osid... She missed her lil buddy... How much Ekek'osid showed her, and how much she felt. What if this life form had something similar? Essen refused to be the aggressor. That wasn't the Starfleet way.

"Oh no, thank you, Lieutenant... I know a lot of calming techniques... I'll have it in a bit." The talk about blowing or not blowing up the cube passed her by right until torpedoes were mentioned. "In order to get a quantum torpedo close enough to the core there'd have to be quite a bit missing from..." Saeihr got quieter as she continued talking and realized that her opinion on how effective a torpedo would be here was irrelevant since they weren't even considering blowing up the cube they were currently on. "So... we're looking for why the cube is here and how to deactivate the shields?"

"Yes. That's what we're here for. To explore, not destroy." Five was starting to wish she'd stayed on the ship. "Now. I would like to start properly investigating as we were instructed, if possible? " (edited)

1

Hal Gertie nodded at the ensign. “Exactly. I think we should get moving pretty soon. I don’t like the idea of standing around like this.”

“Yeah and if that life sign is a Borg drone, you and the engineering team back on 777 can help liberate them.” She signed, conversing with somebody calmed her greatly. “Until then I think we’ve gotta figure out what the deal is with this cube.” She looked over to group discussing the next steps. “seemly starting with shutting down it’s shields.”

Vara'l stared at Maggie for a moment then looked to the others. "In the case of this situation deteriorating yet further, I'd like to find the shield generator so we can if needed conduct a localised detonation to disrupt it long enough to exfiltrate." The Romulan commenced then before he looked to the others. "But lets not blow up the entire ship." "We need to look for a node or other form of information Nexus or other link to the Cubes equivalent of a main computer that'll give us the data." Vara'l stated then before he looked to Essen and stated simply. "If the lone individual is Borg, hostility is a last resort option, if its alone we can ideally neutralise it in a non-lethal manner and secure the drone for transport and liberation." He wasn't quite sure he'd followed all that had been said, but on a Borg cube he really rather hoped nobody would jump the gun and fire on something straight off the bat, especially when he considered how the Borg tended to adapt in such a event. "I agree with the Lieutenant, lets get to exploring, we can identify the shield generators location as we proceed with our mission."

1

"Borg who can be liberated, Maggie. Or probably not a borg at all." Paco said, asserting himself a slight bit because not blowing up a borg cube is nice. "Actually. Regardless, we're here now, on a mission to find one drone or dude here. Can't change nothin while their shields are up, so might as well just get on with it without starting anything with the Borg, or else the whole Admiralty will get pissed at us."

"Yes, we need to get through the Eventide best way by disabling the shields." Aoife replied to Saeihr beginning to like that she was staying focused.

"You and me both, Five," Essen agreed. "Everyone with my group ready?"

From far above everyone, from one of the far sides of the hall, a slow creaking started echoing through the space, the sound distorted and unpleasant.

“Oh, yeah, I’m great at-” She was about to jokingly brag to Vesta about a procedure she had yet to do when the creaking made her freeze, both in body and in speaking. Her hand immediately shot down to where her phaser was holstered, and wide green eyes swam over to the rest of the group.

Aoife raised her rifle setting it to a heavy stun when she heard the noise of something approaching. "Eyes up, something's coming."

Her body SNAPPED back to looking directly at the corridor. Not that she wasn't looking already. But the creak silenced her fast, and Essen gripped her rifle. Still, she didn't power it on.

Maggie leaped up in fear at the sound of the creaking. “Yeah, I can’t wait to explore the afterlife once this thing kills everyone.” She mumbled.

The creaking stopped, at least for the moment. Only the last echoes were still ringing through the hall.

Hal Gertie had turned fast enough towards the sound he was in danger of getting whiplash. He raised his rifle again, checking the setting, before leaning forward to try to see what exactly had made it.

"Commander," Five whispered, scooting up to Aoife after taking their phaser back from Paco. "Should we spread out? So as not to be a giant pile of targets..." (edited)

She was almost laughing while Mavna spoke, but that changed when her visor alerted her to the new sounds and the feeling in the room shifted. Vesta put on hand on her phaser holster, but didn’t take it out yet.

"I'm.... Imma just go back to searching. I had enough of arguing in circles." *Paco has made the executive decision to start moving and scanning. He did not have the emotional head space to argue anymore. The introverted social battery couldn't take it. "Oh, here you go." Paco said with a smile as he handed the phaser back to Fives "...dang im no longer duel wielding"

Aoife nodded as Five spoke to her. "Alright let's spread out. Break up into groups and spread out in the area."

When the creaking stopped, Essen stayed in her position, and didn't move an inch unless ordered to. And when Aoife said so... "Alright, my team, let's do this," Essen said. "Someone cover me from behind?"

Seiyya was still holding her phaser, and she came over by Essen. “I’ll cover you.” She said quietly, still stoic and relatively calm despite all the talk of explosions and such.

Vara'l levelled his rifle one handed and attempted to scan the direction of the creaking with his tricorder. He nodded at Aoife's decision and added. "Tactical and security personnel group, I'd advise you take point and rear guard within the groups your in, pair up within your respective groups and do not go off alone from them." Vara'l moved closer to Aoife, having decided he'd tag along with her and her group.

"Aye, sir," Essen replied to Vara'l, nodding in his direction before she addressed her group. "You heard the CTO. Are we ready to move?"

As soon as people start grouping up, the creaking starts again, but more hesitantly this time.

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With Essen in front and Seiyya in back, Hal Gertie moved to cover flank of their group, making sure Serin and Maggie were covered on most sides. He kept his eyes trained on the creaking. “If one of you two,” He gestured towards Serin and Maggie without looking at them, “Will guide us, the three of us will cover you.”

“I’ll take point.” She said, whipping out her trusty tricorder.

“I’ll tag along with you all,” The medical officer said. She gave Vesta a little smile and a, “See you soon,” before shifting to where Essen and Hal Gertie were, “Never know, you might need a doctor.” (edited)

Essen briefly looked back at Mavna. "Oh hey," Essen greeted Mavna. "Sorry, I was looking out here so much, I didn't see you back there. We definitely need a doctor. Thanks for tagging along with us."

Paco nodded, still sticking to Aoife with tricorder out as he scanned for things and stuff, but specifically for that one possibly drone that is possibly less than 2km away from them right now

Vesta waved goodbye to Mavna and turned back to Aoife and Paco. She took her hand off of her phaser to adjust her backpack before returning her hand back to the phaser.

"Let's go this way." Aoife said as she pointed her group in the direction of #inner-hall-north.

"Maybe we take the opposite then!" Essen said to her group. "Stay sharp, people." And she started towards #inner-hall-south.

"Sure hope we find that shield generator or whatever it is we're doing now!" Serin said, following Essen.

The creaking started getting louder again as more and more people split off to go their separate ways. Remember guys, the objective is to find out what happened to this cube, and maybe get off it too as soon as possible.

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She trailed behind the group. Not too far, but not nearly as bunched in as the others were. Her whole body still felt stiff, and whilst Andorians were used to extreme cold, Yaveru shivered. It was as if something was whispering just behind her ear. Whatever it was, she wanted to get out of this place pronto.