Star Trek: Starbase 777

The Borg Cube, which had stopped dead in space a short while away from 777, loomed before Eventide as she approached. The cube seemed empty, dead and cold in its stillness, even the usual light from within dim and near nonexistent. The briefing had been simple: figure out what was going on with the Borg Cube. Before, there had been a life sign, some movement to indicate that the ship was at least being controlled, but even that remained to be seen as of now. Still, it had been the reason a keen interest had been taken. Appropriate caution would need to be taken, obviously, but at the same time, this seemed like the safest interaction one could have with the Borg.

One of One stood on the bridge, a place they'd normally never occupy. However, due to a feeling he couldn't name, he had offered to go on this mission, to at least keep an eye on its proceedings. They hoped... they didn't know what they hoped. They hoped they'd gain something from this.

Shane stood at one of the tactical stations on the bridge taking tactical scans of the imposing Cube. A cube appearing out of nowhere and simply stopping? That had him ok edge, it wasn't the Borg's style to just stop.

Vara'l silently remained standing behind the tactical console. He'd already conducted the checks he needed to do but started to check the Tactical systems again anyway as he had swallowed slightly in discomfort. So close to a cube, to this monumental testament to the power the collective possessed. Elements,his stomach happened to he in knots.

In a rare occurrence -- and even saying rare was generous -- Essen had absolutely no semblance of her bubbly personality. Not that it wasn't still there -- but today, this was not the mission to mess around. She stepped with a measured stride onto the bridge, not saying a word. Her focus was straightforward, and she took measured breaths. She didn't even notice Vara'l there as she took her stand on the bridge. She wasn't pouting by any means, however. Erra had spoken to Essen about the Borg -- how the Borg was the reason that Senutt was dead. That the Borg was the reason that Erra was like this now, and that the Borg was the reason that Essen had been ripped away from her mother. This? This was personal. Still, she didn't want to jump to judgement calls, although she wasn't going to let her guard down now. Not for something this personal.

Maggie had a shit week and it was only getting worse. First her mom shot at her, and then she had taken this assignment to get off of the station. Now she was looking at the Borg Cube on the view screen and feeling like a small child in an ocean filled with piranhas. “So um, what do we do if it turns on? I don’t think we really match up with the fleet at Wolf 359….”

1

Copia followed behind Essen, and she definitely noticed how quiet Essen was. Not even saying a word -- this wasn't like her. Copia was eager for this mission as she wanted to get back out there after a while, so she was a little peppier in her step. Copia placed her hand on Essen's shoulder, and leaned over to look at her. "Hey," Copia whispered to Essen. "You got this. I'm here for you."

Essen's eyes closed instinctually as Copia set her hand on her shoulder. She didn't mind that, Copia was like a sister to her. She opened her eyes again, and looked to Copes -- a slight smile her way, before she looked back forward and crossed her arms. Measured breaths, still saying nothing... It was eerily not like Essen.

Shane decided the silence on the bridge needed to be broken with some levity. "You know, I never got the cube aesthetic, if it's all about peak efficiency why isn't it some kind of hexagon?" His question was mostly to lift the mood but partly genuine.

As she applied gentle pressure with her hand to Essen's shoulder, she kept her eyes on her, and only took her hand away when she had the slightest notion that Essen would be okay. Copes moved over towards Vara'l, giving him a nod and a slight bow. "Good to see you again, CTO tr'Hara," Copia briefly greeted him. "I'm here for you as well. Just thought I'd offer my support where I could."

She looked to Shane with a hum. “Don’t they have those orb looking ones that are kinda smaller? Those are kinda hexagons.”

As she heard Shane's question and Maggie's response, Copia shrugged. "I never understood the cube either, sir," Copia replied to Shane. "You're correct, the cube design is not aerodynamic."

"You cannot make a three-dimensional object consisting of only equal hexagons. The cube is the simpler shape. And aerodynamicism is of little concern in space," One chimed in, a little baffled at these comments.

1

Essen looked to One, and nodded -- she didn't respond verbally, and kept her arms crossed, but in knowing and trying to understand the Borg as much as she could with the limited information she had from her mother and Vara'l, that much that One said, she figured was the case.

“Haven’t Borg spheres been seen as well? The cube seems inconvenient but the sphere seems… more inconvenient.” Hal Gertie kept his eyes trained on the cube as he spoke. “I mean… somewhere in there you have to have curved walls. Unless they want to waste the space to make the inside of a sphere a cube.”

She pointed over to Hal Gertie and nodded. “Yeah the spheres!”

Copia shrugged again. "Space optimization is indeed a factor," Copia replied to Hal Gertie. "Given the Borg cubes and spheres have the capacity to house large numbers of Borg."

One resisted a sigh. "The sphere is not the preferred or common configuration, though. I am unsure as to its specific function, but the vast majority of Borg vessels are cuboid."

Maggie shook her head. “But they exist! We don’t know why, but they do! Those are kind of hexagons!”

Paco didn't know why he was here. Scientific curiosity, maybe? What's there in a Borg Cube for one to be curious about... Lot's of things now that he thought of it. Of all the times he has heard about the Borg and how it assimilated peoples throughout quadrants, to actually be looking at one right up in the Eventide's view screen almost felt like that one time he played Borg for his cousin's project finally came back to bite him in the ass. "The Borg Queen's ship was a diamond right? Well, that's still a cube that's rotated a bit, isn't it?." Shapes are fun. Diamonds go in the square hole, of course. Paco was nervous, he didn't really know why he had to bring that up.

Copia nodded in understanding. Maybe some things just were how they were. Honestly, that brought her more peace than anything. "Affirmative," Copia concurred with One. "Regardless of shape, they still do exist and they still can be rather massive."

"Good to see you again too, Lieutenant Copia." Vara'l had responded simply with a voice purged of the uncertain emotion harboured in the depths of a Romulan mind that still in some ways remained Borg. The xB quiet for a moment, the conversation listened too and the console watched, before he offered his take. "The Borg are unconcerned about something that won't be pertinent to the ships operation, such as Aerodynamics with spheres, any ship engagements against planetary targets are conducted by a cube outside of atmosphere normally or with transported in drones." He offered then. "Efficiency of space, of function-." He'd trailed off then. Trailled off as he just turned his focus to the console and inhaled then exhaled slightly. All of this talk about Borg happened to make him rather...uncomfortable. The queen-ship comment one he elected to not address as it was uttered.

He wasn't late; he arrived precisely when he intended to. Or maybe he'd been here the whole time and he was just too short and nobody'd looked down yet. "These darkest of wizards, for the most part, tend toward homogeneity — which makes them predictable." He nodded his head as though he'd just said something sage and wise.

Essen finally moved a little closer to Vara'l, and managed to speak aloud for the first time. Especially as she noticed how his demeanor changed. "Hey, sir, you doing alright?" Essen asked quietly.

"Fundamentally a sphere can be made up of many different kinds of shapes, as long as those shapes are infinitesimally small. There is nothing to make it more or less hexagonal, it is simply a sphere. The sphere is also smaller than the cube, by quite a large amount, and the Queen's ship... I don't know. It falls outside of the norm entirely." They didn't want to launch into an explanation of Borg ships, but here they were. It wasn't even relevant to the mission, they were just... making insignificant observations that were largely wrong or incomplete.

“Yeah but the Queen is a big old matriarchal piece of garbage who probably hates all her drones anyway, so who cares what she thinks?” Was she drawing a comparison between Tina and The Borg Queen? Yes, and it was only for her.

A smirk. "Met her personally, have you?" He read her like a tome.

"The Borg Queen is not capable of hate, she is only concerned with the continuance of her species." Which in some ways, was fair enough. In a way, that was what everyone was concerned with at the end of the day: their own prolonged existence, and that of those around them.

"Data, probably." *Paco answered Maggie with a shrug, he was a bit distracted with the view of the one Cube out there in the view screen. *

Grey eyes fixed upon Essen as the Lieutenant asked her that, a smile affected even though there was little weight behind it as he responded. "I'm... keeping on keeping on, Lieutenant, thank you for your concern." He quietly responded as he turned and watched the console. (edited)

Essen inhaled and exhaled quietly, keeping her arms crossed -- internally, her gut reaction was to doubt that the Borg Queen wasn't capable of hate, given how many people they'd assimilated or killed. But One was right -- every other species was concerned about living and keeping on. Vulcans, humans, everyone. So Essen couldn't really be upset with the Borg, because One was right. She nodded back to Vara'l, more empathy in her voice than usual. "I will fight for you, sir," Essen said to him quietly. "I will fight for you and everyone else who the Borg have hurt."

"One pressed a few buttons, allowing scanners to sweep across the vessel. It lay dormant for now, even the last life sign that had been noticed before was nowhere to be found. "It is time to gather for the away mission," they urged. "Everyone who will go, gather in the transporter bay. Remember to bring water, since it may be a few hours until you find anything, and the internal temperature in cubes is usually kept near forty degrees celsius." (edited)

Maggie nodded, gave a salute and walked towards the lift headed down to the transporter room. “You got it big boss!”

Essen nodded to One, releasing her arms from being crossed, and back down to her side. "Aye, sir," Essen replied to One. "Let's do this." Essen's back was straight and she stood up tall. Passing Copia on her way out, she stopped for a moment. "If anything happens to me, please, tell my mother and Kaylee I love them both, please," Essen said to Copia before she followed Maggie down to the transporter room.

"Aye, sir." Paco nodded with a thumbs up as he went to the lift, taking in deep breaths along the way.

Copia reached out to Essen again, and set her hand on her shoulder once more. "I will," Copia replied. "I'll stay behind. Go out there and make your father proud." As she let her hand down, and moved back towards everyone else who was staying behind.

Shane was going to stay on the Eventide's bridge he was more useful there than an away mission. "Good luck kiddos, try not to sweat into your eyes it's looking hot over there."

"Near forty degrees? Thank my ancestors for my heat tolerance." His 'ancestors' being his Vulcan parent. He looked around, trying to spot any humans or andorians who might catch heatstroke in these conditions.

“Thank your ancestors and my implant,” Hal gertie muttered. It wouldn’t do much but it would stave off heat stroke for a short while. He took one last look at the cube before making his way to the transporter room.

"Oh? What arcane device lends you heat resistance in such a way?" He had a few guesses, probably, as an engineer, but curiousity compelled him to just ask.

15:11

Also, he followed Hal to the transporter room. Forgot to write that.

Vara'l looked over to Shane and his jaw worked a bit. "I'll go with the away team if you're sticking around, stay alert." The Romulan then advised before he started off toward the turbolift and from there headed to the transporter room.

"Aye aye sir, we've got your backs over here." Shane said as Vara'l went to depart. He hoped the away mission would be routine but the Borg were never routine.

"Temperature won't be anything I'm not used to," Five remarked in a weak attempt at a joke, glancing back around at the team. She'd been disassociated since they took off, just.. staring at the cube in front of them all. Was she imagining it, or was there some pulse, some pull, like a homing beacon dragging her back? She swallowed, the nervous quiver of her lip obscured by a mask for the first time in months, eye bouncing between the cube and the door as she fought to make a decision... "Hey." Making her way to the science console, she turned her gaze from One to the space before them, purposefully avoiding any possible eye contact. "I... I think I should go. I think I have to."

One looked at Five, scanning her face comfortably now that she wasn't looking at them. Then they nodded. Whatever urge Five felt, must have been the same urge that led them to offer their own expertise to this mission. "Stay safe," they offered. They didn't know what else to say.

She softened just barely, obscuring a ghost of a smile. "I'll do my best. You too, yeah?" Five would. She had to, when she was so close. She couldn't lose everything again. And if she did, what then?... With that, she was off to the transporter room.

Saren chose to be silent, sticking in the back of the arrangement on the bridge like a shadow. He paid no mind to people's musing, leaving them to try and lighten up the mood, meanwhile quietly observing his three points of interest. First was the cube in the viewscreen, dark and imposing. Second was a helmsman, facing away from Saren with a tense line to his shoulders, acutely aware of his cousin's stare but refusing to acknowledge it. And the third was the assistant Chief of Science, in the center of it all, framed by the seemingly dead Borg cube. Lingering for just a second, Saren then followed the rest of the away team to the transporter room.

Now that Vara'l had left it dawned on him that he was the ranking officer on the bridge, 'right protocol for away missions.' He thought to himself before speaking up. "Lieutenant One, I think it might be a good idea to establish a sensor lock on the away teams life signs so we can keep tabs on them inside the cube." He stayed at the tactical console as he spoke, keeping tabs on the cubes energy readings. Worried that it would power up on its own.

"Heard, commander. I will not lose them." Whether that was emotionally charged or not was to be left in the air; not even One would be able to answer that particular question.

3

As she went to Shane, Copia stood upright. "Mission specialist reporting, sir," Copia replied. "Ready to receive your orders."

As the away team was beamed out, One did as Shane instructed and kept a lock on their positions, continuously scanning their life signs so as not to lose anyone. The information was then broadcast to the viewscreen, to allow a visual representation of the team as a tiny blip on the surface of the cube.

Twelve slipped onto the bridge around this time, having arrived from Eventides more medical areas. They rarely elected to come to the bridge but, given the Borg cube, they'd decided to poke their head in so to speak. So, they slipped in and located somewhere appropriate to perch

On the viewscreen, a new blip appeared. About two kilometres away from the away team, slow-moving... but a lot more alive than it had been a few moments ago.

5

Now moving more to the middle of the bridge and hovering near the captain's chair Shane spoke. "Can you identity the blip Lieutenant?" He said turning to one.

"I have bad news, commander," One responded.

7

Copia's eyes widened. "Uh-oh..."

Shane sighed he knew a derelict cube was too good to be true. Without sitting in the captain's chair he pressed the button on it's arm rest to open a Comms channel.

Upon Shane's message, shields raised. The scanner could still vaguely make out life signs, but whether comms would still go through... (edited)

"Shit. The cubes raising shields. Take us to yellow alert." Shane moved back to the tactical station to raise the Eventide's shields and to open a communications line to 777.

Twelve watched the situation and didn't move, she assumed that someone else would take the ship to yellow alert. Right now she just fixed her gaze on the viewscreen as her jaw worked a bit in thought, emotion suppressed.

It's fairly safe to assume that yellow alert had been raised. The blips on the ship remained in place, while the sole borgy blip crept closer and closer. Also visible on the screen now was that part of the cube was lighting up with activity, where it had been completely dormant before.

The lieutenant commander was noticeably restless, her knee bouncing at her console as she stared out the view screen, “Alright, okay, alright…is there anything we can do from here?”

"Aside from attempting to attack the cube, not really. And that could put our colleagues in danger, too." One seemed almost pained as their spoke, the weary pensiveness of their tone not hidden whatsoever. "I will leave that consideration to the Tactical division," they eventually concluded.

3

"Only as a very last resort. A cube has us totally out gunned." Shane said clearly not relishing the prospect of having to fight a cube solo. He continued to hover just behind the captain's chair despite being the ranking officer on the bridge he was clearly hesitant to sit. "Can we try and break through the dampening effect of the shields?"

“I mean- We can try, but these are Borg shields we’re talking about here, sir. It’s not really a walk in the park…” He said with a huff, having spun in his chair to face his boss. Well, one of his bosses. The other was on the cube…

The helmsman at the console stayed quiet as the officers spoke, though he could not stop the worried chewing on his lower lip, as his left leg just kept bouncing up and down. He remembered that he didn't dignify his cousin with a single goodbye or a good luck wish.

1

Copia accepted the fact that she didn't know what to do. In this situation everything was stacked against the team. So, she stayed quiet unless addressed.

"The cube is largely dormant, likely due to the limited number of drones inside. It would be possible to disable shields, if we found the correct nodes to target. Unfortunately, there are redundancies in place for this, and another node will take the damaged node's place, keeping the shields up. The window would be so small, likely a matter of seconds, it would not be enough to beam everyone out." This was One's professional analysis, based on what they knew of Borg vessels. Based on what they knew about functioning as a drone on your own.

In the meantime, the Borg's life sign was drawing closer to the away team, still.

8

5

"It also runs the risk of waking up the whole ship then we'll have a much bigger problem on our hands. If we can find a way to increase the time before another node took over that would be a decent option." Shane replied pacing in a small circle just behind the captain's chair.

"I can't think of a way, sir. Not from the outside. And I think we're slowly running out of time to come up with something, too," One said, tracking the blips on the viewscreen with their eyes.

“We could see if engineering has anything in mind?” Kiadras offered, “Shields are little out of my wheelhouse,” She punches people, she doesn’t punch through shields.

"Let's try that," One said, pressing their commbadge to ask the engineers.

This was the point where you ran out of time. The blip was getting dangerously close to the crew, and something needed to be done.

Copia's system mathematically didn't have any solutions that would work given all the constraints. She tried to speak but just couldn't. This situation wasn't good.

Twelve cleared her throat then. "...Could some form of...infection vector work?" The xB El-Aurian broached. "If you don't mind us making the proposal, effect all the nodes at once?" With that said she'd then added. "Also, could we potentially get something in through the shields to transport the away team too if needed, then get that thing back through if that's possible and taking the shields down isn't?" Twelve then lapsed into silence then, their proposals issued.

"Start working something up, any kind of solution is worth pursuing." Shane said with a nod directed toward Twelve. "Let's also keep an eye on the cubes power systems, if power starts going to it's warp or transwarp drives I want to know about it."

“Oh beautiful,” The Trill said softly as she tapped at her comm badge. Thank you, Engineering.

20:40

She cracked her knuckles and turned back to her console, tapping away. She was scanning for any frequencies coming from the cube and where they were originating.

"We are a doctor, but we will attempt to be of assistance, sir." The xB responded then as she tapped her combadge. "But it seems to us that the proposal put forward by engineering largely achieves the envisioned objective of a virus-like vector for bringing down the shields through through its efforts, effecting all pertinent nodes." Twelve looked to the viewscreen then as she passed along her message before she'd then added. "We wonder though, though we stress that we are a doctor and not an engineer, if shuttles could pass through their shields if frequencies were matched...somewhat like a infection tricking a cell to allow it entry."

"We need to figure out what we want to do, and soon. The drone is approaching the away team rather rapidly, and while the team has safety in numbers, we need to do something to help." If One could sound urgent, they would, but unfortunately it came across as more of a hurried suggestion than anything else.

Shane tapped the comm panel on the captain's chair once again to speak to engineering.

Shane continued to pace just behind the captain's chair before in a moment of consciousness realised he had been pacing for no good reason. He walked to one of the sensor consoles to make himself useful and began to try and scan the Borg shield array to figure out what kind of harmonic frequencies they were using.

The shield was seemingly rotating between different frequencies as quickly as once per millisecond, and seemingly at random. There was a repeat of frequencies, every so often, but even that was fairly random.

"Yeah that's what I was worried about." Shane said with a sigh. Isolating the rotation of the frequencies could take months if they couldn't figure out how they were being calculated. "The shield frequencies are changing too fast, it looks like it's modulating at one per millisecond as far as I can tell it's random but some of the frequencies are repeating. I'll try and isolate the ones that keep coming up." Shane continued to tap on the console looking to figure out which frequencies were repeating.

"How can we be of assistance, or should we depart for medical?" The El-Aurian queried then, conscious that nobody else seemed to have said something as they issued their query. "We are conscious we are a xB doctor, not a tactical officer, scientist or engineer."

"We need to do something," One urged, though they didn't want to force anyone to do anything. The problem was that they'd had to zoom in to keep the life sign dots distinct from one another so they could keep track of the drone. "Is there a way to at least distract it, for the time being?"

Unsure if a Medical officer should really be offering suggestions when faced with this sort of situation, as it happened to be firmly outside the medical bailiwick, Twelve remained silent. While she remained silent, their eyes wandered to nearby consoles as she attempted to spot anything that, while it might not have initially grabbed a different doctors eyes might be something that grasped the attention of a xB. They needed more data, even if they intended to make her exit from the bridge and await patients elsewhere, if they wanted to be of assistance to this collective of individuals. Oh how they missed the certainty of the Cooperative right now, as they stewed and continued to not voice their own input. Twelve eyed the nearest turbolift door then before they looked back to Shane. "Instructions completed, shuttlecraft idea passed to Engineering." The El-Aurian reported then.

"It has stopped moving," One reported. "If we want to do anything, now is our chance."

"Well I guess now's as good a time as any to try the anti shield idea." Shane said still isolating the repeating shield frequencies of the cube. "I'm trying to isolate the frequencies that are repeating maybe we can project them and make the Borg shields lock somehow?"

The drone continued to not move as Engineering's message came through, and Essen's team (though they didn't know it was Essen) started moving away from it. It seemed like they might have enough time to try something.

1

The half hour passed, and eventually, the shuttles left the Eventide with the efforts of the engineers. At first, it seemed like there was no response, and the shuttles might go through. Still no response... and no further response. Then, as if swatting a mosquito after lulling it into a false sense of security on one's skin, a broad tractor beam swept up all three shuttles and also the Eventide, pinning everyone in place.

11

Shane felt the tractor beam lock onto the ship as it abruptly got buffeted about. "Report! Did the cube just grab us!" Shane spoke with a loud but collected voice, not one to loose the head in a situation like this. "Take us to red alert, let's see if we can modulate our shields to slip away from the tractor beam, if not we'll have to destroy it."

Kiadras immediately rose the alert to red and began quickly working at the shield console, “We’re dead in the water here,” He said, swiping some sweat from his brow before turning toward Shane, “Shane, sit down,” He pointed at the captain’s chair.

Shane looked slightly shocked that someone called him out on not sitting in the captain's chair. Of all the things to rattle him in this situation it was clearly being called out on not being comfortable about being in command. "Right yeah, chair." He said in a bit of a daze as he sat in the captain's chair. "We need to tell 777 if their not jamming us already." He pressed the Comms button again to reach the station.

“Breathe,” She said softly, giving a rather teacherly look to Shane, “You’re the highest ranking officer aboard for a reason. tr’Hara wouldn’t have left you in charge if he didn’t trust you.”

Upon sending the message, a new module lights up on the Borg Cube, and the tactical console in front of Kiadras starts screaming. This can only mean one thing: it's firing up some kind of weapon.

“Shit- Shitshitshit-” Kiadras’ tender presentation quickly faded at the scream from his console, “They’re about to fire on us,” Opening a shipwide channel!

The weapon did indeed fire, rattling the shields mostly, though the ship was still shaken, and more delicate systems likely took some damage. Then, the tractor beam turned off, before turning on again, but only on the shuttles. The weapon was firing up again, but not immediately shooting again. This, it seemed, was a warning shot.

"That could have been a lot worse?" Shane said confused. It wasn't in the Borg's playbook to give warning shots. "Can we fire on the weapons platform?"

"We are unaware of circumstances where a Borg vessel discharged its weapons in a warning shot when engaging a vessel likely with technology of interest." Twelve stated then, they were aware they'd stated the obvious by they happened to be uncomfortable right now. So well, that happened. "We feel we should caution you, sir, that further hostile response may result in continued hostile action from the cube."

“So we stay put, for now,” Kiadras said with a soft hum, “Not like we can do much else, given the tractor beam…” She leaned back in her seat, “Why would they be using tactics outside of their handbook? They’re not exactly adaptive. The only brilliant Borg tactical minds I’ve met are ones that aren’t linked to the hivemind.”

"The collective would not depart from the standard opening tactical playbook." Twelve stated then simply. "We have not provided the cube with anything that'd indicate that adaptation would be necessitated against what we're doing and." The El-Aurian paused as their mind internally screamed at them to stop with this as they were a medical drone.. no, doctor and this wasn't their responsibility. "Though, we are aware we not of any relevant department, we feel that it seems there are far better ways to react to a potential threat, at least to us."

"Borg are nothing if not adaptive," One chimed in. "They have a singular goal and that is the prolonged survival of the species. They will do anything for self-preservation, including adapt."

"Well we're free from the beam for now." Shane still uncomfortable in the captain's chair didn't want to risk the borg firing in anger at them for real. "Lt. tr'Morvar back is off. 50,000 kilometers to aft. Keep us in weapons and transporter range but let's show them that we got the warning."

Too much chatter, not enough action. A second shot was fired before Syrax could react, once more rattling the ship. It hit a bit harder than the last one.

6

4

"... Think we should still show them we got the warning, sir?.." it would've been a sassy remark if not for the slightly pained tone in his voice. Nevertheless, his hands were stubbornly glued to the console, making Eventide slide further and further backwards, widening the distance...

Kiadras was holding his breath just slightly, watching the shields percentage closely as the ship began to move further and further back, “ETA from base on reinforcements?”

Shane shook his head. When Kiadras spoke up. "We have to assume Comms are being jammed if we haven't heard back yet." Shane tapped on the pad in the captain's chair pulling up the status of the repairs so he could keep tabs on the ships status. "I want quantum torpedoes loaded in the tubes. If we need to fight we need as strong a first strike as possible. Are we able to raise the shuttles and recall them?" He asked looking to whoever was manning comms or ops console.

“Aye sir, loading weapons systems,” After one system lit up hot, she’d take a sparing glance out the viewscreen, just to make sure the cube was staying there. It would be just her luck for it to warp away as she was getting things ready to retaliate.

No warping away of any sort was happening. In fact, the cube didn't seem to be responding in any way, except simply charging its own weapon back up. The shuttles, if they were being hailed, didn't respond, or if they were responding, weren't able to go anywhere while in the tractor beam.

“Commander, they’re charging weapons again,” Kiadras glanced back at Shane, “Torpedos are hot…we’ll want to aim for their weapons platforms. Hopefully, the away team’s far off.” (edited)

"Shit, god help us." Shane muttered, steeling himself for combat. "Target at your discretion commander, Lieutenant be ready for evasive manoeuvres pattern delta after we fire."

Kiadras began to target the cube’s weapons platform, whichever one was warming up and about to send another warning shot. Though, if she were honest, at this point it was less of a warning shot and more of a regular shot. She kept her breathing regulated as the target systems worked, keeping an eye on how fast the Borg weapon was charging.

"Understood," this time he was ready to move, as soon as that shot would be dealt. Helmsmanship was all about working in sync with the rest of the ship, and boy was he ready to perform like a well-oiled cog. Especially when the thought of his cousin being there on that cube, right now, in the back of his mind.

"Fire when ready commander. Don't let them hit the shuttles their sitting ducks, keep its focus on us." Shane ordered, skipping into the mindset that tactical officers trained for ready to use whatever he could to come out on top. He also pressed the Comms button to talk to engineering before things got bad.

“Target acquired. Firing,” The Trill took in a breath and launched one of the quantum torpedoes directly at the cube’s weapon systems.

The cube lurched as the shields took the hit. Immediately it fired the weapon it had been charging, before immediately charging up three at the same time.

Yeah we're fucking skedaddling after that. He kicked Eventide into gear as soon as the shot rang out!

“Firing off flares!” Anything to try and make the evasive maneuvers a little more, well, evasive!

"We need to get through the shields, try and match the weapons to the cubes shield harmonics. Use the same subroutine they used earlier for the anti shield. Maybe that'll punch through the shields and disable it's weapons!" Shane shouted as he lurched to one side of the captain's chair as Syrax banked hard. (edited)

“On it! Try and get that engineer from earlier on the line, just in case!” Kiadras started to flip through harmonics on her console after the flares flew out into the surrounding space, “There’s three of them now…shit. Things are gonna get real tricky, Commander!”

"We've got this, keep firing. Bonus points if you can free the shuttles." Shane tapped on the chairs console ordering the shuttles to retreat to warp and inform 777 what was happening if they got free.

As soon as even just one frequency matched, Kiadras let another torpedo fly free from Eventide toward the cube.

The frequencies cycle once a millisecond. That is 1000 times per second. Perhaps for the phaser banks, shootinng at the speed of light, this would be feasible, if the reaction time for both the operator and the ship were smaller than that. But with a torpedo? You'd have to have the best luck in the world. At it stood, the torpedo simply hit against the shields again, and this time, Eventide received three hits in return. The first one missed, thanks to the evasive manoeuvres. But these hits were serious, and the shields were taking a serious beating. One more volley of hits, and it's debatable how intact Eventide was going to remain.

"Alright torpedos aren't working we need to cut through the shields with the phasers. If we don't take them out the next volly is gonna be bad!" Shane yelled ordering to switch to phaser fire. "Keep the barrage constant and harmonics constantly variating! The computer should be able to cycle faster then you doing it manually!"

“Aye!” The Trill swapped over to phasers and began to fire, concentrating fire at the cube’s weaponry to try and slice through the shields. The computer handling the harmonics cycling let her hands rest for a few moments.

"I think we should back away even more..." it felt horrible suggesting that, but Syrax had row seat for all the damage. Shit was hitting the fan, as humans say....

"If this volly isn't effective switch to pattern omega and withdraw, as soon as we're out of weapons range engage the cloak. If it isn't fried that is." Shane ordered, hedging his options if phasers didn't go well.

Kiadras glanced at Syrax and then at Shane, a very worried look on her face as the phasers kept firing. Syrax had a point, but they still had people in there. They were gonna get ripped apart at this rate… “Aye, sir,” But Vrii was stubborn, and so was every one of its hosts.

The phasers did less to jostle the cube, except for one which did manage to break through the shields due to getting lucky with the frequencies. One tactical node had been destroyed, but that left two currently charged to hit Eventide again. They both hit. Shields below 30%. Is this how you want to go down?

“…Shane,” She lifted her eyes toward the ACTO, “We’re at 30.”

"Helm pattern omega. Get us clear of weapons range then engage the cloak. The away teams are going to need to fend from themselves for the time being." Shane knew the fight couldn't be e won. As much as a part of him wanted to keep on going he knew that was too big a risk. He sunk into the chair a bit as they withdrew before standing as soon as they were at a safe distance. He looked at the chair for a brief moment as if it was a throne that had rejected him. But he had to shake off that feeling. Quietly he tapped the comms panel.

Twelve watched this situation with growing concern, too the Commander it honestly looked like the Tactical officers had just elected to pick a fight with a Borg cube. It also seemed to them that the cube happened to be given better than it was getting, while it also happened to have away teams aboard it. It wasn't their place to object even if she'd happened to have felt comfortable with doing so right now, but she honestly harboured concerns about the away teams. If the cube had happened to have been mostly dormant before, it might well have received a jolt to wake up and start to self-repair now. "We are leaving the bridge to help see to wounded." The El-Aurian declared as they moved toward the turbolift.

Even as Eventide came out of weapons range and cloaked, the cube kept its weapons systems loaded, clearly not entirely trusting the ship not to return.

7

"Alright let's not do that again." Shane said looking down at a console as damage reports came in. "We need to find a way to get communications back with the away teams, let them know the cube started firing at us."

"I'm not an expert, but I expect them to have realised." The cube had lurched, after all, and most people on the away team could be trusted to expect that they wouldn't have fired randomly.

Kiadras was already in the process of doing some damage control and the weapons console, “Do we wanna head back to base..?”

"And abandon the away team?" Shane asked quizzically, sure that leaving was a terrible idea. What if the cube left as soon as they saw the warp signature leaving the area then the away team would be missing in action.

"Do we have much choice? We are likely to get destroyed if we stay - at this rate, I'm unsure if Eventide can keep up her speed for evasive maneuvers for long..." he... refused to look anyone in the eyes as he said that.

The Trill didn’t look too pleased about what she was suggesting either, “Lawson, I…speaking tactically, we can’t stay here. We need to go lick our wounds,” Kiadras glanced out the viewscreen at the cube, watching, waiting… “Their weapons are still hot. Even if we get repairs finished out here, it’s like tr’Morvar said, we’re…” She swallowed, “I recommend we head back to base.” (edited)

Before Shane could say anything he heard the message come through on the comms, he touched the comm to reply.

Kiadras perked up from where he was seated at the message, turning toward Shane and waiting for a response from the away team. When the time began to lapse… “…did it send?”

"I... I think so? I'm not a Comms specialist but it looks like it sent fine? The cube must be blocking communications, that or our Comms relay has been damaged." Shane said with a sigh realising retreat might be their only option. "How bad are the damage reports?" He asked, moving to an ops console to see the reports as they came in.

Eventide was holding steady, mostly minor damage across all decks, but shields took a heavy beating. They'd have to send a lot of extra power to shields if they wanted to engage the cube again, power they then couldn't use for the weapons systems.

"I don't see how we could respond short of drumming out morse code with torpedo's." Shane mused hearing the second message come through on the comms channel. "How long will it take us to get back to 777 at maximum warp?" Shane asked, looking in the direction of Syrax.

1

At warp five, which is what's allowed outside of extreme emergencies, about thirty minutes.

"It should be a five minute trip at warp 8." Shane said after spending a minute doing the maths in his head. "Id say this qualifies as an emergency." Shane paused for a moment to give the officers on the bridge a moment to object to his definition of emergency. "I want to leave the away teams on their own for as little time as possible while we get repairs and reinforcements. I also want us to drop comm and sensor buoys so we can keep an eye on the cube from long range. And may history forgive us for withdrawing."

6

"We'll come back for them, sir. It's going to be okay," was he convincing the bridge, or himself? With the lasting glance on the Borg cube, the helmsman began turning the ship around, before initiating the warp...

Shane made sure to drop sensor relays, communications buoys, a starfleet quarantine beacon and a cache of supplies that the away team could remotely control if they could get a signal out.

5

The Trill took in a deep breath and watched the cube move away from the viewscreen. She removed her hands from the weapons console and stared at the screen for a few moments, watching the reflected colors of the warp flow past. There’s a million what if questions flying through her head, on how she could’ve done better or what she could’ve done differently, but she knew where what ifs would lead. After a few moments, she stood up and walked to the replicator to get herself an energy drink. She was starting to shut down.

Shane once again began to pace behind the captain's chair. Second guessing his command decisions and ability as an officer. Leaving the away team behind was weighing on him.

Shane was the first back on the Eventide's bridge, ready to work through pre-flight quickly so they could leave as soon as everyone was ready. He made his way first to the operations console to, well, start the ship.

After some time had passed, the Trill made her way back up to the bridge in full tactical armor, though she’d left her helmet down the shuttle the away team would be taking. Torpedoes had been requisitioned, Eventide was hopefully ready for whatever was about to be thrown at her. She moved over to the shields console and leaned over the seat, flipping it on and getting it ready to show Marze what all to do. As she did, she glanced toward Shane. “It’s a good plan, Shane,” A little reassurance. (edited)

Kya trailed in the wake of Kiadras, in full tactical gear as well. “And we have a good crew to pull it off with.” She added.

TShai was the fourth officer on the bridge, making a beeline for the Tactical console and beginning the weapon calibration - relieving the officer working on quality assurance. "Weapon systems calibrating Captain, phasers will be online within the minute."

Marze was there! Feeling a lot bit out of his depth, but there all the same. He walked over to Kiadras and looked over at the shields console, eyes wide. He had seen one before, of course, just... never had there been such a weight on his success.

“Ensign! Happy to see you,” Kiadras shot Marze a smile as he pulled the seat out for the engineer and took a step back, “Take a seat, lemme show you what all you’ve gotta do and keep track of. This is gonna be a…crash course, but you’ll do great,” He gave Marze a pat on the shoulder.

They nodded and took a seat, familiarising themselves with the controls of this particular vessel, still listening to Kiadras with a slight smile on their face. They might not have been the most confident, but... fake it until you make it... right?

She gave Kiadras a tap on the shoulder. “I’m going to make sure the shuttle is ready to fly and stocked.” She said, omitting the fact she was going to pray as well.

Khamlet walked onto the bridge of the Eventide it was the first time he had been on a Federation starship’s bridge - well the first time he had been aboard one without being covered in blood and his heart thrumming with the beat of victory. He adjusted the tactical armour that he had been issued with, murmured in a low growl to himself as he stepped out of the turbolift, “Even the armour feels like a toy.”

"Yeah I never liked wearing it." Shane said as he moved to the next console he had to start up. "The flight suits are good though, basically a sturdier EV suit." Shane also nodded in thanks to the words of Reassurance from Kiadras. Before cycling up the engineering console on the bridge and starting it's self diagnostic process as part of the pre flight checklist.

Mid-lesson, Kiadras gave Kya a little nod as she headed off to check over the shuttle. The Trill was leaning over Marze’s shoulder with her hands resting on the back of the chair, occasionally pointing at the console and saying, “Tap there, that’ll push charge to that side of the ship,” and “You need to keep watch of the percentage every time there’s a reported hit. It looks confusing, I know, but you’ll get used to jumping your eyes between the center of the screen and the corner,” She took in a breath and chuckled softly at Khamlet’s dismay at the armor. “Hey, on the bright side, you’re not stuck in armor, huh?” She leaned a bit over to give Marze a cheeky grin. (edited)

Khamlet looked up at Commander Lawson as he agreed, a gruff grunted acknowledgement, “I feel like I could break this with my own hands, how can it stop a blade?” He despaired for any warrior forced to fight in this armour, it almost made him pity the Federation soldiers cut down in the war - they should have died in better armour, he was growing more certain of that feeling. He thought he heard something whispered to the cadet by the other commander - the one who had laughed welcomingly at battle - but didn’t catch it. He stood there looking around the bridge, soon he would head off to run pre-launch and pre-flight checks on the shuttle, but for now he made himself available for his commanders to give a task to. His eyes scanned the consoles and everything with a curious attention to detail, things looked different without the smoke of battle around them. It seemed somehow lesser for it.

Fulfilling her Vulcan duty, T'Shai raised an eyebrow at Khamlet.

"It won't, so don't get stabbed." Shane said with a bit of a laugh. "It's supposed to disperse the energy from weapons fire so you don't get vaporised in one go. And in fairness, federation doctrine doesn't call for fixing bayonets." Was the armour not entirely fit for purpose for the last war with the Klingons? Sure, but it was better than nothing.

Marze nodded, understanding the console primer rather effortlessly. They were always a quick study after all. "It is making sense... so far..." They said with a firm nod.

Khamlet moved closer to Commander Lawson as he laughed and pointed out that it wouldn’t so he shouldn't get stabbed, he was grinning wide and barked a laugh, “But what is the point of battle then?” He was joyous and finally felt something like belonging, peace he supposed you could call it as strange as that might sound, for he was a Klingon and he lived and would die for moments like this. Battle awaited at last once more!

“Great!” She beamed. Two of her previous hosts were teachers just like her, and she was always pleased threefold whenever things clicked for a student, “The hope is that you won’t have to actually do much of anything beyond raising, lowering, and calibrating, but you have to be prepared,” She patted Marze’s shoulders from behind the chair, “You’ve got this.”

"I've got this," he said with a smile on his face, hoping that things would be easy as well, that meant that the plan was going well, and that was a good thing.

"The point of battle?" Shane asked rhetorically. "Win the fight before your enemy has a chance to stab you. It adds an extra challenge." He said with a smile as the diagnostic finished giving the ship a clean bill of health following their last scuffle with the cube.

Khamlet barked out a laugh again and very nearly slapped Shane upon the back, but fortunately held back the gesture - remembering at the last moment this was not a Klingon ship. “The ship, she fights well?” He asked changing the topic easily, his voice loud and audible across the bridge - sneaks and cowards whispered - and his eyes roved across the consoles and stations once more. He couldn’t recall having fought one of this class before so it would be helpful to know just how much he could rely upon it in a fight when he was piloting the shuttle.

1

"She's surprisingly nimble for a ship of her size so if you know what you're doing she fights well. But she's not a starfleet cruiser or a V'orcha battlecruiser so don't hold to that standard." As Shane spoke he pressed the Comm panel to speak to engineering.

Khamlet nodded as the commander explained that the Eventide was more nimble than she first appeared, but that she wasn’t a Vor’cha was obvious - or even one of the Federations cruisers. It was clear that she wasn’t made for war - even walking to the bridge he noticed too few chokepoints, the halls too easily navigable, everything too accessible, she was built for accessibility and comfort not for war. It was a strange feeling being on the ship for him. Not an unwelcome one. “Still I look forward to seeing her in action…” Even though the mission was meant to be to rescue an away team from a supposedly inert Cube and thus any real action was likely minimal. That train of thought reminded him, “Commander, is there a scan of the Cube’s interior?” He would review the standard layouts available, but if the Eventide had a scan - even some basic magnetometric density feedback or the like - to give a sense of the internal layout of this specific Cube it would make his job as shuttle pilot easier.

"Whatever we've got should be on the science console." He pointed to a console on the far side of the bridge. "Whatever we got in the last engagement plus the database on known Borg ships should be there?" After directing the Lieutenant to the right console Shane thought to himself, what would a captain do here? Ah! A rousing speech to the crew, naturally. Whether he could inspire would remain to be seen but he would try none the less.

“Alright Ensign. I’ve gotta get ready for the mission,” Kiadras began to move from the shields console and gave Marze a nod, “Good luck, kid,” An engineer as the shields officer…admittedly, not the weirdest thing she’s seen aboard a ship.

Khamlet gave a grunt as a thank you to the commander, and settled himself in front of the console and began to go through all the available data on the specific Cube they were heading for. Any variations or fluctuations in fields, emitters, the noted density and materials of bulkheads, looking constantly for vulnerabilities with the eyes of an experienced Klingon warrior. He wasn’t here to understand, to catalogue, to review this Cube, he was here to get a team into and off of it, and he would do that or die. The console chimed as he reviewed its contents thoroughly, grumbling or huffing as he did so, sometimes something like a chuckle if he saw something he liked.

Now with pre-flight checks mostly finished Shane knew it was time for them to get underway. His eyes went to the captain's chair in the centre of the bridge, shortly after his gaze moved to the chair the ice cold gnawing came back. A seed of doubt in the depths of his gut asking 'can I do this?' Shane tried his best to suppress the feeling from his conscious mind, because he had to do this, even if he felt he couldn't. He eventually walked to the middle of the bridge. Despite nearly beginning his trademark pacing behind the chair he managed to stop himself and sit down. He then pressed the communications button in the chairs console.

Standing at the Tactical console. T'Shai (who had only just realised she technically qualified for acting XO) spoke up to grab Shane's attention. "All decks report ready and 777 has given us the green light to undock - on your command, Captain." She made a point to slightly emphasise the final word. It would be a lie to say that T'Shai didn't feel at least some kind of trepidation towards what they were heading towards, but she was dealing with it in her own way. There was going to one hell of a debrief after this. (edited)

Khamlet had reviewed what he could at the console, and sent through all available data to the shuttle's own computer, and was rising to depart and head to the shuttlebay and begin pre-flight checks on the shuttle. However, spotting the commander Lawson seemingly standing with purpose behind the captain's chair made the Klingon stop and turn slightly to watch. What did a Federation captain do before battle? He was curious.

Khamlet listened as the short speech of the commander echoed across the comms of the Eventide. It wasn’t the sort of call to battle that he was used to, his blood did not sing with fire called forth, there was no roar that would shatter gods, but it was not a Klingon captain and this was not a Klingon ship. As the turbolift opened he turned to the commander, “batlh bIHeghjaj!” His voice growled out the words, teeth showing, the universal translator rendering the poetry of them as simply: ‘May you die honourably!’ And the turbolift hissed close and Khamlet was gone to get the shuttle ready.

2

Kiadras took in a breath and gave Shane a nod. This was it. It was a good little speech, and he was going to do his damndest to live up to it. Every single member of the away team was coming with him back to Eventide aboard the shuttle or in through the transporter, and he was going to make damn sure of it. Lives were in his hands now, not just the away team’s but also his rescue team. Kya, Karavix, Twelve, Khamlet, Eicran…some of them he had just properly met, but he had faith. He patted the newly-minted captain on his shoulder. Shane was gonna do great, “See you soon, Lawson,” He flashed a grin and headed to follow Khamlet down.

One of One once more manned the Science console. They had offered, initially, to join the away team, but given that Commander Vrii's plan had proceeded with no real resistance, they felt they would probably be more help on the bridge, monitoring life signs, shield modulations, and standing at the ready to receive the away team in whatever condition they came back to Eventide in.

Instead, Timi took to the stage, or rather, the bridge. He wanted to be here to get all the information first-hand to avoid confusion, given his deafness, so he'd taken to standing quietly to the side, already clad in the appropriate uniform like a knight in 25th-century armour.

"Welcome aboard Commander, Lieutenant." Shane said with a nod from his seat in the chair as Timi and One appeared on the bridge. "We should be good to go in a few, we're not waiting on clearance from Ops."

Vara, known coward, was here. Why, may you ask? Well. She wanted to try for once (and truthfully she would rather have a hand in her survival or death instead of praying or deserting and then getting sent to jail), so she was here. No quips or snark thus far as she sat at one of the consoles, here to help the bridge crew (she wasn’t suicidal enough to actively want to go to the cube).

A very un-Timi shaped shadow slinked by behind the man's back, his body language like that of a kid who's visiting a museum for the first time of their life - he even produced a gentle little "ooh!" at the sight of the bridge, taking it all in with what seemed to be genuine curiosity in those eye-- oh, nevermind, actually. Hell knew what was going on there. The newly minted Intel officer then flicked his attention towards Shane, to whom the android smiled and offered a two-fingered salute: "Hello Lieutenant Commander! I've heard you have problems with an evil oversized Rubik's cube, so I'm here to help solve that. Ensign Rex, reporting for duty."

10

7

Timi had to cover his mouth to stifle a laugh. He'd heard about their newest ensign, of course, but seeing the man in action was a separate thing entirely. So cheerful for such a solemn occasion...

She blinked and looked at the newbie, well, at least someone was cheerful today!

Shane's attention was snapped from the weapons status diagnosis he was reading as his head drifted up to the new intel officer. His gaze pierced right through Kiaros' soul for a second before he spoke. "It's Captain while I sit in the chair Ensign." Shane first gently corrected, still himself not sure how to feel about naval tradition meaning he was to be addressed as captain. "Evil oversized rubix cube is a new one, hopefully it's as simple as one to fix." Shane shot a look to timi after he finished speaking asking 'what the hell kind of people are intel recruiting these days?'

3

4

As soon as the departure clearance from Ops came through, Shane turned his chair toward whoever had the helm. "Helm, clear all moorings and sever all umbilicals. Take us out, aft thrusters to full." He turned to whoever was in the Comms station. "Signal the Fionnguala and Soval that we're underway, tell them to head for the Rally point at '891 gamma, best possible speed." (edited)

2

Vara’s teeth chattered slightly from nerves, why did she sign up for this field trip. Oh right, wanting to try and stuff. still.

Iviaan stayed perched at the medical console, crutches safely tucked beside his seat for the time being. His fingers drummed impatiently against the seat. Diahjir had given him the rundown— still, his heart ached for his crewmates and officers. He cast the new Intelligence officer a smile. "Good to have you on board, Ensign," the text to speech rang out. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances..."

Before too long, the Eventide was once more in the Borg Cube's vicinity, the cube once more looming over the ship ominously as it had before.

5

As soon as they were in sensor range, One went to work, putting the sensor readings on the viewscreen to illustrate. "Sixteen life signs congruent with the away team. Four Borg life signs." The meaning was clear: three people had been assimilated in the past week.

5

4

"Make sure the cloak stays up. Best to keep a low profile." Shane said to whichever console was in charge of that. "Where are the friendlies concentrated?" He asked turning to One.

As grim as it was, T'Shai had expected as much - actually, she had expected more than four. A testament to the team that went inside. She turned to One "We should notify Medical ahead of time - so they have an ample window to prepare the right amount of de-assimilation equipment."

"Medical has quarantine set up and ready to go for those untouched," if Iviaan had spoken aloud, his voice would be trembling. He knew it was a possibility, but still. Damn it. Damn it all... "Aye, sir, I'm on it..."

Vara hummed grimly as the number came in, well that certainly wasn’t good, she took a breath. This would be fine.

Marze listened to the report, their eyes watering slightly when they heard that there had been some assimilated. They needed to focus on the mission, on their shield console.

As shown on the viewscreen, the friendlies were all concentrated in an area quite near to the outside of the cube. The Borg lifesigns on the other hand were spread out more, up to a kilometer away from the away team, and moving around at varying speeds.

As One's report came through, and the situation became clear, Timi motioned for Kairos to follow as he started to make his way to the runabout.

2

She waved Timi off nicely, straight up no sass. She was on her best behaviour today.

2

"Captain," he echoed with an easy lilt to his voice, holding Shane's stare with his own one. Considering Kairos' situation, it made one wonder - just which of the souls the tactical officer was looking so intently at?.. After being done studying the face in front of him, the android offered a simple nod, the light smile not leaving his face: "Hope's a verb, sir! I have a feeling we'll get it done." Not too long after, he would follow the senior Intel officer off of the bridge, definitely not super eager to get leashed off and venture into the cube, no-no-no...

2

1

Once everyone who wanted to be was on board, the runabout slipped from the grasp of the Eventide, drifting just close enough to catch the attention of the cube. As it drew close, there was a moment of bated breath, of silence, prayer, perhaps — until the cube opened its maw to welcome the runabout, pulling it in with a tractor beam.

1

"Tractor beam detected Captain, the Cube has taken the bait." T'Shai announced, as if it wasn't obvious on the viewscreen. "Now we must wait."

"Helm keep us on station with the cloak up, let's sit just beyond four million kilometres. I want us to stay at a standing red alert while we're here, be ready for anything from the cube."

The runabout was sealed inside, their fates now in their own hands.

4

Shane swiveled his chair to One wanting to ask him a question. "Lieutenant, now that we understand the shields rotation better do you think we can somehow get a message through? I'll leave the science to you but would it be theoretically possible?"

1

“Kinda like a guard rotation before a vault.” She mumbled to herself from her spot on the bridge, mostly just trying to give herself a metaphor to calm herself in the face of something so out of her wheelhouse.

"Sure, I guess you could make that analogy." Iviaan glanced oddly to the Intelligence officer, but said nothing more on that subject. "I hope everyone's doing alright.." Were the non-assimilated life signs still holding steady?

"It's shields went down!" Shane yelled elated as the insane plan seemed to have worked. "Helm move us into transporter range, full impulse power." He pressed the Comms panel in the captain's chair.

3

2

She took a breath, well that was a win she supposed. She silently hoped Timi was okay.

Marze grinned when he saw that the shields had gone down. That meant that something must have happened right? That meant something good... right?

As soon as the Trill was able to, she turbolifted up to the bridge. She had thumped her helmet onto a console close to her and moved over to the captain’s chair, “Hop up, Shane. I feel like death but you’re gonna hug me,” She grinned.

1

Shane stood to give Kiadras a bone crushing bear hug. Once the hug finished he spoke. "You did good. Everyone came back." He spoke like a captain should, the gnawing ever present in the bottom of his gut. But it was only dawning on him that varal only just survived and he would probably be acting CTO for a while.

Thank the stars for tactical armor, which protected him from the ACTO’s attempts to crack his spine in half with a hug. He reciprocated, though! Tightening his arms around the acting captain, he patted Shane on the back and then released, “You did good too, Lawson. We’re back in business, and everyone’s gonna be safe and sound,” He smiled, before turning toward Marze. “Ensign! Fantastic job, I’ve got to commend you for it!” He beamed, “I told you you’d do great! And that you would hopefully not have to do all that much, hah!” (edited)

"I... thanks! I am just glad everything seems to have gone alright..." He exclaimed, grin on his face not falling from earlier. "Your compliments mean a lot!"

“Just- Just great work all around, everybody,” She thumped into a chair beside Marze and leaned her head back against it, “…stars…I need a drink.”

"God a drink would be great." Shane said to himself imagining the crisp taste of the real beer they had on the station as he sat back down in his chair. "When were back..." Speaking of going back Shane had to order their withdrawal. "Helm, turn to course 180 mark 215 and engage at warp three. Let's head home."

Being one of the higher ranking officers, who'd also miraculously remained perfectly unharmed, Timi simply made his way back unto the bridge upon convincing the medical officers that no, really, he didn't need medical attention. He was simply soaking up the conversation flying around, people-watching the people who could stand to be watched at this point.

Still at her post, she gave a quick wave to Timi before returning to work, a little bored now that she had nothing to worry about.

"Whew!" the ensign followed suit, the same way he left the bridge in the first place, as if the two were gone for just five minutes or so. The only evidence of anything actually happening at all, were the soot marks and thin crack lines visible on Kairos' smiling face, as well as the lack of gloves on his hands. The man briefly stretched as he went, arms up, head slightly angled to the side, before dropping them back down. He then turned on his heel towards Timi, practically beaming: "Job done! I think I'm all warmed up for the starbase!" (edited)

Once again, mirroring their first appearance on the bridge, Timi smiled, generally finding Kairos quite amusing and having it show quite plainly this time, no longer hiding it behind his hand. "Make sure a professional takes a look at your face when we get home, I think you broke your nose," he signed, mirth on his face reading clearly as signifying a joking tone. (edited)

"Hm?" his eyes briefly went criss-crossed as he focused on his nose, "Aw man, I knew something was off..." There was no gentleness as his two fingers grabbed around his nose, his thumb pushing onto it to fit it back in place: "I will, though! See a professional, that is. And I might check the underneath area again, just to make sure it's all okay. Could go to medbay now, but I think they all have their hands full and I don't wanna bother them too much even for a tricorder."

3

Timi looked at Kairos appraisingly, tilting his head as if he was trying to get a better angle, before finally nodding. "Looks better," he signed with a grin. "We'll be at the station quite soon anyway, you might as well wait that last half an hour and get someone who isn't overrun and overstressed to take a look," he agreed with Kairos, standing on his tippy toes quickly in hopes of seeing the pilot's console and with it the ETA.

Shane looked on in horror as the weird looking trill pushed their nose back into place without even a hint of pain or trepidation. After many years not many things phased the poor man, this was one of them. "I. Did you?" He struggled to find the words to describe the insanity he had just witnessed.

"Thanks!" he replied to the senior Intel officer, before turning his attention towards Shane - the Captain, he remembered, whom Kairos regarded curiously: "Did I what, sir?"

Timi also looked at Shane, schooling his face into a puzzled expression as he looked at the ACTO. "Is there something wrong?" he signed, making full use of the free acting classes one received upon being scouted by Intelligence.

"You just reset your nose, with your bare hands? And you didn't even flinch?" Shane said stunned timi didn't seem to regard this as concerning behaviour in the slightest.

"That I did," nod-nod, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he did. "Should I have done it with gloves on?.."

"Don't you set your own nose?" Timi signed at the same time, adding to the gaslighting.

"At the very least gloves would be called for?" Shane responded increasingly confused, what kind of weird ass trill doesn't just get a doctor to fix their nose? That had to have hurt like a bitch right? "No I usually don't set me own nose this is what we have doctors for." Shane signed back before thinking. "Well there was that one time... But that doesn't count I crashed." He continued to sign.

"I'll consider the gloves if I ever get my face dented again, then!" oh you motherfucker. "Thank you, sir!"

Timi shrugged, turning towards Kairos again but signing clearly enough that Shane would be able to follow along with ease. "I usually do it without gloves, too," he signed nonchalantly, despite having never broken his nose in his life and absolutely not considering himself strong enough to set his own nose. He was aurafarming. That was, he was lying. (edited)

T'Shai, who had actually done it before while fighting the Dominion, piped up. "Your technique was good, Ensign. But resetting one's nose is a... delicate affair. As Commander Lawson said, I would suggest using gloves to prevent possible infections."

He laughed - and unlike his tauntings back at the cube, this one sounded warm and genuine: "That's the way to do it! I promise you, sirs, after getting my face blown off this is the last thing that could bother me."

"Dented?" Shane muttered under his breath. Who says they dented their face? Kairos was by far the weirdest Ensign he'd ever met. Then again everyone in starfleet intelligence was at best goddamn a goddamn weirdo.

1

Timi was super normal, thank you very much. "Happens to the best of us," he signed as he nodded sagely.

"Dented," he muttered back in Shane's voice, nodding and smiling as he did. Why was he like this.

5

2

1

Shane looked at Kairos with a look that said 'what the actual fuck??' what the hell kind of Trill could perfectly mimic his voice like that?' (edited)

T'Shai raised an eyebrow, having finally figured out what Kairos was. He seemed... Curious. Someone to investigate for sure.

5

"School your expression, commander, it's his first day on the job and I want the station to be a welcoming first posting," Timi signed, frowning a little for extra effect.

Vara spun in her chair a little. “Sides, it’s intel, we’re all a little weird.” She said, Vara being nice? What a world.

"Alright alright." Shane signed back. Whatever the hell was up with Kairos wasn't his problem. Intel could deal with their own he had a big enough circus with enough monkeys as the acting head of Tactical.

"Aww, shucks," he gestured with his hand a little bit, as if shy. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Right, Capta-a-ain?.."