Star Trek: Starbase 777 - command-office

A while after docking with the station Shane was first into the command office with a stack of PADDs. Containing among other things the Eventide's scans of the Cube, the Away Teams last known locations and vital signs, the black box data from the Eventide's firefight, casualty and damage reports, and his own after action report.

The Trill sat beside Shane, doing much of the same. He’d look at a PADD and then pass it to the ACTO after outlining a few things. Leaning back in his seat as he looked at one, he mused, “…we could try and lead the cube into the base’s weapons range…”

"We don't even know if it's engines are functional, and leading it here creates a messy combat environment full of civilians. If we empty the station of civilians and non essentials maybe though." Shane replied as he organised the PADDs and waited for more people to arrive.

"She was dead in the water. If she could have moved, she likely would have taken off the second the away team boarded." Karavix twirled a pen between her fingers, trying to think. "Baited by a lure to the belly of the beast. How unfortunate."

"Tractor beam?" Kiadras offered, taking a sip of her energy drink before returning to another PADD. Her leg was bouncing again, "Fuck..." She hissed, tossing the PADD onto the table and swiping a hand down her face.

Shane leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling before sighing. "Fuck me."

Having been largely silent up until now, T'Shai stood up and began pacing™. Combat analysis, this is what she was good at - taking what was known and putting it in broader contexts. "The Eventide is too small in mass to properly stop a Borg Cube, a more likely result would be that the Eventide gets pulled along - if the Cube does begin moving again." T'Shai stopped at the window and turned around. "Is there a list of active Starfleet ships in the region? If this cube's weapons are indeed active then the Eventide will need support."

"I'm sure I can get a list of what we've got in the region." Shane said as he began to tap on a computer console built into the conference table. "Off the top of my head the Fionnguala should be around here somewhere but she's barely out of space trials. Plus the few ships docked here." Shane turned to Karavix. "How long do you think it'll take to get the ships here for refit to be combat ready?"

"Our focus should be on rescuing the away team first, no? If we go in guns blazing, we risk killing our crew." Karavix shook her head, matching Shane's rhythm on the table with her pen going back and forth, but not making any sound. " Our focus should be on how to rescue the team, not blasting the hive out of the sector."

The console Shane was playing with pulled up a list of active starships in the sector. "Only 9!? And half of them are science ships?" Shane drummed his fingered on the conference table dismayed. "The only non science ships around here the Fionnguala which is a Regent class cruiser, the Akula which is a Reliant class and the Soval which is a Ross class cruiser. Not enough for a fight." Shane sighed. "We need other options then."

"I say we contact them anyway - in the event that this cube does 'wake up' then we must be prepared. Contact the Captains of the science ships regardless, they need to be informed-" T'Shai stopped herself, forgetting she wasn't CTO anymore. She leaned onto the central table, electing to choose a new topic. "When dealing with the Borg, information is key - how detailed is our current sensor information on the cube?"

Fairly detailed. One of One had provided a PADD-ful of sensor data, which was hard to parse even for seasoned Science officers. It was probably more useful to get a team on that to translate it to something more digestible.

Marze was there, feeling very out of place in all of this, unsure whether they were really supposed to be there. But if anyone had any questions about shields, then maybe they could answer them. That was their thought anyways, as they sat in the back of the room.

The hacker had grabbed a few PADDs for herself after Kiadras and Shane tossed them aside, now pacing around the room with a small armful of data, “…now I’m stuck in Folsom Prison…hmhmhmmm…damnit all, let’s see here.”

Shane nodded in response to T'Shai. "Yeah we should inform the captains on Comms, along with starfleet command and probably the romulan republic, last thing we need is for them to get jumpy if a fleet shows up at the border." He also pulled up a projection of the Cube on a holo projector in the centre of the conference table showing the away teams last known locations.

“EMP…” She started muttering to herself, “Put it in a shuttle, let them take it into the hangar…damn thing goes up like a wire ‘a Christmas lights with a single broken bulb…” She paused in her pacing before snapping, “Life support systems,” That’s that idea off the table.

"We could attempt to find a way to deactivate the shields from the outside so we have a way to beam our officers back out. The sensor data that Lieutenant One of One has provided on their shields may be enough to go off of?" Evoras took a brief look at the data and raised an eyebrow. It would likely take at least some time to make sense of it, not to speak of coming up with a solution based in it. "It might take longer than they have, if it is possible at all, but might be worth a try."

"With how much damage we endured, getting Eventide back up to speed will take a few days," Karavix chimed in. "The away team packed supplies, but I am not certain how long they will last. "

"To deactivate the shields from outside, the Eventide would have to make a close approach to the Cube and stay long enough to access it's systems. While theoretically possible it puts the Eventide at a risk. Whether that risk would be too great is down to the ship's crew." Of course they would be willing, but a part of T'Shai hoped that they would be rational and not go with it.

“We could send an empty shuttle loaded up with supplies and a beacon, maybe…emergency airdrop,” He said with a shrug from where he was seated.

Kya was one of a good number of tactical people in here, hands in front of her. “I think Kiadras’s idea is good.” She said softly. “We also have to remember Eventide is the only tactical asset we have to help defend the station in the event this goes bad, it needs to be protected.” (edited)

"I did drop a supply probe before we went to warp. If they can access sensors and get through the shields, which they seemingly already did they should be able to bring it aboard via remote control." Shane chimed in, he's already had the same though Kiadras was having now.

Rii had been present from the start, quiet at the far edge of the holotable, listening as tactical worked through readiness lists, tractor options, and sensor interpretations. Their lower half shifted in small, deliberate arcs while their upper body remained still, hands loosely clasped. When a lull came, they stepped closer, their pale blue eyes settling on the table. “Our obligation is twofold,” they said evenly.“The away team, and the civilians aboard this station. We cannot protect one at the cost of the other.” They keyed a command into a console, isolating the Fionnguala’s patrol track. “Signal her to pull in and integrate with the station’s grid. Overlapping shields, interlocked weapons—we buy the rescue team time, if it comes to that.” Their gaze swept the table. *“Quietly stage non-essential personnel into shielded sectors. No panic, no broadcasts—security escorts only.” *Then, after a brief pause, their head drifted slightly from their shoulders, a sign of deep calculation. “We should also advise Starfleet Command, the Romulan Republic, and other local partners—factually, without speculation. If they see fleet movement here, they’ll know it is defensive, not hostile. At the same time, open a line to the other captains in range. We’ll exchange the sensor and tactical data we currently have—let them adapt it to their own ships’ capabilities. Even science vessels can serve as reconnaissance, data relays, or mobile shield generators if we coordinate well as a team,” Rii stepped back, letting the next officer speak, but their eyes stayed fixed on the cube marker, mind already sketching a networked defense grid from the ships on hand.

6

She nodded in understanding, the XO making perfect sense as she started pulling up data on her PADD. “I can help disseminate information amongst our allies ASAP, but I have another query that perhaps is more operations aligned.” She said, opening a second tab. “Whenever the Borg appear in federation space, the casualties are high.” She said, placing her PADD down, showing casualty information of The Battle of Wolf 359, and The Battle of Earth. “And these are minimal civilian presence scenarios, they never broke through to Earth and many Wolf 359 ships didn’t have much in the way of civilian crews.” She said glumly. “How realistic is evacuation of non-essential personnel?”

"An evacuation depends on how long we have." Shane jumped in. "A controlled evacuation with minimal panic could take a few days?" He made a guesstimate he in fact was only tangentially aware of your current evacuation plans they were drawn up before he was promoted. "I'll get Captain Uí Dhúill on comms to alter the Fionngualas course to 777 once we finish up here." Shane said in response to Rii.

T'Shai looked at Rii, then at Shane. "We should send out the alert to security teams that Borg protocol is going into effect." Aka - get your phasers checked, set up the defence points, the works. It wasn't subtle, though nothing of this calibre was going to be anyway. She then turned to Kya. "Wolf 359 was a planned engagement, and the Battle of Earth did reach planetfall stage, just not in this century. It would be prudent to began a limited station evacuation, prioritising non-residents first. I am concerned over how subtle something like this can be however."

She hummed. “We could perhaps get business owners to help with this? They are important members of the community and therefore could be helpful in calming fears?”

"There's no subtle way to evacuate fifteen thousand people." Shane once again chimed in. "We need to take steps to minimise panic while we make the station ready for defensive operations as commander T'Shai suggested." (edited)

Rii inclined their head slightly toward T’Shai, the gesture carrying quiet agreement."Borg protocol, yes. But with restraint. Every adjustment to our posture should be deliberate, not theatrical.” Their lower half shifted in a slow, thoughtful arc while their upper body stayed perfectly still. *“Weapons checks and defense point setups stay inside security channels—subtle changes to patrol patterns, shield reserves brought online quietly. The Cube learns—it watches. We cannot give it a reason to act before we are ready.” *They turned toward Kya.“Any evacuation, even a limited one, risks turning into a scramble if word spreads. And in a scramble, we could lose more than control of the station—we could lose the away team, or push the Cube into action before we’re ready. For now, we quietly prepare only the most vulnerable for rapid movement—those who cannot shelter in place safely.” Their lower body began to pace in measured steps, the motion quiet but deliberate, while their upper half remained steady at the table. “Involving business owners is sound—they are trusted faces, well-placed to keep communities calm and guide people to staging areas without raising alarms. We give them only the information they need to act, framed as part of routine safety measures, not to cause a panic.” *Their gaze swept the table. *“That’s one approach. I want to hear if anyone sees a safer balance.”

Kya nodded. “Understood commander.” She said, pulling up all tactical data they had on her padd. “I can start disseminating information within the hour to our allies.”

Shane pulled the black box data from the Eventide up onto the projection. "The cubes shield array is operating on a regenerative frequency with rapidly refreshing harmonics." He zoomed in on the tactical nodes next. "These tactical nodes are responsible for the weapons fire on the Eventide. They're not too sturdy a phaser shot took one out, but we got lucky with the harmonics." He zoomed back out letting the battle play back on the projection. "If we can't find a way to predict the harmonics or better yet lock it to one frequency we're going to be in real trouble if the cube comes knocking. Thankfully as far as we can tell it doesn't seem to be in a rush to go anywhere."

She nodded as she looked over the data, writing everything down on her PADD. “Right, but that could change any moment, doubly so given our active presence within the cube.” She said with a hum. “We should run simulations of both 777 and Eventide fighting that thing asap, and make any corrections we can in time for the real thing to come knocking.”

"Simulations can only go so far, though they can provide a general key to each encounter. Did the Eventide manage to get a sense of where the communication dead zone was? We should make establishing contact with the away teams a priority." T'Shai was now pursing through the black box data, hoping to find anything for her questions.

"As far as we could tell the Borg's shields were blocking communications with the away team. Then when we drew the cubes attention it's clear now they started to hit us with more generalised communications jamming, as evidenced by the fact that our request for reinforcements never got through." Shane replied looking over the black box data keenly, looking for anything the sensors might have picked up that they missed in the heat of the moment.

Kiadras had barely slept. The Trill had made her way back into the command office early in the morning, turning the lights on and slumping into one of the seats at the conference table. A halfway drunk to-go cup of coffee had slid out of her hand and onto the table, still messy with PADDs and paperwork. She tapped a button on the side of the table to turn on the holoprojector, staring at the cube with…just the weariest expression. “…hough…” She…well, vocalized. She swiped a hand down her face, rubbing some of the little sleep she had gotten the night before out of her eyes.

Shane was sat at the conference table, well sat was a strong word. He was in fact slumped over having not left last night. He rapidly lifted his head when Kiadras walked in. "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

Kiadras was so tired he could barely muster a surprised reaction at Shane jolting upward. His eyes slid over to his boss and looked at him for a few moments before he stood and walked to the replicator, “What kinda coffee do you want, Shane…”

"Uhh, a quadruple espresso." Now was the perfect time for a heart attack after all! "What time is it? I swear it was just 23:00?"

“0600,” She replied, requesting Shane’s just truly insane coffee order from the computer and setting the cup down in front of him, “Day Four.”

"It is 0900, actually." T'Shai said, walking into the command room not long after. Nigh-on jug of tea in hand, she placed it in the middle of the table and went to replicator to get some fresh cups. "Given how... popular the tea was yesterday, I elected to brew some more for today." Seriously, the leaf juice was guzzled just hours in. "How has the data analysis been progressing?"

"Mornin' Cap'n. Commanders." Maya greeted Lawson and the two as casually as she could before she let out a sigh before she took the last swig of a high-caffeine energy drink and waited by the replicator to make another one. She had not slept a wink the past few days. Normally Maya would look absolutely fine without sleep, but the fear of whatever could happen to her cousin inside a bloody Borg Cube had clearly weighed heavily on her " 0930 of Day Four of still figuring out how to get our friends and family out of there without blowing them or ourselves up..." (edited)

Kya had been in here all night with Shane, albeit at her own side of the table. She sighed, drinking a nice coffee. “Good morning everyone, I’ve been disseminating information and coordinating as best I can, we are currently on simulation 17 as well.”

"Right yeah, data analysis." That was what Shane fell asleep while doing. The previous night. "It should be finished now the computer was crunching the numbers." He pulled up the results on the holo projector before downing the entire quadruple espresso in one go. "Have the other ships arrived yet? I know the Fionngualas patrol track has her closest?"

Here this time! Well, he was here last time, too, but everyone else had very productive things to say, so he hadn't needed to say much himself. He'd mostly been doing offscreen stuff, courtesy of me being very busy yesterday. "Anything interesting out of sim 17?" He asked, hoping it might contain some elusive solution they hadn't yet thought of.

“No, not particularly.” She said with a sigh. “The cube is damaged enough that we can win, and they can win just as easy. I would feel better with some Akira, Norway, and Defiant class ships at our backs though.” She said, referring to three anti Borg ship classes.

"And the nearest ones are stationed days away from here. I'm not sure if the away team has that long." Maya added, a bit defeated. "Efforts for other solutions to getting comms patched back up with them have also been similarly sluggish."

“On to sim 18, then…” Kiadras said after sitting down in her seat once more, taking a small sip of her coffee, “What are we adding?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps I can pray really hard and a wormhole will open up to save us?” She joked.

"We can.... summon Q to make the cube go away and fix everything." Maya suggested, jokingly of course

He was not in a joking mood, “We could try the Mavrenko Maneuver. The Eventide could do it, but it would push our shields…at this point, I think it’s one of our best bets.”

“I don’t know. That would risk Eventide a fair bit when we are already working with limited assets.” She said softly. “Could we mine a potential Borg flight path to here? Like DS9 did with the entrance to the celestial temple?”

Shane tilted his head to one side as the mention of the Mavrenko Maneuver running the maths in his head. "No I think the Eventide's too small. Admiral Mavrenko did it in a sovereign class cruiser and it hasn't been done in anything smaller that I know of."

"Bit dangerous, innit? I'm not puttin' the whole station in danger." Not to be utilitarian, but that was a lot more people than the ones already in danger. "Appreciate you thinkin' of ideas, though. Keep throwing shit at the wall and something will stick."

“Yeah…” She gave a defeated little nod toward Shane and Mo, before letting out a huff, “Mines might work, but the cube is dead in the water as far as we’re aware. We don’t know where it’ll drift.”

"If you want to be unarmed and unshielded at the end, sure." Maya remarked to the idea. "Pulling a Mavrenko would expend too much energy and burn out the shield emitters. The Eventide doesn't have the power capacity for it." She added "I'm guessing hailing whoever's running the cube directly is also a no go isn't it?" (edited)

Kya hummed as she sat there. “Maybe we place a few along a few potential drift paths.”

"We could throw an asteroid at the cube." Shane said as he stood to get more coffee from the replicator? "Throw one with a large enough mass as say 30% of C and the raw kinetic energy might overload the Cubes shields."

"What if we... Hmmm." He took a moment to think over his own suggestion. "So they basically anglerfish'd us, right?" Wow, the UT was really gonna struggle translating that. "They put out bait and we took it. Empty borg cube. Too tantalising for our Starfleet curiousity. I'm wondering if there's a way for us to do the same thing. Put out something to draw them in, yoink the stick away, drop the box on 'em."

One of One entered a little later than usual. And a little more frazzled than usual, too, their hair a little more messed up than the neat coif they usually kept it in. But they were holding a PADD, didn't look as devastated as they had before. "I have analysed sensor data with regards to the shields," they announced themselves, which was something. They'd been waiting on that data to get analysed, actually.

“Share it with the class, we could use something actionable to talk about.” She said softly to One.

"I've been having a look at some previous engagements, in the past ships have used a high-density tachyon beam to forcefully overload the opposing ship's shields, giving them a small window to fire torpedoes unblocked." T'Shai turned to Maya. "I am well aware that under the Eventide's current power configuration a beam of that scale is unfeasible, with that said - would it be possible to strip the Eventide down to it's bare essentials, and have the excess power channel through the deflector array into a tachyon beam of sufficient calibre to break through the cube's shield?" A 'hail-mary' idea for sure, though if the numbers spoke true then perhaps it could work.

They laid out a PADD, with an incomprehensible string of numbers on it that would mean nothing to the casual observer. Thankfully, One opened their mouth to explain. "Taking the raw sensor data of the shielding frequencies from our extended encounter, I have analysed the cyclical modulations. They are somewhat regular, yet irregular enough and frequent enough that it is hard to parse in the moment. But," they said, swiping to show more information, "Borg prefer regularity." They took a deep breath. "It is not entirely certain, but I predict a sequence of thirty million micromodulations, that then repeats. Certain shielding nodes are slightly offset, but still follow the pattern. At one modulation per millisecond, I arrive at a cyclical pattern lasting approximately eight hours, and twenty minutes." Their eyes swept over Shane. "Certain nodes being offset means the pattern obscures itself simply through confusing sensor data. But I can say with approximately 87.3 percent certainty that this prediction is accurate."

"If given enough time, its possible." Maya answered T'Shai with a nod. "We'd have to reroute all power distribution to essentially just support Weapons, Life Support, Shields, Sensors, and the Deflector dish. though more power would of course be dedicated to the deflector when we fire off the Tachyon beam to the Cube's shields, though it is a bit of a stretch unless there's a weakness we can directly exploit..." Maya explained before she turned over to listening to One. Although she is an engineer, she couldn't really keep up with the science talk One was giving out. That sounds like a lot of numbers. However, there are certain words that, through the power of the highly-concentrated sweetened caffeine drink she had been chugging the whole time, she actually caught and understood. "Shielding nodes are slightly offset? And for eight hours and a half? If we know which shield nodes are offset during that time, I believe those would be the more vulnerable ones to target before the cube starts adapting to our shenanigans, right?"

She nodded. “Yes, a few well timed attacks would be deadly if fired there.” Kya said with a hum. “And if we have enough ship plus the station, we can likely find those offset ones by sheer process of elimination, never mind scans.”

One shook their head. "I have no reason to believe so, since they follow the pattern precisely and without faltering. It seems more like a tactic to simulate randomness." For the first time in a long time, their face scrunched up in an obvious negative emotion. "Please don't use such words as deadly in reference to a vessel that is currently holding our friends and colleagues hostage."

6

5

“Effective.” She replaced the word with.

"I'm trying to get my cousin back here safe and sound, and I'm nearly out of ideas other than observing the cube and leaving it alone until we get more information that can be more useful for us and hope they can get themselves out by doing something from the inside." Maya tried to stay as calm and professional as she could. "Me and engineering have modded the some shuttles that have been sucked in the cube with the away team to possibly push through the cube's shields without them noticing in hopes of just picking them up.... never knew if it worked since they got tractor beamed in along with them."

"The offset nodes, they would be more susceptible to the tachyon beam - it could take less effort from the Eventide to rupture the shield at those points." And hopefully less power. "If we can find a way to bypass the communications dead zone, would it be possible to send a message to the stranded crew to assemble at the most optimum location for a fast transport?" For a Vulcan, T'Shai was grasping at straws here. At least one thing here had to work.

“That could work. In the event any of them were assimilated, would we still be able to beam them off?” Kya asked with a hum.

"Wait. What if we table shooting the thing for now." Maya suggested, there's a lot of shooting the thing being tossed around, which makes sense since she just noticed how many Tactical officers are in the room. "So, if I'm getting this right. The Nodes are essentially the same, but when we scan them, its all just randomness in the end, so shooting anything at it is essentially moot?"

“It’s as moot as it always is, as is the case with most Borg cubes it is much harder then fighting a Bird of Prey, for instance.” She said with a hum. “But I don’t think not shooting it is much better, given the amount of casualties that thing could cause if it sneezed on us in the wrong way.”

Shane understood about, 60% of the maths that was being talked about by the science officers and engineers. He was still standing by the replicator where he ordered another quadruple espresso. Heart palpitations for the win! "If we can predict the shields frequencies then we're getting somewhere." He mused as he looked out the window in the room looking out into space as a starship emerged from warp. The elegant Regent Class cruiser hovered just outside the station as they secured from warp.

"It... sort of," One replied, thinking of how to explain it best. "Before, we got a lucky shot. Right now, with these calculations, the accuracy of shield-penetrating shots could be increased to around 64 percent."

“Any way to raise that?” She asked One.

"Taking out the shield nodes," One replied seriously.

The Trill perked up at 64%. She took another sip of her coffee and drummed her fingers against the table, “…I could do that,” She said softly. She fired the torpedoes before, “I like those odds.”

“64% it is then.” She said with a hum. “That’s more than half our shots hitting, I like that math.”

"If you do go for this Commander, then I suggest you get... more rest than you've been getting over the past few days. Tiredness can affect a lot with detailed-orientated odds like these." Was T'Shai saying that out of concern for the mission or out of concern for her colleague. The latter, easily.

"Amendment. Provided my calculations are correct, it is 64 percent. Accounting for the possibility that I am incorrect lowers projected accuracy of shots to 55 percent." They needed everyone to stop thinking about shooting so much, actually. "I must advocate for searching for less drastic measures, though. There is still the matter of our colleagues."

“What if instead of depleting their shields, we overload them?” Maya suggested before she cracked open another can of energy drink. “We can send them false sensor data as random as we are getting from them. Y'know, garbage in, garbage out. If we make them think they’re under attack from a dozen impossible frequencies at once, their adaptive systems will try to compensate for all of them" Maya explained. "if we keep it up, they might overcorrect and throw their own modulation network out of sync. They’d be blind, deaf, and too busy fixing themselves to notice what we’re really doing."

2

“Less drastic measures are a luxury we’ll take if we can get them, but it’s also a Borg cube, it may as well be an active bomb in your backyard.” She said, nodding towards Maya. “That could work, and might allow us to get our people out while they’re confused.” She said with a hum.

“We could get one of the hackers from Intelligence on something like that,” Kiadras suggested, leaning back in his seat, “We already have the sensor buoys that we dropped before retreating, too.”

“I like that as well. We should maximize our chances to try and get our people out.” She said, taking a long drink of he’d coffee.

“There’s t’Rei’nak, there’s Sykes…Sykes was in here on day one, we could probably get her back up here,” She said with a hum, “Officer K’mporr, do you think you could help with the signal for the shields?” (edited)

1

"Mm?" Karavix had been listening intently, creating a pattern with her pen drumming against her thigh. "I could. A signal amplifier is simple enough to put together."

“Are the signal buoys we dropped still holding up?” Kiadras asked into the room, “We could also use those as short-range amplifiers to help with the simulated randomness.” (edited)

"Unless the cubes destroyed them they should still be there." Shane answered.

“We can hook a signal amplifier up to Eventide, get close to the buoys while cloaked, and push the nodes into overdrive,” Kiadras seemed a bit more energized now, “Any retaliation from the cube could be accounted for with evasive maneuvers. We’d know where they’re shooting next based off where we’re putting the signal in.”

She nodded. “I like the sound of that.”

Now that there had been a lull in the discussions in the situation room Shane's mind was drawn back to the events on the Eventide. His first time in the chair was weighing on him like nothing he'd faced before. He had been in command when he was a pilot but something was different now. Previously he had been in charge but everyone's lives were their own responsibility. That was different on the bridge of a starship, the lives of the crew were the captain's responsibility his responsibility. The battle began to play over and over in his head. What if they had backed off sooner? What if he vetoed the shuttle plan which woke up the cube to begin with? What if he'd decided to withdraw before the last wave of weapons fire hit the ship? Shane felt a pang of guilt in the pit of his stomach. It was a cold sensation, freezing in fact. The type of deep subconscious feeling that wouldn't go away no matter how hard you tried. That feeling had been growing ever since they left the cube, stranding the away team. His mind lingered on the thought of the away team, stranded, lost, utterly alone on a truly monolithic and uncaring alien vessel. And he had left them.

6

Twelve of Twenty slipped in then and proceeded to place a PADD down near Shane. They then turned and started to depart, copy of a report delivered to the person who had been acting captain at the time the event reported occurred.

Shane accepted the PADD and thumbed through it's contents before sighing. Thankfully there were only minor and moderate injuries and no deaths. But he still felt like he had failed the people under his command. The ever gnawing pit in his stomach continued to grow...

Sensing something off about Shane, he approached. He suspected the stress of making decisions might be weighing on him; he'd been in that position many times himself, so he could understand completely. "You good, Lawson?"

"Captain?" Maya softly said when she turned over to, not Mo the actual person ranked Captain, but to Lawson with a concerned look. Despite how strongly she had felt about the decisions that had been made, both as the Eventide's chief engineer at the time and as a close relative to one of the away team, she still couldn't but imagine how heavy each of those decisions weighed on Lawson's mind.

Mo addressing him directly snapped Shane out of his current semi conscious state. "Sir." He said quickly purely on instinct. "Yes sir I'm, I'm fine just tired." It was clear Mo caught Shane off guard and he instinctively tried to save face in front of his bosses, bosses, boss. "The fight just keeps playing over and over in my mind. The cube could have annihilated us in one go, but it didn't. And I can't seem to figure out why." Shane composed himself a bit better when he spoke for the second time, trying to move the conversation on from him and back to the cube.

"Invaders means more bodies to fill with her parasites," Karavix mused thoughtfully, shrugging it off.

"If it blew us up, more ships would come in our place eventually to attack it. Wouldn't want that." Maya thought with a shrug. "Its acting differently than borg usually do... the warning shots, the random shield frequency stuff, the not blowing us up.... there's something different about that one drone running the cube, maybe we need to consider that as well."

"Different and dangerous." Shane said offhandedly as he was in thought. "Commander tr'hara and Lieutenant tr'Lareth, their command codes need to be disabled if they haven't already." Shane said looking to Mo or Rii, whichever was closer. "The codes need to be considered compromised. Cause well, there's a non zero chance they are."

4

Rii had been silent through most of it—present, tracking each thread as it wove past. Their torso stayed perfectly still while their lower half shifted a slow two-step, and when Maya finished, Rii’s head clicked free and drifted a few inches, the tell that they were about to tie the room together. “Alright. We stop thinking ‘bigger gun,’ start thinking ‘better mask.’ Here’s a plan that uses what we already have and keeps firepower as a last resort.” They lifted a hand, counting it out.“Step one: Mirror Net. We repurpose our dropped sensor buoys into a phased ‘echo lattice.’ Intelligence—Sykes, t’Rei’nak—spoofs a family of impossible attack profiles and pipes them through the lattice. We don’t just feed garbage—we feed consistent, beautifully regular garbage. If Borg prefer regularity, we give them consensus to adapt to… and steer that consensus off a cliff.”Rii took a careful breath as they continued “Step two: Desync hook. One, your modulation map gives us that eight-hour–twenty-minute repeat. There’s always a rollover—the moment a long sequence resets. That’s our insertion window. K’mporr, with Engineering, build the signal amplifier for Eventide and the lattice. At rollover-plus-three milliseconds, we inject a narrow phase error that forces their shield-controller consensus to split—briefly—into two incompatible ‘answers.’ They’ll be busy reconciling their own truth.”

18:53

Their lower torso disconnected and started to pace as they continued“Step three: Quiet corridor. While they’re sorting themselves, we create a transporter lane instead of a firing solution. T’Shai, Maya—strip Eventide to essentials and tune the deflector for a tightband tachyon spike, not to punch through—to hold the corridor stable for six seconds. Eventtide transporters run pattern-buffer quarantine and biofilter hard scrubs on receipt; anyone even slightly off gets locked in the buffer for medical clearance. Twelve of Twenty, you’ll own that quarantine tree.”Rii looked at their legs and back at the group“Step four: Whisper, don’t shout. Comms is dead, fine—so we signal our team by instrument. We pulse the corridor timing as neutrino flickers embedded in the spike—prearranged cadence: ‘assemble here, now.’ Intelligence can get that cadence to our people via any backdoor they still have; if not, we broadcast it anyway—worst case, it reads to the cube like power noise while still being legible to Starfleet gear.”Rii kept going as they tried to keep consistent “Step five: Only if needed—selective taps. If the corridor wobbles, we use One’s offset nodes for two or three single-shot taps, station and Eventide only, to pin the window—not to ‘go deadly,’ but to keep the lane open. Lawson, you take Eventide on a cloak-adjacent low-emission profile riding the lattice; Kya, you choreograph evasives keyed to where we’re injecting signal so we’re never where their counterfire expects.”

18:53

Their head drifted back into place with a soft click. *“Net effect: they’re ‘busy,’ we’re quiet, our people get a six-second door, and we never give the cube a clean reason to escalate. If the door doesn’t hold, we cycle again on the next micro-rollover. We can iterate without announcing that we’re iterating.” *Rii’s head settled back into place with a soft click. Their gaze moved around the table. “That’s the shape of it. How does that sound to you? Gaps, objections, better angles?”

The Trill threaded her fingers together and rested her hands on the table while Rii called the group to order and gave a full plan. Kiadras ran these steps through her mind, then her memories as a CTO, and then her memories as a Tactical instructor, and let out a low hum, “…it sounds like a good plan.”

Shane nodded along listening to the plan as it began to take shape. "Yes, it could work." He said still mulling over the details in his head. Before turning to Maya. "How long to strip the Eventide?"

Kya ran through the plan in her head, humming softly as she went through each step. She didn’t agree with the idea of fighting the thing being a last resort, but. “That could work, I can start on that asap.”

“I’ll get Sykes up here,” Kiadras said, tapping at her badge to call up the Intel officer.

"The Eventide would need to be fully stripped of anything it doesn't absolutely need, for appropriate weight reduction. This includes furniture, holoemitters, replicators, even some consoles - everything that won't have a use in this plan needs to go. 777's cargo bays could easily hold everything that stays behind." It echoed the Cerritos' plan to save the Archimedes, T'Shai thought to herself - even though it was different context the theories still applied. "It could be worth working with science to determine the exact frequency of the beams. Running simulations concurrent with the Eventide's modifications." T'Shai loved it when a plan came together.

The door chimed and slid open, and there stood everyone’s favorite redneck. Sykes had a PADD in hand and a determined look on her face, “Alllrighty y’all, put me to work.”

1

Finally a plan that's not shooting them in the face. Maya listened intently to Rii's plan, nodding along as she took her PADD and planned out what to strip from the Eventide and how to do it to give her bosses the earliest estimate on when she and the Engineering crews would have Eventide ready. "I won't you the Engineering time-padding for this one, Captain. But assuming engineering and OPS teams will be working all hands and around the clock on the Eventide, you can have her stripped, properly tuned, and flight ready by a couple of hours at best. Maybe the end of the day at worse, but that's very unlikely." Maya answered to Lawson with a nod. Eventide was docked and thus had a large complement of crew ready to get the work done, which gave her a lot of confidence in this. "I'll even look into ways of increasing and optimizing power output to the deflector dish so the tachyon spike stays stable as much as possible"

"There is still the matter of the drone, and any of the crew that may have been assimilated," Karavix chimed in. She liked the idea, she liked it fine, but there was the whole Borg Attacking Everyone problem. "How can we ensure their safety, as well as everyone else's?"

2

Bitten with the spark of ideas, T'Shai turned to Maya. "We could ask one of the larger ships currently under refit on site if we can borrow one of their deflector dishes, with the reduced power consumption and reduced weight the Eventide could handle a deflector of much larger size."

He made a small humming noise of thought. His only critique of the plan was not even really a critique at all: "A complex plan means a lot of steps, which means it's more likely any step could go wrong. But this is a complex situation, so perhaps a complex plan is what we need."

Kya hummed as she looked at Karavix. “Well. If we get the chance to beam them out, we could beam them all to separate quarantine areas on the station. That why if even one of them is a Borg, they can’t harm the others in that enclosure.” (edited)

“Agreed. We quarantine the entire away team, and the med team can work through liberating whoever’s been assimilated,” Kiadras added on to Kya’s point.

"The brig would work fine as a makeshift quarantine zone." Shane mused, separate cells, forcefields and around the clock security. It sounded ideal. "Borrow a deflector?" Shane said his head tilted. "Could the Eventide's superstructure even handle that? It could really mess with our warp geometry." Shane's lesser used knowledge of physics was coming out for a change it was good to turn on the math and science brain every once in a while.

"Might increase our work time a bit, to like actually a day or two, but it is doable. I believe there are a couple ships already undergoing refitting we can look into asking... Maybe we should also look into borrowing better shield emitters for the Eventide while we're at it just to be safe." Maya answered T'Shai, glad a lot of Starfleet starship technology is very modular. Then she turned over to Karavix. "We can increase field strength of quarantine fields in the sickbay and maybe do the same in the brig as a holding area for them. For both, we can have their power run independently from the rest of the ship so they stay online in case the worse comes." (edited)

Rii got up as everyone deliberated as they looked out, pale blue eyes following the sleek silhouette of the Fionnguala as it drifted in station-keeping position. Their lower half coming to join them, while their torso remained still. “How about,” they said quietly, just loud enough for the room to hear, “taking their deflector? ”

6

"Captain Uí Dhúill will love this." Shane said as he pulled up the specs for the Fionnguala on the centre projector.

“We could ask real nicely,” The Trill offered, looking over the Fionnguala’s specs, “Though, we should run a simulation to see if Eventide can handle it.”

Twelve froze near the door when her name was called by the XO. She'd been so close to getting in and out without being noticed and dragged into it. But so close didn't mean there and her name had been called. So Twelve of Twenty turned and listened as the XO spoke, considered their approach though she never commented on it just responded to what was directed her way. "Yes sir." And continued to listen as she mentally worked upon the report she'd need to pass to the CMO about this. About the medical element of this. Just the medical element of it, a lot of the other stuff just passed right over her xB implant pockmarked head. Lots of words that related not at all to anything medical. The medical drone in her, Collective and Cooperative both, wanted to be elsewhere. Twelve of Twenty, Lieutenant Commander, Starfleet medical had things that needed to be done. Had a additional task assigned to her that needed to be prepared for. But her name had been called and she'd not been dismissed yet, so she remained standing and listened more.

"We could also-- and hear me out -- steal it." She joked, but then the power of 16 cans of high-concentrated caffine and sugar in her blood stream sent a wave of an idea into her head. If one knew that lil bit whenever Jimmy Neutron gets a brain blast, that's probably what's going on in her head at the moment. When this finally popped up, Maya let out a loud audible gasp. "I HAVE AN IDEA! A plan B if you will! Or like, a Phase 1 of Plan A rather, so a Part 1 of plan 1, which would be part 2 of the plan1AB and-- WHATEVER!" "The Eventide has something the away team doesn't... Sensors and scanners! We know that the team is essentially walking in there blind, so we could scan the Beeg scary cube, and get whatever information they need." Maya proposed, leaving a moment pause to both be dramatic and make sure she gets her words right. *"But comms between us and them are dead, that we know. The cube shot at us and we nearly died, that we also know. We lost 3 shuttles... except we DIDN'T destroy the shuttles. It took them inside! The away team is probably doing stuff with them right now, but that's not the point!" *Maya continued, if there was a white board or something, Maya would go to it and start scribbling on it. "Here's my plan! We scan the cube. We download all the info into a PADD or something. We give that PADD to someone else, put them in a fourth shuttle, and send them out to be sucked into the Cube by the Cube. And then that person, whose now inside the Cube, gives the PADD, full of information, to the away team who are also inside the Cube, which they can use, to make the Cube stop being an asshole." It looked like a grade schooler had fun drawing, but it was just clear enough of an illustration to hopefully make sense. "So, what do you guys think?" (edited)

4

"And, sacrifice another officer in the process!" Shane said not realising he suddenly felt very strongly about sending people into harms way. The pit in his stomach continued to gnaw at him...

The Trill was in the middle of punching in things to simulate a stripped Eventide with a deflector before Maya began to speak. She paused and leaned back, listening to the officer speak, “Well- Shane, it’s…admittedly significantly easier than retrofitting Eventide on such short notice,” Kiadras let out a hum, “And, I would volunteer for it.” (edited)

"As would I," One of One piped up, surprising themself.

"Then we can put the PADD on top of a remote control car or inside a very clearly labelled box or something. what matters is we put a thing inside the shuttle, and send the shuttle to be sucked up by the Cube so that the peeps inside the Cube and do their Cube Magic." Maya explained to Captain Lawson. "We can afford to sacrifice PADDs and shuttles" (edited)

Karavix terribly wanted to be the one to see the Borg cube, but Kiadras and One were faster. Damn it all. "It is not a sacrifice, Commander. It is a guiding beacon."

“A two-man team’s better than one,” Kiadras gestured toward One as he gave Shane a nod.

He glanced at Shane. "I understand your reservations, but this plane is simple and more immediately actionable. I think we should try it first - though some way for them to signal to us that they got inside and communicated with the away team would be nice. Obviously with communications down that won't be possible, though. It's a risk, but as we have the Commander or One here as a willing volunteers," he said, nodding to Kiadras, "It is not a forced one. While I don't think we should risk people lightly, every officer of Starfleet knows what they're signing up for when they take this job." (edited)

“No, come on now. We cannot send someone to the cube.” She said with a hum. “That’s suicide, we don’t even know if the away team is alive.”

“I’ve been in worse,” She offered. Not just Kiadras, but the past four hosts, “I fought Tal Shiar earlier this year.”

"I refuse to assume my cousin is dead!" Maya shot back to Kya. "Again... clearly labelled box is also a possible option"

3

"We will be able to get an accurate read on the status of our away team members once we're in sensor range," One explained. "But let's operate under the assumption that they are all alive, while preparing for the possibility that they have all been assimilated."

He looked at Maya, then the rest of the group. "Let's evaluate our options. Are there any advantages sending in a person with the information that would be worth risking their life?"

Kya sighed as she looked at Maya. “Maya, it’s a Borg cube…” She said glumly. “I just don’t think it’s worth trying.”

“And the two of us would go in with full gear, because now we know what to expect. Armor, phasers, the whole shebang,” Kiadras tried to smooth over some of the wrinkles Kya was feeling. He glanced over at Mo, “We’d be able to lend a helping hand, which…I mean, a box can’t quite do that.”

"An individual could manually make their way to the team, if they are not in a place that is easily transported to. And I concur with Commander Vrii, that whoever is sent over will be able to assist with operations inside. We don't know what their status is now, how many provisions they have left. By the time we arrive, they might not be in the best state to fight, anymore," One said, feeling positively about the constructive way the conversation was now going.

"They are most certainly alive. The Borg assimilate. And if our team is assimilated, they can be saved," Karavix was very good at being patient and calm, thankfully. If it were anyone else, they may have gotten a little annoyed. "If we operate under the assumption they are dead, there is no reason for any escape plan at all, no?"

Conscious she happened to not be a officer from a department that seemed pertinent at the moment, while Twelve initially moved to speak at the Captains words, she stopped. Lt.Cdr Twelve of Twenty's function was clear, this seemed to exceed it, so they honestly struggled with if they should speak at all. That or just wait to be dismissed. They really wanted to be dismissed, the emotion that played out within them when people mentioned potential causalities hit harder than they'd expected. They didn't want people to be dead or assimilated. In efficient emotion, why couldn't it be controlled.

Shane now saw that this was the best course of action given the circumstances despite his feelings to the contrary. "If we do this we should fill the shuttle to the brim with supplies along with the volunteers. We have no idea what their situation is they could use all the help they can get."

"We could've left the damn cube alone, but we thought it was worth trying driving up to that thing in the first place, Kya!" Maya said because that shot a deep nerve. "I think its the energy drink sugar-caffine high talking, but I believe, in my humblest of humble opinions, that its super fucking worth it, to try getting our motherfucking crewmates back!" Maya added, feeling a wave of emotions over her. "Where the hell's the 'We're Starfleet, we never leave our own behind' stuff??"

"Rii’s head lifted a fraction from their shoulders; when they spoke, it was gentle and sure.“This is part of command, Captain—when there’s risk to be carried, it should be ours. No one goes in for our officers without me. ” They met the Captain’s eye. “This one will help get our officers back.”

“Maya,” Kiadras held up a hand, “Take a breath.”

"Commander, I do not believe shouting at our crewmates will do anything to aid the situation." Karavix leant back in her seat, glancing off to one side. "I understand your distress, but let us focus on what is required to execute this plan for now, rather than emotion."

He listened to what Rii was saying, but was doubtful, shaking his head. "I appreciate your spirit, but you're the one who came up with our other plan and therefore the person who understands it the most. You'd be best staying here. We already have two other volunteers - no need to risk your life too."

Kya looked at Maya a sigh. “We’re Starfleet We Never Leave Our Own Behind in the event we aren’t dealing with a thing that could destroy the federation we fuck up even a slight bit.” She said with a breath. “I understand it’s your cousin on there, but the away team is secondary priority to ensuring that thing doesn’t get past us. I would like to save the away team, but this has end of the Federation potential.”

"It is one drone, sir. Respectfully, how much harm can one drone possibly do?" Karavix pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling. Somebody make her a senior officer in this group already. "Our focus should be on our people. We have the resources to liberate and rescue everyone on board that cube."

“And if two volunteers isn’t enough, I can put an away team together,” She offered, giving Shane a small smile and nodding to Karavix, “And I’m sure One and Twelve can lend a hand in that, too. Tactical, Science, Medical…we get everything we need.”

“One drone can do a lot of harm petty officer.” She said simply.

"If you need an engineer..." Please let her see the cube pleasepleasepleaseplease—

1

“An engineer would be helpful,” He mused, giving a little shrug and a nod.

"I concur with Kiadras." Satisfying alliteration! "An away team of willing volunteers from varying divisions would be optimal."

YES. YEEES. That little, slightly self-satisfied nod was about as close Karavix would ever get to jumping up and down with joy. "Very well, then."

“First- Who in this room, besides myself, Lieutenant One, and Officer K’mporr would be willing to volunteer? Show of hands,” She glanced around the room.

“I would like the team to you have a lot of tactical security.” She sighed, throwing up a hand.

"We stand ready to be of assistance per the wishes of the Lieutenant Commander." The El-Aurian responded then as they idly squished the discomfort they experienced about the fact a Trill might be going into a Cube. That a individual, two individuals, might be someone who entered into that level of risk. When people started to raise hands, Twelve looked left then right and raised a confused eyebrow at this odd gesture enacted by individuals. Well, confused until they realised that oh it was that inefficient way to ensure willingness was indicated. Twelve then raised their hand.

"We can call Medical and make sure they have a team ready to receive." They'd likely be sweaty, possibly hurt, and possibly unwell. Karavix did not thrive in the heat of a borg cube, but it would be worth it to see its intricate linings for herself...

"Right. Right... I'm sorry. The emotions and sugar are not doing good things right now." Maya said taking in a series of deep breaths. "You're right, You're right..." Maya said to Kiadras and Karavix as she closed her eyes and massaged the temples of her head. "You're absolutely not, but I'm going to leave that alone for now because this is not the vibe we need at the moment." Maya added, pointing briefly at Kya but not looking at her before taking in more deep breaths and stayed quiet to calm herself down. In a way, Maya was glad that Karavix wanted to volunteer for the away team because it would probably be an even worse idea for both Umali cousins to be together in a Borg cube if something bad happened... and also she would be much better suited keeping the Eventide afoat to support Captain Lawson.

"It might be an idea to send a Runabout, the away team could use the extra facilities. We should be able to cram one into the shuttle bay." Shane also joined the few in raising his hand, just a teeny bit. There was a part of him that wanted to go on the mission to the cube but he knew he had to command the Eventide.

Kiadras’s eyes bounced around the room at those who rose their hands. He quickly picked up his PADD and put the names down, before nodding to himself, “Alright, that’s myself, One, K’mporr, Pok, Twelve, and Lawson…though, Commander, I believe you oughta stay aboard Eventide.” He gestured toward Shane with his PADD, “Five is a fair amount of people for an emergency rescue team,” He nodded gently to himself.

"The Eventide can actually support 2 Yellowstone Roundabouts." Maya quietly said to Shane. Maya read the Eventide's schematics. "I agree with Comander Vrii, Captain Lawson. Someone needs to be on helm in the Eventide."

“Minimizes potential assimilation as well.” She said with a hum.

Part of Shane wanted to protest not going with the away team but he knew both of the officers were correct.

"As the Eventides acting chief engineer, I need someone to shout at to not make the ship go, y'know... explosion noises" Maya added, saying this to Shane a lot more subtly "plus other cool Scotty stuff I always wanted to do if I become CEO."

1

“We can supplement any members of the crew who go into the cube,” She nodded at Maya, “We’ll need an acting CMO and CSO, weapons and shields officer, and another engineer.”

"Ye canna' change the laws of physics. I'm givin' her all she's got; she cannae take anymore, Cap'n..." Maya quietly practicing her Scotty impression to herself. It's bad, not even scottish, more like really bad irish. It was just audible enough for Shane to hear, being beside him. (edited)

A shields officer? Well, that was what they were! Or at least, that was what they did in engineering. They were not a tactical officer and all of that. But... they did need another engineer as well... "If... you would like a shields engineer... I am happy to volunteer...!" Marze offered from their spot in the back of the room.

The Trill glanced over at Marze, offering a small smile, “Have you run consoles aboard the bridge before, Ensign?”

"This is my first posting... outside of academy... but I have run simulations back during my time there...!" They said, even if their voice wavered slightly. They knew what they were doing -- in theory -- they had done their simulations and their practical exams. But... this was real.

“There’s a first time for everything,” She smiled a bit deeper. With an actual plan, she was starting to get back to her normal, confident self, “I’ll show you the ropes before I get into the runabout. I’m a teacher,” She turned back to her PADD and put down Marze’s name, “And I’m sure you’ll do great.”

They smiled back, hoping that they would do a good job. They were trying to believe in themselves!

"I will join the Eventide as a backup weapons officer, should the position get vacated." T'Shai looked around, it had been a hot minute since she had encountered the Borg, but the intricacies of the Borg Protocol were etched into her mind. "I would like to requisition an additional complement of quantum torpedoes, should the need to disable the cube further arrives."

"You will perform just fine, Ensign." That's Karavix for 'you go, kid'.

2

“Aye, Commander, I’m sure I can get some torpedoes loaded up for the ship,” He wrote down T’Shai’s name, “Is there anything else that you believe would be helpful, from a weapons perspective? In this plan, I think Eventide remaining cloaked and outside of the cube’s scanning range would be best.”

"I believe in ya, Ensign!" Maya said warmly with a smile and a thumbs up to Marze (edited)

"I agree, though it would be prudent to retain Borg Protocol - even while cloaked." T'Shai nodded, echoing sentiment. "Beyond that, I have no further concerns, though I will voice any more if I have them."

“Understood,” She pencilled in ‘requisition torpedoes’ in the margins of her notes before moving on to the next order of business, “If we’re going to be using the brig as a makeshift quarantine, we’ll need both a good group of security officers and a robust medical team.”

Kya wasn’t exactly sure about bringing a fresh out of the Academy officer to a hellscape, but she nodded. “Let’s get it done.”

"I've got 250 coming in on the first of the month." Shane whispered after looking at Kiadras's notes. Despite his aloofness Shane was in fact a supremely competent administrator and was fairly ahead of his paperwork.

"I can start setting up engineering teams to start working on the Eventide, if we're still going for stripping her down and stealing someone else's deflector dish" Maya shrugged tapping away on her PADD. Paperwork sucks ass, that's why she uses a PADD for her paper work, and now its PADD-work.. which sucks just as much, if not slightly more. (edited)

Diahjir spoke up for the first time since he entered the room. Having the CMO there would be a good idea, but maybe he could help organise things... maybe... if he could get everything together. "I will put out a call for medical officers, see who would be interested in this mission."

She walked into the command office, trying not to interrupt anything. She had never been here, or rather anything like this, but there was always a first time for everything. Jayrehi only really brought along a PADD, mainly to keep notes of what was going. Would it work? Maybe.

"Jayrehi." Maya greeted warmly, and quietly to not suddenly interrupt any of the other discussions going on in the room. "How you been?" she asked, since last time she saw her was on Eventide when all the things happened. Seemed good to check in.

“All good.” She smiled, walking over to Maya. “Just trying to wrap my head around the situation. That’s… partly why I came here actually. It’s better than staying confused.” She clutched her PADD, seeming a bit awkward but otherwise calm.

"Ah nice! You came in just in time!" Maya cheered with the signature grin and a thumbs up of a totally calm and cheery woman who totally didn't desire to punch someone else straight in the nose just a few moments ago. "A lot has happened, mostly brainstorming solutions and such, but I can give you the cliffysparked notes ifyou like." Maya offered with a smile, even gesturing to an empty seat if Jayrehi wanted to sit down.

“I appreciate it, Commander Lan. We’ll need a good group of doctors who know Borg protocol,” He gave a nod toward Shane at the comment about torpedoes, writing down ‘250 max’ so that they could keep up with inventory, “We’re gonna need all the help we can get. Is there someone I can put in charge of coordinating Eventide so I can focus on the away team?” (edited)

"Lawson did a decent job before, didn't 'e?" He said, gesturing to Shane.

She beamed, “He did great,” And she meant it. She stood up from her seat and walked toward the head of the table, giving the room another once over, “If there’s anyone else who’s up for the rescue team, speak now.” (edited)

Khamlet stepped into the command office in time to hear the call for volunteers for the rescue team. There was no question, no hesitation, his voice loud and clear in its gruff and assertive tones. “Khamlet, lieutenant…” He appended the rank in not quite the Starfleet order of things. “… Volunteering.” He stood there and awaited questions as to who he might be or his particular skills, he was a recent transfer after all, but also with the air of a Klingon challenging anyone to claim he wasn’t capable.

Kiadras looked a little surprised at the sudden entrance of the lieutenant, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, “Lieutenant Khamlet! You’re the new guy, yes?” He let out a little laugh as he wrote the name down, “One hell of a first mission…you wanna go into the cube, or stay aboard Eventide?”

Khamlet nodded at the ‘new guy’ observation, and at the laugh from the commander he smiled - sharp teeth showing - appreciating what he thought was amusement at the eagerness of a warrior. “I wouldn’t want any other first mission, commander.” He said simply and with brutal honesty, what would be the point of anything less than dangerous? As to where he would go he showed a different side to the boldness, a clearheadedness, “I am a fine pilot, I will go where you need one.” His record would show just that, and he was curious where the commander would want him and his skills - he was far from useless out of the pilot’s chair after all, he was a Klingon warrior to the core.

“Well, Lieutenant, I think we’ll need a pretty good pilot aboard the shuttle we’re going to be taking into the cube. Lt. t’Morvar is our helms officer for the Eventide, and I wouldn’t wanna step on his toes,” She loved it when a plan came together. All of the confidence and bright, cherry attitude she was known for had come back to the forefront after being so low for four days prior, “Welcome aboard! Should be…interesting, hah!”

Not too far behind Khamlet was Eicran, also responding from the news on the chatroom. When he had heard - completely in passing - that the away team had gotten stuck on a Borg cube, he hadn't quite believed it. Since having the news confirmed earlier, it felt as though his thoughts were a constant torrent of concern. There was no way of getting the worry out of his head. What was going on aboard the cube? How many of their officers might have been injured or worse? When plagued with something, the only thing that would settle it was taking action; and so it had only felt natural that he would volunteer to be part of the group attempting to rescue the stranded officers.

1

Piloting within a Borg cube? Khamlet’s smile sharpened at that thought, this was going to be exhilarating. “I look forward to it, commander.” He almost saluted in the Klingon fashion, but held back the gesture - would it be welcomed if he hadn’t held it back? A question for another time, right now he had a battle ahead of him and he was feeling the old songs in his heart once more. Glorious. So, he nodded and stepped back to listen and watch the rest of the meeting. The smile though never fully left his face.

4

“Alright…with Lt. Khamlet, that makes three TAC officers, one medical, and one engineering…hm,” He let out a hum, glancing around the room and landing on Eicran, “Commander Kehal?” Gods he hope he got the name right. The last time they’d seen each other they were surrounded by Tal Shiar, “Would you be willing to join our rescue team? We need another pair of helping hands from medical.”

“Okay. I think we have a team together.” She mumbled. “We should run through Borg encounter protocols before we set out, or on the way.”

It seemed like he had no luck when it came to sneaking into group meetings. He always wanted to stay out of the way and observe but ended up spotted immediately. It was the reason he was here, however. "I would be willing," he confirmed with a nod. "Given the, eh, nature of the Borg... I thought some more assistance from Medical might be wise." Not that liberating someone could be done in the middle of nowhere without a dedicated team and a full surgical suite, he thought to himself... But even if he could be there to sedate anyone who had been assimilated and help transport them back to 777 then that was still something. Or perhaps he should be thinking positively! There was no way of knowing that the away team had wound up assimilated, was there..? "Apologies for being behind on all of this. Do we have any information on the status of the away team, at all..?"

The Trill quickly wrote Eicran’s name down, “That’s myself, K’mporr, Pok, Twelve, Khamlet, and Kehal…” Lots of heavy consonants, huh? He read over his notes again as Eicran asked, and paused. His eyes flicked up from the PADD to the doctor, and he solemnly shook his head, “We’re…operating under the assumption that they’re alive, be that assimilated or not. We’re going to be going in full expedition armor and following Borg protocols to the letter.”

A low nod of the head was given in acknowledgement. A lack of knowledge about what was going on was always frustrating when it came to away teams, never mind ones currently residing aboard a Borg cube. The fact that there was no information on even life-signs was concerning. It was hard for Medical to prepare when there were a multitude of things to factor in, not knowing the actual status of the team. "I presume the Borg cube doesn't appear to be active, otherwise..." Otherwise 777 and the Eventide would have ended up in a full-scale battle against it already, presumably. "...That aside. Were there any scans of the cube, sorry? Do we have any indication of dormant drones, life support systems, and so on? What equipment do the away team have? They could be running low on supplies... Not to mention breathable air, if the cube doesn't have active life support."

“The cube’s dead in the water. The last scan we gave it reported back a single drone, but I hesitate to think that it wouldn’t be capable of causing a fair amount of damage,” She tucked her PADD beneath her arm as she began to pace, “The cube had taken in three empty shuttles before our retreat, and Cdr. Umali suggested that the away team could’ve already put them to use, which is likely. Other than that, the only equipment that they would have on them at the moment are rations and medical supplies that will last…two to three days if rationed by protocol, but could last longer,” She stopped in front of Eicran, giving him a little frown, “There’s a high likelihood at least one member of the away team has been assimilated by this time.” (edited)

She nodded. “And as an aside, we don’t yet know the level of firepower we should be treating any Starfleet officers turned with.” She said, bringing up an image of the cube on the monitor/holoprojector/whatever this room has for cool planning shots. “It’s very clearly seen better days, so we don’t know the quality of these assimilations yet, and if kill shots are needed in place of stuns like normal.” She said with a hum. “So be careful with your shots, all.”

Rii’s head pushed up as they said while floating voice low and sure, carrying to every corner. “Away team—listen. You are not stepping into a cube; you are answering for our own. Starfleet is more than a job—it is a calling to do more, to stand where others cannot. This station is our home, and today we bring our people back. You carry more than gear—you carry the training that forged you and the trust that binds you. Call what you see. Trust your experience, your training, and each other. Let fear be information, not a verdict. If the plan bends, you adapt and protect the team. There is no glory in needless loss—only in all of you returning. Eventide is your shadow; this one is your tether. On your judgment, keep each other safe. On my order, you come back. Go steady. Go together. Bring them home, and then bring yourselves home. May the stars light your path and favor your return. We’ll be in your shadow the whole way.”

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The Trill turned to Rii as he spoke, standing beside Eicran and listening intently. It reminded him of his time with his previous host, when a senior officer would give the group some inspiration. This wasn’t his first time leading a rescue team, but it was definitely his first time going into a cube. Well- Accounting for his own, as Rii said. The last time he was a part of a rescue, it was a planet-wide hurricane. This, though…this would be one hell of a storm, “We have each other’s backs, we keep an eye on one another, we do what we can…and we save lives,” He looked around the room at his team, “That’s what Starfleet does.”

Khamlet listened as the questions flowed, the answers came, and another joined the mission. Then a head floated higher than someone’s body and their voice began to carry clear. It was a good speech, he thought, it had the right timbre to it, and the sentiment was courageous and dutiful. Worthy indeed. Perhaps it didn’t strike the notes he was used to, he longed to hear the sound of a cry for a glorious death, but it was given by and for those who didn’t live and die as Klingons. So, he appreciated it for what it was and found the honour in it nevertheless. That he found qapla’ to be on the tip of his tongue was a testament to the capacity of both of the warriors speaking - the one whose head hovered and the one who had laughed welcomingly at the prospect of a battle. Khamlet smiled, showing the sharp teeth of a warrior ready for battle.

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There had been what felt like a hundred other questions that he wanted to ask, but Eicran set them aside as the First Officer spoke. It was a rousing speech, morale-building. Once upon a time it might have worked on Eicran. The problem was that he knew otherwise. Sometimes, people didn't return. You could try to keep one another safe as much as possible, but if the universe decided otherwise then there was no fighting it. Inside he strove for optimism, the fact that there was only one Borg drone aboard being good news... But even he was aware of the tension and apprehension that most people in the room held, like everyone was coiled and ready to spring. There was a real worry that not everyone would make it back - at least not alive. To the speech he could only nod.

The CMO looked to Eicran with a worried glance, of course, he trusted his fellow medical officer - he had saved lives before, and he trusted him to do so again. But at the same time, he recognized what must be going on inside his head. "I trust your judgement on the mission, and... thank you... for volunteering. We will be with you every step of the way." It wasn't much, but it was what Diahjir had to offer.

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“Alright, I need to requisition some torpedoes for Eventide. The rescue team and I need to familiarize ourselves with Borg protocols and get expedition suits prepped and ready. We need six phaser rifles and medkits, and a quarantine medical and security team still needs to be put together,” She tapped her stylus against her PADD and looked up from the screen at everyone, “That puts us at about…two days,” She hummed, “Lt. Khamlet, how familiar are you with flying shuttles?” (edited)

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Khamlet lifted his head to look at the commander as he was spoken to, and took a step closer as he answered in a loud and clear voice. Cowards whispered. “I have flown To'Duj fighter craft mostly, commander, but I will have no difficulty with a shuttlecraft.” He had had his share of piloting shuttlecraft too of course, during landings, and birds-of-prey, but it was the To’Duj that he had the most hours in over the last near two decades of service. “It might be a more exciting flight than some are used to.” He said with a grin and a barked laugh of well-earned confidence and self-belief.

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He gave a little nod to the lieutenant and smiled. He couldn’t help it, Khamlet’s eagerness was a bit contagious, and Kiadras was a very bright and eager person himself, “Alright, that shaves off a few hours of prep time for us. It’s definitely gonna get exciting, so it might be valuable to at least do a few simulations before we get ready for the real thing. I’ll fly with you. A previous host of mine was a test pilot,” He gave Khamlet a grin. Turning his attention back to his PADD, he tapped his stylus against the side of it once more after rereading some notes, “Kehal, Twelve, will you all need anymore than standard issue supplies?”

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Twelve looked to the Lieutenant commander as the other asked what they asked. "Additional sedatives, we'd suggest any form of portable regeneration aid or device that can be affected for xB's on the mission also." The El-Aurian responded then before they added. "Assimilation cannot be addressed in the field effectively, sedatives will assist in slowing the process." Twelve paused a moment then before they added. "Signal blocking tools for inhibiting the establishment of the connection to the hive mind may also be of temporary assistance, if such are extant and we discover any assimilations in progress.."

It was with a slight furrow of his brow that he looked to Lt. Cdr. Twelve of Twenty. He felt awkward to discuss Borg nuances to a literal Liberated Borg - he didn't want to, what, mansplain? - nor did he want to get anything wrong. "Should a Liberated Borg not be faring better than anyone else on the mission? If that cube is disconnected from the hive mind and not properly active then wouldn't they be able to commandeer an alcove? If there's one drone aboard then there must be enough power to sustain it, so would any member of the away team not be able to do the same?" (edited)

Twelve turned to the Lieutenant Commander. "Negative, additional mental health strainers from being in a Borg cube and close to the collective are likely extant, further." The El-Aurian paused then as their jaw worked a bit, emotion suppressed with care. "We cannot be sure that the cube is fully disconnected, we cannot be sure of the nature of the drone and we cannot be sure of the situation we're entering into." She allowed that to hang as she considered the situation then continued. "Any xB who attempted to regenerate in a Alcove likely runs the risk of becoming target for the drone should it have access to even just elements of the Cubes systems." The El-Aurian informed the other. "Alcoves line walls in the spaces, they're not always in easy to secure spaces, there are numerous eventualities that raise high likelihoods of inability to affect safe regeneration alcove access for xB officers." Twelve lapsed into a moment of silence then before she continued onto to emotionlessly explain. "Speaking relating to the Cooperative, though its pertinent, the proximity of the hive mind is a mental health strainer alongside the presence in a space directly linked with our old functions." Eyes fixed upon the other medical officer as she lapsed into silence again, considered them for a moment and then remembered and added. "Explanation complete, do you wish for further clarification, commander?" (edited)

Vanik had slipped in during earlier discussions and mostly kept to himself. He was a listener, not eager to throw in his ideas or opinions, especially as an Ensign. But, he was a warp core engineer. And the Eventide, and even the shuttlecraft, would need someone making sure the engines were calibrated and... worst case, getting fixed quickly. "I will go back. I was on the original Away team. I would like to help recover our officers. I am a capable Warp engineer, and I believe I can help keep both the Eventide and the Shuttles in fine operating condition."

On Betazed it was typical in their culture for everyone to be completely honest, given that you couldn't hide your feelings amongst empaths. Eicran had always been the opposite. He could have stated his disagreement that sticking a Liberated Borg into portable regeneration on the way back from the cube wasn't the way to deal with 'mental health strainers,' counselling was... But he didn't. For one, he had been aware that Twelve of Twenty was the authority on the Borg, given that they had once been one of them. For two, there were far more pressing matters at hand. He simply shook his head at the offer of further clarification, wondering what was going on behind the mask that concealed the Lieutenant Commander's emotions. If he had struck a nerve it had been unintentional.

"To clarify, We are able to clarify the effects of a lack of regeneration on xB bodies such as mind that have not fully transitioned to sleeping in ways more specific to their respective pre-assimilation species." The El-Aurian added then before they glanced off to one aide, likely as they did having some of what they happened to feel and the fact it was heavily suppressed betrayed to a empath. "We are unable to clarify on tactical, engineering or large tranches of scientific considerations."

"It is not inaccurate to say that Liberated Borg could likely benefit from the regeneration alcoves aboard the vessel, and keep up their strength even in the event their peers can't," One supplied gently, though flatly. "I would moreso question whether or not the former drones currently on the away mission would choose to regenerate, even at the detriment of protecting their physical health."

Shane had been listening in on the conversation happening in the office for the past hour or so while he filled in various bits of paperwork necessary to get the Eventide underway in a timely fashion. First were the forms to requisition two runabouts from 777's inventory and to organise their transfer to the Eventide. Next came requisitions to top off the ship's supply of torpedoes, plus an extra 50 quantum torpedoes in case they needed even more boom. He silently wished the station had Tri-Cobalt warheads aboard; they would work excellently as a weapon of last resort if things really did get dire. He also ensured the requisition of extra medical supplies, small arms, grenades, mines, and high-capacity power cells to fill the runabouts to the brim, thereby providing the away team with as many supplies as possible. A thought came to him as he was filling in supply orders, 'Could we fill the pattern buffers on the runabouts with supplies?' Shane was far from an expert on transporter theory, so he decided to ask. "The Runabout's transporter systems, could we fill the pattern buffers with supplies so we can send the away team even more stuff? Potentially larger items like biobeds and portable surgical instruments so they can set up a field hospital wherever they've made a base camp?" divider

20:44

As Shane waited for someone to reply, he began organising the next thing in his head, creating a staging area. He pulled up the local star charts on the room's centre console and began looking for anything interesting near the cube. He eventually found what he was looking for. A rogue planet was passing near the area of operations. It was charted with an above-average magnetic field, which would help obscure the warp signatures of any reinforcements. "I also want a staging area for reinforcements near the cube." He pointed to the rogue planet. "This is P3X-467891 Gamma. It has a stronger-than-average magnetic field than a standard rocky planet, thanks to its core made up of Palladium." He paused for a second for people to process the science words. Yes, Shane could, in fact, do science. "The cube will be expecting the cavalry to come from 777 and will be keeping an eye on warp signatures and distortions, assuming its sensors are online. '891 Gamma should obscure the warp signatures of the Fionnughaula and the Soval so they can act as a reserve force if things get ugly."

"To re-state, we do not dispute that Liberated Borg could benefit from the regeneration alchoves on the vessel sir." Twelve stated as they turned to look to One of one. "We moreso were stating that there's significant risks that may preclude their wanting to regeneration on security grounds, which aligns in a way to what you have said sir." Twelves jaw worked a bit then before she continued. "This is why we have proposed what we've proposed, to prepare should there be a need to provide a xB with the chance to regenerate safely should the location we enter be secure enough."

"I didn't mean to start any sort of debate," Eicran interjected as soon as he found place in the conversation that wouldn't seem rude. He didn't want to cut anyone off. It frustrated him just how difficult talking in a group was. How many social conventions and little mishaps did you have to avoid just while trying to talk? Twelve of Twenty grinding their teeth together or whatever they were doing was still evident. He didn't want to end up with them feeling they were being argued with. "I was just asking, that's all. We can take portable regenerators."

Twelve honestly found themselves confused then. "We were seeking to respond to the question and provide all the information pertinant to the query issued." The El-Aurian responded then as they looked over at Eicran again. "As we believe that query has now been answered and the clarification we wished to make has been made, we will cease to speak." They then looked to Shane then. "Apologies, Lieutenant Commander." The El-Aurian then lapsed into silence, unsure if anything else should be said. This wasn't something Twelve happened to understand, though they'd discussed it with people from the Cooperative and others who remembered more about their pre-Collective and Cooperative past. But well, this form of conversation and the like was something they..struggled with a bit. Though they reckoned they were better with this all than they once had been.

Kiadras took a backseat to the conversation between Eicran and Twelve, pursing his lips together tensely as they continued. He wasn’t too sure if he should step in or not, though when Shane began to speak he turned attention to him, “Filling the pattern buffer might put any away team members that need to be beamed out at risk, though I do like that line of thinking. We could put a fair amount of supplies in there, but leave enough room for any members of the team who are injured.” The Trill looked over the console’s display of ‘891 Gamma. The science was a bit beyond him, but he got some of the gist.

Evoras tilted her head as she looked at the planet and considered the calculations would be needed to execute the plan Shane had proposed. "With the position of the cube in mind, there should be a way for the other ships to drop out of warp close to P3X-467891 Gamma in order to obscure them from the cube's sensors should, at least in theory, be possible. It should not take too long to calculate the optimal trajectory for the ships to take. If you mean to keep maximum secrecy and surprise factor, I would suggest a non standard sign for them to engage, so the cube does not get alerted to their presence by it."

Khamlet watched and listened as the officers spoke, there was a sense from those watching that the exchange was tense? He couldn’t seem to find any sign of it, no teeth bared, no weapons reached for or fists slammed against tables, or anything of the sort. It was all so… Quiet? Yet he wasn’t an idiot and he could see the glances being thrown this way and that. Still it was nothing for him to comment on - though he was mentally picking who he considered likely to win if there was a fight, and who he’d throw himself behind if it came to it, a force of habit. The mention of utilising the rogue planet’s magnetic field to hide reinforcements so that they might approach from an unexpected angle made him nod in agreement. A sensible strategy. He made a mental note to study the known layouts of previously encountered Borg cubes, as well as hopefully obtaining at least some sort of scan of the structural make-up of this cube in particular if there was any available - or as soon as it could be scanned once they were at its location. Otherwise as the conversation turned to matters scientific he listened but did not interject.

"I could repurpose a photon warhead to act like a subspace flare." Shane mused, following Evoras' train of thought. As he ran through calculations in his head. "If we're in a shooting match and need reinforcement we fire off the modified torpedo, it hits the cube and fails to detonate. It'll just look like a dud, or like an attempt to interfere with the cubes sensors, while it actually sends a broad band subspace signal." The idea was sufficiently outside the standard playbook for starfleet tactics that the cube shouldn't have a response ready until reinforcements had already arrived.

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“I like that, I like that a lot.” She said with a hum. “Let’s do it.”

"Oooo! I can help you with that!" Maya happily offered to Shane, she quickly perked up to the idea of tinkering around with weapons. Hehehhehehe explosions.... "We can stuff the torpedoes with excess warp plasma, and then when they explode, they can create a plasma cloud that could further mess with their sensors." Maya said with a quiet ominous chuckle as she steepled her fingers (that thing Mr. Burn's does when he says 'Excellent'... didn't know there was a word for that either.) "We can also use it for firing aft torpedoes. Like, they can explode after a set time and be like a plasma chaff to go with the subspace flares... or you know, we could just vent warp plasma from the nacelles before we cloak. That also works. Great for slowing them down too." Like in Star Trek Online.

Rii inclined their head a fraction. *“Good thinking, Commander Lawson—building a clean trigger for reinforcements is the right instinct.” *A gentle beat. *“My concern is that even an inert torpedo still reads like a strike. That invites escalation and puts us in the cube’s threat queue. We’re trying to stay beneath its notice.” *They turned to the room. *“Let’s keep Maya’s plasma vent and make the pattern our sign. Three-Plume Cadence: four seconds, one-second gap, four, seven-second gap, nine. Thirty seconds later, Eventide yaws twenty-two degrees port for five and resumes. To them, it’s drive bleed and trim; to us, it’s the go-code. No ordnance as message.” *Another slight nod, voice even—midway through, Rii’s lower half eased into a slow two-step, pacing a measured length beside the table while talking “We can also make the cube see less without telling it we’re here. Anything that touches their arrays is a potential announcement. We stay under the noise floor and shape our side of the equation instead: add a Scintillation Veil along ’891 Gamma’s field lines—low-amplitude subspace shimmer that reads like magnetospheric noise. Layer a Dust Curtain—lightly ionized micro-particulates—for harmless scatter. Helm rides the magnetopause shadow on approach. None of this touches the cube; it just makes our corridor look like background mess.” A small nod toward Maya and Evoras. *“Keep amplitudes conservative; if their returns start to sharpen, we cut emission and drift. Our sign stays the plasma cadence plus the silent trim. If we need a backup, seed a cold probe in the plasma to whisper once along the planet’s field lines—no broadcast, no bravado. We blind by being boring—quiet, natural, forgettable.” Their lower half stilled; Rii looked to the table. *“Questions or science tweaks before we lock this in?”

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Shane's face drooped as Rii spoke, the point of a torpedo was simplicity. Trying to enact a complicated manoeuvring pattern while potentially in combat was, extremely dangerous. "Commander a plasma cadence in conjunction with manoeuvres like that just isn't possible to enact in combat." A torpedo followed the ever present planning law of 'K.I.S.S.' Keep It Simple Stupid. "We're going to be above the cubes notice anyway if reinforcements are needed. If we're in a firefight it's better to keep the signal as simple to enact and as difficult to screw up as possible. Sir." Shane spoke as he defended the torpedo.

Maya kept nodding like she understood what Rii just said. She didn't. There was a lot of numbers and ship movement's being said. Maya understood what each of those things individually mean, but she had absolutely no idea what they mean put together in a sentence like that. All she knew was that her idea on warp plasma had been considered and she was quite happy with that.... okay now Rii is saying more things; however those things are fancy nerdy piloty things someone like Shane understands so she's just going to mentally clock out for a moment and think about how the Eventide would look flying away from a cool Borg Cube explosion. "We could also... flash the search lights a couple times at the cube..."

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"I do agree with Commander Lawson, the more complicated the signal is, the higher the chance that either side messes up. Especially in the case that the Eventide requests backup due to being attacked a simple sign would be more apparent." Evoras was about to go on about how she thought adding additional noise to the cube's sensor reading was a good idea, when she heard what Maya said. Her eyebrow shot up and she blinked a few times. "The cube is unlikely to respond well to a SOS signal. That being said, the additional noise should work as additional distraction."

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"An SOS signal by flashing the search lights! Morse code, brilliant!" Same brain lenght? no? just her? okay. "Still. I feel keeping our plans for something complicated like this as simple as possible would be best.... alternatively, I was just going to suggest doing no signal until the away teams figured out how to disable the cube, and that would be our signal to act."

“We don’t know how long that will take,” The Trill said. She was in charge of the second away team, after all, “I like the torpedo, personally. A previous host of mine used something similar during a battle against the Orion Syndicate to track members of the crew they’d kidnapped to…well, sell.”

"Either way, we'll have to get started quickly." Maya said in a more serious tone. "Time is of the essence. Who knows how much time the Cube team has got left."

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“I agree; we should make haste as soon as possible.” She said with a hum.

Kiadras looked down at his PADD, the note of ‘two days of prep?’ he’d written at the top staring back at him. They’d already wasted four days. Well- ‘Wasted,’ but nevertheless. He tapped his stylus against the PADD a few more times before crossing out the note and standing, “Away team, let’s get a move on. I want your expedition suits in working order as soon as possible,” He began to move, “Cdr. T’Shai, I’ll get some torpedoes for Eventide. I’ll send a message Cdr. Sul’s way for a security team for quarantine, and ask her to coordinate with Cdr. Lan,” He paused and looked toward the room, “Let’s move!” (edited)

"I'm dusting off in two hours." Shane said ready to light a fire in the seat of everyone's pants. As he stood up as well.

Khamlet grinned as the commander finally seemed to give the order for action. It was trying his patience as it was listening to all the debated choices, the back and forth, and the effort of holding his tongue was reaching its limit. He nodded and was one of the first out of the room. (edited)

Nodding, T'Shai looked around. "Good luck, all of you - and remember: fortune favours the bold." She started heading to the door, small stack of PADDs in her arm. "I'll see some of you at the Eventide's docking bay."

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“Let’s move out people, gear will be at the shuttle.” She said, picking up her PADD and heading out to get set. She had to assemble some gear.

Given that there were multiple people with far better tactical acumen than him, he had spent the remainder of this meeting listening to their discussions. Most of it was beyond his comprehension but it certainly sounded smart. With the others he headed out, off to obtain a portable regenerator or two and ensure that both the Eventide's medical bay and away team kits were prepped.

"Right. That's our cue then." Maya said as she stood up with as determination lit inside her "Engineers, with me. We have a Tide to raise." Maya said. "Double time! Move!"

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