Star Trek: Season 8 - The Perfect Reflection

[Geekyfanboy]

Nathan sat there naked on the cold hard metal table waiting for this bodiless voice to show himself. The situation was dire as he had no way of escape and even if he could he had no idea where he was. Minutes passed though it felt like hours before he heard several footsteps coming up from behind. As he turned two Borg drones stopped and stood in front of him.  Quinn sat there in awe as these two Borg drones began to configure themselves in a way that as they stepped closer together their two bodies started to merge into one.  It was though these two Borg drones were puzzles pieces and before Quinn knew it the two Borg drones had become one large headless Borg body. 

From the void above Quinn heard the voice again. "I do not take physical form very often, you should feel very honor by this." The voice said as the head and neck were lowered onto the large Borg body. As the neck reached the body Quinn could hear a loud snap as the cords holding the head released. The large Borg rolled his head around on his shoulders and moved his arms as if testing this new body. He turned to Quinn who had a look of shock on his face. Though the man's face was half covered in cybernetics, Nathan still recognized him as someone he knew very well. "Captain Picard??", Quinn said in a whisper of shock. The Borg shook his head "No... I am Locutus, King of the Borg."

[iceman]

Dr. Peterson held the damaged heart in his hands, he could feel the rhythmic pulse of its laboured beats, he had used the laser scalpel with the precision of a true artist to repair the young engineers ruptured Aorta which was caused by exploding electrical conduits from a Borg Pulse weapon.

Casey placed the heart back in the chest cavity and watched as blood started to flow through the repaired Aorta, it looked as if the sutures would hold. The Doctor worked quickly to repair the rest of the injuries the young engineer had sustained, a few broken bones and plasma burns were taken care of quickly by the dermal regenerator.

Dr. Peterson issued a few orders to his assisting nurse before heading over to his next surgery, he was tired but kept going. He was proud of his staff, many of them were saddened by the death of Ryla as was he, as she had saved his life when he had contracted the deadly virus made by Dr. Lucas.

The loss of Ryla was one that would be hard to replace and he sure wished that she was with him now, as the casualties just kept coming and their seemed that their would be little relief in sight.

Peterson had all shifts working and sickbay still had a hard time keeping up with the onslaught of casualties that were now coming in from all decks.

He new when this was over he would have the arduous duty of performing Ryla's autopsy and felt sorry for the poor security officer who would have to answer for her accidental death.

Casey sighed as he thought of how he would inform her next of kin of her bravery and death in the line of duty, this was certainly the one part of the job that he disliked greatly. He was glad that for the moment he had other things to occupy his time, but knew that this was only delaying the unfortunate duty that he would have to eventually perform.

[X]

Aria James ended the cyberpathic communications with her father and continued down the corridor lit by flickering lights. With a pulse phaser in one hand and a tricorder in the other, she paused at the intersection. To the left of her lay three crew members in the process of assimilation. Once vibrant flesh had taken on the sickly gray hue of advanced infection.

Aria kneel near the closest of the fallen and released her nano tubule. On contact with the temple of the young Bajorian woman, her systems injected several micrograms of counter-assimilation nanobots. While the Borg infection had a significant advantage in number, Aria's nanites were designed to combat and convert any Borg nanoprobes entering a host brain. The idea was to keep the mind free of infection and it would be easier to cure the body.

Seven crew members had already received injections on her path to the lounge. The three before her would make that ten. If her numbers were accurate, that was almost ten percent of the crew that she had encountered. She couldn't begin to guess what the actual numbers were.

She only knew that it needed to end soon. The loss of any further crew would limit the ability to operate the ship.

"Aria to Aeric," she said as she tapped her communicator. "From initial observation, I believe that we are losing too many people to the Borg, if we don't get this under control soon, we are going to lose the ship."

"What do you recommend?" asked her father over the open communication channel.

"If we reprogram the nanite stores on the Aurora to combat Borg nanoprobes and then release it through the venting systems, we might be able to delay further infection." Aria said as she mentally calculated the available information.

"We need someone to get to the Aurora to do the reprogramming and then we need to transport the nanites to the main vent junction." Aeric said between phaser fire.

"Understood," she replied. "I'll try to meet up with them at the shuttle bay. I haven't made much progress, but I'm about to enter the lounge."

"Confirmed." Aeric said. "I'll see who's available to help."

[Meds]

Nurse Susan Caine leaned over ensign Bardolph, her hand stayed as steady as a rock and she quickly glanced up at Dr Petersen who in turn caught her eye and the gentle nod from the Dr gave her the confidence boost she desperately needed. She'd lost count on how many crewmen had been seen but so far they had only lost two, Security officer Patrick and her companion Ryla Drett. The sick bay was full and the make shift emergency room in the mess hall set up by security was beginning to accept patients.
Out of the corner of her eye movement from the white covered shroud of ensign Patrick began to move.

[Meds]

Susan spun round to see the white shrouded body Ensign Patrick sitting up in bed, blood began to seep through the cloth and backing back shock suddenly came over her. Her scream echoed round sick bay causing everyone to look at her. Her eyes squeezed shut and she began to punch out at the hands that came round her.

"Susan, SUSAN. Its me Myella."

Susan slowly opened her eyes and gazed into the face of Dr Myella Peterson. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the once upright bleeding body of Ensign Patrick was lying back down, clean and very much still.

"I, I saw something Dr. Patrick was, was sitting up"

Dr Peterson looked over her shoulder and back at Nurse Susan Caine.

"You know he is dead Susan. Look your tired. Go and take five"

Susan smiled at the Dr.

"I'm fine, phew. Its been a long slog. I'll be fine Myella, really. I'd prefer to keep busy"

Myella held her shoulders.

"We have work to do Susan, but i need you on 100%. If you begin to falter go rest. UNDERSTAND"

Susan nodded and turned back to the patient she was working on. Putting all her medical training into gear she tried to ignore the decaying skull of a goat that hovered above her patients head.

[X]

Joint post by Jen and Just X

Commander James smiled to himself as he and his team managed to complete securing Deck Six from the Borg invaders. It was one of the few pleasures that he allowed himself given the state of the ship and his family. Aria had just contacted him, but she was still in Borg held portions of the ship. Rory and Beth were safe aboard the Aurora in the as of yet compromised Shuttle Bay Three. Several of the Borg invaders had been severely damaged by the lower settings of the pulse phasers, but disabled was a long way from being destroyed. The battle that they waged was also far from being won.

"Sir," Ensign Jackson, one of the young human security officers that had accompanied the acting XO from the bridge, said as he turned to Aeric, "if you are ready to head back to the bridge, we can handle things from here."

Aeric nodded and holstered his pulse phaser. "Thank you ensign. Contact Lieutenant D'Callen and get new orders. I'll be on the bridge."

Arranging a site-to-site transport via Rory and Aurora, Aeric materialized on the bridge in a unique pulse of light that signified transport via his ship's transporters. He nodded to himself as he looked over the dedicated crew working hard at their stations to weather the current crisis.

"Captain, we have secured Deck Six, but I felt it would be more efficient if I organized responses from here." Aeric said as he approached Commander Sevryll who had taken her position in the captain's chair. Aeric had rerouted his nanites to begin a removal process of his native disguise. He found this his skin had slowly began taking on a color far lighter than the one that he held on the surface, but it would still be hours before the process was complete. It was also a visual reminder as the crew worked on repairing the damage caused by the invaders.

The multi-spectral regenerative shield system of the Intrepid II class vessel quickly worked in the background to restore power as the crew aboard focused on more pressing matters. Asteroids of various size filled the view of the primary view screen as the flight conn officer maneuvered the Arabella in ways the few other classes could mimic. The brief respite from their escape allowed the crew something that they had not been given since their return from the planet, time to think.

O'Tak's fingers danced over the panel as he activated the tractor beam and redirected another mountain at the sphere. The beam slowly halted the asteroid's rotation as the human altered the trajectory and guided it toward the Borg. A moment later he disengaged the beam. "Very good Mr. O'Tak", said Sevryll, as the bridge crew watched the momentum carry the rock toward the ominous globe. It slammed into other asteroids as it continued on a demolition course, causing them to ricochet off one another and hurtle dangerously close to the sphere. Almost too late, a green beam caught the asteroid projectile and slowed its progression to a stop. The Arabella's helmsman continued weaving amongst the obstacle course of metal and rock, increasing the distance between the Starfleet vessel and the Borg Sphere, as it juggled the hostile mass of stones.

As Aeric lowered himself into the chair beside Sevryll, she leaned toward him slightly and whispered,  "I have not been able to locate Dennis or the children. Has Rory heard from him? How is Aria?"

The safety of her children had been the primary reason she resigned from Starfleet after the quarantine was lifted. The virus had almost claimed their lives, and if it would ensure their wellbeing, she was content to stay on Vulcan. But their half-human lineage had not gone unnoticed by fundamentalist groups, who found their display of emotion detestable. It did not help matters that her own suppression abilities had been damaged by the virus. In the end, they were chased away from Vulcan by enemies of her father—men who opposed the diplomat's Unification efforts. With nowhere to go, Sevryll returned to Starfleet at Nathan Quinn's behest. He was the only person who could have talked her into coming back. Now he was missing, and she had placed her children, once again, in danger.  She squeezed her eyes closed and lowered her head. If anything had happened to them, she would never forgive herself.

Sevryll opened her eyes again, drew a breath and glanced to the viewscreen, they would have to return to the point where they lost the Captain. The subspace disturbances could be related to his disappearance...

"Aria was headed to the last known position of Dennis and the twins. Rory received a communication from Dennis, but she didn't have time to tell me the contents of the message." Aeric said and took the first officer's chair. "Some of the decks below are bad, but I think we'll be able to get everything back under control."

Aeric fingers moved over the XO console and brought up data concerning the status of the ship, his brightly colored hair was a wild mane as a result of earlier combat. The Borg had found the new power systems of their ship a tempting target, and most of them were at or near main engineering. Scattered drones worked to hold other portions oonf the ship, but they did not fully control those sections.

"Captain, the good news is that the current level of Borg on the ship is manageable, but we need to come up with a definitive plan before they multiply further." With a few keystrokes, Aeric issued orders to damage control teams, to begin repairs on the secured sections of the ship.Because of the nature of the Borg attack, casualty and fatality reports were trickling in far slower than usual. Reports that would have taken minutes to compile might be delayed hours with the current condition of the ship.

"A Borg infection in ODN junction thirty-two alpha, has disabled several computer systems including the combadge locator systems. This means we might have to do a physical count to see whom we've lost. The initial attack that damaged the power and weapon systems should be our priority. We should be getting those systems back online first. We can't run forever, so I guess it's time that we see how much bite the Arabella has."

"I agree, but we must clear the asteroid field first. Our sensors are not immune to the magnetic field that has hindered the Borg Sphere," said the Vulcan as she straightened in the command chair. "Once shield integrity is increased, we will concentrate our efforts to fend off the Borg and locate the Captain. We lost contact with engineering briefly, but Mr. K'arath has just assured me that they close to remedying the situation." She gripped the arms of the command chair slightly as stress attempted to physically manifest itself within her.

Aeric nodded and focused his attention on monitoring ship systems. "So, once we have restored systems, we deal with the Borg and then we can work on locating Captain Quinn."

Taking a breath, Aeric tapped his badge and routed his message to the necessary staff. "Attention all senior staff and  department heads. Please report to Officer's Briefing Room for a mandatory meeting with Captain Sevryll on the status of the ship. Commander James out."

[Meds]

D'Callan had just rigged a wire across the main corridor to engineering. Any Borg that would walk across it would be instantly killed. Pointing his phaser at the power conduit he was about to fire when he heard a message come through.

"Attention all senior staff and  department heads. Please report to Officer's Briefing Room for a mandatory meeting with Captain Sevryll on the status of the ship. Commander James out."

D'Callan tapped his badge.

"On my way D'Callan out"

He pressed the button on his phaser and the target sprayed with red light, the wire was now live. Smiling at the glow D'callan turned and casually walked towards the turbo lift.

"Computer over ride Bridge lock down for department heads and senior staff only. D'Callan SL5"

the turbo lift doors slid open and D'Callan entered keeping his phaser ready.

"Bridge"

[iceman]

Dr. Peterson, heard the message over the ships intercom and sighed as he spoke to himself, " Dam he said, haven't I got enough to do saving lives. "

Myella Peterson heard her husband talking to himself , she approached him cautiously, " Is everything OK Dr..?

Casey looked up at his wife and replied, "Yes Dr. I, did not realize I was talking out loud, and since all department heads are needed for a briefing I will be placing you in charge of sickbay, Please go distribute what phaser weapons are available in my office safe to all doctors and nurses and coordinate with security if extra is needed,"

"Yes Doctor" Myella replied, as she placed a hand on her husbands cheek and looked into his eyes as she kissed him on the cheek as she whispered in his ear" Be careful dear". Then she was gone issuing commands to the orderlies to make room for the continued flow of wounded.

Dr. Peterson smiled as he let the attending nurse closed up his last surgical patient. Casey walked out of sickbay preoccupied with the impending staff meeting that he forgot he was still wearing his surgical garb and headed towards the turbo lift which would take him to The Officers Briefing room.

[Bryancd]

K'arath had spent the past hour trying to repair the damage the Borg had done to Main Engineering. Ensign Barton was hard at work under the primary shields station trying to ensure the ship's defensive systems would be on line if and when the Borg caught them in the astroid field. Lt. Took was on his way back from sickbay having been treated for his wounds. Otherwise he had barely a skeleton crew and an emergency situation to deal with. Lt. D'Callan had rigged a defensive perimeter around Main Engineering in case of another Borg incurision.

Now he headed towards the Bridge.

[wraith1701]

In the cold, sterile makeshift-morgue directly off sickbay, K'Tan stood over the bed holding the lifeless body of Ryla Drett.  His jaw clenched with the emotional tug-of-war raging within him, a back-and-forth struggle between despair and fiercely burning rage. 

K'Tan was no stranger to death.  He had seen both friends and foes sent on to their final reward, many by his own hand.  For Klingons of the warrior caste, death was a constant companion; sometimes lurking unseen in the background, sometimes making itself known in the screams of those it claimed.  But in all instances, it was accepted as a fact of life:  Those who lived by the Bat'leth more often than not died by the Bat'leth. 

But for those who weren't members of the fierce warrior caste, it was a different story.  Outsiders might see all Klingons as a bunch of bloodthirsty, battle-hungry warriors, eager to kill or die in combat, but that wasn't the case.   True, the all too visible warrior caste reveled in combat-- their duty was to walk the razors edge separating peace from total destruction, and only those with the temperament to embrace conflict could prosper in such a role.  But death in violent conflict was not a fitting end for the civilian populace that the warriors fought to protect.
 
Foes who struck down unarmed civilians were worse than without honor; they were without souls.  They deserved nothing less than total annihilation.

K'Tan tentatively reached out a hand and brushed aside a stray lock of Ryla's untamed hair.  Her skin felt stiff and cold.

Such a gentle soul, he lamented.  You deserved better than this. 

His expression turned grim.  His hands balled into fists, the nails almost drawing blood from his palms.

The Borg will pay.

As if from a great distance, K'Tan heard the chirping of his communicator badge.  Ignoring his first impulse to rip the device from his chest and fling it against the wall, he tapped it, opening a channel.  The disembodied voice of the acting XO issued forth-- 

"Attention all senior staff and  department heads. Please report to Officer's Briefing Room for a mandatory meeting with Captain Sevryll on the status of the ship. Commander James out." 

K'tan's pulse pounded in his temples as he made his way towards the bridge. 

He silently prayed that he would encounter a Borg or two before he got there.

[Jen]

The Borg slipped further behind the Arabella, as the Sphere struggled to avoid the asteroids that the starship directed in its path. Sensing that the situation was as stable as possible, Sevryll left the bridge to Zremm and she and Aeric headed for the Main Lounge.  The vulcan entered the briefing room and scratched the long tapered ears that rose at an angle above her crown. The prosthetics were becoming uncomfortable. It had never been a problem in the past...perhaps it was not the alterations that caused the itch. Under stressful situations, agitated nerves often caused mild physical discomfort. She scratched at the elaborate line of tattoos on her neck and took her seat at the head of the long, gloss black table.

While she and Aeric waited, the Vulcan centered herself through controlled breathing. By the time the first officers arrived for the impromptu briefing, the itching seemed to have lessened somewhat. She pushed a lock of blue hair behind her right ear and stood to address the room.  The Acting Captain glanced to Doctor Peterson first—it was evident he left Sickbay during surgery. The Vulcan nodded to him as she began, "I appreciate your promptness. I know you all have pressing matters to attend, but we may not have another chance to discuss our options."  She glanced about the room, taking a moment to account for all the senior officers. Noting that Margon was absent she inquired as to his whereabouts, "where is the Counselor?"

[Meds]

The officers looked round the room and a feeling of unease and dread flowed over them. D'Callan walked to the monitor.

"Computer locate Counselor Margon"

The calm voice of the computer responded.

"Counselor Margon is in his quarters"

Looking over at Sevryll he tapped his communication badge.

"D'Callan to the counselor, respond please"

There was no reply.

"Commander with your permission I'd like to enable the quarter cameras"

Sevryll nodded and turned in her chair to the main briefing room monitor.

"Computer enable security quarter camera to sweep Counselor Margons room, slow pan"

The view screen clicked on, the image looked misty and the camera slowly panned round, nothing at first then a slight movement in the distance. The camera stopped and slowly zoomed in, static began to distort the picture and the zoom stopped. The officers leaned in towards the monitor to try and make out the movement when suddenly coming out of nowhere came a set of teeth and deathly scowl, swiping at the light of the camera Mr Mouse attacked it, his tail rigged and pointing up.

[ElfManDan]

The hall seemed strangely quiet. Fissual and Reese walked slowly with their weapons ready for a surprise attack, but nothing seemed to be going on around them. They worked their way farther and farther from their quarters and the more they traveled without any contact with the Borg the more relaxed they were becoming.  Their focus began to fade and the threat seemed to be less important then before. Their fears were slipping away.

"Fissual, you know for a guy who talks as much as you do, I really don't know much about you and your past."

"You never ask."

"Well, I didn't know you were a wrestler." Reese wondered to himself why he had never asked Fissual about his past, cause after what he had seen he was now very interested, "Yeah, what else don't I know about you?"

"You would be interested in the rest of my life." Fissual replied, "It's really not interesting."

"I'm interested. Where did you come from? What's your homeworld?"

"I don't have a homeworld."

"What, did you live in space?"

"Yeah," Fissual seemed to be being a bit evasive about his past, "on a transport ship."

"A transport ship, huh."

"Yeah."

"So was your father an engineer too?"

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" Fissual stopped the conversation, he didn't like talking about his past and he wasn't going to go any further.

"Fine, if you don't want to we don't have to." Reese was surprised by Fissual's tone of voice, he couldn't remember ever hearing a bitter word come out of his mouth. Reese began to wonder if something had traumatized Fissual in his past, he knew the best way to get past the pain was to face it, it was something that had become very evident only a short time ago to himself. He wanted to help Fissual, but he didn't want to push him. Baby steps Reese thought.

[Meds]

"Its not there, it's not there. IT IS NOT THERE"

Opening her eyes the skull had now gone and all Susan could see was the patient below her. She glanced around and small lights flickered in her vision. She was beginning to become fatigued. As much as she wanted to keep working the young nurse knew that she had to rest, a tired medic was a dangerous medic.

"I need to rest, Wake me in half an hour"

Her fellow medics smiled at her, they had all had at least some rest and this would be Susan's first in nineteen hours. She found a corner near to Ryla's office and lay down, she knew her friend was lying motionless next door but even that thought could not stop her succumbing to the power of sleep, slowly her heavy eye lids dropped and Susan Caine fell asleep.

[Geekyfanboy]

Quinn sat there for a moment confused as to what Locutus had just said. None of this made any sense. Locutus continue to stare at Quinn with a quizzical look. "Why have you kidnapped me?" Nathan asked while jumping down from the table. Locutus smiled, "Why that should be obvious." Quinn shock his head, "humor me," he said. Locutus began to walk around Nathan; "Why to bring cohesiveness to the Borg of course, with your powerful telepathic abilities you will be able to unify all Borg. Unification is the only way the Borg will defeat its foes." "But the Borg have no formidable enemies," Nathan said as he pulled on a black bodysuit that was lying next to his table. "But we do... and with your help we will be able to combine the forces of our Collective and the Cooperative and we will once and for all be able to crush the Empire and Alliance in one big swoop." Suddenly something clicked in Quinn's brain as he heard Locutus mention the Empire and Alliance. Nathan now knew where he was, it all made sense. "I'm in the mirror universe?" He stated under his breath. Locutus laughed out loud, "Of course you are, we lost our Quinn many months ago and have been searching for you since. You will help us defeat our foes.. resistance if futile." Quinn watched as the large Borg exited the room walking through the force field that enclosed the entrance.

Nathan paced the room thinking to himself. How was his crew going to find him, he wasn't even in the same dimension anymore. All he knew was if they were able to pull him from his universe they would be able to send him back. And one thing was for sure he was not going to willing help the Borg from this universe or any other.