Risk vs. Reward (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on 22 Aug 2013 @ 7:41pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Lieutenant Ammar Fahad & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Ensign Natalie Chevalier & Ensign Ariadne Fleming & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Tarishiana Barel & Chief Petty Officer K8 Yellow
Edited on on 22 Aug 2013 @ 7:45pm

2,220 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 02 - 2355 hrs

Previously, on Risk vs. Reward (Part 1)...

"This is footage we have recently recovered from USS Venture's data recorder. It shows what happened to their ship, as well as their final moments." she added solemnly.

Lirha input several brief commands then suddenly, video footage which had been previously retrieved from USS Venture's data logs showing its final moments was displayed. The troubling scene which she had viewed in the science lab earlier in the day began to play, and she remained silent while watching the rest of her ship's officers view the ambush which had destroyed the Galaxy Class' stardrive.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The view of the visual log on the monitor was stunning. Against the sparkling blue and turquoise backdrop of the nebula, a large cubic object appeared to briefly shimmer then suddenly materialized in all of its Borg glory. Lirha had seen such an object before but never in person; only at the Academy. Its heavily-plated gray hull armor was not the traditional version of a Borg cube, but rather that of a tactical cube, the Collective's most powerfully-recorded starship. It closed on the stardrive with incredible speed and a series of green cutting beams and torpedo volleys quickly followed suit. The image on the screen shuddered under the intense weapons fire, and a particularly violent barrage was seen penetrating the Federation ship's forward shields and sending large chunks of hull debris blasting out into space. The recording device then lost the image of main forward monitor which was replaced by a static image - most likely due to damage to the main deflector array - but the view promptly switched to an external camera and the carnage could be seen in detail.

The Borg cube efficiently and effortlessly sliced its way through Venture's shields and hull, and several escape pods could be seen ejecting from the sides and bottom of the engineering section. With its shields down, a well-placed cutting beam sheared off one of the giant nacelles and sent it floating aimlessly into space as power conduits and relays failed, rupturing the glowing blue plasma injectors and exploding their contents into space. The stardrive section began to list to the side out of control and meanwhile more escape pods could be seen deploying from the critically damaged ship.

The last image of the sensor logs was particularly disturbing; a cluster of ten to twelve escape pods attempting to flee from the cube were pursued and tractored by the giant Borg ship, then were subsequently dragged inside one of the menacing docking ports against their will. The log recording suddenly fizzled out and turned to static again, signaling the end of the visual log and the final moment of the stardrive's life.

Quinn's face was brilliant red from pure rage and anger over seeing the Borg at their worse for a second time in his life. He stood at the back of the room fuming, hoping not to be noticed.

"Good God," Victoria breathed in utter shock and horror. Her mouth had fallen open as she watched, transfixed and disgusted. They had been taught about the Borg in the Academy, where they were safe and the Borg collective seemed unreal; she never thought she'd ever have to face them in person. She took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm and listen to the captain.

Amynta had watched the video, nothing being betrayed. She finally sighed, shaking her head. "Better hope we have some projectile weapons around," she whispered to herself. Phasers did nothing to the Borg once they had adjusted. Bullets, however, could always do some damage.

Nat felt sick to her stomach: just a few days ago, she might have been aboard one of those helpless escape pods. And their occupants were people she might have met on the Venture, eaten with, shared a drink with in the lounge. Before the log had finished playing she had had to look away, trying to blink away the fear in her eyes. When this is over, I need to call maman.

Ammar hung his head. Watching it here was bad, but it didn't even come close to the experience of living through it.

Allyndra watched the video. She had not encountered personally the Borg, but had heard stories, who had not. They were amoung some of the worse the galaxy had to offer. While she watched, she felt that cool and dispassionate, semi-detached mood overtake her. It came from years of putting people back together. One learned to detach oneself if one wanted to keep their sanity. Her eyes unfocused slightly to think about her project now again abandoned in the medical research lab.

Tarishiana didn't have a reaction. She didn't need to watch the video to know what had happened to the Venture. She had been there. Her presence aboard the stardrive was simply to help out the science department with their reading of the Nebula. If the department hadn't been short handed she would have remained on the saucer section. Life had a funny way of getting you where you needed to be. The loss of life in the process was almost overwhelming to the Betazoid.

S'Ranna shivered, her fur standing on end and her once-sleepy eyes now wide open and alert. Suddenly, the holosimulations she had been running, "spicing up" a routine program with a few Borg ships, seemed in poor taste. She thought back to her cousin, K'Rreer, lost at Wolf 359: was he now labouring away as a Borg drone, or had he met a more merciful fate and simply died? Either thought had her pulse racing, her claws clacking, and her tail a fuzzy whip of tension.

Watching the video only put a face to the silent fear that had been growing within her. Too much now made sense about Venture's attack. She was angry among other things. Her attention shifted back to her Commanding Officer and Executive Officer.

Mor'an's face became as hard and expressionless as stone. She remembered now with disgust how childishly excited she had been when she and the away team had found that long-dead Borg drone. She knew the danger of the Borg but, in her naivet, she didn't know the danger of the Borg. Now she did. After what the captain had showed them, all Mor'an wanted to do was seek retribution. She knew that was against what Del'an had taught her, but she no longer cared. The Borg were evil and murderous and they needed to pay for it.

Standing there beside the bulkhead, Kohl leaned back to shift his weight against the bulkhead. His breath became caught in his throat, and he bit his lower lip to keep from making a sound. To Kohl's eyes, the Borg were... a force of nature. Primal and destructive. Something you survived, rather than something to be challenged, or persuaded, or defeated.

Delainey couldn't help but think how grateful she'd been when the drone they'd discovered on her survey mission was deceased. Now it seemed the discovery had been prophetic. She searched the eyes of those in the room and inwardly wondered if she had felt the plummeting of morale. Few enemies could elicit the kind of panic as the Borg.

Ariadne's face betrayed little--she merely turned pale--but, within, she felt her chest tighten. Her insides were thoroughly chilled. For most of her life, the Borg had been a vague report, an occasional nightmare, a bogeyman; she never realized how horrible, how deathly serious they truly were. Never had she felt so small, insignificant and inadequate.

Jacob felt deep anger rising up inside him; it took him all of his will to keep it in check. His muscles tightened up, so much so that the outlines of his massive muscular structure could easily be seen by anyone paying attention. He sat quietly though as he focused on the data and only the data he had in front of him. He could not afford to let his emotions get the better of him right now.

Stepping ahead of the group as the video playback ended, John spoke up, both in an attempt to get his authority across, but also to try and snap his officers back to reality before they became too engrossed in what they had just seen.

"As the footage you have just seen shows, we now know exactly what happened to the Venture's stardrive section. This close to Borg territory, we all knew there would be a danger of us encountering the Collective - that danger has now manifest itself."

John saw the same shocked looks on his crew that he had seen on hundreds of Cadets' faces after he had completed their Borg training courses at the Academy. Each of them had heard something about the Borg before their time at the Academy, but nothing had prepared them for the sheer scale of their malevolence.

"We are Starfleet officers, and we have a duty to our comrades. Whilst we do not know how many of them may still be...themselves...aboard that vessel, Captain Saalm and I have agreed that it is our duty to at least attempt a rescue mission."

Lirha didn't say a word but instead gave John a slight nod to indicate for him to continue and inform the crew of the details which he had worked out over the last several hours. As a competent tactical instructor back at the Academy who had studied the Borg in depth, his expertise meant she preferred for him to explain the intricacies of the rescue operation.

"Our mission will be undertaken as follows."

John took his cue from the CO and moved to the display panel, tapping in a short code sequence to bring up the plan he had generated thus far. An outline of the nebula appeared, as well as two small insignia, one to indicate the Galileo, and one to indicate the Borg vessel.

"At the moment, we have no idea where the Borg vessel is located, however, Galileo has some of the best sensors in the fleet, and if anyone can track them down, it's us. Science departments - I will be looking for you to analyse the data we recovered from the Venture's flight box - her sensor records must have some information on the cloaking method the Borg are using."

The XO tapped one key and watched as the miniature Galileo moved closer to the Borg vessel.

"Upon locating our target, we will intercept them at minimal velocity with weapons powered down and shields offline - we don't want any excuse for them to see us as a threat. Once within range, we will be able to use passive scans to identify any lifesigns that are clearly not that of a drone."

That was the one part of the plan that the Galileo was hoping on - if it turned out that there were no survivors, then the mission would be scrubbed at that moment, and Galileo would retreat to the relative safety of Federation space.

"If, and I stress only if, we ascertain the location of any survivors, a small away team led by myself will beam aboard and attempt a rescue mission. Weapons fire will be a last resort."

The Commander had no desire to go toe-to-toe with the Borg, but arguably he was the most experienced tactical officer aboard, and if anyone should be going inside that ship, they wouldn't be doing it without him.

"At that point we will perform an emergency beam-out to the Galileo, and retreat at maximum velocity, hoping the Borg haven't deemed us a threat. If they do, well suffice to say our illustrious CoB, Mr Quinn, has put his years of engineering experience to practice and will be assisting with the modification of some rather unorthodox torpedoes. We won't get more than a couple of shots, but if they work, we should have all the time we need to run."

With one final command, he tapped against the display, and the projection shut down.

"Any questions?"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

LtJG Ammar Fahad
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

ENS S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh
Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

CPO K8 Yellow
Transporter Chief
USS Galileo
[NPC - T'Srrr'Kharh]

Lt. Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Aria Rice
Assistant Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lt. Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

Ensign Im'er Mor'an
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Commander Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor/2XO
USS Galileo

LT.(jg) Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Tarishiana Barel
Science Corps Technician
USS Galileo

RSS Feed