Risk vs. Reward (Part 4 of 5)

Posted on 22 Aug 2013 @ 7:43pm 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

2,358 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 03 - 0005 hrs

Previously, on Risk vs. Reward (Part 3)...

Turning his attention to the new engineer that had joined the team in the briefing room, John found himself having to trust a new member of the crew in a very short space of time.

"Mister Fahad, you might be the newest member of this crew, but with our engineering team compromised I will be needing you to step up to the task. Have the warp core locked down and prepared for immediate withdrawal at the first sign of trouble - oh, and give the external hatches a once-over - if we need to flush some drones into space, the last thing I want is a faulty locking mech screwing up my day."

Fahad nodded, fixing tired eyes on the Commander. "I'll make sure it's done, sir." His voice sounded drawn and tired, but resolute.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

"Operations - I want all systems aboard this ship thoroughly checking over and prepared for battle conditions, work with Security and Engineering as necessary."

With a curt nod, Mor'an accepted her assignment. She would do everything in her power to prevent anyone on board this ship from becoming assimilated. However, as rare as this occurrence may be, she was mostly worried about herself. She had abilities that the rest of the crew didn't. If, on the off-chance that she was assimilated, the Collective would have the ability to not only see inferred and ultra-violet lights as she did, but also to use neurological manipulation. She decided in that moment that she would kill herself before she allowed the Borg to have the kind of knowledge.

"What are the current orders for Flight Control?" Dea asked hearing nothing listed for her department. She had plans of her own but wanted to make sure nothing was missed.

Lirha took the question posed by her senior flight control officer as an opportunity to step forward and inform the flight crew of their dangerous duty. "I would like Ensign T'Srrr'Kharh," her pronunciation of the Caitian's surname was surprisingly good, "to be at the helm during this operation." she replied, looking at the furry young officer. Her gaze then turned to Dea.

"You and Lieutenant Ral will be down in the main shuttlebay manning USS Marina and Virginia which will both be on standby at Alert 5 condition. Should we encounter any problems, our support craft will hopefully serve as a distraction, even if it is just a minor one. You will receive additional details once we commence the rescue."

Dea nodded to Lirha. "Understood Ma'am." Serving as a distraction would be a very risky mission but it might be Galileo's only chance. her focus shifted back to the meeting.

S'Ranna's ears wiggled and her mane of golden fur fluffed proudly as her chest swelled. She sat up a little straighter: even her cartoon-emblazoned onesie could not distract from the elegance of her appearance. "Of courrrse, Captain, it will be my honourrr," she said softly.

John agreed that the support craft would be a great deployment, at least if things got a little too hairy there would be additional support in the area. Galileo had it's share of good pilots, and it was time to put them to use.

"Doctor Warraquim - Sickbay is likely to be overrun with wounded at various stages of Borg assimilation, prepare your staff for the associated trauma."

The XO took a breath at the end of his orders, he had covered all the bases for now, and was confident that his department heads would be able to carry out the rest of the finer details without much bother.

"And all of you, remember, if we engage the enemy, you may come across members of the Venture crew that...cannot be saved. If that happens...you know what to do."

Allyndra kept her counsel, there was a time and place to voice concerns and protests but it was obvious the command had decided to fly into the teeth of a storm. She just added mentally, "If we all do not become one crew again.".

Amynta arched an eyebrow, watching Holliday. She was not impressed. She hadn't had any orders, so she supposed she was playing support. And no projectiles until they needed? The hell she would fire a phaser at those things. She'd arm herself. She remembered what a friend had once said about facing the Borg. Save one bullet for yourself, because once they have your mind they have your secrets. Well, he had said soul, but Amynta didn't believe in that crap so she considered her secrets her soul. "Yes," she spoke up. "We kill them. Because it's what this is. Either we kill them, or they make us into those mechanical zombies. Don't know about you all, but I'd rather face an airlock. And I bet they all felt the same way."

With the basic plans laid out for the rescue operation and with all officers now informed, Lirha moved forward to stand in front of her XO and began to go into detail regarding the beam in and out locations aboard the cube. Starfleet had fortunately gathered some rather detailed schematics of the large geometric ships over the past fifty years, including internal layouts and deck plans. Tapping her PADD to reconfigure the large monitor to display the Borg ship's schematics, Lirha began to identify the most likely areas where survivors might be located.

"After we locate the cube, and assuming there are survivors aboard and we are able to locate them, the most challenging aspect of this operation will be to successfully transport our away team to an ideal location within the ship, retrieve our Starfleet comrades, and then transport out - with little to no resistance and detection." she began, then turned towards the screen to highlight several key areas.

"Based on intelligence information gathered from former Borg captives, we know that the Borg have several expansive assimilation chambers set up in three key areas of their cubes." she pointed her green finger to three different sections of the ship on the 3D ship display. "The first is located near the heart of the ship in grid 13-2 of sub-junction 5 near several primary power nodes. This will be the most challenging area to infiltrate because it is relatively close to the central power matrix, a heavily guarded area." she briefly paused to clear her throat, then continued.

"The next assimilation chamber is located in grid 3-8 of sub-junction 23. This one is near to the maturation chambers, and also heavily-guarded area of the ship. However, I believe there are several sensory nodes in this vicinity which could be disabled to afford us more stealth, specifically..." Lirha continued on for several seconds explaining the intricacies of the Borg cube's systems, but unbeknownst to her as she stared at the screen, something strange suddenly began to disturb the cloud-like gasses of the nebula outside of the observation lounge's windows.

The normally-slowly-swirling cosmic dust and gasses of the nebula's closest cloud all of a sudden puffed away in an outward motion as if something had just flown through them, and a visual distortion began to shimmer and move rapidly towards Galileo. With most of the briefing room crew facing the LCARS monitor, only a keen set of eyes staring out through the window would have noticed it, but it did not take long for the shimmer to suddenly begin materializing.

Leaning, as he was, with his back against the bulkhead, Andreus Kohl was craning his neck to watch the Captain and the LCARS display. The roiling motion outside the viewport caught in his peripheral vision, largely because he was looking for a distraction. Any distraction. Kohl wasn't prepared to voice his opinion, wasn't even sure he wanted to admit it to himself. He felt like any rescue attempt was folly. The Venture crew-members who were lost, who were probably already assimilated, were Starfleet officers. They had accepted the risks that lead directly to their demise. Kohl had to wonder: why risk the Galileo's crew and its refugees on such a slim hope? But he already knew the answer. Because she said so. Because the Captain said so. Because he was an officer, that had to be enough.

Kohl followed the shimmering movement in his peripheral vision and he stared out the viewport that was directly across from him. Stared right through the viewport, stared right at it. Seeing it up close was a surreal experience. It left Kohl at a loss for words, as he vocalized, "Uhhhhhmmm." And then he blurted out, "What in the hell is that?"

Quinn looked out the viewport and shook his head in disbelief. "Shit. Borg." he only had seconds to react. "Brace for impact everyone!" shouted out the COB as he sprinted for Tarish and their unborn child.

In less than two seconds and in all of its menacing glory, a Borg probe decloaked, easily recognizable by its 600 meter-long oblong frame and dark gray mechanical hull plating. Glowing green splotches dotted the external hull -- the trademark signature of any of the Collective's vessels. It bore down hard on Galileo closing to within firing range within a matter of seconds, then suddenly lashed out at the tiny Nova Class with two bursts of bright green energy fire.

One advantage of the compound eye is that it is much more sensitive to movement at the expense of acuity on the peripheral vision. A shift, swirl of the background caught her attention and though Allyndra pushed away from the bulkhead to concentrate on shimmer it resolved itself quickly into what was a Borg ship. Bright beams suddenly lashed out and with a shake as of a Terran Terrier with a toy, the ship shook with the impact. Her natural reaction was to try to open her wings to steady but there was no room and instead Allyndra banged into the wall and then to her knees.

Ammar put his head down and began to pray. He hadn't done so since he was a kid, but he remembered the forms. This would be the second attack in so many days. He finished his short prayer and raised his head, ready for orders. Adrenaline had rid him of any trace of weariness.

Nat was busy looking at the PADD in her lap, running some simulations of fungal growth in a Borg cube and trying to work out how the presence of chroniton radiation might affect the evolutionary possibilities. She noticed a hubbub of activity around her and scowled. "Do you mind keeping it down?" she hissed. "I'm busy working here."

S'Ranna gave a hiss and leapt up, claws unfurling automatically, tail rising like a furry signal of the sudden jolt to her system. She bared long gleaming fangs in a snarl, as though such a primal gesture might somehow ward off the impact of the energy pulse charging. Her tail instinctively stretched out to balance her as her paws spread wide on the deck, the elegance of her stance only slightly lessened by her outfit.

Like Nat, Victoria was not familiar with the Borg. Her knowledge was limited to what she had learned at the Academy, but that was years ago. However, she might be able to talk to some of the...survivors about what they'd experienced. Of course, it would be tricky, to say the least; the psychological trauma would be extreme. Maybe she could talk to Lt. Blake, see if she could help her with the interviews, and of course to get permission. She'd have to see the captain about it, too. She grabbed her PADD and started typing as fast as she could, her spirits a little bit higher now that she felt more useful.

Dea had been taking a few notes when she quickly noticed the unusual activity around her. There was no time to properly brace herself before Mialin felt the ship shake violently.

Mor'an had been tuning out the rest of the crew, focusing instead on the captain's hands as they flew across the LCARS screen. She suddenly became aware of the noise around her that drowned out Lirha's voice. Turning towards the viewport, Mor'an saw what had made the other members of the crew react the way they did. With nothing more than a sharp in take of breath to indicate that she had seen the probe, Mor'an's eyes swept the room to look across the crew gathered, finally settling in the captain to await orders.

John looked up in horror at the sight of a ship so close to the Galileo's hull, so close that he could have reached out and touched it had it been only a few metres closer towards them. Grabbing onto his chair, the XO yelled into his combadge.

=^=All Hands this is the XO - brace for impact, repeat brace for impact!=^=

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

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