Planet Of The Borg
Posted on Sun Nov 22nd, 2015 @ 3:03am by Commander Dae Nalas & Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Lieutenant Bryce Kendrick & Ignatius Reilly & Major Patrick Smith
Mission:
Further Challenges
Location: Planet 6584
“We’ll be arriving in twenty minutes,” Dae announced from the co-pilot’s seat. “I’m picking up the same sensor readings as the recon ship, down in the southern hemisphere. Dress warm, the surface temperature is at -3 Celcius. Oz, how’s that going to affect Iggy?”
“Well... Tarantulas aren’t exactly cold weather creatures. It’ll likely freeze her in place,” Oz answered, “but I checked the weather and planned ahead. Good thing we’ve had a few days to get this far. Iggy?” She called back to the spider.
I am here, came the quiet answer. Slowly, Iggy moved into the center of the crew area and stood still. She was larger than usual, but the new bulk wasn’t her own: it was a bulky layer of material Oz had fashioned into an all-over wrapping for her. The material was highly rated for insulation and, along the inner layer, there was a network of warming electrodes with a small power source resting on Iggy’s prosoma. The makeshift self-warming spider snowsuit came complete with a handle on the back to allow Oz to carry Iggy like a little handbag. This is humiliating.
“You’re the one that chose to stowaway. I intend to keep you alive and well so that I can ground you when we get home,” Oz grumbled at her.
“Can you ground someone that has kids of their own?” Nico asked. “Just for future reference mind you.”
“Don’t take her side, Nico,” Oralia glanced up at him, scandalized.
Dae raised his eyebrow at Nico. “Something you want to tell us Nico?”
Nico looked up from Iggy and it took only a split-second to understand Dae’s meaning. “What? Oh no...hell no. Don’t even go there. Bryce will have kids before I do.”
“Who says I don’t already?” Bryce replied with his back to the rest of the group, packing a bag with supplies. The ship was quiet for a few moments and, when he turned around, they were all staring at him. “What? I didn’t say that I did.”
Nico snorted. “Whatever you say, my friend. Time to get suited up and armed. I don’t want to take any chances out there. No one goes anywhere alone and keep your comm channels open and on.”
“Bryce and I have set everyone’s weapons for rotating frequencies, in case we need to use them on the Borg,” Oralia said as she picked Iggy up and put the bundled arachnid in her lap. She and the spider had a brief private conversation that ended with Oz shushing the spider, “No, you may not have a phaser. Now hush or else I’ll leave you in a storage bin here.” Oz was struggling to hide a laugh as she glanced at the others.
“Pat’s putting us down two hundred meters from the site on the earlier scan. Right now I am detecting only one viable life sign,” Dae informed them. “Let’s hope it’s a friendly one. If not, then let’s hope it’s the only one.”
“We can do a better scan when we get closer,” Pat suggested. “Dae get kitted up. I’ll do the landing. Just of course save me a phaser.”
“I have your gear here,” Bryce said.
Soon enough, the ship made land and the team was suited up. “Oz, the scan showed the dead cube due east of here. It’s showing no life signs, which is good, but no guarantee. We’ll head south and track down the live one and hope it’s just one. Everyone keep your channels open. They’ve been connected to the ship so it will record any activity that comes across. With any luck, this will be a short trip with a frozen cube and a lone survivor that we can take down. Let’s do it.”
Dae nodded to Patrick to open the hatch.
As the hatch opened, a stiff, freezing wind blew in and Oz, tucking Iggy into a pouch and turning on the spider’s warming network, shivered before zipping up her own parka. She hopped out into the frigid air and called back, “Bryce, let’s go check out the cube. Dae, keep in touch via comm.”
I’m cold already, Iggy complained.
“Shut up and give the warmer time to warm up,” Oz replied.
Bryce exited the ship and was already leery about being on a planet with Borg, dead or alive. His weapon at the ready, he was already scanning the area just in case their sensors were somehow being affected by the cold. “You’ll be fine, Iggy,” he said absentmindedly. “Of course, we could always leave you on the ship with the heater on.”
Nico emerged behind them, and once Dae and Patrick were with them, closed the hatch. “We’ll be listening,” he said. Then checking his tricorder, he led the way off towards the south.
Iggy, if something comes up, you should be able to shout loud enough for Nico and I to hear you. Dae sent that to Iggy, then with a wave to Bryce and Oz, departed with Patrick to join Nico.
Roger that!, Iggy shot back at Dae, keeping her thought confined to just the Intel Chief.
Oz had a tricorder out and said to Bryce, "Quarter mile, that way. Let's go." She set off due east. "Let's hope no snowstorms kick up while we're here."
“Or any rogue Borg,” he replied, following her lead.
“Optimist,” she joked, smiling.
The top corner of the cube was visible just twenty metres ahead. The area all around was utterly still, nothing disturbing the sharp, clear air of the night. Suddenly, from deep within the cube, came a faint whirring sound followed by one step, then another. The metallic clunk echoed through the silent cube as the slow steps neared the edge.
A ship has landed. Five humanoids and one creature of indeterminate biological form. Two of the humanoids and the creature are within sight. The other three are moving in your direction. Return to the cube immediately.
The drone didn’t wait for an answer. He simply took his place along one bulkhead, apparently regenerating, closed his eyes and waited.
Just outside the wrecked ship, Oz, looking up at the hulking wreck, slipped on a patch of ice and just managed to catch herself before she landed on her ass. Please do not crush the madre de dios, Iggy, oddly calm, protested.
“Thanks, brat,” Oz muttered. She touched the cube and consulted her tricorder. “There’s a small energy reading. Something on this ship is alive,” she told Bryce then stepped through the breach.
Several minutes later, as Oz and Bryce continued to scan the immediate area and navigate around broken conduits and twisted bulkheads, Iggy practically whispered, Oralia?
Oz paused. "What is it, Iggs?"
We are not alone, the arachnid told both Oz and Bryce. There is something here.
Her comment made the hairs on Oz's neck and arms prickle. The energy reading her tricorder had picked up hadn't gotten any larger. The tricorder wasn't picking up any biosigns either, but, perhaps, Oz reasoned, the Borg had new tricks. She looked over at Bryce as she pulled her phaser out and nodded for him to do the same.
He held up his hand, phaser already in it. Walking alongside Oz as she kept an eye on the tricorder, Bryce kept an eye on the immediate area since his boss was a bit busy with her scans. If something happened, her reaction time would be slower and he needed to be ready to intervene at a moment’s notice.
Reaching a corner of the cube, they stopped while Oralia scanned. No change in the energy readings but Bryce saw Iggy shift a bit nervously in her weird papoose. With a calming breath, he stuck his head around the corner to see if anything was there.
A rapid movement came at the edge of Bryce’s vision and before he had a chance to process it, two small tubules pierced Bryce’s neck. Moments later, a pair of strong arms took hold of him and yanked him around the corner and out of sight.
Something has Bryce, Oralia, Iggy calmly told her papoose carrier.
“Wha...?” Oz turned to look at Bryce, but he wasn’t behind her anymore. “Bryce!”
Shush! I keep hearing something repeating, ‘Resistance is futile’. Make them stop! Iggy demanded.
Stuffing the tricorder in a pocket, holding Iggy against her belly, and brandishing her phaser, Oz hurried back around the corner. Bryce was gone. Her commbadge chirped and Nico’s voice came over the comm. She answered him then grunted as something hit her from behind. She turned and fired, but the Borg was on her. It ripped away Iggy’s papoose even as tubules shot out and punctured Oz’s parka and skin.
Pat clapped and rubbed his gloved hands together as they walked away. “Well this is like being home. Lead the way gents.”
“Home?” Nico asked. “Where did you grow up? On Andoria?” He grinned at Patrick. “I spent two weeks there once and the only reason I stayed warm was because of a lovely.….yeah...moving along.”
Dae gave Nico a sideways look. “Since you’re still alive I suppose her father never found out?”
Nico simply smiled. “Something like that.” His tricorder beeped and he opened it up. “That life sign is fifty meters ahead, over by that ridge.” The area in question was a tall ridge of ice that sparkled in the early twilight. “It is what it looks like...all ice.”
Having a good look around Pat found a way up. “Over there,” he said pointing. “Should be able to get up. But I daresay we've been spotted. No way you could miss us from that ridge.
“I don’t think so either,” Dae answered. “Life sign is moving away, though. Looks like it’s going back towards the ship.”
“Oz?” Nico spoke into his comm badge he’d attached to his wrist. “Got a life sign moving your direction. No visual on this end yet, it’s hidden by a ridge of ice that runs almost all the way there. What’s your situation?”
The response that came back was static-filled and garbled. "Nic... ...alone... Igna... ... ...energy reading... Bryce... ...have a problem." Though little came through, there was enough for the three men to know it was Oralia speaking.
Suddenly her comm channel went dead. Nico stood still as stone for a moment, then whipped around to face Dae and Patrick. “We have to get back. NOW! Iggy was screaming in my head and now I can hear the Collective coming through Iggy’s thoughts.” He pressed his hands to his temples, trying to block it out but the attempt was useless.
“Let’s go!” Dae shouted and then all three were moving back in the direction of the cube at a dead run.
************************
Lt. “Redshirt” Kendrick
Cmdr. Oralia Zeferino
Ignatius J. Reilly-Zeferino
Borg Fodder
Lt. Commander Dae Nalas
Lt. Commander Nicolao
Major Patrick Smith
Running To The Rescue (They Hope)
