A Growing Collective

Posted on Fri Nov 27th, 2015 @ 2:03am by Lieutenant Bryce Kendrick & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Commander Dae Nalas & Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Ignatius Reilly & Major Patrick Smith

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Planet 6584

* Planet 6584 *

We are Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness has been added to our own. Species 5618, Species 9999. You have been assimilated. The voices repeated several more times, echoing into Oz’s thoughts in the darkness. We will leave this planet. We now have a ship.

We will leave this planet. We have a ship. Yes we do!

This secondary thought was far livelier than the first and Oralia, feeling like she was locked in a mental box, winced. Iggy, shut up.

I am Species 9999 and they said I am to be called 1 of 5, Iggy whispered into Oralia’s and Bryce’s heads. You, Bryce, are 3 of 5; Oz, you are 5 of 5.

Assimilated...? The horror of that coated Oz’s mind with a layer of ice. She felt... physically... she felt nothing. She tried to open her eyes and found she could. She looked around and saw Iggy or what had been Iggy in an alcove near her. Before she could react, the hive mind asserted itself.

Three lifeforms are approaching the cube. Prepare them for assimilation.

From a table near Oz, one covered with various pieces and parts reclaimed from the dead drones, came the beep of a comm badge.

“Oz?” The voice was Dae’s. “Oz, come in. We are approaching your location. You’ve got incoming. Watch out!”

The drone that stood beside the table turned and slammed his hand on the badge, silencing it and smashing it to bits. The ‘incoming’ turned out to be a second drone that appeared and moved over to scan Oz. The beam from his ocular implant moved slowly over her, illuminating the semi-darkness of the cube and revealing the newly spawned implants showing on her bare legs and hands.

“Drone progress seventy-five percent,” he reported. “Prepare for incoming biological forms.”

Snatching at what remained of herself, Oz yelled, “No! Get away, Dae!” Not knowing that the commbadge was smashed, she hoped that transmitted as she felt an electrical jolt run through her.

The first drone stopped by a second alcove where what had been Bryce stood. He scanned his form and apparently satisfied, approached Oz.

“We are Borg. We will assimilate the approaching life forms. We will complete you and then return to our space.” He pressed a hypospray to her neck and there was a soft hiss. “Do not fight against us.”

Bryce’s eyes flickered open. He was secured against something and he couldn’t move. His body felt odd, cold even. But he wasn’t outside in the snow and ice. Hearing Oz shouting he turned his eyes in her direction then watched as a Borg approached. “Oz,” he said aloud before his thoughts blacked out. He was no longer in control, he was a part of the collective. He could suddenly sense everything around him, all that was seen and heard by the other Borg drones, what their crashed ship’s sensors were picking up--everything. A hissing noise filled his head and the alcove he had been in released the security clamps.

Receiving instruction from the group, Bryce approached where Oz was being held and began assisting the other drone with her assimilation. She was almost complete, and soon her thoughts would be like his.

The first drone approached Iggy and moved a hand-held scanner around her. “We are complete,” he informed the rest, meaning Iggy. He set the scanner aside and reached out to adjust what appeared to be a small turret on her back. A green light began to glow. “Prepare to fire, drone One of Five.” He left Iggy on the table and crossed to the open archway.

The arachnid scuttled forward on the table then leapt from it and landed on the floor with a large thud. Each tarsus clicked on the deck plating as she walked. When the drone ordered, “Fire”, she opened fire on the target the hive mind had chosen. One of Five is ready, she informed them.

Like Bryce, Oralia lost control and became another drone in the hive. Bryce and the other drone, whom Oralia now knew as Two of Five, stepped back. The alcove released her and she stepped forward to the table where Bryce’s discarded commbadge lay. She picked it up, activated it and spoke, sounding like her normal self, “Dae, all’s well. Bryce and I subdued the drones. Meet us in the cube.”

Dae’s voice came back through the comm badge. “Acknowledged. We’ll be there in five and watch your backs. If there’s two there may be more. Dae out.”

To the others, Oralia ordered, “Prepare for combat. One of Five, get close to them, unseen, and fire at will upon them. We will distract them.” The plan was immediately known by each of the drones.

Dae, Nico, and Patrick approached the cube, weapons drawn. Nico checked the tricorder he held in the other hand and held up a hand. “Hold.” He tapped his comm badge.

“Oz? Almost there, what’s your situation?”

Drone Five of Five responded, “Not good. Ignatius is injured, Bryce is unconscious. I can’t move both of them and need help. Come help.”

Dae tapped his badge and answered her. “I’m coming in. I am leaving the other two out on watch. There’s another somebody running around here and I don’t want us caught blind.” He nodded to Nico and Patrick, then hurried to the cube, weapon readied. Moments later, he was inside.

“Oz?”

“Here!” Five of Five called down a hallway and ducked back before Dae could see her.

Dae stood still a few seconds, reaching out mentally to sense the area. He picked up random thoughts and then a snatch of the usual Borg line. “Watch it, they’re in here!” he called back. Seeing nothing ahead, he crept slowly down the walkway between two lines of alcoves. “Almost there….”

Down on the floor, where Dae was not looking, the eight-legged One of Five crept into position and mentally checked in with the others, “We are in position.” The others could see what Ignatius saw and the order to fire was given; the phaser turret on Iggy’s back fired.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the energy beam hit Dae’s midsection, dropping him to his knees. In the almost-darkness of the cube, and given her alien mind, Iggy had been all but invisible. Now, however, he was eye level with her and what he saw made his blood run cold. He managed to hit his badge and barked out an order. “Nico and Patrick, fall back. Now! Get to..the ship…”

One of Five rushed forward and buried her fangs into Dae’s forearm. Her fangs no longer delivered venom; instead they were her Borg tubules, injecting him with nanites and readying him for assimilation.

***************
Commander Oralia Zeferino (Five of Five)
Lt. Bryce Kendrick (Three of Five)
Ignatius J. Reilly (One of Five)
Lt. Commander Dae Nalas (Soon to be one of six)
Lt. Commander Nicolao
Major Patrick Smith