borg? Borg? BORG!

Posted on Thu Dec 2nd, 2021 @ 6:41pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Micheal Robertson & Ships Doctor Hiram Maitland M.D.

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: SS Holoworld
Timeline: MD 03 22:00
2452 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

The holodeck in front of them was dark and dingy. It smelt stranger than anything he had smelt before, something metallic mixed with sweat. It did not quite make Gregnol heave as he had a strong stomach, but it was a close call, it was almost too much to bear. They were in a ship that seemed familiar but for the life of Gregnol he could not trace in his memory where he knew it from.

“What is that smell? Maybe there is a dead body in here?” He demanded the group that was with him. They were searching the active holodecks for any signs of what had happened to the passengers and crew members as the only body that had been found was the Chief Medical Officers in the sickbay but that held no sign it was even used after the incident other than a first aid kit being taken.

"Not a dead body," Hiram confirmed softly from his position near the rear, a medical tricorder component detached and held aloft in his dominant hand as he waved it along the various nooks and crannies they were passing. "But certainly near enough," he acknowledged, although his nose didn't so much as twitch at the unpleasant olfactory barrage. He made sure to frown as he spoke, conveying the appropriate degree of distaste for the situation as expected.

"Near enough still smells rancid." Micheal twitched jos nose at the offending stench. "The hell is it, Doc?"

"I'm afraid I don't have definitive answer," the doctor answered with a shake of his head. "But I'd wager it is biological material of some kind." He hefted the tricorder accordingly.

Gregnol took a few steps and stopped dead every nerve in his body piped up in a flight or fight reaction as he nearly walked into a figure stood there. They were tall but that was not a disguised feature for a Klingon it was the fact they were half Klingon and the other half they were mechanic which meant they could only be one thing - Borg. He did not think he needed to say what they were as everyone he thought knew.

“I have never engaged these before in Starfleet even as Starfleet Security but I have seen all the footage from Battle of Wolf 359 and the other battles. It was not what made me join Starfleet but they were the stories we were told as children about to keep us in line.”

Micheal instantly reached for his disruptor pistols, bit froze and didn't draw either weapon. "Why are they ignoring us?" As former Starfleet, he had read the briefings on the Borg.

"-don't," Hiram raised his hand, fully intending on blocking Michael's actions before he thought better of it and elected not to draw his weapon. "They will ignore you unless they view you as a threat. A couple of humanoid life-forms are inconsequential to the Borg. As long as we remain calm and in control, our chance of a conflict is reduced."

"I am suggesting we back out." Gregnol declared. He did not care if the person was hiding in there. It was not somewhere he wanted to be but he could understand why someone was running a holodeck like that. Someone wanting to be the hero of everything, it was how some people got their kicks.

"Cap'n," Micheal spoke quietly. "If she's in here, and still needing our help, we have to at least try to find her." The armory chief kept his eyes moving for any trouble that might arise.

Hiram's eyes rhythmically tracked back and forth, a product of tactics as much as it was visible nystagmus, walking on light feet, tracking the scanner as it pulsed and flashed silent streams of data to its central core. "If there is an individual present here, they may be able to illuminate our situation in more detail," Hiram added his tacit agreement with Michael.

Gregnol needed to stop suggesting and just order. "Then I hope you both are prepared," Gregnol commented shaking his head at the pair. No one would be hiding in there at that time of the night but if the pair wanted to then who was he to judge and not follow.

"Slow and steady," Hiram reminded them both, his vivid eyes dropping to Michael's disruptor before his chin jerked up and he fell into step behind the duo, compliant.

The Captain passed a drone and took it in its flat, greyish skin, giving it an almost zombie-like appearance that made him frown. There were not many xBs around anymore as most of them kept out of the way or were in mental health facilities but it was scary to think that they were once that. "I hate zombies and this is like a zombie film." Gregnol hissed. They might be a hologram but he could imagine if they got the smell of them as bad as they did then hopefully they would ignore them. Borg drones tend to completely ignore individuals that are identified as too weak to be an imminent threat or too inferior to be worth assimilating.

Micheal shrugged slightly. "I dunno, Cap'n. Could be a good haunted house addition." He looked back at his friend and superior officer, mirth in his eyes as he grinned. He then turned back to face Hiram. "Okay, Doc, which way?"

Hiram kept his opinions about the Borg to himself, as it was not truly relevant to the situation. He consulted his scanner and his eyes darted to the southwest corner. "There," he murmured, soft.

Micheal nodded and headed out in the indicated direction he decided to take point, as of the three of them, he was the most expendable of the group. The ship needed both her Captain and CMO a lot more than an armory officer.

“No one be a hero.” Gregnol warned as a Borg move from its chamber and went the opposite direction to the group.

Hiram's eyes tracked it, but ultimately, as it failed to register them, his own brain categorized it as irrelevant as well. He continued to parse the data from his tricorder. "Biological," he indicated softly, tapping a stream of code. "At the southwest junction, there. That's not photonic."

“Big? Small? Alive?” The Captain demanded as another drone passed in front of them ignoring them again.

Even though they were just holograms, Micheal couldn't help feeling apprehensive, being surrounded by drones. While he had been lucky to have never had to face them in combat, he had received extensive training, during his time in Starfleet, via holodeck simulations, on how to react if a Borg presence was discovered.

"Alive," Hiram confirmed. "There's a field distortion in this area but life-signs read organic, bipedal, physiologically female."

"The person who set the distress call and met Leiddem." Gregnol wondered moving slowly in the direction that Hiram had mentioned. It was slow work moving through the chamber and Gregnol stopped dead as he looked down one row and saw a bay that could only be used for converting people to drones. It was clean but give the drones any chance and they would be there.

The doctor's eyes caught onto it, but he gave no outward reaction, instead fixing his gaze in front of him once more, following the trail set forth by his bioscanner.

Micheal kept moving in the direction that tbe doctor had them going. Suddenly, off to his right, a female Borg stepped out of her alcove. She looked at Micheal with her dead eyes, then turned and marched in the opposite direction. "D-Di?!" The Texan was frozen in place. It couldn't have been Dixoho! She was in stasis back on Rosie! But...if it was.... "Di!" He took off after the petite drone.

Hiram's hand instantly shot out and clamped down over Michael's shoulder, preventing him from moving. "This is a holosuite," he reminded, his vivid blue eyes tracking back and forth as they fixed onto Michael's face, oddly soothing. "They are holographic manifestations," he hefted his scanner aloft. "Nothing more."

"It is not her." Gregnol commented feeling his stomach lurch as he took in the details. He was not sure if there was any data transfer from SS Mary Rose to this ship but there should not be as per protocol. "Nothing should be connecting us other than the PADDS that we have used to transfer data."

"Evidently that is not the case," Hiram murmured softly. "Attempt not to react to what you are seeing," he advised both of them. "Thus far there is no evidence to suggest that it is real, and sudden movements could provoke them into attacking us. We have no way of knowing if this place is safe."

Micheal paused briefly as he considered both men's words. While his brain was telling him that there was no way for it to have been Dixoho, his heart was having difficulties. Finally, though, he gained control of himself and turned away from the holograms. "I'm starting to not like this place."

Reuben could not help but agree with him. He passed an alcove and yelped as something grabbed him hard.

Without even thinking about it, Hiram's palm shot out to ram as hard as it possibly could into the juncture of the drone's arm between his elbow and his wrist, packing as much force as he could and throwing his body weight into the strike to separate the point of contact between the grip on Gregnol's arm and his assailant. "Back, now. Everybody back up." His hands tensed at his sides, eyes lifting to survey the aggressor calmly.

Micheal took the warning seriously, backing up to put his back to Reuben and Hiram. "Holograms or not, I'm guessing they see us as a threat now?"

The grip was disconnected and Gregnol stumbled back from the fight. He grabbed Hiram back with himself. "Very much a threat." Gregnol did not need to be told when another one attempted to grab him and he noticed who it looked like - Reesseem. He blanched at the realisation that the only way for the program to know about her would be via the PADD he carried in his pocket and had used to try and download information from the bridge. He pushed the drone pretending to be the only crew member he had ever lost. "Let us get out of here." He ordered backing up the way they came despite the drones now moving from their alcoves.

Hiram seemed to be the only one unaffected, hands flexed over his weapon and body tense and coiled up for a fight. He was calm, unmoved, until his eyes hooked on one drone in particular and he didn't realize he'd stopped breathing. He came to a stop, causing the person behind him to bump into him. It was a lapse, the vivid electric-blue eyed drone piercing through the group with its gaze. Matching electricity, technicolor stereo. "Keep moving," Hiram murmured, animating after a few seconds. "There's no doubt, they scanned us," he said, stoic. The information could have been easily gleaned from the small medical alert chip he wore embedded in a bracelet at his wrist.

As Michael followed the other two men out, he suddenly ran into the back of Hiram, who seemed to be transfixed on something. "Doc! Now ain't the time to sightsee!!" He physically moved the CMO forward, only to spin away when one of the drones reached for him. On reflex, as he spun, he drew his disruptor pistol and fired on the advancing drone. Had it been a real drone, it would have sparked and fallen back, dead. As it was a hologram, its image was shorted out, causing it to vanish back into the ether. "Definitely time to go, gentlemen!!"

"Agreed," Hiram responded, his tone was undiminished, but his expression had set somewhat, completely and utterly focused. Another drone attempted to advance toward them and Hiram slammed his heel into the thing's knee, driving his elbow into its shoulders and sweeping it off its feet in an expert maneuver. "Up there," he hooked onto the door that they'd originally entered through. "What about the bio-signs?" he directed to Gregnol. "We'll have to find some way to loop around."

The tricorder was in his hands and he could only see a faint life signed in the distance. "It is far away." The man called as two drones grabbed him and slammed him into the alcove winding him. The safeties might be off but it did not stop the big man from getting winded enough that he needed a moment to focus on what was happening around him.

Hiram rammed his elbow into one of the thing's faces, and hit it back hard with a heel kick straight at the thing's chest, sending it flying across the room in a shocking display of strength from the diminutive doctor. It gave Michael the opportunity to shoot the other one with his disruptor, disengaging it from the captain. "Come on," his gaze moved rhythmically between them both.

As the drones moved in on the group, the holograms first faded then the scenery disappeared leaving the familiar starting point of a holodeck. "Who stopped the holodeck finally?" Gregnol demanded relieved that the drones were gone. He quickly looked around the compartment to check that it was just the three of them but it was.

"It wasn't us," Hiram shrugged a little with his right shoulder. "Was it?"

Gregnol bent over breathing deeply as he tried to get the adrenaline to stop moving around his body to allow his heart to stop trying to escape his chest. "No, it was not." Gregnol was sure of that but it left so many questions of who did.

"You're all right," Hiram put a hand on Gregnol's shoulder, steadying him. "Try to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. We can even practice counting, if you want. You can call me Dr. Acula." His eyebrows bounced. Meanwhile, Hiram looked to Michael. "Let's try and work on a way around," he murmured, hefting his tricorder. Hiram's oath wouldn't allow him to abandon a potentially injured patient, even if it did involve risk.

“I am fine. Just Borg stuff of nightmares on top of guilt topped with sadness.” Gregnol said standing up straight with a cough as he regained composure. It was not like him at all but maybe just maybe the last few months were starting to get to him.

Micheal reholstered his disruptors, but, stayed at the ready. He was just about done with these holograms. "Let's get to the bottom of this," he growled.