Unusual Borg - Merlin entering 'Twilight Zone'

Posted on Tuesday 13 November 2018 @ 22:05 by Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Colonel Kachiko Bayushi & Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & 2nd Lieutenant Bilhana Karki & Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D.
Edited on on Tuesday 22 January 2019 @ 20:33

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Research Station Planetary System
Timeline: 23950827 - 2015 Hours - Two days after last encounter
2428 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

The Merlin was on Red Alert as it approached a planet that had sent out a distress signal due to an attack by the unusual Borg encountered by the Merlin and her crew before.

Sav and Kachiko arrived on the turbolift to the bridge. Sav was dressed in her duty uniform while Kachiko was dressed in comfortable lounge wear. It was what she had on at the time due to being with Sav as they were opening gifts to Sav from College and Academy days.

Sav went with Kachiko to where Apollo was sitting in the command chair. Sav churred gently to get Apollo's attention, and then said, "Sir, as it is Beta shift, I am here in case you desire me to take the helm as I am not privy to the mission yet. If I am not needed at the helm, I will head down to Deck 15 for being DCO for Environmental Controls and Life Support."

Kachiko touched Sav's back briefly as she moved to sit across the Captain from the lovely blond Counselor. Her vividly blue eyes set upon the newly arrived woman, "Welcome aboard, Counselor."

Apollo blinked as the bridge was bathed in the flashing crimson of the alert, "Commander, you'll need to brush up on your alert procedures, take helm," he ordered and motioned Sav over.

Caroline, from the counselors chair shot Sav a grin. "I'll explain later," she told her former colleague.

"I will like to hear this as well, Counselor," Kachiko remarked quietly.

To say that Sav was very surprised to see Caroline was an understatement. Of all the previous crew, so far Sav had only known that Sierra and she had been found. But, now here was Caroline before her and she was able to get out in a whispered voice, "You're alive.. you're alive.." A smile broke across Sav's face finally as Caroline's words broke through to her consciousness, to which she followed up with, "Ah look forwarhd to it."

Sav now moved forward to relieve the current Helmsman. She glanced back at Apollo once, wondering where she had went awry at. Being on light duty, she was supposed to take DCO first, Helm only if absolutely needed if another shift besides alpha, and as this was beta, she had to ask. She returned her gaze to the helmsman and performed the required duty transfer of current orders and sat into the vacated helm.

On the Lower decks, the Chief Engineer was inspecting her shuttle. She tapped her commbadge. =/\= "Shuttlebay one t' Bridge. I think we're ready, Sir. We jus' need t' find a drone all by it's lonesome. MCPO Hale'll be in charge in Engineerin' until I get back... An' no heroics if this goes south... One torpedo'll do th' job."=/\= Stephanie shook her head as she turned to run a final diagnostic on the PoVI. "I mus' bloody well be mental."

Leaning against the shuttle Miles is finishing a ration bar, "You must be mental, we're both mental, but think of the papers we can write about this experiment if we can pull this off." Miles then steps to one side as Chief O'Hara wanders over to tap the shuttle where he was leaning, tapping his own combadge, "Leena, keep an eye on the power outputs, try to syphon excess power and use it to beef up the shields and phasers." The response is almost immediate, "You already told me that. Aren't you supposed to be piloting a shuttle or something. You do your job, I'll try to keep the Merlin in one piece, Leena out!" Smiling, Miles steps into the modified shuttle, and calls out to O'Hara, "There's not alot of room in here, so let's either find a drone that's small, or one that's non-combative."

Cale entered the bridge, "TIC, transfer to the bridge. I'm here, Captain," he said looking over to the counselor's chair and recognizing a face from the past. "Welcome back, Doctor," Cale said to her.

"Thank you," Caroline replied looking at his pips, "Commander." Cale had done well for himself in her absence.

Bilhana for her part had been eating when the alert went up, and instead of interrupting her meal she simple moved it. Moving into the weapons bay and sitting herself down a station, the quartermaster was already there, but she was just as able of handing out phaser rifles if need by.

Kachiko touched the console to the side, opening a channel to the Marine Armory, "Bayushi to the Armory. Please begin deploying personnel to predetermined critical defensive points."

Hana would stop eating, leaning in to hit the com button, "Roger that Commander." She would look at the Quarter Master shrugging. "Well must be something serious, start with the rifles, I'll work the comms." She punched in a few commands, pulling up members of the Marine detachment on the ship. Before hitting the bottom again. "All hands report to the Armory for equipment and assignment to defensive points."

She would hand out the weapons and assign each group as needed, sending groups of two or three marines to each of the most important areas in the ship. Finally pointing at one as they came in.

"You two, grab rifles and stand by, you and myself will be heading to the bridge once I have people in enough areas for other important areas."

Two Corporals nodded and proceeded to grab the rifles. They knew the drill. They selected one each, checked status, grabbed spare power pack belts, and checked the sling lengths for quick shift and bringing to bear.

Llewellyn began manning the comm for the away team's jaunt over to the Borg cube. Just then he received a message from Starfleet detailing the destruction of three starships in two completely different regions of space. He relayed the info to Captain Barstow. "Captain. I've just gotten word that the Endeavor, the Polaris and the Horizon have been obliterated by the Borg. They were all fully functional ships so I feel that we should be more circumspect in our actions. I just thought you should know this."

Sav scrunched her muzzle at hearing this news. The borg had learned and were better than last time they faced them. While the Merlin was a flagship and large, it couldn't replace three ships, even augmented with the Agamemnon for firepower and tactics. Here is where she wished she knew of someone else with her ability, but she didn't. Still, she would do her best for the crew, Merlin, and helping the Agamemnon along the way.

=====Sickbay=====

"Someone shut off the klaxon in here!" Cara called out as she entered Sickbay. She looked around and saw that everyone was, pretty much, in place. One of the medical handed her a stack of triage tags and Cara began inspecting the trauma beds to make sure they had extra supplies. "I want T-1 through 4 set up with extra fluid infusers," she told the medic on her heels. "We may need them if we have to do emergency extractions."

"I put two cases of dermagel in each cubicle just in case," the medic reported.

"Good job," Cara said with a nod.

"Emergency Medical Transporter is online," came a shout out from the medic/transporter operator.

"First Response teams are in place and standing by," the nurse Manning the comm at the Nurses' Station called out.

"I just saw Dr. Ki coming out of the turbolift," a doctor running into Sickbay reported. "He's on his way."

Cara tapped her combadge. "Sickbay to Bridge. Medical is ready and standing by," she said then turned to look at everyone. "Yes it's the Borg. Yes we're all s are. But we'll get through this by focusing on our patients. Each of us is the best at what we do so rely on your instincts....what your training has prepared you for. Rely on each other. We're a team. We can do this."

Passing by Sickbay, Chief Petty Officer Dunham pops her head in to ask a fast question, "Is your transporter up and running, we are still finishing a few minor fixes on some of the others...if you're good then I'll be off. If not, I've got a repair kit right here and can help get you up to 100% in no time."

"We're good," Cara called out.

"Sounds great, give a holler if you need help!." As Leena moves off to her next task her comm goes off, "Leena, keep an eye on the power outputs, try to syphon excess power and use it to beef up the shields and phasers," with a roll of her eyes she replies back, "You already told me that. Aren't you supposed to be piloting a shuttle or something. You do your job, I'll try to keep the Merlin in one piece, Leena out!"

Michael had just settled down to read one of his favorite books and perhaps get some relaxation time in before another fiasco broke out. No sooner did he pour his sake did the klaxons start up again. "What now?" he said to the empty room. What followed was a sigh and then he was off to Sick Bay to see whaat trouble Barstow had gotten them into this time.

While in the turbolift the Klaxons rang through his ears. Which was significantly different than what rang through his head. His thoughts drifted to reasons why he even remained on the Melin. Then somewhere deep in his mind he was reminded of his oath. To protect, and to first do no harm. That final thought came as he arrived at the doors to Sick Bay.

He saw Cara doing what she did best, controlled chaos and was reminded of how differently they approached their jobs. "Evening everyone! Never fear the doctors are here!" He added with chuckle, and a few of the medical staff who had gotten used to his dry wit laughed with him. "Are we ready to pick up the pieces of the fallen?"

"Ready, Boss," one of the nurses called out.

"I'm here," came the out of breath announcement from their resident Burn Specialist. "Turbolift was jammed. Had to jeffries tube it."

"Your dedication is commendable, Dr. Beannette," Cara said with a chuckle.

"Nice of you to join the party, Beans," the Orthopedic Specialist said, slapping Beannette on the back as he headed for a trauma cube with recharged radiograph tablets.

Michael looked at his staff with a solemn smile. "You all know your job, so there is no need for a speech here. There are two orders of the day. The first is I need the surgical bay prepped and on stand by for an emergency patient. It seems our Chief Engineer is out there in a shuttle playing with a Borg. If it comes down to it she will be transported here and we will initiate deassimilation protocol. That bay is to be used for this purpose. The second and most important order is No One Dies. Does anyone have any questions?"

Seeing as there were no question Michael dismissed the staff to their duties. He decided to give Cara the run of Sick Bay and if he would be needed he would be in monitoring O'Hara. He had a sinking feeling deep in his gut that the Engineer would need serious help before the day was through.

==== Bridge =====

Sav was tracking the Borg Cube on the main viewscreen even as the USS Agamemnon worked its way nearby to start its barrage. She, herself, was already merged with the ship for best maneuvering to get the ship to the cube, away, and then back again when a lone Drone was found and captured. Now, it was up to Apollo to tell everyone when to commence.

Billhana and her two marines finally made there way up to the bridge, stepping off the turbo lift. The Lieutenant point to two positions. "Take up positions there." Billhana herself taking up a position as well, using the comm on her collar. "Marine Security teams in position, all additional personnel reinforce points as needed."

Cpl Griel and Cpl Tarken took the selected positions and stood at the ready for the upcoming engagement.

=/\="Shuttlebay One t' Bridge." =/\= Stephanie's voice sounded nervous. =/\="I've been scannin' and I think I've found our new buddy. Shuttle Pendragon requestin' launch clearance."=/\=

=/\= Affirmative, Pendragon, launch but keep your distance until Merlin and Agamemnon have engaged.=/\=

=/\= "Understood Merlin. Wish us luck. See ya on th' otha side. Pendragon out." =/\=

Sav called out to the CO and XO, "Evasive maneuvers and tactics ready along with ad-hoc z-axis added, information has been transmitted to Agamemnon helm and Tactical and acknowledged. Ready for engaging Borg Cube."

=/\= As the shuttle eases out of the bay and into space a message flases across Sav's console...'Stay Safe! M' =/\=

=/\= A corresponding message immediately flashed across the status panel for the shuttle. ++ You also. Fly well and always check your six. S ++ =/\=

"How are we looking, Mister Llewellyn?" came from the Executive Officer.

"I've got all weapons ready for attack, if need be. I also have shields ready to go on notice," Cale said trying to filter out the emotions of the crew who were worried that this mission wouldn't go well for them. Everyone feared assimilation or worse, death. No one onboard was ready to lose their lives on either account. He wished there was a Betazoid on the ship who could help him with his mental shielding.

If Caroline hadn't worked with Cale in the past she likely wouldn't have noticed a slight .... something with the man. He was doing his job, saying all the right things but there was something else there taking his concentration. She filed it away to try open ground one on one later.

"Shields up, please," Kachiko ordered. "Prepare a spread of quantum torpedoes. Do you have the files from the initial introduction to the Borg from the Enterprise? Prepare an antimatter spread to give Miss O'Hara some cover."

OFF: To Be Continued

Commander Cale Llewlelyn, DSci
Chief of Strategic Operations
&
Second Officer
USS Merlin

LTjg Stephanie O'Hara
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin

LTjg Marbim Rejal
Chief of Operations
USS Merlin

Commander Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin

Lieutenant Michael Ki MD
CMO
USS Merlin

Dr. Cara O'Reilly
ACMO
USS Merlin

Commander Bayushi Kachiko
First Officer, USS Merlin

CPO Darleena Dunham
Operations Assistant/Transporter Chief
USS Merlin

Commander Save'ena Tillatix
CFCO/Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin

Captain John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin
Task Group Commanding Officer
Task Group 47-A