The Midnight Hour is Close at Hand

Posted on Mon Aug 29th, 2011 @ 4:40am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Commander Michael Evans M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson

Mission: Episode 2.2 - "Resistance"
Location: Reay Room, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 04, 2348

ON: [[Ready Room, USS Pandora, Mission Day 04, 2348]]

Joe made a point of arriving shortly after his summons, and with only a brief check to ensure he was still presentable he activated the captain's door chime.

"Enter," Iluvar called out from where he stood near the viewport of his ready room. He had been standing there since the two physicians arrived to make their report, his gaze once again fixed upon the drifting debris floating only a short distance away.

The doors hissed open, and Joe stepped in, coming to a parade rest just off to the side of the door, where he could see the whole room and didn't exclude Commander Evans in his deference to superior officers. He nodded briefly to the two doctors, then waited for the captain to speak. Even after a relatively short time onboard the Pandora, Joe was getting used to the way Iluvar gathered his thoughts before speaking.

Michael stood to the side, his hands clasped behind his back. He nodded a greeting to Thompson as he entered.

"Good evening, Mister Thompson," Iluvar said, turning away from the viewport to face the three men now standing before him, "I apologize for the lateness of the hour, but time is short so I will get straight to the point. Doctor Evans and Doctor ch'Rassa have discovered something very interesting about the Borg drones we recovered from the debris field earlier today...something I believe you should be made aware of."

"Why don't I like the sound of 'interesting'?" Joe wondered aloud. "What kind of discovery are we talking about here? Some new weapon they've developed?" Not that the Borg needed new weapons, when they could just adapt on the spot to counter anything Starfleet came up with - but that was defeatist thinking, which Joe found to be rather pointless, so he turned his thoughts away from that.

Dr. Evans stepped forward. "If only it were that simple," he said wryly. "It seems," he began, "that the Borg have, once again, adapted themselves. We've discovered a sort of drone 'medic' that can reanimate dead borg corpses for approximately three hours, allowing them to perform their basic designated functions, perform simple repairs, and execute combat."

Though his expressions while on the job didn't often show up much, Joe couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly at the news. "Reanimate?" he repeated. "So we can't just take them down once and not have to worry about them."

Evans held up a staying hand. "But here's the good news: They are unable to perform anything that requires thinking beyond what might be called borg 'instinct.' No phasing through force fields, no battle tactics, no creative adaptations."

Gee, that's a relief, at least we can all cower behind force fields after we kill them the first time, Joe thought inwardly, but was too ingrained in Marine discipline to speak the thought aloud. Instead, he said, "Well, I assume they still have some sort of weaknesses, yes?"

Evans continued. "Here's the rest of the bad news: A borg has to be beheaded, vaporized, grossly dismembered or otherwise blown to pieces before it can't be reanimated. Meaning, as long as these 'medics' are around, the borg are going to be a whole lot harder to kill. And any borg not killed can be effectively repaired in a matter of minutes by one of these 'medics.'" He finished by giving a meaningful look, indicating that he understood fully the dread nature of this new information.

There was no doubt the news was troubling at best. Iluvar could see his Chief Security/Tactical Officer processing the information as it was presented to him and, despite the lateness of the hour, likely already working on possible ideas to counter this new threat. "This could very well be an experiment on the part of the Collective," he reasoned aloud, "or it could be a new modus operandi. Either way, it is something we need to be concerned with."

Concerned was right. Aside from the obvious problems of reanimated Borg drones, this presented a whole slew of other issues - not the least knowing which drones were which. "I'd like to take a look at the drones," he said. "If we could find a way to know which ones were which, we'd have an easier time dealing with this." Easy, in this case, being very relative, Joe thought.

Dr. Evans nodded. "Sure, we can do that. Each borg has a different configuration depending on its specialty. There's sure to be some way of readily differentiating which ones are the 'medics' at a glance."

"I realize the hour is late, Mister Thompson," Iluvar said slowly, "but I'm sure you can understand the need for concern in our current situation. I would like you to work with the Orlando's Chief Security/Tactical Officer to develop possible countermeasures to these drones. In the meantime, I will convey our findings to Vice Admiral Androski and see how he thinks we should proceed from there."

"Aye, sir," Joe said. The lateness wouldn't matter; Joe was keen to get working on this as soon as possible. The more they could coordinate with the Orlando's crew, the better chance they would have dealing with the problem.

"You are dismissed, gentlemen," Iluvar told them quietly as he turned back toward the debris field visible outside the viewport.

OFF

A Joint Mission Post by:

Captain Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Michael Evans
Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer
USS Pandora

and

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora