Bringing Them Up to Speed

Posted on Sun Sep 18th, 2011 @ 8:42am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Commander Michael Evans M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson & Lieutenant JG Miranda Blackfur & Ensign Matthew Lessly
Edited on on Sun Sep 18th, 2011 @ 8:42am

Mission: Episode 2.2 - "Resistance"
Location: Observation Lounge, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 05, 0800

ON: [[Observation Lounge, USS Pandora, Mission Day 05, 0800]]

Matt entered the room and took a seat a few seats away from the head of the table. Most of the seats were still empty, but he knew he should leave room for the more senior officers. As he took his seat he took note of the captain standing by the viewport but chose to review what little data he had rather than try to strike up a conversation at such an early time when the captain surely had more important things on his mind.

Miranda rushed into the meeting room, abit dishevealed from her mad rush through the ship to get to the meeting. She just flopped in a seat across from Matt, giving him a soft smile, as she settled in her seat. "Meow," in away of greeting to him, looking at the Captian, wondering what was going on. "Shouldn't the Chief of Flight Department be here?"

Dr. Evans entered, customary cup in hand, and strode to his seat. With him was a PADD through which he scrolled as he took an occasional sip from his coffee. His face looked rather stern as he checked the material that he was already too familiar with.

Joe walked into the room and glanced around before taking a seat near Dr. Evans. "You're looking awake," he said, eyeing Dr. Evans' coffee. "How many is that?" Dr. Evans probably knew the most about the new Borg, and Joe wondered if that knowledge even allowed the doctor a wink of sleep since he had found out.

Mike looked up, a little startled. He gave a half-smile to Joe. "Ah, I assure you that it's all an act," he said with a wink. "I'm only pretending to be awake. And I lost count somewhere about the eighth or ninth cup," he motioned with his coffee mug. "They all blur together in one big coffee stain after that," he said wryly. He sighed and took a sip. "You slept any," he asked quietly.

Joe shrugged fractionally. "A bit," he admitted. "It wasn't easy, but I imagine it was less easy for you." Truth be told, it had been a while before Joe had needed to use the sort of battlefield sleep techniques he had needed earlier to manage a couple short hours of sleep between security drills and tactical planning. "Glad I'm not a coffee drinker, or you and I would be emptying the ship's stores."

Mike chuckled into his cup in agreement.

As the final member of the senior staff took their seat, Iluvar turned away from where he had been watching the Borg debris field through the viewport and briefly surveyed those seated around the table before taking his position at the head of the table. "I am sure many of you have assignments that need attending to, so I will try to make this as brief as possible," he said slowly, "There have been some recent developments in our assessment of the Borg debris field which Vice Admiral Androski and I believe could significantly influence our next course of action. Doctor Evans, if you please..."

Evans nodded and stood, moving to a display panel at one end of the room. He looked a little tired. Without preamble, he began by pressing a button to bring up his prepared display. A simplified view of a borg drone appeared on the screen, showing front and side diagrams. "The next stumbling block in the Borg threat," he said gravely, identifying the display. "We're calling them medics," he continued. "In the past, the borg simply scavenged their fallen comrades which then disintegrated. But these buggers," he said, pointing at the display, "have found a new use for their corpses: By reanimating the dead bodies of other borg, which can then fight or perform their primary designated functions. This means their fighting force can last longer with fewer drones. They do this by injecting the corpses with a series of nanoprobes. Reanimation occurs after about a minute and persists for about three hours. Commander Thompson has already been briefed on this new threat," he said, acknowledging Joe with a nod in his direction.

Miranda looked at the diagrams of this new species, to her at least. She studied them with interest as she listened to the brief given by Doctor Evans.

"Reanimated Borg..." Matt marveled out loud, "They're hard enough to kill the first time. Now we have to deal with each drone twice?"

"Unless we can take out these medics first," Dr. Evans replied. "I believe Commander Thompson has been thinking about how best to handle the tactical situation, especially since a reanimated borg behaves differently."

"I've been working with the security teams to develop some tactics for this threat," Joe acknowledged. "However, I think our most important asset with this will be remaining calm. I know the Borg can be...well, to put it frank, they terrify a lot of people, even trained officers. I'm no counselor, but I'd advise everyone to keep an eye out for people who seem more affected by fear of the Borg and see what you can do to help them. Remember, the Borg aren't the only ones who can adapt; we're pretty darn good at it ourselves."

"Good advice," Dr. Evans agreed. "And of course the medical staff have been briefed and are ready to respond. Dr. ch'Rassa has also agreed to assist as necessary," he acknowledged the andorian. "Any other questions," he asked. He paused a moment, meeting silence. "Sir," he said to Iluvar in acknowledgement as he took his seat again.

"Okay..." said Matt, after a brief silence. "So what do we do now? At the rate the decryption process is going, it'll be at least a month before we're able to get anything off of the Borg information nodes, and there's only so much a pile of debris can tell us."

Iluvar nodded slowly. He could see the young science officer's observation was being met with agreement by those seated around the table and he could certainly understand why. They had come here to investigate the source of a Borg transponder signal, discovered this debris field, and analyzed it in search of answers. It would have seemed to most they had fulfilled the requirements of their orders.

"Vice Admiral Androski has informed me his people have completed their analysis of the debris," he told them, "and determined it to have originated from a Tactical Cube very similar to one encountered by the USS Voyager. They also confirmed the vessel's destruction was the result of systems failure due to a virus introduced by Voyager during their return from the Delta Quadrant."

There was a moment of silence as those seated around the table took in this new bit of information. With the vessel destroyed and no sign of any other Borg activity in the region, there really was no reason for them to remain in the area any longer. "Starfleet has ordered us to secure the transponder and proceed to Deep Space Four where a specialized research team will continue analysis of the debris and the drones we recovered," Iluvar continued, "I am told we will be allowed a few days of layover before our next assignment, so I expect all of you to take advantage of it...no excuses. You have certainly earned it."

OFF

A Joint Mission Post by:

Captain Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Michael Evans, MD
Chief Medical Officer & Second Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant JG Miranda Blackfur
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Pandora

and

Ensign Matthew Lessly
Chief Science Officer
USS Pandora