Skeleton Crew

Posted on Thu Jan 30, 2020 @ 9:21pm by Lieutenant JG Daniella Blake & Lieutenant Vel Oss Arap Tor & Warrant Officer William Fontaine

Mission: The Nanjing
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 1 || 1330 Hours

Dani stood inside the supply closet with a few things that needed to be restocked in main sickbay, but made her way toward the console inside before she could leave. The head nurse set the things she was carrying down, then touched the display screen to activate it. Once that was done, she began to input the supplies she pulled, along with their serial numbers and where they would be placed. It was definitely tedious work, but was necessary to cover one's backside in case something came up missing.

Vel Oss came out of his office with a PADD in one manus and a specially designed mug in the other clawed appendage. He hummed and hissed as he read over something, then he headed for the quarantined area where the Borg remains were. He set the cup down and lightly tapped his combadge. "Lieutenant Blake and Warrant Officer Fontaine, please report to Quarantine Room One."

William came in a minute later and looked around until he spotted the acting Chief Medical Officer, then headed over to him. "What have you got for us, Sir?"

"Just a moment while we wait for Lieutenant Blake," Doc Tor said with an acknowledging nod.

Dani groaned. She couldn't stop what she was doing, because she didn't trust anyone else to do it for her. Even though Doc Tor requested her presence, she needed to complete her precious task first, and that had her kicking things into high gear. The young woman got everything where it needed to be, and less than two minutes later, she was making her way into the quarantine room where the other two occupants were waiting. "What can I do for you, doctor?"

"Now that you're both here, we can begin," Vel said. "We have a unique opportunity to ssstudy the ssskeletal remainssss of a Borg Drone, which I ssssussspect was more than jussst a drone. It wasss the lassst one left partially alive on the Cube, and I want to know why and what made it so sssspecial."

"Maybe it was just random chance that it was the left one," William said.

The petite blonde shook her head as she moved further inside. "No. They Borg don't do anything for random chance. There was a reason one was left. What do you need us to do?"

"I'll need the Issssomagnetic Pulssse Diagnossstic tessst prepared firssst," Vel said.

Willie looked at Dani. "I can do that."

Vel nodded and looked at Dani. "Could you pleasse get me a lassser sscalpel and the diodess for the cranial receptorss for humanoidsss?"

"Of course, doctor," Dani said. She quickly left the quarantine lab to retrieve the required equipment. It wasn't long before the nurse returned, placing the items on a waiting tray for him. "Do you need anything else before you get started?"

"Yesss," the Pahkwa-thanh said. "We have no idea if thisss thing can ssstill asssimilate usss. I need your assssitance to be voluntary for what we'll be doing next."

"Assimilate..." Willie said and looked over at the woman he loved. "I believe that we should take every precaution. Can we use manipulator arms instead of physical contact?"

"We could but the ressssultsss may not be what we hope to find," Vel said.

Dani took a deep breath and nodded her head. Regardless of things that could happen, she had a duty and would be seeing it through. "You have my assistance, doctor," she said, moving toward him. Life in space always came with dangers, and that was something they all knew about when they entered the academy. She just hoped William would be okay with the decision she'd just made.

"We all signed up for the unknown and we aren't going to back away from it now," William said.

"Very well," Vel said. "Ssssuit up."

Dani began to suit up, hoping she wasn't in over her head. Even if she were, there was a job that needed to be done. When she was ready, her gaze moved back to the doctor. "Ready when you are, Doc Tor."

Willie got suited up and moved to stand beside Dani.

Vel nodded in a modified suit that looked very odd on his reptilian frame. "Our firssst order of busssinesss will be to explore the cranium of the Borg and see what implantsss have been left," he said.

"It looks to be in decent shape considering the rest of it," the young woman pointed out as she looked down at the remains.

"What's left," Willie added since it was mainly just the skull and some Borg implants, the spine and some accessories.

Vel led the way into the containment area. "Full ssspectrographic analysssiss," he ordered.

Dani nodded her head and began to attach the cranial diodes to the remains of the Borg drone. She didn't know what they were going to find out, but hoped it would be something useful, because honestly, what was out there that could reduce an entire Borg cube and the drones aboard it to nothing? She began to run the spectrographic analysis since the Acting Medical Chief already ordered it. "The test has begun, doctor."

The computer indicated that the Delta Quadrant materials of the drone had been stripped almost completely except for trace quantities. However, the cranial diodes is what produced the best information to date. While it was being compiled, Willie and the Acting CMO had worked on slicing out a section of the skull's external framework and were starting an analysis on it.

The young woman kept her eyes on the cranial readouts, watching as the information came through to give updates to the others. "Doc Tor, the readouts are indicating the drone was a living flight recorder or sorts," she began, glancing back to the remains they were examining. "It was programmed to assimilate everything the Borg Cube encountered, preserving it in case something happened."

"Wait...a living flight recorder?" Willie asked as he looked over from what he was doing with the doctor. "How is that even possible?"

Vel came over to study the readouts as well. "Could you pleassse remove the implant at - " he studied the readout again. " - the fourth diode?"

Dani winced. Remove the implant? That was something more fitted for a surgeon, but he'd asked her to do it. Taking a deep breath, the young nurse reached for a laser scalpel and turned it on, then began to meticulously cut it away. When the task was complete, she turned the scalpel off and set it down, then reached forward to take the implant into her hand. "Here's the implant, doctor," she said, carefully placing it on a sterile surface.

"Thank you," Vel said before he took the implant and put it under a microscope and studied it. "Very unussssual," he said. "It ssseeemsss that thissss hassss been partially sstripped as well, but you are correct. Thisss drone was made jusssst to be a flight recorder. Very interesssting. Let's get it ssset up for a full analyssssis."

The young woman began to set up for a full analysis, but spoke as she worked. "Whatever happened on that Cube will likely be inside of this thing. Do you think we should call someone else in from Operations or Engineering or something? They might be best to consult with."

"If that isss the cassse," Vel said.

"Then we're already infected," William finished. "This Borg was made a flight recorder and gave Captain Weisz the cube thing before she died. She had every opportunity to infect us then and there, but didn't. They wanted us to have this."

Dani shook her head. "No... infecting us... that's not what I meant. If this drone was a data recorder, and we've already established it was, then perhaps whatever the drone saw going on around it might just be inside this implant. That's why I think we should consult with someone else," she said, looking between the two of them. "It's damaged, yes, but they might be able to recover something that could help us. It seems to be our best chance right now, doesn't it?"

"There's only one way to find out," Vel said. "We'll have to go to where they're ssstudying the cube."

"Then, that's what we need to do. I'm not sure it will give us what we want it to, but at this point, what do we really have to lose?" the young woman asked. "That being said, do we all need to go, or should one of us go and report back with any findings?"

At that point, the EMH popped up. "Master Chief Barnes and Commander Rho are currently working on that and have reached the same conclusions through different means," it said.

"Explain," Vel instructed it.

"Master Chief Barnes was partially assimilated, if that is the right word..."

"What?"! William exclaimed.

"And is currently reviewing his memories with Commander Rho," the EMH continued. "They will be coming to Medical shortly, I expect."

"Par... what?" Dani queried, giving the doctor her full attention now. It wasn't every day you heard something like that. "Is he okay? Does he require medical attention?" There were just so many questions with no answers.

"He appears to be stable," the EMH responded. "However, Commodore Aravan and Commander Rho are with him at the moment. Commander Tetanal and Lieutenant Silvan are in Medical being treated for neural overload."

The young nurse arched a brow. "Neural overload? Were they affected by the partial assimilation also?"

"Uncertain. Please wait." The eyes seemed to go blank, then focused again. "They've been given neural inhibitors to block out whatever affected them. I am still getting updated on Master Chief Barnes. Commander Rho is attempting to use his telepathy on him to explain to the Commodore what happened."

Vel came forward. "What about thissss flight recorder drone?"

"I think the real answer was in the cube," Willie said. "We didn't need her, but we can study her."

Dani wanted to pinch the bridge of her nose, but the suit she was wearing prevented that. Everything she'd heard in the last few minutes had given her a horrible headache. "Then, if drone isn't important right now, we need to put it on the back burner and focus on what is. And right now, that's making sure Master Chief Barnes is okay. Since they haven't arrived here yet, I think someone needs to go there to make sure he's stable, then bring him here."

"I am in attendance and waiting Commodore Aravan's orders," the EMH responded to Dani.

"I will sssecure the drone," Vel said and motioned for William to accompany him in getting it put away in stasis.

If the EMH had things covered, there wasn't much else to do. Dani turned her attention over to the Doc Tor. "Your orders in the meantime, sir?"

"Run a full diagnossstic on the implant, Nursse Blake, pleassse," Vel said.

"Yes, Doctor. I'll have those results for you as soon as possible," Dani told him before she got to work running a complete diagnostic on the implant she'd removed from the drone.