The Adventures of Tom Borgadil

Posted on Mon Apr 27, 2020 @ 5:46pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Ensign Autumn Rivers

Mission: The Nanjing
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD 1 || 1900 Hours

With the terrible experience in sickbay behind him, Tom now found himself in his office. The ship had suffered plenty of damage throughout the day, but the engineering detail had a strong enough handle in it that Tom felt that he didn’t need to step in. He instead retreated to his office and allowed this Assistant Chief Engineer to continue with the repair efforts. There was enough on his mind anyway.

He sat down behind his desk, its holographic projectors inactive, and basked for a moment in the silence. A heavy sigh broke that silence a moment later before the sweet sound of nothing returned and enveloped the room. Much had happened today, starting with the perimeter alert from DS10, then into the badlands, finding the Borg wreckage, beaming over and retrieving a corpse and artifact, returning to the ship, getting partially assimilated in the process, and now being unable to remove the nanoprobes from his bloodstream through an archaic medical procedure.

Tom sighed once more.

Out of all of the trauma from the day, nothing stuck out to him more than being injected with Borg nano probes. The feeling was nothing like he’d ever experienced, an unmatched rush of adrenaline combined with the intensity of someone else’s memories deposited in his head. He surmised this was what an addict felt when undergoing the rush from their drug of choice. Tom could easily, and willingly experience it again, but he also knew that possessing these nanites labeled him a liability. There were thousands of xB’s in the galaxy though, all of which carrying nano probes and Borg implants, so it couldn’t be all bad, could it?

Tom leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. His mind drifted back to the implanted memories almost immediately. It was quite a puzzle really. He didn’t understand what happened then, and he certainly hadn’t gained any more understanding after studying the debris retrieved from the badlands. He remained unmoving, replaying the memories in his mind. Surprisingly, they still felt very real and vivid. He couldn’t remember any other recollections from his personal life being so vivid. He watched the Cardassian transport captured, boarded, and melting, over and over and over again.

No clarity came, but the memories did not fade with each replay. Instead, each time, they felt more real. Colors seemed to be more vivid, the air had a taste and smell, and he swore he could hear whispers and mechanics. Tom closed his eyes, trying to absorb more information from them, but to no avail.

He had to have something. He had to have answers. Tom opened his eyes, rose from his chair, and decided to make for the engineering lab where the samples had been delivered.

The nanites, now something more than Nanjing and not quite Borg, made their way through their hosts body to the Limbic system in the barely sentient sack of meat's brain and after studying it, decided to try some experiments until an interface could be achieved. The attempt to flush them from their host was laughable and they had caused him pain.

Now they amped up production of Acetylcholine and waited to see the results, taking every detail in as it happened. Their hosts brain distributed excitatory neurotransmitter that triggered muscle contraction and stimulated the excretion of certain hormones. In the central nervous system, it clashed and imparted the feelings of wakefulness, attentiveness, anger, aggression, sexuality, and thirst, among other things to the host.

The engineering lab was a decent journey away from Engineering. In many ways, it felt like both the longest and shortest trip Tom had ever taken in his life. Never before had he noticed how attractive the red-haired Orion twins were, or how vibrant the colors were of the usually sterile corridor. Even the carpet seemed to have a spring in its plush. He could hear every thrum in the EPS conduits tucked behind the panels, and he swore he could feel the pulses in the gravity plating holding him down.

Tom arrived at last in the engineering lab. Rather than go for the samples, he first went to the replicator. "Raktajino, double strong."

A buzz greeted him, followed by a warning that liquids could present a hazard to the sensitive equipment in the room.

Being a senior officer, Tom quickly overrode the warning and replicated the drink. He sniffed the liquid, savoring the aroma while the extreme heat wafted up his nose. Tom smiled, brought the tall cup to his mouth, tilted back, and didn't come up for air until the cup was empty. Still smiling, he requested a refill from the replicator.

Tom dared not move away from the replicator until he had consumed four full glasses. He inhaled slowly and held his breath, feeling the Klingon beverage supercharge his system. Yes, this... this was what he needed to think and process. He replicated one more drink and took it over to a console workstation. He set the glass down. As he looked down at the controls, he noticed that his uniform felt a bit tight. Drinking all of that raktajino so suddenly had caused his stomach to swell like he'd just eaten a Thanksgiving dinner. He bore it no mind and called up the controls to release the forcefield around the sample containers.

The caffeine in the Raktajino's released massive amounts of dopamine and glutamine him hyper alert and gave him a massive a mood boost. It also caused confusion among the Borg/Nanjing with the unplanned release of the meat sack's chemicals and they were unable to formulate a counter attack for the moment.

As the force field lowered, more of the Borg/Nanjing left the debris. They arrived hungry and with only the most basic of instructions: Disperse. Consume. Multiply. Integrate. Their numbers were few—no more than a thousand. But that would soon change.

Raw materials were everywhere. Iron, carbon, tungsten, monotanium, molybdenum . . . loose atoms of sustenance surrounded them. They broke off what they needed, shaped it to fit their programming, and put the particles back together according to a simple plan.

Unaware of the happenings beyond the visual level, Tom opened one of the cases, lifted one of the debris samples and placed it on a nearby examination table. Tom then instantly reactivated the security fields around the other samples, and then activated a security field around the tabletop. "Computer, access recent files and display sensor readouts, beginning from the initial Borg encounter, and the scans taken in the cargo bay."

The computer replied instantly, displaying the sensor readouts as a list to either side of the table. With one hand, Tom flicked the scan on the left to join the scan on the right and started to compare the two. "Computer, display images of known Cardassian cargo ships."

To his left, an array of a dozen models were generated, giving Tom a chance to identify what he'd seen in the Borg download. Four of the images looked rather similar, but something in his mind identified the variant in question. Pinching the other eleven models so that they'd disappear, Tom grabbed the holographic cargo vessel and expanded it to reveal its known specifications.

He took that list and set it next to the readouts from the Borg cube. Using his right index finger, he began to circle and highlight comparisons between the three lists, identifying various metallurgical structures between the three scans.

Armed now with a starting point, he instructed the computer to scan the debris sample to see what this particular piece revealed. The intensity of the scan meant that it would take at least a minute to complete.

At that point, Ensign Rivers entered the Engineering lab with a PADD in one hand and looked up in momentary surprise when she saw the Chief Engineer. "Oh. I apologize, Sir. I didn't know anyone was in here. I'll come back later."

Tom turned around to see who had disturbed his concentration. For whatever reason, it took him longer than it should have to recognize the Ensign. Part of him wanted to turn her away, but something in his mind reminded him that her background with cybernetics could prove more than useful.

"Nonsense, Ensign," Tom said with a smile. "I could honestly use a hand. Join me."

The Borg/Nanjing nanites in his system noticed the slight spike in his body's irritation and studied the chemical releases. A decision was made and the Aldosterone and Cortisol production in his hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis was increased.

"If you're certain, Master Chief," Autumn said as she came to where he was and saw what he was doing. "This is a big project, isn't it? I would have loved the opportunity to study them and the Cube."

Tom felt his mind start to clear, wondering if that raktajino was finally taking effect. "This is definitely the largest project I've ever seen, and that includes our recent abalative armor upgrade. Presently, I'm waiting on the computer for a detailed scan of this debris fragment. It's..." Tom looked back to the table, which was still working. He grunted and then slammed a fist on top of the console he was working on, almost shouting, "It's just too damn slow!"

Autumn blinked. To her, the computer ran slow but she also had an AI in her brain and a lot of cybernetics and programs at her control. A humans reaction to it being slow was something for her to look into and she tasked a section of her AI to work on it. "If you'd like, Sir, I can do an analysis with the data you've collected."

Tom took no notice of the dent he left in the console and gave her a quizzical look. "I welcome additional eyes on this... Forgive me, Ensign. It's... it's been a hell of a day. I just want to figure out what's going on."

She and the Borg/Nanjing took note of the damage, but only she chose to ignore it for now. The nanites entered the console and began to patch into data streams and upgraded their programs and began to spread and create more of themselves inside of the console.

A light flashed on the console to indicate an error had occurred and Autumn checked it. "Odd. Someone in Operations must be doing tests as well," she said. "Or that little thump caused a glitch."

"WHAT!?" Tom roared, turning to look at the console. He couldn't believe what was happening. For security reasons, the debris had been left to only those with clearance, and that number was barely a handful or two aboard this ship. "What would Operations be running tests on at a time like this?"

Meanwhile, the Borg/Nanjing in Tom's head discovered the piece of hardware monitoring his body. A group left through his skin directly into the device and disabled it. Then they repurposed it to suit their needs, added programming and had it start sending out a signal to the other Nanjing in the vicinity.

The others responded inside the console and another group split off and followed the signal back and entered the humans' body through the point of contact. Once united with the others, a new plan was adopted as well as new programming and they began to interface with his neural network, primitive as it was to them. They accessed his sensory array as they deemed it to be and 'heard' and 'saw' what he did after a moment of Tom going temporarily blind and deaf.

"....said there's no test at the moment," Autumn was saying when his hearing and sight returned, one hand on the console and the other resting on her combadge.

While Ensign Rivers had contacted Operations, Tom had turned his back to the Lagashi. He was going to take a look at the computer's sensor array and run a level five diagnostic, but he'd suddenly felt very nauseated and dizzy. Other parts of his body, especially his hands, stung for a moment, and that sensation ripped up his arm, loosening an army of goosebumps. A soft metallic whine entered his hearing as his disorientation subsided. Tom figured he shouldn't have had those multiple cups of Klingon coffee. He now feared he was headed for some sort of caffiene crash. He tried to steady himself with the console.

"What?" he asked her, only for her words to kick into his memory a moment later. "No test? Then... the error..."

"Appears to be fine now, Sir," Autumn said before she knelt closer to the console and looked at the data and analysed it in seconds ahead of the computer. "And this is unusual..." She murmured as the hair fell from the back of her neck to reveal a small data interface port.

The Borg/Nanjing saw the interface and and gave a impulse in his brain for him to put his right hand there. A group travelled via his sped up bloodstream that the caffeine had caused from his four cups of the liquid and waited at his palm.

Tom had barely seen the implant, in fact, he never recalled seeing it before. He knew the Lagashi were never ones to hide their implants, yet Autumn had been the most unnoticable Lagashi he'd ever seen. He'd always suspected she had a dataport somewhere, and it made sense that it would be near the base of her skull.

"That's... fascinating," he said, reaching out to touch it. Normally, he would respect any individual's personal space. But he could not help this impulse to touch that he now felt.

The woman jerked under his hand the moment the Borg/Nanjing entered her through the port and immediately launched tactical programs that her programming had never considered. Firewalls were erected and counter programs were launched, but it was a short battle. The AI computer in her head lost the fight and the Borg/Nanjing settled into their new host far easier than they had in the other meat sack. This one was primed and ready and an analysis of her body via her AI revealed that she was mostly synthetic and cybernetic. A bit primitive, but she would do nicely.

She turned to him, a bit jerky at first, then opened and closed her mouth while the Borg/Nanjing sought her verbal control center and sent out commands. She blinked a few times, then nodded. "Agreed. Very fascinating." Her voice echoed a little but smoothed out by the end of the third word.

Inside of Tom, the Borg/Nanjing were more frustrated with their attempts to control him and communicated with the ones in the Lagashi female. Instructions were sent back and forth and the nanites in the medical device instructed more to come from the console to the meat sack. Once introduced and upgraded once more, they sent their message to Tom's brain. Infiltrate Command. Establish a Queen. Instruct the Lagashi to work with creating more nanites. Go forth and spread them.

Tom watched Autumn jerk and react to his touch, something that he'd describe as electric. His fingers stung, but that feeling had not lingered for more than just the initial impulse. What baffled him was the way that she was responding. Something told him, however, that the lab would be safe under her care. "We will need more," he told her, not really knowing what he was saying other than that was the right thing to say.

The clarity that was in his mind was now gone, replaced again by thick clouds. He definitely didn't understand what was happening. All that he knew was that he needed rest. His body... it needed time to recharge. It needed time to prepare for the next phase.

Autumn nodded. "Clearance required for force field containment removal," she said.

Tom nodded. He stepped up to the barely functional console and input his authorization code. The forcefield lowered instantly. "Keep me posted," he simply stated, then he turned and left.

With that done, Autumn turned and began to set about her work.