Lt Jovenan – Planning is difficult, can't we just play action heroes again?
Jovenan
((Turbolift, USS Artemis))
The turbolift car resumed their earlier journey to the depths of the ship. Jovenan took a deep breath before straightening her body again. They had been too close to being killed there, and the fact that their death would have come at the hands of those who bore the faces of their friends and colleagues didn’t make the battle any easier to fight. Stunning the drones was infinitely better than killing their fellow crew, but she also knew they might find some of the drones ahead of them, eventually. They would better find a way to liberate the ship and the crew, before any more of them lost their lives.
Unexpectedly, the commline opened again. Jovenan thought they might be hearing a confirmation of the survival of some of their fellow survivors from some other part of the ship, but instead, the broadcast seemed to come from an entirely different ship.
Benbassat: =/\= Can anybody read me? Captain Benbassat of the Excelsior, broadcasting on frequency 99 Delta. To all who can hear, we have managed to retake control of our bridge... Hold on. Helm, what’s happening? They’re controlling us remotely. Taking us out of formation. No, no! We’re being directed in front of the fleet. Now we’ve been targeted. Tell my family- =/\=
Then, there was silence. Jovenan’s right hand rushed to cover her mouth again. And, just like that, the Borg had eliminated a ship-full of people. The Excelsior was the name ship of the Excelsior II class – it was a big ship, with a big crew. Hundreds of crew, probably spending their last moments feeling terrified and helpless. Just gone.
The Collective: =/\= Excelsior eliminated. All vessels secure. Fleetwide assimilation complete. A message to those who resist. Your armada has been added to our own. Your weak and wilful will soon be eliminated. Your strongest have already been assimilated. We are Borg. Starfleet now is Borg. =/\=
The declaration of the Collective added an insult to the death of so many people on the Excelsior and across the entire fleet, and perhaps on the Spacedock and down on the planet as well. It hadn’t been addressed to them, Jovenan could interpret through her fear-filled brain, but to the leaders and the people of Earth and the Federation. Starfleet was gone, and the local forces of each planet couldn’t resist the Borg.
MacKenzie: ::muttering flatly:: Bullshit. (beat) ::to the others in the lift:: We appear to have a new problem.
The Captain was too strong to give up the resistance. Jovenan closed
her eyes and nodded. She needed to act less like a Jay Gee and more
like a Lieutenant she was supposed to be. The Borg destroying ships
where the unassimilated crew had managed to regain control wasn’t a
sign they should give up their attempts to do so, it only meant
they’d need to try harder to stop the same happening to them. It just difficult to find the strength in her to keep going.
Silveira: Let's solve one problem at a time.
Jovenan nodded again. They couldn’t start discussing somehow disabling the Fleet Formation Mode and somehow evading the entire fleet until they had a bigger squad on their side. Avoiding thinking too much of the impossibility of their end goal, Jovenan focused on what she expected them to find when the doors opened again.
Jovenan: Right. Um, the armoury is on Deck 8, so the drones might be more heavily armed than before. So far they haven’t been too concerned with taking cover, though.
Hopper: Response
The turbolift slowed down, and Jovenan prepared her rifle and herself for the combat, as much as she possibly could. After this was over, she would ask for extra combat training from whichever senior security officer were to survive for so long.
((Deck 8, USS Artemis))
The doors opened. A part of Jovenan had expected the Borg to know their movements and send a firing squad to eliminate them before they could even step out. However, no salvo of phaser beams came to them, and instead, the immediate corridor was empty. They weren’t entirely alone, though, as just a bit further down the corridor, she saw several drones, occupied with something by the Intel Hub.
MacKenzie: I count six drones… Who knows how many more are actually inside the suite.
It was probably impossible to find out except by walking in there, too. If Jovenan’s memory wasn’t planning to embarrass her again, Talos had had the Intel Suite protected against the methods of electronic warfare, to which her tricorder likely fall in.
Vitor stepped out of the turbolift and kneeled. Jovenan followed him out and took cover. So far, the drones hadn’t either noticed them or reacted to their presence. Considering their actions earlier, the first option seemed more likely.
Silveira: Same. And a possible friendly ahead?
There was indeed someone still fighting the Borg.
Jovenan: I don’t think we can have a shot from here without having her on the line.
MacKenzie/Hopper: Response
Silveira: Whatever we are doing we better do it fast. We should take the advantage of surprise.
Right, but how? They couldn’t just start blasting, right? They didn’t have a transporter console or EPS relays they could have blown up just next to the drones like just moments earlier. Besides, doing the same trick twice probably didn’t work on the pseudo-species known for its adaptability. They needed a new plan. Exploding a phaser pistol on them? No, she had done that already and the Captain hadn’t liked it, and besides, this time they were trying not to kill the assimilated attackers. Release some gas like the Suliban pirates had? They didn’t have any, there may have been some usable materials in the Sickbay or the Hazardous Materials Lab, but they were in the neither.
Jovenan’s earlier suggestion about luring the drones out had been shot down, albeit gently, so she didn’t trust her tactical planning abilities, but she had to say something.
Jovenan: Can we trick them into going somewhere else or splitting up? Like by sending false comm messages or by leaving our commbadges somewhere? We should get rid of them anyway before they realise they can track us with them.
The Borg had the control of the entire ship and its systems, not to mention the knowledge and the experience of the assimilated crew. Jovenan alone had used internal sensors to detect the invading enemies so many times that surely the Borg would try that out eventually.
Hopper: Response
Silveira: Sounds good to me.
Jovenan nodded along. They could trust Commander Hopper to have an actually executable plan in any situation. The ship rocked a little. Something was happening outside, but since the ship hadn’t actually exploded yet, Jovenan took it as a sign that the Borg hadn’t yet decided to rid them like they had done to the Excelsior.
MacKenzie: Response
Jovenan: The tricorder and combadge combination, for example, can fabricate a tactical conversation. I think we could try simulating that we’re going to the Tactical, or put the badges in the turbolift and have them go somewhere in Science a deck below. The Borg might find us a priority target, especially if they think we have a plan.
MacKenzie/Hopper/Silveira: Response
Jovenan nodded sharply. She was very lucky to have three so experienced officers with her. Every time she had tried taking the lead, someone had got hurt, most recently Jaseb and Crewman Renirs in the cave in Rakantha. Had she been alone here, she would have already been killed.
Jovenan: Aye, sir.
MacKenzie/Hopper/Silveira: Response
Delri’ise: Response?
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11