Lieutenant Commander Timothy Alentonis: Looking Forward to Going Home
Zeph
Caldwell: Doctor Shortrith, how goes the surgery?
Shortrith: Good, I think… I should be done in about an hour and a half.
If this worked, they would have cause to celebrate. For now, however, such celebrations were premature. The importance of what they were doing would go a long way towards assisting with the recovery process, Tim hoped. It was wishful thinking, but then again who wouldn’t want to assist in being a positive force for healing?
Caldwell: And the long term prognosis?
Alentonis: Once the cybernetics have been removed, Silenya will be capable of unhindered sight once more. I defer to Dr. Shortrith’s medical opinion, however.
((Munshi)) Shortrith: Response
Caldwell: Ensign Munshi, what are you seeing? Any change in Silenya's bio-readings?
Munshi: Response
Caldwell: How much longer do you think Commander, Doctor?
Tim looked over toward the Klingon and arched an eyebrow for a moment, and somehow managed to keep his voice neutral.
Alentoinis: Another 90ish minutes, perhaps? Does that sound accurate to you?
Shortrith: Responses
Caldwell: Keep going. Ensign Munshi, stay alert. Any change in readings that you don't like the look of - sound off, immediately.
Munshi: Response
They resumed their work, and the nature of the task was so delicate that one slip-up could cause catastrophic results.
{{Timeskip - 90 minutes later}}
Shortrith had said it would take about an hour and a half, an hour and a half that Caldwell had spent in a slow, restless patrol of the perimeter, listening to the periodic and really rather mundane status reports from his team.
Shortrith: And… ::gently removes the last of the cybernetics and passes it to Alentonis:: I'm done.
The words cut through the silence, he let out a sigh of relief, the vines hadn't gone haywire and tried to force feed them pears until they exploded, nor had Silenya transported anyone to Rura Penthe. Of course he knew that this procedure, as significant as it was, was one of many that would need completing if they were to remove every trace of the Borg from the planet.
oO This could take weeks, unless of course Silenya can sort this out for themselves now that they've seen how it's done. Oo
It wasn't like he had anywhere to be exactly, it was just that babysitting a team of blue shirts whilst they spent hours doing blue shirt things was not at the top of his to-do list.
Caldwell: All done?
Alentonis: Response
They had done it, the small team, assembled around the glowing alien lake had successfully performed, what he suspected, was the first ever de-assimilation surgery on a sentient planet spanning plant based lifeform.
oO This really should be one for the books. It's not a book I'd read but it's gotta be worth a couple of pages in somebody's book. Oo
Caldwell: Fantastic, how is the patient?
Shortrith: I removed all the cybernetics along the shoreline, as well as all the ones I could see that weren't. I had to use multiple different sizes of scalpel blades, which were all useful with the different levels of space underneath the cybernetics - as well as trying to remove the overall mark I left on Silenya - I had to work with.
He listened patiently as she gave her technical, slightly rambling debrief.
oO I really need to create a list of rules for when blue shirts answer questions, one of those many rules will include not telling me the details of every scalpel used in a procedure. Oo
Shortrith: From what I could notice, Silenya was able to somewhat 'push' out the last of the cybernetics with my help - it seemed that the collective pressure of all the cybernetics was initially overwhelming, but when most of the load was removed, it seemed it was easier for her to get rid of them.
Now that, he thought, was a far more important bit of detail. It sounded like Silenya was indeed able to actively assist in their own healing. That would be critical for any future operations. The doctor had done a very good job, whilst he might not be a medic, he knew that surgery to remove Borg implants was no easy thing, the invasiveness of Borg nanotechnology was one of many reasons that the Borg were Starfleet's greatest nightmare.
Caldwell: I'm assuming you've learned some important details that could be useful in work to remove any remaining Borg technology from the planet?
Shortrith: Response
He was glad that their risky procedure had not only achieved its objective in so far that it had successfully allowed for the removal of the Borg tech but it had also yielded some actionable information that would support going forward. In Caldwell's book that was a clear win.
Caldwell: Do we anticipate Silenya will be able to remove any of the implants for themselves or will we still need to be involved?
Shortrith / Munshi: Responses
He took in their collective assessment, it sounded somewhat reassuring but that Starfleet wasn't off the hook just yet.
Caldwell: Based on the detail we currently have, what sort of timeframe would we be looking at to clear it all out?
Alentonis: I’d say three or four hours, perhaps. Even the most basic of the cybernetic removal will take a while.
Caldwell: That sounds like a big job, either we're going to be here for a while or Starfleet is going to have to send some not insignificant resource to this planet.
Alentonis: Very likely. All of the currently exposed cybernetics should be fairly accessible to remove. However, I will defer to Dr. Shortrith’s expertise in this arena since we are talking about effectively surgery on a biological life form..
Caldwell: Well, given Silenya's transporting abilities, if we can find a way to communicate a list of personnel, they can just bring them here and presumably send them back to whether they came from afterwards, right?
Munshi: Response
Caldwell: Fortunately this isn't something we need to worry about right this moment, I think you've all earned the opportunity to call it a day... and by that I mean, get back to the ship and start writing up reports so the Captain can consider next steps.
(( OOC: Happy to continue as needed. ))
Tim continued his work for as long as he needed to, and assisted as needed with the various readings, surgical bits, and so forth as long as he was needed. He was looking forward to getting home.
[End - Alentonis]