Lt. Commander Tahna Meru - Damn.
Tahna Meru
((The Labyrinth, Unimatrix Seventeen))
Meru disconnected the tricorder from the console, checking quickly to see that the data was stable before running after the group. The assimilation tubes in the doorway tried to grab on as she passed through. She shook them off, skin crawling.
The other side was more of the blasted maze—but, thank the Prophets, no drones in sight.
Tahna: Look for an alcove, we need to set the pattern enhancers!
Nin: Here is the third enhancer! How close are we?
Aegam / Pace: Response
Meru called up the map in her memory, but she’d focused more on the path to the data than the labyrinth as a whole. This area was...fuzzy. Stupid. She should've anticipated the shielding, should've paid more attention to getting out.
A crash from behind, louder than the rest. Had the Borg finally broken through the door?
Tahna: This’ll do.
Aegam / Pace: Response
Nin: Ready!
Meru dug one of the pattern enhancers out of her pack and set it. She slapped her combadge as soon as she had a free hand—and hissed, that was the burned hand.
Tahna: =/\= Tahna to Gorkon. Four to beam out, as soon as you can lock on.=/\=
After a second’s delay, a voice crackled through.
Yisen: =/\= Aye. =/\=
Meru shifted on her feet, one hand holding the tricorder, the other holding her phaser, aimed at the passage behind them. Waiting.
Aegam / Pace: Response
The writing mass of black assimilation tubes parted of their own accord as the Borg drones marched through. Faces filled with cybernetics, armed. They didn't increase their pace, moving slow and steady toward the group, and—
Oh, Prophets, no. No, no, no.
They'd been too slow getting the data, and this was the price.
Admiral Reynolds, or something that used to be Admiral Reynolds, marched at the front of the unit. Her cybernetics were different, less encompassing, more individual than the others.
She must be their Queen now.
Aegam / Pace: Response
Nin: Orders, sir? Do we try to extract them?
She had only a second to assess, risks and odds running through her mind at warp speed, warring with her emotions. The science and medical departments had been working on methods for getting individuals out of the Collective, and they could manage it, but that was for individual drones, not…not this. Maybe it was still possible, but their methods were unproven at this scale, and if they couldn't…that was the end. The end of everything.
And it was clear they weren't marching over to just say hello. No one knew the ship and crew better than the Admiral. She would probably assimilate them all before they could reliably contain her, and then...
One life for the future of the universe.
Was it just one? If she'd been assimilated, had the rest of the team been as well? See you on the other side, Meru had said. They all knew the risks when they beamed over, that didn't make it any easier. Meru glanced at Aegam, praying she was making the right call.
Tahna: We can't, the risk is too great. ::She lowered her voice, near a whisper, willing it not to break as she addressed the Queen.:: I'm so sorry.
Aegam / Pace / Nin: Response
They were closing in now, too close, where was the damned transport?
Hand shaking slightly, Meru fired. Perhaps it should be some small comfort that her shots only slowed the thing that was once Quinn Reynolds, but the scientist just felt sick.
The shimmering blue lights of the transporter were their salvation, erasing the labyrinth, replacing the view ahead with the familiarity of the transporter room.
((Transporter Room, Deck 8, USS Gorkon))
The pain in her side flared as she stepped off the transporter pad. Meru winced. Between that, and what they'd just witnessed… She wanted to go hide in her quarters, collapse in on herself, disappear, but she knew she could not. They had to deliver the data to be decrypted, had to let anyone left know to get out, had to tell Sami what….
She tapped her com badge, almost in a daze.
Tahna: =/\= Tahna to zh'Tisav and…Marshall. ::Her voice cracked slightly.:: We've secured the data. Get out when you can. =/\=
zh'Tisav / Marshall: Response
Aegam / Pace / Nin: Response
Meru handed the tricorder off to a security officer on standby, with a warning about the nanoprobes and instructions to deliver it straight to the Intel suite for analysis. She didn't look back to her team as she spoke, choosing a blank point ahead of her to stare through instead. Maybe there was another explanation for what they'd seen. She didn't dare hope as much, she wasn't sure she could bear hoping and being wrong.
Tahna: Medbay. ::She anticipated a protest from Nin, the newest and least injured member of the team.:: We all need looked over, at least.
Aegam / Pace / Nin: Response