[Moon] Ensign Dekas - The Careless Version. Part 2
Ace Christensen
(OOC: Narrative-heavy for a round. I made sure I got a green light from the Captain for the decision I made here. It makes the metaphorical story clock tick a little louder. But also: Be mindful as this sim involves character trauma and some of his initial heavier thoughts as a result of that trauma within the narrative.)
((Moonbase))
((short timeskip))
Not all was to be so easy. The door in the corridor forward to them slid shut and locked, keeping them from doing much of anything unless they wanted to go back and spend more time in this place. Dekas unthinkingly moved to open it in a similar way he had with the very front door to the building.
Any: Response
The Borg were a very present worry. But Dekas' worry revolved most heavily around Borg drones, and not the concept that they could be made through any other means aside from other drones. The systems in the building could cause enough issues, very big ones. But in all of the chaos, he'd forgotten that they could do more than destroy previous systems like a parasite and become a beacon. As far as he was concerned, he could handle a system. He could learn a system and he could shut it off. At worst he thought it might do something with electricity, and he just wanted it all to be over with.
The Aurelian yelped as something sharp jabbed into his neck with ruthless efficiency and then was out of him just as quickly. His hand was on his neck. It didn’t take a rocket scientist (or a Starship Engineer, for that matter) to understand the severity of what just happened.
He’d fallen for it, now the time for small mercies was over. The voice over the comm-system only served to rub it in.
Borg: We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Any: Response
They had to keep going. The longer they stayed here, the more the Borg level invasion of his system would continue to move, the more he would change, the more likely he would die. That all of them could. They needed to keep moving even though he was shaking. He could feel it attaching to his blood cells at the horrifying pace of his own heartbeat. He felt like he was on fire.
It hurt.
Existence as he knew it would never be the same.
Away team/Juneau: Response
(OOC: Away team and/or Juneau could have any conversations during Dekas' thoughts here as needed or wanted. He's in Terrified Freeze mode, stuck in his head for a second, and not taking this well. So take that as you like with responding sims.)
oO I’ll never be the same. Oo
It was almost poetic with his belief in the Pho’Nix. A rebirth. A new version of Dekas molded from the heat of searing pain. But he didn’t want this version. He resented the nightmare of himself he was trying not to visualize. More than that he resented the absolutely careless version of himself that was there just seconds before. It was the fault of The Careless Dekas that the worse Dekas even risked emerging from those ashes.
He never believed in a devil. A staunch believer that everything had second chances upon second chances even if it took multiple lifetimes or thousands of changes. No one was truly beyond the hope of their past. But if ever there was an antithesis to what the Pho'Nix was, an opposer to creation as a whole, an opposer to that which made life beautiful, an opposer to hope. There was nothing else that played The Bird's foil and opposite so disgustingly, heartlessly well.
If there was a Devil, it was most assuredly The Borg.
oO And now that's in me. I let that into me. Oo
Dekas went through all the stages of grief in that span of a minute, people's voices buzzing through the intensity of what he felt, including the dizzying urge to profusely apologize to his team, and the Captain, and everyone on the ship for being that stupid. Tell them it would never happen again for better or for worse. That he'd take any punishment even if this already felt like one. But he remained silent and still to the moment of acceptance where his mind stored the extremity of the experience in a lockbox somewhere in his subconscious, and he acknowledged that being in his own head doing nothing wasn’t getting them out any faster.
Whether or not the ship had already been contacted, Dekas clicked the combadge.
Dekas: =/\= Dekas to Juneau. Big problem. ::His voice pitched a little higher, resisting it with all that he was:: Assimilation tube, I'm so sorry. =/\=
Any: Response
It suddenly occurred to him that he had pieces of technology on his person, small though they were. He didn’t know enough about this process to handle the concept that somehow it risked being corrupted along with the rest of him if he was touching it. It didn’t matter whether or not it was true. Everyone else could be hurt if that happened. Everyone else would be changed too, and no one deserved this.
Dekas: I-I need someone to take my combadge and tricorder from me. Right now.
Any: Response
Dekas: I’m sor— We need to. Sh-shut it down. We need to get down there and shut it down.
The pain slowed his movements. Heavier with the fear that he’d hurt someone, he wasn’t sure how to make sure everyone else was safe. Resistance was painful.
Any: Response
TAGS/TBC
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Ensign Dekas
Engineering
USS Juneau
J239802D12