Glaucus turns to Zed. "Zedrick," he says, startling Zed—nobody uses his full given name—"If you would be so kind as to return post haste to Dyson Station and report your crew's findings to Capt Samson and the Intelligence Officer... Maintain comms silence as regards the nanites and our android friends."

He turns to leave the Thames, "Now, I'll brief Mr. Xelox and leave Dr. Pierce to his medical wizardry."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 23:51, Sat 14 Sept 2019.

Arriving at Dyson Station, docking control takes over the Thames and secures the ship is a parking pattern—although runabouts can enter the station's hangar deck, there's no space to house them so they're usually placed in station-keeping mode. The four officers beam over to the station, where Capt Samson is waiting, flanked by two members of the Rapid Reaction Team, both wearing security armour and armed with Type 3A Compression Phaser Rifles. The RRTs follow Samson and the Thames crew to a briefing room and halt outside the door, taking up a security post.


Samson takes a seat at the head of the table and begins, "Lieutenants, you both know LCdr Talbot and Lt Avalon," indicating the Intelligence Officer and the Security Chief. "I understand you have some alarming news."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:14, Sun 15 Sept 2019.

In reply to Capt. Delilah Samson (msg # 2):

Prompted by Zed, Jon gives a brief run down of his discovery of the crawling metal, and Tony's subsequent discovery of the partially melted nanites. Jon is nervous at first, talking in front of a group of higher ranking officers, but his confidence increases as he proceeds.

When he's done, Jon lets Tony take over and outline his theories in his ... own colourful fashion.

"Thanks, Jon," says Tony. "Well, we've got a piece of alloy which seems to originate in the Delta Quadrant with traces of nanites on it, but burnt so bad  I can't get a fix on them.  The alloy is solid, but Jon says he saw it doin' an imitation of an inch worm and not givin' off no readings on his tric. Then it fell over stiff as an inert piece'a'junk and reads fine on the tric now. I did a diagnostic on his and it's workin' fine. Nanites on a piece of Delta Quadrant debris says Borg to me, but I gotta wonder if it might be related to our android friends, the Kapecki, 'specially cuz these Chirpers are related to them Finorii or Droyne or whatever they are."

"Did you confront Cdr Olivaw?" asks Samson.

"Naw, didn't think it was a good idea wit'out checking with you, Boss!"

"Hmmm. Sounds like you've been talking with Mr. Xelox. His patois is rubbing off on you. But you're right. We don't know much about the Kapecki and their robotic systems may well incorporate nanotechnology. Ms. Dahlakino is a roboticist. We'll read her in on this."

The communications officer interrupts over the tannoy. "Captain, we've got a report from Dr. Adonidas that Dr. Dovan is missing under suspicious circumstances. She's copied us a scan of his burnt-out tricorder and Dr. Pierce can't contact him psionically."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:21, Thu 26 Sept 2019.

Samson glances to the ceiling and says "Samson to Dahlakino. Please report to Briefing Room One."

The answer comes over the communicator, "Yes Ma'am. Be there in a trice."

The communications offer comes back on line, "Lt Gazzo, copying the scans of Dr. Dovan's tricorder to your PADD now." The PADD pings and the screen lights up.

Glancing over the datastream, Tony can see that it's the raw data. He replies, "Can you patch me a live feed and remote access to Petty Officer Mirabelle's tricorder? Thanks."

Moments later, the door opens and Dahlakino steps in. She's in uniform with a gold under-tunic and the golden tab of a Lt(jg provisional). She still wears the leather helmet around her lekku and her goggles. "Lt Dahlakino reporting as ordered, Captain."

As Dahlakino finds a seat, Zed's commbadge chirps. "Adonidas to Sloane. We've got a missing doctor and patient. I understand you guys found something that caused you to head back to confer with the captain. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but could whatever it was that you found have any connection to our missing man?"

Dahlakino looks concerned. "I have a bad feeling about this. There's a disturbance in the Force."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:34, Wed 09 Oct 2019.

Zed's commbadge chirps. "Adonidas to Sloane! We've got a serious problem! Chiree just came in with report about the missing patient and entered telepathic communication with Dr. Pierce! Pierce went trance-like and convulsed, then hit the floor! He muttered 'Resistance is futile' and remains unconscious!"

Samson slaps an icon on her control panel. "Update to the Red Alert. We've got a report indicating possible Borg activity. Isolate all Romulan prisoners and equipment!" Turning to the team, she says "Looks like you were right, Gazzo! Sloane, get your ship down there and initiate anti-Borg measures! Dahlakino, go with them."

"So we're on our way back?" Tony asks. "Geez, I'm getting dizzy!"

"Suck it up, buttercup!" snaps Samson, "You've been here long enough to get used to it! Dahlakino, with your Force sensitivity, hopefully you can be of some help."

"What about Professor Lake and the Lintillas?" asks Dahlakino.

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Right now LCdr Carson is in charge of that aspect of things."

"Ja, Captain, but how far can we trust her?" queries Talja.

"Christ, I don't know. I'm dealing with this as quickly as I can," says Samson, exasperated. "Now, just get there!"

The transporter beam envelopes them and they materialise on the Thames.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Wed 20 Apr 2022.

Meanwhile back at the crash site:

Dr. Adonidas presses a hypospray to Nathan's neck and says, "Would you like some tri-ox compound to clear your head?"

If Nathan agrees, she gives the shot. "You gave us quite a turn there when your eyes rolled back and you said 'Resistance is futile,' then went pale and passed out. I've reported it to Capt Samson and the Thames is on the way back with Lt Dahlakino. You've not met her, but she's an alien with a... unique... skill set."

As Nathan's head clears, whether from the sip of whisky or the tri-ox injection, Nathan reflects on the sensation of being assimilated, as filtered through the Chirper patient's sensations, further filtered through Chiree's psychic transmission. The feeling of one's personality being torn away will be with him forever, but he is able to compartmentalise it for later reflection.

Having seen to Nathan Dr. Adonidas says to Mirabelle, "PO, get on the horn and order all personnel here to be on the lookout for Dr. Dovan. Do not approach him—report immediately upon spotting him. All hands are to be armed with Phaser II's locked on heavy stun setting. Repeat, lock phasers on setting number three, but contact me before firing. Do not fire unless specifically ordered and do not engage."

Mirabelle looks back quizzically, "Yes Ma'am. shall I recommend phasers to be set on modulating frequencies?"

"No, PO, I don't want to panic people. If someone spots him, I'll tell them myself, but until then I don't want to even whisper the word Borg. I assume complete responsibility for this order," replies Adonidas. She taps her commbadge, "Adonidas to Thames. Coordinate with Cuyahoga on approach and beam Gazzo, Gröen and Dahlakino down, then I want Sloane and Clare to join Cuyahoga in scanning the area."

Breaking contact, she turns to Nathan, "Now, Doctor, how are you feeling? Do you need another sip of whisky for fortitude?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 02:10, Thu 24 Oct 2019.

About half an hour after his last discussion with LCdr Glaucus, Billy is observing some Chirpers tending to basic tasks like cleaning up after the funerary rites when his commbadge chirps. A female voice says, "Attention all personnel; be on the lookout for a missing officer. Doctor Dovan is a male Deltan, wearing a blue lab coat over his uniform when last seen. He may be in the company of a Chirper. Do not approach or engage Dr Dovan, but immediately report his position to Dr Adonidas, Chief Medical Officer. Dr Dovan was last seen about fifteen minutes ago in the Medical Module and is not responding to his communicator. We have reason to believe he may be under an outside influence and may become violent. Lock phasers on setting three—heavy stun—but do not fire without explicit orders. I say again..." and she repeats the message. Billy recognises the voice as belonging to Petty Officer 3^rd class Mirabelle, a medical technician.

"Oh well, at least the rules are straightforward," passes through Billy's mind. "Damn Starfleet with its 'do it our way, not the logical way'." He pulls out his tricorder and scans for Dovan—no Deltan life signs.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 03:37, Sat 02 Nov 2019.

Lt Nathen breaths heavy and takes his time.
A shot would help. He tells Dr. Adonidas when asked about the tri-ox.
He then takes his time to pull himself together.

On being offered the whiskey he also excepts it.
Taking a long hard shot.
Oh.  That is good.  He says.  One of the odd sides of being on the diplomatic staff.
Unlike a lot of starfleet Betazoid's persona,l alcohol is something I had to get use to.
He carries on focusing himself.  On the offer of a second shot of whiskey Lt. Nathen answers.
Are you trying to get me drunk Dr. Adonidas?
I am not sure what my wives would say when they find out.
He gives out a little chuckle and winks at her.

Then he pulls himself together for action.
First he gets down and talks to Chiree.
Chiree has nothing to be sorry for.  Nathan and Chiree are friends.
I asked you to let me see.  What you did was good and helpful.
I learned a lot and it will help us find your chirper and our Doctor.
What you did was very good and if anything like this happens again I want you to do the same.  Thank you.

He then gets up.
Just to confirm.  Both the chirper and Dr Dovan have been turned into borg.
I can tell you that is one feeling I am so glad to experenced third hand and not have experience for real myself.  It was not very nice.
What I don't get is why only these two have been effected and they have not tried to affect others?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:26, Sat 02 Nov 2019.

"That, Nathan, is the 64 thousand credit question." She screws the cap back onto the miniature bottle and returns it to her medpouch. "Look at this," she says, handing him a PADD, "Capt Samson copied me this report from Lt Gazzo."

The PADD has Tony's scans of the piece of monotanium, the remains of the nanites, and the noted origins of the monotanium as an alloy only known from the Delta Quadrant; followed by the speculations on the possibility of the nanites actually being Borg nanoprobes.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Mon 04 Nov 2019.

Petty Officer Mirabelle looks up from her own copy of the report and takes out her own tricorder. She says, "Hell, this says that most of the internal circuitry are just plain missing. I thought it felt a bit light!"

She points the peripheral scanner at Dovan's dead tricorder and activates it. She runs the peripheral over the husk of the subject tricorder and curses, "Goddamn it all to hell! Confirmed—we've got a Borg infestation! Recommend all personnel be informed, Commander!" she says to Dr. Adonidas. And gets busy updating the report to Dyson Station.

Dr. Adonidas stares at the updated report, gobsmacked. "Ain't that a kick in the teeth..."

The image Mirabelle has just passed on is incontrovertible.

This message was last edited by the player at 21:31, Tue 12 Nov 2019.

"Oh, shit!" exclaims Adonidas. She taps her commbadge, "Adonidas to Capt Samson. We confirm Borg presence in the Sphere. I say again, we confirm Borg presence in the Sphere! Doctor Dovan and at least one Chirper have been assimilated. We await your orders. Am informing personnel on site of situation and advising to take appropriate measures." She grabs Nathan by the sleeve. "Nathan are you fit for duty? This is perhaps the most important order I'm ever going to give—find Dr. Dovan by whatever means you can. Psionic, technical, Mk.I eyeball—whatever! If Chiree is indeed psionic, have him put out a be on the lookout order to his flock for Dr. Dovan. Tell them not to approach him, just report his position."

Once again she taps her commbadge. "Attention all personnel on site. This is Lieutenant Commander Athena Adonidas; we are now in a red alert situation. We have a Borg infiltration. Medical Lieutenant Dovan has been infected by Borg nonoprobes and must be considered a Borg Drone. If spotted, do not approach him. Stun him if possible—if not—" she chokes up for a second, "—lethal measures may be used. This is a last resort, though. We know that subjects can be unassimilated if caught early enough, so I'd rather he be captured alive. Cuyahoga and Thames, confirm you've copied this message!"

Her commbadge replies, "Rai here, Cuyahoga confirms, awaiting orders!"

In reply to Dr. Athena Adonidas (msg # 15):

In the Cuyahoga, which Jon and Zed have joined up with, Jon is hoping against all hopes that the evidence that he and Tony found did not indicate Borg.

As Jon hears Adonidas's announcement, his guts turn cold at the thought that he was just down there and he had found the first clues. I left an easy science posting to find a little adventure and perhaps some unexplored surfing spots. Jon thinks to himself. So far I've been shot, poisoned, almost drowned a friend, and now I'm going to be fighting Borg. This is not what I had in mind. If the waves had come in just slightly different, it might have been me and Tony who had been assimilated.

Jon shakes his head trying—not completely successfully—to clear his thoughts.

"Should we set our phasers to modulating frequencies?" Jon asks, not sure if he's successfully keeping a quaver of fear out of his voice.

Dr. Adonidas replies, "Acknowleged, Cuyahoga and Thames. Yes, Mr. Clare. Maximum Stun setting—as I said, we'd like to get Dovan back alive. Do a high-res scan for Deltan life-signs and in particular, atmospheric micro-traces of Deltan pheromones. Mr. Gazzo, please beam down and bring your full tech assessment field kit."

Grimacing, Tony collects his gear and beams down. Talja takes the mission ops console and says, "I'll do the life-scans, Jon. You tackle the pheromones. Should be simple for a climatologist to isolate a trace atmospheric contaminant."

Jon recognises the sarcasm in Talja's voice. Simple indeed! There must be a whole part per million! Might as well do a visual scan for reflections off Dovan's bald scalp.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:07, Tue 19 Nov 2019.

In reply to Dr. Athena Adonidas (msg # 17):

"Do assimilated Deltans even exude their normal pheromones?" Jon asks. Nonetheless, he sets up and starts scanning for micro-traces in the nearby atmosphere. He also widens the scan parameters, looking for any atmospheric abnormalities (sudden pressure or temperature changes, unexpected turbulence, deviations from the normal elemental percentages).

Jon launches a series of micro-probes, tiny drones launched from the 13.3cm micro-torpedo launcher. A few of these contain air sampling equipment, while others are surveillance drones with cameras and multispectral sensors. One of these reports back with a reading of refined duranium. This is consistent with a Starfleet commbadge.

A closeup image from the probe reveals a Starfleet commbadge and a swath of black fabric caught on a shard of metal trim on the doorway of an abandoned building. Jon calls up a second probe, one of the air samplers, and it detects extremely faint traces of pheromones. Running the traces through the analysis routines, he can determine that the pheromones are, for want of a better word, stale; almost completely broken down. This would seem to indicate that Dovan is no longer emitting the chemical signature. Unfortunately, it also confirm he's no longer wearing his communicator, and the urban terrain is so unsuited for tracking that no boot prints are visible.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 19):

"I've found Dovan's comm badge!" announces Jon. "And some very faded traces of pheromones. I'm going to try to trace its source."

Jon does some additional scans in an attempt to determine if the pheromones traces lead in any particular direction. He also initiates a thermal scan of the abandoned building and the surrounding buildings, looking for locations that have an ambient temperature (39.1°C) matching a Borg ship.

"Copy that, Mr. Clare. These readings indicate he's probably no longer exuding pheromones. The pheromones have a half-life of about five minutes. His clothing is certainly infused with them, but they're degrading quickly. We need boots on the ground." Adonidas turns to Nathan. "Doctor, please head to the coordinates Jon gave us."

She taps her commbadge, "Mr. Xelox, I'm copying you a set of coordinates. Dr. Dovan's commbadge has been found, and we need you to check it out."

Lt. Nathan had been silent for some time.
I am sorry Dr. Athena.  I was thinking over what you said.
It like trying to detect a computer after it been switch off for some time.
Very hard to do.  I really do not know how my skills can find Dr Deltans.

I will head over to the coordinates Jon gave us.  Maybe some of my medical skills be more use.

Lt Nathan heads off to coordinates.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 22):

Jon continues scanning the surrounding area looking for locations that match Borg ambient conditions.

"Does 'boots on the ground' include us also?", Jon asks.

Dr. Adonidas replies, "Yes Jon, you and Tony both. Zed will remain airborne with Talja continuing the scans. You'll beam down, beam Nathan site-to-site as well. You and Tony take phaser rifles and his tech assessmant field kit. Take science and engineering tricorders, and Nathan will take his medkit and a medical tricorder. Meet Mr. Xelox there and bring him a phaser rifle. It is imperative that we attempt to capture Dovan alive, both because he's a Federation officer in need of rescue and secondarily because it'd be nice to interrogate a Borg drone."

She turns to Nathan and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Well, Doctor, in addition to your medical skills, you may well find your psionic skills useful, as well as your more... er, mundane skills. God speed, Nathan!"

She passes him the large medical shoulder bag and a Type 2 phaser. Nathan feels the normal tingling of the transporter effect and materialises along with Jon and Tony in the ground floor of a deserted tower. The door is broken and twisted and a piece of black cloth clings to a shard of the metal. An exocomp hovers nearby, taking scans of the room.

"Hey, Nate, how ya doin'?" greets Tony. "Well, there's Dovan's commbadge." He waves the peripheral from his tricorder at it. "Hummph! Just an empty shell. The nanoprobes have obviously scavenged it for materials."

There is a scuffing noise at the door. Turning, they see Fast Billy climbing past the obstacle.

Tony hands Billy a Type 3 phaser rifle, then detaches a phaser 2 from his waist and passes it over. "Remember, heavy stun only, on a modulating frequency. We've confirmed he's been exposed to Borg nanoprobes, but given Picard and that Seven dame on the Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, we think we can de-assimilate him—well, the bosses do anyway."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Sat 21 Dec 2019.

Jon's commbadge chirps. "Jon, we've just lost an exocomp! 100 metres ahead and 5 metres elevation," announces Talja. "That'd be on the second or third level. Be careful!"

"Damn!" says Tony, "Which one?"

"Unit QXVR135," answers Talja. "Why?"

"Larry—He owes me ten credits," mutters Tony. Looking at Billy, he expounds "Been teachin' 'em Fizzbin."

[OOC: Billy's still dealing with personal stuff, so I've put him on "autopilot".] "Fizzbin? Ain't dat th' phony card game Kirk used ta 'scape from Jojo's mob? Yer a rat, Tony!"

The exocomp hovering nearby makes a disparaging noise to Tony. "Hey!" says Tony. "It's just a joke! Didn't they program youse with a sense-a humour, Shemp?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:14, Sun 22 Dec 2019.

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 26):

Jon moves into the building, phaser rifle at the ready, in the direction Talja indicated. Since the missing exocomp was 5 meters up,  he looks up, checking if there an atrium with a balcony, or else stairs that lead up to a second story.

100 metres actually puts the loss of signal (LOS) site in the next building. The building in question is a cylindrical tower. The base is small, only about 25m in radius, with a larger (about 50m radius) second level. The 5m elevation places the LOS on the second level, and triangulating the coordinates puts them about 10m from the centre of the building.

"Geez, what a creepy lookin' old place," mutters Tony. "Looks like somethin' outta the Captain Proton holovids, only with better effects programmin'."

The entrance has a thick layer of dust covering the floor. Visible in the dust are tracks from a pair of standard issue Starfleet men's boots and a smaller set of Chirper footprints. The footprints lead towards a large open central area with a mezzanine. Coming from the mezzanine is a mechanical whine, as if from a drill penetrating a particularly resistant alloy. A flickering blue light can be seen, casting weird shadows on the surrounding walls.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 28):

Tony and Billy flank the entranceway while Jon takes a quick look inside. It is not Borg style to set booby traps or post active guards, but he looks for any signs of that anyway. He'd like to think that they will find only Dovan and the Chirper inside, but at least some other Borg must exist to convert them. He's feeling confident that there are not too many ... yet.

"Let's move in," he says if he sees no immediate threat.

Aside from the whine and the flickering light, there's no sign of anything untoward. Proceeding into the darkened chamber, the central area is indeed open to above, about 10m in diametre. There appears to be a mezzanine level, and the blur light is coming from this area. Shemp the exocomp is dogging Tony's heels as the group moves forward. Suddenly it makes a low bleeping noise. Tony stops and looks at the diminutive robot.


"What's up, Shemp?" he whispers quietly. Shemp quivers slightly, hovering in the air... Meanwhile, the whining noise abruptly cuts off and the flickering light disappears. Shemp begins backing away.

Jon glances at his tricorder and notices an electronic signature similar to a replicator in use. A bright red beam stabs through the murky darkness and a humming begins. The beam's source is about a metre off the deck... Something is moving up ahead, projecting a laser spotting beam. Several tiny blinking green lights can be seen below the laser emitter. Billy fires his phaser rifle and the figure stumbles to the deck.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 30):

Seeing the small figure fall, Jon holds his fire.

"Let's get some more light on the situation!" he says to the others, as he clicks on the light in his phaser rifle to illuminate the fallen figure. [OOC: Type-3 phasers have a built in light, do they not? If not then the statement is directed at Shemp, who probably does have a light in him somewhere. Oh, and Merry Christmas!]

[OOC: Yes, phaser rifles either have built-in lights or can mount one. The Type-3 Compression Phaser Rifle is as seen in Star Trek First Contact (interior scenes) with a built-in light.)


Tony and Billy both engage their lights. The partially assimilated Chirper lies silent on the deck. Although he does not have the many bionic implants of a full Borg drone, he does have some, presumably adapted from materials scavenged from the high-tech city surrounding the Chirper enclave, he does have the waxy appearance of typical Borg physiology, though retaining he greenish tint of Chirper physiology. There are the usual telltale lights internally monitoring his systems and the eye appliance but no armoured carapace of prosthetic limbs.

"Damn!" says Tony. "These li'l buggers're normally cute as hell, but this is turning my stomach. Betcha the Doc is just as bad, and I think he's probably armed wit' at least a Type 2."

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 32):

Jon taps his comm badge"Clare to Dr. Adonidas. We have found, and stunned, the missing Chirper. He's not completely transitioned yet!" says Jon. "We should get him to a medical facility right away! No signs yet of Dr Dovan."

Jon checks his tricorder for any indications of Dr Dovan, to confirm (or refute) the truth of his last statement.

"Roger, Mr. Clare," answers Adonidas. "Transmit the coordinates to the Thames and have Zed do a site-to-site transport of the subject to my location. I'm also beaming Ms. Dahlakino over so she can bring her own senses to bear."

Tony relays the coordinates to Talja and the little Chirper disappears on a torrent of blue sparkles. Seconds later, Dahlakino appears in a matching torrent of blue sparkling energy.


Nathan had met Dahlakino in passing, but this is his first good look at her. She is a tall humanoid woman with turquoise skin not unlike Troyians, but hairless and with a pair of large fleshy tentacles sprouting from her head and trailing down her back. Dahlakino has until now been working with Professor Lake and the Lintilla clones but her psionic sensitivity to something she calls the Force may well make her uniquely suited to the current situation. She pulls a device which Billy notes looks a lot like a century-old universal translator from her belt and holds it as if it were some sort of weapon.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:23, Sun 29 Dec 2019.

Dahlakino says, "Can someone bring me up to speed? What in the name of the Force are these Borg everyone's so exited about? I understand they're a race of cyborgs, hence the name, but beyond that everyone is acting on sheer terror without much pattern. Cyborgs are pretty uncommon in the Empire, aside from people with medical prosthetics."

"Same here," says Tony. "We don't know who or precisely when, but it seems that several centuries ago, probably in the Delta Quadrant, someone got the big idea that everyone'd be better off if we all had cybernetic implants, just like a bunch'a losers called the Nazis decided to create a so-called master race through genetic manipulation. However, where th' Nazi's augments or genetic supermen, failed the cybernetic augments took over like a robotic hive-mind called the Collective and began assimilating other species!"

Dahlakino looks shocked. "You mean the Borg are like a droid army with biological bodies? That's... disgusting!"

Tony replies, "Droids—that's what you call robots back home?—As opposed to androids like Cdr Data and the Kapecki, which are like robots but designed to be just like people?"

"An...droids? Those are very rare—really just a story to scare younglings with—infiltrator droids we'd call them; rumoured to have been used by the Empire but so easily detected by the Force sensitive as to be nearly worthless," says Dahlakino.

"However, regular droids are even rarer here in your Federation than are androids in the Galactic Empire," she concludes glancing at Shemp.

"Damn! Larry—another exocomp, or droid as you'd call him—Dovan knocked 'im outta service 'r maybe even assimilated the poor li'l guy! You're a roboticist, right. Maybe if we can find him, you can get him back in working order—'long with Doc Dovan, of course!" Tony activates his tricorder.  "Scanning for Larry's boridium power cell—lessee atomic number 121, atomic mass 317—30 grams 15 metres below us and moving straight down!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:41, Wed 01 Jan 2020.

In reply to Dahlakino (msg # 35):

"Down?" asks Jon. "Shit! Must be in a turbolift or something. That's underground. What in the sphere is below this building?"

"No," says Dahlakino. "I'm detecting the use of a repulsor-lift—what you would refer to as an anti-grav—and two intelligences—one humanoid and one droid—both being controlled by millions of tiny machine intelligence subunits forming a greater whole. This would seem to be part of the Borg collective as you call it. Most fascinating," she concludes, sounding almost Vulcan. "They are in an air-duct. I sense a great number of ventilation shafts and tunnels beneath this structure. Part of the structure of the Sphere, I'd say..."

"Hey, Jon," asks Tony, "How many sets of gravity boots we got on the Thames?"

In reply to Dahlakino (msg # 37):

"I am sure we have enough, Tony!" answers Jon, as he taps his comm badge. "Clare to Thames. Our ... quarry has taken to the air shafts underneath this facility. We need grav boots to pursue."

Jon turns to Dahlakino "Can you tell where they might be heading?" he asks her. "Perhaps we can head them off using the transporters. Also, don't get too fascinated. Borg are dangerous and will convert you into one of them before you know what is happening."

"The voices of the machine gestalt are so loud as to almost drown everything else out, but I'm getting a vague image of six-pointed star," Dahlakino frowns. "Does this symbol have any meaning for any of you?"

Jon's commbadge chirps. "Gröen here. We have a standard complement of nine pairs. I'm beaming down a pair for each of you."

A couple of metres away, five pairs of Starfleet issue gravity boots shimmer into existence. The Away Team quickly don the boots, which immediately adjust to fit the wearers. Shemp, of course needs no such aids as his anti-grav is built in. [The Skill governing grav boots is Personal Equipment (Grav Boots) or (Environmental Suit). If neither Specialisation is held, the base Skill applies.]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Thu 02 Jan 2020.

In reply to Dahlakino (msg # 39):

"OK, let's go!" cries Jon. Then he looks around uncertainly "Ummmm, where is the entrance to the air shafts?"

Tony points at his tricorder, "Um, my guess would be upstairs where they were grinding and cutting."

Billy concurs. "Probably cutting their way inta th' shaft. That'd be the exocomp doin' that."

Together, covering each others' backs, the Away Team floats up to the mezzanine. There is a hole cut into the wall large enough for a humanoid, cut using an industrial type tool. Tony notes, "Yep. Larry could'a whipped up a cutting bit with his on-board replicator. Usin' that damn thing Dovan could be a full-fledged drone by now!"

The ventilation shaft is a tight fit, only a metre across. The lights from the rifle mounts illuminate it, showing cobwebs and a lot of wiring trunks. Tricorder readings show that the wiring trunks are mostly inactive. The air is relatively fresh and a light breeze comes from below. Shemp makes an inquiring noise and Tony nods, so Shemp enters the fissure in the wall, blue sensor beams checking the way beneath him.

Nathan knows that Dovan has no tricorder, but it is possible that the nanoprobes may have built one into him by now. He may or may not have a phaser—all medical staff were armed. According to Tony, Larry's replicator is not programmed to create a phaser, but Borg programming could rectify that.

[OOC: the tight quarters means that only one person at a time will be able to proceed. You'll have to decide the order of march, and likely sling the rifles, using wrist-beams and Type II phasers.]
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Sat 04 Jan 2020.

Lt Nathen takes the items Dr. Adonidas give hime and waits to be transported to a new location.
The Betazoid is unusually quite.

In answer to Tony hello.
Hi Tony I am alright.  Had better days but I get through.

On the arrive of Dahlakino Lt. Nathen is clearly fascinated by her.
He listens and takes notes of her talking about The Force.
It seems to be something like his Psionics abilities but he get feeling it cover more than what normal Betazoid could do.  He was going to have to spend some time with her if he could.  However now was not the time or place for such things.

Lt Nathen was pleased they found the little chirpper.
When the little creature was taken away.  He add over the com.
Please keep me update with how little chirpper doing and let me know when you try give his mind back to him.  There could be so back lash and effect to chirpper creature so be careful.  I need to be ready.

Otherwise Lt Nathen happy to follow the others.

Then Lt Nathan has an idea.  It going take time for us go down the shaft.
He turns to Dahlakino.  Does your abilities allow you to sense where Dr. Dovan is.  Would you be able to connect with my mind and direct me right to his mind.
If I can get right to the location of his mind with mind maybe just maybe I can find some dormant part of his mind a can wake up.  This could back fire but could give us idea of what they planning or even stop him.  A spy within his own mind.
I have no idea if our ability are compatible but it maybe worth a try.  What do you think Dahlakino.
Lt Nathen rolls up his sleaves.  Physical contact between us.  Holding arms and hands would make bond stronger.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Sun 05 Jan 2020.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 42):

Although Jon can hear Nathan and Dahlakino conferring, he is not really clear about what Nathan is proposing. Jon and Tony are instead looking at the shaft and are concerned with more immediate matters.

"Shemp's already appears to be on the trail," Jon says to Tony. "I can go in next, unless you want to stick close to Shemp."

Tony shrugs. "Dunno, boss. Maybe you should go first 'cause Dovan might get an itchy trigger finger. Jus' ta' be safe, eh?" He winks. "Nah, I'll go first. 'Less you wanna..."

He steps into the hole and floats downwards with a saucy wave.

Meanwhile, Dahlakino puts a hand on Nathan's shoulder. "I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. I mean, I can give you an impression of my senses, but I can't give you a lifetime's worth of experience. Jedi training usually begins before puberty, when one is still a youngling, and can last a decade before one is a Padawan—a formal apprentice." As Nathan's face falls, she continues, "However, when we get done with this, I can run you through some exercises to determine your Force sensitivity preparatory to teaching you some of the basics."

"However, you can take this," she hands him her phaser rifle. "I know Starfleet healers typically eschew them, but I prefer to trust to this," she says, gesturing with the translator-looking item. "A more elegant weapon, less clumsy or random than a blaster. H'mmm, it's our turn." She motions Nathan toward the opening as Billy steps in.

[OOC: Order of march is Shemp, Tony, Jon, Billy, Nathan and Dahlakino following up with her lightsabre.]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:27, Wed 20 Apr 2022.

After descending approximately 100 metres, the team finds themselves in an air distribution chamber with small vents leading off. Shemp is scanning a section of wall panels. Approaching the wall, Tony says, "Hey, guys, Shemp has detected a hot spot! Looks like something has been welded shut from the other side. My tricorder reveals a large open space beyond the wall."

Moving closer, Jon can see a thin line of melted metal along a seam line. Next to Nathan, Dahlakino has just landed and steps forward. "Let me see," she says and holds up the device in her hand. It suddenly makes a whump noise followed by a low hum as a metre-long spear of glowing blue light erupts from a disc on the end.

"Da fuq?" asks Billy.

"It's a light sabre," she explains. "Think of it as an energy sword." She stabs the glowing blade into the wall and deftly carves out a 1.5 metre disc of alloy which thuds to the deck. "Careful, it's hot." she cautions and steps through the hole. The chamber beyond is a tunnel with tracks along the lower surface.

The tunnel is lit up with a dim glow, and brighter panels are visible at positions along the walls. A warm breeze comes from the left, and looking in that direction a vehicle of some sort can be seen receding into the distance.

"Geez, looks like they took the A-train." mutters Billy. "Now whadda we do?"

Jon notes one of the glowing panels about 20 metres away has a small sphere above it. It looks to him like one of the computer interfaces reported  by the crew of the Kitchissippi, which is confirmed by Tony who replies, "Hey, maybe we can get the Avatar to fill us in where they went!"

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 45):

Jon thinks the light sabre is the coolest thing he's ever seen.

As they walk towards the computer interface, Jon says "Maybe the Thames can track them from the surface." He taps his comm badge. "Jon to Thames!" he says, and waits for a response.

"Thames here. Your signal is very faint, Jon. What can we do for you?" Talja's voice is slightly static-distorted. "Are you beneath the surface?"

Upon Jon's confirmation, Talja notes that there's a lot of carbon-neutronium in the construction of the Sphere. When he asks about tracking the subway car, she demurrs due to the interference.

Tony points out the Sphere interface and says, "Why don't we just ask the Avatar?" Talja agrees that the Sphere Computer should be able to help.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Tue 07 Jan 2020.

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 47):

"Can we be sure that the interface has not been infected by the Borg?" Jon asks, shrugs, and then answers his own question. "One way to find out, I suppose!"

Jon walks up to the console and activates it.

The team walks the 20 metres to where Tony'd spotted the Sphere Computer interface. Nathan and Billy had read the reports and seen images of it, but at first the interface just looks like a crystal ball embedded in the wall. Tony, who'd been on the mission to the Gamma installation says, "Computer activate."

The crystal sphere lights up with a swirl of multiple colours and a face appears. It appears to be baseline humanoid, but is not a Kapecki. It is a male Caucasian of middle age with gray hair and a gray-tinged ginger beard, wearing old-fashioned horn rimmed spectacles and a nondescript orange jumpsuit.

The Avatar blinks three times, giving the impression of just having woken up and intones, "Can I be of... assistance?"

Tony answers, "This is Lieutenant Jon Clare. He wishes to ask you for information." Turning to Jon, he says, "You're up, boss. It's your nickel."

The Avatar replies, "Starfleet Lieutenants are accorded Researcher Access Level theta. Proceed..."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:56, Fri 10 Jan 2020.

In reply to The Avatar (msg # 49):

"Ahhh, ahem," Jon is a little nonplussed by the interface. He'd read about it but has never encountered on before. "Ummm, what can you tell us about the transport that left this area just a moment ago, and the its occupants?"

The Avatar blinks three times. There is a pause then it blinks three more times. Tony remembers that when the Avatar blinked three times back at the Gamma tower, it seemed to be non-plussed. The Avatar blinks another three times and scowls. "Sorry—that data is not available. My databanks have no record of a subshuttle leaving your location. The subshuttle currently stationed at Portal III does not respond to orders and a sensor request has determined that it left its station ten of your minutes ago and passed by your location about five minutes ago. It appears to be under independent control. Its destination is unknown. I am currently running a complete diagnostic, which will take a measurable period of time." The Avatar blinks three times once more... "Ah. Erm. Ah, I am detecting a disturbance in the mainframe. It appears that there is a disturbance in the matrix... It appears that there is a disturbance in the matrix. I am dispatching a subshuttle to your location. It proceed on the same course as detected for the other subshuttle. It will arrive shortly. Please proceed three hundred metres to your left to the subshuttle station to board the subshuttle. Commander R Olivaw, Security Chief R Thera and Captain Samson have been notified."

It takes a little more than a minute for the team to proceed to the subshuttle station. It is nothing spectacular, merely a walkway parallel to the tunnel, but it seems it will provide a safe way to enter the subshuttle.

About ten minutes after the team has Arrived at the station, a slight pressure wave of cool air can be felt. A cylindrical subshuttle car hoves into view. The doors flick open, just as Tony observed at the Gamma station.

Boarding the car, the team finds a clean white tubular space with seating along both sides and windows above the bench-like seats. It looks like what they would have expected from a modern subway. Above the windows is a display which appears similar to an LCARS interface tracking the car's current location. The windows show the tunnel begin to flash past at an incredible speed as the light dot indicating the subshuttle's location begins to creep along the displayed track. There is no perceptible motion—the car obviously has an advanced intertial damper—and the windows switch to a soothing series of panoramic images of the Sphere interior.

The Avatar's voice comes from the ceiling, "Please be seated, Lady and Gentlemen. Your trip will be of an unknown duration. I will keep you updated on our progress, and will relay your communications to the Starfleet hailing frequencies."

Jon's impression from the recordings made by the Kitchissippi and Cuyahoga crews seemed to indicate the Avatar spoke with a slightly halting cadence as if not entirely fluent in Federation Standard English, but that seems to have been rectified as the Avatar now speaks in a fluent if slightly formal tone.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:36, Wed 20 Apr 2022.

In reply to The Avatar (msg # 51):

Jon contacts the Thames and updates them on the situation, mostly to prove to himself that the communications are working as promised by the Avatar. He then gestures to the seats.

"We might as well sit down," says Jon to the others. Speaking a little louder, Jon addresses the Avatar "Please give us the status of the subshuttle that we are pursuing."

Talja replies, "Roger that, Jon. Your signal is loud and clear. We also have a link to the Avatar. He looks a bit like Dr. Wollschlaegel, don't you think?" Dr. Karl Wollschlaegel is a well known warp theorist. Rumour has it he was among the members of the crew of the USS Montana, a Loknar class frigate flung 72 years into the future from 2284 to 2356 under Capt Paul Edwards.

The Avatar chimes in, "Confirmed, I am in communications with Cdr R Olivaw, Capt Samson and Lt Gröen. The subject subshuttle is proceeding in a southerly direction by Starfleet's mapping standards. It is rapidly approaching a juction point in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Ahem The subshuttle has been lost to my tracking sensors. I am initiating a search for possible locations. I recommend you proceed on current trajectory through the junction point on the theory that who ever is guiding it does not reprogramme the junction's transition mechanism."

Shemp makes a rude noise. The Avatar replies, "I heard that. I'll thank you to keep a civil tone please." He sounds offended by the implications of the exocomp's retort.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Mon 13 Jan 2020.

Lt Nathan excepted that Dahlakino did not understand what he was trying to get at.
This often happened to him when he first talkings to other species about his mind based abilities.
Even onces with same ability often do not understand Lt Nathans ideas.
His mother had always said he thought out side of Betazoid societies norms.

His long days laying in bed had allowed him to explore his abilities.
What he never told anybody was of he 7 secret friends.  They where Psionics from other worlds.  Communicating with them taught Lt Nathan where was a whole world of things you could do with such skills.  However developing these type of skills while still on Betaziod would have been dangerous and he had kept away from doing such things until now.

He smiles at Dahlakino.  I would love to learn more about your skills and how you use what you call the Force.  My species practices thought communication as a basic language and we starts developing this ability while still in the womb.  Some of the stronger members of are species are able to go beyond just communication however at lot of my species are against such developments.  I am not.

As the journey develop Lt Nathen just follows on with little to say.

On seeing the light saber he twitches his noes at it.
Looking at Dahlakino he expresses himself.  I am not a great lover of weapons but somethings such things are necessary.  However I wonder if it is possible to scale it down.
That could make a wonderful lazer scalpel for medical purposes.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:36, Tue 14 Jan 2020.

[OOC: Sorry, been a hectic week.]

Dahlakino says to Nathan, "Just keep in mind that the Force is not exactly psionics. But we'll discuss this at a more appropriate time."

As the subshuttle car proceeds, the Avatar continues, "You are approaching a junction point. If all goes well, your quarry will not have reprogrammed the junction. There will be a... discontinuity."

Before anyone gets a chance to request more information on the discontinuity, the lights dim almost imperceptibly for a fraction of a second and everyone feels a flutter in their stomachs as if the gravity flickered off, not unlike the sensation when one transports into a slightly different gravitic field.

Dahlakino says tentatively, "We are not... in the same place."

The Avatar replies, "Correct. You have been displaced. You are halfway across the megastructure. The subject subshuttle car is approximately 250 kilometres ahead. It is approaching a station point."

Everyone's commbadge suddenly chirps. "What the hell was that?" comes Capt Samson's voice. "You just jumped about 118 million klicks along the inner surface of the Sphere in less than half a second! How is that even possible?"

The Avatar specifies, "One hundred seventeen, eight hundred and nine thousand, six hundred twenty five kilometres, to be exact." There is no smugness in the voice, merely a statement of fact. "Attention, the subject subshuttle car is coming to a stop. Internal sensors indicate that one humanoid and one artificial being have disembarked and are leaving the area. I have lost track of their position, but they are proceeding at 1.4 metres/second. Your estimated time of arrival is 4 minutes, 32 seconds... Mark!"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:50, Sun 26 Jan 2020.

In reply to Dahlakino (msg # 55):

"Dammit!", exclaims Jon. "Even at that pace, by the time we get there they'll be half a klick away in some unknown direction. Capt Samsom, is there any possibility of beaming us ahead? And what's in that part of the Sphere?"

Samson replies, "We've not explored that are of the Sphere. The Bras d'Or is within range and we'll have them beam you there... Wait, they're reporting on a preliminary scan of the area. High chroniton readings and an area which seems somehow shielded... Could be something inherent to the Sphere, or it could be a Romulan cloaking field. Proceed with extreme caution."

The transmission source changes. "USS Bras d'Or transporter control here. Stand by for site-to-site. Engaging... now!"

The subshuttle car disappears from around them to be replaced with a station identical in every way to the one they'd left. The other subshuttle car is only now pulling out of the station.

Several seconds later, another person beams down from the Bras d'Or, a ginger-haired woman in her thirties wearing lieutenant commander's rank and Science blue.

"Hi," she greets them. "I'm LCdr Kat Carson, XO and Science Officer of the Bras d'Or. My sisters and I were conducting some tests on the ship and Cdr Taliaferro though you could use some help. Jon recognises her as the officer who'd turned out to be one of the Lintilla clones. He says it's a possibility we're dealing with a Romulan cloaking device. During the War, I was attached to a Romulan Warbird for the final attack on Cardassia Prime and came to be familiar with the capabilities of the cloaking field." She takes an equipment case off her shoulder and opens it revealing a piece of equipment unfamiliar to most of them.


"Hey," says Tony, "that's a Romulan tricorder! We confiscated some o' them things last night during the battle!"

"Top marks, Lieutenant," replies Carson. "Specifically, it's an engineering tricorder with a cloaking maintenance software package."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 16:01, Wed 20 Apr 2022.

In reply to LCdr. Katrina Carson (msg # 58):

"What's the direction and the distance to the chroniton readings that were detected?" Jon asks the LCdr. "It's good bet that Dovan and the and the exocomp went that way, and they can't have gone far!"

Jon turns away to locate the most likely exits from the platform, as well as to try to hide the fact that he's started blushing deeply in the presence of the Lintilla clone.

Lt Nathen simply asks.
Does the Romulan cloaking system block Psionics abilities LCdr Kat Carson.
I may not be able to sense our two runaways or any other borg.
But I can at least let us know if our friends the Romulan themselves are looking to welcome us with open arms.

Lt Nathen give Jon a smile clearly sensing his feelings.
However he does not say anything.

Kat smiles at Nathan. "No, doctor, it does not. Unfortunately, psionics as used by most Federation races, yours included, are relatively short-ranged and normally do not  operate over interplanetary distances. Yes, there are exceptions but those that are noted tend to be vague or, in the case of Vulcans, closely related family members or those with a mating bond. As a Betazoid, you are naturally more psionically endowed than most other baseline humanoids due to elevated levels of the neurotransmitter psilosynine in your brain. As well, psionic phenomona are often associated with trace levels of thoron radiation which also occurs both in nature and as a result of many pieces of Romulan technology. Are your psionic senses detecting anything?"

Jon's commbadge chirps. "Samson to Clare. Since the Sphere Computer is having problems with interference by presumably the Borg, we're assigning you a computer specialist, Lt Buran. Luckily, he's currently on the Bras d'Or, so I've asked them to beam him down."

Moments later, the transporter deposits Lt Buran a few metres away. He's a Bolian wearing Sciences blue and full lieutenant's pips, with an equipment case slung over his shoulder. Like all Bolians, he has blue skin and a deep groove down the centre of his face.


[OOC: New player, guys!]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:57, Wed 20 Apr 2022.

Buran took in the group around him.  "Pleasure to meet you all. Not that the current events are pleasant, but still it is good to be working with experts like yourselves." While Buran spoke, he reached in to a pocket on his uniform and pulled out a engineering tricorder.

"As I understand the situation we are tracking a recently assimilated borg drone, formerly a medical technician from the Chirpers camp, and what we assume is an assimilated exocomp. Something is interefering with the Sphere's computer interface, we also assume it is the Borg, but have not confirmed that." Buran continued to type away on his tricorder while he spoke.

"I wonder though, if anyone, has thought to scan for Borg communication signals in the area, to determine if we are dealing with two drones or an entire Collective." With his final words, he finished typing in the commands on his tricorder.  He looked up at the others. "Quiet lot, aren't you."

While his tricorder ran the input program, he pulls out a Type 2 phaser from his uniform.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:58, Mon 03 Feb 2020.

Tony steps forward. "Gazzo, tech assessment officer. I'm from Sigma Iotia II, as is Billy Xelox, sociology. This here's Doc Nathan Pierce, from Betazed and Jon Clare, a planetologist from Earth. The exocomp there is Shemp. Our missing man is Doctor Dovan from Delta IV and his exocomp buddy is called Larry." He sticks out a hand in the peculiar Human greeting.

"Larry and Shemp are from the Thames's complement of exocomps, 'long with their counterparts Moe and Curley." He grins and confides, "Named 'em myself -- don't like referring to my friends as Unit QXVR135."

Buran has noted before the peculiar Human tendency to anthropomorphosise machines, like calling ships "her". It seems this is even more common with AIs like the exocomps and the EMH programmes.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:38, Mon 03 Feb 2020.

In reply to Lt (jg) 'Fast Tony' Gazzo (msg # 64):

"Not to interrupt the introductions party," says Jon a bit impatiently. "But our two fugitives are on the move while we are standing here chatting!

"Do your readings show any signs of a full collective?" he asks Buran.

Shemp whistles and Tony translates, "Shemp says he has a lock on Larry's boridium power cell, about 300 metres north and 50 metres up—on the surface. At that speed and given the power output, Dovan's probably riding Larry like a grav-bike."

Kat looks at Buran and says, "Captain Samson deduced that since you were using grav boots, we'd probably need them, too, but we're only armed with Type II phasers. Doc, you look a little uncomfortable with that rifle. Why don't you give it to Mr. Buran?"

The crew swiftly move to the escalators and float up the shaft to the surface level. The area around the low, domed building is savannah, wide grasslands with scattered scrub and low trees with broad canopies. The air is hot and still, with low clouds on the horizon. A herd of gazelle-like beasts, already agitated by Dovan's passage, wheel and flee.


Dahlakino points to the north ["north" being a relative term, but Starfleet has designated an arbitrary coordinate system] and says, "They're heading in that direction. The machine gestalt voices are directing them onward."

Tony notes, "They're moving at about 50 kliks an hour. We can match and better that speed!"

Hearing the offer for the phaser rifle, Buran shakes his head. "Actually I have failed to qualify on that model at the shooting range. Personally I think the rangemasters are always too nitpicky about the target area, but until I can get a more agreeable evaluator, I will stick with my trusty hand phaser."

Seeing the direction Dahlakino is pointing out, Buran heads that direction.  As he flies across the savannah, he pulls out his tricorder to check for the results of his scan for additional Bord signatures. "Let's see what my trusty tricorder has to tell us about additional Borg signatures."

Carson takes the rifle herself. Nathan shows his relief at not having to carry the weapon. He is a doctor, after all.

"Well," she says, "Jon's right. Let's get after them before they get away." She triggers her grav-boots and keeps pace with Buran.

Tony also keep a position even with Buran, his rifle slung and his tricorder in his hand. "Range 750 metres and closing. Got a lock on Larry! Can't get a reading on the Doc, though."

Dahlakino says, "I'm still getting that image of a six-pointed star. It seems reminiscent of the religious pendant Lt Blume wears about his neck. I get no impression of devotion to it, though. Just a destination."

Tony relies, "Max Blume? That's his star of David—he's an orthodox Jew. Can't see what that has to do with Borg."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:40, Thu 06 Feb 2020.

Buran taps icons on his own tricorder. He is able to detect the boridium power signature that Tony mentioned. He's able to piggyback the tricorder's remote sensors to the signal and hack into Larry's CPU. The resulting decoded signals are Borg encoding, tailored for the limited AI routines in the exocomp's computer. There are several sideband signals, but the main ones are what appear to be a set of coordinates. Buran's task is made somewhat easier by the fact that the Borg are using a translation matrix to communicate with Larry's Federation standard equipment and this gives him the foothold in the Borg encryption he needs to figure out that the coordinates are actually in a format of Romulan origin. This confirms the hasty briefing Buran was given that the Borg infestation seems to be related to the Romulan attack the night before. Buran's natural species-based ability to multitask allows him to perform the complex calculations while travelling at 70km/h.

Meanwhile, Dahlakino, the odd-looking alien woman with the tail-like tentacles on her head moves closer to him and shouts over the rush of the wind, "Mr. Buran, be careful! Dovan is aware of our pursuit."

As Buran notes several changes in Larry's operations, Tony yells, "Heads up guys, they're slowing down!"

Buran's readings confirm this, as well as a change in the power distribution. Larry's industrial replicator is coming online.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 69):

While racing across the savannah, Jon taps his comm badge.

"Clare to Bras d'Or!", he says. "You're up high. Do you have a visual on our targets? And do you see any surface features resembling a Star of David?"

"Larry's industrial replicator is coming online. Take evasive action," Buran calls out, as he takes evasive action.  As he veers off, he tries to hack Larry's power systems to shut down power to the replicator.

OOC: 9 on my computer (hacking) check. Drama dice- 5; other dice- 5, 4, 3; plus hacking 4.

Talja replies, "Jon, we're just arriving at your location. Beginning scan now... Mark!"

Buran manages to shut down power to Larry's replicator, but suddenly finds himself cut off from the exocomp's CPU. An attempt to restore contact is rebuffed. The tricorder is still functioning and detects Larry landing. A second power signal activates—a Federation phaser charging— and a phaser shot at extreme range comes from the trees up ahead, now only 300 metres away. The shot misses the group, who have just initiated evasive manœvres, making it even more difficult for the firer to target them.

Dahlakino shouts, "That was Dovan! I'm able to sense him more clearly. He's shooting to kill."

Tony reports, "He's using a Type II, maximum range 100 metres. He can't realistically hit us."

Shemp hoots and whistles. The commbadges translate this as "Incoming message from Unit QXVR135, designation Larry. 'Resistance is futile'."

Lt. Nathen follows behind the others.
He keeps an eye on then.
When the offer of passing the rife come up he is very happy to give the weapon so some one else.  Any one else.

When they get to the surface he take care to make sure the heat does not effect the others.
Now they are facing Dovan and

Lt Nathan speaks to Shemp.
Send back a message to the QXVR135 Unit 'Resistance is fun and we are going to use the fun to disable you'.
He then adds.
Maybe we should spread out and arch round.  They are only two and we are more.
They cannot look or attack in many direction at once.
I will stay back and do my best if anybody gets hit.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:45, Sun 09 Feb 2020.

Shemp replies, "Message sent. No reply. Query: Message makes no sense. What is the purpose of the message?"

Tony comments, "Ah, the James T. Kirk school of computer programming. A classic. Don't worry, li'l buddyI'll explain later."

Billy replies, "Don't think even Kirk could bullshit the Borg, but it's worth a try."

In reply to Lt (jg) 'Fast Tony' Gazzo (msg # 74):

"Why is he shooting at us?" cries Jon. "We are way out of range, and Borg don't usually do useless things! Either he has a trick up his sleeve, or still un-assimilated enough to act un-Borg-like. Let's hope for the latter."

Jon thinks Nathan's flaking idea is excellent.

"Tony, Shemp, and I will flank right!" he says. "Everybody else go left.  Our rifles have more range than his phaser. If you take a shot, try not to have the rest of us in the line of fire! Remember, we are trying to capture, not kill! Bras d'Or, can we rely on you for air support?"

[OOC: What is the range of a phaser rifle?]

Lt Natthen addes.
Shemp can hover right.  Maybe he should go upwards.
Adds a third direction to worry about.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 76):

"I'd prefer we all stay on the ground," says Jon. "We'd literally be sitting ducks up in the air without any cover! Besides, the Bras d'Or can provide the third dimension. Let's go!"

Tony says, "Yep, them and the Thames. On t'other hand, you're right. He seems not to be operating with a full Borg database. He's a Doc, so he may not be fully up on the phaser's capabilities." Tony glances at Nathan. "Sorry, Nate, just an observation. MD's tend not to be into weapons. Anyway, he might still get a lucky shot in, but our range is only a hunnert'n'fifty metres. If we had a sniper phaser or Swann's slug-thower, we'd have a better chance."

Lt Nathan turns to Tony.
The only reason a doctor would fire any weapon in anger is to destroy a non-living barrier that preventing him or her getting to his or her patent.
Only reason a doctor can use one of these things at all is because some admiral think it maybe useful somehow.

At this point Lt Nathan step back and closes is eyes.
Concentrating on Dr Doven.
Always worth a shot.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:03, Tue 11 Feb 2020.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 79):

Jon, Tony, and Shemp peel off to the right, while everybody else goes left. They all manoeuvre into effective range, being careful to keep under cover as much as possible.

"Carson, Tony and I will take some shots to draw his fire," says Jon over the comms. "While he is focussing on us, you should be able to get a good clear shot! Everyone ready?"

Jon, peeking out from the cover of some trees, aims his rifle and fires.

In reply to Lt (jg) Jonathan Clare (msg # 80):

"That sounds like an excellent strategy, Lt. Clare. Doctors, Dahlakino, try to find some cover over near that group of boulders."

Buran zigs and zags around the savannah before taking up position near the large rocks. He readies to fire at Dovan when the others draw him out, he wonders, "Tony is right about the range of Doven's hand phaser.  What could their plan be?"

As the thought occurs to him, he tries to figure out what the assimilated doctor and exo-comp's tactics could possibly achieve.

OOC: Using Planetary Tactics to try to guess their plan of action, while readying an action to fire when Dovan is drawn out.

Buran notes the tall dry grass and realises that this is the makings for a perfect ambush. Suddenly, the gazelle-like creatures wheel towards the party. His tricorder indicates that Dovan has started a fire between his position and the pursuing Starfleet officers. The smell of smoke begins to permeate the air.

Meanwhile, Nathan senses that Dovan has gone completely psi-blank. Whether this is normal for assimilated psions or is some form of Borg psi-blanketing technology, he is unable to determine.

Clare's commbadge chirps "Jon, this is Zed, I'm calling in a couple of runabouts with fire suppression foam. Capt Samson ordered them put on standby after we shot down the Rom runabout."

A second hail cuts in, "Bras d'Or to all units, we've detected indications of a six-pointed star-shaped installation 25 kliks northeast of your position. Tactical evaluates it as a Type 2 Romulan Observation post... The tachyon net is still up and is interfering with its cloaking field."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:13, Fri 14 Feb 2020.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 82):

"Shit!" exclaims Jon, as the flames and smoke obscure his shot at Dovan. "Karson, I don't have a shot anymore! How does it looks from your side?"

Jon takes out his tricorder to see if he can pinpoint Dovan's position through the haze.

"This works both ways, of course," says Jon to Tony. "Can we use all this to sneak up closer to him?"

Lt Nathen draws back and keeps an eye out.
He lets the others act.
He worried the others will end up in the fire and get burnt.
He ready to act if this happens.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 84):

Jon confirms Dovan's position on his tricorder.

"Let's move in closer, using the smoke as cover" says Jon to Tony and Shemp. "Try not to get bunched together, but keep moving fast! For all we know Dovan can see fine through all this murk!"

Using the cover of the smoke and fire, Jon moves in closer looking for a clear shot.

[OOC: Tried to reply the other day but RPoL refused to accept it...]

Sloane is listening in on your comms chatter, "I've switched us to a secure frequency courtesy of our Security chief, so Dovan can't listen in. Your tactics are sound, but I'm having Talja beam breathing masks to all your commbadge locators. We don't know what toxins may be in the local grass, and breathing smoke isn't recommended for your health anyway. Sorry, Nathan, but I don't want to give you more work treating smoke inhalation. The Bras d'Or has detected Dovan's presumed destination. We don't want to lose Dovan or I'd beam you there site-to-site. Capt Talliaferro is beaming down a Security team to observe the installation 'til you can get there. Zed out."

Nathan estimates that he has sufficient burn gel, spray bandage and a fully charged dermal regenerator, all courtesy of the mission to treat the Chirpers, to treat any exposure to the grass fire.

Buran notes that Larry's boridium power signature is accelerating in the direction of the installation's coordinates, at a velocity of 75km/h. Dovan is almost certainly not riding him, as this is half again as fast as Larry was able to maintain carrying an adult humanoid.

Seconds later, a breathing mask appears at everybody's location. This covers the mouth and nose, and has a compressed breathing capsule. It is accompanied by a pair of auto-polarising goggles, which Dahlakino discards in favour of the goggles attached to her headgear.

At Jon's command, the team rises a few metres in the air. Entering the smoke, the eyegear resolves their view as if the smoke were not there, and negates the glare from the flames.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 14:42, Wed 26 Feb 2020.

At the mention of a secure communication channel, Buran taps his badge to report his latest findings. "It appears that Dovan is no longer riding on Larry, but hopped off somewhere between the Romulan Observation post and where he started the fire. If we proceed in, we need to be cautious.  Larry is moving quickly towards the observation post, so have the security team be on the look out for him."

At the hum of the transporter, Buran quickly dons the new gear. As he rises into the air, he taps a few buttons into his tricorder to try to isolate any unique materials that would be in the phaser that Dovan was carrying, on the off chance that Dovan could mask his own energy readings, but might not think to mask the gear he was carrying.

He moves cautiously into the smoky area, hoping to move down the closest edge of the fire towards the observation post.

The most obvious distinguishing element in the phaser is the sarium krellide power cell. Even though Buran can detect the power cell in the weapons of all the others, there is no trace of Dovan's phaser.

Buran is just about to give up scanning when the phaser's sarium krellide power cell appears on his scan, abbruptly moving about 10 metres in a ballistic arc, as if thrown and just as abruptly stopping and moving a metre and a half downwards. The signal then gives off the distinctive reading of a ruptured power cell and shuts off. He's able to locate the position of the now-inert phaser on the ground.

Dahlakino signals that the machine intelligence has ceased communication with Dovan.

Nathan is suddenly able to sense Dovan—the suppression of his psionics seems to have suddenly ceased. Dovan is unconscious and in great pain and both he and Buran can suddenly locate Dovan's life signs.

Moving out of the pall of smoke, the team finds Dovan lying crumpled in the wooded area. A number of the pseudo-gazelles have stampeded through the area and overrun Dovan's position. At least one of them has gored and trampled him and he lies in a pool of blood. Nathan drops to the ground and begins assessing Dovan's condition. Tony yells, "Watch out! He may still be dangerous!"

Buran notes the location of the phaser lying at the foot of a tree. There is a gouge in the bark of the tree and the casing of the phaser is quite obviously cracked from the impact.

[OOC: Sorry guys, not been feeling well the past few days.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:45, Tue 10 Mar 2020.

Buran scans the area with his tricorder, trying to determine if any more of the gazelle-like animals were heading this direction.  Buran taps his combadge, "We have found Dovan, who appears to have been ran over by some native fauna. Dr. Pierce is examining him, but his life signs indicate he is unconscious." Buran taps his combadge again.

"Someone should stay here with Dr. Pierce, while the rest of us continue after Larry. Who knows what mischief he could be causing at the Romulan Observation Post."

In reply to Lt Buran (msg # 90):

Jon does a quick scan of the broken phaser, to ensure that it is not unstable.

"Let's beam Dr. Pierce and Dovan out of here, and continue the pursuit", Jon says. "Thames, did you copy that? And does somebody have a pinpoint on Larry's current position?"

Buran still has a lock on Larry, which agrees with Talja's scans. Larry is about 10 klicks away, heading at top speed for an exocomp directly towards the suspected position of the Romulan installation.

Zed beams Nathan and Dovan up to the Thames. Arriving on the Runabout, Nathan continues his scan of Dovan. He's suffering a puncture wound in his chest from the serrated spiral horn of the beast, with a deflated left lung. Nathan hurriedly seals the lung puncture with a dermal regenerator and reinflates the lung itself. Next he continues his inspection, There are a number of more-or-less superficial injuries and a compound skull fracture with attendant subdural hæmatoma. Pending more medical resources, Nathan places the Deltan doctor in a medical stasis tube.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Kat's commbadge chirps. "Carson, we've got a lock on Unit QXVR135. We're preparing to beam it up into a stasis chamber. Our Security team observing the Romulan installation confirms it and notes that the cloaking field is unstable and flickering. From the few good scans they've been able to get of the interior, the internal conditions seem to be a temperature of 39.1 °C (102.38 °F), 92% relative humidity, an atmospheric pressure of approximately 102 kPa, and trace amounts of tetryon particles. Typical of the Enterprise's recorded readings of a Borg envoronment.

"Transporter room indicates your exocomp is in stasis. How do you wish to proceed?"

Kat looks to Jon. "Clare, you're mission commander. Your decision."

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 92):

"Our orders were to retrieve Dovan and and the exocomp," says Jon "Which we have accomplished, thanks to some good luck and african wildlife!"

Jon shrugs noncommittally. "I'd like to do something about that Borgified Romunlan base," he says. "But we are going to need more intel. Thames, Bras d'Or! Any readings, or educated guesstimates about how many Borg drones may be in that base?"

Jon thinks for moment, and then adds "And is there any reason why we don't just bombard it from space?"

Lt. Nathen had been doing his job.  Waiting behind and when Dovan became injured he took over to make sure the man survived.  Once he place the Deltan doctor in a medical stasis tube their was little he could do for him now.

Lt Nathan to Lt Jonathan Clare.  Dr Doven major wounds have been deal with so that he is stable.  I put him in status until be get back to a bigger medical facility to carry out further healing process.  There little more I can do for him now.  Do you want me to bean back and join the group?

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 94):

Jon responds to Nathan "No, don't beam directly to us. Let's all beam closer. Bras d'Or, is there a secluded spot closer to the outpost that we can all beam to? Also, what are our objective now? Do you want us to recon the base, or somehow destroy it?"

In response to Jon's comment about bombarding the outpost, Kat says, "I don't think that would be a good idea. The only method of bombardment we have is photorps. One of the side-products of an antimatter explosion is hard gamma radiation. The "space" within the Sphere isn't actually outer space. We don't know what the ramifications would be. Besides, the shell of the Sphere isn't true neutronium, but a form of collapsium known as carbon-neutronium. We have no idea what its reaction to antimatter would be. It may actually fracture the structure of the Sphere. What say we don't test that hypothesis, eh?

"As for Borg drones, we have no idea how many Romulans were in the installation. If there were any, the probability they've been assimilated is... well, it's pretty certain."

Tony chimes in, "Ain't that a cheery thought? Pointy-eared murder-cyborgs on the loose!"

In reply to Jon's question to the Bras d'Or, Capt Taliaferro replies, "Well, we could beam you down to join our reconnaissance party. They're about a klick from the clearing around the installation. Lt Churchill can brief you on the situation there."

Nathan and Talja beam down. Talja is wearing full security armour and carrying an isomagnetic disintegrator. "Sounds like you may have need a bigger gun," she quips.


Tony says, "Hey, isn't that overkill?"

She smiles and retorts, "Wasn't it Napoleon that said, 'God is on the side with the best artillery?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:01, Sat 21 Mar 2020.

Lt Nathan add in to talk.
Unless it rains overnight.  Then you have to wait for the day to dry out.
Problems them Prussians are always on the way.

Then he adds.
I think that right.

Talja laughs, "Luckily, I'm Bayerische, not Prussian. Besides, we're not getting involved in a land war in Asia." She hefts the Bazooka-like weapon on her shoulder.

Kat's commbadge reports, "Talliaferro here; Samson agrees that we've got to nip this in the bud. We're prepared to beam you directly to the site."

She looks around and says, "Energise."

The transporter effect envelopes the away team and they find themselves in a more densely wooded area. They are on the edge of a cleared space. A group of Starfleet personnel are concealed in the bush around them. One approaches Carson. "Lieutenant Manuel Espinosa, ma'am. I've got a 6-man recce team. As you can see..." he gestures, "...the installation's cloak seems to be failing." Indeed, a large, low angular building fades into visibility then turns vaguely transparent then disappears again. "It's a bog-standard Romulan type B surveillance installation. As reported, the internal environment is Borg standard. We can't get any life-signs, but that's to be expected."

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 98):

"Don't we have some Romulan prisoners?" Jon asks the Bras d'Or. "Ask them how many people were in this base!"

Jon greets Lt. Espinosa, and then asks "Have any ground-level entrances been identified? And are cloak failures becomes more frequent and longer? I can't say I like the idea of sneaking up on something we can't see!"

"I wonder if this has been connected in any way to the sphere's underground network," Jon says, musing out loud. "Perhaps not, or Dovan and Larry would have come straight here!"

"Yep. Couple dozen. Half of them are wounded and the other half aren't talking. Stubborn people, the Romulans. Comes from being related to the Vulcans," replies Taliaferro.

Espinosa pulls out a PADD. "I pulled up the intel on the place. It's a standard modular construct. We've interpolated all our scans and worked out a model based on them, so we're pretty certain where the access points are, here, here and here." He points out the locations on the PADD. "We're about half a klick from the base here," he points out the team's location at the centre-left edge of the hex-map.


[OOC: Continued in the Thread "Wish Upon a Star..."]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:33, Fri 22 Apr 2022.