Into The Lions Den (Part 3)
Posted on Wed Apr 3rd, 2024 @ 10:52pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant JG Kurumi Hatanaka & Commander Thomas Johnson & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Major Chiyo Shimada & Lieutenant Commander Moklor ‘Shell Squid’ & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Kylynn Adams & Lieutenant Talia Johnson & Lieutenant Dr. Eli Ellis M.D. & Lieutenant JG Nezuko & Lieutenant JG Amari & Lieutenant Tatsuo Shimada & Lieutenant Takina Inoue & Lieutenant Mizuki Nakahara & Lieutenant JG Dana Monroe
Edited on on Wed Apr 3rd, 2024 @ 10:57pm
1,555 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission: Starship Graveyard
Previously on Star Trek Tokyo:
Breathing heavily, Nezuko nodded to him. He didn’t need to have come to her rescue, but he did. If he were truly in line with forces that wanted to take over the ship, it would probably have served him better to let her, an antagonist, get killed or assimilated, but he helped her.
She reached an arm up, a mute request to help her to her feet.
Dana was dealing with another drone, knowing from personal experience just where to do the most damage she soon had the drone downed, giving it a pitiful look. "I wish I could have helped save you." She shook her head and returned to help Nezuko.
Thomas brought the butt of his gun down on the head of a drone, and watched it twitch as it collapsed. Noticing Tatsuo take care of the drone that was after the Lt. He nodded to himself, before looking at the rifle, noticing the gun had broke. Tossing it aside, he grabbed a long piece of metal that was leaning against a wall.
And now the continuation...
Beta Team, in the meanwhile, found themselves standing on the precipice of a gaping hole, easily a mile (possibly even two) in diameter, which exposed the Central Plexus of the Borg Cube to the outside world; from their vantage point- which, mind you, was supposed to lie deep within the cube- there was a clear view to the desert which lay beyond.
"It's massive!" Mizuki gasped. "But what could've caused it?"
"I think the question we should be asking is why hasn't it regenerated yet?" Takina was quick to point out.
"Takina-Chan's right," Chisato agreed as she ran her tricorder over one of the jagged edges. "I'm not picking up any phaser residue on the tricorder, so this damage is at least several years old by now; And as we've seen, the Borg are more than capable of regenerating this sort of damage in a matter of minutes, so why can't they?"
"I have no idea," Kurumi replied simply. She approached the Borg console and scanned it with her tricorder. "Im setting it to download, then I can use the tricorder as a 'feeder' to the Tokyo's computer core. I can analyse the data later," she told them.
"That is, if there's any data still left to recover," Mizuki remarked as the three of them moved over to join Kurumi. "For what it's worth, I'm amazed that this thing's still functioning, given how long the Plexus has been exposed to the elements..."
"Looks like we're in," Kurumi reported. "I've got a live feed to their data nodes."
"What've we got, Lieutenant?" Chisato inquired, leaning over Kurumi to get a better look.
"It seems that this vessel was dispatched after detecting faint traces of advanced technology..." Kurumi stated as her tricorder translated the Borg language. "The technology signature was analysed and cross referenced by three thousand drones..." she paused as she waited for more to come through. "Species 29..."
"Species 29?" Chisato repeated, pulling out her PADD. "Let's see, I think we've got that designation on file somewhere, so let's have a look... Species 29..."
She paused, her eyes widening in horror. "Oh, no..."
"What is it?" Takina asked.
Hesitantly, Chisato rotated her PADD around for the others to see:
SPECIES 29: ICONIAN
An uneasy silence fell over the group.
"... The Iconians?" Mizuki eventually spoke up. "Here?? In the H'Atoria Sector- no, scratch that, the Karlax Nebula???"
"So it would seen. The Borg were lured to thos planet by Species 29." Kurumi replied. She looked up at the others. It would be safe to assume that this planet may have had some sort of outpost or colony on it that once belonged to the Iconians.
"That is, if we can even call it a planet..." Takina surmised.
"Takina-Chan's right," Chisato agreed. "As we've already witnessed, these gravity wells are far from what you'd call "natural;" if anything, they function more like a tractor beam than they would a gravitational attractor."
"It's not like a tractor beam..." Kurumi said. "More like a focused dampening field. At least that's the theory the Borg have. They couldn't assimilate it, so they don't know. Buy there is also something that's stopping their regeneration. They also have no data on that either," Kurumi said. "According to this though, the Borg here have only assimilated those who wander in. Whatever is keeping them here shuts down their cybernetic systems if they leave the cube."
"It almost sounds to me like this cube has been severed from the Greater Collective," Takina speculated.
Kurumi nodded simply.
"Holy shit..." Mizuki muttered as the full weight of this revelation finally started to dawn on her. "Are you saying that this entire planet could be some sort of... Iconian construct?"
"Well, it's just a theory at the moment, but there's a substantial bit of evidence pointing in its favor," Chisato admitted. "Whatever the case, we're going to have to get this information back to the Captain; if whatever's out there can do this to a Borg Cube... then who's to say what it'll do to a Federation Starship?"
"I've got a download... oh... wait..." Kurumi said. Suddenly a klaxon began to wail. "They've detected us."
"Then it looks like we're going to need to get a move on," Chisato stated as she reached over and tapped her comm badge. =A=Beta Team to Tokyo; do you read me, Tokyo?=A=
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
Lt. Yuvek heard the klaxon through the open comm unit. Just before he could reach out to the team he received their comm-burst.
"Ma'am, we're getting a communication burst from Beta Team. I'm also detecting some kind of klaxon that has activated within the cube." The pilot turned Operations Officer relayed to the Captain.
=A= Tokyo to Beta Team, what is your sit-rep? =A= he asked before the Captain had a chance to jump out of her chair.
=A=Our position has been compromised,=A= Chisato reported. =A=Requesting an emergency beamout, over.=A=
Taiga stood up from her command chair. She made her way down towards the Operations console. "Aisaka to away teams. We're pulling you back." She said simply. She placed a single hand on the Cardassians shoulder. "Get them out of there Jased "
"I can't, the section of the cube where they are located is heavily shielded. It's some kind of multi-layer shielding" He replied with a tightness in his voice. "I can't beam through that level of interference. They need to get to at least to some location that isn't as heavily shielded." He said as he tried to think of some alternative.
Taiga tapped her comm badge. "Aisaka to away team Beta. You need to move out of the shielded section so we can get a lock." She said as she watched from over Jaseds shoulder.
Talia was watching concernedly. They needed to get their people away from the cube fast!
[Borg Cube]
"Always has to be the hard way..." Chisato lamented as she pulled out her tricorder and took a quick scan of the area. "Alright, readings show that there's a gap in their shields approximately 370 yards North of our current position; if we can make our way over to that location, we may be able to arrange an emergency beam out without running into any sort of transporter interference."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Takina replied as she unholstered her Phaser. "Let's lock and load."
"Well, there is a small catch," Chisato pointed out. "the readings show that the only way to reach this area of the cube is through a... structurally compromised passageway."
"Structurally compromised in what way?" Mizuki asked.
Chisato indicated towards a narrow, treacherous-looking corridor-- or, perhaps the better summation would be, half of a corridor-- that dangled precariously over the edge of the abyss. Were it not for the situation that the four of them were in, traversing that route would've been foolhardy, borderline suicidal, and even now they all seemed to have their doubts.
"Surely, there's gotta be an alternative!" Mizuki objected, pulling nervously at her collar.
"Readings show that the next nearest gap in their shields is nearly a mile from our current location," Chisato pointed out.
"Well it's better than staying here..." Kurumi said simply. "I don't fancy being a drone." She added as she flipped her tricorder shut.
"Unfortunately, Kurumi-Chan's right," Chisato surmised. "If we stand any chance of getting out of this place alive, then we're going to have to risk the danger."
She held out an arm, as if motioning her group to fall in.
"Stay behind me, and be aware of your footsteps at all times," she instructed them.
"If it feels like the floor's about to give way, feel around until you can find more stable ground."
"I'd better be getting hazard pay for this..." Mizuki bemoaned as the four of them began making their way towards the beamout location.
To be continued...
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