Re-born – When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Ensign Jason Hawk & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' HIchop Matlh

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Title   When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Mission   Re-born
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Ensign Jason Hawk & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' HIchop Matlh
Posted   Mon Apr 16, 2012 @ 11:29pm
Location   FHew, Asteroid
Timeline   After the fight
'Iw'a'na' reported in, "I have the away team, sir!"

He looked at the five of them; Two half burned and the other three showing signs of exposure to vacuum, "You guys get all the fun missions."

On the Bridge Ro' stabbed the Comm, "TELL! Give us power to drive systems. Hawk, get us to the asteroid. We will move the girl and try again."

The FHew was blind in mid range sensors, but the short range still worked for Hawk to navigate the struggling B'rel back to the asteroid where they had left the escape pod.

An away team was selected to retrieve the girl. Marie was the first to put her hand up. She was shaking so much from adrenaline that she was sure the others could see it but she knew she had to do something. Standing around just wasn't an option. Anyway, Tell would be needed to secure the pod. May'bel was to go as ground support, just in case. Thor'nan was back on Tactics, while Marla was doing her best to patch up the systems Tell had not yet had a chance to address. HIchop was treating Lach for burns and to make sure there was no sign of Borg infestation. Jared was watching the sensors like a raptor, waiting for the first sign that the Borg scout had recovered and was coming after them again.

Ro's voice came down to the group in the transporter room, "We lost this round, but we are staging a tactical withdrawal. We will put Hope on a more distant asteroid and try this again, now that we know what we are up against. We can adapt as well. So get down there, and get the girl out."

A moment later there was a red glow on the surface of the Asteroid and the three figures in pressure suits moved quickly to the escape pod. Almost immediately they saw that it was empty, and a short distance away was the small figure of the girl inside her space suit. Sitting with her back to them staring into space, still clutching the teddy Tell had given her.

Marie looked to Tell. The engineer had forged some sort of bond with the girl – better than she had managed – so Marie was willing to let her make the first approach. Instead, she circled around so that Hope would see her coming. Best not to startle an already frightened child.

Tell moved around so that the girl could see her approaching so she wouldn't frighten Hope. She had been through such a lot in such in a short time and Hope had seen things that would frighten the daylights out of someone much older than her.

The engineer stood about two feet away from her. "I see you still have my teddy." She said "Has he kept you company?"

The girl turned her face towards the engineer but half her face was now encased in metal, "Theresa Hope, we told you that resistance was futile. This drone has been selected for a replacement queen. A Cube has been summoned to this area to ensure her integration."

Marie stood amazed at what she was hearing and seeing. In the back of her mind there had always been the possibility of this happening but she had invested so much in believing they could save this one innocent life that now she didn't know what to do.


Bridge

The tactical sensor lit up in front of Thor'nan showing that the Scout was active again and closing on their position.

"Borg Scout ship closing in fast; she's at twenty thousand kellicams and closing the gap quickly. " he said, his voice calm.

Ro' rose from his seat, "Raise the cloak! Have we got a lock on the girl yet?"

"No, sir," the unwelcome reply came.


Surface

The small child who had once been Hope looked up as if hearing something. "We will be reunited soon. Once this unit has been integrated the assimilation can continue. The collective will grow."

Marie shook herself out of her stupor. “I've changed my mind,” she said. “Kill her now. She's dead to us – there's no hope of rescuing her. If we let her live we're just giving a queen to the Collective; if we kill her, we deny them that. We can't hope to beat them in a fire fight, but we might outrun them if they're not acting as a cohesive Hive.”

May'bel pulled his disruptor and fired at the girl. The beam stopped short, meeting a green barrier just in front of her.

"Why do you resist us? We only seek to improve life for all species."

A green glow announced the arrival of a pair of drones, either side of the girl. It was immediately apparent to everyone, that one of the drones, still wearing the remnants of Starfleet gold uniform, was related to the girl.

Marie took an involuntary step backwards – as much in trepidation as in shock at the appearance of Hope's father.

She raised her disruptor but did not fire. She assumed the new drones would also be protected by this green shield. Even if they didn't, even if they were taken out, more would just arrive to take the girl – no, make that young drone – away. More importantly, the drones made no move to attack either her or Tell.

Tell could only watch in shock as she realised that they had lost the girl but at least now Hope had what she wanted. She felt incredibly sad and was at a loss for words. If only she thought....

The girl turned her back on the group and went and stood with the drones. She had dropped the teddy but her father, perhaps form some paternal instinct still present, picked it up of the ground, just as the trio were engulfed in a green transporter beam.

May'Bel watched the vanishing Borg go. Then he looked back at the two humans.

"Sometimes your kind look down your noses at the idea of seeking death in battle. I hope today you can see a glimpse of how my kind sees it. There's times when living is simply a slow, endless defeat. And death is a victory."

He looked up into the sky, to the green speck that marked the scout ship.

"Time for Hope's guardian to fulfil his oath," he said simply.

Reaching into his armour, he drew out a long-range remote detonator. Flipping open the safety catch, and pressed his thumb down firmly on the trigger switch.

Two thousand kilometres away, Hope's bear gave a short, sharp blip sound.

The explosion was not enough to destroy the ship, but it did reduce the girl, her father and two other Drones to ash in an instant, as well as the last of the working assimilation chambers in the scout ship. With only a dozen drones remaining, and no means for replenishing their losses the remaining Drone took the obvious path, destroying themselves and the ship.

Ro' watched the expanding debris cloud on the monitor in silence. In the end all of their resistance had been futile, and with a Borg Cube on the way, even the death of the girl and her father was irrelevant.

"Bring back the away team," He growled dropping back into his chair. "Helm, set course for Qo'nos. We have a Coming of Age ceremony to attend."