Cold Realisation – Running Dark
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Beq Marcus Quexana & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene

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Title   Running Dark
Mission   Cold Realisation
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Beq Marcus Quexana & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Posted   Tue May 21, 2013 @ 12:10am
Location   Asteroid belt
Timeline   SHortly after seeing the Icthoid fleet
At first it was quite difficult to find an asteroid big enough to hide in. Those that were a good size were not hollow, or were in areas where they were likely to get hit by other shrapnel. By the time HIchop finally found one with the right size and an opening in which they could squeeze the Icthoid fleet were uncomfortably close.

Taking great care, with RCS only, Markus spun the ship and backed it slowly into the hole. Klingons do not armour the rear of their ships as well as the front, which is the direction most of the weapons face. It is expected that any Klingon who runs from a fight might as well be dead.

As the nose passed inside the lip of the cave an Icthoid craft swept past.

"KILL EVERYTHING!" Ro' barked. "Shut it down, all of it!"

Marie crossed over to Jared. “As far as I can tell, the link was severed when Hichop gently moved me away from the helm. I think the Latin is just a residual. Somehow they scrambled my brain and brought to the surface things I didn’t even know were there. It definitely didn’t come from the Icthyoids themselves. Their language is more clicks and whirls. Run you tests though; better safe than sorry.”

Jared had grabbed a kit of some kind from his area. He pulled out a vaguely familiar device - the one he'd rigged up a few months ago to show the borg drones in the girl they'd found. He placed it on top of the panel and tapped a key.

Marie's veins were immediately lit up in faint green lines. The crew also watched in alarm as a couple of systems were lit up by faint green pinpoints. No-one was keen to be reminded of the Borg's "upgrades". Fortunately they were distinct - the light was restricted to the upgraded units and nothing else. A few BeQ's checked their arms and hands for green, just to be sure.

Jared pulled out the federation tric... the device that had ORIGINALLY been the tricorder he'd got from the Federation about 18 months back. He'd clearly been making modifications.

He tapped a few keys, and the light in Marie's veins dulled to the faintest of glimmers. He thoughts were suddenly far clearer.

"There. Sleeping nanites. I've persuaded the nanites you're in a regeneration cycle. They'll cease echoing local signals for about 6 hours, until they assume the cycle is over."

"When we can get power again and I've got a moment, I'll work on getting them out of you."

He shut down the tricorder and the nanite-finder and began shutting things off on the science station.

Marie turned to Tell. “Grab me an EVA while you’re getting one, will you? The sexiest one you can find. I like to look alluring when I’m about to die.”

Tell pulled a face at her. "Fat chance unless you want to attract a mate," she replied. "You'll be lucky if its a clean one. I'll put an air freshener in yours if that'll make a difference."

“Make it the one you last wore. That way I'll have a memory of you as I go to oblivion."

A shiver ran through her body. The thought of oblivion was all too close right now but oblivion of a different kind; oblivion of Marie the person, not Marie the living entity. She turned back to Jared for reassurance but he was absorbed in what he was doing.

Germite hurried off the bridge. A moment later he was in sick bay. He set about powering down everything that could be powered down or put in standby mode. That task accomplished, he donned an EVA suit. He didn't expect to actually go into combat, but knew he had to be prepared to pull out any injured Klingons. He just hoped that Ro's plan wasn't to die with honor.

Marcus carefully settled the ship onto the rock, giving the variable-extension landing claws time to find secure purchase on the uneven surface. Then he methodically shut down the helm systems, followed by the navigation ones. He made sure to go into the utomated systems and disable automatic syncing checks with navagational beacons as well, which was often missed by inexperienced hiders.

The bit with the Latin-speaking woman had unnerved him a bit. He'd had little personal experiance with the Borg and didn't mourn the lack. The discovery that one of his new crewmates on this small, tight ship was potentially under thier influence was disturbing to say the least and would bear further investigation.

His tasks completed, he adressed his new commander.

"My Captain, may I request issuance of an EVA suit as well?"

Ro glanced at the human as if trying to appraise him, "How long can you hold your breath?"

Ro's face suddenly split into a toothy grin, "Grab a suit, Beq. HIchop will show you the way."

Tell made her way to engineering feeling lighter on her feet than normal. Very soon she knew they would be weightless and it was something that Tell really enjoyed. Circumstances being different she would have made the most of it but as things were at the moment there was no time.

The Engineer started to shut down her beloved engine and equipment that included her little projects she was tinkering with in her workroom. Finally she switched off the lights plunging everyone into darkness. This is going to be fun she thought as she made her way to the EVA suits. Why is it always monsters we have to fight especially insects.

One by one the systems throughout the FHew went dark. This was a more effective method of hiding than even the most advanced cloak, since the rock of the asteroid would mask their physical image and there would be no subspace or energy distortions. Witht he main viewer powered down teh crew clustered at windows to watch the passing fleet throgh the narrow opening of the asteroid cavern mouth.

Creatures of all sizes and varied shapes flitted past the opening. To start with they were small, similar to the scout they had been following but not botherign to cloak. These were soon joined by larger, sleek shapes, flatened but still crafted (or grown) from the same dark shiny material. These in turn were joined by bulkier cruisers and even more gigantic hulks which seemed to be carriers based on the small stream of ships coing and going even as they watched. THere were odd ships which seemed to fill specialist rolls, like the odd one with claws at the front that seemed to be pushing large asteroids they were collecting from the belt. The purpose of this was a mystery.

Ro' told everyone to memorise everything they saw. They could not record this on any ship's system so it was imperative tehy could give an accurte verbal report.

In the mess hall Cha'a' was watching out the narrow view port. As a particularly fine ship flashed past the openeing something insie the asteroid caught her eye. She frowned and shifted her position. The inside of the asteroid was shrouded in darknes and it was only the dim glow from passing ships that spilled any light at all. It was a good couple of minutes before another ship passed close enough for her to be certain of what she saw. She reached towards teh coms pannel, and then thought better of it.

She found the Captain at the observation port near the navigational assembly.

"HoD, we are not alone."