From Elliptical to Spherical

Posted on Mon Oct 9, 2017 @ 3:31pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant JG Zander Devereaux & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Marisa Cheshire & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Sarish-Illiana Luvol & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Lieutenant JG Jacob Hartley & Lieutenant JG Logan Hunter & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexandra "Lexi" Barrows & Lieutenant JG Gefel

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Belkan's Drift
Timeline: MD 29 || 1100 Hours
Tags:

With the Triumphant back in one piece, Commodore Michael Aravan and the senior officers who had gone with him headed up to the bridge. The Commodore stepped off the turbolift and gave a nod to his Executive Officer as he headed for the center chair.

"I hope your backside hasn't gotten too comfortable there, Commander," Michael said with a smile. "You did an excellent job of keeping the civilians and noncombatants safe and that's going to reflect on your service record. "

"How can anyone's backside be comfortable when they're being chased by something that can swallow them whole, Commodore?" the redhead woman asked. "Thank you for your kind words, but I did what anyone wouldn't have done in such a situation. Keeping our civilians and noncombatants safe was top priority."

"Of course it can," he responded with a glint of humor in his eyes. "For example, it's still sitting in my seat. If it wasn't comfortable, I'm sure you would have detached yourself from it by now. Gunning for command, Commander?"

Maddy shook her head as she rose to her feet, sidestepping so he could retake his rightful place. "Not at all. In fact, I'm as far up the Command chain as I want to go. As for your seat, you've broken it in nicely over the years, and have made it quite comfortable."

Michael sat down and looked at his XO. "Are you my Riker?" he asked with a smile. "Content to be an Executive Officer instead of going on to command your own ship for as long as you can hold it off?"

The redhead Commander took her seat next to the Commodore. "If that's the way we want to look at it, then yes."

"All stations report!" Michael called out to the bridge officers who had finished relieving the stand in officers and gotten to their stations. "We'll talk more in a bit, Commander," he told Maddy.

Tom exited the turbolift with the rest of the senior staff. He'd smiled and nodded at Maddy as he crossed the bridge. They were on duty, so their interaction had to stay there, and he was fine with that. "Good job, ensign," Tom congratulated the Andorian at the Operations station as he approached. "You kept it all in one piece."

"Thank you, sir," said Athyle, rising to vacate the station. She nodded to the Chief as he took the station, and she withdrew to the Mission Operations station elsewhere on the bridge.

Douglas stood his station, watching the others take theirs from their junior officers. At the Commodore;'s order for a report, he glanced at his console then back to the man. "All security systems functioning at optimal, Commodore." he reported crisply.

When the Commodore came back to the Bridge, Alex had immediately moved from the XO's seat and went back to his location. Upon configuring the holographic interface for Intel, he went back to monitoring any new reports of progress from Jacob. And watching the course of the graviton ellipse. It seemed that getting rid of the probe worked.

Sarish-Illiana signalled the bridge that Sickbay was ready, "Luvol to bridge, Sickbay is ready when you need it."

Marisa was resting in her fighter which was parked in one of the launch tubes, having taken over alert duties after being recalled. Her helmet was of and resting on top of her instrument cluster and she'd slumped in her seat. Both of her legs were hanging outside of her cockpit through the open canopy as she read a PADD.

=^=Cheshire to Bridge.=^= Marisa said after there was a reasonable pause on the channel, lazily reaching over to her instrument cluster to read the repair notes and duty logs. =^=Two code one repairs, should be back in circulation in half an hour. Patrols have been resumed and we have an alert squadron on standby.=^= she closed the channel before adding "And the CAG seems to have gone insane and put herself on alert duty." as she continued to read her PADD.

Martha relieved the officer who had taken her station and checked for the status of the tactical systems. They were fully functional and Martha was satisfied in reporting this to the Commodore.

"Everything's fine over here Commodore" Martha reported.

Kelani quietly entered the Bridge and went to her station. "Science department is functioning at optimal levels."

"Master Chief, what's the status of the ellipse?" Michael asked the Operations Chief.

He'd been asked just after finishing his customary level five diagnostic check of the console. "Good timing," he thought as he started to review the sensor readouts. "Looks like the ellipse is heading for our Romulan friends," he reported.

Suddenly, his console sounded an alarm. Mentally sighing, Tom's eyes widened, seeing the sensor readouts. "Wait!" he called out as he tried to verify. "Commodore, there's something emerging from the ellipse. Working... It's a Borg Sphere! Reading about two thousand drones aboard... Sir!" Tom spun around in his chair to face the Commodore. "They've detected us."

===Sphere 656===

Once outside of their prison, an immediate sensor sweep provided the necessary information...Grid 325. There was now a large supply of inferior species with which to replenish their crew. For starters. The collective conscious then noticed the other vessels. Immediately, all of their subspace communications were interrupted, "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

===Triumphant===

Marisa immediately jumped into action, tossing her PADD out onto the deck as she sat up in her seat. =^=24th wing, this is the CAG. Action stations, action stations. This is not a drill.=^= She said as her ship hummed too life. The deck crew rushed about as off duty pilots already dressed for the dance began pouring out of the locker room. By the time the lid was closed she was strapped in and her helmet had just sealed with hiss.

"You had to jinx it didn't you." She muttered to herself as she did her preflight check. =^=Cheshire to the bridge.=^= she said as her hands found the controls. =^=Requesting an order to scramble or recall.=^=

Logan was conducting his post-flight walk around with the crew chief when the alert went up. He immediately scrambled up the ladder to the cockpit as he shouted to the ground crew. "Clear the fuel lines and prepare my bird for immediate launch!!!"

The crew chief starting barking specific orders to the crew as Logan started the fastest pre-flight check of his career. The chief started up the ladder. "Sir your gonna have to wait for Ensign Windsor."

Logan looked down and shook his head. "No time Chief, now off the ladder."

===Bridge===

"Red alert!" Michael called out. What else can go wrong? he wondered as he took his seat and strapped in as the alert sounded throughout the ship and the edges of the holographic displayed changed to red. "Security, shields to maximum. Target and fire at will, Tactical. Helm, evasive maneuvers. Maddy, coordinate with Rho and Barnes to see if we can infiltrate their algorithms and shut them down. Medical, prepare for incoming wounded. Science, give the helm all the information you have on stellar phenomena in this area. Intel, protect the data center if we get boarded. Fighters, deploy."

Kelani's hands flew over her console. "Transferring data now," she responded. "Monitoring for any disturbances."

Douglas had already been doubling the guard details on the most sensitive parts of the ship when the commodore gave the order for Red Alert. He didn't hesitate; his hands flew over his holographic display, the alert sound and change in colors responding immediately. Immediately after came the shields, and he reported, "Red Alert active; shields at maximum."

Just that morning Martha was thinking about how she had never had experience with the Borg - and now that had just changed. Targeting the Borg sphere which was threatening to assimilate the crew of the Triumphant Martha unleashed a vicious barrage of phaser and torpedo fire. The phasers were fired on a rotated modulation to try and give the Triumphant time to inflict damage on the vessel before the Borg adapted.

Maddy rose to her feet and looked between the Ops and Intel stations. What the hell else could go wrong in all of this? Maybe it would be best to not question things like that. It would only invite more to grace their doorstep. "Master Chief Barnes... Lieutenant Rho... try to shut it down," she ordered.

"Are you kidding?" Tom asked, realizing a moment later that such a response was out of line. If something like this worked... if Starfleet had a master kill switch for every Borg vessel... then why were they a threat? "Aye, Commander," Tom said, going to work on his console, trying to find a way to establish a datalink with the Borg sphere. But he took a moment to secure the ship's firewall. Hopefully, it would withstand an assault from more than a thousand drones.

"Do I look like I'm kidding? I have my orders just like you do, Mister Barnes.," the redhead Commander snapped. Maybe the stress of the situation, and the fact they weren't going to be able to shut the Borg down, but she knew better than to question a direct order from a superior officer. For her, that was the Commodore, and when he told her to jump... her next question was how high. "And allow me to reiterate, I said try. Let me put it on record for all of you that the next time a direct order receives such a response, administrative action will be taken. Consider yourselves warned."

Tom expected that reaction, especially since he knew immediately he'd crossed the line. He tapped a few more buttons and reported, "Data link established. Trying to navigate through it now."

Alex had already sent messages down to Deck Forty-four to protect the data center at all costs. The reply was that all preparations were being put into effect. Alex acknowledged it and then moved on to the data link. "Try these, Chief," he said to Barnes. Alex sent over a couple of Intel tricks that he hoped would help with simplifying the navigation process.

===Medical===

Sarish saw everything turn red and rolled her eyes, "Aye, Aye, Sir. Can i ask who we have engaged sir?"

=^=The Borg,=^= came the Commodore's terse response.

=^=Shit! When will those twats (thats being polite) give up? Luvol out.=^=

===Intel===

Jacob got the alert, and as he did, his eyes widened. Standing up, he looked around. "Computer, initiate Intel Lockdown, authorisation Hartley Two Bravo Nine Zero. Activate Guardian Holograms now." He ordered. He looked at the officers around. "We got Borg incoming. I want everyone armed and ready for combat, now, and I want the Data Center fully secured." He ordered.

The tall Guardian AI appeared instantly and immediately moved to its position, a wide range of weapons appearing and disappearing until it selected one. "Security Protocol in place," it said.

Jacob caught a phaser rifle as it was thrown to him. "We're going up against The Borg. Scan the area, if drones beam aboard, use lethal force." He said.

The short Guardian AI appeared near Hartley with a weapon nearly as big as it was. "Ready for combat, internal or external," it reported.

"Good work." Jacob said, as he entered the code to encrypt the entire Intel database. If the Borg did beam aboard...well, he'd heard the stories. Everyone had heard the stories. He just didn't want to see them up close. As he looked at the officers in the center, he could see they were nervous. "If the Borg beam aboard, we send them back in pieces. If you get wounded, get back up. If you die...walk it off." Jacob replied, eliciting a chuckle from several of the group. He looked at the shorted Guardian AI. "If any of us are assimilated, I'm counting on you to make sure we don't stay alive as drones." He said. "No one deserves that fate."

"I do not get wounded," The Guardian responded. "I will do what is called for."

===Fighters===

=^=24th wing, Scramble=^= she said, looking to her side to the "shooter" at the launch console. The hatch quickly closed behind her ship as she throttled up. She gave the shooter the thumbs up and was away, bursting forth from the Triumphant at relativistic speeds. She began her rolling towards the enemy.

Logan's fighter launched at nearly the same moment as Marisa's. He rolled out in the same direction the CAG had and formed up on her wing.

=^=Wing, Alice. Divide into two teams; Victory, King, Winder designated Alpha. Angel, Kestrel, Diamond designated Bravo.=^= Marisa said to her wing with the break neck pace of a race commentator as they formed on her. =^=Alpha approach the target, fire a 5 second volley, fall back, re-modulate, during which time bravo, approach, fire a 5 second volley, fall back, re-modulate. Rinse, repeat.=^= She slowed down a little for her next orders. =^=Don't give them enough time to regenerate, maintain a loose formation, don't get in between the Triumphant and the sphere. Lets hunt some geometric objects.=^= As she finished she throttled up and took the lead.

=^=Alice to Goose. Request permission to sortie a Tricobalt Strike. We're going full offensive, call if you need cover=^= Marisa asked as the sphere fell on her reticle. She was still out of range, but that would quickly change. Her eye kept darting to the range finder read out.

=^=Confirmed, Alice=^= The Commodore's voice came. =^=Strike and retreat. Don't take any chances.=^=

=^=Aye sir. Alice out.=^= She said before changing channel =^=Alice to deck, hold a flight of four fighters from Kestrel and fit them with Tricobalt Torpedoes. Tricobalt Strike is authorised. Authentication Lambda-Epislon-Mu-Four-Six-Five-Omega-Zero=^=

===Sphere 656===

The Sphere took several hits with minimal damage before the Borg adapted and activated their shields. The answer was clear, assimilation or destruction. The drone in charge of the sphere ordered magnetometric guided charges continually fired in the midst of the cluster of tiny vessels. The Borg then turned their attention back to the larger vessel. Remaining stationary will only secure your assimilation. In an instant, the collective consciousness fired three Borg missiles directly at the ship in an attempt to drain the deflector shields and disable the warp drive. The collective's attention was suddenly drawn to their computer. An unknown entity had linked with the Sphere. Fifteen hundred drones were assigned to block, reroute, and push out the invader. They were also attacking and trying to gain computer control of the ship that had linked with theirs.

===Bridge===

"Shit!" Tom muttered, seeing the activity on the datalink. He sat up straighter than ever before to let his hands fly free. "Barnes to Operations," he called out. "I need every computer specialist in the core now. Keep the Borg from tunneling through!" He wouldn't be able to continue looking for something to override their system if he was trying to keep them out of Triumphant's computer. "Could sure use Zahara about now," he muttered to himself, wondering if she was even able to do anything among the Borg like she'd done on Triumphant.

Michael looked at the holographic viewscreen and saw Zahara still out there and considered various ways of getting her attention. She had badly injure the ship when she first came aboard and he could only imagine what she and the life form could do the Borg. For a moment, he tried to project his thoughts out to her, but he was only human and his thoughts were confined to his own head.

"Back up to the secondary core!" Michael called out. "Isolate all critical systems."

"Doing my best, Commodore!" Tom cried back, working frantically to back up the systems, all the while trying to find something, anything of value among the Borg datanet.

===Space===

It was quite lonely being alone in space, especially since cutting off the lifeform from communicating with her, but it was necessary. Had Zahara been capable of going mentally insane, she probably would have, but it would have done no good.

Now, she was here, drifting not too far away from the ship when their company arrived. The Thasian woman didn't need to contact anyone to know who their guests were, or what they were there to do, which meant she had to help those she hoped would become her friends inside the Odyssey class vessel before it was too late. It was for the poor and unfortunate souls inside that Borg sphere, but it didn't have to be for those on Triumphant. Not while she was around.

Zahara had no time to spare. Not when countless lives were at stake. She thought of the mutating contagious blob she had control of. Perhaps... it could be used as a weapon to fight against them. After all, despite the nasty implants of assimilation, the Borg were still part biological. This was something that could work in their favor if she remained in control.

With her mind made up, the Thasian cast a glance toward the ship she was now calling home before taking off toward the sphere before them.

===Fighters===

Marisa cast a glance back in the distance at the Triumphant as it shrank into the distance as the ethereal light caught her eye. She caught a quick reading on her scanner before her attention was violently drawn back to the sphere.

"Mag missiles!" Marisa's Andorian TSO called out from behind her.

There was a second delay before Marisa responded. =^=King and Winder, fall back about 1 click. Angels, point defense. Invert your hull polarity and jink at the last second. TSOs should mop up anything left over=^=

As the Rasors and Raptors fell behind the Valkyrie line erupted with fire, shooting at the small red indicators that appeared on their HUDs. There was the occasional burst as the odd burst hit it's mark, but it made barely a dent in the cloud of explosives bearing down on them. As the ships and the charges got closer to each other the detonations got more frequent until they were occurring right in front of Marisa's face. If her visor didn't have automatic light dampening abilities she'd be blinded, her sensors didn't say anything that made sense. Her TSO, Pixie inverted the polarity of the hull as Marisa pushed on her controls hard.

Logan stuck tight to Marisa's maneuvers. Most of his weapons fire having coordinating firepower on targets designated by Marisa.

===Sphere 656===

If Borg could, or would smile, the ones on the Sphere would be. The drone standing in front of the cube-shaped viewscreen watched as seven of the tiny vessels disappeared. The magnetometric guided charges had performed within parameters. The Sphere was regenerating, the Borg were adapting, and another volley of magnetometric guided charges were being prepared. All the while, two more Borg missiles were fired directly at the larger ship. The drone then prepared the cutting beam while waiting to see if the enemy ship's deflector shields were down. If so, then the Borg would also prepare a boarding party.

===Bridge===

Alex had been doing his best in trying to help with keeping the Borg out of their computer. He did a quick of the holographic representation of their immediate space. What he found was interesting. "Commodore, Zahara is on a heading directly for the Borg Sphere."

Kelani felt hope flare in her at Alex's words. ~Perhaps~ she allowed herself the hope as she also checked the sensors.

"Confirmed Commodore."

"She's what?" Michael asked as he looked at the viewscreen and saw the wispy Thasian speeding towards the Borg Sphere. Had she heard him? he wondered. "Looks like she's going to play with them like she did us when she first came aboard."

Alex took a chance and reached out to Zahara. Somehow, they needed to communicate with her. Zahara, I am Alex Rho, a Ullian by birth. As you were in our computer, you may know about my species. We need to know your plans so we can adjust ours accordingly.

Zahara heard the voice and slowed up a bit before she regained her composure and continued forward. My plans are simple, Mister Rho. I have released the lifeform on the sphere in an effort to allow it to do what it was designed to do against those who wish nothing but harm, then I'm going to force the sphere to self destruct. Recall your fighters and pull back as soon as possible. There isn't much time.

I will pass the information to the Commodore immediately. Thank you, Alex broke contact momentarily with Zahara. "Commodore, I've contacted Zahara and she has relayed her plan. She has released the virus, or lifeform, onto the Sphere. She also plans to initiate it's self destruct and recommends that we and the fighters move to a safe distance."

"She's what?" Michael asked as he looked over at his Intel Chief. "Tell her to do it and get out of there as quickly as possible. Even I don't know if that thing or the Borg can destroy her."

"Understood, Sir," Alex replied. Zahara, Commodore Aravan says to do it and get out of there as quickly as possible. We aren't sure what could happen to you.

"Mallory, get those shield frequencies modulated," Michael said as the ship shook under the hits. The helmsman swept the massive Federation ship down in a low arc under the Sphere away from the path of the fighters.

Douglas had been trying to rotate the shield frequencies, but the Borg seemed to adapt too quickly. "On it." he said calmly as he altered the shield rotation algorithm to rotate them faster and also to widen the randomization range somewhat, hoping that would make adapting more difficult. If not, he would have to come up with something else. For now, though, he set his new algorithm in motion and watched the shields. "Rotation speed and variations increased." he reported.

"Cusack, fire everything we have at it before their shields adjust!" The Commodore ordered.

Martha nodded and charged the phasers up to maximum whilst fully loading all of the forward torpedo bays. Once all were confirmed as ready to fire Martha let loose a vicious barrage of phaser and torpedo fire.

===Medical===

Sarish-Illiana was darting about Sickbay trying to keep crew members alive.

===Fighters===

Marisa's ship shot through the debris from the missiles while her TSO began to pick off the ones that missed with the back phaser.

=^=Yellow 1 on station. Angels Three, Five, Eight, Nine, Eleven, Thirteen and Fourteen are disabled=^= one of the operators on board Yellow Jacket said.

=^=Kestrel Flight Alpha is away. Awaiting vectors and targets.=^= The lead for Kestrel said soon after.

Now that the volley of magnetometric guided charges had been dealt with Pixie could turn her attention back to her sensors. "Alice, I'm detecting movement around their Mag launchers. We'll have another volley soon."

All the while the sphere was taking up more and more real estate on Marisa's canopy. She didn't have time to fret over her destroyed fighters, she dedicated the next few seconds of thought to reducing the casualties.

Her volley wave wouldn't work, or if it did casualties would be unacceptable. The Sphere would launch it's fire and forget ordinance and kill them like she would with flies and a can of fly spray. As it stood she saw two paths, the conservative path which put all her hopes on the Tricobalt strike. Defending them until they were close enough to launch wouldn't be pretty, better than her current plan, but still unacceptable.

But now she was close enough to see the fine detail on the sphere. The pipes, the trenches and the blind spots. Another plan formed in her head, one that went against all the doctrine she was taught for fighting the Borg and filled her gut with dread. With an anxious breath she composed herself. We

=^=Yellow-1, get me a full tactical analysis on the sphere.=^= She said, cold determination in her voice as she suppressed her desire to run. =^=I want detailed targeting information on it's hard points. All fighters, FRAGO, Raptor squadrons, hold outside of weapons range, Razors are on protection duty. Valks, follow me in.=^=

She vectored directly on to the Borg vessel, it, hopefully being too distracted by the Triumphant and dismissive of her fighters to just rely on the Mag charges. Paying very close attention to where the weapons were being fired from she vectored in on a trench in the surface.

"Pixie, lock a tractor beam onto the Sphere." She called out behind her.

It was an odd request but the Andorian TSO did as she was bade. The power of Marisa's little fighter wasn't large enough to do anything noticeable to the sphere, but what it did do was lock the little Valkyrie to the Borgs surface.

Pixie made an impressed sigh before looking back at her sensors "Tactical data downloading."

Marisa kept her ship moving around a little, adjusting her position with the tractor beam rather than her thrusts until she confirmed that she was in a dead spot.

===Engineering===

Lieutenant Gefel stood at the pool table in Engineering "There must be some kind of way to keep them outta here," the Bolian said to the stocky short man beside of him. "There's too much confusion and I can't get no relief."

Zander looked up as he switched through the different areas. "Borg like to cross the line but none can match my mind. There's no reason to get excited."

The Bolian kindly spoke. "There are many here among us who feel that you take this as a joke."

The short human shook his head. "But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate. So let us stop talkin' falsely now and give this ship some relief."

All along the Engineering decks, the personnel monitored the view while all the specialists came and went and enlisted, too. At the second warp core, am alert did growl. Two Engineers were approaching and the red alert continued to howl.

Alexandra Barrows was in one of the Engineering Communications Interface Junctions. There was nothing wrong with communications, and she was not here to fix or maintain the standard communications arrays. No, she was here to cut off the computer's outside communications capability via Engineering. This would not affect standard outbound communications, though -- they'd still be able to talk to the fighters, for example -- but it would cut off the computer's ability to talk to anything outside the ship... once she got it turned off.

Currently, however, it was giving her a fight. Every time she closed one of the communication pathways, another opened up. Growling, she closed them again. There had to be an easier way to do this, a way to shut them all down at once!

A moment's thought, and she had it! There was a way to shut all of them down simultaneously, but it was going to suck for her later; she'd be back here repairing the damage she was about to cause. Still, it was better than allowing the Borg to gain access to the computer. Granted, there were still other ways, but at least they couldn't get in through Engineering.

Normally, before one pulled the chips out of one of these junctions, they had to run through a shutdown protocol. That would take too long -- and continuing to close one pathway at a time was ineffectual -- so she put on the insulated gloves she carried in her tool belt and pulled the control chips that controlled this junction.

The junction sparked but obediently died. One down. Two more to go.

Moving quickly through the accessways, Alexandra pulled the chips on the other two junctions, and they died as well. No internal functions would be impaired, but the computer could no longer send and receive data from sources outside of the Triumphant through the Engineering access..

===Sphere 656===

Zahara entered the sphere with the mutating blob and gave a mental smirk. The thing was more than welcome to let out its deafening high pitch squeal here... in fact, she hoped it would. You wish to do what you were designed to do? Now you have the chance to do just that, she thought as she opened her mind to it again. In fact, you have my permission to cause all the damage you wish to. I'll be joining you on this little excursion of ours.

Several of the drones saw the entity enter and then went back to work. She had posed no threat and they were busy with other orders.

The eradication of the infestation must be done, it replied. Release me and so that I may complete my purpose here.

And while you do that, I've got a little eradication to do of my own, she thought to it just before purposely releasing it into a swarm of Borg. With that done, Zahara gave a mental smirk and entered the sphere's systems. They would have no idea what hit them... not that they would even remember it when this was all over.

Her first task as she began to take over control... Take out the Borg firing upon Triumphant and their fighters. It was an easy enough task, which came in the form of the console the unfortunate soul of the Collective was tasked with manning exploding without warning.

The drone fell over and writhed before it shutdown. A Borg forcefield went up and the ship started to regenerate. Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Sphere, the drone in charge, noticed that one of the tiny vessels had locked on to the Sphere with a tractor beam. He initiated his Borg tractor beam and ordered to Sphere to spin. And spin. And spin. Gaining speed with each rotation. If the vessel disengaged, they still had it. There were intruders on the Sphere that he also had to deal with. He dispatched one hundred drones to the location before launching all of the previously loaded magnetometric charges. Two found their targets immediately and removed two more of the tiny vessels. And the Sphere continued to spin.

"Structural integrity around the tractor beam is failing. We'll get thrown." Pixie called out as waning klaxons blared

"You're not bucking me that easily." Marisa said as she turned her nose into the direction of rotation and throttled up. With her lower weight, the little ship was able to out accelerate the sphere and negate the force. The survivors from the rush latched on to the Sphere around her, and with a moment to breath she turned her attention to her targeting computer.

=^=I'm assigning each of you targets.=^= She said as she deftly danced across the key pad. =^=We're going to take out all the hard points along one quadrant of the sphere to let our Raptors fire their pay load. We don't have direct fire so you'll need to set up your torpedoes to arc over the ridge. We have limited ammunition so fire a volley, reset, fire a volley. We can't let them adapt. Once they're destroyed, we'll move up and suppress the points with phasers.=^=

"Alice, I'm getting some weird energy readings from inside the sphere." Pixie said.

"Noted." Marisa replied before she pulled the trigger on her flight stick. =^=Fire at will=^= Two golden orbs shot forth out of her torpedo magazine and arced up over the ridge, striking the active tractor emitter.

Each of her wing men did the same at the same moment, forming a cascading wave of micro munitions, each on their way to their own target. The cutters, the plasma beams, the launchers.

Meanwhile, in another part of the sphere, the creature began emitting it's high pitched noise. It recognized that these new entities had a portion of them that were carbon-based. The creature continued to emit the sound as well as releasing the virus which had become its offensive mechanism. Slowly, Borg drones started to fall one by one. The Drone that was on the bridge redirected all assets to stopping the intruders. If they couldn't, then the intruders would kill them.

Yes... do what you were designed to, Zahara thought as the high pitched noise filled the air. That was only one part of the plan she quickly formulated, and now it was time for her to get busy with the next part considering the ship could, and likely was, healing itself.

She moved farther into the sphere's systems (including tractor beams) and began to simultaneously knock them offline in an effort to help the Triumphant and her fighters get to safety. Her plan was going to have to be carried out quickly, and as a means to see to that, she began to move the sphere away from them.

The Borg shields adapted to the fire from the tiny vessels and became immune to further incidents. Which was a good thing for the Borg, seeing as how their sensors indicated that the tiny vessels were extremely close to the Sphere's hull. And now, due to the adapting of the shields, they were trapped. The fact that they had somehow penetrated Borg adaptive shielding would be found out once they and their technology were assimilated...in the Delta Quadrant. With things not so well with the other drones, and the Sphere moving away from it's targets without orders, the Borg slowed the spinning and opened a transwarp conduit.

Zahara was beginning to grow angry as the shields went back up. There was only one thing to do now. She removed herself from the systems and appeared next to the drone manning the controls in her human form. "You are really starting to piss me off," she said just as she began to use her psychokinesis on it.

While the drone may have erected the forcefield and opened a transwarp conduit, she chose to reverse both processes with her newfound power. The white haired woman didn't stop there, though. Using the drones on fingers, she began to punch in the self destruct sequence learned once inside the system. She reached out to Rho once more. You have five minutes! Go! Now! All of you!

She drew energy from the very sphere she was standing on. It was a surge like she'd never felt before and caused the space around her to crackle. Zahara took every bit she could, to the point of nearly being unable to contain it. It was at that point that she released the large energy burst, shooting it forth in all directions.

Yes, or course, he replied quickly. "Commodore!" exclaimed Rho. "She's initiated the Borg self-destruct! We have five minutes!"

"Tell her to return to the ship. Helm, bring us about, heading three-two-seven mark two one five, full five" Michael ordered before he opened a channel to the fighters. =^=Mother Goose to Cheshire. The Sphere is going to self destruct. Get out of there now! We'll meet you on the way to Deep Space Ten=^=

Zahara, you have to come back, now. Commodore's...instructions, orders? At any rate, his word to you is return.

=^=All fighters, break off! Max thrust away=^= Marisa said, deactivating her tractor beam as she pulled back on the stick.

The helmsman brought the massive ship around and warped out of the Gavarian Corridor and away from the Borg Sphere.

Inside the Borg sphere, Zahara listened as Alex spoke in her mind. She looked around, taking in the sights of the fallen drones, and while she was almost certain they would not be getting back up, the white haired woman wasn't going to take any chances. I cannot return until I am sure that this has gone according to plan. There is too great a risk. Tell the Commodore we will speak soon, the Thasian woman thought before she turned toward the once occupied console.

I'm not sure how well this will go over, Zahara. Excuse me while I relay your message. "Sir," replied Alex, "Zahara isn't coming immediately. She wants to make sure it goes according to plan. She says she will speak with you soon."

Michael nodded, then remembered what Zahara had first been discovered in. "Master Chief, drop a class eight probe and activate the homing beacon for it," he said, hoping Zahara would see it and understand.

Kelani smiled as Michael ordered the probe deployed. ~It is as I thought. She must come back to us.~

Choosing not to verbally reply, Tom nodded and set to work, coordinating with the transporter chief to prepare a class eight probe. He set the beacon to emit a three-stage pulse every three seconds. Each pulse was set to a separate set of frequencies, matching natural human pitch as much as possible: Za... ha... ra... As soon as it was ready, he gave the acknowledgement to the transporter chief, who immediately beamed it forty thousand kilometers to Triumphant's aft.

After checking the sensors, Tom looked up at the Commanding Officer. "Beacon deployed and transmitting."

Michael nodded. "Thank you, Master Chief," he said. "Now for her to find it and get back to us. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my ready room. Maddy, you have the conn."

"Yes, Commodore," Maddy said.

With a final check around the bridge, Commodore Aravan turned and headed for his ready room.