USS McKenzie: Finding the Devil

  With a new determination, a mystery to unravel and lives at stake the crew of the McKenzie readied themselves to enter the nebula.

“Helm, take us inside the nebula. Nice and slow.” Ordered Captain Riker.

"Aye, Sir," Leône responded with her voice and her fingers on the controls. "crossing nebula boundary at half-impulse in three... two... one...

The entire vessel shook as if plunging into water, lights and systems flickering for a second before everything resumed as before. Their PIDs automatically activated to keep them all upright and the entire bridge was plunged into an eerily blue gloom intermittently illuminated with flashes of blood red and pure white lightning. The light came from their main viewer, showing only slow swirling banks of luminsecent fog sprinkled with metallic-hued dust. The ware from the nebula began to strain the deflectors and shields.

“Report.” Ordered Riker.

“Deflectors are at maximum to keep debris off the ship.” Simmons responded from Ops.

“Shields are holding, but they are strained. If we stay in here too long they will fail.” Reported Argyle.

"Engineering to bridge; impulse manifolds are starting to clog but cleaning systems are fully compensating as long as we stay at this speed. We will notify you if any change occurs."

Nodding Riker continued his orders.

“Steady onward. Adjust sensors as needed, we have to find that ship… whatever the hell it is.”

"Standard sensors are blind, captain, but the space sonar is registering a dense matter signal up ahead."

The strange watery lighting on the bridge was accompanied by the regular pinging sound of the sonar, giving to all the feeling of being back on those antique Terran submarines they had seen in historical holonovels.

The McKenzie worked through the turbulence and micro debris of the nebula on impulse. With so much debris and space dust any attempt at warp inside the nebula would tear the McKenzie to shreds. Impulse was little better however, as the strain of the conditions of the nebula would tear the McKenzie apart eventually anyway.

"Captain, I recommend deploying the ablative armor," Schaell said. "It will allow uss full mobility short of actual warpsspeed with no rissk of friction damage, as long as power and matter reserves hold. To thiss end, I ssuggesst we use the busssard collectors to gather those particles and convert them into raw matter to reapprovision the replicating ssystem of the armor."

Simmons blinked for a moment and made a few quick calculations before nodding enthusiastically.

"Aye, Sir, that would work! In normal space, matter is too sparse to replinish raw matter reserves quickly enough for a depleted ablative armor; but here, the very density of particles that prevents us to go to high velocity is high enough to have our armor fully rejuvenate itself almost as fast as it depletes."

"Although it will block our shields and transporter emitters, phasers strips and tractor beams, this will provide us with our best defensive option in here,"Argyle stated with a satisfied nod. "Cannons and torpedoes will remain operational and shuttle bay as well."

"Where did you ever get that idea, Commander?" Leône asked, herself an accomplished ops officer and thus quite well versed in ship systems requirements.

"Ssomething I read about a ssea-dwelling creature called a sshark... a Terran creature if I recall. It sswims consstantly to get more oxygen into it'ss gills."

"That could work Captain." Simmons responded.

"It will take just a few minutes to convert the collectors to beam matter into the reservoir of the ablative armor system"

Pausing for a moment Riker responded.

"I like the idea, but I am not too keen on losing our transporters and other key systems after running into that. We can deploy the armor, but be ready to strip it at a moments notice. We are here to save lives after all and I would hate to see someone die because we couldn't transport them to safety."

"Understood sir." Argyle responded.

After a few moments the clicks of the armor deploying filled the bridge and indicator lights flashed at various panels as the ship sat with numerous systems disabled. The shaking from the nebula had slowed however, so for the moment the armor appeared to be working.

"Ahead full, keep searching." Riker said as the McKenzie pressed onward.

After a mere two hours, which felt like an eternity to the vigilant crew working hard to hold their ship together, a sensor beep broke the strained silence of the bridge.

“Captain, we have something on sonar. The feedback is weak because of all the interference, but it appears to be a very large ship… Federation energy and alloy signatures.” Simmons reported from Ops.

“Interference is strong, Sir, but scans show heavy damage fluctuating power levels and multiple indiscernible life signs.” Argyle added.

“On screen.” Riker ordered.

The viewscreen blinked to life and just as quickly a collective gasp filled the bridge. For the first time since they received the distress call the McKenzie was face to face with the new Federation ship, the one that had sent the message and spooked the Romulan fleet. Captain Riker sank in his chair as a sense of confusion gave way to a sense of dread. In a fleeting moment, the Captain and his crew now knew what the Romulans meant when they said the Federation had made a deal with the devil. Before the McKenzie sat a living nightmare signed in blood. Whoever built this ship had signed a pact with evil and hell itself. On the viewscreen was the monster they had come to look for. On the viewscreen was countless lifetimes of bad memories.

On the viewscreen… was a Borg cube.

“It can’t be.” Riker could barely contain his defeated feelings. “Full scan. Please tell me I am wrong about this.”

After a few seconds, Argyle confirmed the worst.

“Sensors are showing a Borg cube, Captain; tactical cube to be exact. The Federation signatures are coming from the cube.”

“The Borg could have assimilated what was left of the ship, right?” Simmons asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not. The signatures are too engrained. The power sources are integrated and the harmonics match… Captain. That cube was built from the ground up… by Starfleet. Reading at designation NX-666. That cube sir. Is the USS Legion.” Argyle responded.

"Sir... the Borg were utterly annihilated by the metavirus devised by Lieutenants Brandon Jori, Joey Daystrom Sisko and Sorripto of Lotus Fleet during the final moments of the Borg invasion," Elisha Leône reminded them all. "Because of the nature of the virus and the fact that it hit directly their supreme Queen, the entire Collective had been wiped out, even as far back as any possible remnant in the Delta Quadrant."

And yet, an actual active Borg cube was there in front of their very eyes... with thousands of lifesigns aboard. And even more astonishing, they could read below it on the screen in bold blue letters the Starfleet designations it's disaster beacon transmitted.

“You were right, Number One.” Riker said as he leaned over. “This was certainly something we were not supposed to find.”

Even the completely emotionless Saurian was left speechless and confused by the ominious sight of the titanic vessel. He blinked his huges globulous eyes several times before he finally found his voice again.

"Captain...  whatever thiss is... we are not only bound to offer asssistance.... but to invesstigate thiss... thiss posssible transsgresssion to Federation policies, laws and values. If Sstarfleet is truly behind thisss..."

He didn't finish; but they all saw looming with this horrible thing the spectre of an earlier monster barely buried. Simmons was the first to put words to the dark hidden shame of the Federation's past.

"Section 31..."

With a sigh Riker shook his head in disgust.

"I don't think so Lieutenant. Section 31 was wiped out. When they tried to recruit Sorripto he turned on them, and brought their entire organization to light. Part of the reason his trial went so well."

"Clearly they missed at least one cell." Argyle added.

"His father was Obsidian Order from what I understand. Fine details are in his blood. No, Sorripto would never have turned himself over if he thought there was a chance he missed something."

With a sigh Riker continued.

"This is worse than that. This was not section 31, this was Starfleet itself. Section 31 knew they were the shady underbelly, the people who made this monster are scarier than that. They think they are doing the right thing." 

"I agree with you, captain... and our duty is clear; we musst expose thiss and bring those ressponsible to an accounting."

Again, the utter lack of emotion from the Saurian made his resolve look all the more intense.

"Those aboard might even be victims, or being forced to collaborate, not necessarily accomplices; but whatever their involvement in thiss, they are in danger and our firsst duty is to the lives of Federation citizens, be they innocent or guilty. And in the processs, we sshould be able to figure out what is the meaning of thiss... and who,s ressponssible... and why."

He faced his commanding officer.

"I recommend a rescue and damage control team with a well-armed escort. Since our two shuttles can only accomodate two persons each, our chief of ssecurity sshould accompany me with our chief medical officer and chief engineer to fully assesss the ssituation. Using the sshuttles will allow uss to keep the McKenzie well protected under it'ss regenetative armor. Thiss sship might be damaged but that does not mean it is not dangerouss; Borg sships are known to be fully functional even when over 80% of their sstructure and ssysstems are desstroyed."

The Captain nodded in agreement.

"Good idea number one. Lieutenant Argyle kept the, for lack of a better word, benefits of his borg implants. He is the only one on board who could defeat a drone in hand to hand combat. If anyone has to escort you I would want it to be him."

"I most value his Borg expertise and remaining capabilities as well as his Sstarfleet competence as to be invaluable in the present ssituation, Captain."

Schaell did not thought it relevant to correct his new commanding officer about the fact that he himself was not concerned about physically dealing with Borgs. After all, his species was not numerous within the ranks of Starfleet and even less within the whole of the Federation, so it was understandable that he wouldn't know about his people. Not that many in fact knew that Saurians were as strong as Gorns, more resilient than Klingons, almost as self-sufficient as Jem'Hadars and utterly fearless, each born to survive alone in a world as savage as Earth's dinosaur era... and that, when he was but a child. And today, he was an accomplished security and tactical Starfleet officer. It would take a great many drones just to have a chance to bring him down; and then, with his primary brain knocked out, his secondary, animalistic brain would take over, turning him onto a savage engine of destruction.

Now, that was something to be somewhat concerned about. But like all Starfleet security officers, Argyle would carry a phaser and would not forget to shoot him twice at maximum stun setting if the need arose to stop him from rampaging, if such eventuality would occur. And Schaell had briefed him about Saurian peculiarities. With Argyle, everyone would be safe... even from him.

Riker then turned to Argyle as if to offer both an order and a request. Argyle nodded.

"Take who you need, but be careful. We can't guarantee we can stay in contact once you get aboard."

"Undersstood, Ssir."

He tapped his combadge.

"Chief Medical officer and Chief engineer to sshuttlebay. prepare for heavy casualties and damage control. First officer out."

As Commander Schaell left the bridge, followed by Argyle, the Captain turned towards Simmons.

"We are going to need to figure out how to destroy that thing."

Simmons cocked his head confused slightly.

"Sir, are we not here to save lives?"

"We are Simmons. No matter how many lives we pull off that ship, we cannot let that cube leave this nebula. Evil itself is staring us in the face, and we are going to kick its teeth in."

Elisha Leône then chimmed in with a heavy frown on her alluring face.

"Sir, that may be a problem for two reasons. First, sensors readings are sketchy but there are roughly tens of thousands of lifeforms signals on board. It would take a vessel the size of the USS Horizon to evacuate so many... and our Defiant class of starship can barely manage a hundred and fifty  refugees at most. Moreover, bringing back that... monstrosity would be our best piece of evidence to expose any and all violations it represents. Destroying it would simply serves the cause of the conspirators by erasing the hard evidence of their wrongdoing. If someone high up in Starfleet is responsible for this, our bad sensor logs and handful of testimonies might not be sufficient."

"Anyone who thought building that thing was a good idea will only benefit from it staying in one piece. The second we drag that thing out of this nebula someone is going to want to scan it, test it, inspect it and look at it. As more people get their fingers on that thing, more people are going to think that they can do the right thing by making it better, or safer or worse... convince themselves they are doing the right thing."

Sighing Riker continued.

"If our sensor logs, recorded evidence and testimony are not enough proof, then I am wearing the wrong uniform. Anyone who would build that thing would have an escape plan. We will figure out how to save those people, but I am not saving the cube. Your objection is noted Lieutenant, but that thing can't be allowed to leave this nebula in one piece."

She sighed, surrendering to her commander's implacable reasonning.

"Aye, Sir; I guess I'm much too used to Orion Syndicate standard practice of corrupting the justice system. You are right; this is Starfleet... and whoever did this has lost his way... and we should not be the ones to provide incentive for others to follow such a bad example. There are still obviously other Pressmans and Rosses out there, too tempted to sacrifice our values for beleived military gains. let this mistake ends here."

The woman now let the ops officer in her speak.

"That still leaves us with the daunting task of rescuing tens of thousands of people... and destroying a twenty-seven cubic kilometers structure designed to remain fully functional even with well over eighty percent of it is effectively destroyed."