USS McKENZIE: Boarding the USS Legion

Schaell materialized first with Argyle at his right and chief medical officer Epit Kinstar at his left. They waited, phasers in hand, their eyes roaming around them at the strangely familiar yet eerily strange bulkeads of the smoke-filled end corridor they found themselves in; familiar because of the blue-grey soft color of the duranium alloy walls, soft red carpets of the floor and dim whitish lights above that could all have been those of any Starfleet ship; strange because of the two meters tall, one meter wide alcoves doting both sides of the corridor with blinking blue lights inside and reddish crackling electric disks between them that reminded of only one thing Starfleet officers could think of.

Borg drone alcoves.

But no cyborg was to be seen; in fact, most of those receptacles were not only empty but badly damaged, eps conduits ruptured spewing what was left of the electroplasma that had once coursed through them, fiber optics dangling like viscerea torn away from the sheared, blackened metal skin of the walls, dark spalshes of burning on molten metals and plastics.

At the other end of the short corridor they had selected as their arrival point, three forms materialized exactly five seconds later; Chief engineer Martha Thomasson was flanked by Caitian security officer Sirrith Srha, her lithe powerful brown body coiled to pounce at the first sign of danger, slitted golden eyes and pointed ears alert, and Cardassian ops officer Dal'mokia, her expertise in cybernetics as much required as her starship systems knowledge. 

Schaell had chosen not only the required officers for such an away mission but even more  because all of them were veterans of the last Borg War and most knowledgeable in either the now extinct Borg kind themselves or with the Collective's defunct technology.

Extinct and defunct; well, that was what everyone in the galaxy had thought for the last three years... until this USS Legion showed up.

Now that their timed two-wave arrival met with no immediate danger, Kinstar activated his tricorder for lifesigns as Thomasson and Dal'mokia did the same towards the nearest alcove, each under the watchful eye of Argyle and Srha as the first officer of the McKenzie tapped his combadge.

"Away team to McKenzie; we have arrived ssafely within the farthesst sstarboard upper level of the cube. No sign of occupancy yet. Captain, thiss look jusst as bad as we have feared; at first glance, we can sssee what appears to be Borg technology... but the materials and partss looks to be Starfleet isssue. The ssmell of lubricantss and the lighting and temperature levels are that of a Borg sship... but  atmosspheric content and presssure and gravity are sstandard for Human physiology."

His teamates soon had preliminary reports for him.

"Confirmed, Sir, Thomasson said; the technology is definitely Borg but the parts are all Starfleet standard."

"Same with the systems, Commander," Ensign Dal'mokia added; " they work exactly like those of the Mckenzie, but they are geared for Borg drone use and needs."

"Lifessigns?" Schaell asked their CMO.

"Far less numerous than we should expect on such a vessel; about twenty percent less thna the standard complement. And they are faint... too faint to be Human... or even Borg for that matter," he said with a frown. "It would be more consistent with patients in medical stasis than any of the cybernetic drones we have known so far... "

"Drones in regeneration mode?" the ops woman offered.

"That's what I thought at first... except that there is a neurogenic field active throughout the structure."

"Neurogenic... as in psionics?"

Kinstar nodded.

"Look at this, Doctor," then Thomasson said, putting her own tricorder beside his.

As they both looked with frowns at one another, Schaell stepped closer to look as well.

"What is it?"

"That neurogenic signal," reported the tall blonde woman, "it matches exactly the energy wavelenght of the holographic grid spread accross this entire vessel."

"Meaning?"

"That is exactly the question, Commander."

The Saurian blinked his huge globulous slitted eyes a moment before addressing the McKenzie again.

"Captain, we are ready to proceed further inside the cube."

As the crew began to walk Lieutenant Argyle shouted to get their attention. He had walked to the other side of the room unnoticed apparently.

"Sir, look at this." gesturing to one of the damaged alcoves.

As the away team gathered around Argyle, he continued. Lifting a piece of the alcove he turned towards commander Schaell. Pointing towards the piece he was now holding, two rods protruded from Argyle's cybernetic hand. As they struck the alcove piece sparks flew.

"What is it?" Asked Kinstar.

"It is nothing. Nothing at all. As in there is nothing there."

The confusion was obvious, so Argyle elaborated.

"Every alcove is designed with two ports that are calibrated to the assimilation probes every drone is equipped with. This port does not have them, at all. So unless whoever built this thing has figured out a way to transfer the nanites that make borg technology possible digitally, these drones are not equipped with nantite probes. Which means these alcoves are pointless. Why build regeneration chambers that won't work?"

Every clue the crew discovered seemed to only mean more questions. 

"Any idea, chief? " Schaelle asked of Martha Thomasson.

"The only thing I can think of for the moment is that, whoever built this vessel might have just been following a model without truly knowing all the details; so, in order not to make any mistake, they reproduced each and every bit of specs about it, even if such specific equipement was not required, to make sure that it would not impact on the worthiness of the whole in some unknown way. That would be the hallmark of a hasty project od retroengineering alien technology and trying to adapt it to ours."

The Saurian nodded.

"Makess ssensse, when you conssider the highly... controverssial nature of thiss... project.They had to cut corners in order to finissh before ssomebody more... honorable than they in Sstarfleet found them out."

"Like us," Srha concluded.

"It alsso means that we are not dealing here with Borgs... at least not the Borgs we are familiar with. Let'ss move out towards the center top of the cube. Be alert, people; we have no idea what we are dealing with here."

"I rremind you, Sirr, that Borrg vessels arre designed with a brroad generralization of systems," the Caitian woman growled as she guarded the rear with Argyle taking point. "Therre will be no brridge, no engineerring section, no centrral powerr sourrce..."

"We have to sstart ssomewhere, Enssign," the Saurian replied. "So let'ss go at thiss methodically from top to bottom. And ssince this replica appears to be Sstarfleet isssued and not fully up to Borg sstandards as we just found out, they might have diverged further from Borg engineering and esstablished more... conventional sstructures, just for the ease of using it for their field tesst at leasst. Let'ss find out."

he then spoke through their open channel.

"Captain, we are moving towards the center of the uppermosst ssection."

As they moved out, Doctor Kinstar came up to the first officer with a frown on his face.

"Commander, I am not much of a technician, but what Lieutenant Argyle said got me thinking; if indeed they found a way to transmit nanoprobes digitally, that might explain the neurogenic field sustained by the hologrid spread out accross the entire ship."

"A neuro-cybernetic communication grid?" wondered Thomasson, hearing the hypothesis.

"Or maybe more than just communication," the doctor suggested.

Overhearing the debate Argyle chimed in from the point position, keeping his eyes forward.

"Doctor, I was being sarcastic. Nanites are not data, they are a physical being with matter. It is not possible to transfer physical objects through a digital transmission. Unless what you detected was a massive transportation grid, the network you detected should have nothing to do with nanites."

Putting his hand up to stop the team behind Arglye scanned the intersection they had come to, and then gestured for the team to proceed forward, continuing to speak.

"The grid could be holographic in nature. If they are using holographic interfaces, they could be transferring the nanites using holograms. A holographic hypospray will hold real nanites and then when the interface is turned off, disappear completely. Sounds like a great way of covering your tracks."

"Following up on your idea, the nanites themselves could be holographic, just like your hypospray," Kinstar suggested. "Of course, such a holographic-activated Borg Collective would not be able to function outside a holographic grid; but they could efficiently run this ship... and if something went wrong, not only would their action be limited in here, but shutting them down would be much easier than with actual Borg drones."

"And following up on your idea, Doctor, the drones themsselves could be entirely holographic," the first officer of the Mckenzie stated.

"That could explain why this entire ship seems empty," Thomasson agreed. " In a dormant or regenerative mode, real Borgs would have been in their alcoves; but those we found were empty and even useless for that purpose. However, in the damaged state this cube is, most ressources must be allocated for damage control and repairs; so, much of the hologrid might be offline or rerouted for that very prupose."

"If drones, real or hologenerated, are indeed crewing that sship," Schaell said.

"You might be right commander." Argyle interjected again from point. This time he was standing and looking up at what appeared to be a power node on the ceiling.

"My optical implant picked up something unusual, check it out."

Argyle handed his tricorder back to the team before continuing.

"This node is giving off life signs. Hundred of them actually, about the typical drone compliment for this section of a cube. It might not prove us right, but it sure looks like someone wants to make this ship seem more manned than it is."

Placing his tricorder back in its pouch Argyle continued to take point.

"Maybe we can get lucky and there is no crew at all. It sure would make destroying this thing less of a moral debate."

"A computer controled starship? Like the M-5 unit on the Enterprise or the Thetis project for the Achilles?" wondered the doctor, shaking his head. "Don't we ever learn?"

"The Total Humanistic Entity Transfered and Integrated System derived from the works of Doctor Ira Graves proved effective, Doctor," the chief engineer remarked. "It gave us the new artificial life form Thetis Achilles, now part of the crew of our flagship, the Horizon."

"Yes... and it also gave us back Khan Noonian Singh."

That brought back a heavy silence among them all.

"Yeah well, let's hope he's not here."

Argyle's comment broke the tension. As the crew focused back on their task they walked further into the seemingly empty cube.

Her eyes on her tricorder, chief engineer Thomasson arched an eyebrow then frowned.

"Commander... I'm picking up an energy surge from the hologrid, ten meters up ahead."

Before anyone could ask anything about it, a soft glow appeared three meters in front of them where the corridor met with seven others at a large octogonal juncture dominated by a column of blinking lights and monitoring screens. The glow coalesced into a humanoid shape that became not quite totally opaque but was definitely looking like a Borg drone, albeit with a somewhat more advanced-looking and living appearance than the well-known zombie cyborgs. The skin was silvery, the implants smooth and organic-like, the eyes alive and blinking... and the face, half-covered with a delicate ocular, was smiling.

"Hello; I am Philter."

The voice was soft and slightly accented, reminding them all of the distinctive voice of legendary captain Jean-Luc Picard. Taking it all in stride with his natural emotionless composure, the Saurian XO stepped forward, towering over the strange apparition.

"Commander Sschaell Sschysssillysss, firsst officer of the USS McKenzie. We are ansswering your disstresss call. What is your rank and position?"

"USS McKenzie, Starfleet, Lotus Fleet division, Hromi sector, Josha W. Riker commanding," the strange silvery borg responded. " I am acting captain of this ship, USS Legion, NX-666. "

" Sship and crew sstatuss?"

" Currently drifting inside the Paulson nebula, eighty-nine percent systems inoperative."

" Report circumsstances leading to current damages."

"We detected the presence of a cloaked Romulan task force within federation territory. Upon detecting that incursion, we followed stipulations of the Treaty of the Neutral Zone and assumed the immediate state of war as defined by the treaty."

"Have you reported the incident to Starfleet Command before taking such action?" asked Schaell, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Negative. This ship is following classified operation under the authority of  Starfleet Intelligence."

"Who is in charge of thiss operation?"

"I am sorry, Commander, but you do not have the security clearance required for me to answer your question."

"What are your operative orders?"

"I am sorry, Commander, but you do not have the required security clearance for me to answer your question."

"What is the sstatuss of your crew?"

"I am sorry, Commander, but you do not have the required security clearance for me to answer your question."

That is when the smile and stare of the borg looked suddenly about as friendly as that of a shark.

"I am sorry, Commander, but you and your officers do not have the security clearance nor the authorization to board this vessel. Orders are for you and your officers to be detained until proper authority can decide your fate. However, because you are Starfleet officers, if you swear an oath of secrecy about everything you have been witnesses of here, resign your commission or request an immediate transfer to Starfleet Intelligence for reassignment, you will be allowed to leave... provided you do so immediately."

Neither Schaell's imperturbable face nor his slow, hissing voice betrayed what he thought as he spoke through the open channel of his combadge.

"You got all that, Captain?"

"Oh yes. I just put this fourth pip on, I'll be damned if I take it off already." Captain Riker responded.

Knowing that Philter could hear him Riker continued.

"I noticed that he mentioned security clearances. Funny that he appears to have forgotten that need to know for Starfleet intelligence becomes void when you issue a general distress call. Starfleet protocol is to rescue and assist, followed by a security debrief. I would hate to see protocol broken by someone trying to hide a secret that is so blatantly illegal."

As the Captain spoke, Argyle looked up one end of the corridor and down the other, wondering exactly who was going to detain them, per the threat they had just received. 

"Your captain cites regulations exactly," the being called philter acknowledged. " However, no general distress call was transmitted from this vessel. Therefore, the regulations are irrelevant. It was an encoded distress call on a narrow band aimed specifically at  one specific command of Starfleet Intelligence. The fact that you intercepted it does not change the specific nature of the transmission; moreover, by decoding yourself this transmission and acting upon it without orders and furthermore by not relaying that transmission to it's lawful destination, it is you and your crew that are acting illegally. On the other hand, I am acting under the direct authority of Starfleet and following the direct orders of the high ranking officer in charge."

"We alsso detected your disasster beacon," Schaell pointed out. "Thiss is by definition a general dissstresss call."

"An unfortunate momentary defect in one of our systems, which has now been corrected," the holographic Borg said with a cold smile on his half mechanical face. "As your sensors can certainly detect, we are secured and in the process of effecting repairs. This ship is still functional, the crew about to resume duties and our mission to proceed as planned. Your assistance is neither wanted nor needed at this stage."

"And where is your crew?" Kinstar interjected with a deep frown on his face.

"Right here to take you into custody... unless you abide by my conditions to be granted freedom."

Now Argyle and then the others saw  half a dozen silhouettes appearing from each of the eight access to the octogonal room.

They were all Borg.

They all looked exactly like Acting Captain Philter.

Everyone but the Doctor and the first officer raised their weapon. Schaell raised his hand to stay them at the ready before addressing the Borg commander.

"Without the name of this high ranking officer you declare your orders coming from, we are not obliged to acknowledge the truth of your claim nor your alleged jusstification to detain uss." 

"Disclosure of his identity can only be made in the presence of someone with the appropriate security level and divulging directly his own command authorization code to confirm identity."

"Sso, in order for us to have you sspit it out, you want our captain to come down here... and alsso fall into your hands," the Saurian concluded.

"I have my orders," Philter simply said with his shark-like smile.

As the two officers exchanged words Argyle approached one of the borg and waved his hand right through him. Noticing the exchange Philter turned towards Argyle.

"An improvement do you not agree?"

As Philter spoke the borg placed his hand on Argyle's shoulder, as solid as a real drone. Philter went to continue, but before he could speak any further Argyle reached up and, with all the granted strength of his implants, snapped the drones neck into a shower of sparks. Before the Philter looking drone hit the floor it flickered and faded. Turning towards the two officers Argyle smiled.

"You were saying?"

"He might not like it Commander, but I think having the Captain over here is the best course of action right now." Arygle continued.

"Any thoughts, Number One?" Captain Riker interjected over the still open intercom.

"Aye, Captain, Lieutenant Thomassson, have you recorded this sship'ss encoding and energy ssignature?"

"On my tricorder, Sir," the chief engineer replied as she showed her instrument. "All data sent to our own engineering computer in preparation to damage control assessment and operations, as per regulation."

The Saurian took the tricorder and started to check it and adjust it as he spoke.

"Sstandby, Captain..."

He then tapped his combadge.

"Computer, thiss is Commander Sschaell Sschysssillysss, Executive officer; voice recognition ssecurity code Ssigma Sserpentiss Sseven Ssix Ssixteen."

"Security code and identification confirmed," answered the disembodied feminine voice of the ship's computer.

"Activate transsmisssion protocol HS2SC between the following coordinatess."

He activated one of the tricorder's controls. A moment later, there was the light and shimmer of a transporter beam.

Then, Captain Riker stood in front of the commander of the USS Legion.

"Philter I presume?"

Riker gestured for the away team to approach. Schaell signalled his teams to fan out, so that their captain would be covered from all sides in case of trouble. But it was also the configuration of both their three-man transporter pad on board the McKenzie.

"I am non-commissionned officer Philter, Acting Captain of the NX-666 USS Legion, operating under sealed orders from Starfleet Intelligence. Please decline name, rank, commission and proper security identification," Philter said with a smile.

But it was a painted smile with no warmth at all in it.

"The fake smile is not necessary Philter, we both know why I am here. I could state everything I need to, but as soon as you scanned my crew you learned everything there is to know about me. Anyone with the kind of intelligence to hide a project like this would have more than enough resources to know everything about me."

Nodding in agreement, Philter continued to smile.

"Indeed Captain. Riker, Joshua W, the son of a clone. Raised in a Maquis camp, served in Starfleet. Records show numerous logs referencing your exemplary service..."

Philter paused and smiled slightly more sincere.

"Records also show numerous personal logs assessing a personality based on anger and pride. Apparently having to live up to one of the greatest names in Starfleet history can really drive someone to be better."

"Interesting." Responded Riker, to the obvious attempt to distract him.

"You have access to personal logs pertaining to assessments of other people. I imagine anyone who would build this monstrosity is going to ignore the fact that such information can only be accessed by approved Starfleet intelligence officers when it is pertinent to an ongoing investigation. Considering how fast you got that information, I am guessing you have access to an entire database you shouldn't."

Turning towards his first officer Riker continued.

"What about you, Commander, do you see any violations I may have missed?"

The Saurian nodded.

"Sso far, Ssir, thiss vessel and her commanding officer violated General Order 8 and General Order 33 by not taking care to avoid unecesssary losss of ssentient life when disscovering potentially threatening warsships belonging to a foreign power within Federation Sspace; violation of a General Order is ground for releiving of duty the officer ressponsible until a board of inquiry can asscertain the matter. Command then falls to the next ranking officer. However, ssince thiss entire crew complement is obvioussly composed of the one same officer in quesstion, command musst therefore be asssumed by the arressting officer. "

''I'm afraid my orders do not allow me to accept this," Philter said no longer smiling.

"In that casse, Acting Captain Philter,  unlesss you obey the orders of Captain Riker as he is your ssuperior officer, you are now also in violation of General Order 35 and may be put under arresst."

The smile returned to the hologram's bland face.

"Unless, as General order 35 states, special dispensations are granted in emergency situations as per specific orders; which is currently the case."

"Unlesss you provides those orders, ssuch a claim is nul and void."

"Unless you provide name, rank, commission and proper security identification, those orders can not be disclosed."

"Talking to a machine is always so much fun," Doctor Kinstar commented drily.

"Why do I need to provide you with anything?" Riker asked smarkly.

Gesturing to the node just to back of the corridor which was glowing and pulsing slightly, a subtle change others had missed.

"You have been scanning me since I got here."

Looking around the room, Captain Riker continued.

"I am also certain that you have scanned and identified everyone else here, as welll the McKenzie. Assuming your sensors are able to reach that far out with all the damage your grid has suffered. You will see that I am a Captain, commanding officer of a Starfleet vessel and the fact that I am standing here means I had enough clearance to open your coded distress call."

Philter's smile faded slightly

"Which begs the question, if you knew who I was before I got here, you know who I am now and you are still trying to dodge the issue... what are you hiding?"

Philter went to speak, but Riker interrupted.

"The basic coding for intelligence retrieval you are using requires a subsection of your sentience program to be terminated correct?"

Knowing the point Riker was on, Philter's grin was now completely gone.

"Which, if I am correct, means that you would qualify only as an emergency command program and not, Federation laws on sentience being what they are and all, qualify as a command life form. Under Starfleet protocol, the highest ranking sentient officer on any ship is in command regardless of mission or protocol."

Turning to the away team Riker smiled.

"Commander that's me is it not?"

"Affirmative, captain," the Saurian responded. "Moreover, in any operation involving two or more sshipss, command defers to the commanding officer with the sship having the highesst tactical advantage. Considering the current damaged and barely operative sstatuss of thiss... vesssel, it appears the McKenzie is to be defined as the command ship in our present relationsship."

Saurians were utterly devoid of emotions. nevertheless, the rigid reptilian smile on Schaell face felt definitely amused to the eyes of the others, because he was appreciating to it,s fullest his captain's handling of the situation.

Grinning slightly himself, Captain Riker turned back towards Philter who sat with a stare that bordered on a scowl.

"Well now that we have established numerous regulations that state not only are you to answer my questions but you are turn over command of this operation and ship to me, that begs the question Philter... where are your orders and who gave them to you?"

"My orders, Captain Joshua William Riker of Lotus Fleet Division of Starfleet, are encoded and sealed in my memory banks," the hologram answered in typical, blunt and specific machine logic. "These orders come directly from the officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  put  in charge of Project Legion by Starfleet Intelligence and the United Federation of Planets Security Council: Admiral Neil Stanley Redding."

Turning to Argyle, Riker smiled.

"Did you get that?"

"I did Captain, all of it." Argyle resonded tapping his head.

The implants in Argyle's head were recording all interactions the away team had. Combined with the constant recording of their logs and sensor data and the McKenzie had more than enough to expose a dark element within Starfleet.

Turning towards Argyle, Philter acknowledged the recording.

"Admiral Redding was working directly based on orders from Starfleet Command. I take it your obvious recording is some attempt to prove that illegal actions were taken, but all orders were followed.

"Right, because following orders has never been a crime in the past." Riker responded.

"I wonder, he was under orders to develop a project that would help save lives in the future right? Were his exact orders to use borg technology and enslave possibly sentient holograms, or was he given more vague instructions which would explain why he was trying so hard to hide what he was doing?"

Taking a step closer, Philter smiled.

"There was one other series of orders I have Captain. We are to keep this information secret at all costs."

As Philter took a threatening stance the footsteps of approaching drones began to echo louder.

"All costs..."

At the moment the evil intent of Philter's words sank in with the away team, Philter lunged towards Captain Riker penetrating his neck with two assimilation probes. Riker flinched slightly before laughing. Philter removed the probes and stabbed Riker again, this assimilation attempt was met by even more laughter. A third and fourth stab were met with equal amounts of laughter from Captain Riker. Glancing down at his extended probes, Philter stepped backwards looking both shocked and angry.

"No.. You... You can't." Philter muttered as he reached forward and passed his hand completely through Riker, who was revealed to a hologram himself.

Looking down at his combadge, Riker tapped it slightly.

"It is amazing how far portable holographic technology has come is it not? It is also great how quickly one can phase in an out of photonic solidity."

Just then Riker leaned in and ripped a cable out of the side of the drones head, this currently solid projection of Philter fell to the ground and faded away. A second Philter appeared where the old one had been standing.

"That felt unnecessary."

"Probably, but it was fun." Riker responded.

The approaching sound of footsteps grew even louder, it would only be a matter of moments before the away team was swarmed by the approaching army of holo drones.

"What do you hope to accomplish here Captain? You can't win." Philter said smugly.

"I don't need to win Philter, I only need to distract you for a few more seconds."

Philter looked around sharply, scanning the away team. It was then he noticed that Argyle's own assimilation probes were extended into a semi open panel. Argyle had been interfacing with the ship's computer the entire time.

"Noooo...." Philter screamed as he faded away. A shower of sparks rained from the overheads as nodes all along the corridor began to explode.

Turning to face the away team, holographic Riker nodded to Argyle.

"Time to go home, I have it from here."

As Riker smiled, the away team was engulfed in a blue light. Having configured the outside shielding with the transporters on the McKenzie, a lock on the away team was more than possible. The away team was beamed away leaving only Argyle and Commander Schaell.

"I need you two on the bridge."

As Riker waved on final time, Schaell and Argyle were beamed away in a blue light.