Ens. Gnai - The Overload

[+ Vitor S. Silveira]

We have all seen such great assimilation sims, so I am going to drop a few more here.

First this 3 part that I will compile into one from @Gnai.

I have a great admiration for someone who is writing such an alien character and giving us so good stories. Thank you.

 

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((Transporter Room 1 - Deck 6, USS Kitty Hawk))

Okay… okay. They were all aboard the Kitty Hawk now, and everyone was confirmed safe. This was good, with luck any changeling nonsense was behind them. Right?

But it didn’t make sense, at least not right now, to stick together. Not with so many potential things that could go wrong at Frontier Day with that errant Borg cube… Was it headed to Earth? Were they sure about that? It could just as well be headed to some distant but important Federation colony, ready to wreak havoc upon the inhabitants as they sat like sitting ducks amongst the stars.

Whatever was going on, it agreed that there were many important things to do on the ship. Tactical, engineering, sickbay… The list went on and on. They had many pairs of hands (including a set of robotic ones), so why not split up, if the changeling threat had been neutralized?

It was safe… right?

Gnai: Perhaps it would be wise to split up…? There are probably many areas of the ship that could do with more hands, given the current situation.

Carter: Check with the department heads, see who is undermanned, then fill in where possible.

That’d be easy… if Gnai knew who the department heads were on the Kitty Hawk. It knew the heads on Artemis well enough, but the orders to the new ship had barely mentioned who it would be reporting to, just that it had been requested. Orders were orders as an ensign, and it wasn’t in the mood to start to question the validity of them. If the captains thought it would be best here, so be it.

Wong: Agreed. We still have a few Changelings on ice in Sickbay that I’d love to have help with.

Galanis: Sickbay isn’t my specialty, sirs. I would be more useful elsewhere on the ship.

Iko: Response

Vanlith: Well we all have our own normal focuses…

Gnai’s normal focus was far from useful here, it presumed. Unless Starfleet was planning to throw asteroids at the Borg. The Cube didn’t produce enough of a gravity well for that to matter, though, it presumed. No ships did, as far as it was aware. Nor did any ship lack the deflector array that would render any incoming rocks as pointless as pebbles.

It was a scientist, not a warrior, or a tactician, or a hero. All it wanted to do was sit back in the cozy Stellar Cartography lab on the Artemis and put in some hours analyzing the recent supernova that had been observed in the Andromeda Galaxy. Dr. Leired had put out a short pre-print with her observations. Gnai had set up a small observing probe as soon as it had heard about the nova, launching it and watching the data as they came in. If it wasn’t for the changelings and the Borg, it would have been having a relaxing mission, buried in work, trying to see if this data was of any use to its longer term projects…

But no, here it was, on a strange ship, surrounded by (mostly) strange faces, worried about what the Borg were going to do and why (and how) they’d roped the changelings into their plan.

Orrey: As I said earlier, so great minds and all that.

Gnai: A contingent could head to the science labs… ::a brief look to Lt. Jg. Sadar:: Or tag along with the group going to sickbay to work on preparing the serum?

Sickbay wouldn’t be the first place it would choose to go on a ship. In most cases, it would actually be close to the bottom of the list. But Lt. Jg. Sadar seemed worried, more so than usual, and it wasn’t certain how useful puttering about in the science labs would be when the Borg were ahead of them, likely plotting their painful and untimely demise and assimilation.

So it could suck it up, and tag along to sickbay, as moral support. And maaaaaybe, just maybe, they could poke into the science labs after all their preparations were done. Maybe.

But that all rested on where it was ordered to go, it assumed.

Vanlith: ::To Carter::  How's the ship doing? Would engineering benefit from an extra set of hands? 

Carter: That it would. The Changelings originally took down the warp drive, but making those repairs more permanent would be a good thing.

They took out the warp drive of this ship????? Just how lax was security here? Captain MacKenzie ran a tight, tight ship, as evidenced by how well the changelings were kept out of the critical areas, it presumed. And even on such a ship, with tight security and heightened patrols, they still had spent ages ensuring that the entire ship was changeling free. The Kitty Hawk was larger, apparently much less concerned with securing its vital areas, and it was on the damn ship.

Another thought popped into Gnai’s head. If the warp drive was still damaged, was it not liable to explode? That sounded about right, and it was just about as horrifying a thought as Gnai could have at that moment. It did not want to experience the joys of matter-antimatter reactions up close and personal, thank you.

Why did it let itself get transported aboard this flying deathtrap?

Wong: The Changelings have made quite the mess around here and we’re going to need all the help we can get.

Even the crew of the ship agreed!

Galanis: You won’t want to forget the damage from the plasma storm, sirs. I can’t imagine that little stunt with the shields was very kind on your deflector dish.

Sadar: Y-Yes Sir… I’ve brought along all the necessary data. The serum proved effective against the Borg during our recent encounter with them, but… Well, nothing is ever effective against them for long.

No, they adapted, right? Would they have adapted to the serum that quickly? It wasn’t very long after the Artemis had beamed over her away team, only for them to get presumably attacked by the Borg. Just how much time did they have before that advantage was used up? 

Iko: Response

Vanlith: Well ::looking to Carter:: If you’re happy I guess it's time to move out.  

Carter: I'll be happy when all this is over with…

Wong: Agreed. I keep waiting to see when this nightmare will end.

The air around Gnai’s suit vibrated, rattling the joints of its suit ever so slightly. It wasn’t sure if it was imagining it or not, but Gnai could almost hear a screeching shake through its body.

Sadar: W-Wait… Does anyone hear that?

It wasn’t going crazy, at least that was evident by Lt. Jg. Sadar noting the strange vibration. What in the universe could that be? Gnai’s body started to pulse, slowly and dimly, with a shade of green confusion. The suit continued to vibrate, just slightly. Barely enough for it to notice.

Orrey: What we need is…

Rahman: =/\= All hands, the Borg have found a way to infiltrate Starfleet. Members of the crew may be affected. Be alert. =/\=

Oh no. That wasn’t good. The Kitty Hawk’s security team certainly couldn’t deal with Borg-affected crewmembers, not if they couldn’t hold off a few changelings in their main engineering. Was this what the Borg had planned all along?

And just what did the voice on the comm mean by affected?

Vanlith: Orrey, Carter. Any idea on what exactly we are facing now? 

Orrey: Not immediately but it is a problem to this day.

The subtle humming vibration was back. Gnai wasn’t certain if it was in the air, or just still vibrating through the suit, resonating around the servos and actuators and through the light-cells.

Carter: Not yet...put pointing a phaser at everyone is not going to be helpful at the moment…

Wong: If she said Borg, it should be obvious as to who they are, right? Borg aren’t exactly known for being stealthy. They seem to have a flair for dramatic entrances.

It started to turn the tricorder off, now that it wasn’t needed, but the suit seemed to stutter. Gnai wasn’t certain if it was imagining things, terrified to its core now about the announcement over the comms, but was the suit responding sluggishly to its commands? Was it simply too worried, too full of anxious energy that it perceived the motion as slower than it normally was? 

Galadorans prided themselves on their robotic prowess, and this suit was supposed to last far beyond its service in the fleet. Why was it starting to falter now? Had the spacing and subsequent rapid repressurization damaged something in the joints? Or was it the light-cells, had one of them ruptured…? It wasn’t an engineer, far from it, and all it knew was how to do basic upkeep of the suit - nothing more intensive than that. If this was a more severe problem, it’d have to submit itself to engineering, and let the officers on the Artemis fix it up.

But until then, Gnai would have to deal with a sluggish suit. Hopefully it wouldn’t run into any of the “Borg-affected crew members”. It barely had the reflexes already to duck out of the way of incoming phaser beams. Not in a bulky suit like it wore.

Iko: Response

Vanlith: No one moves alone, and we keep up good comms I guess.

Lt. Jg Sadar moved her way to the door, cautiously. Gnai wasn’t sure why she’d want to be the first out into the halls, where there could be any number of these mysterious “Borg-affected crew members”. Better to let whichever of these yellow-shirts were security officers go first.

Orrey: ::looking at Carter:: Clear and seal this deck then split up a set goes up a set goes down?

Carter: We're going to be allright. Everyone head to your stations. Those going to the bridge, let's get going.  

Wong: Those with an affinity for medicine or sciences… ::picking himself back up with a fully assembled medical shotgun::... May wish to come with me. Perhaps we can de-Borg our Borg.

(OOC from Danny: Due to the missed tags in sims posted after Moore's, the Wong tags after this point have been "reset" to response tags, given the outbreak of Borg flu that's happening. When reposting, they can be included back in their next sim!)

Vanlith/Iko: Response 

Orrey: Sam, Bec, Galanis and Sadar come with me. We will try to get up to Sickbay and do what we can with the serum.

It wasn’t included, good. But Niev was, unfortunately. They’d both shared a marked distaste for the health sciences at the Academy, working together for the first time in MED101 (First Aid and Field Medicine) and bonding over finding it mind-numbing. Why should it have to put in all this effort to learn about treating humanoids in the field? They’d never be prepared to save it if it was injured, or dying.

Sure, part of that was due to Galadorans being reticent when it came to sensitive details. But it was also somewhat on the instructors at Starfleet Academy, Gnai thought, who refused to even acknowledge that non-humanoids could get just as injured as their humanoid counterparts. (That might have been a slight exaggeration on its part… but it still felt slighted by the absence in the curriculum.)

Iko: Response

Sadar: Right.

Orrey: The rest head toward engineering and try to secure it. 

Gnai tried to respond, to acknowledge the order - granted, it was fairly certain that whoever this was (suspiciously, he reminded Gnai of Ens. Chevalier) was in fact a civilian - but the speakers of its suit refused to function. It tried again and again, growing more confused with each subsequent failure. The tendrils and filaments that hung below its main body swirled around frustrated, pulsing quickly with more confused green.

The almost-imperceptible shuddering of its suit continued, a quiet whine starting around the upper chassis, where the arms of the exo-suit joined with the part that contained the speakers and many of the other components that allowed Gnai to interact with the outside world.

Carter/Wong/Iko/Vanlith: Response?

Orrey: And if anyone says the A-word stun first and ask questions later.

In an instant, the shuddering stopped, taking the whine that had been gnawing at the edges of Gnai’s mind with it. It was relieved, but only for a second.

The actuators that moved the three fingers on the hands of its exo-suit all failed at the same time, forcing Gnai to drop the PADD and its tricorder. The two devices clattered to the ground, and Gnai willed its suit to pick them back up, but no part of it responded.

Sadar: Ensign Gnai, p-projections for- ::shrieks::

As Lt. Jg. Sadar started to talk, Gnai watched in horror as its suit’s arms moved without it willing them. In an instant, they had lashed out to grab ahold of the enlisted transporter chief. The poor human was stunned, their mouth opening and closing as if they wanted to say something - to say anything - but they were like Gnai, unable to speak.

It couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of their eyes as it was trying its best to stop the suit from moving. No matter what it tried, however, the suit refused to respond. The transporter chief’s eyes were pulled open wide, shaking. They were different to the eyes of the changeling, not shocked and betrayed as much as terrified to the bone.

Gnai: ::to the transporter chief only:: ~ I’m ::partial:: sorry. I’m ::partial:: sorry. I’m ::partial:: sorry. I ::partial:: don’t know – ~

Its telepathic message was cut short when Gnai watched as its suit hurtled the transporter chief’s body at Lt. Jg. Sadar, only for her to duck. The chief’s body met the wall with a crunch, before dropping to the ground, lifeless.

Gnai stared at the body from within its rebellious suit, horrified. Why? Why did it have blood - albeit, metaphorical - on its suit’s hands again? The transporter chief lay there, like the changeling had when he floated through the Badlands, and Gnai felt…

It didn’t know how it felt. Sick? Undoubtedly. Confused? Of course. But most of what it felt was just pure shock. It couldn’t understand why its suit had done that. Had it truly lost control? It had just thrown them. Like they weighed nothing at all.

Two of Eleven: ::in unison:: We are the Borg.

Six of Eleven: ::in unison:: We are the Borg.

Seven of Eleven: ::in unison:: We are the Borg.

The man that Gnai saw when it turned in its tank toward the noise looked far different from when he had beamed aboard the Kitty Hawk with Gnai. His face was mottled and pale with veins of black snaking over it. Just like the Borg. But how? How had he been assimilated? More voices rang out, those of some of the security staff… And Niev??

Was it assimilated? It felt… Well, it felt horrible actually, but the cause of that sucking guilt was lying there on the floor. It didn’t feel assimilated. Was it even possible for a Galadoran?

What was HAPPENING?

Two of Eleven: ::in unison:: Eliminate all unassimilated.

Six of Eleven: ::in unison:: Eliminate all unassimilated.

As the humanoids who had just announced themselves as Borg spoke, the speakers on Gnai’s suit finally turned on, blaring out in the same monotonous voice that it spoke with every day. It was the same, and yet the words chilled Gnai to its soul. The tendrils and filaments of its body shivered in disgust as it heard what the suit was saying, as if it was the one speaking in unison with the other Borg.

Eleven of Eleven: ::in unison:: Eliminate all unassimilated.

The mystery of why its suit was acting up had been solved. Far worse than a slightly murderous engineering bug, Gnai was trapped within itself by the Borg. It hung there, in the middle of its tank, all alone. No one would be there to help it. Not after it had just murdered one of their crewmates with seemingly no remorse. Not while its suit moved in a stagger, like it was just a puppet for their Queen.

But it had to try, damnit. If it was going to die, stuck within its suit and eliminating its unassimilated allies, it wanted someone to know. It needed someone to know that it was still Gnai, that it objected and wanted it all to stop.

But Gnai couldn’t speak, not with the suit refusing to answer its commands. All it could do was try and hope that it could get a message out, telepathically. There was little thought in its first cry for help, as it threw its true voice telepathically across the minds of the others in the room. It was desperate. Would any of them even recognize who was speaking to them in their minds?

Gnai: ::to everyone:: ~ HELP! I’ve ::partial:: lost control! I ::partial:: can’t… ~

Wait. Lt. Jg. Sadar knew that it could do this, at the very least. She could help it. She could point out to the others that it was trapped. And maybe it wouldn’t be the best to alert the Borg to its status. If they could even hear it in their minds - were they too overtaken by the hive to hear?

Would Galador lose its ability to hear if it became one again?

Gnai: ::to Lt. Jg. Sadar:: ~ Make it stop! ~

With a thump Gnai’s body connected with the transparent aluminum of its tank. It wasn’t expecting to break through, just to try and get her attention. She needed to see it trying to break free. To know that this wasn’t some Borg ploy, that the science officer she had come to know (if just briefly so far) was still in there.

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Iko/Galanis: Response

The first Borg, the one who had spoken and then began to fire upon the unassimilated, handed off another phaser to the woman, the one who had been hugged just moments before. Her face was as blank as his, with dark veins creeping across pale skin, and dead eyes. Just what they needed, another armed Borg!

Two of Eleven: ::To Six of Eleven:: Eliminate all unassimilated.

Gnai: ::to Lt. Jg. Sadar:: ~ Lieutenant! Gila! Help! Trapped! Please!! Make it STOP! ~

Its body was flashing brightly in alarm, trying anything it could do to draw her attention, to get her to notice and to try to help. Someone had to be able to help, or to at least stop it. It swam into the walls of the tank again, Gila, HELP. The thump that it made against the transparent aluminum suddenly reminded it of the sound that the chief had made. It needed to be stopped.

Sadar: B-But- ::heartbroken:: We can’t just leave it with them!

It watched as she stared at it, and then turned her back and fled with the rest of the unassimilated. There was nothing Gnai could do to stop its suit from rushing after her, and her in particular. As if the suit had smelled her fear, and marked her as an easy target.

Gnai: ::to Lt. Jg. Sadar:: ~ RUN! Please! ~

If she heard it at all, Gnai couldn’t tell. It just didn’t want to have to watch its suit toss her like a ragdoll. They weren’t even friends, really. Just colleagues. But the thought of hurting someone that it knew was even more unbearable than what it had just done. She needed to run.

One of the assimilated, the first of them to speak, led the rest of them as they hunted down their colleagues and friends. They had taken aim once again, firing volleys towards the unassimilated. Set to kill, of course. What else would it be?

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Iko: Response 

Eleven of Eleven: Eliminate all unassimilated.

Gnai shuddered in its suit, not expecting the speakers to activate again.

Galanis: Response?

((Transporter Room Hallway, Deck 6 - USS Kitty Hawk))

Sadar: Can we move through the Jeffries' Tubes? The corridors are going to be crawling with the assimilated soon!

Gnai watched with relief as Lt. Sadar dodged one of the phaser blasts that came scarily close to her. The one saving grace so far was that it had come unarmed. There was no phaser in its suit’s hands to aim, it had to be up close and personal to do harm. And so far, they all seemed to be able to outrun it.

More phaser fire, from the woman who had been assimilated with them. She took down some officer and Gnai couldn’t watch any more, turning away from her voice within its tank.

Six of Eleven: Resistance is futile.

The sounds of further phaser fire rang out. It couldn’t stand to see Niev there, firing like they had been programmed to do so.

Two of Eleven: Current objective, take control of Kitty Hawk. Eliminate unassimilated. Priority targets, ranking officers.

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Iko: Response

Sadar/Galanis: Response?

In another act of pure cruelty, one of the assimilated grabbed a blue-shirt as they exited into the hallway, hoisting them up by their neck, before shooting them dead. Gnai couldn’t turn anywhere without seeing violence. It understood those professors back at the Academy now. Those ones whose stares would turn blank at the mention of the Borg. There was nothing there in the drones, at least not now.

Some of the assimilated headed off down the hall, seemingly propelled toward some destination on the ship. Gnai could make a few estimated guesses: main engineering, the bridge, sickbay, the armory… It desperately hoped that someone would stop them before they arrived.

Its suit had a different idea, however.

Two of Eleven: Eliminate all unassimilated.

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Iko: Response

Sadar/Galanis: Response?

Six of Eleven: Take control of the Kitty Hawk.

Seven of Eleven: Resistance is futile.

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Iko/Sadar: Response

As Niev and the rest continued to shoot, Gnai tried to ignore cries that rang out, but it was hard.

Aarno (Bajoran Medic): ::to the obvious doctors among the unassimilated:: P-Please! Help me! H-Help me! I-I-I have a family on Amity! You have to-

More of the unassimilated dropped like flies, and Gnai kept feeling sicker and sicker as its suit doggedly pursued the remaining officers that had come with it from the Artemis. Its suit dodged the phaser fire shot at it better than it would have anticipated, but it took a few glancing shots as it closed the distance with the officer bearing the Type 3 phaser.

It knew just how dangerous those could be. There was a reason they’d all been armed with them to hunt changelings on the Artemis. Of course the Borg would want one to turn on the Federation.

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Iko/Sadar: Response

Two/Six/Seven: Response?

Eleven of Eleven: Eliminate all unassimilated.

With a lunge, the suit reached for the weapon. Gnai could see it as the three fingers locked around the barrel of the phaser. Whoever the officer was, she didn’t want to seem to let go.

Iko: Response?

Gnai: ::to Lt. Iko:: ~ I’m ::partial:: sorry! I ::partial:: don’t want to hurt you! Please, stop me ::partial::! ~

Iko: Response

((OOC: The above little bit has been discussed with Iko beforehand! Not pushing this too much because oh my goodness has this gotten LONG.))

Carter/Wong/Vanlith/Orrey/Sadar: Response?

Two/Six/Seven: Response?

Tags/TBC

((OOC: Regarding ::partial::... Here’s some smattering of thoughts on Galadoran linguistics regarding pronouns, which I still have yet to add to the wiki whoops. Paraphrased from the OOC of this sim.

In Galadoran [what influences the grammar in Gnai’s telepathy], 'I' [and the related 'me', 'myself', etc] both have a singular denoting an individual Galadoran/'part of the whole' and a plural denoting the overall Galadoran species as a single entity - and an 'I' that denoted another Galadoran entirely [rather than 'he', 'she', 'they', more along the lines of 'it'/'another part of the whole', which is why Gnai uses it/its pronouns]. 

'We' also gets singular and plural forms, with 'we' being partial [one or more Galadorans amongst non-Galadorans], partial-within-the-species [a subset of Galadorans, 'parts of the whole'], or whole [Galadorans as a species and others, perhaps in the context of agreements made with the Federation, for example]. Sorry if this is confusing, I can try to explain it better if needed!))

--
Ensign Gnai
Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240102G11