Lt. JG. Gila Sadar - A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

[Gnai]

@Gila Sadar manages to take an already horrifying moment (confronting the Borg that have taken over the bridge of the USS Kitty Hawk... as a pacifist doctor) and make it even worse. I've enjoyed reading this sim greatly, especially with all the description of how Gila feels in the moment.

 

Quote

((Bridge - Deck 1, USS Kitty Hawk))

 

 

True pandemonium was what happened when the small team of Borghistamine wielders entered onto the Bridge from the access hatch. Phaser shots soon rang out from everywhere, and the air became tainted with the overwhelming stench of fear-driven adrenaline, as their small group attempted to get close to any humanoid Drone in their near vicinity. Obviously, there were some significant dangers to this plan.

 

One of Eleven: Eliminate all unassimilated.

 

Eleven of Eleven: Eliminate Galadoran.

 

Wong: Everyone! Be careful of that mechanized suit like we spoke about! Don’t let it get you! KEEP UP WITH THE TREATMENT!

 

Gnai: ::to Wong, Iko, Sadar:: ~ What’s going on? Is it working? ~

 

Sadar: N-Not sure, where’s-

 

Iko: Response

 

Wong: Barberra? … or is it Borgberra now? Because I feel like Barberra would appreciate that one or at least take the opportunity to tell me how lame it is!

 

(((OOC: From here on out, Gila is not paying attention to the altercation between Iko, Wong and Borgberra. Please reference Yirah and Wong’s Sims for those tags.)))

 

Gnai: ::to Sadar:: ~ GILA! DUCK! ~

 

Gila quickly did as bidden by the telepathic Galadoran in the backpack, only narrowly avoiding having her head dislodged by a swinging metallic arm. She heard numerous phaser shots firing overhead, but she didn’t stop to find out whether those shots were friendly or not. A primordial fear, instincts left behind by a forgotten past, urged her forward.

 

Eleven of Eleven: Resistance is futile.

 

Sadar: ::shrieks:: L-Leave us alone!

 

Gila crawled underneath a console, utilizing the fact that vertical movement was far more difficult for the suit than it was for her, as she tried putting some more distance between them and it.

 

Gnai: ::to Sadar:: ~ The suit! It’s behind you! ~

 

Gila felt the cold grip of fear clutch at her nuchal folds and instinctively jumped forward, landing on her stomach some meters away, and she scrambled back to her feet faster than she thought possible. The suit was too fast. It wasn’t hindered by fear, adrenaline, or responsibility towards others. It was coming for her, ignoring all other obstacles and threats, and Gila had a pretty good idea why. She took the backpack with the floating Galadoran off of her back, realigning its position so she was between it and the pursuing suit.

 

Sadar: Y-You can’t- I won’t-!

 

Eleven of Eleven: ::advancing on Lt. Jg. Sader, trying to restrain her:: Accept elimination

 

The pain was like nothing Gila had ever experienced. Her forward momentum was suddenly halted as one of the exosuit's claws arrested and squeezed one of her arms. It was excruciating. The sound of bone starting to creak and fracture was so vivid in her mind, she wasn’t sure whether it was actually real or just countless memories being brought to the surface. Her arm would break, that much was for certain. And once it did, she would be even more useless. She wouldn't be able to defend Ensign Gnai from the advance of this Machine of Death, and no matter whether the Borghistamines actually worked on an organic lifeform or not, they would hold little sway over the veins of wire and the flesh of metal of the monster before her. Gila was no stranger to monsters. She'd seen plenty in the past year. No, she'd seen monsters even prior to that. The night terrors of faraway worlds, the knowledge that the universe held so much darkness, so much violence, all ready to swallow her up and drown her should she ever dare to step out of line.

 

oO Resist not the turn of the Wheel and let the guidance of the ancestors provide the lessons of the future. Oo

 

If the Wheel was guiding her towards her death - towards the end of everyone here, the end of the Federation - was she still supposed to allow the currents of fate to pass over her? Was she still supposed to just let the Universe pass her by, let things come to pass and stand there to pick up the broken pieces? She'd been faced with such a question once before - she'd had the chance to do nothing, and she rebelled - and it had killed the one she tried to save.

 

Eleven of Eleven: Resistance is-

 

oO Sacrifice that which is dear and let the Wheel guide your way. Oo

 

Like smooth stone below roaring waves, she saw her home come to the surface. Eastrise 2, the morning sun playing in the curves of white steel, casting rainbows into the streets below. But the rainbows weren't rainbows, they were reflections, and they weren't reflections from the white buildings of her homeworld, but of the glass dome of a Galadoran exo-skeleton, whose metal hands were crushing her hand, and her jaw was itching from the pain. Pain came from violence, and she wanted nothing more than for the pain to stop.

 

oO Violence is the cursed spring from which all suffering flows. Oo

 

What happened next was beyond anything Gila had anticipated.

 

Never had she experienced as debilitating a sensation as when her jaw came undone, suddenly falling away underneath the roof of her mouth to allow her to take a deep breath. The breath tasted like iron and sweat, of salt and adrenaline, and her tongue went dry as her mouth was open for an unnatural length of time, and she tried to close her mouth to combat the dryness, but only then realized that she felt her chin resting against her collarbone. She didn't have time to think of the fact that that's not where it was supposed to be, when she started choking. Long, serrated blades of darkened bone, glistening with saliva, shot forth at great speed, locking the shoulder joint of the exosuit in a brutal and lethal vice grip, tearing into the wires and plastic filaments that joined the shoulder to the central dome of the exosuit, and Gila fought to breathe, but all she registered was the thick rounded bones protruding from her gaping mouth. She saw the exosuit retract as it registered the serrated edges of the black blade tearing into the filaments, and as the two blades started crossing, pulling, dragging, Gila stumbled. But they weren't pulling her towards the exosuit, towards her doom, but rather pulling the exosuit towards HER, refusing to release the suit despite it's attempts at retreat, and the sensation of jagged bones grinding against metal vibrated through her skull, making her vision swim and her stomach roll with nausea, as she dropped the backpack holding the Ensign that she'd been holding up.

 

She reached for her mouth to attempt to remove the blades, when a thunderous clap resounded in the inner core of her body as a single metal arm fell to the floor, slipping out of the crippling restraint of the black blades that quickly swung back towards Gila. She wanted to scream, but couldn't - her jaw was still dislocated and her mouth still full of bone - as she saw the sharp edges fly towards her head at great speed. Only, they never touched her. Instead, they returned to the deep purple roof of her open mouth from whence they'd sprung to life in the first place, and Gila fell to her knees, trembling fingers locating her still dangling jaw...

 

One of Eleven: ::To Eleven:: Cancel separation.

 

Eleven of Eleven: Unable to comply. Damaged. Da-Damaged.

 

And upon her kneeling, trembling form looked the nightmarish form of herself, clad in black leather and looking upon her with cold and dark in her eyes. It represented all that she'd feared becoming for the better part of a year. And Gila knew, instinctively, that had this happened to a humanoid, to someone of flesh and blood, not metal and wires... They would be dead. And the self-fulfilling prophecy - the one her people had anticipated and shunned her for - would have become irreversible.

 

oO Gila Sadar. The First Mizarian Murderer. Oo

 

Gnai: Response

 

Thumbs and index fingers gingerly follow the line drawn by her dislodged jaw, attempting to find the temporomandibular joint - that had to be where this mechanism had happened - and trying to recall the steps through thoughts addled with long-forgotten nightmares and revelations and long-repressed fears. And with a sudden and loud snap, the trained fingers of a physician had put her jaw back in place.

 

Gnai: Response

 

Sadar: ::sobs:: I... Wh-What did I... ::clutches her jaw frantically, tears streaming down her face:: I-I don’t-

 

Gnai: Response

 

Sadar: N-No, I... ::cries dissolve into a heartbroken scream::

 

Gnai: Response

 

(((OOC: This is when Gila starts noticing the others again.)))

 

An explosion sounded over Gila’s scream, and Gila looked up, seeing the havoc caused by their altercation with the Borg through a mist of tears. The helm console was in flames, and all the Borg had retreated. And on the viewscreen, large and imposing - as befitting a Galaxy Class - the surface of the Earth Moon was coming ever closer.

 

Wong: Alright, anyone who’s not Borg, take a console! Gnai, Sadar, you’re on sciences. Iko, you’re up here with me. I’m going to need someone on tactical!

 

Gila didn’t hear.

 

Five of Eleven: Gnai of MacKenzie, assistance required.

 

Gnai: Response

 

As though the thoughts were her own, Gila’s legs started moving as she retrieved the discarded backpack and let her forward momentum carry her towards the restrained Borg Drone.

 

Five of Eleven: We have sustained a concussion.

 

Gnai: Response

 

Sadar: O-Okay…

 

Gila sat down next to the Drone, looking at him in an attempt to ascertain his physical state, but when she raised her hands to try and do a proper examination of his head, black bone flashed before her eyes and she stalled.

 

Iko: Response 

 

Five of Eleven: After we transported Gnai to sickbay, we… I initiated a saucer separation. One and I engaged each other in combat and One tied us… me up and halted the separation sequence.

 

Singular pronouns... There was hope.

 

Gnai/Iko/Wong: response

 

Wong: =/\= Orrey, DeVeau - we have the bridge but helm is out. We’re currently on a collision course with the moon which we’re going to try to do something about. But Barberra and Ensign Gnai’s mechanized suit are on the run. I may have shot one of them with a bit of Klingon blood. I don’t know. So the quarantine fields may slow them down. But they’re headed in your general direction. Look out for them !=/\=

 

Orrey/DeVeau: Response 

 

The other team that they’d split from in Sickbay weren’t dead yet.

 

Wong: Ensign Gnai, how’s your physics? We won’t be able to use the helm to control us. But maybe we can use tractor beams to help guide us into an orbit around the moon. A very slow motion controlled crash if you will.

 

Five of Eleven: ::to Sadar:: Borghistamine?

 

Sadar: ::raw and hoarse:: I-It... ::clears her throat:: A medicine. It’s meant to prevent your cells from replicating more Borg DNA to maintain the assimilation.

 

Iko/Gnai: Response 

 

Gila looked up as a PADD was pushed into her hands.

 

Wong: Use this if you need to. Tactical, please tell whoever’s shooting at us to knock it off. Iko, we have to get a hold of Rahman.

 

The two crewmen of Amity Outpost shared a brief moment of familiarity, and Gila looked away.

 

Wong: I have your back, sis.

 

Five of Eleven: ::to Sadar:: I do not recommend the implementation of this Borg cure at this time. 

 

Sadar: Wh-Why do you say that?

 

Iko/Gnai: Response 

 

Five of Eleven: It took three hours for the Yirah Symbiont to join with the changes made to the host’s brain. Borg cure results are unknowable. No time to test results. 

 

Wong: =/\=Captain Rahman, Commander Ukinix, this is Lieutenant Wong. I guess I’m acting captain of at least exactly half a Kitty Hawk right now. Anyways, that’s probably not going to be for long because we’re on a collision course with the moon. We’re going to be trying to use tractor beams to try to slow us down and slingshot us into an orbit around the moon to try to save ours and Luna’s skins right now.=/\=

 

Rahman/Ukinix: Response 

 

Iko/Gnai: Response

 

Sadar: S-So, what you’re saying is... The Symbiont has become accustomed to your new DNA profile. And reversing it too quickly might have an adverse effect on your connection?

 

The Trill Drone’s eyes spoke of his agreement.

 

Five of Eleven: It is up to you. I have stated my concerns with regards to it.

 

Iko/Gnai/Wong: response

 

They had few other options. Leaving a still-assimilated Drone - even if it was a resisting Trill Drone - was too risky, but Gila also knew how vicariously the Trill guarded the Symbionts.

 

Sadar: I’ll give you a small dosage. We can’t risk you getting reassimilated at this junction. But I’ll try and give your Symbiont the best possible chances at acclimatizing to the changing DNA structures as we go along.

 

Iko/Gnai/Wong/Five of Eleven: response

 

Obeying the orders given - because that was all Gila felt fairly certain she was capable of doing at this point - she carried the backpack over to the Science Console.

 

Sadar: T-Tractor Beam... On a Moon. Okay.

 

With shaking hands, she placed the PADD handed to her by Lieutenant Wong on to console, and she started skimming through it with desperate abandon. Music playlists, holodeck programs, old Academy papers still filled with numerous half-finished references - how was any of this supposed to help!?

 

Iko/Gnai/Wong/Five of Eleven: response

 

Gila’s hand paused over the PADD, as she saw a frankly awful video - the quality showed severe signs of having been filmed by a less-than-professional cameraman with questionable motor skills - of flat rocks skimming the surface of a bond. Flat, circular rocks. Saucer-shaped rocks.

 

Sadar: Can’t we skim the saucer on the atmosphere? Use the shape to our advantage? We have significantly less power now that the Kitty Hawk has separated.

 

Iko/Gnai/Wong/Five of Eleven: response

 

 

 

TAGs/TBC