Lt Jg Sasch Kreshkova - The Ultimate Price

[Korras]

I present to you: an excellent naration of how Saschenka is dealing with being assimilated.

 

((USS Narendra, deck 1, Main Bridge))


Sasch wondered if this was what it felt like to die.  Was dying being lulled to complacency by some nearly perfect song sung peacefully not just in your head, but throughout your whole body.  It was a song she could feel as much as she could hear.  

Collective voice: Give in Sasch.

The voice sang to her.  

Collective voice:  You’ll feel so much better.  You’ll feel whole and complete.  You’ll never be alone.  Remember that time you took your dad’s yacht out by yourself?  You were old enough to know what to do in calm weather, but when you realized you were alone, you panicked.  You will never be alone again.  We will always be there for you.

Kreshkova:  ::Even while her skin took on an ashen hue::  Can’t….give….in…

Sasch watched as Tito nearly fell near her.  Now, the song changed.  She could feel its lust for others.  It wanted her to reach out and assimilate her friend.  She pressed her eyes closed, so that she couldn’t even see Tito, so even if what was growing inside her got the upper hand, she couldn’t see to do its bidding. Kreshkova:  Help … me … Tito.  I don’t … want to … give in.

Tito: Sacsh…

Taybrim: Hold on a little bit, Ensign.  I’m working on something.

Kreshkova:  Trying … so  … hard.

But Sasch’s eyes flashed open against her will.  They were full of fire, but quickly softened as she - at least for the moment refused to give in and gained a slight advantage in their fight.

Korras: mu'qaD! All forcefields have failed. Engineering is on it, but we are venting air.

Taybrim: Keep us steady, keep us hidden in the debris.  The Enterprise hasn’t seen us… yet.

Tito: Keep fighting it, Lieutenant Kreshkova.

Every ounce of her will wanted to fight, needed to fight.  And while the cascade of this Borg nano virus or whatever it was hadn’t yet overpowered her, she could feel it growing inside her.  She could also feel the part of her that made her who she was was waning.  Once again, she said…

Kreshkova:  Help … So hard … hard to … fight.

Taybrim: Can you administer that to Kreshkova – Doctor Foster confirmed it slows the progress.

Tito nodded, taking the hypo in his hand.

Tito: Consider it done Commodore

This time, Sasch couldn’t even speak with her lips, but her eyes pleaded with her friend.

Korras: ?

Taybrim: Sickbay’s working on getting someone up here.  We still have a job to do.

Tito: I will apologise later Lieutenant.

Sasch felt herself being roughly pulled up from the floor.  The song told her to lash out.  It grew to a harried pace - almost a chant - Assimilate.  Assimilate.  Assimilate.  Assimilate.  Louder and louder it grew in her head, but once the typospray found its prey - her neck - the song softened and lost much of its intensity.  Once again, she could fight.

Kreshkova:  Zhank … you.  

… was all she could say.  She once again was given the will to fight and a modicum of ability to fight that song that wanted to either lull her into complacency or to lash out and infect others.

Korras: ?

Taybrim: All the more reason we need to take out the flagship.  It was at the epicenter of everything when the invasion first began, there’s a good chance that there’s some sort of hive function or relay point onboard the Enterprise.

Tito: Please tell me that helped Lieutenant, we need you. You don’t want to rely on my piloting skills.

Sasch simply stood there at Tito’s request.  There was an intense internal battle going on within the young officer.  Everything that was her - that was Sasch wanted to conquer this desire and end this battle.  The problem was that two battles were raging - the one for her soul and the one for her ship.

Kreshkova:  I … can’t … Tito.   Want … Want to.  

Korras:?

Tito: We need another shot at the Enterprise, but we have to make sure our systems aren’t infected.

As Tito guided her to the infected console, her hands flew up to her head.  The song reached a frenzied pitch, and the young officer with green hair screamed as the voices tried to push through the advantage that the medication gave her.  Her eyes were filled with a strange combination of fear and fire.

Taybrim/Korras: ?

But something in the scream drove back the voices.  She had a moment of lucidity, and she slipped into the chair at her console, but as her fingers came in contact with the infected console, the voices surged back.  She yanked her fingers away from the console as if she had set them in a pot of boiling water.  

Sasch closed her eyes trying to maintain the upper hand.  She swiveled the chair around to face the others.  Her face contorted into all sorts of expressions and shapes even as she fought each onslaught of the Borg nanoprobes that coursed through her system.

Kreshkova:  Infected.

It was the only word she could get out.  She hoped that they understood that it was the console that was infected.

Kreshkova: Won’t … ::Sasch lost all ability to form words again, but one more gutteral scream once again gave her a slight bit of control over her abilities.  Just enough to let her say.:: Console infected … won’t function.

Tito: Lets take out one of its nacelles?

Tito: Simple physics, we run a collision course and overpower our deflector, we just need to hit their weakest spot, one of the nacelles… I know its a crazy plan, kinda like my friend does it.

But in a moment of mental clarity, Sasch had an idea.  She turned back around to face the console and with everything that was in her, she did two things at once.  First, she willingly gave into the nanites crying out for her soul.  But as she did that, she reached out her hand and injected the console a second time.  But this time, she cleared the console of the Borg virus, taking it into herself and at the same time, what little was left of Sasch reprogrammed the console to do exactly what Tito had requested.

Kreshkova:  ::With a loud guttural cry.:: Tito, done!

But then she paid the price for trying to save the Narendra and trying to destroy the Enterprise.  She stood, turned, and faced her comrades, now a full Borg.

Taybrim/Korras: ?

Kreshkova:  Resistance is futile.  Assimilate.

Taybrim/Korras/Tito: ?

Sasch lumbered toward the Commodore - a strange mixture of hatred and sorrow filled the young Borg’s eyes.  

Kreshkova:  Resistance is futile.

Taybrim/Korras/Tito: ?