S12 - M4: The Delta Quadrant Vultures

[Tekin Nevir]

[Bridge]

As if on que, the turbolift doors swooshed open and Vincent stepped out into a whirlwind. Yes, as he had thought, things could get a lot worse. He saw Kimball, the liberated Borg, who had contacted him and was taken a back, just a moment. He had been a civilian when the Borg incursions happened over the past thirty years but every parsec of Federation space was well aware of the ominous destructive force.

He shook the thought out of his mind, since it was obvious Kimball wasn't going to assimilate him or anyone else. Call it first time Borg jitters. Before he even had time to marvel over the Bridge, he made the detour from Kimball to the XO after the man's utterance, his eyes darting between the two men as he spoke.

"Crewman Vincent reporting as ordered." The engineer stated, keeping his tone and demeanor calm and formal as if the crisis around him was only in his peripheral.  "Where do you want me?"

tag Kimball, Nevir

[Bridge]

Another shake, and Nevir looked up at the Engineering crewman.  He had a grim look on his face, but that would hopefully change.  "Welcome to the Bridge, Crewman.  We're fighting against Talaxians equipped with Borg technology and they are jamming our sensors and comms with the surface. Kimball has a plan, but he needs an engineer to help him.  The sooner, the better, it's getting harder to repel their attacks." he said, gesturing behind him.

"Kimball, prepare a spread towards the outlier, I don't want to hit our people.  If we can take that one out, it will leave only the one."

Another shudder, and an alarm sounded.  "And the sooner the better.  We have too many warp cores here to damage."

[LK Reede]

[Bridge]

Another borg torpedo flew towards the ship, and it hit the shields before shimmering and conitnuing through to the hull.  The ship gave a giant rock as the blast hit, and several more LCAR panels blew out.  Why did that also happen?

"Sir! They penetrated the shields!  We've lost one of the shuttles!"

"Sickbay to Bridge, we have casualties from all over the ship, we're getting overwhelmed." 

Nevir swung around to Reed, a grim look on his face.

"Ms Reede, get down to sickbay.  Triage protocols.  I doubt things will get better before we take these people out." 

"Aye, sir." LK turned quickly, rushing to the turbo lift, brushing past a crewman -engineering by his color coding- and called out, "Deck seven."

Taking a few deep breathes, Dr. Reede calmed herself as she readied for the onslaught of patients, nurses, orderlies... some or all of them in chaos mode.

What she found was an organized mess. Head nurse Eamt was using her empathetic powers to determine where the severely injured were then determining which ones couldn't wait for treatment.

LK took a padd from an aide and moved over to Earmt. "Where's the CMO?"

Eamt glanced toward LK for just a moment, returned her attention to her patient as she replied, "In surgery; OR 1. Doctors Harden and Banks are in 3 and 4. I could use you here, doctor. We're backed up and they're still coming in."

[Kirok]

[Planetside]

Alex had stood silently a few feet away from the Admiral and the Talaxian. Unlike the rest of the away team he chose to simply gaze at the area he was already in.

The camp had a ragged sense to it. Houses were quickly put up, with the priority being to showcase the technology rather than provide comfort. People were strewn about, though most seemed to avoid approaching the tent that the Admiral and Geefix were in.

Alex jumped slightly, in surprise - he did not expect the Admiral to call upon him for, well, anything. Quickly thinking, Alex found it strikingly odd that communications would be lost with the ship. However, nothing had ever indicated that we were in communication during our tenure on the planet.

"Well, uh, Captain" Alex said in a hushed and timid voice, "I'm not sure we ever actually established contact with the Discovery. It's possible that the atmosphere is interfering with our communications, but I doubt it's that - the Discovery surely would have noticed it before we beamed down" Alex was more confident as he continued to speak

"It's also possible that the Discovery's Communications have been disrupted somehow. Perhaps the system went down during repairs?" Alex finished his thought being very perplexed. It seemed highly unlikely to him that a Starfleet Engineering staff would do something that would cause the Communication Array to go down.

[Planet]

Kirok nodded his head in agreement.  "Both are valid possibilities, Mr. Campbell" Kirok replied.  They has just started replacing bio-gels before the team had beamed down.

Perhaps the bio-gets feeding the communication array were being replaced.  Surely that would account for the outage.  "Please check back with them in 15 minutes" he suggested.

[Planet side]

The Vorta had decided he was not going to wonder away from the Admiral. Staying with the main group was the safest strategy. So, he had headed the direction the location. If people want to wonder off to play solo. So be it. He was not ordered to head off to far. His concern was being a doctor and find what they needed. He figured he could do that near the Admiral.

As the Vorta had walked in. His eye saw the tea. The Vorta walked over to it. "Admiral, your safety is our concern. As being a Doctor I need to ask? Did you drink this yet? I need to see it if it's poison..." he smiled as he looked at Geeflix. "I can test taste it. My people are immune to MOST poisons." Then he the Vorta had a dare look to the feathered head alien.

After all, the Admiral was being treated as his superior like he was looking over a God. The Admiral was far being a God, but his safety was the Doctor's concern. The Admiral was the leader and the leader are usually the ones who will do what they can to protect those who are under them.

[Planet]

Kirok was still in the middle of talking to Campbell.  So he did not have time to reply.  Instead he held up one finger, to indicate that he needed a minute.

Geefix's mouth puckered in anger.  He was insulted by the comment.  And he was about to make his anger know, but was interrupted by the hale.

[Planet, Abandoned City]

As the Talaxian and his two friends looked at her, Awen couldn't help but feel unsettled. Their friendly expressions seemed forced and the look in their eyes... They were trying not to let it show, but the instincts she'd developed from conversations with her family and her militia training told her something was wrong. Very wrong.

As he drew a weapon, Awen froze. It had been stupid of her to go alone, she now realized, but from what she had understood about the Talaxians, she hadn't thought she would be in danger from them. Technically, Awen did have a phaser, but she was also outnumbered. Usually she was overly cautious, but her curiosity about this city got the best of her. At the very least, she should have been more careful about not being spotted.

Awen knew she had limited choices in this scenario. She could just go along with them and hope that someone noticed her absence, or she could try to stall them long enough that help would arrive. Of course, she would have to do something to get people's attention.

"I.."  the Bajoran began speaking, but was interrupted by Kirok's response.

"I should respond so they know I received the message," she said quickly. Seizing the opportunity, Awen quickly tapped her comm badge and left the channel open so that any away team member could hear it, =A=Understood. SOS protocol required. Hopefully we can clear it up.=A=

Awen wasn't sure that any of the away team would understand her message. SOS was an Earth signal to indicate trouble; hopefully the Talaxians weren't well versed in Terran signals. She also neglected to close the comm channel - if their communications on the planet weren't affected, someone should hear her conversation as well.

Not wanting to give the Talaxians the satisfaction of seeing her concern, Awen kept a neutral expression on her face. "I have to wonder if you've really thought this through... You have to know that my crewmates will realize I'm missing. They aren't in the habit of leaving someone behind. And before you tell me that you plan to capture all of us, you should also be aware that StarFleet would find out and they'll come after you. They don't take kindly to these sorts of actions."

As she spoke, Awen very slowly started walking backwards. There was a house behind her. Perhaps she could find a place to take cover and draw her own weapon. The odds right now were not in favor, but perhaps she could tip things her way or at least hold them off until help arrived...

OFF: Tag Tekin and away team

[Planet]

Kirok's right eyebrow rose when he heard the word 'SOS.'  He had worked in the intelligence game long enough to recognize a code when it was presented.  And this was a red flag of a code.

The half Vulcan turned to his Chief of Sec/Tac.  "Mr. Black.  You need to locate Ms. Fala" he whispered.

Having heard the rest of the conversation, Geefix saw an opportunity and changed his rage to something different.  "I have this. If you will allow me to handle it" he said.

He stepped a bit closer to Kirok's com badge.  "This is head merchant Geefix.  I'm order whoever can hear my voice to leave our visitors unharmed.  To do otherwise will result in your immediate expulsion from our city.  Reply that you understand and will comply" he said.

[Kirok]

[Bridge]

Another shake, and Nevir looked up at the Engineering crewman.  He had a grim look on his face, but that would hopefully change.  "Welcome to the Bridge, Crewman.  We're fighting against Talaxians equipped with Borg technology and they are jamming our sensors and comms with the surface. Kimball has a plan, but he needs an engineer to help him.  The sooner, the better, it's getting harder to repel their attacks." he said, gesturing behind him.

"Kimball, prepare a spread towards the outlier, I don't want to hit our people.  If we can take that one out, it will leave only the one."

Another shudder, and an alarm sounded.  "And the sooner the better.  We have too many warp cores here to damage."

[Bridge]

"It's really quite simple, Declan.  Those ships are blocking our comm signal.  We and by that I mean you, need to change the outgoing frequency on the array.  If you can do that, we should be good.  I'm forwarding you a file to help you out.  You can access it at any of the stations" EQ said.

Then he turned his attention back to Tekin.  "Aye, Sir.  Preparing a spread of torpedoes.  Targeting the outlying ship.  I have locked onto my target.  Ready to fire at your will, Sir" EQ said.

[Alex Campbell]

[Planet]

Kirok nodded his head in agreement.  "Both are valid possibilities, Mr. Campbell" Kirok replied.  They has just started replacing bio-gels before the team had beamed down.

Perhaps the bio-gets feeding the communication array were being replaced.  Surely that would account for the outage.  "Please check back with them in 15 minutes" he suggested.

[Planet]

"Aye Captain...but I'm going to start trying to raise the shuttlecrafts. It's possible we might be able to establish communications through one of them." Alex said, quickly tapping his Commbadge

Campbell to shuttle craft Stockwin, do you copy? Alex said, planning to raise every shuttle craft in a vain hope that perhaps someone would pick up their message.

Instead of the standard beeps the commbadge gave off to suggest the communication had been received, it stayed silent. Something was blocking the transmission from being received in the first place.

Alex inched towards Admiral Kirok and began whispering in a worried voice.
"Captain, I can't even raise shuttlecrafts on the Discovery...I think we should start considering the possibility that her communications are being jammed" as Alex spoke, his speech became more hushed with the final words barely being audible.

[Declan Vincent]

[Bridge]

Another shake, and Nevir looked up at the Engineering crewman.  He had a grim look on his face, but that would hopefully change.  "Welcome to the Bridge, Crewman.  We're fighting against Talaxians equipped with Borg technology and they are jamming our sensors and comms with the surface. Kimball has a plan, but he needs an engineer to help him.  The sooner, the better, it's getting harder to repel their attacks." he said, gesturing behind him.

[Bridge]

Vincent listened, ignoring the klaxons. "Talaxians using Borg technology..." He had stated aloud as he considered the ramifications of anyone adapting such technology and using it against Starfleet. "Talaxians.." He murmurred as if trying to come to terms with just who was attacking them. "Understood, Sir." One thing he didn't have a problem with was orders and the engineer turned around and headed to the very Borg that, only seconds earlier had gave him that awkward moment.

"Mr. Kimball, I'm at your disposal. What do you need?" He didn't want to stare at the other's Borg implants that were still fused to his body. Curiosity was something that could wait a heck of a bit longer and he felt pretty confident the poor fella has had his share of both sympathy and busy bodies.

"It's really quite simple, Declan.  Those ships are blocking our comm signal.  We and by that I mean you, need to change the outgoing frequency on the array.  If you can do that, we should be good.  I'm forwarding you a file to help you out.  You can access it at any of the stations" EQ said.

Vincent nodded and sat himself at the closest vacant station. A few taps of the console and Kimball's file was on screen. "I have it, Mr. Kimball." The screen changed to a digital image of the array with a number of computations. Using the array was clever; tightening the directional comm beam with different frequencies maybe enough to punch through the interference.

He brought up another screen with more computations as his sapphire eyes darted between them as he discarded some as Kimball's file helped with the heavy lifting. It felt like an eternity, lost in his work though the duration was under the time frame confined by conflagration and despair.

"Done, Mr. Kimball. I may have to modulate it if the Talaxians become wise on it but we should be able to contact the shuttlecraft." The engineer was feeling confident as he looked to the Borg, then over his shoulder at the XO.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Planet, Abandoned City]

As the Talaxian and his two friends looked at her, Awen couldn't help but feel unsettled. Their friendly expressions seemed forced and the look in their eyes... They were trying not to let it show, but the instincts she'd developed from conversations with her family and her militia training told her something was wrong. Very wrong.

As he drew a weapon, Awen froze. It had been stupid of her to go alone, she now realized, but from what she had understood about the Talaxians, she hadn't thought she would be in danger from them. Technically, Awen did have a phaser, but she was also outnumbered. Usually she was overly cautious, but her curiosity about this city got the best of her. At the very least, she should have been more careful about not being spotted.

Awen knew she had limited choices in this scenario. She could just go along with them and hope that someone noticed her absence, or she could try to stall them long enough that help would arrive. Of course, she would have to do something to get people's attention.

"I.."  the Bajoran began speaking, but was interrupted by Kirok's response.

"I should respond so they know I received the message," she said quickly. Seizing the opportunity, Awen quickly tapped her comm badge and left the channel open so that any away team member could hear it, =A=Understood. SOS protocol required. Hopefully we can clear it up.=A=

Awen wasn't sure that any of the away team would understand her message. SOS was an Earth signal to indicate trouble; hopefully the Talaxians weren't well versed in Terran signals. She also neglected to close the comm channel - if their communications on the planet weren't affected, someone should hear her conversation as well.

Not wanting to give the Talaxians the satisfaction of seeing her concern, Awen kept a neutral expression on her face. "I have to wonder if you've really thought this through... You have to know that my crewmates will realize I'm missing. They aren't in the habit of leaving someone behind. And before you tell me that you plan to capture all of us, you should also be aware that StarFleet would find out and they'll come after you. They don't take kindly to these sorts of actions."

As she spoke, Awen very slowly started walking backwards. There was a house behind her. Perhaps she could find a place to take cover and draw her own weapon. The odds right now were not in favor, but perhaps she could tip things her way or at least hold them off until help arrived...

OFF: Tag Tekin and away team

Eividx raises an eyebrow at her, slightly amused by her inquiry.  He brandished the disruptor to let her answer, while turning towards the others.  Most went back to work at his look, leaving it just him holding her.

"You're asking if we thought this through?  You brought a half-damaged ship to a dangerous sector.  Your Starfleet would probably send someone out... but there is a colony of Borg nearby, and ships that lose to the Borg are rarely left intact.  You really should have watched where you went and not roam the colony without an escort... that's when trouble finds you.  Luckily, when Gee-"

[Planet]

Geefix's mouth puckered in anger.  He was insulted by the comment.  And he was about to make his anger know, but was interrupted by the hale.

[Planet]

Kirok's right eyebrow rose when he heard the word 'SOS.'  He had worked in the intelligence game long enough to recognize a code when it was presented.  And this was a red flag of a code.

The half Vulcan turned to his Chief of Sec/Tac.  "Mr. Black.  You need to locate Ms. Fala" he whispered.

Having heard the rest of the conversation, Geefix saw an opportunity and changed his rage to something different.  "I have this. If you will allow me to handle it" he said.

He stepped a bit closer to Kirok's com badge.  "This is head merchant Geefix.  I'm order whoever can hear my voice to leave our visitors unharmed.  To do otherwise will result in your immediate expulsion from our city.  Reply that you understand and will comply" he said.

[Planet - Abandoned City]

The call caught Eividx off-guard... how did they..?  Worst still, wasn't Geefix straying a bit from what was his strategy was?  There was an obvious look of slight confusion on his face, and slowly the disrupter was lowered. A thought popped into his head, which would explain the sudden call.  He put back on his smile, keep the disruptor lowered, but in hand.

"This... this is Foreman Eividx from the Western Excavation Salvage Operation.  We had a slight incident, we caught this Federation officer in the excavation zone.  By herself.  She nearly harmed herself in a dangerous area.  We can have an escort bring her back, but its better than Starfleet getting hurt and requiring assistance."

He smirked, almost daring her to contradict what he said.  After all, he did choose his words carefully.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Bridge]

"It's really quite simple, Declan.  Those ships are blocking our comm signal.  We and by that I mean you, need to change the outgoing frequency on the array.  If you can do that, we should be good.  I'm forwarding you a file to help you out.  You can access it at any of the stations" EQ said.

Then he turned his attention back to Tekin.  "Aye, Sir.  Preparing a spread of torpedoes.  Targeting the outlying ship.  I have locked onto my target.  Ready to fire at your will, Sir" EQ said.

[Bridge]

Nevir remained silent for a minute... they were out of time.  Looking down, he noted the warp core's strain on his console... if they didn't finish this soon, another attack could spark a warp core emergency.

"Fire..." he said, waiting to watch the spread fly.

[Bridge]

Vincent listened, ignoring the klaxons. "Talaxians using Borg technology..." He had stated aloud as he considered the ramifications of anyone adapting such technology and using it against Starfleet. "Talaxians.." He murmurred as if trying to come to terms with just who was attacking them. "Understood, Sir." One thing he didn't have a problem with was orders and the engineer turned around and headed to the very Borg that, only seconds earlier had gave him that awkward moment.

"Mr. Kimball, I'm at your disposal. What do you need?" He didn't want to stare at the other's Borg implants that were still fused to his body. Curiosity was something that could wait a heck of a bit longer and he felt pretty confident the poor fella has had his share of both sympathy and busy bodies.

Vincent nodded and sat himself at the closest vacant station. A few taps of the console and Kimball's file was on screen. "I have it, Mr. Kimball." The screen changed to a digital image of the array with a number of computations. Using the array was clever; tightening the directional comm beam with different frequencies maybe enough to punch through the interference.

He brought up another screen with more computations as his sapphire eyes darted between them as he discarded some as Kimball's file helped with the heavy lifting. It felt like an eternity, lost in his work though the duration was under the time frame confined by conflagration and despair.

"Done, Mr. Kimball. I may have to modulate it if the Talaxians become wise on it but we should be able to contact the shuttlecraft." The engineer was feeling confident as he looked to the Borg, then over his shoulder at the XO.

"Excellent work, Mr. Vincent.  Ops, open a channel to the shuttles.  Keep trying to reestablish communications with the away team." he said, turning and waiting for the channel to open.  Once it did, he tried.

"Discovery to Shuttlecraft Stockwin.  Mr. Wu, can you hear me?" 

[Kirok]

[Planet]

"Aye Captain...but I'm going to start trying to raise the shuttlecrafts. It's possible we might be able to establish communications through one of them." Alex said, quickly tapping his Commbadge

Campbell to shuttle craft Stockwin, do you copy? Alex said, planning to raise every shuttle craft in a vain hope that perhaps someone would pick up their message.

Instead of the standard beeps the commbadge gave off to suggest the communication had been received, it stayed silent. Something was blocking the transmission from being received in the first place.

Alex inched towards Admiral Kirok and began whispering in a worried voice.
"Captain, I can't even raise shuttlecrafts on the Discovery...I think we should start considering the possibility that her communications are being jammed" as Alex spoke, his speech became more hushed with the final words barely being audible.

[Planet]

"I see" Kirok replied in a similarly hushed tone.  "We have established that the comm signal worked from person to person on the planet.  So, I am lead to believe that the interference is coming from near the ship or between us and the ship" he stated.

"Even it the bio-gels were being replaced, the outage would not last this long.  Which means that the reason from the interference must be coming from an outside source.  Another ship perhaps?" he asked, again quietly.

Eividx raises an eyebrow at her, slightly amused by her inquiry.  He brandished the disruptor to let her answer, while turning towards the others.  Most went back to work at his look, leaving it just him holding her.

"You're asking if we thought this through?  You brought a half-damaged ship to a dangerous sector.  Your Starfleet would probably send someone out... but there is a colony of Borg nearby, and ships that lose to the Borg are rarely left intact.  You really should have watched where you went and not roam the colony without an escort... that's when trouble finds you.  Luckily, when Gee-"

[Planet - Abandoned City]

The call caught Eividx off-guard... how did they..?  Worst still, wasn't Geefix straying a bit from what was his strategy was?  There was an obvious look of slight confusion on his face, and slowly the disrupter was lowered. A thought popped into his head, which would explain the sudden call.  He put back on his smile, keep the disruptor lowered, but in hand.

"This... this is Foreman Eividx from the Western Excavation Salvage Operation.  We had a slight incident, we caught this Federation officer in the excavation zone.  By herself.  She nearly harmed herself in a dangerous area.  We can have an escort bring her back, but its better than Starfleet getting hurt and requiring assistance."

He smirked, almost daring her to contradict what he said.  After all, he did choose his words carefully.

[Planet]

"Do that, and promptly" Geefix replied.  "And if she is hurt in any way, I will be quite angry.  I will not have a good trade spoiled" he added.

[Kirok]

[Bridge]

Vincent listened, ignoring the klaxons. "Talaxians using Borg technology..." He had stated aloud as he considered the ramifications of anyone adapting such technology and using it against Starfleet. "Talaxians.." He murmurred as if trying to come to terms with just who was attacking them. "Understood, Sir." One thing he didn't have a problem with was orders and the engineer turned around and headed to the very Borg that, only seconds earlier had gave him that awkward moment.

"Mr. Kimball, I'm at your disposal. What do you need?" He didn't want to stare at the other's Borg implants that were still fused to his body. Curiosity was something that could wait a heck of a bit longer and he felt pretty confident the poor fella has had his share of both sympathy and busy bodies.

Vincent nodded and sat himself at the closest vacant station. A few taps of the console and Kimball's file was on screen. "I have it, Mr. Kimball." The screen changed to a digital image of the array with a number of computations. Using the array was clever; tightening the directional comm beam with different frequencies maybe enough to punch through the interference.

He brought up another screen with more computations as his sapphire eyes darted between them as he discarded some as Kimball's file helped with the heavy lifting. It felt like an eternity, lost in his work though the duration was under the time frame confined by conflagration and despair.

"Done, Mr. Kimball. I may have to modulate it if the Talaxians become wise on it but we should be able to contact the shuttlecraft." The engineer was feeling confident as he looked to the Borg, then over his shoulder at the XO.

[Bridge]

EQ looked down at this board.  Red light began turning to green.  Declan had apparently succeeded.

Kimball held out his right hand.  Then offered the man a thumbs up.  "Good job, Buddy" he said.

[Alexander Wu]

"Discovery to Shuttlecraft Stockwin.  Mr. Wu, can you hear me?" 

[Shuttlecraft Stockwin]

The sudden voice from their comms board was unexpected, briefly startling Alex as he focused on following the agile enemy ship. Keying his console to reply, he swore quietly as the same 'Unable to transmit' notice flickered up. "Well at least they've found a way to speak to us." Alex mentioned, flaring reverse thrusters to avoid a cutting beam from taking off their nose.

Dropping them down momentarily, he settled directly infront of Discovery's bridge viewscreen recorder, waggling their 'wings' several times to signal an affirmative before boosting Stockwin back into the fight. "It looks like they've adapted their shielding." He mentioned to Malnar, mildly impressed that their opponents were so skilled with Borg technology. "We're playing one big game of catch up now...hopefully Nevir's got a trick up his sleeve that he'd like to share before we buy the farm."

[Declan Vincent]

EQ looked down at this board.  Red light began turning to green.  Declan had apparently succeeded.

Kimball held out his right hand.  Then offered the man a thumbs up.  "Good job, Buddy" he said.

[Bridge]

Vincent observed Kimball's thumbs up and chuckled. "For a former Borg, you are an interesting fellow, Mr. Kimball." He gave the Borg a smile as he remained at the station. "Commander, I'll stay here and monitor the comm traffic just in case they try to jam us again." He reported to Nevir.

He had other screens monitoring critical systems, including the warp core. A plasma leak could seriously ruin his day. Other data included damage control actions which there were many as well as power output. The need to bypass corrupted conduits had already been done more than once. The Engineer expected, if the battle continued for any length of time, he wouldn't be getting any sleep for the foreseeable future.

[Kirok]

[Planet]

[NPC - Geefix]

"I apologize in advance for my people, Admiral.  They are typically more well behaved than this.  Especially around important buyers such as yourself" he said.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Planet]

"I see" Kirok replied in a similarly hushed tone.  "We have established that the comm signal worked from person to person on the planet.  So, I am lead to believe that the interference is coming from near the ship or between us and the ship" he stated.

"Even it the bio-gels were being replaced, the outage would not last this long.  Which means that the reason from the interference must be coming from an outside source.  Another ship perhaps?" he asked, again quietly.

[Planet]

"Do that, and promptly" Geefix replied.  "And if she is hurt in any way, I will be quite angry.  I will not have a good trade spoiled" he added.

[Planet - City - NPC Eividx]

"Yes sir, we are on our way..." the Talaxian said, reaching over and pushing the commbadge to close the channel.  He stared at Fala down for a long while, before bringing the disruptor up and gesturing it back towards the main camp.

"It would appear that the Head Merchant has changed his plans.  Let's go, I'll take you back, Ms. Federation." he said, leading her on.  He shook his head as they started back.  "You lucked out this time... but next time, watch out before you step into a... dangerous... area."

[Tekin Nevir]

[Bridge]

Vincent observed Kimball's thumbs up and chuckled. "For a former Borg, you are an interesting fellow, Mr. Kimball." He gave the Borg a smile as he remained at the station. "Commander, I'll stay here and monitor the comm traffic just in case they try to jam us again." He reported to Nevir.

He had other screens monitoring critical systems, including the warp core. A plasma leak could seriously ruin his day. Other data included damage control actions which there were many as well as power output. The need to bypass corrupted conduits had already been done more than once. The Engineer expected, if the battle continued for any length of time, he wouldn't be getting any sleep for the foreseeable future.

[Bridge]

For the first time since they came to this planet, Nevir actually let go a smile.  Nodding without looking back, he responding to the engineer.  "Take the primary Engineering station.  You earned it. Keep a monitor on the complex core, we've already shut down the alpha core after that first hit.  Mr. Kimball, see if we can extend that comm link to the surface."

[Shuttlecraft Stockwin]

The sudden voice from their comms board was unexpected, briefly startling Alex as he focused on following the agile enemy ship. Keying his console to reply, he swore quietly as the same 'Unable to transmit' notice flickered up. "Well at least they've found a way to speak to us." Alex mentioned, flaring reverse thrusters to avoid a cutting beam from taking off their nose.

Dropping them down momentarily, he settled directly infront of Discovery's bridge viewscreen recorder, waggling their 'wings' several times to signal an affirmative before boosting Stockwin back into the fight. "It looks like they've adapted their shielding." He mentioned to Malnar, mildly impressed that their opponents were so skilled with Borg technology. "We're playing one big game of catch up now...hopefully Nevir's got a trick up his sleeve that he'd like to share before we buy the farm."

There was no response, but Nevir surmised that they had been jamming all communications, and right now the shuttles were still unable to respond... but from what Kimball and Vincent said, they should be able to hear us.  "Keep the comm channel open, they might not be able to respond yet."

"Mr. Wu, if you can hear us, we've been able to adapt your Borg solution to restore our communications. That last fighter seems to be the leader, and I would imagine they have the most experience with their Borg upgrades.  I have one last trick up our sleeves, and I need you to keep them focused for a couple minutes while I prepare the deflector dish.  On my signal, we'll need you and your shuttles to break off.  If you can't respond, that's alright, just stay on guard."

"Mr. Vincent, Kimball, prepare the dish for a graviton pulse.  A ship that size should prove unable to resist that."