Post by magicmuggle01 on Nov 3, 2018 11:49:52 GMT
A scientific team in the Arctic discovers two mysterious cyborgs, similar to those described by Zefram Cochrane. When they assimilate the scientists and move into space, Enterprise is called upon to find the cybernetic beings and stop them.
Summary
The Borg crash site in the Arctic
The Arctic, Earth. A scientific expedition is in progress. A transport flies in a research team. Three Human scientists tramp through the snow, holding scanners. Their names are Drake, Rooney and Moninger. They find what they seek: the crash site of an alien craft.
The first frozen Borg drone
They break up, searching in different directions. Rooney picks her way quickly but carefully through debris and snow, until her scanner starts beeping. She stops, kneels and brushes away snow, uncovering something. She calls her comrades over to see what she has found.
It is the face of a frozen humanoid figure, unlike anything they have ever seen. Its skin is grave-pale, mottled with black. A grotesque cybernetic implant is where its left eye should be.
Act One
The scientists comment on the creature's humanoid appearance and how well preserved it is. Drake, the leader, calls in for a base camp to be set up. Then Rooney gets another reading, goes to the spot of its origin and finds another frozen cyborg.
Moninger shows Drake his
findings about this Borg drone's
eyepiece
Later, with the camp set up, the two lifeforms have been placed on tables in a laboratory. They are covered, neck down, in a black exo-plating. Moninger examines them, while Rooney examines a small piece of the ship's hull.
They show Drake their findings. Moninger, after examining a bulky cybernetic prosthesis that one of the lifeforms had on its right arm where the forearm should have been, has found that it had been integrated into the creature's circulatory and nervous system; it could have probably controlled the device as if it were its own flesh and blood. He has also examined the eyepiece of the first discovered individual, and has found that with it, the creature could have seen most of the EM spectrum. Rooney finds that their ship crashed about a hundred years prior. Drake instructs them to transmit the findings to Starfleet.
But as they speak, they hear a mechanical whirring, and see the tool at the end of the cybernetic prosthesis whirring and clicking. After a hundred years, frozen in ice and snow, it still works. A further examination of the prosthesis is in order.
Borg nanoprobes repair the cells
of one of the lifeforms
Moninger does the examination, looking at a bit of the tissue from the part of the prosthesis that was attached to the lifeform's arm under a microscope. He shows Drake. Microscopic machines, some form of nanotechnology, are among the cells, repairing them. There are thousands of them in each creature. Not only are they regenerating the tissue, but they are repairing the mechanical parts on a microscopic level. The prosthesis is fully functional, with Moninger calling it "as good as new."
As incredible as he finds this, Moninger also finds it disquieting. How far will this regenerative process go? These creatures do not look very friendly. What if they are fully revived and prove dangerous? And just what were they doing on Earth a hundred years ago? Did they come in peace or otherwise? He suggests that, just to be on the safe side, they freeze them again and examine them under more controlled conditions.
But Drake says no; re-freezing might damage them. They will remain in the laboratory and the regeneration will be allowed to continue. He goes outside to where Rooney is further investigating the ship's debris.
Her report to him is that, from the fact that every piece of outer hull debris has precisely the same curvature, the ship appears to have been a perfect sphere, about six hundred meters in diameter.
Meanwhile, another researcher brings a flask of a hot beverage for Moninger in the lab. Before he leaves, he looks at the two lifeforms and voices concern; will Moninger be alright? Moninger assures him that he will, showing him a rifle he has for protection.
Alone again, Moninger pours a cup of the beverage. Then he hears a mechanical clicking noise from one of the lifeforms. Alarmed, he checks the monitor that displays the lifeform's neural activity. Nothing.
Outside, Drake and Rooney have found something else: a transwarp coil. But though they can guess as to its function, i.e. faster-than-light space travel, the technology is way beyond them.
A drone revives
Inside the lab, Moninger still watches the monitor. Then, suddenly, a spike appears. Then more spikes, then full signals; neural activity has begun in the lifeform's brain. The lifeform awakens with a gasping breath. Moninger grabs a scanner and begins scanning it, as it opens its organic eye. Its mouth closes and its face lapses into a cold stare, as it beholds him.
Outside, Drake and Rooney hear his scream and see the light beams of his weapon.
The beginning of Moninger's assimilation
They rush back to the lab, which is now ruined, with two large streaks burnt through the walls from the rifle and all the equipment thrown to the floor. They find one lifeform on the table where they left it, while the other is gone. And they find Moninger behind some tossed-over shelving, gasping painfully. The left side of his face is streaked with black, mottled lines that are spreading, as the nanoprobes that the revived lifeform injected him with move visibly under his skin, multiplying rapidly and assimilating him. Drake tells Rooney to get a medical kit. She turns to do so, and turns right into the revived lifeform, its organic eye staring at her coldly, the red laser light of its eyepiece on her face.
The remains of the research
team's laboratory
Three days later, at Starfleet Headquarters, Commander Williams rushes into the office of Admiral Maxwell Forrest. He informs the Admiral about the prolonged loss of contact with the research team. Forrest orders him to ready a shuttlepod. He and an armed team go to the site. All they find is snowed-in, abandoned shells of structures; no sign of the research team or the debris from the crashed ship.
Act Two
Out in space, aboard Enterprise NX-01, Captain Jonathan Archer speaks to his senior staff in the situation room. Admiral Forrest has informed him of what has happened and has sent him the data the scientists gathered, believing the creatures abducted the research team. The transport the team used was detected leaving Earth at warp 3.9.
This shocks the chief engineer, Commander Tucker; these transports cannot exceed warp 1.4. Archer surmises that the "aliens" improved the ship's systems using technology from the wreck of their own ship. The transport's projected course puts it within six light years of the current position of Enterprise. Forrest has ordered that they intercept it and rescue the research team.
Sub-Commander T'Pol surmises that isolating the transport's warp signature should not be difficult. Archer decides that the search should start at specific coordinates, which he inputs onto the table's display. He orders a tactical alert and orders Ensign Travis Mayweather to lay in the necessary course.
Reed and Phlox discuss
weapons the drones may
possess
As the ship heads for the area, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, the armory officer, speaks to Doctor Phlox, the chief medical officer, about the "aliens" possible weapons. He and Phlox look at the research team's biometric data on the creatures, but find no evidence of weapons. This worries Reed; the team was well armed; how did these two "aliens" manage to overpower them without weapons?
Enterprise continues toward the coordinates. Captain Archer is in his ready room, reading something on his computer terminal. Then T'Pol calls him to the bridge; they are receiving an automated distress call from a Tarkalean freighter. He goes out onto the bridge, where Ensign Hoshi Sato at the communications station tells him what the message says: the freighter is under attack. He orders Mayweather to alter course toward it.
The assimilated transport
attacks a Tarkalean freighter
The freighter is, banged up and dead in space. The transport, heavily modified now looks very menacing, far from the ordinary-looking vessel it originally was. It is cutting into the freighter with a cutting beam.
Enterprise arrives. Archer orders a hail to the transport, warning to cease and desist immediately or be fired on. The transport responds with a volley of proton bursts at Enterprise. T'Pol scans nine Human life signs on the transport, but the readings are erratic. Reed believes he can disable its weapons; Archer orders it done. Enterprise fires on the transport, which breaks off its attack and takes off at warp. Archer orders a shuttlepod deployed to the freighter to bring the survivors aboard.
The assimilated male Tarkalean
The survivors, two in all, a man and a woman, are lying unconscious in sickbay. Their faces and hands are marred with emerged implants. Archer and T'Pol are present. Phlox informs them that the two should live, but then shows them what is happening to them: the nanoprobes in their bodies are transforming them into "some sort of cybernetic hybrid." T'Pol surmises this as the reason for the erratic Human life sign readings; the research team is likely being similarly transformed.
Archer asks if the nanoprobes can be removed. Phlox says no; they are multiplying extremely fast; he could never remove them all. T'Pol advises that the two should be secured in the decon chamber. But Phlox makes the same terrible mistake the research team's leader made; he says that he cannot treat them properly there, and he does not believe them to be a danger to the crew. However Archer is not so sure. He will have Reed post a guard.
Later, in Archer's ready room, T'Pol comes to tell him she has contacted Tarkalea and informed them of their rescue of their people. Archer shows her what he was reading before. It is a speech that was given 89 years prior by Human history's inventor of warp drive, Zefram Cochrane. In it he had spoken about the events surrounding his first warp flight. He had spoken of a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who had intended to "enslave the Human race". They had tried to prevent the flight, but were stopped by a group of Humans, also from the future.
T'Pol reminds Archer of Cochrane's over-active imagination and the fact that he was frequently drunk. Archer acknowledges this, saying that nobody took the story seriously and Cochrane recanted the whole thing years later. But there are similarities between the story and these current events that cannot be ignored. And if the story was indeed true, then these creatures may be heading back to where they came from, so that another attempt can be made.
In sickbay, the two Tarkaleans begin to stir. Phlox goes to the male, who wakes up very agitated on seeing him. He demands to know who Phlox is and his location, and is horrified to see the implants in his hands. Phlox tries to calm him down, then picks up a hypospray with a sedative to administer it to him, as he suddenly convulses and screams with pain.
Phlox is injected with nanoprobes
But then, as Phlox comes close, the implants take full control of their victims. On the other biobed, the woman rises behind the guard Reed posted in the room. The man grips Phlox's arms with incredible strength, and the woman throws the guard all the way across the room. The man forms a fist and brings it to Phlox's neck. Assimilation tubules dart out, injecting Phlox with nanoprobes. He throws Phlox over the bed. Phlox collapses in a heap on the other side, unconscious.
The two Tarkaleans leave the room via a maintenance shaft ladder. Meanwhile, the skin around the injection point on Phlox's neck starts to change color, as the nanoprobes begin the process of assimilating him.
Act Three
While unconscious, Phlox begins hearing the Collective's hive mind. However, this is stopped, when Archer wakes up Phlox. Reed is present with Archer, along with security officers, all well-armed. Phlox quickly scans his neck and confirms what has happened; he has been infected with the nanoprobes. Scans by the security officers reveal the route the two Tarkaleans used to leave. Archer orders Reed to seal off the maintenance shaft, post guards at every access point, and find and subdue them. Phlox warns Reed about their greatly enhanced strength and to avoid being touched by them. He scans the security officer, who was with him when the attack happened, and confirms that he hasn't been infected. Archer orders the officer to keep guarding sickbay.
Meanwhile the two Tarkaleans move through maintenance shafts, never rushing, but moving quickly nonetheless. They come to a set of wall panels, remove the covers and inspect the circuitry.
Archer and Tucker discuss what
they are up against
In engineering, Commander Tucker shows Captain Archer scans of the modified transport. It has been greatly enhanced, with more powerful engines, hull plating, weapons, and other modifications Tucker cannot even guess the functions of. Archer notices that the aft plating has not yet been enhanced; a couple of torpedoes should break through and knock out a nearby EPS manifold, disabling the ship.
Then T'Pol calls from the bridge; she has detected the transport, less than two light years away, moving at warp 4.8; a significant development; its top speed has doubled in less than twelve hours. Archer orders Ensign Mayweather to alter course to intercept it.
Meanwhile, in the maintenance shaft, Reed and his security officers move carefully, looking for the Tarkaleans, using scanners to track them down. They find displays that, instead of showing what they should, are filled with strange green script on black backgrounds.
Reed and the security team fail
to stop the drone
They come upon the individual that used to be the Tarkalean woman altering more panel circuitry. It is seen plunging its assimilation tubules into the circuitry, which instantly morphs into modified technology, taking on the familiar black and green color. Reed sternly and repeatedly orders it to stop, but it continues after a cursory glance at them. They fire their weapons at it. The shots merely make it lose balance a bit. And then subsequent shots hit nothing but personal shield. They crank the weapons up to maximum power, and fire again. Again, the woman is unharmed.
However, their attacks cause the Tarkalean to register them as a threat. It turns and advances on them. Remembering Phlox's warning, they quickly withdraw, only to run into the cybernetic lifeform that used to be the male Tarkalean. It overpowers one of them and tries to inject him with nano probes. With its tubules shooting out mere inches from the guard's head, Reed whacks it in the head with the butt of the officer's fallen phase rifle, temporarily stunning it. He calls the bridge and reports the location of the two to Captain Archer, and what they appeared to have been modifying systems. Archer asks T'Pol what is in that area. Her answer: warp plasma regulators, essential for the warp engines to function.
The drones are ejected into space
Suddenly Mayweather reports the destabilization of the ship's warp field; they are falling out of warp. The assimilated Tarkaleans have disrupted the regulators. Without warp, Enterprise has no chance of ever catching the transport. Archer recalls that there is an outer hatch in that area. He orders Reed and his officers to clear the area and seal it and orders Ensign Mayweather to bring Enterprise down from warp. When this is done, he orders T'Pol to open the hatch. The two Tarkaleans are instantly blown out into space. At Archer's order, T'Pol closes the hatch and re-pressurizes the area.
He is dismayed at having to resort to this, but T'Pol tells him he had no choice. Archer orders course for the transport resumed, and orders Reed to work with Tucker to find out exactly what the two were doing to the systems.
In sickbay, Ensign Sato, who is wearing a phase-pistol at Malcolm's insistence, brings food for Phlox and his small menagerie of little alien animals. He accepts her offer to feed the animals, but he will not eat himself, for fear of accelerating his metabolism and causing the nanoprobes in his system to spread even faster. He now has a sickly white and black-mottled patch over the tubule wounds. She desires to stay and keep him company once she finishes but he insists that, for her own safety, she leave immediately when done. "I underestimated these nanoprobes once; I do not intend to make the same mistake twice," he tells her.
Meanwhile, Tucker and Reed examine the modified circuitry but they cannot determine what has been done to it.
Captain Archer goes to the mess hall. T'Pol is there. She advises him that perhaps it is better not to try to rescue the Humans, saying that it is logical to assume that all aboard the transport has either been transformed or are transforming and that bringing any of them aboard may be extremely dangerous. The transport should be destroyed, she adds. But Archer is not ready to do this. Then Phlox calls him, asking him to come to sickbay.
His condition has worsened. His hands tremble, the patch on his neck has spread over the entire right side of his face, a second patch has formed on his forehead and a third is forming on his right hand. He tells Archer that his Denobulan immune system seems to be baffling the nanoprobes, but they are persistent and will adapt and keep multiplying. Eventually, he will be transformed. However he has found a possible treatment. Their processors appear to be susceptible to omicron particles. Exposure to this may destroy them and cure him, but the level has to be very high, lest even one nanoprobe survive. Such a high level would be very painful.
Should it fail, he has one surefire cure: death. He gives Archer a hypospray containing a neural toxin that will almost instantly end his synaptic functions, and asks him to use it if the treatment fails. Archer is shocked, but Phlox is resolute: he will not allow himself to be turned into one of these "cybernetic creatures".
Phase-pistol modifications test
In the armory, Reed and one of his security officers test modifications of phase-pistols to try to get them to penetrate the personal shields. A particular setting works. They begin modifying as many weapons as they can. They work quickly; Enterprise will catch the transport in less than an hour.
Sure enough, less than one hour later, they come upon it. Its defenses have been further enhanced since their last meeting. It accelerates almost to the limit of Enterprise's speed, warp 5. Archer orders speed increased to match. The ship begins to shudder with the effort, but they close the distance. Archer orders Reed to target the EPS manifold that he and Tucker agreed on.
The transport attacks Enterprise
The transport drops out of warp. Ensign Sato reports an incoming transmission; it is an activation sequence. On Archer's order, she tries to stop it, but cannot. The Borg-modified circuits suddenly become active. Main power and other systems, including weapons, begin to fail. Archer angrily realizes the truth: the assimilated Tarkaleans sabotaged the circuits, modifying the appropriate systems so that this signal would cause them to fail.
Then Sato reports a hail coming in. Archer orders it answered. He angrily begins to identify himself and Enterprise. But he is cut off. Cut off by words spoken in a cold, soulless, multi-track resonant intonation: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.' The transport closes ominously on Enterprise.
Act Four
The transport hammers Enterprise with weapons fire, wearing down her defensive polarized hull plating. Commander Tucker feverishly works trying to undo the sabotage so that they can at least regain use of weapons. But it will take several minutes. Captain Archer gets an idea. He asks Reed if the transporter is still working. It is. He orders Reed to come with him, telling T'Pol to be ready to beam them off the transport.
Phlox undergoes his painful cure
Meanwhile, in sickbay, Phlox's condition has worsened considerably. Both sides of his face now look cybernetically enhanced, as well as both hands. He again hears voices in his mind. His movements are hunched and painful. His voice is tremulous. But he determinedly sets up the omicron treatment, telling the guard to activate it once he is in the imaging chamber. He gets in. The guard activates it. Lights strobe over Phlox. He grimaces and grits his teeth in agony.
Captain Archer and Lt. Reed, armed with Reed's modified phase-pistols, beam onto the transport. Its interior has been completely assimilated and modified, including the presence of alcoves. They carefully pass by regenerating individuals. Archer scans for any possible victims to be rescued.
The transport continues to hammer Enterprise.
The drone that used to be Rooney
Suddenly, two assimilated lifeforms round a corner and march toward them. They fire, unaware that they will be ignored as long as they do nothing threatening, and they drop. The two men check them. One of them is a scientist from the Arctic. On scanning them, Archer realizes that he labors in vain to rescue them, or anyone else on the transport. These two are no longer Human. The one he scans used to be Rooney.
Then more lifeforms round the corner, having registered them as a threat due to their previous action and advance on them. They withdraw, making their way to the EPS conduit they tried to destroy before.
Meanwhile, things get much worse on Enterprise as six individuals board her. T'Pol, as first officer, dispatches security to try to stop them, but the officers experience the same result as Reed and his team did against the individuals that used to be the Tarkalean woman: their shots kill two, then hit nothing but force fields on the remaining when they adapt. The individuals advance relentlessly, pushing the officers ever backward. Meanwhile, Commander Tucker manages to isolate one of the power relays and begins to reroute power to the engines and weapons.
On the transport, Archer and Reed continue toward the conduit, killing the lifeforms that try to stop them. Each one Archer scans confirms unrecoverability. Reed's modifications of the pistols work for now; they kill several. But it will not be long before they adapt. Reed is briefly lifted against a wall by the neck, only for Archer to kill it by ripping out the wiring on its head. They find the conduit and Reed quickly places charges on it while Archer fends off advancing individuals.
At the same time, Enterprise's polarized hull plating finally fails and the transport begins to use its cutting beam on her hull.
But Archer and Reed succeed in mining the conduit. Just as the individuals finally adapt to their weapons, he has T'Pol beam him and Reed back. As soon as they materialize on the transporter platform, he has Reed detonate the explosives. The desired effect is achieved: the transport's power is disrupted. The cutting beam stops. At the same time, Trip manages to disable the alien circuitry on Enterprise, restoring power to the systems. Returning to the bridge, Archer is asked about the research team by T'Pol. He tells her: there is no longer anyone aboard they can help.
The transport is destroyed
T'Pol and Archer discuss the
dispatched Borg subspace
signal
But then the individuals that boarded Enterprise beam off. Reed reports with alarm that the transport's systems are being restored; it is charging weapons. Archer is now versed enough in what they are dealing with to know exactly what to do; he orders full weapons directed at the transport's warp core. Enterprise fires all her weapons at the transport, which explodes as she quickly departs. The transport destroyed, he grimly orders Sato to contact Admiral Forrest before going off to his ready room.
Later, with Enterprise having resumed original course, he and T'Pol go to sickbay to see Phlox. He has fully recovered; the omicron treatment was successful.
But Phlox has ominous news; he tells them about the "strange experience" he had while he was infected; the voices in his mind, as if he were part of a collective intelligence. T'Pol suggests he hallucinated it. But he does not think so; he got the distinct impression the "aliens" were trying to send a subspace message: a numerical sequence he heard over and over again. He gives them a PADD with the numbers.
Later, T'Pol goes to see Archer in his ready room. He has had the computer analyze the numbers. The results have him even grimmer than before. They are spatial coordinates; Earth's spatial coordinates. The aliens sent a message detailing Earth's location. T'Pol asks him where the message was sent to. His answer: deep inside the Delta Quadrant. T'Pol tells him that there is no immediate worry as a subspace message would take at least two hundred years to get there, providing it even makes it at all.
This does not comfort Archer. He surmises that the invasion has merely been postponed... until the 24th century.
Log entry
"Captain's starlog, March 1, 2153. Repairs to the ship are underway, and we've resumed our previous heading at low warp. Doctor Phlox is confident he'll make a complete recovery."
Memorable quotes
"There's no reason to assume they're hostile."
"They don't exactly look friendly."
- Drake and Moninger, discussing the frozen drones
"You seem a little jumpy."
"Cybernetic corpses, digging through frozen remains in the middle of the night. Why would I be jumpy?"
- Drake startles Rooney after they find Borg in the Arctic
"Buried in the ice for a century."
"Hard to believe anything could survive."
"Handsome devil."
- Tucker and Archer viewing images of the Borg taken in the Arctic
"What sort of people would replace perfectly good body parts with cybernetic implants?"
"You, of all people, should be open-minded about technology."
"Well, I don't have a problem with it... so long as it stays outside of my skin."
- Reed and Phlox
"Use extreme caution, Lieutenant, their physical strength has been enhanced. It is critical that you do not let them touch you."
- Phlox, having been injected with nanoprobes
"..., you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
- The Borg
"I doubt there's any immediate danger. It would take at least 200 years for a subspace message to reach the Delta Quadrant, assuming it's received at all."
"Sounds to me like we've only postponed the invasion, until what... the 24th century?"
- T'Pol and Archer
Summary
The Borg crash site in the Arctic
The Arctic, Earth. A scientific expedition is in progress. A transport flies in a research team. Three Human scientists tramp through the snow, holding scanners. Their names are Drake, Rooney and Moninger. They find what they seek: the crash site of an alien craft.
The first frozen Borg drone
They break up, searching in different directions. Rooney picks her way quickly but carefully through debris and snow, until her scanner starts beeping. She stops, kneels and brushes away snow, uncovering something. She calls her comrades over to see what she has found.
It is the face of a frozen humanoid figure, unlike anything they have ever seen. Its skin is grave-pale, mottled with black. A grotesque cybernetic implant is where its left eye should be.
Act One
The scientists comment on the creature's humanoid appearance and how well preserved it is. Drake, the leader, calls in for a base camp to be set up. Then Rooney gets another reading, goes to the spot of its origin and finds another frozen cyborg.
Moninger shows Drake his
findings about this Borg drone's
eyepiece
Later, with the camp set up, the two lifeforms have been placed on tables in a laboratory. They are covered, neck down, in a black exo-plating. Moninger examines them, while Rooney examines a small piece of the ship's hull.
They show Drake their findings. Moninger, after examining a bulky cybernetic prosthesis that one of the lifeforms had on its right arm where the forearm should have been, has found that it had been integrated into the creature's circulatory and nervous system; it could have probably controlled the device as if it were its own flesh and blood. He has also examined the eyepiece of the first discovered individual, and has found that with it, the creature could have seen most of the EM spectrum. Rooney finds that their ship crashed about a hundred years prior. Drake instructs them to transmit the findings to Starfleet.
But as they speak, they hear a mechanical whirring, and see the tool at the end of the cybernetic prosthesis whirring and clicking. After a hundred years, frozen in ice and snow, it still works. A further examination of the prosthesis is in order.
Borg nanoprobes repair the cells
of one of the lifeforms
Moninger does the examination, looking at a bit of the tissue from the part of the prosthesis that was attached to the lifeform's arm under a microscope. He shows Drake. Microscopic machines, some form of nanotechnology, are among the cells, repairing them. There are thousands of them in each creature. Not only are they regenerating the tissue, but they are repairing the mechanical parts on a microscopic level. The prosthesis is fully functional, with Moninger calling it "as good as new."
As incredible as he finds this, Moninger also finds it disquieting. How far will this regenerative process go? These creatures do not look very friendly. What if they are fully revived and prove dangerous? And just what were they doing on Earth a hundred years ago? Did they come in peace or otherwise? He suggests that, just to be on the safe side, they freeze them again and examine them under more controlled conditions.
But Drake says no; re-freezing might damage them. They will remain in the laboratory and the regeneration will be allowed to continue. He goes outside to where Rooney is further investigating the ship's debris.
Her report to him is that, from the fact that every piece of outer hull debris has precisely the same curvature, the ship appears to have been a perfect sphere, about six hundred meters in diameter.
Meanwhile, another researcher brings a flask of a hot beverage for Moninger in the lab. Before he leaves, he looks at the two lifeforms and voices concern; will Moninger be alright? Moninger assures him that he will, showing him a rifle he has for protection.
Alone again, Moninger pours a cup of the beverage. Then he hears a mechanical clicking noise from one of the lifeforms. Alarmed, he checks the monitor that displays the lifeform's neural activity. Nothing.
Outside, Drake and Rooney have found something else: a transwarp coil. But though they can guess as to its function, i.e. faster-than-light space travel, the technology is way beyond them.
A drone revives
Inside the lab, Moninger still watches the monitor. Then, suddenly, a spike appears. Then more spikes, then full signals; neural activity has begun in the lifeform's brain. The lifeform awakens with a gasping breath. Moninger grabs a scanner and begins scanning it, as it opens its organic eye. Its mouth closes and its face lapses into a cold stare, as it beholds him.
Outside, Drake and Rooney hear his scream and see the light beams of his weapon.
The beginning of Moninger's assimilation
They rush back to the lab, which is now ruined, with two large streaks burnt through the walls from the rifle and all the equipment thrown to the floor. They find one lifeform on the table where they left it, while the other is gone. And they find Moninger behind some tossed-over shelving, gasping painfully. The left side of his face is streaked with black, mottled lines that are spreading, as the nanoprobes that the revived lifeform injected him with move visibly under his skin, multiplying rapidly and assimilating him. Drake tells Rooney to get a medical kit. She turns to do so, and turns right into the revived lifeform, its organic eye staring at her coldly, the red laser light of its eyepiece on her face.
The remains of the research
team's laboratory
Three days later, at Starfleet Headquarters, Commander Williams rushes into the office of Admiral Maxwell Forrest. He informs the Admiral about the prolonged loss of contact with the research team. Forrest orders him to ready a shuttlepod. He and an armed team go to the site. All they find is snowed-in, abandoned shells of structures; no sign of the research team or the debris from the crashed ship.
Act Two
Out in space, aboard Enterprise NX-01, Captain Jonathan Archer speaks to his senior staff in the situation room. Admiral Forrest has informed him of what has happened and has sent him the data the scientists gathered, believing the creatures abducted the research team. The transport the team used was detected leaving Earth at warp 3.9.
This shocks the chief engineer, Commander Tucker; these transports cannot exceed warp 1.4. Archer surmises that the "aliens" improved the ship's systems using technology from the wreck of their own ship. The transport's projected course puts it within six light years of the current position of Enterprise. Forrest has ordered that they intercept it and rescue the research team.
Sub-Commander T'Pol surmises that isolating the transport's warp signature should not be difficult. Archer decides that the search should start at specific coordinates, which he inputs onto the table's display. He orders a tactical alert and orders Ensign Travis Mayweather to lay in the necessary course.
Reed and Phlox discuss
weapons the drones may
possess
As the ship heads for the area, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, the armory officer, speaks to Doctor Phlox, the chief medical officer, about the "aliens" possible weapons. He and Phlox look at the research team's biometric data on the creatures, but find no evidence of weapons. This worries Reed; the team was well armed; how did these two "aliens" manage to overpower them without weapons?
Enterprise continues toward the coordinates. Captain Archer is in his ready room, reading something on his computer terminal. Then T'Pol calls him to the bridge; they are receiving an automated distress call from a Tarkalean freighter. He goes out onto the bridge, where Ensign Hoshi Sato at the communications station tells him what the message says: the freighter is under attack. He orders Mayweather to alter course toward it.
The assimilated transport
attacks a Tarkalean freighter
The freighter is, banged up and dead in space. The transport, heavily modified now looks very menacing, far from the ordinary-looking vessel it originally was. It is cutting into the freighter with a cutting beam.
Enterprise arrives. Archer orders a hail to the transport, warning to cease and desist immediately or be fired on. The transport responds with a volley of proton bursts at Enterprise. T'Pol scans nine Human life signs on the transport, but the readings are erratic. Reed believes he can disable its weapons; Archer orders it done. Enterprise fires on the transport, which breaks off its attack and takes off at warp. Archer orders a shuttlepod deployed to the freighter to bring the survivors aboard.
The assimilated male Tarkalean
The survivors, two in all, a man and a woman, are lying unconscious in sickbay. Their faces and hands are marred with emerged implants. Archer and T'Pol are present. Phlox informs them that the two should live, but then shows them what is happening to them: the nanoprobes in their bodies are transforming them into "some sort of cybernetic hybrid." T'Pol surmises this as the reason for the erratic Human life sign readings; the research team is likely being similarly transformed.
Archer asks if the nanoprobes can be removed. Phlox says no; they are multiplying extremely fast; he could never remove them all. T'Pol advises that the two should be secured in the decon chamber. But Phlox makes the same terrible mistake the research team's leader made; he says that he cannot treat them properly there, and he does not believe them to be a danger to the crew. However Archer is not so sure. He will have Reed post a guard.
Later, in Archer's ready room, T'Pol comes to tell him she has contacted Tarkalea and informed them of their rescue of their people. Archer shows her what he was reading before. It is a speech that was given 89 years prior by Human history's inventor of warp drive, Zefram Cochrane. In it he had spoken about the events surrounding his first warp flight. He had spoken of a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who had intended to "enslave the Human race". They had tried to prevent the flight, but were stopped by a group of Humans, also from the future.
T'Pol reminds Archer of Cochrane's over-active imagination and the fact that he was frequently drunk. Archer acknowledges this, saying that nobody took the story seriously and Cochrane recanted the whole thing years later. But there are similarities between the story and these current events that cannot be ignored. And if the story was indeed true, then these creatures may be heading back to where they came from, so that another attempt can be made.
In sickbay, the two Tarkaleans begin to stir. Phlox goes to the male, who wakes up very agitated on seeing him. He demands to know who Phlox is and his location, and is horrified to see the implants in his hands. Phlox tries to calm him down, then picks up a hypospray with a sedative to administer it to him, as he suddenly convulses and screams with pain.
Phlox is injected with nanoprobes
But then, as Phlox comes close, the implants take full control of their victims. On the other biobed, the woman rises behind the guard Reed posted in the room. The man grips Phlox's arms with incredible strength, and the woman throws the guard all the way across the room. The man forms a fist and brings it to Phlox's neck. Assimilation tubules dart out, injecting Phlox with nanoprobes. He throws Phlox over the bed. Phlox collapses in a heap on the other side, unconscious.
The two Tarkaleans leave the room via a maintenance shaft ladder. Meanwhile, the skin around the injection point on Phlox's neck starts to change color, as the nanoprobes begin the process of assimilating him.
Act Three
While unconscious, Phlox begins hearing the Collective's hive mind. However, this is stopped, when Archer wakes up Phlox. Reed is present with Archer, along with security officers, all well-armed. Phlox quickly scans his neck and confirms what has happened; he has been infected with the nanoprobes. Scans by the security officers reveal the route the two Tarkaleans used to leave. Archer orders Reed to seal off the maintenance shaft, post guards at every access point, and find and subdue them. Phlox warns Reed about their greatly enhanced strength and to avoid being touched by them. He scans the security officer, who was with him when the attack happened, and confirms that he hasn't been infected. Archer orders the officer to keep guarding sickbay.
Meanwhile the two Tarkaleans move through maintenance shafts, never rushing, but moving quickly nonetheless. They come to a set of wall panels, remove the covers and inspect the circuitry.
Archer and Tucker discuss what
they are up against
In engineering, Commander Tucker shows Captain Archer scans of the modified transport. It has been greatly enhanced, with more powerful engines, hull plating, weapons, and other modifications Tucker cannot even guess the functions of. Archer notices that the aft plating has not yet been enhanced; a couple of torpedoes should break through and knock out a nearby EPS manifold, disabling the ship.
Then T'Pol calls from the bridge; she has detected the transport, less than two light years away, moving at warp 4.8; a significant development; its top speed has doubled in less than twelve hours. Archer orders Ensign Mayweather to alter course to intercept it.
Meanwhile, in the maintenance shaft, Reed and his security officers move carefully, looking for the Tarkaleans, using scanners to track them down. They find displays that, instead of showing what they should, are filled with strange green script on black backgrounds.
Reed and the security team fail
to stop the drone
They come upon the individual that used to be the Tarkalean woman altering more panel circuitry. It is seen plunging its assimilation tubules into the circuitry, which instantly morphs into modified technology, taking on the familiar black and green color. Reed sternly and repeatedly orders it to stop, but it continues after a cursory glance at them. They fire their weapons at it. The shots merely make it lose balance a bit. And then subsequent shots hit nothing but personal shield. They crank the weapons up to maximum power, and fire again. Again, the woman is unharmed.
However, their attacks cause the Tarkalean to register them as a threat. It turns and advances on them. Remembering Phlox's warning, they quickly withdraw, only to run into the cybernetic lifeform that used to be the male Tarkalean. It overpowers one of them and tries to inject him with nano probes. With its tubules shooting out mere inches from the guard's head, Reed whacks it in the head with the butt of the officer's fallen phase rifle, temporarily stunning it. He calls the bridge and reports the location of the two to Captain Archer, and what they appeared to have been modifying systems. Archer asks T'Pol what is in that area. Her answer: warp plasma regulators, essential for the warp engines to function.
The drones are ejected into space
Suddenly Mayweather reports the destabilization of the ship's warp field; they are falling out of warp. The assimilated Tarkaleans have disrupted the regulators. Without warp, Enterprise has no chance of ever catching the transport. Archer recalls that there is an outer hatch in that area. He orders Reed and his officers to clear the area and seal it and orders Ensign Mayweather to bring Enterprise down from warp. When this is done, he orders T'Pol to open the hatch. The two Tarkaleans are instantly blown out into space. At Archer's order, T'Pol closes the hatch and re-pressurizes the area.
He is dismayed at having to resort to this, but T'Pol tells him he had no choice. Archer orders course for the transport resumed, and orders Reed to work with Tucker to find out exactly what the two were doing to the systems.
In sickbay, Ensign Sato, who is wearing a phase-pistol at Malcolm's insistence, brings food for Phlox and his small menagerie of little alien animals. He accepts her offer to feed the animals, but he will not eat himself, for fear of accelerating his metabolism and causing the nanoprobes in his system to spread even faster. He now has a sickly white and black-mottled patch over the tubule wounds. She desires to stay and keep him company once she finishes but he insists that, for her own safety, she leave immediately when done. "I underestimated these nanoprobes once; I do not intend to make the same mistake twice," he tells her.
Meanwhile, Tucker and Reed examine the modified circuitry but they cannot determine what has been done to it.
Captain Archer goes to the mess hall. T'Pol is there. She advises him that perhaps it is better not to try to rescue the Humans, saying that it is logical to assume that all aboard the transport has either been transformed or are transforming and that bringing any of them aboard may be extremely dangerous. The transport should be destroyed, she adds. But Archer is not ready to do this. Then Phlox calls him, asking him to come to sickbay.
His condition has worsened. His hands tremble, the patch on his neck has spread over the entire right side of his face, a second patch has formed on his forehead and a third is forming on his right hand. He tells Archer that his Denobulan immune system seems to be baffling the nanoprobes, but they are persistent and will adapt and keep multiplying. Eventually, he will be transformed. However he has found a possible treatment. Their processors appear to be susceptible to omicron particles. Exposure to this may destroy them and cure him, but the level has to be very high, lest even one nanoprobe survive. Such a high level would be very painful.
Should it fail, he has one surefire cure: death. He gives Archer a hypospray containing a neural toxin that will almost instantly end his synaptic functions, and asks him to use it if the treatment fails. Archer is shocked, but Phlox is resolute: he will not allow himself to be turned into one of these "cybernetic creatures".
Phase-pistol modifications test
In the armory, Reed and one of his security officers test modifications of phase-pistols to try to get them to penetrate the personal shields. A particular setting works. They begin modifying as many weapons as they can. They work quickly; Enterprise will catch the transport in less than an hour.
Sure enough, less than one hour later, they come upon it. Its defenses have been further enhanced since their last meeting. It accelerates almost to the limit of Enterprise's speed, warp 5. Archer orders speed increased to match. The ship begins to shudder with the effort, but they close the distance. Archer orders Reed to target the EPS manifold that he and Tucker agreed on.
The transport attacks Enterprise
The transport drops out of warp. Ensign Sato reports an incoming transmission; it is an activation sequence. On Archer's order, she tries to stop it, but cannot. The Borg-modified circuits suddenly become active. Main power and other systems, including weapons, begin to fail. Archer angrily realizes the truth: the assimilated Tarkaleans sabotaged the circuits, modifying the appropriate systems so that this signal would cause them to fail.
Then Sato reports a hail coming in. Archer orders it answered. He angrily begins to identify himself and Enterprise. But he is cut off. Cut off by words spoken in a cold, soulless, multi-track resonant intonation: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.' The transport closes ominously on Enterprise.
Act Four
The transport hammers Enterprise with weapons fire, wearing down her defensive polarized hull plating. Commander Tucker feverishly works trying to undo the sabotage so that they can at least regain use of weapons. But it will take several minutes. Captain Archer gets an idea. He asks Reed if the transporter is still working. It is. He orders Reed to come with him, telling T'Pol to be ready to beam them off the transport.
Phlox undergoes his painful cure
Meanwhile, in sickbay, Phlox's condition has worsened considerably. Both sides of his face now look cybernetically enhanced, as well as both hands. He again hears voices in his mind. His movements are hunched and painful. His voice is tremulous. But he determinedly sets up the omicron treatment, telling the guard to activate it once he is in the imaging chamber. He gets in. The guard activates it. Lights strobe over Phlox. He grimaces and grits his teeth in agony.
Captain Archer and Lt. Reed, armed with Reed's modified phase-pistols, beam onto the transport. Its interior has been completely assimilated and modified, including the presence of alcoves. They carefully pass by regenerating individuals. Archer scans for any possible victims to be rescued.
The transport continues to hammer Enterprise.
The drone that used to be Rooney
Suddenly, two assimilated lifeforms round a corner and march toward them. They fire, unaware that they will be ignored as long as they do nothing threatening, and they drop. The two men check them. One of them is a scientist from the Arctic. On scanning them, Archer realizes that he labors in vain to rescue them, or anyone else on the transport. These two are no longer Human. The one he scans used to be Rooney.
Then more lifeforms round the corner, having registered them as a threat due to their previous action and advance on them. They withdraw, making their way to the EPS conduit they tried to destroy before.
Meanwhile, things get much worse on Enterprise as six individuals board her. T'Pol, as first officer, dispatches security to try to stop them, but the officers experience the same result as Reed and his team did against the individuals that used to be the Tarkalean woman: their shots kill two, then hit nothing but force fields on the remaining when they adapt. The individuals advance relentlessly, pushing the officers ever backward. Meanwhile, Commander Tucker manages to isolate one of the power relays and begins to reroute power to the engines and weapons.
On the transport, Archer and Reed continue toward the conduit, killing the lifeforms that try to stop them. Each one Archer scans confirms unrecoverability. Reed's modifications of the pistols work for now; they kill several. But it will not be long before they adapt. Reed is briefly lifted against a wall by the neck, only for Archer to kill it by ripping out the wiring on its head. They find the conduit and Reed quickly places charges on it while Archer fends off advancing individuals.
At the same time, Enterprise's polarized hull plating finally fails and the transport begins to use its cutting beam on her hull.
But Archer and Reed succeed in mining the conduit. Just as the individuals finally adapt to their weapons, he has T'Pol beam him and Reed back. As soon as they materialize on the transporter platform, he has Reed detonate the explosives. The desired effect is achieved: the transport's power is disrupted. The cutting beam stops. At the same time, Trip manages to disable the alien circuitry on Enterprise, restoring power to the systems. Returning to the bridge, Archer is asked about the research team by T'Pol. He tells her: there is no longer anyone aboard they can help.
The transport is destroyed
T'Pol and Archer discuss the
dispatched Borg subspace
signal
But then the individuals that boarded Enterprise beam off. Reed reports with alarm that the transport's systems are being restored; it is charging weapons. Archer is now versed enough in what they are dealing with to know exactly what to do; he orders full weapons directed at the transport's warp core. Enterprise fires all her weapons at the transport, which explodes as she quickly departs. The transport destroyed, he grimly orders Sato to contact Admiral Forrest before going off to his ready room.
Later, with Enterprise having resumed original course, he and T'Pol go to sickbay to see Phlox. He has fully recovered; the omicron treatment was successful.
But Phlox has ominous news; he tells them about the "strange experience" he had while he was infected; the voices in his mind, as if he were part of a collective intelligence. T'Pol suggests he hallucinated it. But he does not think so; he got the distinct impression the "aliens" were trying to send a subspace message: a numerical sequence he heard over and over again. He gives them a PADD with the numbers.
Later, T'Pol goes to see Archer in his ready room. He has had the computer analyze the numbers. The results have him even grimmer than before. They are spatial coordinates; Earth's spatial coordinates. The aliens sent a message detailing Earth's location. T'Pol asks him where the message was sent to. His answer: deep inside the Delta Quadrant. T'Pol tells him that there is no immediate worry as a subspace message would take at least two hundred years to get there, providing it even makes it at all.
This does not comfort Archer. He surmises that the invasion has merely been postponed... until the 24th century.
Log entry
"Captain's starlog, March 1, 2153. Repairs to the ship are underway, and we've resumed our previous heading at low warp. Doctor Phlox is confident he'll make a complete recovery."
Memorable quotes
"There's no reason to assume they're hostile."
"They don't exactly look friendly."
- Drake and Moninger, discussing the frozen drones
"You seem a little jumpy."
"Cybernetic corpses, digging through frozen remains in the middle of the night. Why would I be jumpy?"
- Drake startles Rooney after they find Borg in the Arctic
"Buried in the ice for a century."
"Hard to believe anything could survive."
"Handsome devil."
- Tucker and Archer viewing images of the Borg taken in the Arctic
"What sort of people would replace perfectly good body parts with cybernetic implants?"
"You, of all people, should be open-minded about technology."
"Well, I don't have a problem with it... so long as it stays outside of my skin."
- Reed and Phlox
"Use extreme caution, Lieutenant, their physical strength has been enhanced. It is critical that you do not let them touch you."
- Phlox, having been injected with nanoprobes
"..., you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
- The Borg
"I doubt there's any immediate danger. It would take at least 200 years for a subspace message to reach the Delta Quadrant, assuming it's received at all."
"Sounds to me like we've only postponed the invasion, until what... the 24th century?"
- T'Pol and Archer
