Rocky Horror Picture Show - Part 2

Posted on Wed Oct 19th, 2022 @ 10:40am by Captain Akiva ben-Avram & Lieutenant JG Jaya Maera Garlake & Ensign Nandi Chakma & Commander Arianna Frost & Lieutenant Commander Leonora Wolf MD & Lieutenant Teejay
Edited on on Wed Oct 19th, 2022 @ 10:41am

7,106 words; about a 36 minute read

Mission: S1E5: Symphony of Horror
Location: Medical Lab | Overwatch Station
Timeline: md 7

There was a place somewhere between shock and harsh reaction. A landscape battered by an emotional storm that seemed to rage both within and all around, as if that focal point was both internal and external - rain on non-existent window panes, lightning and thunder in distant proximity - noise and quiet existing simultaneously.

Conversation and comfort were distant friends, despite the very real physical presence of the three women. Jaya. Leah. Nandi. Teejay ignored each and every one of them. He was, once again, utterly alone. A derelict lost in the outer reaches of space. Bright flashes of realisation crashed against that solitude. Words were lost to the chasm of space beyond. Miton. Frost. Commodore Xanthe Rahal. Why was he here? Why were either of them here...

By the time Akiva and Ari found the medical lab where the other three had taken up, much of the initial scanning was completed. Jaya sat with Teejay, holding the Vulcanoid's hand with both of her own while Leah stood by with a supportive hand on his shoulder and a medical tricorder idle in her other hand. Nandi was at a console, collating the data in search of answers.

"Turn up anything?" Akiva asked Nandi as they entered.

The ensign jumped, startled at the unexpected inquiry. "Oh!"

"Forgive me," Akiva said with a weary smile on his face. "I didn't intend to sneak up on you. Any luck?"

Nandi shook her head and turned back to the console. "Answers, yes. Luck, no. The DNA match is greater than 90% -- Teejay is an immediate biological relative to the drone. For some reason, I can't get access to the drone's information, though, not even with Mrazak's clearance." Realizing she had made an admission to a potentially serious protocol violation, she smiled sheepishly. "I kind of have emergency access to it so that he doesn't have to deal with me as often."

"I expect you won't find much on the drone," Akiva said. "Thank you for confirming what you could. I imagine Teejay can fill us in a bit more with personal details."

Frost stood to the back, pulling up what ounce of strength and willpower she had left. "Ferrofax, can you please erect the field again, this time around everyone in this room? This can't be recorded."

"Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone," Ferrofax chided without making an appearance. "Cone of silence protocol initiating in three, two, ooooonnneee."

She was dreading facing Teejay. With Akiva she'd at least known what to expect, somewhat. A distraught brother whose file she hadn't studied prior was another matter all together. Let alone the guilt was clawing its way in, despite the necessity of the act at the time.

Leah looked over at Ari, but said nothing. A debrief would come soon enough. She looked down at Teejay again and squeezed his shoulder a little harder. Hopefully restraints wouldn't be necessary.

"You don't have to say or do anything," Jaya continued on as she had been for the past several minutes. "Everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time. There is no wrong way or clean way about it. Just know that we are here for you, Teejay, anytime you need."

Nandi's words were brutally clinical, but unnecessary. Teejay knew his own brother well enough, even corpsified and gross. That jarring juxtaposition of death and familiarity hurt far less than the vast weight of unanswered questions. He had some half-assed answers to some of them, which only raised still more in their wake. And then suddenly, that mental stormcloud reformed into sharp clarity.

He stood, breaking gently free of the barely acknowledged kind supportive attention of Jaya and Leah. He ignored Nandi, she being a mere informational pawn in this mix from his point of view. He noted Akiva's position - at least the physical rather than authoritative - and side-stepped him smartly to place himself right in front of Frost. They all sounded so damn cool, calm and collected. All the C words.

But Frost? She looked... tired? And she remained behind the others, quiet and once again requesting whatever privacy meant around here on this station of mysteries and dead relatives.

"Tell me," Teejay said. He looked broken, hands at his side, though that anger was so close to the surface he felt as if he'd explode. His eyes were stony and dark now, distant and focused on one thing and one thing alone. Shoulders back, fingers flexing, stance deceptively relaxed. "Tell me why my brother is dead. Why he's here." One chance. One. His hands moved before Teejay finished talking, reaching up to grab two handfuls of Frost's shirt and twisting the material hard against her chest. "Fill me in on some of those 'personal fucking details', right fucking now."

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Leah took a few steps after Teejay, mouthing 'hypospray' to Nandi. "Teejay..." she said softly, getting within arms reach but not quite reaching out yet.

Ari reached out a hand to halt everyone else, noticing the movement out of the corner of her eyes which were locked on Teejay's. "Your brother was an Intelligence Officer, code named Vokau." She focused all of her attention on Teejay. "He was targeted by the Black Nagus terrorist organization to sell them Intelligence and possibly Starfleet secrets. I work for Project Castermer, a counter intelligence operation by Starfleet Intelligence set to act as a shield against the Black Nagus." Frost said thickly. "We were tasked with stopping him. After capture and interrogation it came to light he was being blackmailed into betrayal and that he did it to protect his family. I'm the one who pulled the trigger to end his suffering. My..."

"Fuuuuuuccccckkkkk!"

"My team leader was going to torture him to death, mostly by freezing him to death." Another pause as she dropped her barriers, "I thought he was dead. I learned he was here...and like this at the some moment you did. I didn't know. But I know who did it...my team leader. I only know him as Taskmaster."

He heard Leah behind him, if only via the mention of his name. She wasn't sticking anything narcotic against his skin right now which was sort of a backhanded subconscious type of surprise. And Frost. Frost was talking. A lot. Honestly he hadn't expected that, so, fingers still wrapped in her shirt, Teejay listened. Except he didn't like what he was hearing. Not even a little bit. He didn't believe it.

Life and the universe in general had not been especially gentle with Teejay so far, but he'd rolled with it and relied on himself. Humour and a stalwart refusal to give up had pushed him ever forward, and blood-related family - when he'd found them - had been a welcome bonus. He and Miton had spent some fine time together, they'd even had some mutual moments with their dear mother... but this.... this...

A frown deepened on that dark brow with each new revelation, but the heartbeat he could literally feel against his knuckles was steady, and Frost's breath was even. She was telling her truth or lying the way she'd been taught by Starfleet's Finest. It really didn't matter in that moment. What mattered more than the scandalous words and the hateful, hurtful actions was the intent. That logical and unemotional decision. And those words that resonated hard. 'He did it to protect his family.'

I'm the one who pulled the trigger...

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!" Howled Teejay as he forced himself and Frost forward, propelling them both towards the nearest wall with the force of all his fear, pain and temporary hatred for everything he was experiencing. He didn't think, didn't focus on anything besides that all encompassing pain filling his heart and soul.

"MURDERER!" He screamed into Arianna's face as he shoved her back roughly against that hard vertical surface, as he pushed his palms heavy against her sternum. His breath hot, tears of rage on his face.

It wasn't the type of pain she expected, not at all. First the vicious enhanced grip of Teejay's vulcan heritage and the ease of which he swiftly lifted her off of the floor. Then came the pain of the wall that met her back, every nerve along her spine flaring up at the contact, the bones and ribs straining under the pressure. Arianna had no time to react, much less attempt to defend herself. Not that she deserved to. Her head swam, her vision blured with the impact and the wind knocked out of her.

Then the angry force of Teejay's palms impacting her sternum, she felt a sharp, almost piercing pain where his hands impacted her chest and she felt blood begin to race upwards, yet still she made no move to defend herself.

"Teejay!" Leah's voice came from somewhere in the back as she saw Wolf attempt to wrestle Teejay away from her.

While the scene unraveled, Nandi did her best wallflower impression. There were so many things she had heard that she didn't understand. And then things turned violent! She let out a gasp.

Akiva was ready to act. "Teejay! Teejay, unhand her! That is an order!"

Though she had been pushed aside, Jaya was not content to stand by and do nothing. Her empathic sense gave her an immediate read on the situation. Both Ari and Teejay were emotionally dysregulated and overtaken by pain. Teejay's pain was compelling him to inflict violence while Ari's pain was compelling her to let him.

"Teejay," whispered Jaya, not loud enough to talk over his shouting, but still enough to be heard even if subconsciously. Such would be necessary for subliminal pacification.

When he hand reached out, Jaya was ignoring the tumult in front of her. She needed to be the calm, the oasis, the eye of the storm. The touch barrier was broken and the psionic barrier along with it. Jaya reached through the nerve endings of her fingertips into the nerve cluster in Teejay's shoulder. Immediately an ocean of sorrow and rage washed over her, threatening to sweep her away. But she resisted.

"Teejay," Jaya said in word and in thought. "Let her go."

Trying to corral Teejay's inner maelstrom was exhausting but Jaya held on with all her might. She dug deeper and gave one last push.

"BE STILL!."

He didn't hear Akiva, so technically that wasn't disregarding a direct order, right? And Leah's call was lost to the loud sound of soul deep pain screaming in his ears. But Teejay had no choice when it came to Jaya's move on the unseen chess board. He thought he heard her voice (he'd tell them later) but that certainty was clouded by emotion. It wouldn't - didn't - matter though. Jaya won, her guided missile of a play silently nuked Teejay where he stood. He let go.

He stepped back. One single step.

His arms involuntarily dropped slowly to his sides. Breathed hard and heavy.

And, silent and still, he let the tears flow.

Out of breath, Jaya gave Leah a nod, prodding her to act on the feelings and inclination that was barely beneath the surface. Teejay needed a friend's support, and Jaya had to recover from the expenditure of the moment.

Leah wasted no time and stepped around Teejay and embraced him tightly, a move to both give him something else to focus on as well as offer support. She hadn't known Teejay for long and she wasn't the type to let someone in this quickly. However, Teejay had broken down the usual barriers she put up with people, with his quiet confidence and humor. He hadn't seemed like the type to be intimidated by what she did. Wolf let all that flow out.

"I've got you." She whispered gently, "I've got you." Part of her wanted to say it was okay. But it wasn't okay. What he was just forced to endure, it wasn't okay what Frosty had done, even though deep down, Leah knew she likely would have done the exact same. Sometimes the choices were just bad and worse.

Later, he would liken it to being in the eye of a particularly heinous thunderstorm. The emotional kind in this case, which were - in Teejay's mind - far worse than the meteorological ones. Thunder and lightning was one thing, but having a storm rage inside your heart and soul soaked so much deeper into your reality.

Now? Now he was aware of someone hugging him. Then he was aware of a woman hugging him. Then, as the immediate agony started to subside and his mind hit him with waves of all those underlying emotions - fear, sorry, guilt etc - he was aware it was Leah.

Her newness to his life was never - had never - been an issue. He felt surprise send endorphins through his system and, confused but grateful on some deeper level that wasn't currently expressable, Teejay finally returned that physical embrace. Like a child, he wrapped arms about her waist and pushed his face against her shoulder, having to duck slightly in order to lose a little height. He wasn't sure why this was happening, but didn't need to know right now. Honestly, he wasn't really certain of anything in this moment. Hiding his face and simply sharing that silent, present support was enough. One word eventually escaped his lips, a hoarse whisper close to Leah's ear.

"Thanks." Was all he said.

Leah kept the tight hold on Teejay, leaning her head against his slightly, "værsagod..." she whispered in norwegian. It was a rare occasion that she displayed this kind of open support and affection to someone. Wolf's heart went out to Teejay. He was a good man who didn't deserve to be slammed with such devastating news his first day on the job, or ever. Then again, she knew this wasn't really Frosty's fault either and that the two women needed to share a few stiff drinks after this.

Behind them, Arianna took a deep breath as Teejay released her and nearly crumpled to the floor as the pain came back with a vengeance, mental and physical both. It was sheer force of will that had her take a shaky step from behind the barrier provided by Leah.

Frost heard voices around her and movement of the others, but she couldn't focus on any of them as she used one of the fixed consoles next to her for support to gain distance. How did it all go so wrong? When did Castermer fall and how did she not notice it? Questions became muddled as the mixture of pains rooted her in place, struggling to do more than stand and breathe, her face marred with pain and tears.

"Ari! Are you all right? Can you breathe?" Akiva asked.

With Leah's abandoned medical tricorder in hand, Nandi was already running scans. "Contusions throughout the midline abdominal area and a hairline fracture along the sternum with the makings of a retrosternal hematoma," she said as clinically as did during her medical finals at the Academy. "Nothing a protoplaser and a dose of metorapan can't fix."

"Fuck!" Came a raspy reply, "feels like much more than that..." Frost said in a hoarse tone finally as she managed to take a breath and steady herself. "Whe...." she was meaning to ask when she looked over and noticed Leah and Teejay's embrace and was relieved.

She let out a deep breath and suddenly felt bone tired. "Might make use of that chair so you can patch me up, Nandi?" Ari said finally, with a look over at Nandi and Akiva.

Nandi's eyes went wide. She knew how to read a medical tricorder and even knew what most of those terms meant, but she had never patched up an actual combat injury before. "Uh... sure..."

"I'm sorry, Captain...a lot of this mess could have been prevented if I caught it on time," Ari said finally, her eyes a mix of guilt and pain and shame. Why was everything spiralling out of control?

"Ifs and buts," Akiva said with a shake of his head. "We caught it now, so we'll just make do with that." He sighed and looked back and forth around the room, assessing the tangle of emotions and wounds that were all around him. When viewed as a collection of skills, the group looked less like an angry mix of officers and more like the makings of... something. Akiva didn't know exactly what just yet, but that didn't hide the potential that his eyes had already noted. "I have sworn to get to the bottom of this already." Pointing a finger at the listless drone who had formerly been Miton, Akiva said, "That is a crime against humanity, and someone is using my station to cover it up. As far as I am concerned, that is an act of war, not only against the victim and his family and any other victims that may be here, but against Starfleet, against the Federation, against Nature and her Creator. And I..." His voice faltered for just a moment as the surge of passion and wrath made him emotional. "I will not stand for it."

Okay, so not standing. So what? Akiva kept going, formulating and unpacking his thoughts and plans as he spoke. "When I look at us, I see a team in the making, a brotherhood forged from the fires of injustice and evil, unbroken by them but rather tempered into something stronger, something good that can make right the evils that have been done." Akiva's next thought went to Mrazak. Did he know about this? How could he not? The Vulcan Without Logic was infamously ruthless. "But we have to be circumspect. Teejay and his brother... what happened is a symptom of a greater sickness that has infected Starfleet. Until we know who we can trust and who was complicit with this... this atrocity... then we have to keep it between ourselves." He remembered his Article 15 prosecution of Mrazak and how nimbly the man had navigated the justice system only to come out smelling like a rose. "We can trust the system once we clear the rubbish out and make straight the path. So what do you say? Who's with me?"

Enforceably calm, Teejay felt as if Leah was physically holding back the tidal wave while mentally Nandi had dammed the rush from the other side. It felt off, caught between feeling and fenced in. It felt wrong to see his brother... like that. And there was currently no reconciling the two. There was talking now - Akiva - and then Frost. So she was alive, which was good. He still wanted to do something, anything, but in that desert of emotion, Teejay's clear voice was a breeze. Miton's death was her doing. He had to unpack the why and where before he spoke to her directly again though. Physical violence wasn't the way through this.

A team in the making? Akiva's words filtered through the half-Vulcan's human side. No. Too soon. He wasn't a victim, he wasn't going to be. But he needed to know who was guiding Frost's hand in this, who forced her to put him out of his 'misery'. Why Miton turned was less sketchy, though details were lacking in that decision making process.

Akiva directly name-checked him, and Teejay lifted his head from Leah's supportive embrace. Who's with me?

While Nandi worked to patch her up, Ari took a deep breath, winced, then spoke. "Goes without saying that I am." Another slow, deep breath. "Before anyone else steps forward, you need to know the level of dangerous that this is. Project Castermer is classified on the Security Council Level. There are triggers in the system set to pick up words or phrases - which if spoken without proper security..." Ari motioned towards the cone of silence around them, "will trip security measures and we will be arrested on the spot, even by our own security, they would have to follow that order."

He considered a response, but Frost jumped in first and that was a temporary game-changer for the Lieutenant on his first day on Theta turf. Could he work with her? Could he afford not to? Emotion coloured his heart and mind still, forcing his option to be silence for now. Frost spoke of danger, but that didn't sway Teejay's decision any.

Project Castermer. Teejay frowned, wondering if he had heard that before or if this was simply deja vu.

Leah, who had by now pulled away from Teejay, but only by a few centimeters, still keeping a supportive hand on his back, looked over at Ari, nodding. "Frost is right. You have to be extremely careful where and how you talk about this. Also, we need to keep eachother updated as to who we have let in on this, if anyone, we can't assume, unless we all know who has been made aware. What the Captain and the Commander are saying is, we don't know who here is watching us, along side the computer, if anyone. If let slip to the wrong person, the jig will quickly be up and we're in a shitload of trouble." Wolf added her participation to the plate.

Ari nodded at Leah, "Castermer has the leeway to expose, imprison or eliminate targets deemed a risk to the safety of the Federation. Targets limited to their Black Nagus involvement." She now looked over at Teejay, "we vet everyone, intelligence and non intelligence alike, and if potential risk is identified we investigate until outcome. We were meant to know everyone who's part of the project, for the reason Leah mentioned, but since Donnager we've suspected there was a leak somewhere, whether to Black Nagus or another, I never got the chance to investigate as I was sent to Deep Space Nine where...well we know what happened there. We will need to be careful with what we investigate and how, again, there are eyes everywhere. The man I believe is responsible is extremely dangerous. Ruthless, driven, effective. He goes by Taskmaster, but his real identity is burried deep somewhere in the files of Intelligence. He's been scrubbed from everything accessible to the likes of us for a reason."

Wolf nodded, "Intel doesn't scrub people like that often. Sure for certain operations or under cover assignments, but within the service itself, for an identity to be scrubbed like that - there is a very special purpose there, and without fail an extremely dangerous one."

"Operatives of Castermer have lost lives, been injured, disappeared, or have been turned." Frost added, "I know it's not easy to be suspicious of everyone when you haven't been trained for it, but unless we here vet them, we have to be. If we want to do this, we have to check everyone."

Leah nodded again, "Frosty and I know the drill, but we know you guys haven't been trained for this depth of operation. I'm happy to help deal with this if anyone needs to talk this through. Not trying to step on any toes, Doctor Garlake, of course. Just putting it out there."

As Leah remained in contact with him, but stepped in to speak her own mind, Teejay considered both women. Intelligence. Fucked up playground for people to hurt other people for the greater good. It didn't surprise him that Miton had been involved, honestly, though it was a shock to find out here and now in this way. Knowing his brother's character though? A lump caught in Teejay's throat. Yeah... Miton would have done anything for family and maintaining their mother's honour and safety. His own too, though Mit might not have been overt about it.

Dark brown eyes met Frost's grey-green as she directly looked to him. She was fine, Teejay told himself. He was stupid, overemotional and out of control. He'd hurt her. That was wrong. But... She sounded so fucking calm now. Guilt might hit him later, but for now he was caught up wrapped in that unfair injustice. His brother had to die. She could handle all of this and just shift gear straight back into work-mode. Cool as. His fingers curled to dig nails into his palms, and Teejay just returned that look, eyes locked, silent.

Taskmaster. Well, that name was no help. But it was another direction to channel venom. He felt his heart beat, too loud, too heavy.

"Before we get vetted again," Teejay spoke up, voice rough and grating over the words. "I need to know we're doing right by my brother. That we're not leaving him like this." Then he needed a moment or five. And then he'd see just exactly what the fuck the options were to move forward and find out who'd put Frost's finger on that trigger.

"In terms of ridding him of the borg implants," Leah said, looking up at Teejay, "they are likely the things keeping him upright and walking." She said as empathetically as she could, "removing them would most likely just drop him on the spot. I will do what I can for him, medically but I am no surgeon so there is only so much I could do."

"He's dead," Teejay pointed out, since they seemed (to him) to be skipping past the obvious. "What's walking around isn't my brother, but it is using his corpse." They were fine with this, really?!

"Oh fuck..." A thought came to Arianna as she looked over at Leah and Teejay, "there is another problem." She said, then swallowed hard. "He's likely to have a transmitter, and that transmitter will be connected to a server. If we disconnect it too early, we tip our hand before we are ready to defend ourselves, or before we are ready to strike. "I am so sorry, Teejay. I am so sorry." She would be feeling the exact same way if it was Rob there, instead of Vokau. No, Miton. His name was Miton.

Leah sighed, looking between the two, "Frost has a point. Anything we touch now has the chance of toppling down and burying us with it. But...this being said, there is time for you to decide what you want done when its safe to do so, Teejay. The decision on how to handle this should be yours."

Arianna simply nodded, hoping that despite his justified pain, Teejay would see the logic in their words and act for the best interest of the group as well as his brother.

"So take it out of him," said Teejay, voice cracking on the words now as he struggled to remain standing in place amongst this constant emotional barrage. They had no idea how much death he had seen, up close and real personal. But zombification was way easier to study when it wasn't close family playing test subject. "And leave it active. You have this fancy station and no doubt all the gear. Hell, I'll do it, myself," he said, and stepped sideways to rest a hand on the 'undead' shoulder of his elder brother's walking corpse, then reached up towards that optical tech. "Maybe it gives us an in with your lack of ability to find this Taskmaster. It's an easy connection back to me, personally," he pointed out with overt bitterness. "I'll take the blame for it."

Tapping into an unknown well of energy, Ari was up on her feet, and pushing between Leah, Teejay and Miton. "You do that and you doom us all to a fate like this, or worse. I never said I don't know how to find him! I know very well how to find him and get in contact! What I don't know is what we are up against, and just yanking the transmitter out is likely to alert his allies as it is not. We don't know what contingencies are in place. You can't just take the blame for things like these! Accountability in a life or death situation is a fucking moot point! You think it will protect anyone? It will paint a target on the back of anyone associated with you, your family included." Her voice rose as she spoke. "Your anger is dooming all of us to imprisonment, death or torture and necessarily in that order. If you need to direct it somewhere, I'm here, fucking go for it!" Frost growled up at him, "but don't endanger them further!" She pointed to Jaya, Nandi and Akiva. "Now take your pick, losing us all advantage, venting your anger on me or cooling the fuck down so we can actually stand a chance to crawl out of this hole!" By this point she was screaming her lungs out.

Jaya's 'be still' mojo hadn't worn off, but it had kinda corralled Teejay's boiling emotions in an enclosed space within. That Vulcan half resisted and pushed against her enforced boundary, reaching out unseen emotive 'fingers' up to test the limits, while his human half tried to work out how to use his actual phalanges to prise out the borg hardware. Stubbornly, he maintained that mission while Frost ranted and raved, eyelled and ordered. He'd take the blame for whatever the hell he wanted, Teejay told himself silently. He was calm, collected and ready to dismantle this horrific bastardization of what used to be his brother. Her words made no difference to that, her ire did not phase him and her threats towards what was left of his family mattered not even a little bit. He was calm, caught in the eye of the emotional storm thanks to Jaya's whammy. "I'm not angry," he said, matter-of-factly. "I'm busy fixing what you fucked up." There was a short pause before Teejay added, coolly from behind that artificial barrier. "You need to cool the fuck down though."

"Ari..." Jaya took her friend by the hand and turned her into an embrace. She didn't have the energy for another empathic burst, so rudimentary physical contact would have to suffice. "No one is losing anyone else today," she said softly with her arms around her friend.

Arianna's insides bristled against the contact. She was angry! Angry at the situation, angry at Teejay, angry at herself, angry at the others for not understanding how dangerous this was but most of all she was angry at Taskmaster. Her body fought her anger though and eventually returned her embrace, her tired muscles shaking with dissipating anger and exhaustion.

"Well..." It was an inauspicious start to Akiva's reply to all of that, but the filler word was already out. "Sounds like we all have a lot to think about. I know where I stand, but everyone else may need to count the cost before committing to this path and the strictures it will require of us." He had been dry-wringing his hands as he spoke, but then something occurred to him. "You know, the traditions of my people have a sacred gesture that comes to mind here and now." He raised his hand up, palm forward. "It is the hand sign that resists the eye of evil. It will be the sign of our mission to show loyalty and a discreet signal outside of this room."

Jaya pulled an arm free from Ari and raised her hand with the palm facing outward. "I stand with you, Akiva. I can do no other," she said solemnly. While she felt she could speak for Storr in this matter as his wife, Jaya wished to give him the respect of making his own oaths.

"I'm not going to let good people go it alone." Leah said, mirroring the gesture, "what's happened is wrong, and we have to stop it. I'm with you."

As the others spoke, Arianna took a few moments to recompose herself. She rarely ever lost control of herself like that and amongst anger, frustration, fear and sadness she now also felt shame for how she behaved. "I'm partially responsible for this mess, so I'm going to find a way to fix it. I stand with you too," she said as she used her free hand to repeat the gesture, hand up, palm facing outward.

Teejay regarded the others, all bar Nandi now with their hands in the air, and with a serious look on his face, he raised Undead Borg Miton's arm, and turned his brother's hand palm outwards.

"You fix this," Teejay promised with preternatural calm. "Then I'll help any way I can."

Leah looked over at him, "I will. But I will do it right, so we don't run the cascade and end this before we've even started. I'll need a hand, if you're willing? Can't run the risk of having other medics here help." Then she thought of something. "Ferrofax...Is that what you're called?" she asked, looking up.

In the moment between question and answer, Teejay met Leah's gaze and offered a strong, silent not. Yes, he would help. Of course he would. But there were going to be rules, qualifications to be taken into account.

"You know that it is," Ferrofax responded snidely without reappearing.

"Are you able to help us with disconnecting this drone from whatever hive he's connected to without tripping alerts and you know telling anybody else but those of us here present?" Leah asked.

She knew that the oath-taking wasn't done yet, but if this act got Teejay aboard quicker, then the little interruption was a good thing.

"The trouble with that task would be severing the connectivity that passes for consciousness within the drone while retaining functionality," Ferrofax said. "Right now it is linked to the local area network that is a functionally substituted hive mind. That is the only thing keeping it standing upright, quite frankly. Even if alerts were bypassed, the drone would cease to function outside of permanent life-support intervention. Hm..." Ferrofax quite nearly purred as he contemplated the matter. "But if he were severed from the network, then his registry would be marked as deactivated. That might alert whomever you're wanting to avoid, but it may be the most desirable way to do it. Should your mystery adversary believe the drone is destroyed, then perhaps that would be the end of the matter. What would remain is whether you want the drone to remain free-range and at large on the station or whether you want him bound to an alcove on life-support. If the latter, then I can cut him loose post haste and you could plug him in wherever you wish. If the former, then you will need a new operating system to replace the digital noosphere he's currently plugged into. Might I suggest a positronic matrix?"

"Positronic matrix?" Akiva said. "That would potentially bypass his brain entirely. It would make him more machine than biological."

Ferrofax chuckled. "Oh, I think the drone is well past that point by now, don't you?"

"Yes," Teejay agreed with the AI, his tone strong but matter of fact now, the emotion faded temporarily to the backgound to be rehashed later in private. Now, there were offers of assistance and ways and means to be figured out and he absolutely wanted to be in control of where this particular craziness scienced. "My brother is gone. I'm simply asking that you respect that, and that you allow me to observe the cremation rights and due ceremony that he's due. He will not be harvested as a vessel to carry hardware of any kind, so we," Teejay paused to stamp down the wavering of his voice and regain complete outward control of his emotion. "We need to figure out how to either keep that tech going for your clandestine purposes - without Miton's participation - or to destroy it. As long as my brother is no longer part of the circuit I'll do whatever else you need."

Leah nodded, "of course." She said, her supportive hand on his back giving him a small, supportive pat.

Arianna nodded her acknowledgment of Teejay's words. Somewhere in all of this mess, meaning got lost, as did understanding. It seemed now though that the bridges were slowly reconnecting and she didn't want to ruin that tentative balance that was forming.

Akiva's words however made her wonder. They did have a dormant positronic brain lying around on the station. But that was not her secret to tell. She wouldn't betray the Captain's confidence.

A loud whirring emanated from inside the drone who was formerly Miton. Sparks ignited in the implants bulging out of his face before fizzling out in faint wisps of smoke. "Severance complete," Ferrofax reported. "Do what you will, but I would not delay as rigor mortis is known to advance immediately in deactivated drones."

"Ferrofax!" Akiva scolded. "That was entirely unnecessary."

"And yet I said it anyway," said Ferrofax, "because I am nothing if not helpful to the fullest extent of the word. If you need anything else, though, a VI can assist you. I know when I am not wanted."

Amongst the blatant morbidity of it all, Teejay's small smile might have seemed out of place, but other people's thoughts and opinions were far distant from the young man's mind right now. He watched the unwanted, hated tech remove itself smartly from his brother's eye socket, stared unabashed as said machinery gave off a dying breath of smoke, and visibly relaxed as Ferrofax pronouced that process ended. Miton and the Borg parted ways, perhaps long after the Vulcan's death though not soon enough after the discovery for his younger brother. It was over. Done. Exited and completed.

"I've some considerable experience with the deceased in many forms," Teejay said to no one in particular as he hefted the literal dead weight of his sibling over his shoulder with an easy strength. The underlying emotions were a little heavier and harder to bear, but buried for the moment significantly faster than Miton would be. "Captain Akiva?" Teejay then addressed the sharp-voiced human and utterly avoided any form of eye contact with the others. "Please allow me to perform the funeral rites and ceremonial fire." It was less of a question and more of an earnest plea, though both tone and expression were back under firm control for the moment. A limited time event, and moments that Teejay wished to make efficient use of. Once those emotional barriers receded again he planned to be as far away from Commander Frost as possible.

Akiva thought for a minute. While he was no stranger to unique cultural traditions, he wasn't sure how to contain a funeral pyre on the station without drawing unwanted attention. "There is a plasma storm advancing on our position. Would that meet your ceremonial requirements?"

"Only if you could contain it within a small, enclosed space," Teejay noted, then respectfully added. "Captain." He considered the choices open to him on a station of this type and rallied internally to work out his best step forward in this regard. "The words are more important than the type of energy used or the actual fire's construction," he advised. "I need to be alone, and I need to be able to contain his form in a means that allows me to collect those ashes before dispersal. I can, with your permission, utilise the plasma storm for said dispersal, if I could be allowed the sole use of a shuttle for an hour."

His right arm maintaining a grip on his brother's corpse, Teejay pushed his left hand in his pocket to hide its shaking, and held onto the emotional control as tightly as he could.

"I think we can arrange that," Akiva said, "even if we have to disguise it as an exterior maintenance effort."

Leah could hardly believe all that had happened in the span of a few short minutes. Well, more than likely about thirty now. Whilst her heart went out to Teejay and she would offer her support if he would have it, Wolf also understood where her friend was coming from as well. When able, Leah would take samples of the assimilation technology to try and ascertain whether this really was borg tech or if these were what she suspected the highly classified and long secreted away nanites that Starfleet wasn't meant to be using anymore.

Arianna on the other hand sat back down in the chair she had been at before and stared down at her hands, though what she was seeing Leonora couldn't tell. There was more to this story, for Frost to be as affected as this, but now was not the time to pry. They needed a moment to breathe and absorb all that had happened before they could research and mount a proper defense.

He didn't dare try and use words to communicate emotion with either woman at this moment in time, but Teejay allowed his gaze to briefly rest on Leah and then wander to Jaya and beyond to Frost. The rage broiled deep within, contained barely, and he shoved it down once more. It needed release. Far away from her. And then, then the guilt would no doubt wash through his soul.

"If it helps," Nandi said sheepishly with a raise of her hand, "I am willing to do my part in fixing all this."

Leah gave Nandi a gentle smile, "it will definitely help." Then she looked over at Akiva, "Captain, if I may?" She asked but didn't wait for permission, continuing her train of though, "I would suggest we recess until tomorrow. We all need time to settle and process, and to make arrangements. Perhaps if we set a time and a place and meet there tomorrow with cooler heads? We still have to keep up appearances that we didn't just find out crimes against humanoids are being done by our own people. For that we need to be cool headed."

"Agreed." Akiva nodded at Leah and then Nandi. "I'll approve the use of the shuttle for Teejay to take near the plasma storms if you want to use Mrazak's authorization to request it. Otherwise we all need to consider everything that's been said here today and make final reckonings over whether to commit to the proposed course of action." Looking around, meeting everyone's eyes and seeing varying degrees of grief, weariness, and righteous anger, Akiva gave them all a nod. "Dismissed."

END

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