Cassian shifted his comm badge, trying to make it as straight as possible, as he hurried down the corridor to the mess hall for the Frontier Day festivities. He knew he was over fifteen minutes late, but his last counseling session ran a bit late and couldn't have been helped, and now he was doing double time to get caught up. Walking into the mess, he was immediately greeted by Zameer, who was holding an extra drink for the young counselor. 

“I was starting to think you weren't coming.” Zameer laughed, handing him the drink.

Cassian smirked, “Better fashionably late than never, I suppose.” Taking the drink, he looked in the cup and asked, “Oh, thanks. What is it?”

Zameer looked down at his own cup with a puzzled look, then answered, “You know, I'm not really sure. I think they said it was a ‘hurricane’, but I could be mistaken.” Zameer took another sip, then added, “Whatever it is, it tastes great.”

Cassian laughed, then seen the Captain walking over to him, and waved, “Captain.”

“Nice of you to join us, Counselor.” Kosev smirked, looking at both of the officers before remarking, “Well, you both have fun and go mingle while you can. We have a few minutes until the commencement speech by Admiral Shelby, we'll be broadcasting it here.” Kosev nodded, then moved away, finding Savar holding a drink and looking out the forward view port out at the fleet yards. 

“Well, my friend, how do you like the party.”

Savar paused for a moment, then turned to the Andorian and said, “A well planned crew function, as always.” Kosev laughed, shaking his head and taking another sip of his ale.

Tavana, with her arms crossed, walked over to the corner where Tali was hold up with nearly an untouched drink in her hands. “I take it you're not the biggest fan of these social gatherings either?” She asked.

Tali smirked and said, “What about me standing over here by myself gave you that impression?” The two of them both laughed.

After grabbing his drink from the bartender, Kyth started looking around for someone to chat with and seen Aleah and Lukas both chatting at one of the tables on the other side of the room. Making his way over there, he asked, “Room for one more?”

“Always, pull up a chair.” Lukas said, motioning to the free chair at the next table. Kyth grabbed the chair and took a seat, setting his cup on the table. 

Savar looked to the clock and said to Kosev, “It's nearly time, Captain.”

Kosev nodded, then made his way to the center of the mess hall and started tapping his glass to get everyone's attention and to quiet them down. 

“I just wanted to say, before the celebrations commence, that I'm glad you all decided to celebrate with us today. I know you could've been elsewhere, but it means a great deal to have you all with us here on the Pioneer.” He held up his glass and the crew did the same around the room. “I know that some of you are new to us, and we have only been together a short time, but I know that this crew happens to be the best that Starfleet has to offer. I'm very proud to be your Captain, and to be here today with you all. Happy Frontier Day."

“Here, here!” Lukas spoke up as everyone took a drink. 

“Now, if you'll all turn your attention to the monitor, we'll be tuning into the festivities on Earth, and soon hear from Admiral Shelby herself.” He smiled, looking over as Savar activated the monitor and broadcasted the event over the rooms speakers. 

Cassian watched with the rest of the crew as the fireworks began to explode and the spacedock doors opened, revealing the Enterprise. It didn't take a telepath to realize how much the crew needed this party after what just happened in the Deneb sector, and he was glad that everyone was enjoying themselves as much as they were. Zameer, still standing next to Cassian, smiled at him before they both returned their attention to the screen. 

Kosev and Savar stood in the rear of the room, taking in everyone enjoying the celebration and watching for themselves as Admiral Shelby began her speech. Kosev, after noticing Cassian and Zameer, started to smile and leaned over to Savar, “Well, I'd say everyone is enjoying themselves, wouldn't you?” He motioned with his facial expression for Savar to notice how Zameer began to slowly hold Cassian's hand, one finger at a time, both of the young officers so nervous about how the other would react that they didn't even look over at one another the entire time. 

Savar raised an eyebrow, “I had noticed that those two were spending some additional time together off duty, I had not realized it progressed this far.”

“Well, good for them. I hope it works out, they seem like great people.” Kosev responded. 

“Then you do not want me to talk with them about their fraternization'?” Savar asked. 

Kosev started to chuckle and said, “That's not my style, besides, you know that Starfleet has always been reluctant to regulation relationships between crew members. We'll only step in as a last resort if it begins to affect their duties, otherwise I'm rooting for them.” He smiled at the Vulcan before turning his attention back to the screen. 

As Admiral Shelby continued to go on about the new Fleet Formation system, she was unexpectedly interrupted by an urgent warning by Admiral Picard, informing them of a plot by the Changelings and Borg to take over Starfleet. Kosev and Savar immediately stepped forward, but as they did, Picard disappeared from the screen with all communications from the Titan being severed. Everyone started looking around the room, a general feeling of panic beginning to set it among the crew. 

Only a few moments later, a uncomfortable yet familiar green hue lit up the screen, and Zameer grunted in pain and nearly fell to his knees, Cassian catching him at the last minute. Kosev looked back at Zameer, “Lieutenant, are you alright?”

Struggling to speak and trying to take normal breaths, Zameer said, “It's a massive Borg signal, Captain.” The weight of the signal almost overwhelming him, Zameer placed one arm around Cassian's shoulders to keep from falling to the ground. 

As Kosev continued to worry about Zameer, Savar looked around the room and began to notice something truly unsettling. He grabbed Kosev's arm and shook him, “Captain, look.” 

They both watched as the youngest members of the crew around them started to almost convulse, with pitch black views showing in their face and their eyes turning the same. Kosev looked to Ensign Nakav, the young Orion showing the same symptoms as everyone else, black eyes and veins on their face. Doctor Ryan immediately sprung into action and started to examine Kyth, shouting, “Toss me a tricorder, now!” 

She stood right in front of the young Orion, feeling for a pulse and saying, “Kyth, can you hear me? Are you alright? Where is that damned tricorder!?” Before someone could find one, Kyth's eyes returned almost to normal, though his veins were still black and very pronounced along his skin. Slowly turning his head to meet the doctor's eyes, he and the rest of the young officers in the mess hall all spoke together as one.

“We… are the Borg.”

After Kyth and the rest of the younger crew members spoke those chilling words, Savar immediately spoke up and said, “Dr. Ryan, move away from Ensign Nakav.” The doctor looked back at the first officer, then nodded and took a few steps back. 

Tali also sprung into action, and said to the Captain, “Sir, we need to get out of here. We are outnumbered 2 to 1.”

Kosev looked over at Savar, who nodded in agreement, and before he could say anything the young crew again spoke in chilling unison, “Eliminate all unassimilated.”

One of the officers over by the bar pulled out a phaser and began to raise his arm and aim it into the crowd. Tali ran over to him and quickly knocked the weapon out of his hand and, with a few more strikes, incapacitated him. She picked up the phaser and threw it to Kosev and said, “Sir, we need to move!”

Kosev looked to Savar and said, “Take Aleah, Cassian and Zameer, make your way to sickbay and assist the doctor in trying to find out what the hell is going on and how to stop it. Tali, Tavana and Lukas, you're with me, we'll make our way to Engineering and make our stand there.”

“Captain, what about the bridge?” Lukas asked as the group quickly hurried out of the mess hall towards their destinations. 

“The bridge won't do us much good if we lose the rest of the ship, we can reroute command functions through main engineering temporarily. Our highest priority now is making sure they do not assimilate this ship, let's move.” He said as they ran down the hall to the turbolift. The sound of phaser fire in the distance elsewhere on this deck, Kosev tapped his comm badge and said, “Captain to all hands, arm yourselves! Some of our crew has somehow been assimilated by the Borg, set phasers to stun. If you are able, make your way to either sickbay or main engineering, whichever is closest to your position, we will be making our stands in both locations. Thiren out.”

Savar, Aleah, Cassian and Zameer exited the turbolift on deck five and began making their way slowly down the corridor towards sickbay. Before they reached deck five, Savar and Zameer picked up two hand phasers from the weapons locker outside the mess hall, Savar had Zameer bring up the rear while he took point. Cassian, directly behind the Vulcan first officer, was continuously reaching out with his telepathic abilities to try and sense any assimilated crew members they may encounter. 

“Commander,” Aleah said, the group halting as Savar turned around, “In order to study what is happening to the crew, I'll need one of them in sickbay for further study and observation.” 

“That may be too risky, doctor. We would be allowing the Borg access to our defensible position.” He said, looking all around as if he were paranoid about being watched.

“Risky as it may be, it's the only way we will be able to come up with any answers as to what's going on here, sir.” She responded. 

“Shh, two coming this way from that direction.” Cassian whispered as he motioned with his hands towards the adjoining hall coming up. Zameer moved up to join Savar at the front, and the four of them crouched low to the ground, Cassian behind Zameer on the left and Aleah behind Savar on the right. The two officers rounded the corner and just as they raised their arms to aim their phasers, Zameer and Savar opened fire and stunned them both. 

Cassian turned his head a few times and closed his eyes, prompting Zameer to turn around and ask, “Hey, what is it?”

“Our location has be relayed to the rest of them, we need to move.” Cassian warned, looking directly at Savar, who nodded in acknowledgment. 

They all again began to make their way down the corridor again when suddenly the door Savar was passing on his right suddenly swooshed open, revealing two young officers with phasers rushing out at him. He turned to stun them but the phaser was knocked out of his hands, forcing him to engage them in hand to hand. Zameer started to aim his phaser to help, but heard several doors opening behind with several more officers on their way. He turned and started to fire his phaser into the group, stunning two of them before the Borg began to return fire. 

Cassian picked up the phaser that Savar dropped and started stunning the group behind them along with Zameer, while Savar fished off the last officer with a well placed neck pinch. Phaser bolts flew past them, one of them grazing Doctor Ryan on her left arm, causing her to cry out in pain. Savar caught her before he said, “Let's go, we need to make it to sickbay and seal it off." 

Both Cassian and Zameer nodded, and began to fall back into a running retreat, the Borg in hot pursuit behind them. As they ran, they both continued to aim behind and fire, hoping to hit the Borg as they advanced on their group. Amidst all the chaos and adrenaline, they both caught each others eyes for a split second, expressing their fears and apprehensions about their situation without even needed to say a word, then looked forward and continued to run, hoping they would make it to sickbay in one piece. 

Kosev blinked a few times as he started to come around, groggy and putting his hand to his head as he struggled, “Wh… what happened..” He tried to sit up but couldn't find the strength to pull himself up, and instead relented and laid back down. Lukas came over to him from across the junction and said, “Careful Captain, don't try to move, you've been unconscious for several hours.”

Looking around, Kosev finally realized that they were inside one of the junctions in the Jefferies tubes. He was able to make out Tali at the far side of the junction, and of course Lukas who was kneeling next to him, but he didn't see Tavana right away. He shook his head as he felt a wave of pain and grunted, gritting his teeth trying to get through it. “The last thing I remember.. we were on our way.. to Engineering…” 

Lukas nodded as he continued to tend to Kosev's wounds, “We were almost there, but the phaser fire hit and ruptured one of the plasma conduits. It exploded right in front of you, sir.” He ripped another piece of his uniform jacket and rapped it around Kosev's leg to try and stop the bleeding, but it wasn't working. “You're in pretty bad shape, sir. We've been trying to reach Savar or Dr. Ryan, but we haven't had any luck raising them.”

Kosev took in the news as best he could through the pain, and he grabbed Lukas's arm as he nearly screamed in pain as he replaced the makeshift bandage. Rapidly taking in several short breaths, he closed his eyes, then managed, “What about the ship.”

Lukas shook his head, “We honestly don't know, Captain. After you were hit, the Borg were everywhere. We had no path to Engineering, so we grabbed you and found the nearest access port to the Jefferies tube to regroup and rethink our strategy.”

“What about the rest of the crew?” Kosev asked.

“The Borg are not behaving like anything I've ever read about. They don't seem interested in assimilating the crew, only extermination.” Tali spoke up from across the room. She continued to stand watch just in case the Borg were able to locate their position. Lukas nodded, then added, “Another thing we've noticed is that only the youngest members of the crew seem to be affected by whatever is going on. Anyone older than, I'd say maybe thirty or so, doesn't seem affected.”

“I'm only twenty-six, it hasn't affected me.” Tavana added, Kosev finally realizing she was behind him where he couldn't see her. 

“Okay, so then anyone younger than twenty-six. Point is, much of our crew is young, not to mention all of the younger Avalon engineering officers that are onboard still conducting repairs. We were totally outnumbered and overwhelmed within minutes.” Lukas said, looking down and still tending to the Captain's injuries. 

Kosev stayed quiet for a moment and tried to absorb all the new information while also combating the extreme pain he continued to feel. He tried to think of some miraculous plan or way out of this situation, but nothing was coming to mind. “Are we able to determine the status of the ship? Have we left the fleet yards?”

Tavana spoke up again, shaking her head, “Yes, sir, we are still at the fleet yards. The plasma conduit damage to the Engineering deck, plus some additional sabotage from myself and Commander Murphy, have rendered the ship dead in the water. Repairs would take at least a week, maybe more.”

“For us, the Borg might be able to get it done sooner.” Lukas chipped in. 

“These ‘Borg’ are different. They don't appear to have any visible cybernetic devices, the crew just appears to be under their control somehow. If they hadn't introduced themselves as Borg, I'm not sure that's who I would have thought was controlling them.” Tali said. 

“Our top priority has to be taking control of the ship.” Kosev said, feeling more lightheaded than ever with all the energy he has been expending to keep himself alert for the conversation. 

Lukas looked to the Captain and said, “Captain, there isn't enough of us to take back control. There was at least twenty Borg chasing us before we lost them in the Jefferies tube, and they all seem to be armed with phasers set to kill.”

Kosev grunted, then looked to his Operations chief and said, “Well, if retaking the ship is not an option, then we destroy it.” All three of his officers looked at him as if he had completely caught them all off guard. “I can't speak to what their motives are, but I refuse to let this ship remain under Borg control.”

“We may not have to.” Tali said, then signaled for all of them to keep quiet as she approached the Jefferies tube entrance. Pressing her ear up to the entrance, she heard voices of frightened crew members speaking on the other side, but wasn't able to make out what they were saying. Quieting making her way back to the Captain's position, she reported, “I can hear crew members talking on the other side of the hatch, but I can't make out what they're saying.”

Kosev looked to all of them and asked, “Does anyone recall the Borg communicating verbally with each other when this all started? If memory serves, they should all be linked to the hive mind and shouldn't have any need for verbal communication.”

Tavana and Lukas nodded, and Lukas added, “Agreed, we didn't see them communicating verbally at all, sir."

Kosev looked to Tali and said, “I know this is a risk and puts all our safeties in jeopardy, but I want you to investigate. Maybe there are more crew members out there that we can rescue.”

Tali nodded, grabbing her phaser and heading back to the hatch leading to the corridor. Counting to three in her head, she summoned all the courage she could muster and opened the hatch, pointing her phaser out towards the several crew members she seen in the hall. 

Lukas shouted, “Tali! Are you alright?!” Grabbing his phaser and preparing to rush in behind her to assist. 

Kosev heard her laugh and say, “It's alright! The crew… they seem to be alright!” She stepped out of the Jefferies tube and was immediately greeted by several of the crew that had been trying to kill them only a few hours earlier. A few minutes later and Lukas and Tavana appeared, with the Captain in tow.

“Captain!” Savar said as he rounded the corner and rushed over to their position. Seeing his longtime friend still alive pushed emotions to the surface that he couldn't readily suppress, and he didn't realize that he had been smiling as he ran over to him. It an error that he quickly rectified as soon as he realized, but not before Kosev noticed and returned the feeling. 

“The Captain needs immediate medical attention, he's hurt badly.” Lukas reported to the first officer.

Savar nodded, then picked up his Andorian friend and said, “Transporters are offline, I'll take him to sickbay. Dr. Ryan is there treating injured officers, go through the ship and have any injured officers report there for medical attention.”

Lukas nodded and continued on with Tali and Tavana, while Savar carried Kosev to the turbolift. Kosev had almost lost consciousness but managed to say, “I'm glad you're alright, my friend.”

Savar, still fighting to suppress his emotions of the moment, said, “Not as.. glad as I am, Captain.”

As they approached sickbay, Kosev managed to keep mostly conscious and saw Dr. Ryan tending to another officer before Savar urgently called her over. Rushing to him, and immediately issuing orders to her medical staff to grab various instruments to contain the bleeding, she said, “Nice to see you, Captain. I was hoping our first week together wasn't going to be our last.”

“It may still be, Doctor.” Kosev grunted slightly, attempting to manage a smirk. 

Aleah smiled back and said, “Nonsense, sir. You're going to be fine, we are prepping you for surgery now, but you will make a full recovery.” Kosev laid back and closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath before losing consciousness.