Chief Medical Officer’s log,

While the discovery of borg nanoprobes a couple of hours ago was startling, it has been the catalyst for working out a treatment and cure for the Hulan. For many, however, the timing has been too late. It’s been heartbreaking to have to break the news to so many patients and families that their window is closed to treatment options. I am trying my best to remain positive and focus on the many that we will now be able to save. Our first responder vessel will be a welcome addition to the response here on Ni’lan, and will allow me and others to rotate off for some well-deserved rest. Everyone is pretty worn out at this point, but we will continue to move forward until then. 

“Doctor Caade. You need to see this.” The young voice of an engineering officer spoke to him as he approached with another young officer from the medical department. The two had been working on a complete analysis of the borg nanoprobes. Caade grabbed the PADD that the second officer handed his way. 

“Someone has done some significant alterations to these probes, sir. They’ve been augmented with some of deflection tech, which is why we had some difficulty in discovering them in the first place. They are designed to reflect most scanning techniques.” The young engineer spoke first. 

“From a medical standpoint, they’ve been programmed to target specific sequences of DNA. In particular, they are programmed to attack Hulan helix structures. We were never at risk. From a biomechanics perspective, this is some remarkable work. Terrifying but remarkable,” the young medical officer spoke second. 

Caade shook his head in disgust as he read through their findings, not because of the quality of their work but rather because of how horrific this was. These nanoprobes had been altered to become a bio-weapon of sorts essentially. Capable of illuding anyone without advanced medical capabilities and causing utter destruction and chaos. 

“Thank you both. Please relay these findings to the Pathfinder immediately. Good work.” 

“I am trying to bypass the security overrides. These encryptions are not easy to work around.” Tahn stated to the small away team she was with, which included B’Timo. Her fingers moved furiously on a small PADD device she was using, which was wired into some control console they broke open adjacent to a set of large security doors. 

After discovering the nanoprobes, Governor Lanon had granted permission for Kqinara and her crew to launch a full investigation into the incident – a level of cooperation which had been unexpected but welcome. Some public health and tracing work had narrowed down the origin of infection within the Hulan populus, and after some further interviews and investigation efforts had led to a hidden bunker.

“Got it!” Tahn exclaimed in a satisfied tone. The security doors unbuckled and revealed a spacious multi-room bunker. The area had several stretchers and leftover pieces of medical equipment, but it looked like it had been ravaged quickly. 

“I think we’ve found where those nanoprobes came from,” B’Timo stated and moved into the space. He flipped his tricorder open to conduct some scans. It didn’t take too much imagination to understand that this could and was likely a harvesting facility. The space had been scrubbed quickly. A fact that could perhaps work to their advantage.

“Continue searching for any hard evidence. Try to access any computer tech left around. We may be able to recover something if things were wiped in such a rush.” B’Timo ordered and continued to move further into the chamber.

Kqinara crossed her arms in front of her in an effort to center herself so she did not interfere with what was unfolding in front of her. Governor Lanon stood near her and was interrogating his former deputy governor. Jenke had been arrested shortly after her team had discovered the ex-borg harvesting facility. Eyewitness testimony had placed Jenke at the center of involvement with the underground and secret facility.

“Why Jenke? Why would you endorse such a horrific thing?” Lanon asked him in desperation. 

Jenke rolled his eyes and responded without remorse. “Where did you think we were getting our funds from, Lanon? Sweet corn trades. Don’t be so daft.” He looked to Kqinara in disgust and then back at Lanon. “I did what I needed to for our people and for our colony. To continue to grow and sustain ourselves.”

“This is not who we are Jenke. We are not a people that do this to others. We never have been. Your greed and corruption have cost the lives of so many. The outbreak would never have happened should you not have let such terror take place on our soil.” Lanon shook his head in disgust.

“That… I did not ever mean for any harm to come to our people, Lanon.” There was a sudden change in Jenke’s tone and body posture, and a hint of remorse emerged momentarily. “I don’t know how that happened.” 

No one would ever truly know how the probes had been programmed to attack the Hulan and get released into their environment. Jenke had insisted that Hulan workers must have made a mistake or error, but no such workers had been found in the investigation. 

The former deputy governor had refused to admit to any involvement with the Orions. They all knew there was involvement from them without question at this point. Kqinara’s team had uncovered some degraded data that had been wiped half-heartedly. They were able to reconstruct something that supported the identification of a number of other possible extraction sites. Kqinara forwarded the information immediately to starfleet intelligence.If there was something good to come of all of this. 

Something starfleet could use to their advantage in the fight to prevent extortion of the ex-borg in their quadrant.