Chad was in the middle of the corridor, not far from Transporter Room 2; his hands pressing lightly on to Cho’s shoulders, tears in his eyes, pleading with her not to go.

“Please no, not you too.” The young New Zealander sobbed.  “You can’t leave me, help will be here soon.  I’m sure of it.”

“You said that yesterday.” The Korea admonished.  “Don’t you think I’d have heard something over subspace, if there was any hope of rescue?”

“Just hold on for one more day.” He continued to plead.  “None of this is real, you must realise that/”

“It hurts too much.” Now tears filled Cho’s eyes.  “On the planet I’ll be safe; the Captain said how wonderful it is down there.  Come with me, please.”

She wiggled her way free and made her way towards the door; where other members of the crew were attempting to gain access to the transporter room.  Beyond the doors; which had been disabled from the inside; Appleby and N’ Quith stood guard.  Their instructions were simple; prevent anyone else from leaving the ship.

There were others that had still not succumbed to the horrors of their hallucinations; who stood guard of the other transporters, including those in the cargo bays.  To prevent anyone using the shuttle craft as a means of travelling to the planet, Lieutenant Devron, as acting Captain had ordered them all sabotaged.

**********

Lieutenant Devron was on the Bridge, along with Lieutenant Stuart and Ensign C’Rren; all of which were searching desperately for any way of counteracting whatever forces were at work.  Crewman Ishan Rahul’s sabotage of the monitoring equipment had both been efficient and permanent; the software having been corrupted by a self-replicating computer virus.  It was only the fact he had informed Jason of his actions; that had prevented the virus from spreading to other ships systems.

Jason put his hand softly on the left shoulder of Ensign C’Rren and gave it a gently squeeze.  He knew how much the young Caitian science officer was suffering, and he had to admire brave he was being; by keeping to his post, whilst his mind was screaming at him to run.  He could feel the Ensign shaking and see the fur sticking up on the back of his neck.

Over the general hum of the ship, there was a distinctive clank, followed by a thud.  It sounded very much like in was coming from the outer hull of the saucer section, somewhere along the port side.

“Do we have any Idea what that was?” Jason’s question was to both his colleagues, but in was Lieutenant Stuart who answered his question.

“Someone just launched an escape pod.” She called out.

“Damn, why didn’t I think of that?” Devron slammed one fist into the palm of his other hand.  “Can we stop it?”

“Sorry sir, whoever is aboard is on a one way trip down to the planet.”  Stuart replied.

“I’m picking up four life signs in the pod.” C’Rren announced as he gave it a quick scan.

“Is there any way of preventing that from happening again?”  Jason asked.

“I can put a lock on them from here.” Lieutenant Stuart informed him.  “But that wouldn’t prevent a manual launch, just slow people down a bit.”

“Do it anyway.”  Not for the first time in his short career; Jason had found himself in command of a ship in danger; and not for the first time, there seemed no clear course of action.

**********

Down in Main Engineering; Lieutenant (JG) Dinari Lyambo was having a few issues of his own.  The was currently in a stand-off with George Tyson who was completely convinced the Borg had boarded the vessel.  He was demanding to be allowed off the ship; otherwise he would detonate the warp core.

No amount of talking by the Chief Engineer, seemed to be enough to calm the man down; and being and expert in propulsion, other than Lyambo himself; Tyson was the most skilled at carrying with particular task out.

“George, listen to me.” Dinari pleaded, both his hand held out, palms forward to prove he wasn’t carry any weapons.  “No of this is real.”

“You’re lying; they’re right there!” George yelled hysterically pointing at what was in fact an empty part of the room.  “You must have let them get on the ship!”

“How and why would I do that?” The Chief Engineer asked.

“You’ve been in league with the since your time on the Chapel.” George responded.

The USS Chapel had been a medical ship now captained by his brother Charlie Lyambo; after the events of Frontier Day had caused the dead of its previous Captain.  Lyambo had ended up on the ship himself, summoned under duress, by members of the Chapel’s crew under Borg control; to deal with a radiation leak which they themselves couldn’t fix; the ships entire engineering team, having already died by this time.

So yes, he had cooperated with the Borg when they had threatened to kill his brother; but to say he was in league with them; was completely wrong.  Reluctantly he stepped to one side, and let George Tyson walk out of Main Engineering, probably to join the ranks of those desperate to get off the ship; all of them being driven by the nightmares that appeared to be so real.

**********

Over the next 24 hours, things got progressively worse, as more succumbed to the nightmares and the relentless call of the planet below.  It was around this time that the first of those guarding the transporters had broken.  Without sleep due to the near constant banging and shouting from outside the door; and without having eaten since they’d sealed themselves in to Transporter Room 2, Appleby and N’ Quith finally gave in.

By the following morning, half the crew were missing, and those that were left, barely hanging on to reality.  Ensign Harris, although not as badly effected as most others, elected to go with Ensign Cho; both in his view to protect her, and to see if he could discover any more about this planet, whilst he still held on to some of his senses.

Lieutenant Jason Devron handed a Tricorder, phaser and some supplies as they stood together by the pad.  “Good luck down there, report back every hour, whilst you’re still able.”

“I will hold out for as long as I can.” Harris replied nervously.

“Until we meet again.” Devron turned to Lyambo stood at the controls.  “Energize.”

The fading image of Ensign Harris was half way to a salute, when he disappeared from view.

“That’s one brave young man.” Lyambo commented.

“You all are.” Devron relied.  “How many of are left on this sinking ship?”

“Including you, me, Stuart, C’Rren and Tholakath; there are 26 of us.” The Namibian answered. “I’d double check with the ships computer, but even ‘She’ appears to be acting weird.”

“Is that actually possible?”

“Is anything that’s actually happening, possible?”

“Right now, I’m not sure.”  Jason yawned.

“You need to get some sleep.” Dinari looked into his friends bloodshot eyes.  “As the ranking officer and only sane person left, you need to get some rest, before you collapse.”

“I can’t, there’s too much to do, everyone needs me.”

*********

In the end though, he did eventually fall asleep in the Captain’s chair; and for how long he wasn’t entirely sure.  But when Jason did open his eyes, it was to an empty Bridge.  With a heavy heart and aching limes, the Lieutenant stood up.

He stared at the image of the planet they were orbiting and it stared back, mockingly.  “Why the hell don’t you want me and why didn’t you let Rahul kill me?”

The planet made no attempt to answer, not that he’d really expected on.  What was it playing at, why was he being singled out for special treatment?  Not that watching all his friends suffer like this felt special.

After a short while, Jason headed of for a tour of the now apparently deserted ship.  However it was not completely empty.  Three remained, of which the Chief Engineer and his friend Dinari Lyambo was one.

“You should go.” Jason said to them all. “You’ve suffered enough of this.”

“How can I leave my friend like this?” Dinari placed his hand on Jason’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m probably too stubborn and pig headed for this planet any way.” Even though he didn’t really believe it himself, he assured them they would be safe down on the planet.  He didn’t believe his own words though.  To him they were hollow and gave false hope.  He was also sure Dinari could see right through his deception.

There was one final goodbye and a warm handshake from each of those that had battled the longest to remain on board the Grus.  Then as the columns of light enveloped them and faded; Jason knew now, he was all alone.