Dawa slowly circled the massive runabout one more time as she finished her exterior inspection. The USS Ophiuchus didn’t get out much these days due to its high-maintenance systems, but the local engineers had been crawling over it like ants the last several days in preparation for its vital mission.

Nothing better than the high-speed, powerfully equipped Orion class to courier Borg technology through the vacuum of space. “The faster, the better,” thought Dawa, who didn’t want to spend one second longer in close proximity to any of that disturbing detritus than she absolutely had to.

“Still, I can’t take off until the rest of the cargo gets here,” she muttered, scanning the hangar for any sign of a teal-colored uniform.

Gideon walked into the docking bay carrying a black case and looked around. “It can’t be that hard to find,” he thought to himself. He looked towards the center and spotted the large Orion-class runabout.

He walked over to the Ophiuchus and saw a red-colored uniform looking around. He walked up to her.

“Commander,” he said promptly.

Dawa took a deep breath and gave the scientist her best smile. Having a face attached to the crate of equipment made the machinery feel a little less menacing.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am to see you,” said Dawa, realizing too late how strange it was to say that to someone she’d never met. “Ah, which is to say, I’m a little nervous about transporting this material, but you’re the one who dug it out of storage and you seem thoroughly unassimilated.”

She chuckled weakly as she crouched down with her PADD to check for the required “hazardous material” markings.

“I’m Dawa Vlček, by the way,” she said, glancing up at him as she continued her work. “What’s your name? I don’t recall seeing you around.”

It was an inane comment given the size of the station, but Dawa wanted to get a conversation flowing so that she wouldn’t be alone with the Borg bits.

“Gideon, ma’am. Lieutenant Gideon Johnson.” He said. “Are you ready to go?” He asked. He had been ready to get this over with when he found the piece. He has wanted to get as far away from this Borg tech as possible.

“I–”

Dawa stood up suddenly. She was not ready to go. She still needed her crew, and she didn’t want to be left with the Borg crate, alone in a sea of busy dockworkers and flight crew.

“I need you to review with me what or, uh, who? Or what part of who this technology used to be, and what odd reactions you may have noticed in it recently.”

She could read all of that herself, sure, but she wanted to get it from the horse’s mouth instead.

“When I was going through the inventory I noticed something moving in a box. When I took a closer look at what was inside of it… I found this thing,” he said holding the case away from his body. “I honestly couldn’t tell you what this thing is,” he said as he looked at her.

He stood there for a second. He had realized that she would want a more detailed response than that.

“It seems to be able to sense when people are nearby. It will start to move towards you in a way. Although if you stun it with a phaser it will immediately stop moving for around…” he said as he paused trying to remember how long it took before the thing started moving again. “Thirty seconds.”

Dawa visibly shuddered at his description. “Ugh, maybe I’ll try setting mine to ‘kill’ instead.”

She tapped the box with her foot. “But it’s definitely secured now though, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“Well, alright,” she said reluctantly. She lifted the crate, just large enough to almost get her arms around, and shuffled towards the cargo lift. “Let us know if you find anything else, Lieutenant Gideon!”

As an afterthought, she added, “But I hope you don’t!”