The stairs were concrete and built to last.  As the away team delved further into the depths, the smell of aging decay filtered through their noses at first and then became an assault that brought on coughing fits and fumbling to strap on filtration units.  The steps came to a hard stop, and an expansive door stood before them.  It was metal, and the art was intricate but unfamiliar.  They worked at the door for fifteen minutes until a plate in the wall was shifted, revealing an old panel.

Commander Thasaz examined it with a tricorder in hand, “It’s still working.  Impressive.  Let’s see…,” she carefully tapped the console as the scans revealed the mechanics until she pressed the last button.  The doors groaned as the ground shuddered beneath them.  An earsplitting rumble screeched as the massive metal object complained after years of disuse.  The area ahead was dimly lit until she stepped foot inside.  A whine of power echoed off high ceilings as the ground shuddered again, heralding the massive lights above them to flicker and burn bright as the electricity flew through the hanging wires.  Rows upon rows of varying laboratory equipment and tables filled the room. Blinking status lights began to appear on the equipment, along with beeping alarms and status alerts.

Longfellow stared at all of it.  “This is…madness.  Half of this makes sense…the other half…I’m not even sure we’ve allowed such things.” Thasaz gave him a look.  Longfellow explained as he walked slowly around some of the nearby devices, “From what I tell…this was a…growing lab of some kind.  Those beds would have had hard cases…but they’ve probably broken long ago.”

Thasaz felt her skin crawl, “A growing lab?”

Henry spoke plainly, “This was a lab for growing…creations, Commander.  For us, it would be a clone lab…but this isn’t.”  He further examined the dusty and cracked consoles, “This is more of a… civilization creation lab.  Each of these machines can grow a unique body with specific characteristics…and there’s over…,” He counted in his head as he looked around, “fifty of them that I can see.”  He walked farther down the broad aisle in the middle, “There’s probably 25 more down there.  The beds are for the finishing touches – the finalization of the specimen.  And the rest of it…there are stasis beds against that wall…counting them, it looks like they match the others…” he rubbed his temples, “This was a creation lab for an entire civilization.”  He turned to Thasaz, “The Nama people had to have originated here…but if this lab is a thousand years old…”

She answered, “Then they were…created to exist as they were – imperfect and given to regular deaths to keep their population down.  They can only trace their history five hundred years ago…it makes you wonder what happened from year one to five hundred.”

Longfellow’s face was flushed as his frustration and anger grew, “You said there was a life sign.”

They continued to walk and catalog what they had found.  Thasaz had asked the rest of her team to examine them in detail.  The reading led them to a dimly lit hallway that opened into a small theatre.  The chairs had long fallen apart from time’s assault, but the stage remained.  A stasis chamber sat sideways, powered.  Longfellow walked down the aisles and stomped up the stage stairs with Thasaz at his heels, “Doctor…”

He sighed as he got a look at the body in the chamber, “He’s still alive…whoever he is.”  A quick scan of his medical tricorder added context, “…but he’s not going to survive long if we bring him out.  This thing’s lasted long past its standard operating cycle.”  He tapped his badge and informed Captain Walton of what they had found.

Her voice sounded strained, “How long will he live?”  He knew what she was asking.  Would he live long enough to give us the answers we need?  And is it worth ending a life to get those answers?  He knew what his answer was, but he restrained his response.  He needed to stay above the water.

He replied, “I can extend his life by several minutes with the right equipment, captain.”  He returned Thasaz’s stare as the captain gave the order to do so, and the channel closed.  “What?” he asked with hostility he didn’t intend.  He breathed and tried again, “I’m sorry…it’s hard to see all of that…and ignore my feelings on the matter.”

The science chief folded her hands, “A thousand years ago, something happened here.”  She gestured at the man in the pod, “We don’t know enough to cast judgment on this man.”

Longfellow spat, “And if it turns out he was another Khan?  Then will I be allowed to be upset?”  The sound of footfalls approached, announcing Lieutenant Hiro’s arrival.  She gave him a quiet look and maneuvered the equipment into place. He felt his face grow warm at her unspoken rebuke.  Henry busied his hands, assisting with the equipment preparation.  He was wrestling with both his personal feelings and his professional position.  Hiro met his gaze a few times as they worked together.  Thasaz stepped out to speak to the captain.  Henry sighed, “You heard that.”

She had heard enough to know her friend and teacher was treading water in the middle of another storm.  “Sensei Longfellow,” she used his last name intentionally.  She hadn’t used his full title in some time.  The weight of his anger gave her reason enough.  “The judgment of our patients isn’t up to us.  You are a doctor sworn to uphold the highest standards in medicine.  You must live them, not reject them.  Especially depending on who is in front of you.”  Her tone remained even, almost kind.  The truth was she was dressing down her superior in the harshest language she could remember using.  “You must be better than whoever is on your table.  No matter the name, the acts, or the cost.”

He stared at the stasis unit for a moment longer.  She was his conscience.  What would he ever do without her?  “You are right, Hiro-san.  I should be calling you sensei.”  She smiled at his gesture, bowing slightly. Thasaz returned to the room, giving both of them a curious look.

Longfellow cleared his throat, “Thank you, Lieutenant Hiro.”  He turned to Thasaz, “I’m sorry…again.  I’ve been reminded that I’m a doctor, not a judge.”  She looked to Hiro, who was working on the equipment, her face unbroken.

Thasaz felt her respect for the man grow just a little more as she replied, “Apology accepted, Doctor.  Shall we work on what we came here to do?”

He stepped up to the stasis pod and tapped at the console while Thasaz and Hiro stood ready to bring the equipment to bear.  The beep signaled the pod’s opening, and the two expertly attached the equipment and systems to the elderly man.  His eyes flitted open as his lungs filled with air, and his heart rate began to climb.  “Who…what?”

Henry explained as much as he could in their short time, “You’ve been asleep a long time…and the people you created are in danger.”  He shared about the Borg.

The man chuckled, “Oh yes.  Those fools.  I know them.”  He frowned as he surveyed the equipment around him, “You must want to speak with me desperately…I can feel my body fighting the decay.  What a fascinating feeling.”

Longfellow asked, “Why did you create them?”

There was a twinkle in the eyes of the man, “Why, to end the Borg, of course.”  He fought back a cough and winced at the pain, “But I couldn’t go through with it.  I couldn’t sacrifice them to those mechanical beasts…so I hid them.  I made them small…you must have discovered the natural rate of decay I built in.  They would never get big enough to draw attention.  The perfect weapon hiding in my corner of the universe.”  He lay back, “It seems they almost found them, too…but you saved them…all of them?”  Henry nodded, still processing the revelation.  “They will live on wherever you take them.”

Henry asked, “Can’t we use their blood or DNA…”

A sage shake of the head, “None of it will survive outside the body.  I knew eventually, someone would want to study them…poke and prod them.  If they were to use them as a weapon, they would have to look them in the eye before consigning them to death.”  Another coughing fit shook him, and he grimaced at the newfound pain levels, “I spent many of my years perfecting them…I learned my lessons from my first experiment.  I needed to complete the trials correctly.”  He looked to the other two, “They are a beautiful creation, the Nama people?  They have my name, you see.  Namash Loutan.”

The monitors from the Mackenzie began to beep aggressively. Longfellow asked desperately, “You said there was a first experiment…”

Namash frowned, “Yes…they were allowed to grow…I did limit their intellect to prevent them from reaching space…but they grew so numerous…I wanted to start over…throw them in the trash…but I couldn’t.  Not a great scientist, am I?  I should have been able to flush them down the river into the boiling magma…but it was not to be.  I left them, hid them…and came here to finish my life’s work with a better result.”  He started wheezing as the alarms grew louder, “You should find them…it is on the consoles…here…”  He handed Longfellow a device, “…this will allow you access to what you need to find…don’t let them find them…I built them before I knew of the Borg…before I knew to create a poison against them…”  His breathing fell into a haggard pattern as his body refused to continue and fought back against modern medicine.  Namash fell silent as the breathing slowed to a gurgle…and then nothing.  The vacant eyes of the creator stared into nothingness.

Longfellow closed the man’s eyes and stepped back as he and Hiro observed silence.  The revelations were ghastly and yet…good, Henry concluded.  A master of creation had found his heart twice in his trials and had tried to kill the Borg.  The faces of his creation had stopped his genocide.

Thasaz turned off the equipment one by one, “We should update the captain.  Do we tell the Nama about him?”

Longfellow wasn’t sure, but Hiro was.  “They should know where they came from – and how he cared for them.”  She looked to an intrigued Thasaz, “We should all know who gave us life, Commander.”

She answered, “Let’s get him back to the Mackenzie and update the captain…this isn’t going to be an easy decision.  I’ll have my team pull the data he spoke about.  If another group is in danger…we don’t have much time to lose.”