The time had come for the crew of the Tokyo to face their assignment, the deployment of the pathogen. It had been hell for many crew members to make this even possible. Towalr entered the room and saw every senior crew member sitting at the table. As he slowed down, he saw Ko sitting at the window side, not at the table, with crossed arms and leaning backward. “Captain, I was not expecting you here.” He stated while walking to the front of the table. 

She wove her head. “No worries, I am here to observe”  Ko dismissed his worries immediately as she rather had seen the situation differently. Her conversation with Behrad was still haunting her, this mission had a different angle in it, and it was bugging her. 

Giving a slight nod to that as Towalr sat down, “Alright, the time has come, and we are going to deploy our mission at Sphere 591” With a brief tap, a sphere 3D model appeared on the table. “It is staying close to Hazari, but is not showing any indication of hostility. Ships can pass it by without any concern of aggression. Fourth Fleet Intelligence and Task Force 86 Command has given us the green light to move forward.” Towalr shrugged at his own words. “But give us a fair warning that our own safety and security are priorities. So it is decided to send in a small team” 

Yozria shrugged and looked at him, “To minimize the damage, I presume?” She looked around the table, seeing the shocked faces. “Oh, come on, everyone knows that this mission is a suicide mission” She took a deep breath as the flashbacks from the broken cube were still crawling in the back of her mind.

“Yes, while cruel to say it, the Lieutenant is right. If things go south, then the problem must be contained as much as possible” Towalr hated to say it but knew that this was the most productive way to tackle the problem. He looked at the room. “Before we start with this briefing, I need a status update on our current situation?” He looked at Sujian. “Commander?”

“The Tokyo is as ready as possible in the security field. Realistically, we are no match for the Borg, even if it is a Sphere or even a probe….we must avoid combat at all costs. If we are in combat, the mission to retrieve the away team will fail to begin with” Sujian painfully pointed out the obvious. “If the Borg would board the ship, security teams are trained to deal with them, and we got two scenarios in place. One is to adapt to them and clear the deck, or two cut our losses and place the deck on inactive with force fields active” He shrugged. “The second scenario is dangerous as it would mean we have to sacrifice the crew that are present there, but Doctor Ibrix could get them back from their Borgfication” 

Viamame shrugged at that comment and glared in Ko's direction, then back at Sujian. “It is possible to reverse the effects. But with the Captain, it had already taken eight days to reverse it, and that was a matter of a few hours of infection of the nanoprobes. Again it's not impossible, but how long they stay in that condition, how complex and difficult it becomes to reverse it" 

Giving a brief nod in the direction of them both, Towalr looked at Padgok. “How is the training going, Lieutenant?” 

Looking up at the mention of his rank and the voice directed at him, he saw Towalr looking. Padgok stayed quiet for a second and the moment that Towalr wanted to repeat his question, “The training is going per schedule. However, I failed to conclude the session as a success. The baseline adds up to Commander Deem's observation that we die if we fight the Borg. Be it by being in a fight or by fleeing. We must avoid a confrontation at all costs. They adapt to our attack maneuvers. They outsmart us by using our tactics against us” It was a poor response as it gave a harsh reality of what they were facing. 

The room was quiet for a second as Towalr felt a heavy weight on his shoulder and eyed Ko knowing briefly who was looking at the floor. Was this the pressure that a Captain would face every time they had to face the dangers? He looked away the moment that Ko looked at him. “Alright, Lieutenant Deem and Lieutenant Vahdat, what is your progress on the weapon deployed?”

“The weapon needs to be locked into the system of the Borg. I did my best with the information I had to go on and my experience at the broken cube. But I can't guarantee it will work,” Yozria said truthfully. “But the connection will work” She looked at Behrad.

Taking a deep breath, “I have analyzed the data of what we retrieved from the broken cube. The pathogen is deployable. But the doubt that Lieutenant Deem is giving is valid. I need more time to know what this pathogen is and how it works.” Behrad looked at Towalr “I know I don't have more time and I know you can't give that to me…but the risk is there” 

“Right” He nodded to himself. “Thank you for your reports, all. Let's get down to the center of this meeting. The team” Towalr shrugged knowing he didn't want to walk down this path. “Lieutenant Vahdat, due to your experience in the field of the broken cube and extensive research you are on the team” He saw Behrad shrug, and give a brief nod. “Lieutenant Commander Deem, due to the state of this mission and the alertness of the Borg, we need you to be part of this team as well” Sujian shrugged as well but nodded accepting it.

“What, you're sending my brother into that?!” Yozria protested standing up and looking worried at Sujian.

“To be fair. I am sending more people to the sphere, not only your brother” Towalr defended his standpoint as he saw Yozria wanting to interject on it.

“Sit down Yozria….” Sujian spoke up, not looking at her, “I ….volunteer to Commander Towalr to be part of this mission. This is my choice” Looking at her, “So please, sit down” Words that echoed through Yozria's mind as Sujian saw her sit down.

“Thank you,” Towalr said after a while. “Petty Officer Mckenzie from engineering is also part of this team, and Ensign Lauwerance of security will join this team.” Towalr shrugged as he had not selected a team leader for this madness of a mission that was coming down on them. 

“I volunteer myself to be the team leader of this operation” A voice came from the window as Ko looked at them all. “I can see that Commander Towalr has not made up his mind regarding who would be leading this team. My experience in the field of security and from the broken cube is valid and bluntly obvious to go there” Ko was giving them a piece of her mind. She felt she had to prove herself after the last failure. 

It was a welcoming answer as Towalr nodded in happiness to Ko's sacrifice in this matter. But not everyone agreed with that statement.

“I object” A voice came from the table in a rather cold tone. Everyone looked in the direction of Viamame. “Captain Yoon-Jung is still not fit for duty, and I accept the fact that she can operate on the bridge, but sending her back into that hellhole is out of the question.” She looked in Ko's direction. “You just recovered from a light Borgfication. I do not know if the effects of the Borg collective have on your mind or mental health. So, I will pull my medical privilege and say no to this” 

“Then who are you seeing leading this mission, Doctor? You know I am the only candidate,” countered the doctor. 

“We just should abort the whole mission altogether” Yuzria opts into the debate. 

“Are we really going to bicker with each other? Just pick someone and get this mission over with,” Tamaz said, shrugging at the debate happening. 

Taking a deep breath “I will go as lead” Towalr stated as everyone got quiet and slowly looked in sync in the direction of Towalr. “You heard me. The away mission will be led by myself. Doctor Ibrix makes a valid point, Captain, you are in no condition to lead this away mission, and you are a liability to the Borg influence. This meeting is dismissed” With that said, Towalr briefly shrugged before walking out of the ready room, leaving the senior staff stunned behind.