“Deck two.”  Ensign Hawk and the Hazard Team stood outside the turbolift, “We’ve located two small labs with ten offline Borg Drones each.  We’re down to twenty missing.”  He handed a PADD to Fowler, “The labs are smaller versions of what is up top.”

She read through the data, horrified and impressed simultaneously, “They’ve never played by the rules of any convention…and they took that to extremes here.  You think they were working on transferring consciousnesses from an unassimilated into a Borg Drone?” 

Hawk nodded to Harrison, their science officer.  “We’d need to further take the mechanism apart, and I doubt it works…but the rudimentary systems are there…and it suggests they had a few test runs before they ran off.”

Fowler stepped back, and the Hazard team returned to the elevator as Hawk tapped the console, “Deck 3, housewares.”  He chuckled at his joke and then turned at the silence, “Did you not all check out the series I suggested at movie night last month?”  Blank looks was his reply.  “You are missing out.  Old Earth British Comedy was a goldmine of weird and wacky.”  The door slid open, and Hawk’s posture returned as the Hazard Team followed him.  It took less time than deck two.  He handed over the PADD, “Ten more, all inactive.  They dug into these…not much left to autopsy.”  They were off to deck four with another tap of the turbolift console.

The doors opened, and the same procedure was repeated with Hawk returning, his face filled with a frown this time.  Fowler asked, “You look like you found another mystery.”

He handed her the PADD, “Nine.  There’s nothing odd about these.  They’re just waiting for a switch to be flipped.  No physical damage, no mechanical issues.”

Sadie’s eyebrows furrowed, “So what’s left on deck five, then?  Where’s our last Borg Drone?”

Catari wasn’t sure, “I think we need to be careful with this one.  This could be what sent them scrambling.”

Hawk agreed, “Let’s get to deck five and get this sorted out.”

The doors closed, and the lift inched down to the last deck.  The door swooshed open, revealing an open deck with what appeared to be a significant cage in the middle, a lone bright light casting down on a figure sitting in a chair.  The face turned towards them and regarded them momentarily before returning to the ground.

Hawk and his team cleared the rest of the room and led the others forward.  As Fowler got closer, it started to make sense.  It was a Borg Drone…sitting and contemplating something.  Catari gasped, “What the…hell?”

Lieutenant Hawk kept his distance from the cage, “USS Olympic, Federation Starship.  Who are you?”

The drone turned to them as his mouth opened in shock, “You’re…real?”  It was a scragged voice, one that hadn’t spoken much.  He stood and examined them as well as he could from a distance, “You’re real.  You’re Federation.  You’ve come to save us?”

Fowler stepped forward, still keeping her distance, “Us?” she asked.

He looked from face to face before the realization sunk in, “They’re all dead.”

Sadie asked, “What…are you?”

The drone sighed, “I’m…well, I was Drone 19 of 50…but they just called me Niner.”  He gestured to his equipment, “I was their final experiment…they disconnected us from the collective when they invaded…they told us lies about saving us and finding ways to bring us back to our original selves.  We were so hungry for…something…anything to replace the screaming silence in our brains…we took the deal.”  He held his hands to his head, “It still hurts every so often.”  He sat roughly back on the chair, “They helped me find my old self…at least my speech patterns…and they loaded in a personality…a pretty docile one if I’m honest.” He looked at the Federation team, “Are you here to rescue me?  You never said.”

Fowler nodded quietly, “We’re here to help you, Niner.  The people who ran this place…they took off pretty quickly…any idea why?”

He attempted a smile, which came out as a menacing smirk, so he stopped.  “I started killing them.  I could only reach out short distances…like this deck…but then I found as I worked…I could reach out further and further.”

Catari realized what her tricorder was reading, “He’s a Betazoid…and whatever they did to him…they gave him the power to do that…with his mind.”  She shook her head, “That’s…not good.”

Sadie scowled at her and returned to Niner, “How many?”

He sighed, “I managed to get forty-nine before they got beyond my reach.”  He blinked, “Does that change what you’re going to do?”

The chief science officer said, “No, Niner…we’re still going to do everything we can to help and save you.  Can I talk to my crew for a moment?”

He nodded and returned to his staring contest with the floor.  Fowler shifted the team back into the hallway, “We need Dread and Halsey down here…he’s limited by distance – orbit seems to be where it ends.”  Catari gave her a look, and Sadie shot it back at her, “As long as we play by the rules and treat him well – we’ll earn his trust.”  She ordered the rest of the group to go up and gather crew and equipment.  She stepped carefully back into the room and closer to the cage, “Niner?” He looked up, and she smiled, “We’re going to help you.  I’m going to need your help, too.  Can I talk to you about some rules that might help us work together?”  He nodded cautiously, and she began her explanation.