It had been several days since the mission on the frozen moon had finished, and they had brought back what Borg technology they had deemed as being worthy of further research. The team had gone back to their assigned duties on the Columbia. 

After a rather uneventful shift on the bridge, Talibah makes her way to the lounge area of the lower decks, not sure what or who she is looking for. She finds the lounge rather empty for this hour and makes her way to the bar area where the holographic bartender is seen cleaning glasses as he prepares for a new day.

“Looking for anyone in particular, Ensign?”

“Not really, more like just not ready to be alone just yet.”

“Ahhhh, Well I’m here if you would like to talk, I may not be a counselor but we bartenders are known for being good listeners.”

“Just this last mission we were on is playing games with my head, being in the dark, looking for who knows what in a crashed Borg ship does things, makes you think.”

“Does it? Having troubles?”

“Nooo, not really.. Just can’t get the cold, dark unknown out of my head. What if…We found…”

“I take it you didn’t?”

“Nope, not a drone in sight. However, the questions remain the same. What would I have done? What would we have done?

“You may never know, ensign. Sometimes we can not know the answers till we face the question.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. The unknown. Not knowing how I would have reacted.”

The holo bartender just nodded. They continued to talk for the next hour or so.

Talibah made her way to her quarters, as she pondered what was playing in her mind. Over the next few minutes, she made her way to her bed, lay down, and tried to clear her mind.

The lights of the suit glistened off of the frozen dark walls of ice-covered Borg tech as she moved past Tav. “There has to be something else here” as she continued further into the dark space. The lights glistened off of what she recognized as another regeneration alcove, empty and frozen as the other one was. The lights gleamed into the darkness, small beams of light guiding her forward.

She pulled out her tricorder and held it in front of her sweeping from side to side as he looked for anything of note. “Come on, find something.” as she looked down at the screen. The screen blipped off to the left as she made her way into a pitch-black area. The lights of the suit did not pierce the darkness of the surrounding area. “Ok…” as she quickly switched her comms over to the group channel. “Hey guys, I’ve entered some sort of large area. I’m having trouble making out anything much farther than what the lights show me.” She reaches behind her back and pulls out what looks like a dark stick that she cracks over her knee. The stick starts to glow an eerie blue light that casts a dim light around her. ”I’m placing a marker light at my current position.”

Looking around she could just now make out a wall off to her right, which she walked towards. “What have we here?” as she walked looking at the Tricorders screen in front of her. Slowly making her way towards the blip shown on the screen. 

Sheets begin to rustle as Talibah’s legs move restlessly.

As she moved forward her foot hit something hard, as she stumbled and fell forward she looked she saw something lying on the floor beside her. ”Hey guys… I think I found something.” she called out in the dark. As she slowly rose to her knees she saw before her the ice-encapsulated remains of what could only be a drone. “We have Drones…”

The legs moved around more as the covers were kicked away. 

She began to take a closer look at the entity in front of her. “I don’t think this is what they meant by finding some tech. But you have to admit it’s interesting. Who can say that they were this close to a drone.” she wondered to herself as she slowly went to one knee beside the drone. “Looks to be humanoid in nature. Normal-looking implants.” She ran the tricorder over the body. “Now why are you here?” as she looked around what she believed was a large room of some sort. Returning to her feet she looked around and found the wall that she had been following. 

She reached behind her took another stick across her knee and she placed it at the foot of the wall. Blue light started to eerily fill the room as she looked toward what she felt would be the middle of the room. Taking a deep breath she stepped over the drone laying on the floor and slowly stepped forward looking down just as much as she looked ahead. “Where there is one drone there are bound to be more,” she said to herself.

As she stepped forward the lights danced in front of her. Reaching out with the Tricorder she approached another blip on the screen as two tables came into her view the lights danced across what lay on top of them.

Talibah bolted awake, her eyes wide as she looked wildly around her quarters.

“Computer, lights.”

As the room’s lights started to glow brighter. She stood and looked around. “Damn it…” as she took a seat on the edge of her bed. She looked over and saw that the other bed in the shard quarters was now empty as her roommate was on duty. 

“It was just a nightmare Tali, just a nightmare..” She took a deep breath and slowly let it out, repeating the breathing techniques learned so long ago. 

It had been several days since the mission on the frozen moon had finished, and they had brought back what Borg technology they had deemed as being worthy of further research. But no drones had been found in that cave. Yes, she had tripped and stumbled but not over a frozen drone and she definitely did not find any tables. What she had found though was one of the Borg consoles that she proceeded to take apart and bring back to the hole where the others had been waiting. 

“Just your mind playing games with you, Tali. None of it was real. Go back to sleep.”

She laid back down, closing her eyes as sleep slowly took over.