From one end of the med bay to the other, every holographic interface vanished, and every LCARS interface went dark.  A hexagonal light flare of forcefields rippled over every door and Jeffries tube hatch.  Heavy thunks in the overhead, paired with a change in the hissing of air circulation, indicated the med bay had been cut off from the ship’s utility trunks and switched over to its own isolated atmospheric support system.  Only the biobeds remained functioning on their own redundant subprocessors, disconnected from the main computer.

“Yuulik to bridge!” Yuulik shouted out.  Her combadge blurped at her, which meant it had been disconnected from every communications network node in range.  Yuulik tapped at a darkened LCARS panel and then stabbed at it twice with her index finger.  The smooth surface offered no response.

The level seven quarantine was recently modified to include restraining communication and information technology access.  The Borg had so recently proven they could use biological warfare to assimilate a crew and take control of a starship, as they had done to so many on Frontier Day.

“Please do not panic,” Doctor Nelli said.  The vocoder that translated Nelli’s plant-like ultrasonic pops and electrochemical emissions into a humanoid voice sounded all the more monotone and mechanical than ever.

Nelli clomped into the middle of the med bay, and they raised their vines in a sweeping gesture that had the aesthetic quality of choreography.  Nurses and patients alike turned their eyes to Nelli.  Yuulik did, too.

“The med bay is an emergency shelter designed to keep us safe,” Nelli said.  “This quarantine is temporary.  We need a safe space to pause.  We need to think.”

“Uhhh, doctor?” Nurse Rals called out.  His intonation gave nonchalance, but his eyes darted from side to side in a quiet display of panic.

Rals asked, “Why did you just lock us in here?”

“And lock us out of the computer?” Yuulik added, incensed.  

Nelli said, “As a crew, our decision-making has become compromised by fear.  Fear of the Borg.  We are stronger when we act from a place of love.  We must moderate our speed before we make ill-judged decisions about a lifeform with more experience and wisdom than any of us.”

“The fungus?” Yuulik spat as she stood up from her chair.  “You’re holding us hostage to protect the fungus?”

Elongating her trunk, Nelli stood taller to say, “Are new civilisations only worthy of seeking if they are mammalian, humanoid?”

Stepping in between the two senior officers squaring off against one another, Rals said, “I’m sure that’s not what she–“

Squinting at Rals, Yuulik nodded and said, “Regrettably, it is a little bit what I–“

“You have proposed to impair a sentient being,” Nelli said.  “We hold no claim on this world.  We have no right to choose its fate.  Our understanding of this civilisation is nanoscopic compared to their own.”

“Exactly,” Yuulik insisted.  “Exactly!  Nanoscopic is what we’re talking about.  Borg nanoprobes.  The fungal creature down below did not evolve the nanoprobes in its system.  I’m not suggesting we cause any harm to the fungus or its world, but the Borg nanoprobes must be disabled.  They don’t belong here.”

The volume increased on Nelli’s vocoder when she said, “You are wrong.  It is I who does not belong here.  Your Starfleet ways were not designed for this one’s biology or philosophy, but I adapted to work in symbiosis with you.  …No, not this.  I have assimilated to fit your crew, your priorities.  I don’t– I lost sight of the goals that called me to Starfleet.  Now, I apply stitches.  I prescribe.  I have not… I have not done anything of value.“

“You have!” Rals insisted.  “You really, really have.  You saved Addae’s life.  My husband would be dead and already buried on that planet if not for you.  Does that mean nothing to you?”

Nelli’s vines recoiled towards their trunk, curling like a hukka vine.  In an unbalanced manner, Nelli shuffled on the spot and then planted their limbs heavily, going still.

“Not nothing,” Nelli said.  “But it means little.  You would have done the same in my place.  He did not need me.”

Yuulik scoffed, “Rals is a nurse, and you’re a doctor, Nelli.  You’re perfect as you are, sweetie.  Few of us dedicate our lives to learning everything you’ve learned.”

Lowering the volume of their vocoder, Nelli said, “You cannot understand what I feel, Yuulik.  Your people are terrified of genetic modification.  It stays with you like blood memory.  My people, this is something we naturally express.  It is who we are.  RNA exchange is how we feel and express romantic love.”

“Nelli, we’re suffocating in your feelings in here!” Yuulik thundered.  “You have to let us destroy the nanoprobes.  Safely!”

“It’s you who doesn’t know,” Rals stammered.  He wouldn’t look at Nelli when he spoke up; he wouldn’t look at Addae either.  The tall nurse perched himself on the foot of a biobed, and he stared at the deck.

“You don’t know what it felt like to have the Borg in your head,” Rals said.  “The collective put thoughts in my head that didn’t belong to me.  I didn’t– I couldn’t recognise them.  They told me to do things I would never do, and no amount of mindfulness could protect me from those intrusive thoughts.  Before I was born, the Cardassians only controlled my parents’ bodies.  I thought that was the ultimate evil, but at least my parents’ minds were free!”

Nelli took two steps away from Rals.

“I do not defend the Borg Collective,” Nelli said.  “But you cannot affirm all collective is evil.  This crew is a collective.  Families on Phylos are collective.  We are capable of such greatness; please do not diminish that.”

Rals replied, “Whatever your people can do on Phylos, whatever that fungus can do below us, we cannot allow the Borg to find the fungus and study its abilities.  If that fungus can change gene expression in our brains, it can revert us into assimilation receptors without a transporter.  We cannot permit the Borg to assimilate that power!”

“Nelli,” Yuulik smirked, “do you love someone who isn’t Phylosian?”

Nelli didn’t answer.  They turned their eye-stalks away from Yuulik and puttered over to Addae’s biobed.  Nelli’s vines tapped at the controls on the surgical support frame. They paused to monitor, and then they tapped at the controls again.

Finally, Nelli said, “Addae’s immune system is recovering from treatment.”

And then they said, “Computer, authorisation: Piminellifolia-delta-three.  Lower the quarantine.  The threat has ended.”