Lieutenant Beaufort was half asleep when he heard the commotion from his medical bed within one of the many wards that make up part of the Hospital Ship.  With half open eyes he looked across at the nurse tending to the guy in another bed.  The sight looked a bit odd though; something just seemed off.  Doctor Xyikis was moving over to the same bed, he shouted something, which the pilot didn’t exactly make out, but the first word had been ‘stop’.  As the doctor got right next to the nurse; she half turned, grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck and flung him across the other side of the room; sending him over an empty bed on to the floor.

Max shot bolt upright and was about to shout something when he realised the nurse had turned back to the patient and was strangling him!  Further along a male Orderly was doing the same thing to another patient.  What the hell was going on, thought the lieutenant?  Had the world gone completely mad?  He looked away for a moment as he hit the bedside panic button and leaned down to grab his crouches.  With only one leg; after losing his other one at the battle of Deneb IV moving around wasn’t exactly easy, but whatever was going on, this wasn’t a safe place to be right now.  He swung himself round, placed his bared foot on the floor and placed the crouches under each armpit before pushing himself to a standing position.  All he had on at the moment was a pair of dark grey shorts.

Doctor Xyikis was half up off the floor partly leaning against the bed he’d rolled over the top of.  The Orderly who by now had clearly killed the patient he’d been dealing with walked up to the doctor. “Eliminate all inferior specimens.” Came the voice of both Orderly and Nurse as one.  Like the two of them where somehow linked, sharing thoughts and ideas as one. Max looked across realising the Nurse was now much closer to him, blocking any chance of his escape.

A beam of red energy struck her in the lower abdomen. “Get out of here!” Yelled the security guard that had just fired his Phaser at the woman. “This way quick.”

Lieutenant Beaufort hobbled past the guard as quickly as he was able; as the man fired a second shot, this time at the Orderly.  Out in the corridor beyond the doors of the ward he could hear shouts and screams, but it was difficult to tell from what direction or how far away any of these noises where.  Max turned back to the security guard to ask him which way; but the other man had rushed over to check on Doctor Xyikis, huge mistake as both assailants had somehow survived being shot by his phaser.  The Nurse whipped his legs from underneath the guard and the Orderly struck him over the top of the head with a portable monitor, killed the poor unfortunate guy instantly.

The Lieutenant didn’t hang around any longer, instead heading along the corridor away from where he thought most of the noise was coming.  The next ward along was empty, clearly no one had been brought here from the planet and there didn’t appear to be any staff around either.  Further along the corridor ended in a junction.  To his left a dead Andorian nurse lying face down; so he headed right. The next door was an office and another dead body.  This time a Efrosian doctor lay slumped in his chair, the blood still fresh on his lips and a nasty looking gash across the forehead.  The weapon used a trophy of some description on the floor near him.

Beaufort pushed the doctor and his chair to one side so he could hopefully access the computer on the desk as he was still unsure as to his current location on the ship.  The terminal was still active, but would only allow the viewing of very basic information; for anything more detailed Max would require a password.  Something probably only know to the dead Efrosian.  What he was able to ascertain was this was deck 17 and he was roughly in the middle of the ship.  Heading for the bridge was probably a bad idea, so he took the decision to head aft and locate the shuttle bays.

**********

Commander Charlie Lyambo had been on the bridge when everything had gone crazy; half the bridge crew had suddenly turned on the other half.  He saw the strange blank look on their faces, the veins prominent against their features, regardless of what species they were. “We are the Borg.”  They had announced as one.  Now the Captain was dead along with two other bridge officers.  Lyambo himself had barely got off the bridge alive, taking the turbo lift down to deck 3 where his office was.  He got to the room unnoticed first trying his comm-badge; but not getting any response from anyone. He then accessed the ships computer in the hope of finding out more information.  The commander was part way through reading the status report of the ship.  The Borg or at least crew member and medical staff that had become Borg where all over the ship.  Life signs kept winking out as various individuals were apparently being killed.  Then he realised, he was tracking everyone via their badges, and if he could do it, so could the Borg.

In fact three where almost outside of the door right now.  Lyambo climbed on top of his desk where there was an air vent.  He tried to use his badge to remove the screw and pull away the panel, but that wasn’t working.  So he climbed back down and pulled open draws and cupboards as he searched for something to use like a screwdriver.

Twice someone outside tried to open his door; but the Commander had set the lock, preventing anyone getting in.  Back up on the table he tried a number of items until finally the edge of nail file proved the perfect tool for the job.  Charlie could hear a noise from outside then saw a small section of the door start to glow.  Someone was using a phaser to cut through.  As the second of the screws hit the table and bounced away the hole in the door was opening up.  He frantically pulled at the vent panel twisting it and yanking it part way down.  But he wasn’t going to get up and away in time.  He threw his comm-badge as far as possible along the air shaft before jumping off the table and going into the back room.

A few seconds passed before the sound of the phaser stopped and was closely followed by the noise of the door being wrenched open.  He heard footsteps; then someone climb on to the table. The panel was pulled away and heard hitting the floor as it was thrown down.  Another sound followed which was possible one of the Borg controlled crewmembers climbing up; at least part way into the vent.  Charlie heard two thuds; no doubt the first being the same individual landing back on the table, followed by them jumping to the floor.  When a moment or two of silence followed, he began to wonder if may be he’d gotten away with it.

However luck was clearly not on his side, as the door to this room opened and the three Borg Crewmembers matched inside. “Resistance is futile.” They said in unison.

“I surrender.” Blurted out the Commander; dropping to his knees.”

“Surrender is irrelevant.” Came their reply. Charlie closed his eyes waiting to die.  But something stopped them; an apparent change in orders was the only thing the Commander could think of. Two of them grabbed him under the arm and hoisted him up.  “You will come with use.”

**********

On the Jaxartes, Ensign Harris now found himself secured to the communications seat with tape from the emergency medical kit stored on the bridge.  The Borg controlled Lieutenant Stuart now flying the craft.  It was rather eerie and frightening to see three fellow crewmembers being controlled like this.  Each one performing the job they normally did, but in completely autonomous way.  Nothing much seemed to be going on, there had been no cause changes or alterations in speed.  The corvette and the Hospital Ship she was with; still continued their journey to Earth.

But what was happening on Earth, Chad wondered.  He’d witness Admiral Shelby get murdered, because that’s basically what it had been.  Who was fighting though, and how many?  Why had only certain members of this crew been affected?  Was that the same case back on Earth and Sol Station?  The young New Zealander had so many questions running through his mind.

His train of thought was suddenly broken by a flurry of activity.  The small starship banked sharply and dived under the hull of the bigger vessel, with what seemed like only metres to spare.  He knew Lyanna was a remarkable pilot but this manoeuvre went far beyond anything she’d probably attempt under normal circumstances.  As the corvette came around the other ship, he caught a glimpse of another vessel on the view screen.  Something small but agile.  As the Jaxartes closed the gap Chad realised it was a shuttle craft from the Chapel.  The smaller ship weaved; constantly changing direction in an attempt to lose the pursuing craft.  “Target acquired.” Tholakath droned as he fired the ships forward Phasers; scoring a direct hit on the shuttle, probably enough to seriously damage if not collapse its shields.  A second shot sent the other craft crippled and spinning.  Clearly whoever had been aboard couldn’t have survived, yet the Borg controlled Cardassian fired a third time turning the shuttle into spreading mass of glowing fragments. “Target destroyed.” He announced with dull lifeless tone.

With this achieved Lieutenant Stuart simple turned the ship around and brought it back in line with the USS Chapel as if nothing had happened.

**********

Doctor Andrianakis and Science officer C’Rren had been basically left alone in Sickbay; the Borg controlled crewmembers seemed to know they were there, but appeared to be in no rush to deal with them.  It seemed to be a case of don’t cause any problems and we won’t eliminate you.  The two of them had tried to access the ships computer for information and a possible deterrent.  Though the thought they may have to kill people they shared friendships with was a disturbing one.  The doctor had even activated the EMH; bouncing her ideas of that.  The Borg clearly had other notions and after only a few minutes all electronics in Sickbay other than life support and lighting, shut down.

After that the two of them just sat and chatted.  They were both fearful and knew that at any moment those doors could open and the end would be upon them.  So they tried to put on a brave face and keep each other’s spirits up.

**********

Lyambo and Torf had both noticed the subtle change in the ship; it was the skill of a good engineer to sense and feel fluctuations and deviations.  The Jaxartes had altered both speed and direction, rapidly in fact; the other crew with them in the holo-suite hadn’t appeared to notice, but it was a clear bank to starboard followed by two, may be three other course corrections.  A pause followed by another sweeping turn, because the ship settled back down to how it had been before.

What they couldn’t know was that was the point when the corvette had gone in pursuit of the shuttle attempting to escape.

With everything seemingly back to normal; they returned to the task of removing some of the floor panels in a bid to find an escape route of their own.