Gila Sadar/Artemis Service
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| USS Artemis-A • Luna class • Addison MacKenzie |
Lieutenant Gila Sadar
Captain MacKenzie wouldn’t have gotten a more immediate physical reaction from Gila if she had physically beaten her. Her eyes dimmed, her finger - previously twisting her anxiety ring desperately - grew calm and still and she turned to face her console.
Sadar: I… Yes sir..png)
Unbeknownst to Gila, her superior officer, Cmdr. Genkos Adea had already been replaced by his counterpart, but when Lt. Jovenan realized this, after Gila reported a series of confusing changes to the Commander's personality and workplace behavior, the two of them used Gila's emergency override codes to gain access to Cmdr. Adea's quarters and rescue him. They then teamed up with Cpt. MacKenzie and Lt. Silveira to retake the Bridge, which had been commandeered by Silveira's counterpart, Victor Olivera. While there, Gila took to the Operations Console to check in with the other departments and provide a real-time update to the Captain on how the liberation of the Artemis was going. While on the Bridge, they were alerted to an explosion in Sickbay that had critically injured Counselor Jones, were able to stop an impromptu escape attempt by the Desdemonans remaining on board their own vessel, but could only watch as Lieutenant Colonel Genkos Adea - Cdr. Adea's imposter - evaded capture in a Starfleet shuttle and promptly warped out of the system.
As the Artemis' scientists conducted research aimed to send their counterparts back to their own universe, Gila took the time to head to the Brig and speak to her counterpart face-to-face. Gila Thevn had been the one responsible for setting the explosive device in Sickbay, and as Gila struggled to understand and accept the fact that a fellow Doctor could commit such an act, her counterpart could only sneer in return. They were dooming an entire galaxy to extinction. What was one life in comparison to that?
Gila felt her eyes burn, her throat run dry.
Sadar: Why did you set that bomb?
Gila Thevn - her twisted mirror - smiled grimly.
Thevn: I wanted to kill a Doctor. A pity I got the wrong one..png){kind=icon}
While searching for information about this alternate reality that they had been sent to, Gila and her senior officers realize that this reality was brought about by way of the Romulans not joining the Dominion War in time to turn the tables on the Alliance's enemies. Without their added firepower, the Dominion War is still ongoing, with the Dominion having gained a great amount of ground in the Beta Quadrant. After a confrontation with CloQ in his father's study, Cmdr. Adea initiated a house-wide search for a 'window', a method of travelling that occasionally cropped up during encounters with CloQ. They managed to locate such a schism, which connected to Ki Baratan - the capital of the long-dead world of Romulus - a year prior. Leaving Tevet to guard the window in her own time, the officers jumped through.
In Ki Baratan, the group joins up with the newly-arrived Ensign Gnai, who'd been displaced to this moment in time, seemingly on its own. While there, the group realizes that Senator Vreenak is returning to Ki Baratan in order to settle the political debate on what position the Romulans will take in the war, and the Senator will favor the Dominion. To Cmdr. Adea, there is but one remaining course of action. They must prevent the Senator from convening with the Senate by force. As the group starts working on disguises to better traverse Ki Baratan, the Commander realizes that the building they were transported to is connected to the planetary defense turret, which is quickly chosen to be the blunt instrument of their clumsy timeline surgery. The attempt is hamfisted at best - complicated further by the difficulties involving disguising Gila and Ensign Gnai, the actual technological know-how required to take control of the turret and the conniving finesse necessary to frame the Dominion for the Senator's untimely death - and when Cmdr. Adea finally shoots down the approaching shuttle, it goes careening straight towards the turret, crashing the four Starfleet officers under it's massive weight.
Or so it should have.
Not interested in losing any of their game pieces, CloQ shuffles the boards, and Gila is summoned to their domain alongside Lt.Cdr. Dakora and LTs Jovenan and Silveira. CloQ engages the Starfleeters in a bit of taunting back-and-forth, before revealing that the assassination attempt was unsuccessful and ultimately unnecessary, resulting in an even worse timeline than the one they'd been originally moved to. Gila and LT Jovenan despair at this, but CloQ offers them a final way out: If they can discover what was actually supposed to happen to the Senator, CloQ will reset the timeline back to its original state. This quest prompts CloQ to take the four Officers on a guided tour of the Deep Space Nine of 2374, frozen in time. Through sleuthing and hacking and trespassing the four Officers reveal the scandalous truth behind the successful war against the Dominion: Captain Benjamin Sisko, venerated war hero and Emissary of the Prophets, enabled, if not ordered, the unlawful assassination of a Romulan Senator, after unsuccessfully attempting to forge evidence that would pit Romulus against its Dominion allies.
Keeping their word, CloQ reunites the crew of the USS Artemis on their vessel, just outside of present day DS9, and leaves them to ruminate on their experiences and trails at the hands of the mercurial Q...
Gila swallowed, even as she felt the truth stab into her heart.
Adea: Okay… Wish me luck.
Gnai: ::to the second floor:: Good luck! ::to Sadar, after a beat:: This feels wrong...
Sadar: … I know...
Wasn’t there something she could do? Some wire or lever that she could pull to stop this? Some way she could alter the trajectory they were rushing down? She heard the security guards work on the door in-between the alarm klaxons and felt a headache manifest as her eyes tried to make sense of what she saw around her through the purple environment. She looked into the turret.
A failsafe. An emergency shut-down lever or button. An on/off switch! Anything!
oO Against the currents of time, only cooperation and unison can see us safe. Discord would see all drown, but together, we will float. Oo.png){kind=icon}
The team beams over to the Cube, which appears abandoned. The team still decides to proceed with caution, but are soon caught in the troubling situation that they lose contact with the Artemis. Whether this is an effect of the Cube or if the saboteurs have damaged even more systems aboard their Ship, the group isn't sure. Their tricorders indicate that no Drones are aboard the Cube, but when the group happens upon a lone Drone wandering through the corridors, they realize with alarm that they can't trust their equipment. As the group decides to stalk after the Drone - hoping to get some answers - Gila gets to work on modifying her tricorder to get the Drone's lifesign to accurately show up. She eventually accomplishes this mission, but instantly regrets it, as multitudes upon multitudes of Borg lifesigns suddenly appear on their tricorder's display. As it turns out, the Cube is by no means abandoned, instead containing more than 80.000 Drones that are all congregating in the very center of the superstructure. Motivated by the classically suicidal Starfleet attitude of 'let's find out what that is', Cpt. MacKenzie leads her team towards the center of those many thousands Drones, and upon arriving, locate a large central chamber with a glowing artefact in the middle.
The team attempts to discover the nature of the powerful green glow at the center of the chamber, but this is when their presence is finally registered by the Borg, and the group suddenly find themselves the targets of many MANY Drones, triggering their flight away from the central chamber. Functionally trapped aboard the hostile cube which is rapidly powering up, the team starts brainstorming ways to get in contact with the still-silent Artemis, but are soon interrupted as a brilliant green light bars their way further on.
Transwarped across thousands of lightyears, a group of crew from the far-away Amity Outpost - led by Lt. Commander Robin Hopper - appears before the confused Artemisian officers, just in time to join the hasty retreat away from the Borg Drones. Lt.Cdr. Hopper informs them that they followed some Changeling infiltrators who had managed to gain access to the restricted laboratories in the basement levels of Amity Outpost and steal some classified technology. Realizing that there's a very real chance the Changelings and the Borg are cooperating, the now rather sizeable contingent of Starfleet officers split up into two groups: one to locate a way for them all to get off of the Cube, and one team to track down the Changelings and discover the plot unfolding before them. Once more, as though the Wheel of the Universe itself aims to break her mind, Gila is put on a direct collision course with disaster, as she joins the team pursuing the Changeling saboteurs further into the Cube itself.
While giving chase to the Changelings, the team happens upon a strange room in the Cube filled with alcoves manned by dead Drones, seemingly restrained immediately prior to their demise. The team is locked within the room by a couple of Drones barring the exit with a forcefield, and while the others work on disabling the forcefield and dealing with the Drones beyond it, Gila and Ensign Beck work on identifying what had happened to the dead Drones. Gila note a peculiar disk-like contraption that seems foreign to the Cube's technology, but despite finding it oddly familiar, she has a difficult time pinpointing where she's seen it before. Soon - sooner than the two Doctors are able to identify a cause of death for the many drones in the encoves - the team moves on, eager to catch up to the Changelings. But the team is met with more than they bargained for when they locate the Changelings in the Borg Queen's Antechamber. The group attempts to listen in on the discussion without being noticed, but the Queen's mastery of the Cube's systems proves unparalleled and the group of Starfleet officers soon find themselves at gunpoint by dozens of Borg. The Queen attempts to reassimilate LtJG David Flint - an ex-Borg serving on Amity Outpost - causing enormous stress to the Starfleet officers as they're escorted away by their former friend and the other Drones.
Realizing that she and the other officers have limited time, Gila decides on a gamble. The Borg Serum was a powerful neurosedative aimed at quieting Borg Technology, so if she administered too much to the partially assimilated Lieutenant, he'd be knocked out cold and unable to assist them. But if she managed to alter the dosage just right, he could utilize his updated knowledge on the Borg's plans and systems to turn the odds in their favour. As the Drones started drawing biological samples from Gila and a number of the other officers, her panicked mind hastened through pharmacological calculations, as she made the gamble of a lifetime. The dosage turned out to be just what LtJG David Flint needed, and managing to tune out the assimilating properties of his Borg implants, he sets to sabotaging the Borg from the inside-out.
With the Borg shield matrix compromised, the group of Starfleet officers manage to escape from their impending demise, and in a last-ditch effort to sabotage the Borg Cube and open a window for the Artemis to exfiltrate them, the group decides on a massive gamble. By pouring Anti-Borg Serum directly into the Cube machinery, they could trigger a massive explosion which would serve as quite the distraction for their escape. Volunteering for the dangerous task of administering the serum to the internal machinations of the Cube on account of him self-administering the Anti-Borg Serum for fear of assimilation, Ens Beck completes his task and is almost consumed by the explosion, if not for the timely intervention of the Artemis transporters.
Back aboard the Artemis, Gila rushes down to Sickbay alongside most of the complement from Amity Outpost in order to tend to their injuries. Chiefest of priorities is the cranial surgery of LtJG Flint, for whom the Anti-Borg Serum has reduced his implants to dust and rust, leaving the transponder in his brain to causing major bacterial infections if not attended to. Performing major surgery while on a Ship actively engaged in combat with a Borg Cube is easier said than done, but thankfully, the talented Doctors of Dr. Orrey and Dr. Beck are able to reinforce her in the zero-gravity suite, and the surgery goes off without a hitch... Just in time for the Artemis to follow the transwarp signature of the Borg Cube towards Sector 001, the Sol System...
Gila wasn’t certain why only some of their number had biological samples taken, though her experience as a scientist indicated that it was for no good reason whatsoever. She witnessed as Drones approached the alcoves and the samples of blood they had taken from her and the other Officers were input into a genetic sequencer of some kind. Not promising. Maybe it was a new method of assimilation - nothing Gila had ever seen before - and she was reminded of her and Doctor Beck’s theory of the Borg experimenting. Was the reason that the deceased Borg had no data in their implants that they had died from the experiment?
oO 2.8 ml Oo
Gila didn’t have an answer, and she doubted she’d be able to arrive at one before it was too late. But before then - before she’d lose all sense of self and right and wrong - there was one thing she could do, to give at least one of them a chance. And as the Drones were occupied, she walked quietly towards the familiar ex-Borg - or was that fully Borg now? - in the red uniform, raising her hand with the concealed hypo and pressing it to the back of his left upper arm, as close to the brachial artery as she could. She only hoped her calculations were right.
Sadar: ::whispers:: I’m sorry. Please, you have to-
It is decided that Gila accompany Lt.Cdr. Carter, Dr. Wong and Dr. Orrey to Sickbay to look into the possibility of synthesizing more Anti-Borg Serum. Despite the fact that the Collective has long since adapted to the anti-assimilation components of the serum, it remains a powerful sedative, and one of the few viable weapons against the drone onslaught. They are temporarily hindered by the fact that numerous Drones fill the hallway between the Jeffries' Tube and Sickbay, but Dr. Wong utilizes the unconventional infrastructure of the Kitty Hawk to their advantage. Utilizing holoemitters to project dozens of copies of himself into the hallway provides the cover necessary for the small group to sneak into Sickbay unimpended, just in time for them to rendezvous with Cpt. Rahman and her team of officers.
In Sickbay, Gila, Dr. Orrey, Dr. Wong and LtJG Ylvor are tasked with finding the cause and the solution to the Borg problem, but their research receives routine interruptions, first by the arrival of a half-assimilated Cdr. DeVeau, who's been hiding away in the Jeffries' Tubes, and then by LtJG Ylvor undergoing her own rapid assimilation into the Collective. The research team is under active fire by the assimilated Security Officer, when more complications beam into Sickbay. An unconscious Rebecca Iko and a de-suited Gnai suddenly appear in Sickbay, providing the already pressured medical team with even higher stakes. Dr. Orrey and Cdr. DeVeau manage to lure away LtJG Ylvor, while Dr. Wong and Gila barricade themselves into the CMO's office alongside the unconscious Klingon and the motionally stunted Galadoran. Using the data they managed to collect before everything went wrong, the team manages several key things while barricades in the CMO's Office. First, they manage to resuscitate Lieutenant Iko. They also manage to replicate a backpack for easy transportation of Ensign Gnai and cure Dr. Wong of his Borg Allergy via a new medication they moniker "Borghistamines". Rapidly running out of ways to assist the Ship from the safety of Sickbay, Dr. Wong calls for action. It is time they retake the Bridge.
Joining up with Dr. Wong and Lieutenant Iko, Ens Gnai and Gila crawl through the Jefferies' Tubes to head towards the Bridge. The assimilated crew on the Bridge - Crewman Barberra, LtJG Yirah and Ens Gnai's Exosuit - are distracted when the main viewscreen is suddenly hijacked by a rogue signal, showing a taunting Dr. Wong, and immediately followed by the triggering of a distraction involving an ungodly amount of silly string. The four unassimilated officers come onto the Bridge in the ensuing confusion, and violent conflict ensues. Ens Gnai's Exosuit zeroes in on the backpacked Galadoran and starts chasing Gila - who carries it - around the Bridge, and while she is successful at evading it for a time, it eventually catches up with her, gripping onto her arm with crushing force. As fear and adrenaline courses through her veins, large, black serrated mandibles shoot out from the roof of her mouth, cutting through the metallic chassis of the Exosuit's shoulder joint, and rendering it incapable of continuing pursuit. Paralyzed with fear at not only the situation, but also herself, Gila moves as though puppeteered by Ens Gnai's instructions as they administer the Borghistamines to LtJG Yirah before assuming control of the Kitty Hawks saucer section, which is in chaotic descent towards the surface of the Moon.
Dr. Wong takes center chair and team team initiates a desperate gamble involving the usage of tractor beams to push the saucer against the Moon's surface, hopefully softening the crash even just slightly... The plan is nominally succesful, and in the aftermath of the crash, their small team splits up further. Dr. Wong, LT Iko and LtJG Yirah depart the Bridge to follow the escaping Crewman Barberra, while Gila and Ens Gnai remain behind on the Bridge to coordinate relief efforts for the surviving unassimilated crew members. Now somewhat in control of her own faculties once more, Gila uses the internal transporters to remove assimilated lifesigns from Sickbay before directing the unassimilated in that direction, but her task is soon interrupted by an ungodly sound coming out of the Turbolift: assimilated drones are climbing up towards them.
Gila attempts to hide from the drones while carefully making her way towards the opposite turbolift, but soon enough, the drones notice her and start shooting at her and Ens Gnai. They barely manage to get into the turbolift before a phaser burst would've connected with Gila's back, and they desperately set the turbolift into motion towards Sickbay. The Drones prove persistent hunters as they follow the turbolift from above, violently prying open the mainentenance shaft on the top of the lift. Gila and Ens Gnai make a mad dash for Sickbay, which - unfortunately - has been barricaded by the survivors they themselves sent that way. Gila desperately attempts to gain access as Ens Gnai thanks her for keeping it safe following its suits malfunction, when the assimilated drones approach, weapons raised.
As their lives pass before their eyes, death all but assured, the assimilated officers suddenly fall unconscious to the ground as the signal that had kept them under Borg control cuts out... Just in the nick of time.
One of Eleven: ::To Eleven:: Cancel separation.
Eleven of Eleven: Unable to comply. Damaged. Da-Damaged.
And upon her kneeling, trembling form looked the nightmarish form of herself, clad in black leather and looking upon her with cold and dark in her eyes. It represented all that she'd feared becoming for the better part of a year. And Gila knew, instinctively, that had this happened to a humanoid, to someone of flesh and blood, not metal and wires... They would be dead. And the self-fulfilling prophecy - the one her people had anticipated and shunned her for - would have become irreversible.
oO Gila Sadar. The First Mizarian Murderer. Oo_-_Icon.png){kind=icon}