A very large pink and purple nebula sits a couple sectors too deep into the Beta Quadrant. A Federation Steamrunner-class starship, the Mercedes, speeds out from one of the clouds inside the nebula. They were scanning and taking in molecule samples.
A Klingon Bird of Prey, the Teteken, sits peacefully up in another area of the nebula, also taking in samples. They monitor the excited Mercedes.
Thorn: "Puh! Humans..."
The Mercedes curves left and upwards, dodging a current of white energy. The nebula has many diagonal currents of energy that just exist within it. This was not a problem.
Sith: "How are we doing?"
Lisa, tactical: "Great. The sinate particles are collecting."
A Borg cube suddenly comes out from a cloud above. It follows the Mercedes.
Lisa: "Captain!! A Borg cube is approaching!"
Sith, runs over to the helm: "What the hell?? Get us out of here!"
Ace: "I'm on it!"
The Mercedes swings left, but the Borg cube matches their movements. It fires torpedoes, hitting directly onto the ventral hull of the Mercedes.
The Teteken shoots out from the clouds above, firing disrupter pulses at the Borg cube. The cube stops and fans a tractor beam around the Teteken.
The Mercedes loops around and blasts phasers into the Borg's emitters, knocking the tractor beam out and releasing the Teteken.
Sith: "I can't believe the Borg are here??"
#Thorn, excited: "This is much better than molecule samples!"
The Mercedes and the Teteken speeds through the clouds side by side as the Borg cube takes off after them in the distance. It then matches their trajectory and acceleration, following close behind.
#Borg: "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated."
The Mercedes and Teteken break off in opposite directions, swinging around and firing at the cube's sides. A tractor beam fans out and slows the Mercedes to a stop.
Sith: "Damn! We can't be fools. We don't stand a chance against them!"
Five drones then beam onto the Bridge.
The Teteken blasts a trilithium warhead into the cube. A big explosion leaves a crippling hole in its side. Pieces fly out everywhere. The Teteken circles around again, firing more pulses at the other sides of the cube, breaking the tractor beam to the Mercedes.
Ace flies the Mercedes around. A drone grabs an officer and assimilates him. Crewmen Raine grabs the arm of an attacking drone and knees it in its stomach. She slams the drone against a console and dismantles its mechanical hand.
Officers fire phasers at drones until the drones adapt. More officers arrive with phaser rifles, blasting drones away. A drone grabs Raine from behind and assimilates her.
Sith: "Ugh!!"
The Captain is picked up by a drone, as tubules shoot out from the drone's other arm into his neck.
The Teteken blasts another trilithium warhead into the cube, exploding another side of it. The Borg thought they had proper defences to these.
The cube fires at the Teteken, knocking their shields offline and exploding a part of their right wing. The Mercedes then comes around firing into the cube's forward navigational systems just before the cube runs into one of the nebula's currents of energy. The cube explodes into large pieces as the Teteken and Mercedes impulse out of there.
The two ships shoot out the nebula into space, on a course towards Federation territory.
Thorn hails the Mercedes during warp.
>Thorn, on screen: "You fought with honour. The battle was great!!"
He sees the pieces of drones scattered around the Bridge. A fallen drone lays beside Captain Sith. Sith is on his hands and knees in pain having been pumped with nanoprobes.
Later, Thorn enters the Mercedes' Sickbay where Doctor Carlina activates the biobed around Sith.
Thorn: "Long-range scans indicate no Borg are after us."
Sith, lying down: "Trilithium warheads? Those aren't allowed, Captain!"
Thorn: "Modified trilithium warheads! Besides, we were no where near Federation space, and the nebula was no threat."
Sith then feels a surge of bio-electric energy throughout his body. The biobed opens and he sits up, staring at his skin. A string of vines cable around his body, standing out in a green color like veins.
Sith: "What the hell is going on??"
Carlina, scans: "You have some kind of parasite in your system. It's manifesting itself naturally."
Sith: "Damn! This must be a way for the Borg to test out some new assimilation technique."
Carlina: "Actually, my scans show this parasite has been dormant within you for the past week and wasn't going to start growing for another month. The nanoprobes just accelerated it."
Thorn, steps back: "Is it contagious?"
Sith, glancing his disease: "Thanks for the vote of sympathy."
Carlina: "I doubt it. Although I have no idea what it is or where it could have come from. I don't think there's anything I can do for you."
She glances over at Sith.
Sith: "I know, I know. You want to conduct more scans."
The Mercedes and the Teteken continue on through warp.
