Maintenance Meeting - Earth Spacedock
Commander Reeve, head of security, made his way to the Conference room attached to Spacedock's Operations area on Deck 47. He joined the other department heads at the table, who were already well into discussing the situation.
"If we don't repair Power Generator 4, half the station's main power will never be back to unfractured operational status," argued Commander Batou, a human and head of engineering. "Remember when Suvel was supposed to fix it?"
Commander Allura, an Aenar and head of operations threw up her arms in frustration. "Are you still going on about that? That was so long ago! It's never going to be properly fixed! We need to focus on the core system software, which regulate everything on Spacedock."
"Just one question," Commander Lucrecia, a human and station's counselor, interrupted. "Is that mess in Engineering all cleaned up?"
Reeve nodded. "As best as we could get. Mirror Borg technology is being removed and stored, and I don't even want to say what was all over the Gravity Control room. Sufficed to say, all Mirror Borg have been tagged and put into the supplemental Medical Bays throughout the station for life support, leaving Deck 47's Infirmary clear."
"What's the status of communications and main power?" asked Commander Barnes, a Benzite and head of shipyards.
Reeve sat back. "Hey now, that's a question for our commanding officer to ask. Speaking of which, anyone see Captain Sulu anywhere?"
"We think he's thoroughly engrossed in something in the Command Ring," answered Allura. "But truthfully, he could be any place."
Suddenly, the footsteps of another man entering the Conference room knocked everyone's attention off and toward him. "Well, well, if it isn't the Commander's summit," came the sly observation of Doctor Melzine, an older human male just outputted from the Valhalla.
"You?" Lucrecia sat up. "Weren't you the guy who compartmentalized the care of a group of school children in order to secure a chemical compound meant to cure the Andorian shingles?"
Melzine scoffed. "A good Doctor manages case priorities based on his experience and judgement, and the Andorians appreciated my work so much that they facilitated my following five projects. Anyway, I'm here to take a position at Spacedock to assist in your drone situation, as it seems preventing an infestation, despite your over-powered anti-devices and Q-injested individuals, was clearly impossible for you."
"Okay, all this petty bickering has only proven to get part of our workflow done," Batou said. "I'm not saying we ever stop, but, to answer Barnes, the exocomp Elric set to fix communications was successful and communications are now back online."
Allura perked. "What about main power?"
"Despite my earlier qualms, it should be back online now as well," Batou reported. "What we need to focus on at present is the removal of the Mirror Borg tech along our exterior hull. The kids don't like it. A Starfleet Academy field trip saw it this morning and were absolutely horrified."
Reeve snapped. "Exocom—"
"Exocomps!" yelped Lucrecia. "I said it first."
Commander Reeve thought for a moment. "Exocomps operating workbees? No, that'd be redundant."
"Either way, it's a plan," Allura said. "Let's prep those adorable shakey-hovering bots. The compliant ones, I mean. Not the ones who keep rebelling after our requests to have the lavatories fixed at Club 47."
Melzine sighed. "The recovered drone officers will need rehabilitation programs. I will set those up, but that giant Mirror Borg, regarded as Mr. Raven, will need more work and special attention. He will be my project."
"Very well. Let's all get this station back to normal and prepare for the next crisis," Allura said. "And we will have more crises. It's our thing we do and we should be very proud of it. Dismissed."
---
Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock, Infirmary
A disorienting blur of pain and consciousness accompanied the Captain as he awoke in Spacedock's Infirmary. Across the way, was an older Doctor moving between consoles and a table full of engineering parts. The medic took notice of Elric who was trying to make sense of things.
"What happened?" Elric asked, groggily. "Claire?"
The man walked over. "My name is Doctor Melzine, and you just survived an attack and a mutated form of Mirror Universe assimilation. Honestly, I've never seen someone cut off his own arm before. Well, you're going to be alright now, thanks to some quick thinking. We had you on the Valhalla for a while, but now you're back on Spacedock."
"My arm," Elric realized. He quickly sat up and held up his left arm. What he extended was not what he was expecting. It was an unknown metal: A cybernetic arm with all its gears showing and no skin covering whatsoever. "What did you do??"
The Doctor smiled and nodded. "Some of my best work. Isn't it wonderful? Right, I should explain that I'm a cyberneticist, and a damn good one. I was being escorted home when I came across you and your unfortunate situation. You gave me the opportunity to affix something I'd been working on for some time. That arm isn't like others. It's incredibly strong. Unfortunately, the trade-off on its power is that it burns through synthetic skin coverings. But don't worry, there's a gradual threshold that protects your own body."
"What are you talking about? I never agreed to this!" Elric argued.
Melzine nodded. "Actually you did. You were in a lot of pain at the time, but you were conscious enough to give your consent."
"Are you kidding me?" Elric said before he interrupted his own self to think back to his own actions. There was a haze of confusion when he tried to remember being taken to the Valhalla's sickbay, but he did recall giving permission for a plan to fix him. Was it the arm?
The Doctor walked over. "Well, you did cut your own arm off, which actually saved your life. Those sectionalized, mutated mirror arm-nanoprobes were waiting for communication from the non-existent nanoprobes in the rest of your body. When they didn't get it, their duplication remained and your arm was on the brink of... well... I hate to get graphic, but... your arm was about to explode." He paused. "Sufficed to say, you were destined for an arm replacement anyway."
"Yeah, but this?" the Captain held up his left arm again, looking at the way its futuristic gears and semi-exoskeleton glistened and reflected the Infirmary's lights.
Doctor Melzine smiled. "Oh, you'll like that. It's not like any other. Give it a chance, and you'll get used to it. Any issues, I can be of help. I'll be right here on Spacedock." He walked away to get to other work. Elric sat back and just relaxed.
Later, Elihu M'Konel suddenly woke up. Talitha...
Elric got out of bed to leave the Infirmary when the on-duty nurses suddenly ran over to Elihu. The human Captain looked quizzically over to the situation. He walked over. "Damn. I know what that feels like."
Elihu stared silently and blankly up at the ceiling, catatonic.
A nurse gave Elric a hard look. He was clearly standing where she wanted to stand. "Yeah, I should probably let you handle this. Last time I did anything outside my department, this happened."
He held up his arm still in shock of his circumstances and then walked off to put his Odyssey uniform back on. To his surprise the uniform sleeve went over his new arm just fine. He then picked up a PADD with a generalized overview of the new appendage and left the Infirmary to study it.
---
Main Concourse
Elric walked along the Main Concourse, stopping at a railing to look out at the area. He regretted and blamed himself for what had happened in Engineering. It was just like the Na'khul attack he had endured in the past, only this time, the entire Earth could have been at risk. And then there was the arm; the reminder of his failure in the present, and, feasibly, his past. If he was to redeem himself, he would have to do it through duty. Unfortunately, Claire was still missing. As he stared out, he noticed three civilian Saurian men talking and one of them with a metallic box in his hands. Upon further squinting, Elric realized the civilian was holding Zeta.
"Uh, hi, excuse me," the Captain said, approaching them. "But you have my spider."
Brot, interrupted, looked at Elric in disgust. "You have no claim here, Starfleet. Why don't you go fight a Klingon or something?"
"You know, I have not had a great couple of days. I thought many things were happening beyond my control, but now I think I should have exercised a little bit more of my own actions. Today seems like a good day to start. Therefore, give me that spider," Elric demanded.
The lead Saurian smirked. "Finders keepers. What are you going to do? Fight me? I'm a 5 time anbo-jytsu champion."
"You're something alright," Elric replied as he reached for Zeta, who appeared to be offline. But one of the other Saurians threw out their own arm and deflected Elric's.
Another Saurian shot a fist for Elric's face, but Elric brought up his right arm and blocked it. He then shot out his left, cybernetic arm and force-palmed the Saurian off his feet. "Ugh!"
"I'll be arresting you now," Elric said before the lead Saurian flew a kick for his head. Elric caught the foot, but Brot just leapt off his last leg and spun his body around to kick Elric with the other foot.
The Captain dropped the first leg, but used his left forearm to stop the force of the speeding, second kick, cold in its tracks. Elric then used his grip of Brot's other foot to push the Saurian in mid-air, away, and into his other standing friend. The two Saurians hit the floor, losing grasp of Zeta, which Elric swiped out of mid-flight, effortlessly. "I'm telling my father about you! He's an Admiral, you know!" Brot whined before he and his group scrambled to their feet and ran off.
"Really?" Elric said, deadpanned and disappointed at the change in tone. He then nudged Zeta, taking the spider out of its trance.
Zeta extended its legs and perked up in Elric's palms. *Click!?*
"Sorry I got a little crazy back there in Engineering. I was compromised, and later definitely paid for it," Elric apologized. "You still on my team? There's plenty of more payback to disseminate."
The spider hopped and then climbed himself up onto Elric's right shoulder, where he usually regenerated. *Click, click, chirp! Team.*
