Joint effort -- SD 10406.30

[Nemesis 0]

The environment of the medical ship was sterile, like a hospital, on proverbial steroids. The Borg had been transported to Secure Room A-19. Like everything else related to the Coalition, the hallways were orderly and every panel had a number. Their silent escort left them at the entrance to the room. The door was clearly labeled. Before Lt. Cmdr. Lo'Ami could thank him, the escort was gone, down the long hallways to his next assignment. The door opened. Nemesis looked around as he entered the room examinating the area taking a sniff it smelled like nothing he had smelled before almost odourless. If there were no beings in the room, then prehaps it would've had no scent.

 

Anari looked around. "Not a talkative fellow I guess." She said not sure what to say in the silence

 

Inside, the walls were painted a solid white with computer terminal interfaces on the wall. The Borg was in an invisible central chamber behind a forcefield. Three scientists wearing white lab coats entered from a back door. The one in front maneuvered around the Borg. She introduced herself.

 

Anari blinked. She seemed rather bored than excited.

 

"I'm Dr. Soagn, this is Dr. Hox from Xenobiology and Dr. Passeut from medicine. Dr. Lo'Ami, I presume and your assistants?"

 

Lo'Ami introduced his companions. "Lt. Nemesis and Lt. Erias."

 

Nemesis gave the Borg an visual examination, he looked over at the scientist who now had introduced herself. He nodded quietly, this of course was uncharacteristic for him. He was to busy observing his surroundings.

 

"I trust you've seen our protocol?"

 

"Not yet. It hadn't been forwarded to Arcadia"

 

Anari glances around, noting the formality in this place.

 

Soagn betrayed a snicker at the breach of diplomatic protocol, then continued "The medical teams from your ship and ours are exchanging information about Borg nanoprobes. Our protocol is on this screen."

 

Lo'Ami walked over to the screen and began to read the protocol, which was, of course, emblazoned with a number. It was written precisely without a detail uncovered.

 

Nemesis looks over at the screen as well. Anari turned her focus back to the coalition doctor and nodded. The Borg stood still in the center of the room.

 

Anari followed Lo'Ami and walked to the screen and read the protocol. Glancing at the Borg standing.

 

Anari finished reading the protocols on the Coalition screen then she walked towards the Borg and stared at it.

 

Nemesis looks over at Soagn. "What is your progression thus far?"

 

"We've completed the special sedation steps in Part I of the protocol. We're about to complete the introduction phase of part II."

 

"Interesting, now are there any specific areas that you require assistance with?" Nemesis replied to her ignoring the fact that Lo'Ami was in the room.

 

"We don't _require_ assistance. You came here on an information exchange program."

 

Lo'Ami turned around, having thoroughly read the protocol.

Nemesis rolled his eyes. "It is arrogant to assume you don't require assistance, we have dealt with the Borg and you have not."

 

Lo'Ami turned to Nemesis. "This particular Borg is Paktaran. Clearly, they have dealt with the Borg before"

 

Anari turned to the doctor, she was tired of the smugness of the coaltion. "What is your experiment involving?"

 

Lo'Ami stepped in. "The basic hypothesis seems to be that implanted memory is a more important factor in the assimilation process and the process keeping a drone following orders than the command structure itself"

 

Anari glanced at Lo'Ami then nodded.

 

"The protocol is designed to remove only the Borg's inorganic central command and memory processing functions, erase the organic component of memory, and replace the memories with a new set of organic memory."

 

"There's nothing in this protocol about removing the remainder of the implants?"

Soagn gave a 'well duh' type of look. "That's not part of this experiment."

Lo'Ami assumed that the response was a diplomatic way of saying "we haven't a clue how to do that."

 

Lo'Ami continued. "The Federation has at least two incidents on record of successful removal of the majority of Borg implants. One shortly after assimiliation, the other years after."

 

"You know leaving the implants will keep it somewhat alienated from the rest of the population" Nemesis inquired .

 

Soagn continued "How do you expect to control the experiment if you do more than one test?"

 

"This is a living being not, an experiment," Nem snapped back. "It took me awhile to figure it out but this would have a profound effect on his mental state"

 

Anari frowned, mentally agreeing with what the others had said. She interjected. "Experiment? Is that what you think this living being is? Experiment" She stoped her self from muttering any other things on her mind.

 

For perhaps the first time in his life, Lo'Ami found himself agreeing with Nemesis' ethical conclusions. He put his hands to his face and scratched his growing beard. He could have sworn he had shaved but two hours before.

 

Dr. Hox looked over at them all and interjected "We are not concerned with his mental state we are concerned with the scienctific progression that a controlled experiment will give."

 

"Don't you think that a wider range of experiments will give you better results?" Nemesis replied back "This is completely ridicules, his emotional state will blur your results."

 

Soagn looked confused. "As you can see from the protocol, his emotional state is totally irrelevant to the results."

 

Anari nodded in agreement to Nemesis

 

Lo'Ami's replied. "Of course, the protocol is being measured on whether he can be a functional member of Paktaran society." He tried to calm the emotions. He faced Soagn. "As you have reminded us, we came here to exchange information. Your experiment has some scientific merit and we have information that might help the Paktaran return to a somewhat more normal life. Surely, there's some way we can compromise."

 

"For a supposedly advanced civilization you truly are stupid." Nem had his tail erect an obvious sign of anger "emotion state effects everything."

Lo'Ami quickly inserted an order. "Calm down, Lt.!"

 

Anari glanced at Nemesis, she has never seen him this mad before, well any one would at their arrogance.

 

Soagn replied. "Compromise is what diplomats and politicians do. It has no place among the doctrines of science. I thought your kind would appreciate that." There was contempt in her voice.

 

Lo'Ami responded, still hopeful to salvage this venture. "The protocol is written to ensure that the Paktaran returns as a functional member of society, but not as a normal member of society. A simple change in the protocol's goals could allow us to use all of the information at our disposal."

 

"The Coalition Scientific Directorate approved the grant for this protocol over fifty seven other grant applications. Any change would require filling out form CSD-1235-A and a reapplication. The Borg is here now, let the experiment continue."

 

"Then why, may I ask, are we involved in an information exchange?"

 

"I assure you that any information you provide us will be taken into account in the next protocol, and used to maximal scientific benefit should the opportunity arise."

 

"You people are insane, you have made this completely pointless." Looks over to Lo'Ami "We might as well leave."

 

Anari nodded in agreement. It was quite pointless now as it was before.

 

"I'm bound to agree." Lo'Ami did not come to the medical ship to prostrate himself before the glory of Coalition science. Seconds later, the door opened, and the silent escort had returned to lead them out. The diplomacy would be left for patching up later.

--

Lt. Cmdr. Arphazad Lo'Ami

Chief Science Officer

USS Arcadia NCC-1742-E

 

Lt.(Jg) Nemesis

Assistant Science Officer

USS Arcadia NCC-1742-E

 

Lt.(Jg) Anari Erias

Assistant Science Officer

USS Arcadia NCC-1742-E