Part of USS Venture: Episode 4: Requiem for the Fallen

The Price Of Survival

U.S.S. Venture
April 12th, 2401
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Mason ran through the corridor with phaser bolts firing all around him, turning around to fire stun shots into the crowd of assimilated crew members whenever he was presented with an opportunity. He was escorting another crew member, who's name escaped him at the moment, as they were attempting to outrun and lose the Borg before they could head back to their hiding spot in the Jefferies tubes.

After getting off the bridge when the crew turned and being separated from the rest of the senior staff, he initially planned on getting to Engineering to see if there was a way to take back control of the ship and set up a temporary command post there. But, unfortunately, these ‘Borg’ seem to be different than the ones that he's heard and studied. They don't seem interested in assimilation, only extermination of all those that are unassimilated. It was then that he made the call to try and save as many lives as he possibly could and survive this incident while they planned their next move. 

Taking several crew members he met along the way with him into the Jefferies tubes, Mason and one of the science officers that made it in with him rigged the internal sensors to dampen their life signs, effectively making them invisible to both sensor and tricorder scans. Mason organized a few of the survivors to stand watch at the key junctions that would lead the Borg to them, and had the science officer, Lieutenant Sporetti, acting as their field medic until they could find actual help. After finding a survivor, he would go out and look for more before returning back to the hideout. 

But this time, he didn't know if they were going to make it. Phaser bolts continued to rain all around them and the Borg were quickly advancing on their location. They couldn't head straight for the Jefferies tubes, they had to lure the Borg away before entering so they wouldn't draw them right towards the rest of the survivors. As they were rounding the corner into the next hallway, the ship shook violently and threw everyone, including the Borg, to the ground as Spacedock continued to try and defend itself against this attack. Mason slammed into the wall, and felt a tremendous amount of pain in his shoulder while he watched the young crew member hit their head hard against the bulkhead and lose consciousness. 

As the Borg stumbled back to their feet, Mason frantically searched for a pulse with the one arm he had left to see if the crewman was alright, but couldn't find one. With phaser blasts resuming, and with him only having one functioning arm at the moment, he knew there was no way he could carry her. He gritted his teeth and shook his head, fighting back tears, as he left the crew member behind, catching out of the corner of his eye the Borg putting several phaser shots through the young woman's body. 

Running several more meters down the hallway, he finally came to a junction that was out of sight where he could enter without the Borg noticing. Getting in the Jefferies tube, he closed the hatch behind him and listened to verify they continued on searching for him, refusing to lead the Borg back to the injured crew members he had already saved. 

As he waited, he heard the turbolift doors open and what sounded like two more crew members talking about what they should do and where they should go. Mason was about to open the hatch and tell them to run, when he heard their screams and the sound of more phaser fire. He put his hand to his mouth to try and muffle the sounds of his breathing and closed his eyes, listening as the Borg eliminated more and more Starfleet officers. 

He never felt worse in his life than having to sit and hide while his fellow officers stood in a shooting range to be slaughtered. But if he had opened the Jefferies tube, it would have lead the Borg right inside to search for them, and eventually they would discover the other twenty or so people he had already saved. It was an impossible choice where both options were equally horrifying to choose. 

Making his way through the Jefferies tube after he was satisfied that the Borg had moved on, he finally came up to the junction where they were hiding and was helped off the ladder and onto the ground where Sporetti started tending to his wounds. “Your shoulder is broken.” The Lieutenant said as he continued his scans. Mason was still breathing heavily, exhausted from the run and climb back, and could hardly speak, but he managed, “My… side… it hurts.” 

Sporetti, lower the tricorder and his eyes widened, “You've been shot, Commander, and you're losing a lot of blood.” He looked to one of the other officers and said forcefully, “You, help me get his shirt off, we need to band this wound before he loses any more blood.” 

The officer nodded, then asked, “What are we going to use as a bandage? We don't have any supplies, Lieutenant.”

“Rip apart the dry pieces of his undershirt and uniform jacket, we'll have to improvise until we can find something better.” Sporetti looked at Mason who winced in pain as they began to take off his uniform jacket, then looked back to the other officer and said, “We need to hurry.”