Treasure Alcoves

The crew's first shot at a real payday starts with a gamble. A handful of cheap tokens, each one carrying coordinates flagged by other ships that picked up something interesting and moved on without investigating. Low investment, unknown return, the kind of odds that either pay off or don't and you find out fast. What they find at the coordinates is not what anyone was expecting. The ship is Borg. Derelict by all appearances but Borg, and that changes everything about the calculation. The threat the collective posed is not ancient history to anyone who lived through it and the sight of that hull is enough to remind the crew exactly what they are looking at and what it has been capable of. But the technology on board is another matter entirely. What could be salvaged from even a partially intact Borg vessel would be worth more than the crew could reasonably expect to earn in the next five years of legitimate work. Maybe more. The ship is right there. So is the risk. The only question left is whether they are willing to board it.

Chasing a cheap tip on a possible salvage score the crew of the Dutchman finds something nobody was hoping to find at the end of those coordinates. A derelict Borg vessel, silent for now, sitting out in the dark like a bad memory that never quite went away. The technology on board alone would be worth more than years of honest work. All they have to do is get on it, get what they can, and get out before the ship reminds them why the Borg have never needed to advertise what happens to people who underestimate them.