The five percent cut suddenly felt very small.

His eyes found Captain Sykes, and the summoning in it was clear enough. He straightened a little and walked over.

"Ragnar." Tiraa spoke before either of the men could. Her black eyes rested comfortably on his face, "Is everything prepared for infiltrating this vessel? Or do you need to adjust now that we know exactly what we are up against?"

Ragnar was tempted to say that the sensible adjustment would be to leave, although he doubted that would be well received. He shifted his weight and folded his arms across his chest as he looked at Tiraa. "We will need to know where we're entering before I can set any fallback points," he said firmly, his voice rough from not having used it today. "And I need time to get the weapons reconfigured so we can switch easily once they start adapting." He turned towards the viewscreen, his jaw tightening slightly as he studied the cube, then looked back to Sykes. "Wouldn't count on the transporters still working if that thing wakes up. Plugging yourself into it?" His eyes narrowed a little and it was difficult to judge if he meant it, or if it was a joke. Or both. "Bloody hope you know what you're doing. Or that she wants the captain's chair."

"We can make sure Cormus has craft ready for a quick escape if need be, and I'm sure Rhiana and Avery will be able to help with weapons systems. Mei-Lin probably too. As far as my interface to the Borg, it's probably a terrible idea, but I'll take the risk if it means helping us locate things faster instead of going in blindly. It wouldn't be the first time I did something stupid with it and probably won't be the last either. Otherwise my captaincy will be quite short, and I won't have to worry about anything anymore. As far as the fallback points, I can understand needing to know where we're going to end up at. Truth is, right now, we don't know. We'll look for the easiest ingress we can find, and work our way from there." Since they had no idea of the layout inside the cube, it was something they'd have to figure out on the fly. Zedd was prepared for that, just maybe not the consequences for everything they'd be considering doing.

Ragnar's mouth tightened at the ease with which Sykes went for the most dangerous route because he thought it would be quicker, although he let the comment pass for the moment. "Then we stop once we're inside," he said, unfolding his arms. "Nobody goes deeper until we know what the first section looks like, where we can hold it and whether we can still reach the craft. We have to work it out as we go, and that is fine. We do it one section at a time." He watched Sykes for a moment. "Do try not to get yourself assimilated. The rest of us still have to get back out, and adding you to their numbers changes the odds."

"I don't plan on it, I'll have engineering and medical monitoring me, so we should be alright. I don't plan on getting ahead of the group and as you said, one section at at time. If things go south and we need to leave, it's your call. You set the tone for the pace Ragnar." Zedd was in agreement on the process, and he'd ensure Cormus had the Reach ready for them all to use as well.

"We'll be here keeping an eye on things as best we can as well." Tiraa nodded. Whether Zedd interfaced with the computer or not was his business in the end even though she found it and incredibly foolish thing to consider. Still, the man had proven himself to be blessed by luck, it seemed, so perhaps this would be no different for him. She was not, however, planning to die here for money she didn't really need at this stage in life.

Ragnar looked at Tiraa, raising an eyebrow. He was quietly questioning the Captain's sanity, but then again, he supposed sane people did not basically become pirates. "Understood," he said instead, because what else was there to say?

"Thank you Ragnar" Zedd replied. He was considering if there was much else at the moment to cover with everyone there, otherwise it was best to let them get to work.

------------

Meanwhile, Avery pulled Mei-Lin and T’Vara into a discussion about his proposal to Zedd.

“I’m putting a brief together regarding the Borg and I’d like input from you both. I’m not sure how much you overhead, if anything at all, from Zedd’s conversation with me. I had an idea for Zedd to use his dataport to interface with the collective. T’Vara, we can keep a close watch his responses with a cortical monitor. I’ll go into detail on what we should be looking for if he gains access. It basically comes down to turning his dataport into a neural transceiver. Thoughts, Mei-Lin? T’Vara?”

T'vara spoke first. "I can monitor the captain's vitals, prepare some standard drugs to help stabilize him if need be. Otherwise my experience with the Borg has been limited to texts. So I am not much in the way of help otherwise. I can make suer the necessary systems are prepped."

Mei-Lin wasn't exactly a fan of the idea. She'd heard plenty of stories and they gave her the creeps. "I mean...we can prepare an interface module for him, to connect to their computer system. Monitor for power spikes and any nasty feedback. I'm not sure what their standard computer system defenses are but I can put together a series of buffers as safeguards so it one fails, another can trip and protect him. Essentially circuit breakers of sorts. And we can always use the new computer core to help analyze what Zedd is seeing and maybe have it assist with maintaining the connection and keeping anything from overwhelming Zedd as well."

“The Collective communicate at specific subspace frequencies and change at random intervals to prevent exactly what we’re trying to do. I will have all the particulars on the PADD, but our priority is to find that frequency once Zedd is on the cube. I want to fine tune the transporters so we can pull our people out within a second’s notice.”

"Maybe we can find and algorithm to the signal and predict what it may shift to next for frequencies so we don't lose connection? I'm sure even the Borg will have some semblance of order in that" Mei-Lin recommended. "And hopefully the Captain can provide us with any future signal rotations once he's connected."

“An algorithm could definitely be an option. That’s good. What I’m most worried about is the frequency band that’s employed by the hive mind. The random shifts might be the easy part. If your algorithm works, we can adapt along with it. Just be careful with this thing, alright? Zedd could get spiked or even worse. Neural shock, even assimilation. But I’ll be with you every step of the way. And T’Vara can take care of the medical side.”

"Of course Chief. I'll setup the buffers and they should help mitigate alot of their traps. But I agree, assimilation is certainly not something we want for the Captain." Mei-Lin was beginning to think of how she was going to architect everything, reached for a PADD nearby.

T'Vara raised an eyebrow "If the Captain is assimilated, I doubt my knowledge will be able to save him. I recommend in the event that happens, that you terminate him on site. His knowledge of the vessel would likely be used against us. Minor surgeries are possible with my skills, but removing implants and fighting Borg nanites, no."

“Of course not,” Morgan emphasized. “I’m not well versed in nanoprobes myself. I was just thinking of the worst case scenario. No one wants Zedd to be turned into a drone, especially me, as this was my idea in the first place. We just have to take it slow, step by step. If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. Our goal is to salvage technology we can use and sell, not to engage the Borg. I’m sure Zedd will agree that once the Collective initiates hostilities, we bail and save ourselves.”

"Of course" T'Vara replied. "I don't believe anyone feels you want the captain to be in a tough pot at the end of the day. Your idea, while fraught with danger, is a good one Chief. I doubt many would have had the thought to consider interfacing with the Borg on such a level, and exploiting this capability they have."

Mei-Lin nodded in agreement "It's certainly ambitious, but I like it too. We'll keep Zedd monitored accordingly."

“Thanks for the support, ladies. It means a lot. Good luck to us all,” Avery said. “Mei-Lin….the algorithm you were talking about. Would you be able to run some simulations through the computer? I’ll upload the Borg data from the Federation database to the auxiliary engineering station over there. We can’t go into this blind. T’Vara, would you mind prepping the cortical monitor for Zedd. Thank you both. Let’s get to work.”

T'Vara gave a nod "I'll return to sick bay and get prepped. If you need anythign further, let me know." She turned and made her way over to the turbo lift and the doors closed after she entered, to be whisked away.

"I can get down to engineering and see what all I can get together with this new core. I'm sure it'll have something together in no time." Truth was, Mei-Lin felt odd on the bridge and preferred to be in her typical workspace. "I'll give you an update later this afternoon Avery."

“Sounds good, Mei-Lin. I’ll meet you in engineering,” Morgan said.

She walked over to Cormus and they exchanged a few words, then the pair left the bridge together as well.

Avery watched them leave the bridge while walking over to Zedd’s center seat. “We definitely have work to do. I’ll be in engineering if you need me.”

"Thank you Chief, I look forward to seeing what you have later." Zedd was a little nervous, but more excited than anything else. Which he felt wasn't an entirely shared feeling with the majority of the crew.

“Of course. I’ll let you know when it’s ready. Oh, Captain…one more thing. I’d like permission to see your medical files; basically any data and scans of your implant. In order to know what you….we will be dealing with, I need to see the components and any bio-circuitry that goes along it. How you process sensory information, data streams, and so on.”

Zedd considered the request for a moment and then gave a nod. "I'll ask T'Vara to send what you need. Mainly neroligocal interface scans and the device itself. It should give you what you need wothout going through everything. I'll let you get to work."

The Captain wached for a moment as Avery took his leave upon acknowledging his statement.

"Alright folks, let's get to work. I want a plan and to be on our way in twenty four hours..." There was money to be had, Zedd knew it.