memory share: network + action; ota

[dancingmd]

who: Beverly Crusher and you
what: Memory Share Event
when: October 9-23
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: This is a Borg-centric post. For those who aren't canon familiar, the Borg are a race of cyborgs who add to their numbers through forced assimilation and operate on a hive mind - nothing will get too graphic though!


One evening this week, a sharp warning sound hits the network, followed by what appears to be a video announcement:

Watch on YouTube

The memory ends as abruptly as it began, but as the days go on, more memories associated with it will crop up, whether it's during the day as a first person vision or in a shared dream at night - and it will slowly become more obvious who they belong to.



a. Borg Vessel

Endless rows of half-machine, half-organic beings - The Borg - line the walls, almost coffin-like. The ship is dark and eerily silent, except for a threatening mechanical whirring sound. Four people, all dressed in similar uniforms, huddle with backs together and weapons out. Borg march down the corridor towards them as others detach themselves from their alcoves to join in the attack. All four people fire their weapons, beams of light hitting their attackers and sending them crumpling to the floor. However, the next wave of Borg throw up some sort of force field around themselves, scattering the rest of the shots harmlessly.

One of the four, a blonde Human woman and the only one wearing red, calls for help. Prepare to beam us back. The others barely seem to register her words. For there, at the end of the corridor is a familiar face - the one who called himself Locutus.

But that’s not the name that’s called out to him. “Jean-Luc!” He turns, fixing a beam of light on the group like the laser sight on a gun. The woman who called out instinctively moves towards him, her own weapon lowered, but she’s stopped, first by a hand on her arm, then by the pull of the transporter.


b. Science Lab

A young man, half machine, half bewildered teenager, stands inside some sort of scanner at the center of the room. Facing him with apprehensive expressions are a man and a woman. The teenager blinks slowly, first at the woman, then at the man. “What is your designation?” he asks him.

“Designation?”

The young man brings his hand to his chest, in order to indicate himself, prompting them with, “Third of Five.”

The woman looks at him with no small amount of wonder. This is not how she expected him to act. It pleases her, but worries her as well. “You mean our names. We don't have designations: we have names.” She gestures first to herself, then to her fellow officer. “I'm Beverly... this is Geordi.”

Third of Five considers this for a long moment before asking his next question: “Do I... have a name?”

Beverly and Geordi look at each other, both surprised. Geordi asks, “Do you want one?”

Though he remains uncertain, Third of Five is clearly intrigued by the notion. So, after some discussion, they settle on a name: Hugh. Beverly smiles with genuine warmth. Let's try this again.

“All right... I'm Beverly.” She points to Geordi. His turn.

“I'm Geordi.”

Beverly then points to Hugh, who responds, “We are Hugh.” Beverly's grin grows wider and Geordi chuckles.


c. Bridge of the Enterprise

Klaxons are sounding and there's a sense of urgency among the crew, an element of fear just under the surface of their professionalism. Beverly stands in center of everything, very clearly in command based on her stance, her tone, and the way the others defer to her. There's talk of evacuations and missing crewmates and then the man standing at the computer console behind her announces, “The Borg ship is powering up its weapons array.”

Watching the approach of the other ship on the large view screen in front of her, Beverly's next words sound almost like a prayer. “Come on, Chief. It's now or never.”

Another crewmember, a woman this time, reports, “They're preparing to fire!”

Beverly takes her seat in the captain's chair, bracing for impact. “Raise shields!”

Too late. The whole ship shakes with the ensuing explosion. The port nacelle has been hit and their warp engines are down. Running is not an option. Tense with the knowledge that the entire crew's lives are in her hands right now, Beverly nonetheless remains calm, in control of both herself and her officers. She runs through the standard options in a situation such as this: shields, evasive maneuvers, phasers. Nothing works. The Enterprise shakes again and again, their shields failing further with each hit. They are no match for the Borg, not going head to head like this. If only they had a place to hide, time to regroup - that's it!

“Helm, set a new course, heading three four four mark six. Full impulse.”

“Sir!” The crewman stares at her for a moment in disbelief. “That heading takes us directly into the sun!”

Eyes forward, hands clutching the armrests of the chair, Beverly doesn't answer. All she is right now is pure determination.


(ooc: If you want a personalized memory for your character/just not something Borg related, send me a PM to this journal or on plurk at curiouslyenough and we'll work stuff out!)

Comments

a

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco has been in a few of these shared dreams by now, but up until this point, they have been with people he actually knows. He hadn't really stopped to be grateful for that. Hadn't bothered to ask himself what he would say or do if he ended up with a stranger.

And now, about two seconds after he realizes where he is and what must be happening, and sees a woman he's never met or spoken to before, he really wishes that he had. ]

Wow. Okay. This is a new one.

[ All Cisco can see around them is that they're some kind of... corridor? There are machine sounds all around them, maybe in some kind of huge warehouse? (A spaceship would never even occur to him). He sees the Borg in their pods all along the walls and... yikes. He tears his eyes away and looks back to the woman, pushing his hair back from his face and saying: ]

Um, hi. So... we've never met and there's just no way for this to not to be super duper awkward, but, I'm Cisco. Do you know what's happening right now?

[ That last question is not delivered as a check-in, and not with any suggestion that he needs things explained for himself. He doesn't know if this woman's been through one of these dream memory things before, and he doesn't want to just assume. ]

[dancingmd]

[The dream itself is a familiar enough one. Almost losing a best friend to the Borg is something that tends to haunt a person's memories. But this - who is this and why are they here? The only Sisko she's heard of is the commander on Deep Space Nine and this is certainly not him.

And for that matter, why does everything feel so lucid? She frowns.]

Not... exactly.

[An alien man charges past them, phaser drawn, but he doesn't acknowledge their presence whatsoever.]

[franciscoramon]

[ Okay, shit, this just got even more complicated. Cisco nods a few times, to himself rather than at Beverly, as he figures out how he's going to begin explaining. He reaches out and touches just above her elbow, gently, enough to demonstrate that he's here, and real, that the contact does not feel like it would in a regular dream. ]

You live in the Riverview quarantine, on a small moon. You came there through a weird portal, right? Me too. Something weird's been happening, recently - I mean, when isn't something weird happening, but I mean on top of the ghosts and whatever. People are having these shared dreams, only they're not regular dreams, they're memories. And... I'm guessing this must be one of yours, because I've got no clue what the hell is up with this creepy-ass... robocop storage hallway situation.

[ His eyes dart over to some of the alcoves, and he hears what he doesn't realize is phaser fire coming from close by. Even if he doesn't know the specifics, he can tell it's some kind of battle or fight, so he quickly reassures: ]

The dream can't hurt us, or anything, but I don't think there's any way to stop it. We sorta just... wait it out.

[dancingmd]

[She raises an eyebrow at "robocop" (if only the Borg were so simple as that!) but she's grateful for his explanation.

She watches as Worf rushes towards Picard. Her other self tries to follow as well, but she's held back by Data. He was right, of course, to stop her, but she remembers all to clearly the desperation she felt, especially later as everyone talked of abandoning the captain. First Jack, then, Walker... She couldn't handle losing him too. ]

They're not robots. Not fully anyway - they call themselves the Borg. Organic beings fused with machines.

[Worf hits a force field and is tossed back.]

How long do these... Shared dreams usually last?

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco had been ready for disbelief, for panic, for suspicion; instead the woman accepts his explanation and the situation at hand with an impressive degree of calm. He sees the dream version of her - that hair is unmistakable - being restrained by a strangely pale man. She looks distraught, and Cisco feels an uncomfortable twist in his guts. Why were these memories that he ended up thrust into never someone's nice day at the beach, or the first time they went on a roller coaster? Why is it awful the painful, terrible moments? ]

That... sounds deeply horrifying.

[ It was one thing, to use a machine as a prosthesis for a person who needed it. It's quite another to have an entire species that is a blend of organic and mechanical. Or maybe Cisco is just being biased against the idea by the fact that these Borg are attacking, their faces utterly dispassionate. There are so many of them, and something about the way they move is just- creepy. ]

I'd say, um, the average is around five to ten minutes. Give or take.

[ He'd been in a few memories that were much longer, but right now he is erring on the side of underestimating the amount of time they might be trapped in this place. ]

c

[sweetlies]

None of what he saw made any sense to him except the sight of Beverly. From what he knew of his aunt, doctors were often made of tough stuff, he wasn't surprised with how cool a head she appeared to be keeping despite what was going on. He could easily see her in a position of authority in England.

In his time, he was sometimes regarded as a genius but all of this? Was so far beyond him it made him a little dizzy, especially with the screen, the room- ship- shaking. The closest thing he could relate it to was the Germans and their Panzer. An armored land vehicle but this wasn't land. Very little of what he heard or saw was making sense but he did understand 'directly into the sun!'

His eyes widened.

"The sun-?"

[dancingmd]

"Don't worry." Another Beverly appears by his side. "We made it. Watch."

The dream version of her explains everything to her concerned officers. She wants to use something called metaphasic shielding, which would allow them to enter the sun's corona and hide there. Even the Borg haven't encountered such technology yet. There's some concern the program isn't ready, but in the end, the Borg ship is forced to break off pursuit, though they lie in wait for the Enterprise to re-emerge.

Real Beverly sighs sadly. "Poor Dr. Reyga. I couldn't save him, but he saved us that day."

[sweetlies]

He couldn't help but jump as the other appeared but that was all he allowed himself, looking to her and then back at the scene. Everything he heard though just left him with questions, and for the first time he genuinely detests being born in the 1800's.

"Dr. Reyga? Was he the one that developed- what did you call it? Metaphasic shielding?"

And how intent on getting this ship and crew were those Borg? Could they enact repairs while hiding in the sun?

[dancingmd]

"Yes." Beverly looks at Ciel sadly as the crew works around them, not noticing their presence at all. At one point, one even walks right through Beverly on her way from navigation to another console. "And he was killed for it."

[sweetlies]

That look doesn't go unnoticed by the teen and he can feel for her. He's had people he admired die before but he'd detached himself from everyone around. The crewmembers just passing through her is disorienting but he's also not sure what he'd expected. He'd avoided getting to close to anyone in others. That he tries not to think about though, keeping his focus on Beverly.

"My condolences, doctor. What he did though, it saved all these lives, didn't it?" The fact that she was still alive gave him confidence in that.

closed to Lucretia

[dancingmd]

A clay pot, forged from the rich red earth of this planet and filled with dark soil from another, sits on the windowsill, catching the first rays of light in the morning. The tiniest of sprouts pokes through the wet dirt, two perfect round green leaves reaching for the sun. A pair of bright blue eyes watch the plant with grave intensity.

A woman chuckles in the background. “Beverly, dear, whatever are you doing?”

“Watching it grow!” is the immediate response.

A gentle hand comes to rest on top of Beverly's head. “It’ll grow faster if you let it be for a little while.” Beverly looks up at her grandmother with an uncertain frown. There’s a hint of sadness in Nana’s answering smile. “Trust me. It’ll be all grown up before you even know it.”

[scholiast]

The start of this dream is very different to the others Lucretia has experienced during this strange week thus far. This one starts off much calmer; a bright day, a calming lull to the air, a little girl with red hair fixated upon a pot plant that sits idyllic in the windowsill.

Lucretia watches from a distance, blinking as she adjusts to the sudden change of scenery. She didn't even notice the other person in the room and when she speaks, her eyes flicker to her curiously. The mention of Beverly's name makes her smile immediately as she pieces everything together; this is a shared dream, of Beverly as a child. It's such a sweet moment. Beverly, watching her pot plant with an intensity that only children seem to possess and her Nana, laying a hand on the top of her head so gently.

Her Beverly must be around her somewhere too, in that case. Lucretia tears her eyes from the adorable scene before her to look around. Perhaps in another room of the house, or?

[dancingmd]

Indeed, her Beverly is right here, watching the scene with a soft sense of nostalgia. She smiles at Lucretia when she turns around. "My first plant. A sweet pea, if I remember correctly."

Nana encourages little Beverly to join her for breakfast. Not that she needs much coaxing - even as a child, it's her favorite meal of the day. As they head into the kitchen, the real Beverly and Lucretia will be forced to follow.

[scholiast]

Oh, right over her shoulder even, when Lucretia cares to turn and look. She smiles again at the sight of her, dropping back a step to be beside her as they watch the younger Beverly dither over her plant. "You garden," she remembers, watching Nana coax her to leave the pot be and dutifully following as the memory shunts them into the kitchen.

"And this is your Nana. She's lovely, Beverly." So kind, and warm. A lot like Beverly herself.

[dancingmd]

"She's the most amazing person I know. Next to Wesley, of course." She grins at that, very much aware of her motherly bias. "I owe... Everything that I am to her."

a

[spellslots]

[Logically, Taako is aware that nothing in these dreams can hurt him, but it's still very unsettling, this creepy corridor; like an extra fucked up version of Lucas's lab. When he spots one of the Borg, he yelps, both caught off guard and a little bit freaked out by whatever is going on there.]

What the fuck is that?

[dancingmd]

[To be honest, it's a very appropriate response to the Borg. By definition, they are very unnatural looking. However, none of them pay any attention to Taako and in fact, one climbs right out of the chamber in front of him and moves as if he is going to walk right through him.]

Taako?

[Beverly - the real Beverly that is - is standing behind him. She rests a hand on his shoulder.]

Taako, relax, it's just a dream!

[spellslots]

I'm relaxed!

[Debatable; his hackles are still up and he automatically steps out of the way of the Borg moving towards, not wanting it to walk through him even if it can't touch him.]

But seriously, what the fuck?

[He's seen a lot of messed up things, but this is up there.]

[dancingmd]

[Beverly takes him by the hand and gently pulls him out of the way of the action. More or less anyway, seeing as more Borg are arriving.]

They're the Borg. They're cybernetic organisms - organic beings fused with machines. They operate as one mind, like an ant colony.

[She looks over at Jean-Luc, assimilated into the collective as Locutus.]

And... they are the greatest threat to our existence.

[spellslots]

[He's led easily enough, though he doesn't stop looking at the Borg, as if maybe he'll find an answer to this mess in their faces.

What Beverly says just leaves him with more questions; he doesn't get how you could fused a machine with an organic creature, but the evidence is right there in front of him.

It reminds him of the Hunger, with machinery instead of magic, but the idea of one mind operating together, taking over creatures to use them as soldiers. That's familiar.]

You know him, that dude?

c, vision; at the hospital

[winscenario]

Jim's been made all too aware of the phenomenon of shared memories currently sweeping across the Quarantine, so when he starts getting flashes and glimpses of sounds and images, he can tell that someone's memory is about to reveal itself to him. Though too curious for his own good, Jim doesn't actually plan on trying to figure out and track down the person this memory belongs to— that is, until he sees it in its entirety, and he can tell immediately that it belongs to someone that comes from his universe. Or one similar enough, at least.

It's not Bones, he knows that much. Which really only leaves him with one other option.

Used to popping by the hospital to meet up with Bones, this time he goes there to come find Beverly. Spotting her in the cafeteria where she's taking a break, he makes his way over to her table, sliding into the seat across from hers.

"Hey," he greets casually, curiosity in his gaze. "I have... a question for you."

[dancingmd]

"Oh!" Beverly looks up from her meal, startled. Nonetheless, she has a warm smile for him, as always. "Jim! I'm surprised to see you here!" Without Leonard, that is.

"How can I help you?"

[winscenario]

"Bones is busy running some exams," he says to the unvoiced part of her observation. He's not so unusual a sight at the hospital when he's with Bones, but he knows he isn't often spotted without him. "But I came to talk to you today."

He shifts on his seat, pondering how exactly to begin. "Who... are the Borg?"

[dancingmd]

"Ah." Beverly looks down at her salad and pushes it around with her fork for a moment. "You saw that."

For a long moment, she doesn't say anything else. Eventually takes a deep breath and looks back up at Jim. "What...part did you see?"

[winscenario]

He's figured that the Borg aren't pleasant folk, at the very least, and her reaction only confirms that for him.

"Well, you were on the bridge of the Enterprise. Your Enterprise, anyway. A Borg ship was powering up weapons, and you were in command," his lips quirk slightly at the next bit, though not necessarily out of amusement. "You ordered a new course headed towards the sun."