I Am No Borg

[hugh-borg]

The Doctor's Proposition (@ethos-borg)

[hugh-borg]

Hugh looked back at Eiden with a wide, confused eye at first. “I was not intending to be apathetic. I-I was excited to hear it may be possible, so I wanted to show more caution than.. before. When he tried to remove parts of us, as well.” His mouth tightened a little as he looked back down at Bajor. He hated how it still rubbed raw on him after years.

"… I know it is not the same," he quickly admitted, though. "I know there are so many that could benefit from the procedure even with such risk." Thoughts ran aloud as he pondered the view. "I would not want us to miss such an opportunity. Yet, for some it has been difficult to simply acknowledge the lives and faces they had before. For others..” his voice halted in his throat, and his brow tightened in just the slightest telling way, “this is the only identity they have ever known. They may be afraid to lose it, even if it means removing the technology that enslaved them in the first place…" He paused for a while again before shifting his gaze loosely back up to Eiden. "… But, as you are saying, a leader leads by example."

[ethos-borg]

Reminded of the previous situation, in which they'd been promised much of the same thing, but ended up with horrid results, Eiden looked down, guilt on his face. "I... am sorry. I did not realize..." He had forgotten what it was like to feel guilty over being selfish.

He recalled some of the Borg who, in particular, were uncertain of what their lives were before assimilation, or those who had been born into the Borg. Hugh was counted among the latter, and Eiden looked at him closely as he continued to speak. "Are you implying that you would under go the first procedure... yourself?"

[hugh-borg]

The Doctor's Proposition (@ethos-borg)

[hugh-borg]

Hugh blinked and brightened at his friend’s lively reaction, although in a way he had expected it, and especially from Ethos— or Eiden. For being as quiet as he could be about some things, he was terribly expressive for a drone when he wanted to be, even under the heavy constraints of his Borg exterior. “He says he may be able to allow us seventy-percent organicity with.. an eighty-six-percent chance of success.” He looked down at little. “He claims the results of my examination may influence that further, and that he has even run many simulations of the procedure. He speaks with confidence about it.” The younger drone looked back up after a half-second with a hopeful little smile.

But, then he paused and looked edgewise in obvious anticipation of Eiden’s reaction to the next part. “But, I.. did not accept. Not yet.” He quickly clarified. “I told him I would need time to give him an answer. I wished to bring his proposition to you and the others as well. The decision is not mine alone to make in either direction.” He very clearly had other worries on his mind as he turned to look out the viewport again. Hugh’s face and posture were rarely, if ever, deceptive of his feelings.

[ethos-borg]

Eiden grew more excited as the details were explained, even though the percentage of success seemed unsatisfactory to his remaining Borg instincts. He swallowed, looking down a bit. THough, when Hugh said that the examination he had taken part of would improve the odds, he looked back up with more confidence.

Then, when Hugh said he didn't accept yet, Eiden looked genuinely confused. "You did not accept?" He observed how Hugh seemed reluctant, worried, even, "Hugh, you are our leader. If you have no feeling, and show only neutrality, what are we to think of it? We need you to show your thought, your independence."

[hugh-borg]

The Doctor's Proposition (@ethos-borg)

[hugh-borg]

Hugh looked back quickly with a curiously confused eye. “Eiden?” It took him a moment to recognize what the other was trying to say to him. It sometimes slipped his mind how others’ names were different from his; he was the only one given a name out of an act of kindness rather than as a symbol of becoming someone’s property to control. “… A new name?”

He paused as he was given a new inquiry, however, and looked down at Bajor’s green tinted surface in thought. It was once the other drone’s home long before he was assimilated, perhaps long before he had joined Starfleet even. It must have been difficult to see it again after so long, if he could rely on what other Assimilateds had said. It brought to mind again how important this proposition could be. “I.. am uncertain. I wish I was not.” He paused with that telling little hesitation that meant he was thinking it over. “The doctor who called for me was from Starfleet. He wished to examine my implants.” He finally looked up again at the other drone, brow softened. “He… wishes to help us. He claims he could be able to remove much of the Borg technology from us, that we could become more organic…”

[ethos-borg]

His expression became more lively when the very idea of removing the technology that had been forced upon him, even if it was only so much. "Starfleet doctors are some of the best. How much did he say he could remove? With what success rate? Did.. did you accept his offer?" He wished he could express so much more than his body armor and implants would allow at that moment. He wanted to reach out and take Hugh by the shoulders, almost by instinct, but the restraints of his armor made it impossible to react so quickly.

[hugh-borg]

The Doctor's Proposition (@ethos-borg)

The doctor’s words had been both weighing on and racing in his mind, implants still calculating risks and gains away like proper little computers while his more organic thoughts balanced the very potentials of all the possible good against them. It was always transparent on Hugh’s face when he was thinking, especially this hard about something so very important.

He had allowed Julian to examine him. His tests were similar to Beverly and Geordi’s, except this time the doctor had taken blood and tissue and had been a bit more liberal in his poking and prodding and investigating— not that Hugh protested any. If anything, he was a ridiculously compliant patient. But now it was time to fulfill the rest of his promise and bring Julian’s proposition to his people, and he had promptly went straight from sickbay to the quarters that had been arranged for them.

As the first door slid open, he spotted another drone quickly. He could tell every borg apart no matter how similar the implants or stark white skin, and knew who it was even from behind: Bajoran, male, clearly a bit older than Hugh was physically, and staring out the viewport quietly spare the buzz of some borg parts. “Ethos.” A fond smile warmed over Hugh’s face. He came up aside the the other drone, looking out the viewport himself for a moment to see what the other was watching so intently. Though it was hard to tell— even for him— if that little sound in his voice was from lingering unsureness or optimism, it was enough to emphasize, “I have.. news.”

[ethos-borg]

The drone responded to the name, though somewhat reluctantly. It was a name he wished he could simply erase away, along with that monstrous android's manner of saying it. He politely said, in a quiet and collected tone, "Eiden." He didn't have too much memory of his life before, only rough details, but he knew his name, at least.

He looked to Hugh, breaking his gaze from Bajor in the window to focus on him. "... News?" He raised an eyebrow. "You sound uncertain."

[vulcans-ears]

[grantaerearchive-blog]

[ethos-borg]

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

I do not have one. I am a Bajoran, not a Human.