2423.05

Well, we resolved the problem with Prodigy's Collective, though I admit I'm still not entirely certain what caused it in the first place, we believe it might have been a virus planted by Eldar when Six of Twelve was undergoing the effects of the Regression. The problem was resolved by Six of Twelve, Four of Seven and Unit travelling into Banor's 'mindscape' and... ignoring Eldar? Or deeming him 'irrelivant' at least; apparantly in this case, when you ignore it, it does go away.

Banor woke from his coma and after time regenerating, Prodigy's Collective are back to full function. With apparantly no more problems left to deal with, Ensign Me'D ordered the Colonel and I into Medical Leave where we met a Tailor named Duuuuude. Interesting guy, to say the least. Seeing Banor in a Hawaiian shirt and sandels might actually have put me in a good mood, were it not for what happened next...

Colonel MarQ reported that he, Six and Four could no longer sense Unit. I tried contacting her, to no avail and at almost the exact same time, Dr Saran reported that C7's tracking device had alerted her as being out of range. Commander French contacted Acadamy Command to find out about any unusual ships that had left the planet while RJ12 got all of the crew that were currently on shoreleave back onboard. The children, along with Dr Siril and Cadet S'Hirt, had been kidnapped.

Thanks to C7's tracker and Unit's Borg proximity tranciever, we were able to determine where they were headed and Commander French was able to find the ship we believed responsible for taking them. The children were headed towards Union space and Twelve was able to confirm the ship belonged to the Union's 9th planet. The ship itself had an alien design, loosly resembling a Borg vessel, but according to Six and Four, containing no actual Borg technology. Prodigy headed off at maximum speed in persuit of the ship only to be interuptted by an unusual complaint from DFA Command complaining about our absense from Medical Leave. Me'D wrote to DFA Command explaining our situation and we have recieved no further complaints as yet.

[Personal addition, not to be added to official log: I discussed the matter with Banor and Me'D in private. The only way Command could be aware that we were on Medical Leave or that we'd left our vacation would be that Prodigy has a spy onboard. Everyone onboard knows about the kidnapping so if someone has reported this anyway, it stands to reason they have something against me and/or Banor. Me'D wrote to DFA Command explaining the situation (keeping things as vauge as possible, in case I'm right and someone is out to get us) and we were able to proceed without any delays. I am concerned about the idea of someone in Command with an agenda against us, but right now my focus is on getting the kids home safely. Once they are safe, further investigation will be done.]

When we arrived in Union Space, Six, Banor and Four recieved communication from Unit and Damon via their interlink nodes. The children had been kidnapped by a cult which called themselves The Collective's Chosen. It seems these are the people responsible for installing Lyra's implant and that she had lived with them for an undetermind number of years. Lyra had escaped the cult, it seems, in the incident that lead to her accident and the cult wanted her back, kidnapping the other children along with her. The children were unharmed, having managed to escape their captors and find Lyra's old bunker, where they hid with Siril and Yel keeping watch and placing traps in the surrounding forest.

Apparantly they had been kidnapped by a man named Torin Xanis, an ex-DFA officer who had claimed to be an Acadamy Tour guide and had lead the children, Yel and Siril into his ship, claiming it was a new DFA prototype. They'd realised the trick imediatly, but it was too late by that point, as Xanis had trapped them behind a forcefield the second they were in the ship and then knocked all but C7 out with a sleeping gas before going to warp. They had been met by a crazed Vulcan doctor covered poorly installed Borg implants, both fake and real and a human woman calling herself 'One' who was identified as the Cult's leader. Lyra recognised the doctor as Dr Tal, the person who had installed her implant. There were two soldiers carrying disruptors as well. Neilson managed to disarm the soldiers with his telekenisis, Unit, Siril, Damon and Yel then took out the soldiers and Xanis, escaping to the forest. Unit also disintegrated the cult leader's leg.

Negotiating passage into Union Space wasn't quite as difficult as last time, but it wasn't easy either. Legate Das was frustrated with the inefficency of DFA Command in accepting the Union's enterance into the DFA, but eventually agreed to help us rescue the children anyway and even invited Prodigy to dinner after the rescue was complete. Legate Das sent four warships to escort us through the minefeild, lead by Banor's ever delightful cousin, Security Officer MarQ. I'm sure Banor must have nice family somewhere but I've yet to meet them. MarQ was about as much of an asshat as last time, but he did get us to the 9th planet, which, by the way, the Union did not know was still there. They had thought it had been assimilated years ago. It was however, very much still there and populated by just over 100 people. Lt Red S'Hirt met us in his Fighter, Dropper and he, Banor, Saran, Six and Twelve went down to the planet in Dropper and our newly modified shuttle, Ohana, which had cloaks installed by Dr Saran and specialised sheilds. Red took fire from the planet in the form of turrets firing some sort of cutting beam, similar to the ones the Borg use to cut open ships and planets, though the Collective's Chosen's version was far less powerful and accurate, it still caused chaos for Red. He managed to avoid being hit by the beams but was taken down by some kind of EMP weapon causing Dropper to crash.

Ohana landed in the forest, near the bunker the children, Yel and Siril were hiding in. Meanwhile, Red rejoined the group with a few scratches and bruises but mostly unharmed. Dropper, on the other hand, was completely non-functional. Turrets from the city continued to fire at the away team, until Six and Banor took them out with one of Banor's capsule bombs. They were also recieving fire from the cult's soliders, at least until they saw Six...

When the cult saw Six, they were stopped in their tracks. Apparantly the Collective's Chosen worship the Borg and saw Six as a speaker for the Collective. Six, from what I have been told, was very confused but actually defused the whole situation somewhat accidentally. Six told the Collective's Chosen that if they wanted to be assimilated, they should just go to Borg space, enmass, and they would probably be taken. The Cult took this as a command, agreed to leave and are now headed for Borg Space.

Meanwhile, the children had found Lyra's old computer. Unit, Lyra and Damon were watching video logs that Lyra had made while she was with the cult, planning her escape. Her logs were all addressed to 'Nine', which turned out to be a nickname for Lyra's older sister, Silvia Nona, who was pictured with a much younger version of Lyra in a photograph Mia found inside the bunker. Lyra could not remember exactly what had happened with Nine, but she was gone and from the way the logs were written, we assume she may have been killed by the cult. Lyra also could not remember how long she'd been with the cult, but she was very young in the photograph, so it stands to reason it had been a long time. Lyra was a very different person in the videos which showed who she was before her accident; she was expressive and able to articulate herself in a way Lyra no longer can but what remained the same was the girl's passion for technology. Lyra's past self had planned an escape from the cult but had to leave early when she discovered the cult's plan to sacrifise her to the Borg. It seems likely she was persued by the cult's ships, or the planet's turrets, which may have lead to her accident. Unit assimilated the data from the computer to review in more detail with Lyra later.

The away team met up with the children. Unit was exhausted to the degree of barely being able to walk and thus had to be connected to Six's portible regeneration unit for at least half an hour. The other children were assessed by Me'D and fed in the Ohana while Siril and Yel went to retrieve Dropper and attempt to repair her.

About half an hour after Unit had started regenerating, Six and Unit's proximity tranciver were activated and MarQ's warship contacted us. A Borg cube had been detected on route to the ninth planet. According to Six, the cultists had left and the Borg were meeting their ships half way, but it was possible they would come for the union after assimilating the cultists. Either way... Prodigy has to leave, quickly.