We had previously discovered and fully investigated the shuttle that the troupe arrived on. As far as we could tell, they were a genuine theatre troupe.
Mabrin ministered to the fainted man and quickly brought him around. He introduced himself as Rob God. He seemed to be the informal leader of the travelling troupe. He explained that the cave acoustics were highly favourable for rehearsals.
We escorted them back to the camp, where I had a serious exchange of words with the chief administrator. Trill Initiates and their trainers are very... independently minded.
Two of the Trill women had been out in the forest collecting firewood. They returned as I was discussing the situation with the administrator. However, one of the Trill had a horrible Marauder mutation! The women clung together, bot visibly afraid. Our crew moved immediately into combat mode and surrounded the women. This seemed to make things worse. They were calling for medical assistance and were only calmed when Mabrin came to assist. The camp seemed to become significantly more compliant at this turn of events!
Mabrin remember an old story that Admiral Janeway would tell about a transporter accident and how she used a transporter to separate two joined crew members. The crew pulled together and attempted the hazardous procedure. Mabrin had explained that if anything went wrong, it was likely to result in the death of the Trill. Fortunately, nothing did go wrong.
We were able to find out from the Trill that they had stopped at a stream and one of them had drunk the water. We left the camp armed with Tricorders to find the stream.
We took one of the Trill and found the location of the stream. We followed the water up river and discovered the point were it ascended out of the ground. Our Tricorders detected Neutronium deposits in the rocks and so we resolved to descend into the ground. The climb down was long and ended in a key coded door. We were able to bypass the lock and we entered an old Iconian base, buried beneath the surface of Trill.
Inside the ancient base were many Trill and Corrupt Borg. As we arrived, a Borg Queen was addressing her minions:
“For millions of years, the battle between Preservers and Marauders, between order and chaos has raged. The slumber between outbreaks of conflict has numbered in the hundreds of thousands of years. Here we stand in a testament to the last outbreak 200,000 years ago when the Iconians sealed the rift and sent the warring parties back to their own dimensions.
But the Iconian solution could only last until those old ones reawakened from their torpor. And this time, only the Marauders have returned. Where are the Preservers? I will tell you! They have abandoned their ancient charge!
We came here as Marauders, as parasites! We were in the vanguard of the Marauder force when we infiltrated the Federation thirty years ago. We were weak then. Alone. And now we have found the world of our descendants. We have achieved symbiosis with the Borg and the Trill. Together, our triumvirate will lay waste to all that oppose us. Together we will purge this galaxy of the sin and evil of mono-species. Our master plan begins today from this place.
This natural place from which to strike out against our former Marauder masters. The natural place from which to begin our empire of this galaxy that will last a million years!”
I was surprised that we were well-received by the Queen. I ensured that I was the focus of her attention as the crew explored this underground.
The crew reported back that the base was full of Corrupt Borg, black oil Trill and strange parasites. It appeared that the Queen was the product of such a three way union. The Queen was keen for us to join them and invited us to explore the facility further.
The next room in the base had been converted into a large prison for Marauders. There was a gateway embedded in a wall that was somehow being held shut. It appeared to be using a similar technique to that which was holding the prison cell force fields in place. There was even a creature resembling Mul'cha.
And the adventure continues...