T’Vara had treated burns, fractures, decompression injuries and the occasional patient who insisted they were perfectly fine while actively bleeding onto her deck. Those were straightforward problems because they announced themselves clearly, behaved according to familiar medical rules and usually provided some indication of what needed to be done next. Borg were considerably less cooperative.

She stood at the main diagnostic console in Sickbay with one hand resting against its edge while a series of medical protocols scrolled across the display. Most had been written for Starfleet facilities with dedicated isolation wards, specialized containment equipment and significantly more medical personnel than the Dutchman possessed. The recommendations were thorough and technically sound, but several assumed resources she simply did not have, so T’Vara continued reading while mentally separating what was useful from what was written for ships with considerably more room.

Tomorrow, members of the crew intended to enter the cube, and that created a medical problem before anyone had even been injured. T’Vara brought up Sickbay’s environmental controls and began reviewing what could actually be isolated if necessary. The primary treatment area could be sealed from the corridor, one examination alcove had an independent atmospheric circuit, and the surgical bay could also be isolated, though doing so would remove most of Sickbay’s useful treatment space if someone returned with a more conventional injury.

She studied the schematic for several seconds before muttering, “Efficient,” in a tone that made her opinion of the arrangement clear. The independent examination alcove became the first receiving area for anyone returning from the cube with unexplained symptoms, visible punctures or abnormal neurological readings. Portable scanners were moved closer to the entrance, a containment field generator was reassigned from storage, and Sickbay’s sensors were configured to flag unusual metallic compounds, unexplained cellular changes and foreign microscopic structures.

Whether any of those systems would recognize Borg nanotechnology before it became a serious problem remained uncertain, but uncertainty was not a reason to avoid preparing. T’Vara moved to the medical replicator and began assembling the supplies she wanted immediately available, including neural stabilizers, broad-spectrum metabolic suppressants, cortical monitoring leads, microsurgical equipment and emergency vascular sealants. Radiation treatments went into the same cabinet after she considered how little they actually knew about the interior environment of the cube.

The more she worked, the more obvious another problem became. A normal away team returned aboard and went through medical evaluation if someone had been injured or exposed to a known hazard, but tomorrow could not work that way because someone might return feeling perfectly healthy. In this situation, that possibility concerned her more than someone arriving with an obvious wound.

T’Vara returned to the console and opened a new procedure. Every member of the boarding team would receive a baseline scan before departure, including neural activity, cellular structure, blood chemistry and identifiable implants, and the same scan would be repeated when they returned before anyone was cleared to move freely through the ship. After considering the wording for a moment, she added that reported symptoms would have no bearing on whether the scan was required.

People were poor diagnostic instruments when it came to subtle neurological or cellular changes, especially when the first indication that something was wrong might be that the patient no longer understood there was a problem. T’Vara saved the procedure and continued reviewing the information they had collected about the cube, paying particular attention to anything that might create risk without presenting as an obvious injury.

The cube itself had already demonstrated that assumptions about inactive systems were unreliable, and if even limited internal automation remained functional, an encounter did not require an active drone standing in a corridor. Damaged interfaces, abandoned machinery or biological material could all present hazards they did not yet understand well enough to classify, so T’Vara added a warning beneath the environmental section stating that an absence of response could not be treated as an absence of exposure.

The door to Sickbay opened behind her, and someone stepped inside long enough to ask whether she was expecting casualties before they had even gone anywhere. T’Vara did not immediately turn from the console as she replied, “I prefer expecting them before they occur. It is considerably less useful afterward,” which earned a dry observation about how comforting she was being.

“I am a physician. Comfort is available when medically appropriate,” T’Vara answered, allowing the faintest suggestion of amusement into her voice before the visitor moved on. Once the doors closed again, she returned her attention to the display and continued refining the procedures without giving the exchange any more thought.

She was not expecting disaster because there was no evidence to justify that conclusion, and preparing for every imaginable catastrophe was no more rational than ignoring the risks entirely. The crew would enter the cube tomorrow because there were answers inside worth finding, and her responsibility was simply to make certain that if something went wrong, the Dutchman was not improvising its medical response after the first patient was already on the table.

That meant thinking beyond wounds because a fractured arm could be repaired, blood loss could be controlled and even severe trauma usually announced itself honestly. Borg exposure did not necessarily provide the same courtesy, and that uncertainty was what concerned her most.

T’Vara walked into the isolation alcove and looked around the small compartment. It would be uncomfortable with a patient, equipment and anyone attempting to treat them inside at the same time, but it would work, and she checked the containment field manually before verifying the emergency atmospheric seal and placing a portable medical scanner beside the bed.

After returning to the doorway, she studied the arrangement and considered whether she had missed anything obvious. She hoped none of it would be necessary tomorrow, but hope had never been a useful substitute for procedure, so she went back to the console and added one final requirement stating that all personnel returning from the Borg vessel would be medically cleared before reintegration with the crew.

T’Vara read the sentence twice and already knew someone would object to it. That was acceptable because they could object from inside Sickbay while she completed the examination, which seemed considerably preferable to discovering later that she had allowed a problem to walk freely through the ship.

She closed the file and looked around the room one last time. The isolation systems were ready, the baseline scanning procedures were prepared, and the equipment she would need was close enough to reach without wasting time searching through storage, leaving little more she could reasonably do until the following day.

Getting into the cube was someone else’s concern. T’Vara’s responsibility began with making certain that whoever came back out was still entirely themselves.