"I don't trust this place at all, Ragnar. If need be, take a couple folks with you but I'd like you to cover the outer perimeter of the area and make sure nothing goes down. You know these drones better than I do, so better to be vigilant than not." The captain stood up and then picked up his rifle and took kit.

The back door opened, exposing the cube beyond once again.

The first to step out of the shuttle was Hunt, with his rifle at the ready and the duffle on his back. Looking down the Borg corridor, everything was clear at the moment. "What time frame are we looking at overall Captain, before we get out of here?"

Ragnar glanced over at Hunt as he followed him out, taking a deeper breath before moving towards the outer perimeter and finding somewhere with a decent view of the approaches. He could keep watch visually, but pulled out his tricorder as well, setting it down beside him and tuning it to pick up any increase in Borg activity. If he'd had another day and proper access, he'd have put trip sensors across the whole thing. But this wasn't that sort of mission.

"As long as we can" Zedd replied. "I want this operation to continue until we've stripped out as much as possible. The more money we all make, the better. For today I'd plan at least twelve hours." He was looking at dollar signs more than anything else. While he knew it was dangerous, he considered it to be part of the risk.

"The almighty Latinum will be the death of me indeed," the Combat Chief joked as he pulled out his own tricorder. Getting a quick acknowledgment that his path was clear, Hunt proceeded to move forward. "See you all in a few minutes."

Po was still adjusting to the crew and the ship's climate, so he kept his mouth closed as people talked around him, with plans to join in the conversation when he understood what they were talking about.

Zedd looked over at his new science chief "Step lightly here, I don't want you getting into trouble with the Borg if we can help it. I would ask that you look at items we are salvaging to see if you can help identify them and if we can possibly incorporate them into our own ship or if they are better off sold so we can at least get an idea."

Po gave a puzzled look back, not understanding the lightly walk phrase. "I'll see what I can do, but I'm not an engineer," Po replied, feeling slightly useless to the mission, but his curious nature was in control of his body; he would love a good wander around.

"Understood. If nothing else just see what you are able to learn or understand about the technology or the Borg. Could come in handy later."

Zedd then waited until Hunt had disappeared around the first bend before stepping down from the Reach himself. The deck beneath his boots was black and uneven, made from overlapping plates that had once been part of some larger system and now only served as another reminder that the cube had never been designed for people to walk through comfortably. The air was stale but breathable, carrying the faint metallic smell of old circuitry and something colder underneath it.

Cormus came out behind him with a field scanner in one hand and a compact cargo sled in the other. He stopped just beyond the rear hatch, looking back toward the Reach and then down the passage that led toward their first marked target.

“I’m leaving the sled here until we know what we’re dealing with” he said. “No sense dragging it through three corridors only to find out we need a cutting rig instead.”

“Good thinking” Zedd replied. “Keep the route clear. If we pull anything loose, I want it moving back toward the Reach before somebody decides this section is worth reclaiming.”

Mei-Lin stepped down after them, her scanner already active as she turned slowly in place. The display gave off a soft blue glow against her face while she swept it across the walls, the sealed alcoves and the thick bundles of conduits disappearing into the ceiling. She had been quiet during the flight in, but that did not mean she had been idle. Every few seconds, her eyes shifted between the scanner and the route data they had brought back from recon.

The rest of the salvage party did not remain aboard for long. Once Zedd gave the word, crew members began moving equipment cases down from the Reach in pairs, taking the jobs that had been discussed during the flight in and turning them into something more practical. One team started laying out portable work lights and a second cargo sled near the hatch while another checked the nearest dead alcoves for panels, conduits and processor components that could be removed without needing to cut into the cube itself. Nobody was wandering far yet. Not without a reason.

Zedd watched them spread out through the staging area, keeping everyone within visual range of either the Reach or one another. It was not a proper salvage yard, and it was certainly not safe enough to treat it like one, but there was more here than the single control assembly Mei-Lin had identified. Damaged interface nodes, inactive regeneration equipment, sections of armored plating and bundles of intact cabling all represented potential value if they could be brought back without waking anything that had been quiet for too long.

“Keep your teams inside the marked section” Zedd called, his voice carrying just enough to reach the people working near the runabout. “Anything that needs more than basic tools gets logged first. Don’t start cutting through walls because you think you found a shortcut to a fortune.”

A few acknowledgements came back from the crew as they got to work. The first pieces of the cube began to come loose in small, deliberate increments, carried back toward the Reach and secured for the trip home. It was not much yet, but it was a start. For the first time since entering the cube, the Dutchman’s people were not simply surviving inside it.

They were taking something back.

“The nearest target is still reading where it should be” she said. “Two junctions ahead, then through the maintenance access on the left. There is a power distribution cluster behind the wall. Most of it is dead, but not all of it.”

Zedd looked toward the dark passage. “Worth taking?”

“Potentially.” Mei-Lin glanced back at him. “The remaining charge is low, but the system is isolated from the rest of the cube. If we can remove the control assemblies without damaging them, they could be useful. Borg power regulation is not something you find sitting in a salvage yard.”

Morgan suddenly piped in. “Sounds good to me, Mei-Lin. Try not to….” Avery gets cut off.

Cormus gave a low whistle. “And if we damage them?”

“Then we have very expensive scrap.”

“They also contain multiple useful components, Cormus. Like my mother used to say, ‘use two hands’.”

Zedd smiled faintly. “That is still better than a door hinge.”

Mei-Lin tapped her comms panel "I'll do my best to be care full Chief. I spent enough time studying what I could about their systems but taking things apart is a whole other game. If I need help I'll hook into a live feed for you to see."

Mei-Lin gave him a look, though there was the slightest hint of amusement behind it. “You are going to keep bringing that up, aren’t you?”

“Until somebody proves me wrong.”

The three of them moved down the corridor together, keeping the Reach in sight until the first turn took it away from them. Cormus stayed slightly behind the others, checking the route and marking the walls with a small passive beacon every few meters. It was not much, but if they had to move quickly later, he wanted a simple way to confirm they were heading back toward the ship rather than deeper into the cube.