For nearly five hours they’d been working on clearing a way through the collapsed tunnel.  With pickaxe, crowbar, phaser and shear brute strength; they’d all worked tirelessly to move the rubble out of the way.

The miners had been reluctant to accept the help of the USS da Vinci’s crew at first; they saw it as their job to do all the work and protect the humans from as much danger as possible.  But Bio Unit 17; as the group’s first point of contact and liaison, had soon discovered how determined these Federation personnel were to help; especially the one that led them, Lieutenant-Commander Alara Ley or Master Alara as he referred to her as.  So together they had worked and worked well.

Now it was time for all of them to take a rest; even a Bio Unit couldn’t work indefinitely.  Doctor Sunny had wondered how the miners regained their energy, as they were in essence, mostly human.  The answer had come during the first rest break.  Each of them ate from a gel-pack, squeezing the paste like substance inside, out through a small nozzle and into their mouths; much like the way he’d read, Earths pioneering astronauts had done.  Seeing that the crew had not brought anything with them; they had offered to share.

To Doctor Sunny, it tasted a little bland, but not entirely unpalatable.   If he’d been asked to put a flavour to it; he would have been hard pressed to pin it down.  Lieutenant Grav said it reminded him of something his mother used to make; but didn’t elaborate as to whether that was a good thing or not.  Only Kilcannon refused to touch the stuff.

Bio Unit 17 came and sat down next to the Lieutenant-Commander, and passed her a gel-pack.  “We are progressing well.” He commented.

“Yes, I agree, we have worked well together.”  Alara replied.  “One thing I must ask.  Why does Kilcannon seem to fear you so much?”

Bio Unit 17 put his head down, as if marshalling his thoughts, in a rather human manner.  “I regret that Bio Unit 22 developed a malfunction and attacked the two humans that worked with Master Kilcannon.   Both died of the injuries sustained.”

“What kind of malfunction?”  Alara asked.

“Bio Unit 22 recalled information of events they had not been involved in.” 17 stated plainly.

The Lieutenant-Commander sat back and thought about that for a moment. ‘Are you thinking the same thing I am?’  She asked her symbiont. ‘That the unit which malfunctioned, as they say, was in fact recalling events that happened to the human whose body they inhabited, before that person had died.”

It was a chilling thought; could memories really survive after death?  She’d seen the report on the horrible way so many of those who’d lived and worked on this planet had died.  First they’d been assimilated by a group of Borg separated from the Collective; then when these Borg had regained that connection, the Collective had sensed them as a threat and sent a signal that had killed them all.  The Hana Corporation who operated the mine had chosen to experiment on some of the bodies and implant them with brains from A500 synths.  Had the company held on to these brains after the ban, merely disposing of the android bodies?  Regardless; the idea of putting them inside a dead humans body and effectively bringing them back to life was beyond comprehension.

Was that unit the only one that could recall passed events; how much danger were they in, if this lot started going crazy?  Alara felt an involuntary shiver.  Synths aren’t programmed to whistle!  Even Ley couldn’t think of a way to totally allay those fears.  But form now on the XO would be keeping and extra sharp eye out for any odd behaviour.

She smiled at Bio Unit 17; before getting up and walking over to the Doctor.  “Can I have a quiet word?”

The two of them moved to a clear part of the tunnel, away from everyone else. “What is that’s on your mind Commander?” Sunny asked.

“The mind might be the issue.” The XO replied.

“I don’t exactly follow!” The Doctor looked back at her puzzled.

“Well you know much more about the brain than I do.  Is it possible for it to retain memories and information after someone has died?”

“The simplest answer is yes; the information is there within the cells of your brain, but will disappear as those cells decay and die.  The problem is, no one has figured out a way of retrieving that information.  Unless you have a Vulcan performs a Mind Meld within the first seven minutes after death.  But that’s considered unethical.” He paused a moment and glanced over his shoulder, before whispering.  “You’re not suggesting?”

The Trill nodded.  “You heard out friend 17 whistling and another one of them went crazy and killed both of Kilcannon’s co-workers.”

“It would explain why he’s so fearful of them.” He understood what she’d meant by the whistling, and mentally slapped himself for not coming to the same conclusion earlier.

There was no way of knowing what past knowledge and experiences any of these miners still retained or what affect it would have on them recalling those events.  The doctor took a look at his Medical-Tricorder; the power level was still above 70%, so he’d be able to monitor everyone trapped inside the mine.  He hoped that as the miners were 98% organic, they would display the same sort of physical changes, when under stress as any living human would.

After they’d all eaten, they settled down to try and sleep; not that it would be easy on the cold hard floor of the tunnel.  The minors found it much easier to sleep than their Starfleet companions; they either did not feel how uncomfortable the floor of the tunnel was, or their brains did not register it.  Eventually everyone was asleep; everyone except Kilcannon, with his back pressed against one wall, he kept a watch on everyone.  Biting his lip and pinching his skin, now and then; anything just to stay awake.

**********

Lieutenant Grav’s alarm sounded with a repetitive beeping noise in his right ear until his finger moved across to cancel it.  The time was 02:30; or at least it would be on the ship.   Tartarus II itself had a 26 hour day, so the time here would be different.

No one else appeared to be awake other than the security officer who’d volunteered to take first watch; Grav was pleased by that, but wouldn’t tell the young man he’d have been informed electronically if the guard had fallen asleep; no, better to let him thing his boss had complete trust in him.  The Tellarite Security Chief took a long stretch as he sat up and looked around.  Most of the lights had been switched off whilst everyone slept, but a couple dotted around the tunnel provided some elimination.

Quietly he made his way across to the other man. “Well Blake, anything to report?”  He did expect there to be much, everything was still a quiet.

“Mr Kilcannon finally dropped off around half hour ago.” Crewman Blake replied. “And the XO isn’t really asleep, just pretending.”

The Tellarite half smiled and gave a chuckle; top marks for his officer spotting that.  “Well I’m relieving you of the watch, so get some sleep, if you can.”

The security officer wished the Chief a goodnight and moved over to a patch of ground in a darker part of the tunnel and lay down.

**********

By 06:00 ship time, everyone was starting to wake up; that is if the Bio Units were waking.  The lines between human and machine had been blurred by their unnatural creation.  Did they have any concept of how wrong they were?  It was the thought going through Doctor Tanzim Sunny’s mind as he accepted a gel-pack for breakfast off one of them.

After about twenty minute, everyone slowly grabbed what tools they had to hand; ready to tackle the rocks of the cave-in once more.  Soon the tunnel echoed and reverberated to the sounds of individuals and small groups, hard at work.  Today they would tunnel their way out, no matter how far they had to dig!