It had been weeks since the last holographic communication between the newly rechristened Mnhei'sahe Dox and her estranged Mother, Jaeih. Weeks since the young part-Romulan pilot had confronted her mother to learn the truth about the events of her childhood that had gone forgotten for most of the anxious officer's life. And in those weeks, Dox's life had changed in ways that she still couldn’t quite believe.

The genetic damage that had been down to her as a child to artificially suppress her Mother’s Romulan DNA in favor of her Father’s Human genes had been undone. Her genes had been restored along with her green, Romulan blood and the pointed ears that had been surgically altered along with her DNA. Now, her curly red hair, freckles, and portly frame were all that was visible from her father. Biologically, she had been restored to her primarily Romulan heritage and it had improved a good deal of the internal disconnect she had felt her entire life.

She had also learned and had embraced the name she was given at birth of Mnhei’sahe. Her given and true Romulan name that had been forgotten and concealed after the trauma of the surgical procedures caused her to repress her earliest memories. With each passing day, she found herself thinking of herself with this name and it was comfortable. Recently, her friend and First Officer Rita Paris had begun it and the young pilot found that she liked hearing it.

And on top of all that, just a day earlier, she had been officially declared a Baroness fifth class of the Artan Pirate family, of which her Captain was the Princess.

But perhaps the change that Mnhei’sahe Dox was the proudest of rested on the collar of her uniform. The two, solid and shining gold pips announcing the Starfleet rank of a full Lieutenant. Her most recent service had earned her a promotion that was bestowed upon her by Captain Enalia Telvan at, of all places, a party among the ship crew that had been largely devoted to her showing off the surgical restoration of her Romulan ears. It was an amazing shock and honor that the proud young woman was still processing.

"Romulan Lieutenant Baroness Mnhei'sahe Dox." She chuckled to herself.

As she stood in her quarters, adjusting the deep crimson tunic of her uniform and making sure those pips were spotless, she couldn’t help but be excited for the holographic call from her Mother. But, of course, the knot of anxiety that lived permanently in her stomach twisted as the comm system chirped, shocking her out of her introspection and momentary happiness.

=^=Incoming holographic transmission to Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox from Starfleet Intelligence consultant, Jaeih Dox.=^=

"Imirrhlhhse! Imirrhlhhse! Imirrhlhhse!" Dox shouted to herself as she fussed with her hair, pulling it in front of her ears as a wave of mild panic began to creep in. Turns out she wasn’t quite as ready as she thought to show herself off to her judgmental Mother.

=^=Please clarify Instructions.=^= The computer responded as Mnhei'sahe realized that she was shouting out the Rihan equivalent for what humans called 'the F word' without thinking.

Stepping over to the center of her quarters, she fussed with her uniform top and brushed her hair back again, rolling her eyes and sighing loudly. 'What are you stressing out about, Mnhei'sahe!?' she thought to herself, finding her thinking of herself with her given Romulan name that she had learned about along with her past surgical alterations. 'She's probably going to love it. It's just... fixing a mistake is all. It's going to be fine!'

"C... Computer..." She stuttered as she spoke. "Mnhei'sahe Dox, Lieutenant Junior Grade. Access code 795-X9E. Please... Please initiate communication."

But at the last second, as the computer was chirping its acknowledgment of the order, she shouted up in a panic. "AUDIO ONLY FROM HERE!!"

One brief moment later, in the center of her sparsely decorated quarters, the three-dimensional image of Jaeih Dox shimmered into existence. Her hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail with her bangs cut into a familiar Romulan v shape. She wore the gray tunic of Startfleet intelligence, missing only the identifying rank pips and insignia comm badge.

Jaeih Dox was a solid few inches taller than her short, rotund daughter and significantly thinner and stood ramrod straight, her head held back slightly with her arms crossed behind her back, but with a confused expression. "Jolan'tru, Mnhei'sahe… Mnhei'sahe? I'm not getting a visual? Is everything in order?"

Stumbling over her words, Dox stuttered trying to come up with an excuse. "Uh... Sorry mother. We're... Passing through a... nebula and the ships communications power is... Reduced. Jolan'tru."

Arcing an eyebrow and curling her lips, it was an obvious lie, but Jaeih let her have it, for at least a moment. "If you say so, Daughter." She resumed her posture and continued. "Jolan'tru, Mnhei'sahe. I hope all is well since we last spoke."

"I cannot, of course, discuss what all I've been working on here since my transfer to Starfleet Intelligence. But I believe my keepers are quite pleased, to a degree in opposite proportion to how killed I would be by the empire for my efforts." Jaeih went on for a moment, giving her anxious daughter a moment to work through what she knew must be bothering her.

But before the anxious aviatrix could respond, Jaeih spoke again. "Mnhei'sahe. I... There are things I need to say. Things I've needed to say for a very long time." It was a moment of openness that caught her by surprise. She nodded slightly, to let her mother continue.

"I... apologize that you found out what your father had done to you in this fashion. I had hoped to talk to you as we had been..." Jaeih stumbled over her words slightly, having difficulty with the admission. "Well... I feel we... we had been making some kind of progress, of late."

Taken aback slightly by her mother's words, Melanie's somewhat official posture loosened as she relaxed slightly. "I... I like to think we were as well, Mother. And I..." She stammered as she spoke. "I hope that it's something we can continue in spite of everything."

In that moment, Jaeih's authoritarian facade cracked just a bit at her daughter's words. "I'm... Glad to hear. I hope you are better than how you were last."

Listening, Dox tried to work up more courage. "Things have been... good." She coughed slightly, clearing her throat. "I've been working through everything well, and have had a lot of help from my crewmates. I've been... working with one of my crewmembers. A Vulcan who has been assisting me in... strengthening my mental defenses and meditate to help clear my memories." The redheaded Romulan paused as she spoke, watching her mother for a change of expression.

For her part, Jaeih smiled as she had a great reverence for Vulcans and their culture. "I'm glad to hear this and I hope it is helping bring you some peace, Mnhei'sahe."

As Dox listened to her mother, she found the strength she had been missing. "It has been a... tremendous help to me, Mother. I don't know if I could have made it through... everything. Not without my friends and crew here."

Pausing for a moment, she felt her emotions well up in her as her face felt flush. For her part, Jaeih looked to be holding back emotions of her own, letting her speak. "My friends have been extremely supportive as I explore what I've remembered about my childhood. Everything I once forgotten. And they have bent over backward to help me... fix what had been broken."

Taking a breath, Mnhei'sahe looked up and spoke into the air. "Computer, please re-establish holographic visual." She stood with her arms behind her back, her eyes closed as her image appeared half a galaxy away in front of her mother.

Looking up with an awkward half smile, Dox looked to see her Mother’s eyes tearing up as she hid her mouth behind a hand poorly concealing a broad smile. As soon as she looked up, Jaeih cleared her throat, restrained the smile and crossed her arms in front of her. “And… this was performed on your ship… without... issue?”

A look of mild exasperation fell under Dox’s smile as her Mother’s words were somewhat predictable, considering her low opinion of Starfleet and humanity in general. And even though humans seemed to be in a distinct minority aboard the Hera, Jaeih didn’t know that and regardless, couldn’t quite make the mental separation. Starfleet was humans to her and humans were a petty, weak, small people to her.

“Fully approved and even endorsed by my commanding officers. Suggested, even, as a means of therapy for me. To help repair my emotional state by realigning my physical state to that of my self-image.” Her slight irritation with her mother had faded as she spoke of her friends. “I would say I was given a lot of encouragement”.

Smiling a bit more comfortably herself, Jaeih responded. "I'm your mother. I can't lie and say that I’m not pleased. I only hope this hasn't... added to your discomfort or elicited any prejudiced behavior towards you." Her tone shifted slightly to be more defensive and stern.

"You and I both know full well what humans think of us as a people."

In response, Dox's tone became just as defensive and her posture became rigid again. "This ship is more.than just humans, Mother. And the humans here would surprise you."

The friends she had made on board the Hera had become very important to her very quickly, and she felt a strong need to defend them here. "I have received nothing but support, compassion and friendship here, Mother. Nothing!"

The words stung into Jaeih slightly as the power dynamic shifted slightly in favor of her daughter for a moment. "I stand corrected." There was a touch of sarcastic venom to her words as she was unaccustomed to being put in her place by her daughter. "You clearly know these humans better than I. But if I were you, I wouldn't let those shields down too far."

Feeling their combative relationship taking over again, the young officer stepped slightly back and took a breath. "This crew... it's the closest thing I've seen to what Starfleet has always said it was and yet never quite measured up to. I wouldn't be standing here to talk to you right now without them."

Closing her eyes to compose herself, she crossed her hands in front of her and looked up with an open expression on her face, actively trying to let go of her anger with her mother. "I know that I let myself get hurt with humanity before mother. But I truly believe I've found someplace different. And I can't poison that by holding on to old pain."

"I can't do that with anything if I want to heal, Mother." She rubbed a finger nervously over one ear as she opened up, terrified that Jaeih would see the opening and go for blood, metaphorically. "And I really want to heal. I want to find out who I am... who I was... and who I could be. I can DO that here."

Maintaining her authoritarian posture, Jaeih did her level best to contain just a little pride in her daughter in the moment. And to Dox's surprise, she resisted the urge to press on her own distrust of humanity and Starfleet. "Then I can only hope... you will allow me to see who that woman becomes, Mnhei'sahe."

It was almost sweet in a passive/aggressive way, but Dox smiled anyway. It was more than she would have expected from her mother and she had no expectations that Jaeih would continue to try and push her own desires at least a little for her daughter to fully embrace being Romulan.

Changing the subject slightly herself, and the tone, Jaeih continued. "So... Tell me about these crewmates of yours that have made such a strong impression."

Knowing she wasn't authorized to give any information that would identify the Hera or its crew in discussions with her mother, Dox had to think about her wording for a moment. She thought, with a quizzical look on her face.

"I've... I've made a few friends. Good friends. The doctor and I have gotten very close. They are a bit younger than I am but impossibly smart. They... didn't just save my life literally. They sat with me half the time while I recovered. They made jokes and helped me take my mind off of the..." Dox paused, not wanting to go into the nightmares of Anansi's horrific Spider-form that woke her up screaming every night. "Well, off of the bad stuff."

"There's the engineer, and my department assistant, who are both so unique. Just... free and open. They make me feel welcome. They all do."

Then Dox smiled broadly as she thought of First Officer, Rita Paris. "There's one woman. She's a human officer that... had really been here for me in every capacity."

Not thinking of the double entendre inherent in that statement, Dox's eyes went wide as her mother interjected with a wry smile. "So, you LIKE this woman I take it?"

"What, no! Fvadt, mother." Dox tilted her head with a sarcastic pout as she crossed her arms. "To be honest, she's more... It's hard to say, really."

Then the word came to her. "Rinam, mother." Shd spoke the Romulan word for sister.

"High praise for a... human." Jaeih responded, trying to conceal that she was slightly annoyed by the thought

"She's... the most human human that ever humaned, mother." Dox replied with a smirk, knowing the word bothered her mother a little. "But I trust her with my life. With my soul, really."

"I hope you get the chance to meet them at some point." She could have gone on, but decided to spare her mother any further details as she seemed to regret asking the more Dox gushed.

She knew that her mother was well aware that her interests leaned towards women in areas of romance, and enjoyed baiting her on the subject as Dox had no romantic inclinations growing up and only a small handful of encounters that could best be described as disastrous as a young woman.


“When… and if… I ever meet ANYone, you will be among the first to know, Mother. But Ri…” Melanie stopped herself before saying her First Officer’s name, as regulations forbade her giving out information regarding her assignment, the ship or her crewmates on this channel in communications with her mother for security reasons. “She is a very good friend. She has been like family to me, Mother. Accepting of all that I am in ways I didn’t think was really possible. They all have, human or otherwise.”

“Very well, Mnhei’sahe. I will not press the issue any further, then.” The response was somewhat flat and perfunctory, but not unpleasant.

After a few more minutes, their time was reaching it's end and they prepared to log off until the next scheduled Holo talk. And for her part, the young pilot was making a serious effort to reconnect with those roots and as she concluded, she felt a bit of warmth well up in her as she decided to throw Jaeih a proverbial bone.

Speaking now in perfect Rihan, the Romulan language she had been raised in, Mnhei'sahe replied. "You will always be my Mother and as much a part of my life as you would choose to be."

Holding back a welling up of pride and joy at the statement, Jaeih redoubled her efforts to maintain her posture, but a warm smile forced it's way across her lips as she replied in Rihan.

"Then, until we speak again, Know that I love you Mnhei'sahe. Whoever you become." But with a slight smirk, Jaeih has one more observation to make that had been overlooked. “Also, congratulations on the obvious promotion on your collar. It is, I assume well deserved. Jolan’tru.”

Not allowing her daughter the chance to respond, Jaeih ended the transmission and her image vanished. The young pilot smirked as her mother had found yet another way to get the last word in, thought this time it didn’t bother her.

During the course of her long and varied Starfleet career, Commander Rita Paris had seen bravery, sacrifice and had reinforced to her the nobility of so many of her shipmates, many of whom had died in the line of duty for the sake of others, to insure success of the mission, to prevent a great cataclysm. So watching the Baroness von Alcott take a knife to the belly then be nearly disemboweled for her efforts was not that far outside her experience, and didn’t overly shock her.

But Paris was an officer and a lady, and raised and steeped as she was in old-school Starfleet values, she understood that duty and sacrifice, while part of the job, also had to be recognized. Thus she had come to the quarters of the piratical adjutant to Captain Telvan, a bodyguard of sorts who has sworn her fealty to Enalia Telven back when she was Enalia Artan, and she had rescued a genetically augmented super soldier from a breeding facility on a distant moon.

Traditionally a gift would be called for, but Rita owned very little on the Starship Hera, and what she could lay her hands on was all the Captain’s goods and property to which the Baroness had the same access. So a gift was off the table, but a visit to the convalescing hero of the Battle of Asmodeus was not only called for, it was mandated by the personal code of the withered branch of the Paris family.

Arriving at the VIP quarters in which the cheerful pirate resided, Rita tabbed the door chime and waited, imagining the silver-haired soldier grumbling on the other side.

Answering the door herself manually, Shwein grinned brightly at Rita. "Commander Paris! Please, come in." While normally dressed in finery, lately, the Baroness von Alcott had been wearing simpler clothing that was easy to get in and out of and today was no different. She was wearing a simple grey jumpsuit with a jacket draped over her shoulders for warmth. In one had was a glass of some sort of golden beverage. "You caught me at a good time. I was actually in my room rather than on my ship. What can I do for you?"

Greeting the surprisingly social pirate, Rita grinned back. “I came to check up on you. Given the nature and extent of your injuries, as mission commander I owe you at least a check-up and to extend the thanks of a grateful universe that will not live under the heel of a demon lord. Even if no one will ever know we were there, what we did or how your bravery saved the day. You keep a ship on board?”

"I do," Schwein headed back to a well worn comfy chair and motioned for Rita to join her for a drink of the bottle of sparkling apple juice that was sitting open on the coffee table. "Please, help yourself. I keep the Fluffernuttenfaust in thee... ah... Secret third shuttle bay. On deck 23. Do you not know about it?"

“Nope,” Rita admitted freely as she took the offered seat. “On a ship of secrets, I suspect the captain forgets what I know and what I don’t. So a lot of little details like a secret first, second or third shuttle bay tend to not come up until they’re relevant.” There was no acrimony nor accusation- Rita wasn’t the passive-aggressive type, and there were so many secrets on the Hera, she genuinely believed that the Captain just assumed Rita know what she knew and her first officer’s ignorance was not due to malice but simple oversight.

Being the type that asked a lot of questions paid off in her particular assignment.

“But more to the point, I came to check up on you. I read Doc Dael’s report on your injuries, and they were severe enough to be mortal if not for your hearty constitution, stubborn will to live and some very fancy medical work on the part of Sickbay. That was a hell of a thing you did, Baroness,” Paris added, watching the soldier for her reactions.

Looking down at the glass of apple juice she held, Schwein grew somber. "No, I was just doing what I thought best in the moment. I knew that I couldn't let it cut Sonak or Asa and between you and me, I had the only hope of surviving the midget stabbing me... So, I got in her way."

“What you did was damned heroic, and don’t downplay it. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but greater love hath no one that they lay down their lives for another. You were willing to be killed and you took that risk. I’ve seen a lot of things in my lifetime, and that was selfless and brave, Baroness. On behalf of the galaxy, I thank you for your bravery, courage and intestinal fortitude.” Paris couldn’t help but smile a bit at the last sentence, as her father had always used the phrase instead of ‘guts’, but in this case it was very fitting. “Like it or not, you’re a hero.”

"I just did my duty for the princess." Downing the rest of her juice, she grabbed the bottle and refilled her glass, offering Rita a glass as well. "Doc says to keep my pipes clean. I don't think they've been cleaner. As for that little trip we took to the black market auction... Please don't tell the Doctor, but I aggravated my injuries on that trip. It's a good thing I'm a field medic..."

Sighing, Paris rose and regarded the courageous corsair. “You can deflect all you like, von Alcott, but I know a hero when I see one. I won’t rat you out to the doc, but… you were one of the first friends I made on this boat. You said ‘fleeters tend not to care for you, but I was born in Starfleet and I’ve been in it in some form or another all my life. They don’t come more old-school Starfleet than me.”

“I like you, I respect you, and you’re my shipmate. I’d wrestle a mugatu for you, lady. So when you refuse to acknowledge your own heroism, it pisses me off. Because I know far lesser officers who have done far less and taken far more credit for it. I hate to see someone who can’t accept the nobility of their own actions.” Turning to leave, Paris called over her shoulder, “You’re one of the good ones, Baroness… no matter how hard you might work to deny it.”

Schwein sighed heavily. "I just don't like all the attention, is all. The pirate culture is to blow it out of proportion and make mountains out of molehills. One of the reasons I came on this ship was to get away from all that. At the end of the day though... I'm just tired and hurting. You're one of the only friends I really have, you know? You, the Princess, Magnus, now Melanie... Maybe a couple of the other Baronesses... Thank you. Thank you for making sure me nearly dying wasn't in vain. Thank you for making sure I made it back. Thank you for being here for me." There was something else Schwein wasn't saying, but she wasn't sure she had the strength to ever say it.

The Starfleet siren paused before the door, then spoke, not turning around but speaking to the side. "You're welcome, Baroness. This ain't a room full of drunk pirates, just you and me."

Turning, the lost navigator addressed the starfaring scalawag. "I was there, I saw what you did, I recognized it for what it was and somebody had to thank you on behalf of the rest of the galaxy. It's the right thing to do... a matter of honor, I guess you could say. I'll bet you have more friends than you know, privateer."

Stepping back into the room Rita Paris approached the starship Hera's resident supersoldier, with a wistful smile on her face. "No matter how far I go and how far I travel, I'll never forget you, Baroness Schwein von Alcott. You have the gentlest of souls with the strongest of convictions. Someday I will tell my children bedtime stories of you- I sincerely hope they get to know you."

"It's good for kids to know legendary heroes..."



Once the anachronistic adventurer had delicately hugged her friend and reassured herself that the platinum-tressed pirate would be all right, Paris went on her way to tend to the mighty starship. Alone in her quarters once again, The Baroness von Alcott was not alone at all.

"You have good friends," said the short, pale woman dressed head to toe in black, perched on Schwein's couch.

Schwein chuckled softly. "Yeah, and she's one of the best."

Grinning widely, the embodiment of Death chuckled as well. "You should still get some counseling, you know. PTSD is serious."

Finishing her sparkling apple juice, Schwein rolled her eyes. "Since no one else can see you, I probably should. Probably leftover trauma or something." Standing with a pained grunt, she slowly headed off into the bedroom.

"You know I'm real," Death replied, following her charge.

With that, Schwein flopped on the bed as gently as she could and pulled a blanket over her. "Go bother some other half dead hero..."

"I would if I could..."

"...exactly how long will these last, again?" the Wiry Wizard inquired, knocking on his synthetic knee with his synthetic knuckles.

With a grin at the irascible Lieutenant, Asa replied, "As long as you want them too. You thinking about getting a fancy synthetic augmentation like the baroness? Or are you wanting us to re-grow natural tissues?"

The EMH was more practical in his assessment as he looked over some data on a PaDD. "These synthetic flesh versions should last a good... I'd say thirty to forty years with proper maintenance. On this ship though? We'll likely be replacing them within two months for one reason or another."

"Aw, hell, folks. It's not like ah kin git the o-riginals back. What we got a'vail'bul? Commadoah Rastuh t'just avoid anythin' label'd 'Vecna'. Dunno what that means." He chuckled, and added, "...but seriously, if they're gonna need to be replaced that often, may as well pick sumpin' above average."

"I agree," Dael replied, "And a long lasting bio-synthetic would get you the longest usage with the most mileage. We just need to find you a model that is......damage resistant shall we say? Doctor, what are your thoughts?"

"Hmmm..." The EMH thought it over a moment before replying. "Honestly, I would just get approval to use the biomimetic gel and regrow new limbs entirely and graft them on. It would be a hard surgery and a longer recovery, but the longevity would be the same as the originals at least."

Sam looked contemplative. "Gotta say, Doc- docs... ah like th'idea of 'durable'. Maybe sumpthin' with a toolbox."

The EMH tucked the PaDD under his arm. "Well then, we could go with a biosynthetic organelle material which would last a few hundred years. Or we could go full cybernetic. Yeoman Dedjoy mentioned having some stuff in the pod that's pretty advanced that looks like the real thing and is based on basic positronics. You could hide a toolbox in there."

The Man of Many Moustached Disguises developed a wistful air. "Then it looks like I'm not quite done with The Vault, then..."

"Then I suppose we'll need to coordinate with Yeoman Dedjoy for access to the medical and cybernetics lab on E deck in the pod." Seeing the slightly confused look on Asa's face, the EMH explained further. "During our last minor refit when we got the new mission pod, it included an intel deck full of labs and vaults that, for lack of a better phrase, don't exist in Starfleet. Most were leftovers from a group called Section 31. The lab I'm referring to specializes in cybernetic augmentation and enhancement of the humanoid form. Dedjoy and I theorized that it was designed to experiment on and with Borg drones, but some of the tech is far older than our first encounter with them. Either way, there's a small assembly and replication facility contained within that is able to create cybernetic limbs at current Starfleet Medical standards of technology for limb replacement, with hidden compartments. For an agent such as the Lieutenant's prestige, it may be the... creme de la creme? Is that the right saying?"

"Ah reckon it's close enuff fuh guv'mint work, son," the master of spooky action at a distance replied, clapping the holodoc on the back. He looked at Asa, with a twinkle in his eye.

"Myx Asuh...d'y'all reckon ah'm fit 'nuff t'handle some boosted strength n'speed on 'em? Might come in...handy."

"It depends on how boosted. Your heart is in excellent condition, but too much of a good thing may change that. With proper nutritional supplements I see no reason we can't achieve a 25 to 30 percent scalable increase though. I would say we fit them to you at your base performance levels and gradually increase over a period of six months, combined with physical therapy to make sure your ability and balance matches your new abilities." Asa replied.

Clemens nodded, understanding the necessities of matching materials equally based on stress profiles. "Let's talk engineerin' turkey, docs- assumin' ah'm usin' one of th'limbs on it's own, not riskin' th'rest of me, what sort of punishment could it handle, and of what type? Not that ah'm plannin' t'stick 'em in thuh warp core, or anythin', unnerstand. But it'd be nice t'know if ah kin thumb'n forefinger a bolt out of a panel."

The EMH grinned wryly, looking between Asa and Clemens. "Ah... Yes... That shouldn't be too far of a stretch, from what I remember of them. Some of the hidden attachment options included a cutting laser, a holdout phaser, a short blade, and some sort of multitool."

"Lieutenant, you are going to be a walking, talking utility tool," Asa said with a wink.

The Man With the Golden Tongue chuckled, and murmured, "...Phil Coulson, eat yuh haht out." A bit more loudly, he added, "...ah wunduh if'n Dedjoy's got a Sonic Foahfinguh attachment..."

"For some reason that feels more like his thing," Asa replied, pointing at the EMH running his hands theough his sticky-uppy hair.

"I much prefer sonic tools rather than attachments, thank you," replied the British accented EMH.

"By thuh way, Doc," Clemens noted, emphasizing with a waggled finger at the Holographic Hippocrat, "Ah wuz in better shape than ah had any right tuh be, aftuh Trelane carved me up. Ah wuz fascinated by thuh way he had muh body seal itself off so ah didn't bleed out, an' how he just turned off th' pain."

He paused, and put a hand on the holographic man's shoulder. "As a result, ah saw how yuh handled yerself when you saw me. You clamped down on yer own feelin's, and kept mah spirits up."

The Chief smiled a smile that wasn't for show in any way, and continued, "That's why ah put you in fer a speshul commendation for conspicuous bravery and valor on thuh battlefield, son. Ah'm aware that some folks regard AIs as questionable sentients. That's bullshit. You 'n Asa are some of the most dedicated medicoes ah've evuh had th'honuh of witnessin', an ah've been in some hairy messes. Thank you both," he finished, beaming a proud look back and forth.


With a slight blush at the unexpected praise, Asa turned to face the EMH, "Well done indeed, Doctor. And praise well earned."

The EMH just wandered off staring at a PaDD. "Nothing more than what I'm programmed to do." He then muttered something about efficiency and proceeded to start sterilizing some random tools. "When you've coordinated the lab time and surgery with Yeoman Dedjoy, please let me know."

Clemens just shook his head, and murmured, "So ya say, suh. So ya say." No accounting for AIs and social graces. Louder, he called out, "Computuh, compile a list of dee-tails about thuh suhg-ree just mentioned, an' ree-lay 'em t'Yow-man Dedjo-ah, if'n yuh please."

After a minute and a few chirrups from the computer, Dedjoy's voice came over the comms. "I just got a list of nonsense form the computer saying it's from sickbay. Are we prepping someone for limb replacement surgery?"

"Affirmative, Petty Officer Dedjoy, Lieutenant Clemens is having limb replacements and would like a little bit of extra stealth capabilities added on. Do we have what we need to accommodate him?" Dael inquired.

"Yeah, everything makes sense except for the sonic middle finger. I can have the cybernetic surgery center on E deck prepped and ready in about an hour, Doctor." Dedjoy sounded a bit mystified on the item she mentioned, but she'd do her job to the best of her abilities. That was her purpose as the Captain's Yeoman, after all.

"Copy that, and thank you," Asa replied. "Well Lieutenant Clemens, you ready to be a cyborg?"

"In fuh a penny, Doctuh," quipped the Loquacious Lieutenant of Legerdemain. "Bettuh, stronguh, an' fastuh."

At that point the EMH started singing softly as he worked. "Work it harder, Make it better, Do it faster, Makes us stronger..."

Walking briskly down the corridors of the U.S.S. Hera, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox had a work PaDD in her hand and a lot on her mind. Beyond her responsibilities as the Chief Flight Control Officer of the mighty Nebula-class Starship, she had recently been named a Baroness of the Artan family.

Back when she had been growing up as a smuggler, she had had plenty of interactions with the intergalactic family of Pirates and Privateers over the years. Her mother sold them quite a bit of Romulan Ale, among other things. But now Dox knew that her Captain, Enalia Telvan, was the Princess and heir of that family. And that Dox would be playing a part in ensuring that Captain Telvan's upcoming Tribunal to try and wrest control of the family from her own Mother.

All of this was somewhat overwhelming for the Redheaded Romulan pilot and she had asked if her friend and fellow Baroness, Schwein Von Alcott, could help her understand what all of this really meant. Dox didn't want to be in the dark when it really mattered.

On her PaDD was a downloaded file of rules and information, but Dox hoped for some help wrapping her head around it all and hoped she wasn't just annoying Schwein as she pressed the chime outside her door.

Schwein was sitting in her spartan quarters seemingly alone as usual, a glass of something in her hand. "Come in," called the silver haired augmented human, looking up to see who it was. "Ah, Baroness Dox. Please, come in and make yourself at home. What brings you here today?"

With a slightly awkward half smile on her face, the anxious young pilot stepped in. "That, I guess. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you." She hemmed and hawed for a brief moment.

"Nonsense. You'd never bother me. Now come in, have a seat, and tell me what's on your mind." Schwein smiled as best she could.

Taking a seat across from Schwein, Dox couldn't help but feel she was still bothering her somehow, but chalked it up to her own self-destructive anxieties.

"It's the whole 'Baroness Dox' thing. I'm still kind of wrapping my head around the idea, especially since Captain Magnus called to talk to me and confirm it. I've got the paperwork and I've read the rules and..."

Stopping herself from rambling further, Dox summerized her feelings as best as is possible. "I guess I'm feeling a little... overwhelmed by it all, if that makes any sense."

"Ah yeah... One day you're a nervous potato just trying to get by in this galaxy and the next you're a central figure in pirate politics..." Taking a drink from her glass, Schwein seemed to reminisce for a few moments before continuing. "It is a lot to take in, but the rules aren't that hard to understand if you notice the pattern to them. As long as you're not Captain of the Fleet or the Royal family, that is..."

Stifling a slight chuckle at what felt like perhaps the most apt description of herself she had ever heard, Dox tried to focus on what was troubling her. "I guess maybe I'm just not seeing the pattern. I'm kind of used to Starfleet Protocol. And before that with my Mother, it was still a somewhat stringent military structure I was raised with."

Looking at her PaDD, Dox felt like a child out of her element. "I get that with this ship that Captain Magnus will be sending, I'll be serving under another Baroness and ultimately under Captain Magnus and Captain Telvan. I guess I get all the technical stuff, but it feels like there's got to be more in the margins."

"She put her faith in me with this. You both have, and even Captain Magnus is doing the same. I just... I'm afraid I'll say or don't he wrong thing and prove that faith wrong." She hung her head slightly as she spoke. "I'm sorry. I'm just..."

Trailing off, Dox found herself lost in her own self doubts.

Schwein had to chuckle softly, remembering her own indoctrination. "Ok, so there are two things you have to remember first and foremost. First is that as a Baroness fifth class you're a bottom ranked Baroness. On top of that, you have zero seniority. In other words, every other Baroness outranks you in every way so show respect at all times like you would a senior officer. Some demand more respect than others... But that's generally the rule. Any pirate not part of your crew, you need permission to order them around."

"Second off, everyone is there for freedom. Freedom for themselves and freedom of others. You do the same and be confident about it and no one will question you. For everything else, at the very end there's a chart for challenges if you want to challenge someone. It'll tell you if you can or not and how. As for what Baroness you've been assigned to, you're officially under Baroness second class Schwein von Alcott."

"As for the majority of that rulebook... Other than the parts pertaining to the royal family, it's nonsensical drunken gibberish that just governs how we duel, like we can't use swordfish because that would be silly. An arbiter has to be present because... Well, why wouldn't you want a witness to a duel? No pantaloons on your head while dueling with a mustachioed... Yeah lots of gibberish..."

The less than serious tone Schwein was using had it's likely desired effect of forcing Dox's nervous anxiety up and out with a deep laugh. After a second, Dox collected herself feeling a bit less stressed. Respectful protocol she could do and knowing she was directly to answer to Schwein instead of a total stranger released a good degree more stress.

With a smile, she followed up. "So, no swordfish dueling. I think I can..." Then she stopped in her tracks and let out a curse in her native Rihan. "Imirrhlhhse!! Dueling. I'm guessing I won't be able to answer every possible challenge with piloting skill. Hnave."

"No, certainly not. We'll have to teach you how to fight with melee weapons, plasma sabers, unarmed..." Schwein stared off for a few moments towards the couch before chuckling softly to herself. "Yeah, we'll have to teach you a lot about fighting while trying not to kill you in the process. I won't go easy on you though."

The idea of rigorous training was something that Dox understood from early childhood and was comfortable with as the idea actually put her at easy in a strange way. "I wouldn't expect it. I wouldn't be any use to you or the Captain otherwise. Besides, when I learned Llaekh-ae'rl, my teacher never went easy on me, and that was my own Mother." She smiled slightly recalling her training in the particularly vicious Romulan martial arts she still practiced daily before her attention shifted.

"Baroness... um... Schwein. I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry, but are you okay? I know you're still recovering and I didn't mean to put my stress on you. I can come back later if you'd prefer." Dox couldn't help notice her fellow Baroness' occasional distraction.

Initially, Dox had assumed she was simply annoying the silver haired warrior with her questions and anxiety. But as she had begun to relax more was instead picking up on intense anxiety from the normally cool pirate.

Schwein smiled over at Dox, once again slightly distracted. "Hmm? Oh, no, please stay. It's just that..." Sighing softly, she decided she'd have to come clean eventually and she trusted Dox with her life so who better to tell. "Since the incident... I'm not sure what you heard... But Asa and I met a woman that introduced herself as Death. Literally Death. Since I nearly died in that ceremony, she's been my constant companion that only I can see apparently. That probably makes me crazy, sitting here thinking I'm talking with Death all day." Schwein paused a moment before continuing. "Well, as soon as you can prove to someone you exist without killing them..."

Without hesitation, Dox's eyes moved over to the seemingly empty couch that had seemed to be where Schwein had kept looking. Looking back at her friend, her face was unusually stern for the generally nervous young Romulan pilot. While listening, she felt a moment of shock but the sincerity and legitimate concern she read on the generally unflappable Schwein told her all she needed to know.

"I may just be the Chief Fight Control Officer on the ship, but I read every section report and watch every noted security video. I watched Commander Paris scream in an agony I didn't know possible on the transporter pad beaming back on board. And I read Asa's reports of what happened on that station... with both of you. And with what Asa and the ships EMH reported when they operated on you."

Then she sat forward slightly towards her friend. "When I was... attacked her on the ship last month. When Anansi went into my head and did what he did and almost killed me, I vanished. I read about it in Commander Paris' reports. For approximately 30 minutes, the ship couldn't find me. I watched video of the corridors I was chased down and saw turbolift doors open and close when I knew It was me coming out, but the ship couldn't see me. No one could see me and I couldn't see anyone else until I got to the EMH. He could see me and he saw who was with you." She went into the painful details of her own attack, hoping it would help emphasis that she had no doubts about what Schwein was saying.

"You're not crazy. I know it. What's she saying?"

The golden eyed pirate shrugged. "She normally talks about other people's lives, tries to cheer me up... Today she's talking about you since you're here... ... She says she's sorry you had to go through that with Anansi and if it's any consolation, you were never on her list during that. Yeah, being Death she knows when people are going to die. She also knew that those elfin people were puppets rather than living people." A brief flash of annoyance crossed Schwein's face. "No she doesn't want to know. No one would."

Confused for about half a second, Dox's face went wide when it occurred to her what Schwein's statement most likely meant. "Uh... Yeah. If that means what I think it means, I absolutely don't want to know." She let out a slight, nervous chuckle at the macabre thought.

She responded to both Schwein and the room in general. "I've seen enough therapists in my life to know that delusional voices generally don't try to cheer people up, Schwein."

Then a thought occurred to the young Officer. She believed her friend, but knew that Schwein was still doubting her own sanity. But maybe, Dox thought, there was a way to prove that there really was someone there that Dox simply couldn't percieve. "So... she's talking about me?"

"What's she... what's she saying about me?" Then a slight chill went down Dox's spine as she turned away from her friend to ask another question to whatever else was in there with them. One that might just confirm for the both of them that what Schwein was experiencing was, in fact, real.

"What... what do you know about me... my own. Death aside... That Schwein couldn't." Dox was speaking now to the room. To the being she believed was there but was still afraid to believe was actually Death. But she pushed past that fear hoping to help her friend.

The Baroness shook her head and sighed, listening for a few moments before repeating what she'd heard. "She says that you're not ok with how you left things with your human grandparents, Shawn and Juliet Dox, back on Earth and you think it's too late to make it up to them because they passed on a few years ago. She says there's still time to do right by them if you just know where to look. Also, they've always been proud of you and they're very happy you've found your way and have good friends you can rely on."

The conflicted half-Romulan young woman's eyes went wide and welled up with tears as she felt her stomach drop. She had believed in her friend, but now she believed for herself as the quoted words hit deep.

But the moment wasn't about her, so Dox took a deep breath to center herself and closed her eyes for a second to clam herself back down for Schwein. "Okay..." She leaned forward and put her hands on Schwein's. "Schwein. You're NOT crazy and im not going anywhere. So, now what do we do? Has she said why she's here? Why is she with you?"

Then Dox had a thought and spoke to the room. "Uh... Sorry. I guess I'm asking you all that really, too."

"When she was released from the worldship and I was dying... Things happened in that ceremony and she says now we're bonded and our fates are intertwined." Schwein shrugged and finished off her drink, setting her glass aside and returning her now free hand to Dox's. "Encouragement from beyond the grave aside... She still recommends I get counseling for the situation. I'm beginning to agree. ... Yes you're right about a lot of things. Annoyingly so..."

A slight smile crept on Dox's face. Whatever else Death was, she seemed to be trying to help too. "Intertwined isn't always a bad thing. When I came on this ship I pretty much hated everything and myself. Now I have the first real friends I've ever had and TWO families. We're intwined now too." Dox held up her PaDD with the Artan family files on them. "I've got paperwork and everything."

"That's true," Schwein said, attempting a smile

"And she is right. Im a mess, and messes can always smell our own. But I'm getting help for it. Rita's helped me. Sonak's helped me. YOU'VE helped me. And Asa might just be as great of a Councilor as they are a Doctor. And if all else fails, you have the ear of the Princess in the big chair." Dox tried to keep her tone light and reassuring. She knew all about falling into that abyss of depression and wanted to keep her friend out of it as best as she could.

"You're here for us, we're here for you. That's how it works." Then Dox looked up to the room in general. "Right?"

Schwein hung her head in defeat. "Ok, the big strong pirate lady relents. You took away my German accent, talked me out of wearing my eye patch... Now I'm going to start talking about my feelings... What's next? Baking cookies? ... I've never cooked a thing in my life and you know it. ... No, booze doesn't count..."

Squeezing Dox's hands slightly, Schwein sighed softly again. "Sorry Mnhei'sahe. It's been rough."

Bringing her tone to aore serious one, Dox squeezed back. "I can understand, no need to apologize. It's going to keep being rough. It might not ever not be rough. But... with time and help... It gets easier to navigate. It really does."

Then Dox brought her tone back up, hoping to be reassuring. "So, you teach me how to kick ass, I'll teach you how to feel shit, and Asa can help you process those feelings. We'll leave the cookies to the replicators. We're both better with booze, anyway. Sound like a plan?"

That's when Schwein finally grinned like her old self. "Yes we are. On that note, we need to have a drinking contest as a sort of official welcome to the family party. You'll never have a better chance of beating me than now, you know."

"That is very true, and...wait, you took away her accent? I'm almost jealous. It took me three years to practice mine away." Dox smirked to the room, listening to herself speak. "Well, awayISH."

Smiling in spite of the unusualness of the situation, Dox nodded to Schwein. "Drinking contest, hangover, Asa?"

"More specifically, she gave me her accent... Yes, it's a very nice accent." Standing with a grunt of pain, Schwein headed over to the one piece of customization in the room - a stack of smaller shipping crates along the wall. Cracking one of the topmost ones open, she reached in and grabbed out three bottles of assorted brands of Kali-fal and brought them back to the table. She then grabbed three glasses off of the dining table and added them to the coffee table before sitting back down.

"Shall we get started?"

Looking down at the three glasses, Dox was reminded that her inability to see Schwein's new companion didn't mean she wasn't there. A concept that was still new to the young Romulan officer, still she was curious.

"Okay. I will admit to being completely ignorant to how this works, but I'm guessing I'm going to lose doubly hard." The mood was lifting to be more relaxed, though Dox was still keeping an eye on Schwein's behavior and hoping she was feeling at least a little better in the moment.

Schwein chuckled softly as she cracked open the first bottle and poured three glasses. Lifting her own glass, she grinned. "One way to find out, right?" Downing the ale in one go, by the time she set down her glass, Death's glass was empty as well.

With her glass in her hand, Dox's eyebrow arced up at the empty glass and smiled. 'Okay, Death likes to drink.' Dox though to herself as she downed the first glass with ease, as she was no stranger to Kali-Fal herself. She was still a little scared at the prospect of sitting next to the literal embodiment of Death, but everything indicated there wasn't any reason to be. Even Asa vouched for her in the lunch briefing, and there was no better judge Dox knew in the universe of someone's goodness than Asa Dael, so she got over herself as best as she could.

Then she pointed with her now empty glass in hand towards where she presumed Death must be based on the placement of her glass and joked. "But if I start seeing you because of this, I'm conceding the contest."

The Baroness scoffed as she refilled all three glasses. "If you had a tricorder, you could probably see her. Also, she says that you're fine as she has no intentions of touching you and you have a very long life to live yet. ... No she doesn't need to know how long." Rolling her eyes, Schwein savored the smell of the ale as she asked a question on behalf of Death. "She wants to know if you'd like to know the name of your future great grandkids. All eight of them. See what I have to put up with?" With that, Schwein downed the contents of her glass.

The problem solver in Dox got stuck for just a moment on Schwein's comment about the tricorder and turned towards where she still presumed Death to be. "If that's the case, this ship has holo-emitters all over, including in crew quarters. It shouldn't be much to come up with a program to tie them to the ships sensors and create a projection for you if you like."

"That said, nope. No future knowledge to me. I paid attention in that class at the academy, thank you very much." Dox smiled as she answered. "However, I would like to know if you have a name beyond just 'Death'?"

Dox smiled, genuinely curious now.

Listening for a moment and nodding, a mischievous look came over Schwein's face as she turned back to Dox. "You asked for her name. She says that if she declares herself before you, you'll probably be able to see her pretty clearly and depending on how you perceive dying... It might not be pleasant. Still up for it?"

Taking the briefest of moments to think, Dox looked back at Schwein with a reserved and calm look. She was a little scared still, but she didn't want her fellow Baroness to feel alone in what she had been dealing with, and she was more afraid of living with herself if she succumbed to that fear instead of standing by Schwein now.

"Most of my life, I've been more afraid of living than I have been of dying. And I won't lie to you, I am scared of what I'll see because... of what that would say about me inside." Dox held her empty glass down in front of Schwein. "But I would like to know who I'm talking to."

"You heard the woman..." Schwein said, looking expectantly to the open area on the couch.

The room seemed to darken a bit and the air suddenly felt heavier as a voice cut through it. "Azrael Abbadon Thanatos, Angel of Light and Dark, Rider of the Pale Horse, Ferry Master of the River Styx." As she spoke, she faded into view. Covered head to toe in long black clothing, pale as could be.

The hairs on the back of Dox's neck stood on edge for the slightest of moments as she looked at the woman who had materialized before her. Her features were that of a Romulan woman, older but with striking features that Dox couldn't help but find beautiful. There was a familiarity to the woman as Dox felt as if she had seen the face somewhere before but couldn't place it. But she wasn't afraid.

Still, her voice felt locked in her throat with no small degree of awe at the concept of who and what she was meeting. "So... what does it say about me that I think you're quite... beautiful?" Her voice was cracked and sheepish.

"It says we have quite the relationship," Death said, picking up her glass and tossing it back with a knowing grin. "Beyond that, I think I'll keep my own counsel."

Taking a drink of her freshly refilled glass, Dox nodded slightly. "That's more than fair. Thank you." She knew better than to press the question any further.

Schwein chuckled softly. "While I'd love to know how you see her..."

"Everyone sees me differently based on their views and relationship with dying," explained the pale one.

"I guess my relationship must be... comfortable then." Dox said softly and she looked over towards Death. "Would you object if I answered her? I don't want to be rude."

"Please, feel free. I consider it to be healthy." Grinning, Death looked forward to hearing it as well.

Taking another drink, Dox looked at Death then back to Schwein as she spoke. "What I see is a Romulan woman. Long black hair and pale skin. Older but beautiful in a serene way." Dox found she couldn't quite help but smile as she described her.

Pouring another round, Schwein grinned at the description. "That sounds kind of nice. For me she's about my age, a friend I've known my whole life, and just... Kind of average looking. Long black haired human though."

"Your holographic Doctor saw me earlier... I wonder what he saw..." Death shrugged it off right before tossing back her next drink.

Moving to keep up with the embodiment of Death and the augmented super-pirate, the young pilot hoped her freshly renewed Romulan physiology would keep her in the game as she threw back another glass. "That, is a very metaphysical question, uh... That was a lot of names. Is there one in particular you prefer?"

The Kali-Fal was starting to kick in a little as Dox felt herself relaxing more and talking more comfortably.

As Schwein poured the next trio of glasses, Death considered the question. "Well, I've always enjoyed horses, so Rider of the Pale Horse, probably."

"You know, I've never seen a real horse." Schwein tossed back her drink and waited for the other two to toss back theirs as she opened the next bottle.

Doing her level best to keep up, Dox was glad for her restored metabolism as she was only feeling a little tipsy. "Rider of the Pale Horse it is, then." Then she looked at her presented her freshly empty glass to Schwein.

"There was a stable at the Academy, but it wasn't a requirement so I never went there." Dox frowned slightly at the memory of a lost opportunity but was just tipsy enough to not linger on it.

"So, how are your injuries healing?" Dox asked, though she caught Schwein's grunt earlier.

The gold eye'd pirate grunted as she refilled their glasses again. "They're technically healed... But the leftovers won't be recovered for another few weeks at least. Especially aggravating them on our little adventure with the Princess. It was a good reminder that I'm mortal and not some Norse Valkyrie of legend..."

"I can confirm that..." Death replied with a chuckle just before downing more Romulan ale. "You're definitely mortal."

It was definitely the Kali-Fal kicking in, but Dox snorted at the comment from the decidedly less-than-grim reaper in a way a sober Dox certainly would not have. "Sorry. That's not funny." She said it but she was still chucking slightly. "Sorry. You're definitely going to win here. Which is not to say I'm not enjoying the inevitable defeat, nor that I am out of the game."

Dox presented her empty glass for more. She was feeling the ale for sure, but was still clear headed. She still had a million questions about just what had happened to link the two women she was drinking with. She was concerned over how deep that link might go with Schwein's accent being overwriten by Death's own. And she wanted to know if anything could be done to help further.

But in the moment, Schwein was smiling and Dox just wanted to keep her friend from spiraling back into depression again, if only for the night.

Tags

Yeoman Dedjoy was the first to arrive at the runabout Thor, suited up in a freshly minted MACO EVA combat suit. She had gotten here early so she could check the inventory of the ship and make sure all the weapons and armaments loadouts were accounted for personally herself and check through every listing one last time before the mission. As for her weapons loadout, she had an array of specialty tools on her mag-belt as well as one of the customized TR-116C2 rifles on her back, as well as a collapsed plasma saber built into each gauntlet. It was one of the nifty things she'd found in the vaults recently that she hoped she wouldn't have to try out herself.

As for the paint job on Dedjoy's armor, she had gotten authorization from the Captain to go with a simple red tracer line at the upper edges of the chestplate and to go with the same dark shadowed camo pattern that the Captain had on her own armor. It was a bit more sinister looking, but it might help her blend in better with her surroundings and if that helped her survive, then so be it.

Arriving early was the habit of Commander Rita Paris, particularly when she was the mission commander. The assignment was simple- infiltrate the Section 31 base with an away team, analyze the situation, rescue any survivors, locate the command center, secure whatever data is recoverable, then destroy the station. Some preflight checks on the heavy-duty little warship Thor, which seemed to be her go-to for away missions these days, then brief the team.

While she herself was sketchy on details, the briefing was going to be brief, but she was wasn’t taking chances. Atmosphere may have been breached or toxic- she had already put in for full decontamination protocls when the landing party returned to the Hera. Which meant that she was arriving on the flight deck clad in the gold and black armor that was still anachronistic for her to wear- after all, as command in the modern day she should be in crimson, not gold. But Rita had no desire to change her armor loadout until ordered to do so, and the antique delta on her chest bespoke of an era long since past.

On this mission, the bright gold would enable her crew to find her and rally to her. A visible commander inspired confidence, so while some might opt for the stealth plating option- which was still activatable on her armor- the golden girl of the Hera chose to stand out and be seen, because her crew needed that reassurance.

Walking around the sturdy vessel, Paris was surprised to encounter the stealth-armored Yeoman Dedjoy already arrived. Nodding to her, Paris continued her preflight checks. Given that she had yet to seal her helmet and was walking around with it retracted, Paris smiled at the large-eyed scientist. Time to test her resolve just a touch.

“This is liable to be very dangerous, Yeoman, and I want you to understand that before we shove off. We’ll protect you to the utmost of our ability, but there is still a high likelihood of peril, possibly extreme. Before anyone else arrives, I want you to be positive that you are willing to do this? It’s not an order for you to go, and I am not going to be anything but supportive if you want to stay or go. I have confidence that you are competent and capable and checked out on the gear, but before anyone else arrives, this is your chance. You can advise us through our suit scanners if you would prefer to stay home.”

Looking up from her inventory, Dedjoy smiled politely at the gold armored commander. "Commander, to be honest I'm probably the most scared person on this mission. I know the tech we're bound to encounter on that facility better than anyone else in the galaxy though, so... Yeah. I consider myself mission critical. Also, if I don't do this... I don't think my twin sister would forgive me. She was killed on a safer away mission than this, after all. Have to face those fears some day..."

“All right, Miss Dedjoy. Just remember- you are here as a technical expert. If there is trouble, we’re the ones paid to take the risks, not you. So I expect you to be sticking close to Doc Dael, and I want you to remember- I’ve done a lot of this crazy dangerous stuff, and running has saved my life more times than a phaser. Understood?” Paris laid an armored hand on the slight young woman’s shoulderpad, hoping to be reassuring.

"Understood Commander," replied Ila with a hopefully confident smile, which was rare for the woman. The last time she smiled was... Well... She couldn't remember.

Next to arrive was Lieutenant JG Doctor Asa Dael. As in previous encounters, Doctor Dael had elected to have their armor painted white with the red crosses on the shoulders, back, and front to signify they were a medic. They had a medical bag slung crossbody over their left shoulder, and were packed to the gills with sample collection containers, emergency medicines, stim shots, pain relievers, blood replacement hypos filled with nanobots that would act as emergency blood supply in a pinch, and an emergency sterilization phaser. Another small section of the bag held emergency rations and a canteen with enough water for two days for two people.

The armor’s belt carried their medical tricorder, a six foot section of rope, a standard phaser, and a PaDD. Built inside the armor was also a collection of 18 throwing knives of various sizes tipped in a sedative, four grenades, and 10 zip ties that could be used to restrain a captured combatant. They were in fact, strapped.

The doctor did not want a fight, and certainly did not want to see anyone hurt, but they had been in the thick of it more than once now, and knew that good planning could be the key to survival. As Asa approached Ila they smiled in greeting, happy to see her waiting.

“So, ready to go solve a mystery?” Asa inquired, eyebrows waggling playfully.

"Another day at the zoo, Lieutenant," Dedjoy replied mock cheerfully.

Alex stood in front of his four security personnel uniforms Red and Black with security gold accented armour. As they went down the check list together Alex called off the last thing he wanted them to check. "Ok, Heads up display on your tectical goggles shows you the status of all your gear. As long as you remember to breath and let your rifle recycle you will be fine. I suggest single fire because there is no recycle or power build up time. I think we are ready boys and girls. Let's get to out debarkation point." And they all filed out of security behind Sexton on route to the main shuttle bay to group up, with the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, back in the Shuttlebay, the main hatch of the Thor opened somewhat unexpectedly as Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox walked out with a PaDD in her hand. The young pilot and Chief Flight Control Officer of the Hera was clad in the standard, non-customized crimson and black armor and had a slightly stern look on her face as she went over the data on her PaDD.

"Wanted to get here early to run additional diagnistics. Pre-flight maintenance checks are complete," The stout redheaded Romulan had not yet gone on any away missions and was intent on being as prepared as possible.

"The Thor is in the green." Lieutenant Dox declared before smiling and nodding towards Yeoman Dedjoy and Doctor Dael.

“Looks like I’ll need to arrive 2 hours early if I want to beat the crowd,” Paris muttered to herself, mildly irritated that half the away team had beaten her to the transport when she showed up early. “Well done Miss Dox, very thorough. But then, that’s what I’ve come to expect from you.” The Commander offered a crooked smirk that looked like an imitation of the Captain’s piratical smile. “Want to rock paper scissors for who flies and who mans the weapons?”

The only partly human pilot was woefully inadequate when it came to Terran pop culture references and the like, but smiled as she actually knew 'rock, paper, scissors'.

"Both stations are prepped and ready, so if you'd like to take the helm for this, I'm fine taking weapons." Dox knew Rita Paris was a pilot at heart as well and didn't want to deny her the rare opportunity to fly if she wanted to, but still lifted her hand up in a loose fist shaking it back and forth a little.

"However, I am willing to accept that challenge." The generally anxious pilot returned Rita's smile.

While she’d been willing to yield the pilot’s seat- after all, while Lieutenant Dox might not say as much, Paris knew the Romulan helmsman was a better pilot- but having posed the challenge and seeing the young officer rise to the challenge warmed her heart. Holding out her fist, the big blonde eyed the little redhead with the ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

“One, two...” and Paris extended her hand out flat- she had thrown paper.

At the same moment, Dox had brought her hand down, keeping it in a fist, throwing rock. "Hnave!" She cursed in Rihan, with a broad smile on her face and a clearly playful tone, perfectly fine with her loss.

Looking back at Paris with a smile, Dox replied. "The helm is your, Commander..." Then she squinted slightly, still with a half smile in place. "This time."

“It’s yours on the return trip, Lieutenant,” the cheerful commander declared. “We’ll take turns. Seems like the fair option. All right, we’re here, Doc’s here, I think our Security detachment should be here soon. I think we’re doing this one without an engineer, which means we’ll have to improvise a bit."

"Before we leave," Doctor Dael said at a volume intended to be heard, "I'd like to give everyone a broad spectrum dose of anti-virals and antibiotics. I normally wouldn't, as that's how super bugs happen over time, but considering where we are going, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

That said, the doctor handed a small green pill to each member of the away team, and led the way by popping one themself.

Following suit, Dox swallowed her pill as well. "Thank you, Doctor."

Alex gave the nod to his team. They took their pills. "Ok let's get on board guys. Soon we may be in the shit. Remember tight formations and quick head shots if you have to shoot, and we ain't taking no prisoners cause nothing an agent from Section 31 can tell us is going to be useful. And we don't need to bring no danger back on the ship. So explore as we go, gather Intel and data, get the team in and then out again. Stay alive, that's an order." And Alex turned and headed into the shuttle. He yelled over his shoulder. "Helmets on, get Comms check." As he led the team to their seats.

"In counterpoint, Lieutenant," Paris spoke up, not raising her voice because she wasn't fond of yelling but stressing the rank as she hoped the security officers understood chain of command. "Your orders are to protect the landing craft as well as the away team. We will analyze the situation, rescue any survivors if possible, locate the command center, secure whatever data is recoverable, then more than likely destroy the station."

"If there is combat, we'll deal with it in a coordinated effort, because this isn't a holodeck free-for-all, and if anyone gets shot by friendly fire I assure you, there WILL be hell to pay. We've got a mystery to solve- this isn't a bug hunt nor a shooting gallery. As the Lieutenant said, tight formations, protect the non-coms, and remember- we're Starfleet. We don't shoot first and ask questions later."

Internally Rita very much hoped she wasn't going to have to eat those words later.

"Now load up and strap in, folks. Time to go make some stories we'll tell our kids someday," Paris wisecracked to break the mood.

Alex listened as Security officers do. Then he looked at his team with that look that said. Yeah right. You know the one. Each member of the team was on the same sheet of music. They were determined to make it back at all costs. But they were Starfleet, which accounted for a lot. “Ok team let’s get ur done!” Replied Sexton.

"The works of Larry the Cable Guy survived to the 25th century," Paris observed as she fired up the engines. "Some days just make it hard to believe in humanity. Hera flight control, this is landing party one in the runabout Thor, requesting clearance to depart the flight deck, pad 5, copy?"

=^= You are cleared for takeoff, Thor. Captain says 'go make an impression' =^=

"Don't think that's gonna be a problem..."

Approaching the asteroid base, unsurprisingly, meant piloting through an asteroid field. Which wasn't that much trouble if you took your time and didn't nudge too many meteors out of the way with the deflector, sending them off on gentle trajectories that could wreak havoc when they were coming back this way. As they were in no hurry and she wanted plenty of external scans before they went in, Paris took her time, and flew like a grandma.

"What can you tell me about this chunk of dead rock with power readings Yeoman Dedjoy?" Paris asked over her shoulder.

"I can tell you that my ID codes are working. Otherwise, that weapons platform would be firing at us right now." Ila pointed out one of the viewports at a rather massive phaser satellite that they were currently passing. "As for the station itself, Lucky had a listing of almost three hundred possible research projects that could have been performed or stored there ranging from genetic manipulation, cybernetics, reanimation... Ah... Suffice it to say it's a long and dangerous list, Commander. Thankfully, the base design is simple. There's a shuttle bay with primary housing, a central shaft leading to all the research decks, and at either end is the power core at the bottom and the command center at the top. For the extra hazardous, there are isolation blisters on the surface, but sensors show that a few have been breached. As for that shuttle bay door... Got it. It's opening now, Commander."

"Atmospheric conditions and lifeform readings, Miss Dedjoy?" the first officer asked as she maneuvered carefully toward the shuttle bay.

Ila pulled up those scans next. "I can't get detailed scans of the atmosphere from here, but I do know that it's toxic. As for life forms... It's a bit of a jumbled mess. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It almost reminds me of readings we took from a mission years ago... We had to take out a Romulan research station using corpses, Kobali viruses, and Borg tech. It wasn't pretty..."

With a shudder, Asa addressed the group, "Don't touch anything with your skin, please. I have spare gloves in case anyone needs them if you take your armor off."

Turning from the weapons console, Lieutenant Dox chimed in on the subject. "Well, these are full environmental suits. Ideally, we should keep them sealed to reduce any possible contagion risks, I would think. We came across some of those Tal'Shiar research stations when I was younger and calling them hot zones would be an understatement."

Alex listened to the report. Breaches from the blister compartments interested him most. If it was necessary to be contained in that manner, what the hell could’ve been in there. And if it escaped was it still lurking around? “Security team listen up. Don’t take anything for granted or any stupid chances. Watch your six and stay frosty. Remember we wear red shirts. There is a stigma attached. “ and he gave hand and arm signals to prep for egress.

"Funny, I thought Security hadn't worn red shirts since my day. But hey, what do I know," the Commander quipped from the pilot's seat as she eased the heavily armored runabout into the shuttle bay. Inside were the charred and decimated platforms of three runabout class vessels, identifiable only by the size of the undercarriages that had not burned or exploded. "Looks like something blew up all of their escape vehicles. Or they did it themselves to prevent whatever got turned loose here from escaping."

"That might be a good thing," Dox added, largely to combat her steadily rising nerves. "It indicates at least a possibility that whatever was or still is here hasn't escaped."

Turning on the forward lights, Paris spun the Thor about to shine the potent beams about to scan the hangar bay for any signs of movement or clues as to what had transpired here. Char marks and phaser and disruptor burns marred the walls of the hangar, along with a few corpses floating serenely in the inky darkness... corpses who did not look as though they had died from depressurization. Chunks were missing from more than one of them, the perfect spheres of their bodily fluids having been ejected long ago, now filling the bay with perfect brown globules that hung in space like glittering jewels of tragedy.

"Looks like we missed quite a battle here where the escape vehicles were to be found," Paris observed as the Thor settled down on the deck with the barest of gentle thumps. "Palmiotti, Bunche, you two are on guard duty with the runabout. I don't want to be running from a reactor overload to find out our ride home is a smoking ruin, and I had damn well better not get back to the Hera to discover some extradimensional xenomorph's egg sac attached to the belly of our ride. Understood?"

While waiting for direct orders, Doctor Dael set about scanning the corpses floating. Brow furrowed, they said to the group, "Not all these corpses died by phaser fire. Some were already dead before they got blasted to bits."

Suddenly, one of the floating bodies thumped lightly into the window directly over Dox, causing the young officer to flinch for a moment. She leaned forward to get a better look at the massive injuries. "Uh, Doc... I don't think all of these were blasted to bits. Those look almost like... teeth marks."

“Ok so FYI the red shirt comment was for my boys. It’s a stigma that no matter what colour we really wear, security is still considered red shirts amongst ourselves. Secondly, I’m not so sure it’s a good thing that whatever they were trying to keep in stayed here. Looks to me like they fought one hell of a battle, which means we’re underdressed for this dance. Let’s just hope all the boogeymen have long since expired. Watch the friendly fire and pay attention to detail. I got that old funny feeling in my bones now!” Said Alex

Without taking her eyes off of the windows, Dox replied flatly to the Security officer. "Sorry, Lieutenant Sexton. But I didn't mean good for us. I was thinking more good for everyone else in this system and beyond if whatever happened here has hopefully stayed here. If it's still here, we can hopefully contain it or keep it from spreading if it's viral."

"Sounds like somebody missed the part of the briefing where we're to destroy this complex, so any abominations of science that were created won't be getting away from here," Paris mentioned dryly as she powered down the engines but charged the weapons. Turning to face the rest of the landing party, Paris addressed the security investigator. "While I appreciate your colorful euphemisms designed to undermine confidence, let's keep it to the task at hand, Lieutenant Sexton. We are neither underdressed nor unprepared."

"I suspect, given the nature of this mission, the boogeyman or men are still inside, and we're here to take care of that with a rather final solution," Paris addressed the landing party, then refocused on Sexton. "So as they used to say back in my day, drop a pair. If you have misgivings, you are welcome to stay with the Thor and we'll take Mr. Palmiotti instead. Keep an eye to search and rescue, but that beacon was activated three weeks ago. I doubt we'll find any survivors, but stranger things have happened. Now, once again, we're to analyze the situation, rescue any survivors if possible, locate the command center, secure whatever data is recoverable, then more than likely destroy the station. Questions?" Paris looked around the interior of the runabout to see if anyone wasn't on the same page.

"Aye." Dox nodded in acknowledgment,

“Yeah, and that’s what I’m afraid of. Viruses are so unpredictable. Then there’s the whatever or whoever they had the firefight with. I guess we will just have to wait and see.” Replied Sexton

Distracted a bit by the medical mystery floating by, Asa looked up after hearing Paris speak and replied, "Aye Commander. Based on what we know of this base, medical based warfare is likely. I think Lieutenant Dox is correct....these are teeth Mark's, and not all humanoid teeth..."

“See what I mean? Now we got bodies floating around with teeth marks that don’t even look humanoid and we’re not supposed to share a little humour on the occasion. Come on XO, lighten up a little bit.” Said Sexton realizing it was a mistake the moment he said it. Paris had not warmed to him from the start. Now he gave her reason to ride him even harder.

"If I could interrupt please?" Ila called out over the suit comms, having already sealed hers as soon as they got close enough to enter the hangar. "These readings are not lining up. The exterior damage is from three, maybe four weeks ago. The distress beacon lines up with then. These remains? The dating on them reads as from over twenty years ago. This station's containment failed back during the Dominion War." Letting that sink in for a moment, Yeoman Dedjoy leaned in a bit closer to Rita. "Commander, whomever or whatever sent that distress call..."

"Is apparently native to a vacuum? Won't this be a fantastic scientific discovery," Commander Paris observed dryly while rolling her eyes. "Sealed systems people, assume we're exposing ourselves to whatever went wrong here, and don't get spooked. Exercise scientific detachment and combat careful movement, sweep as we go, comms open."

Rechecking the seals on their gear, Asa indicated an affirmative response and stood ready to proceed. They felt understandable caution of what the group would find and what would be required to achieve their goals, but the doctor was almost infectiously curious. If there was hidden knowledge to be found, Doctor Asa Dael had resolved to find it.

Locking the seals on her armor in place, Dox did a quick check of all the internal systems and audio. "EVA seals are locked and all systems are green." She announced, in her level best calm voice. But inside, the young Romulan pilot was terrified. She had faced a number of challenges in her brief few months on the Hera, but looking out the window at the sea of floating corpses made her wish she was facing off with an angry Spider-God again.

The crimson clad Lieutenant took a deep breath and recentered herself. She was scared, but she wasn't going to allow that to stop her from doing her job. She had her academy training to focus on and her friends at her sides. 'you can do this, Mnhei'sahe.' she thought to herself.

Dedjoy took a few deep breaths, her already large, doll-like eyes even wider. "As soon as the area is secure, I'll tap into the station's systems and check the status of everything. See if I can get gravity running at least."

"That would be most appreciated, Yeoman. All right gentlemen, once we blow the hatch this is your show until the hangar is secure. Hostile territory, eyes open, mind on the mission. Everybody comes home today," Paris nodded to Sexton as she tabbed the cabin depressurization. "Blowing the hatch in 3... 2... Security, you're on."

As the security team of Sexton, Smith, Jones, Johnson and Reynolds stacked at the hatch, the first real rush of nerves hit them, and just as quickly was gone. This was business and they had all been here before. "Swoosh" went the hatch and the eeriest of feeling came over them as a group. The team instinctively engaged the gravity boots and quickly stuck to the deck plating not five feet clear of the shuttle.

Floating in the atmosphere or lack thereof, just in front of them was one of those things, for lack of a better word. One moment it was motionless and the next it was flailing to grab the nearest thing it could. It's teeth looked like something resembling that of a great white shark, and they were blood stained.

The fifth man out was Reynolds. And she was in no mood to deal with the Unknown. One shot was heard, and one kill was made. "Good work Reynolds. Now everybody get your back to the shuttle and get ready to move on me." Ordered Sexton as he reached for the hatch closure mechanism. "Until we clear this bay, I think we should keep the hatch secure." And he hit the switch and the hatch started closing. Once the hatch was closed and the rest of the team secure, the crew went back to work.

"Folks this is a target rich environment sanitise the area. Fire at will." Ordered Sexton and the team began firing at random. The heads of the bodies began to explode one after the other. A minute later all movement stopped. Sexton surveyed the area. They had all stopped moving and for the most part were dead for real this time. All in all about fifteen had been reduced to floating waste material. "Whatever these things are, I'd say don't let one bite you." As they moved away from the shuttle, one of those things seem to launch itself at them from nowhere. Jones engaged it and brains went everywhere. "Good shooting Jones, now lets finish clearing this shuttle bay." Ordered Sexton not easily believing what they had so far seen and encountered.

They moved in unison to the entrance to the shuttle bay, looked back toward the shuttle and saw two more that must have been floating out of sight. This time, Sexton took one and Smith took the other. "Splash two more, zombie sharks!" Yelled Smith

+comm+"Sexton to Paris, you can join us whenever you are ready, just watch out for the floating debris. It's hard to tell which ones are capable and which ones we put to sleep forever. And whatever you do, don't turn on the gravity until we are sure of what we are up against. I think no gravity might be why who ever lived the longest did in fact live at all." Said Sexton

As they opened the shuttle bay doors, the unexpected happened, all hell broke loose. Two of the team had to literally duck and role to avoid being eaten alive. Alex released his gravity boots and pushed upwards, giving him a better angle on the zombie closet to him. Kicking it in the face and sending it back into the other three that were in front of them. Narrowly missing its clawed hands ripping at his suit. Then he fired and hit the beast somewhere in its head. The rest of the team was busy as well. And Jones was in trouble one had gotten behind him and if somebody didn't do something quick, thought Alex. But it was too late. The beast had grabbed ahold and the moment it knew it had Jones, the thing went into a berserker rage. Ripping at Jones helmet and biting down hard on his outstretched arm. Jones yelled out. It was the last noise he made, as the thing ripped his throat out.

In the back of Sextons mind, he could see the monitor on the shuttle go flat line on Jones vitals. Sexton angled himself toward the wall. Re-engaged his gravity boots and started shooting. He was not prepared to loose anyone else on his team. Reynolds killed one more whilst Smith looked on at Jones in disbelief. Johnson had managed to get his back to the wall and was shooting anything that came across the threshold of the shuttle bay doors. Before long, they had killed another five zombie sharks, as they were now affectionately referred to! And we're ready to kill more. Sexton looked back to see if Paris and the others were with them.

"None of these suits have directed thrusters, so magnetic boots, people." Paris ordered. In theory everyone knew to activate them, but command meant setting expectations and watching out for those for whom this might be their first zero-g battlefield situation.

"Lieutenant Dox, you're on point- cross the bay, nothing fancy. Doc, Dedjoy, stick to Dox. I've got our rear and I'll seal the hatch. Go, move!" Paris was already sealing the hatch as she spoke, "Palmiotti and Bunche, stay inside the runabout, buttoned up."


Following Paris' instructions and her lead, Dox engaged her magnetic boots which then made a thud, pulling against the deck plates. Bringing her phaser up and into a ready to fire position, the young Lieutenant was terrified. But Rita Paris was a born Commander and did exactly what the anxious aviatrix needed to keep herself focused: she gave Dox a responsibility and a charge.

Looking back quickly to lock her attention on the eyes of the wide eyed Ila, Dox kept her voice calm but firm. "Stay right behind me, Yeoman Dedjoy. I got you away from Anansi back on the Hera and we'll get through this together too." Dox said, recalling their attack on the Hera weeks ago where Dox had drug the unconscious Yeoman away from danger at the hands of an angry god. The two began to move as quickly as magnetic boots could allow.

Scooting out, the original series officer swiped up her phaser and set it to level 7, the kill setting as she watched her HUD and kept her scanners active as she ran. It was odd watching the monitor instead of her immediate surroundings, but the imaging was vastly superior.

"I'm sorry for Jones, security team," the Commander commended. "Lieutenant Sexton, are we clear into the complex yet?"

“Yes commander. Reynolds and Smith have secured the corridor just the other side of the shuttle bay doors. Fields of fire are good. But if you don’t mind me saying so. The most direct route possible to where we are going would be prudent.” Offered Sexton

Ila had opted to leave her weapon on her back for now, instead focusing on the terminal hacking tools she had brought with her. Already at her wit's end just from those things she'd once seen in a report and now saw in person, she had to take a couple deep breaths and flex her fingers to calm herself enough just to magnetically seal her hacking terminal to the security terminal just inside the shuttlebay.

"You can do this, Dedjoy..." she muttered to herself as she powered the terminal on and quickly accessed the non-essential functions, bringing emergency power in at least their local area back on, which meant lights and about half gravity. She was also able to get a detailed map of the installation as well as the status of most of it. "I'm in. Emergency power is on for this deck."

As for the gravity, across the deck you could hear the splat of falling fluids and flesh all around as the gravity plating kicked in. The yellowed lights did little to reduce the creepiness of the area, however.

Keeping her back to Dedjoy's as she worked and her phaser raised, Dox took a sharp breath at the sight of the room.

Viscera was not unknown to Doctor Dael, but the sight before them was unprecedented in their limited life experience. The doctor paused a moment next to Dox, hands on knees and head down, taking four deep cleansing breaths to avoid vomiting in their helmet.

They thought about going to their fallen fellow, but the injuries were too severe, the doctor could already tell....he was gone.

"I've downloaded a map of the complex and I'm sending a copy to your HUDS now. This deck is mostly living quarters. We'll have to pass through a couple common areas - it looks like a lounge and a dining hall. Then we'll be in the central turbolift corridor which goes up and down. Up goes to the command center, which is where the distress call came from and where the data core is. Down is where the reactor core is. Both register as offline, but from here I can tell that there's at least antimatter. Other than that..." Pausing a moment to try and access a bit more data, Dedjoy found she just couldn't for whatever reason. "Everything is offline. We'll likely have to go to each location to access the data core and reactor to blow the station."

"We'll stay together until the central shaft, then. Lieutenant Sexton, I assume you and your men are the experts in making things go boom. You'll take Lieutenant Dox and set the reactor to blow, then reconnoiter with us here, or back at the Thor if things have gone sideways. Dedjoy, Doctor, you're with me to the command center to secure the data and see whom or what sent that distress beacon. Open comms, no surprises people." Paris peeked into the hallway where cybernetic zombie sharks with, unless she missed her guess, lasers cyberware lay no longer animate, as it might have been debatable to call them alive when they had been moving.

"300 experiments and one of them was zombie sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads. And regular zombies, it looks like? Doctor Dael, some variant Romero strain? Tell me this isn't Borg technology they were playing god with here?"

Approaching a zombie shark, Dael knelt down to look more closely at the laser assembly. They snapped off a small component that was embedded in the cerebral fluid of the creature and scanned it.

Shuddering, the doctor turned to face the commander. "Negative, Commander. This is definitely Borg tech, but this bit... over here," they said snapping off a targeting device, " This isn't. I have never seen this alloy before. It seems to have bioadaptive capabilities,and the structure of the atoms is reading more dense than can be accounted by mass. There is Romero strain in the bodily fluids, but also Powers cascading RNA writers and Savini complex and Carpenter strains too. Its....its a lot ma'am."

Alex slowly worked his way around to each member of the team. Alex was thinking as he slipped a tag on his xo, and the doctor and the rest of the team. If this went south, whoever made it back to the shuttle would be able to beam them back with the tap of a few buttons. sexton quickly up loaded the tag data to the shuttle from his arm pad, then turned his attention back to his team.

"Sounds good commander. Open Comms and we will set the demo, whilst you guys get the data. If it gets hairy, and I mean this. Lock yourselves down and I'm coming for ya. If it kills me, I'm coming for ya." Said Sexton hoping the commander could see the sincerity in his eyes. "I don't want to lose another soul." And he stepped off in the direction of the turbo lift shaft and main corridor with his team close on his heels.

Internally Paris bit back the urge to explain to the junior officer that protocol indicated he wait to be dismissed from a briefing. She'd given him authority, after all. But when this was over they were going to have a very long talk. Because right now wasn't the time nor place as more automatic weapons fire lit up the corridor beyond, as the deck rose up like a blanket to try to smother a few members of the security team in an amorphous life form that might or might not already be dead.

"A walk in the park..." Paris muttered as she followed the security officers into the lounge, where the overturned furniture seemed to be opening toothy maws and animating to attack now. "Lieutenant Dox, you're on rearguard. Make sure nothing is following us and no stragglers."

"Aye, Commander." Dox replied in her usual flat manner when she was in 'business' mode. Keeping her weapon held at a low ready stance, she side stepped around her crewmates to take up the rear of the group. Her anxiety held in place by the needs of the job.

Deeper within the facility, a deep thud reverberated throughout the deck echo bars. Something big was loose and the changes to the station's status had roused it. Pulling out one of her more specialized scanners, Ila's eyes went wide as she realized what it was. "Commander... The central turbolift corridor... That thud? My scanner is registering a large biomass resembling a tyrannosaurus that's likely undergone similar transformations to the rest of these... Things... I'm also reading... I think I'm going to be sick..." Instead of telling, she just showed Rita the screen of her scanners.

"Hortas? They made zombie hortas?!?" The disbelief in the Commander's voice was evident. "This keeps getting better all the time... wait, xenomorphs?" The old-school officer paused in her expression of disbelief to form a solidly disgruntled grunt. "Mad scientists. I just hate mad scientists, I really do... what's wrong with perfectly sane science? It gets stuff done!"

"Lieutenant, you heard the Yeoman, zombie old-school extinct apex predator with cybernetic and undead capabilities ahead. Might I suggest a coordinated grenade assault?" Paris suggested, then added."Let's do try to limit the structural damage as best we can, don't want to impede our access to the reactor, after all."

Doctor Dael shuffled slightly closer to Commander Paris instinctively, drawing their phaser and internally cursing their decision to not come more fully armed.

The sound of phaser rifles and the words Apex Predator did not belong in the same paragraph let alone the same sentence. Alex reached behind his back and removed the small pack he had there for special occasions. Though never in his wildest dreams could he have thought up something this radical. "Security pull back to me, and get ready to volley fire on whatever emerges from that shaft ahead. Use your gravity boots to keep your balance and get behind me so I can throw a very special grenade." And as soon as Reynolds and Johnson got behind he, they waited. The bumping noise was getting closer. And just as the group had thought they had seen everything, the biggest head of a T Rex in any galaxy emerged from the shaft. It's mouth opened and a sound came out making anyone close enough grab their ears.

This thing had to be shut down fast. Alex twisted the explosive and waited, silent counting off the dead seconds and then he threw it so fast that it would have been hard to see what it was if you didn't already know it was an explosive. "Everybody get down." And 1.5 seconds later there was a flash, a bang and then a boom, of pretty big proportion. But not big enough to take down the structure only the monster. Green slim and blood covered the walls of the upper part of the shaft, as the main body of the creature fell several decks below to its final resting place.

While she was at the back of the group, Dox's Romulan ears picked up the explosion a bit more intensely then not and the young pilot winced slightly.

Alex sat back on his butt from the concussion of the blast, and so did Reynolds and Johnson. Smith stood once again with his mouth open not believing what he was seeing. "One down , an unknown number to go. I just hope that's the last one of those we meet. Got no more fun toys like that one." Said Alex almost laughing out loud, which must have caught on because Reynolds and Johnson began to laugh out loud as well. Finally Smith joined in, and they looked like a crazy group who just escaped a looney bin!

"Ok, let's get this show back on the road. Commander by your leave, we will start our decent!" Said Sexton waiting for a response from Paris.

"Very efficient work, Lieutenant. Miss Dox, you're with the Security team," Paris reinforced, fixing Sexton with a very particular expression. Get her some experience but bring her back alive was clearly implied in the glance to him, to her, and the meaningful nod to the security investigator afterward.

Moving briskly to lessen the distance between where she was at the rear and Sexton's position, Dox replied. "Aye, Commander." Then the rotund Romulan nodded towards the Security officer, acknowledging the order and his authority. "Lieutenant."

Alex nodded to the Commander. "I'll keep her by my side." He said with a smile and then looked at the map on his tricorder that had been down loaded earlier. "We have roughly 100 meters down to go. Since there is no gravity it should be pretty easy going if we apply ourselves. No heroics and no stragglers. Let's go." He would wait for the artificial gravity to be turned off. And then turn off his boots gravitational hold on the deck and lightly propelle himself downward encouraging Dox and the others to do the same.

Disengaging her magnetic boots, Dox pushed off the deck plates to float in formation beside Lieutenant Sexton. Zero gravity was an environment the former childhood smuggler was fairly comfortable in, having had to repair the artificial gravity almost weekly growing up on a perpetually failing smuggling ship.

"Let's make this ascent and descent a touch less perilous," Commander Paris decided, then called the command. "Miss Dedjoy, kill the gravity until further notice and we can ascend and descend far more quickly and efficiently, while our opponents are at a disadvantage. We've made it abundantly clear that we're here, and I'd like to be away sooner than later. Lash together with 3 meters of line between us. Doc, you're our rear-guard."

"This is the only deck I was able to restore gravity to so the rest of the station should be completely in zero G still," replied Ila, putting her scanning tools away and pulling her rifle free. She'd qualified with it, but actually having to defend herself and others... She just hoped when the time came, she didn't have to.

"Looks like it's time for some zero-G maneuvering. Work fast, be careful, do it right, and we'll all be home in time for supper."

Unhooking the line from their gear, Dael handed it to the commander to begin the process of attaching the group to one another.

Their hands were trembling slightly from the encounter with the T-rex. They had seen a complete fossil of one of the beasts at the Chicago Fielder Museum, but it did nothing to prepare Asa for a real world encounter. El Aurian physiology had difficulty with certain frequencies and the T-Rex had definitely included some of those frequencies in its battle cry.

They knew the headache they would have later would be horrible, and the vertigo would catch up to them sooner or later, so Asa wordlessly took a stim shot to see them through the next few hours until they could return to the Hera and have the EMH repair the damage. Once all three were joined, Asa nodded to Paris to signify their readiness to take up the group's 6.

"All right, folks. Into the shaft- be prepared to have your magnetic boots turned on, let's not let anything close with us, watch your buddy on the line. Let's clear the area of hazards, because we might be beating a hasty retreat back this way. If we have to start fighting clusters of opponents we'll switch to grenades, but otherwise let's try to be judicious in our use of force. Phasers don't create zero-G recoil. Command center, retrieve the data, figure out who activated the distress beacon."

Offering a devil-may-care grin, the daredevil dame pulled herself into the shaft and held the edge, waiting for her shipmates to follow.

With a steadier grip than even she expected, Ila Dedjoy steeled herself, switched her targeting assist computer on, , and pulled herself into the turbolift corridor. Though it was big enough for a full sized theropod to get stuck in, there were enough cargo lift pods to get in the way and make things interesting. On the bright side, she could see the top of the shaft and it was only around two hundred meters away. On the down side, there were enough unsealed decks between them and the command center that there was no telling what may pop out at them.

Which is when a ten foot long rat with three jaws and metallic claws leapt from one of those hatches towards Dedjoy. Without even thinking, she brought her rifle around and fired a three round burst from the hip into the face of the beast, turning it into an ex-rat. She then realized that the ringing in her ears was her own scream and toned it down to a panicked panting. Then in a whimpering voice she had something to admit. "I think I've soiled my armor..."

"There's a system built in for that. Good work, Miss Dedjoy," Paris offered, patting the frightened woman's shoulder. "Stay together, team. This is probably going to be a bumpy ride."

Dael nodded, uncertain of their position as rearguard, but hoping silently stoic was the image they were projecting to the group.

It was at that moment what could only be described as an undead opossum woke from its spot hanging at the top of the turbolift shaft. Dael locked eyes with it, and mentally decided to treat the snarling abomination as if it were a pest bothering their homestead growing up and shot it with a phaser. The creature seemed to "die" in as much as such a thing can be said of an undead opossum - or at least it quit moving.

Suddenly a crackling came over the comm channel. It was a bit broken up, but it sounded like a girl's voice calling out 'Hello? Is anyone there?' a few times through the static before cutting out.

"If this turns out to be some creepy doll possessed by a demon or something I am writing a strongly worded letter to the Commodore. Miss Dedjoy, see if you can home in on that signal. Doc, you keep the rearguard. Time for us to get where we're going." With that, Paris raised up her right arm, then launched a small probe tipped with a gravity magnet, which was in turn attached to the high strength wire spooled into the winch in her forearm assemblage. Reaching over to unlimber her rifle, Paris made her ammunition selection of hollow points and rifle in her left hand, she confirmed with her teammates. "Ready?"

"I am really looking forward to the entire place going up in flames when we leave," Dael muttered to themself, then responded with, "Aye, Commander, ready."

“All right, here comes the ride." With that, Paris began reeling in the cable at a high rate of speed, her armor sensors marking any movement as targets and preparing for her to fire, after five seconds of the winch pulling them along, she slowed the winch to half speed and let the landing party drift upward, even as hostiles began shoving themselves out of the shafts above them, hoping to intercept the fresh meant coming to the doorstep.

Fresh meat bearing hot lead, that is.

Rather than using burst fire, Paris was marking her targets and popping off controlled precise shots as possible, until she realized that there were more numbers than she was going to be able to handle, even using her phaser for those who got too close. Calmly she expressed herself to the rest of the landing party as her shots punctuated the comms. “If I could get some fire support it would be useful, otherwise I’m going to have to switch out to grenades…”

"Aye, Commander!" Dedjoy quit fiddling with the comms and returned her attention to the targeting sensors, thumbing the selector back to single fire and popping of rounds into targets that were off to the side as fast as she could. She hadn't brought a phaser and nothing was close enough to use her melee weapon yet, though she'd never used it in zero-g before so that was likely going to be tricky.

Closer to the command center, their comms crackled to life again with that same eerie girl's voice, but this time a bit clearer. "Hello? I can see you. Have you come for me? I've been so lonely."

Ila triggered her comms in response. "We're from Starfleet. What's your name and status?"

A few more crackles of static and "Hello? Can you hear me? Please help me." were the only reply before the transmission broke up again.

"Nothing suspicious about that..." Dael muttered, turning to fire at the hostiles centering on Rita.

"Commander, you take your left, I'll focus on your right. Dedjoy, be my eyes please and alert to any hostiles above," Asa stated.

Aiming precisely, the doctor was thankful indeed for their childhood growing up shooting cans off trees from the sheer boredom as the ability to aim was coming in handy now.

Slobbering half crazed rodent things began clawing at the entry to the shaft a level beneath Rita, and Asa took careful aim, adjusted their phaser and fired upon four of the creatures. The first went down hard, the second seemed to focus on Asa directly and began crawling up the shaft to reach the Doctor, while the other two were winged by shots and retreated back to where they came from.

The doctor was trying to fire quickly at the approaching rodent, but seemed to be unable to stop its ascent towards them. They fired directly into the beasts stomach twice, spewing blood and other unseemly fluids as if they were nightmarish marbles in the zero-g environment.

Seeing the rodent-zombie approach Ila, Dael said, "Yeoman, bogie on your four o'clock!"

Ila was torn between firing at their upper arc and now she had a bogie? Seeing it on her targeting scanner, she knew she didn't have time to pull her weapon around and get it so with her free hand she made a fist and activated the plasma saber in it, severing the zombie rat's brain pan from the rest of it's head and twisting so the front legs went with it. Deactivating the meter long blade, she returned to firing, her large unblinking eyes flickering between targets as her rifle slowly ran down the ammo.

"Doctor, there are still targets above us," the yeoman said in an unnaturally calm voice. She had no idea how she was holding it together right now, but with the strained grin on her face and the thoughts of just wanting to survive at any cost racing through her head, she was pretty sure she'd gone south.

Now almost at the command center, their comms crackled to life yet again with that same girl's voice, this time perfectly clear. "Hello? Are you here to help me?"

“If this turns out to be a trap, I am going to be very put out,” Paris muttered as she fired a short burst at a group of humanoid zombies whose mouths appeared to split into four tooth-filled maws who were interspersing with the Zombie Rodents Of Unusual Size And Activity In A Vacuum. Tuning the frequency in, Paris spoke in the voice of command she had learned when she was a child, yet served her throughout her career. It was a self-assured tone with sufficient depth to carry, with sufficient confidence to make the listener confident on the speaker.

“This is Commander Paris, we are closing on your position now. Sit tight and stay calm. We’re a little curious how you’ve survived, gotta admit. Please identify yourself?” That casual tone belied that after all this time out here there was no way for this not to be a trap. But life finds a way, and Rita herself had been in odder scrapes.

"Oh thank goodness. I can barely hear you. My name is Kodria Mizu of the Starfleet Civilian Corps vessel SS Haspatia. I woke up here in one of the labs and made my way here in the hopes of res..." With another burst of static the transmission cut out again.

Killing that line, Paris opened an outside line while she fired a concussion grenade into one of the hallways, driving back the ravenous hordes that seemed to be practically never-ending in this place. “Paris to Hera, do you copy? I need an ID check run for one Kodria Mizu, of the SS Haspatia.”

More rats and humans and a monkey with wings, of all things, infected with the same flesh-eating disease as the rest, came to end due to the precise shooting of the first officer, who was considering a flamethrower option for her next load-out.

The comm line from the Hera was a bit broken up, but clear enough. "SS Haspatia... Checking... Under construction at... Regula Fleetyards."

While the conversation was taking place, Dedjoy was busy with her own issues, firing into the various open corridors with beasts coming out of them. One larger one, she cycled to a plasma grenade and let it loose, vaporizing everything down it for quite a ways with a loud fwoom that thankfully triggered the blast doors further in and sealed it off. Now she just had several smaller vents and hatches to worry about.

"Maybe she meant another SS Haspatia." Dedjoy offered as she fired a few rounds into a black slithery alien that definitely looked a lot meaner than the rest of the ones they'd been shooting. "Also, I have one that's not dying when I kill it."

"No way it's all a trap, right?" Asa said sardonically. Eyes narrowed, the doctor called to Rita, "Commander! Can we fire at their flanks and force them into a line? That way we can let loose on big blast, or barring that put a phaser on kill at a wide dispersal?"

That said, Dael turned to see where Dedjoy was firing to examine the one that would not die. A bedraggled looking....armadillo?....was slowly charging at the group. It seemed to be panting, even though it clearly was not breathing, and was oozing something that probably used to be blood.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, Asa attempted to fire at the small animals head, knowing from seeing roadkill on Earth that the shell would be harder. They were not successful in hitting the head, and wondered what was so different about this animal. Shell or no, it should have gone down by now.

“Yeah, a cry for help is highly unlikely at this point. Who knows what it really is, but we’ll be prepared for anything.” Rita Paris was a good shot with her own hand phaser, but when her beam lanced out, the black slithery alien dodged once, dodged the second beam, then a concussion grenade went off behind it, stunning it sufficiently for Paris to put a phaser beam through it’s long domed skull. As the wound was cauterized, there was no blood, but she noticed the swarm of critters approaching were avoiding it all the same.

“Wide beam seems like a good plan to me, Doctor. On my mark, wide beam, setting 7…. Fire!” As the duo combined their efforts, their phasers were draining quickly but the effects were impressive. While it was not rendering all of their opponents inactive, it was causing large swaths of them to become small atomic blasted skeletons who were fortunately not mobile. A few well-placed concussion grenades seemed to break the smaller corpses up while rendering the larger ones less mobile, and Paris took advantage of the lull to reel the rest of the away team up to the command center.

"According to my scanners, we're going to have to enter through the level below, ascend through a stairwell and we should be able to access the command center through a security door if we power it up. So into this corridor, magnetic books on, eyes on your scanners and proceed with caution." Paris clapped her phaser back onto her hip, and took the large rifle in both hands to be prepared for anything that moved to be rendered inert. Dedjoy and Doc Dael were friends of hers, and under her command. Damned if she would let them become zombie chow.

"Keep an eye on our rear, Doc. I don't want anything sneaking up on us..." Paris explained as she moved cautiously down the corridor, her magnetic boots making soft thudding sounds in her suit.

"Copy that," the group heard Asa say, followed immediately by phaser fire in three short blasts, then a two second pause and a meaty thump.

"Well, those three zombadillo's won't be bothering anyone again," the doctor said, clearly happy with their shooting, "But I gotta say, all the ooze and blood and stuff floating around in here is making it look like the snow globe from hell."

"My codes have worked so far so there's no reason to think they won't work on that door," added Ila as she slung her rifle onto her back and got ready to do a bit more hacking.

“If they don’t, we can do it the old-fashioned way,” Paris added, firing a few bursts of automatic fire into the darkness at targets she could see clearly in her heads-up display projected onto the interior of her helmet. “All right, Dedjoy, I’ll take the lead up the stairwell and you can worm around me. But if there is something in there that isn’t showing up on scanners, better me than thee. Doctor, I have a voice coming out of that command center that sounds a lot like a trap. Please tell me we have some sort of biosign in there that isn’t something whose face is going to trisect and try to eat me.”

Focusing the scanners on the room, there was an electromagnetic field within a solid object that had a humanoid shape in the control room that had minimal power. "Looks like we've got movement in the control room. Miss Dedjoy, if you could jimmy the lock. Doc, keep an eye out down there. Miss Dox, report," Paris called, and there was only silence.

"Sexton, Jackson, report," Paris called as they reached the top of the stairwell. "Thick walls. Hera, this is Paris, do you copy?" Again, there was silence, which each of them realized meant they were on their own. Wrestling the large rifle back onto her back, the commander drew her classic phaser. "About that door, Miss Dedj-"

That was when the wall started to bubble and melt beside them, as the zombie horta found them.

In a quick movement, Asa unlocked their gravity boots and pushed up to float up from the surface.

"Down!" The doctor yelled, releasing a concentrated oxygen burst for two seconds, luring the Horta near then. At the last moment, Asa turned on their boots, plummeting to the ground and they fired their phaser to the oxygen, igniting the dispersing bubble of air and the horta alike. The firerball it briefly created in the vacuum cooked much of the outer flesh of the horta before Paris drained he phaser to insure it was disintegrated.

"I hate horror movies," Paris grumbled and she replaced the power pack on her phaser, simply snapping on a new handle and clipping the old one to her armor. "Quick thinking, Doctor. Excellent reflexes, they'll serve you well. So, Miss Dedjoy, about this door..."

Quickly shaking off what had just happened, Ila pulled free her hacking terminal and slapped it over the door's own terminal, powering it up. Quickly, she logged in and went through a series of overrides. She was able to unseal the door but once it did so, there was a solid click and that was it. It errored out immediately. Popping the manual override panel, she reached in and pumped the handle a few times, hoping that would charge it enough to at least separate the panels, but even that failed.

Then she heard a whirring sound on the other side. Checking her panel, the yeoman saw that the isolation doors were somehow jamming this one and were now retracting. "It seems that whomever is inside is now willing to let us in..." After a few more seconds, the door panels finally popped apart and Ila was able to pry them open. Quickly retrieving her hacking terminal, Ila placed it back on her belt. "Commander?"

Pulling the slender scientist behind her, Paris broadcast to the local area on regular comm frequencies, or at least that's what she was aiming for. Phaser at the ready, she spoke reassuringly.

"I'm Commander Rita Paris, we're Starfleet. Are you in distress?" Paris watched the scans and the portrait of the scene they painted inside her helmet- as always, hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.

The darkened two tier command center resembled most starbase nerve centers with the central command console and the upper tier surrounding it with workstations. At one of them an android with a distinctly Vulcan hairstyle and eartips had a cable running from her arm into a panel. though the uniform she wore was definitely Starfleet, it was not a familiar design, though it bore the bare delta shield. Her black glossy eyes glanced between them in the hopes of rescue.

"Please, I just want to leave here. I was brought online at the Vulcan Science Commission in 2480. They'll have all my repair data. I don't even know how long I was offline." The voice was digitized and strained but clear enough through the comms.

"Doctor, please do some scans and give me a good reason not to shoot what looks like the sole survivor of this massacre. Dedjoy," Paris detached a unit from her back and floated it over to the doll-eyed doctorate. "Here's your generator, get some systems up and running. See what we can power while we're here. I'd like to know what's going on down there and what state the reactor is in while that data downloads."

Striding over to the artificial life form, Paris studied the scans. Incredibly complex, at least to her eye, Rita hoped this wasn't Experiment 209- Killer Cyborg Librarian. "All right miss, talk to the Doctor now and tell us how you got here?"

Ila wasted no time finding the central data station and plugging her equipment in, doing her best to remotely power up what data cores she could and downloading it into the data storage she had on her. She also tried to connect to the reactor to check its status, but that seemed like it would be a trickier task.

The android nodded and turned to whom she assumed was the Doctor. "Well, my name is Kodria Moana Mizu, assigned to the SS Haspatia NCC-80113 as a Data Analyst. I was doing a space walk near a spatial anomaly to re-calibrate one of the deflector dish's high energy charged particle detectors in the long range sensor platform manually when some sort of energy pulse from the anomaly hit me."

"It must have taken my self repair function some time to bring me back online because the next thing I knew, I woke up here and the lab I was in was in a station taken over by some sort of horror holo monsters. I did my best to make my way here and was able to send out a distress beacon, but the other station residents didn't like that very much..." Looking up hopefully at her rescuers, she would have had tears in her eyes if she were organic. "Please, what year is it? How long have I been gone?"

The first officer eyed the doctor- they knew to proceed gently, and Paris had to make sure nothing got to them while Dedjoy worked instead of counseling the victim right now. "Tread lightly Doc, but give her the truth."

Approaching slowly, Doctor Dael continued to scan the not-quite-Vulcan ahead of them. “Hello there, Kodria Moana Mizu, I am Doctor Asa Dael, and we are here to help. We heard your beacon and fought our way in here to help you, but we have a few questions too, ok? The year is 2395, and I know that's scary, but we will figure it out. Let's get back to our ship, ok?”

The questions were asked in a calming, soothing voice, and Asa had reached out a hand to Kodria, hoping the universal gesture of friendliness would help to put the others mind at ease. Meanwhile, with their other hand, the doctor had transmitted through the HUD to Paris and Dedjoy, “Unknown non-biological materials make up 18% of Mizu. Positronic brain detected. Residual artron energy detected consistent with time anomalies.”

Kodria took the offered hand as shock registered on her face. "2395? But... How? I..." Visibly setting herself, she nodded. "What is, is. I'll have to analyze the data later. Thank you. Once I disconnect from this station, I won't have a way to communicate without atmosphere. All the EV suits I found had no air or power."

“What’s the last date you remember, Miss Mizu?” Paris asked distractedly as she watched the readings. Apparently many of the stragglers had gotten the hint and were starting to pile up in the hallway outside, according to her scanners, even as Dedjoy worked to bring a few systems online to help them

"Ah... stardate 169540. July sixteenth, 2492 on the Earth calendar. It was Commander Pavel's birthday." The android blinked slowly, recalling the last memories in her time, realizing she'd have to keep a lot of things secret if she couldn't get back.

"I'll need three more minutes to finish copying the databases." Ila grinned as she looked up from her work. "As for the rest of the systems, there's not much left, but I think I can get a few of the station's sanitization systems working. Namely, the plasma flamethrowers in the corridors outside."

“Wonderful, Miss Dedjoy- that saves us time and trouble, well done." Meanwhile Paris’ internal systems translated that stardate into the date, and it checked out. How an android from 96 years in the future had come to be reactivated in a base that had been inactive for 20 years was still a mystery, however. There were going to be some extensive questions that would need answers… unless the android was not what she appeared to be.

Taking the time to type out a text, Rita sent to Dedjoy.

= Find her project file, please. We’re not bringing an assassin droid back to the Hera with us on my watch =

Quickly reading the message, the doll-faced yeoman started searching the data she'd already downloaded, quickly finding several android and positronic related experiments. Narrowing it down further, she found one specifically about a recovered android that was covered in enough chroniton and artron radiation to fry an egg on. It had been brought here for decontamination, monitoring, and study. While the details were a bit fuzzy, the physical data matched the android before them. The internal specs that the labcoats were able to determine were pretty amazing as well, but overall, everything seemed to be geared towards data processing, even to the point of sacrificing emotional development. Though the self repair functionality was advanced and there were many redundancies, the physical capabilities were just... lacking.

Opening a private channel to Rita, Ila reported her findings. "Commander, the project file on her checks out with what she's saying. Triple redundant memory cores and data analysis neuro-nets, advanced self repair systems, and time radiations aside, physically, she's about as weak as I am. On top of that, I doubt her emotional or social development is that high. She said she was built in 2480 and her last memory was in 2492? Her construction... Everything is directed to logic circuitry and data analysis. I wouldn't be surprised if she's twelve years old in more ways than one. Well... Other than sitting here dormant for about... ah... 48 years..."

"Damn. Thank you, Yeoman- good work. That's exactly what I needed to know." Switching back to full comms, Paris stepped up to the android. "Miss Mizu, you were very brave to make it to the control center and activate the beacon. We're getting you out of here, but I'm going to need you to do something." Kneeling down, Paris' eyes flickered about as she searched through menus to find the space on the inventory where the system was located, then a port opened on her wrist unit she kept mounted on her left forearm. Reeling out the cable, it ended in a universal comm jack.

"Are you compatible with this technology, Miss Mizu?"

Kodria took a moment to look it over, the nodded.

"Then jack into my wristcomm, and climb onto my back. I'm going to need you to hold on tight, because I might have to move quickly or do something very action/reaction-ish to get us out of here. But you hang on, and you keep talking to me, and I will get us out of here, I promise. Okay?" 12 year old girl, Dedjoy had said, so Rita just said and did what she would to a 12 year old girl she found in this situation.

The vulcanesque android unplugged from the terminal and plugged the cable into the makeshift port she'd built into her arm. After a second, Rita heard a light pop of static and a bootup sound over her comms as Kodria climbed onto her back. "Data analysis online. Kodria online. Initialize assist mode?"

In a lifetime of exploring, there always arrived that moment with another sentient creature where there was a reach for a moment of trust. When two strangers would choose to trust one another, and take the first step toward being friends. The Federation believed that all worlds could be friends. Starfleet sought out new worlds to spread that word. And in the most dire of circumstances when all seemed lost, a friend could be a very welcome companion.

A friend was made in that moment of trust.

"Initialize assist mode, sure," Rita offered gamely as she checked the area.

"Miss Dedjoy, are we done here? See if you can get some lights or something going to draw in a bit more of a crowd. We have to sterilize the entire base anyway, may as well put those plasma flamethrowers to good use on these monsters. And let's hope Lieutenant Dox and the security team are doing as well..." Paris unlimbered the assault weapon from her back to make room for the android.

"Lighting systems... Here we are..." With a few taps, Dedjoy was able to get a few of the light panels in the area of those plasma flamethrowers to at least flicker dimly, which she was able to confirm through the sole camera feed that still worked. "Well, they're flickering at least. Ready to engage the fire on your command."

Shaking off a moment of confusion as to the nature of what was happening, Asa decided to ask for clarification about what must have passed between Rita and Dedjoy later. The sooner they could all get off this station, the better. Something about the situation was still oddly sinister, and it tickled the back of Asa's mind, but they couldn't fully process what it was.

In a gentle voice, Asa said, "I am fine, Commander. Kodria, have you seen anyone else here? Anyone like you? Or like us?"

Kodria shook her head, still linking into Rita's suit's onboard computer to enhance its processing capabilities.

A few beeps later, an overlay was placed on Rita's hud, enhancing it with targeting data and on the fly stats that the suit had previously not been able to process fully previously. In green it targeted Asa and Ila and rattled off biosign readings as well as assessments next to them. In red it targeted through the walls motion and organic signs that it previously couldn't identify fully as enemies, even going so far as to assign them threat ratings and identifying weak points on them. Every sensor and reading was boosted to an efficiency level that was just that much higher.

"Assist mode online. Thank you, Aunt Rita." Kodria said softly, clinging to the anachronistic cosmonaut as tightly as she could. Then over Rita's suit comms she replied to Asa. "Sorry, no. You're the first thing here that didn't look like it wanted to eat me. I had to crawl through the life support ducts just to get here from the lab I was in."

"Okay, I have all the data I can get," Dedjoy started unplugging everything and returning it to her belt, minus her hacking terminal and power unit.

You'd better not turn out to be a killer assassin android, Rita thought to herself as she worked to process the enhanced graphics while the kid calling her Aunt Rita made her heart mushy in a place it needed not to be mushy on a mission like this.

"Let me know when you are packed and ready, and we'll play a few rounds of fire in the hole. Once we've cooked what's stupid enough to have bottlenecked we'll clear what we have to on the way down. Reconvene with the reactor team, make sure everything is primed and make our getaway. Easy, right?" Rita held up a thumbs-up over her left shoulder to what she suspected was a scared kid.

A small pink icon appeared in the corner of Rita's HUD showing a cartoonish depiction of Kodria giving a thumbs up.

The feeling of something being off was increasing the closer Asa came to the exit from the room. There was a feeling of a pulsing mind behind the doors, something seething with malicious intent....Asa truly hoped it was only the zombie things gathering en masse setting off their internal alarm bells. Nothing for it but to proceed though, so Asa copied Paris and gave a thumbs up to the group.

"Ready here commander. Igniting the plasma in 3... 2..." With a press of the button the one screen lit up in green fire and Rita's HUD lit up in danger symbols as the target acquisitions vanished one after the other on the other side of the walls. After about fifteen seconds the plasma flamethrowers had all died out on their own, finally having given their last. Thankfully, that was more than enough to clear everything for almost half the trip back. "Well, that's it then. Shall we?" Dedjoy asked, disconnecting her hacking terminal and power pack, returning them to her belt and unslinging her rifle.

“Okay people, lash together again,” Paris ordered, determined that none of her people were being left behind in this hellhole if she had to personally drag them to safety. Unlocking the cable winch in her right forearm, Paris offered the probe tip that it could fire over her shoulder to her civilian rescue passenger. “Miss Mizu, attach this to your center mass, if you will. If you lose your grip, I’m not losing you. I’m on point, Dedjoy, you take rear guard and Doc, you keep your eyes on the scanners. Everybody goes home and nobody gets left behind,” the gold-armored commander stated, as if her saying so with such absolute conviction, that would make it so.

Because to those relying on her command, her confidence was their confidence. There might still be doubt about the survivor who had sent a lonely message into the void, hoping against hope that someone was listening, and that help would come. But there was a good chance that she was just a very lonely, frightened soul out of her element who was in need of rescue. In the mind of Rita Paris, this was Starfleet, and those cries in the darkness would be answered by hope- at least on her watch.

Opening the hatch, Paris stepped out, rifle at the ready even though there was no movement onscreen. It appeared the survivors of the plasma torch massacre were hiding around the corner, waiting for them to approach. So Rita floated halfway down the corridor before activating her magnetic boots, then she launched a concussion grenade down the corridor, aiming it so that it would impact around the corner. As the shockwave nudged her, Paris strode forward, rifle up and hollow point rounds ejecting with precision shots that were targeted easily with the enhanced system readouts she was getting, which made her realize that her weapon could be linked to her systems far more closely than she had been using the two systems.

“Just hang on, kiddo, and don’t watch,” Paris instructed. It was a foolish thing to say since the AI was hooked into her armor’s systems and that enabled access to a sensor suite greater than anything she’d ever seen short of a starship. But it would be what she said to a human girl that age in this situation, so as silly as it might have sounded, no child should have memory what Rita Paris was doing right now.

The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor was unmistakable. After all, the three shipmates should have been the only ones in the corridor with gravity boots. The heavy, slow steps kept up their pace though as they were a coming doom.

At the first sound of booted feet Doctor Dael had been scanning in their direction, but their tricorder would not give up the cause of the mystery. They began to communicate the anomalous readings to Paris, but were cut off after the initial word by the sound of the footsteps picking up pace. It took the dedicated doctor only a couple of heartbeats before they gathered themselves enough to say, “There are no life signs showing up on my scans, ma’am. Only a few of those…whatever they were… from before fleeing in the opposite direction.”

It was at that point a huge form appeared. It was 10 feet tall in mechanized armor, clearly designed to repair the outer portions of the station, but makeshift arms had been soldered on. The figure piloting the armor in all probability used to be a man. There was even a name on the suit, “Ensign Cleary”. Whoever he had been in life, Ensign Cleary was now nothing more than a skeleton with rotting, gangrenous flesh hanging loosely around hollow, dead eyes. The creature let out a gurgling roar, its mouth hanging slack now and a putrid tongue lolling forth. As it moved its head back and forth, bite marks were visible where the artery would have been in his neck.

As it approached, Dael said to the group, “This is more than the Romero strain. Or any strain of virus that I know. The putrefaction evident is all wrong…everything about this is wrong. Safe to say he’s hostile though.”

On Rita's HUD Kodria had already begun her analysis and begun identifying weakened joints, central nerve clusters, possible firing patterns, and methods of takedown. The key difficulty was that there was no central control over this behemoth - it seemed to be operating on instinct based on nanotech fused with the mutated spinal column of the infected Ensign, both of which were heavily armored. Thus a protracted battle was predicted as well as a forty seven percent chance of a friendly fatality occurring.

Ila wasn't entirely sure what to do but she knew this was bad. "Orders, Commander?"

"I got this." Cycling through her options, Rita loaded up a plasma grenade. She had been conserving her ammunition in case of a siege or a long drawn-out battle to get outside, but this was not something she was going to deal with. Hustling her charges back around the corner as the mechanical monstrosity lumbered forward, Paris called out quietly, “Fire in the hole.”

The grenade launched from the futuristic firearm, and the plasma grenade impacted solidly on the chest of the hard-shelled monstrosity, whereupon it burst to life as brilliant, all-consuming plasma. When Rita peeked around the corner again, there were bits and pieces of the hulking undead brute that were scattered about, drifting lazily in the zero-G, idly burning with plasma. Which would be pretty if not for the fact that those floating bits of plasma fire would burn through their armor as well, and it was between them and their exit. Shifting loads again, Rita emptied two more concussion grenades down that way to flush the corridor and clear the debris before ejecting the clip. Collecting the full clip and replacing it on her hip with the empty one, scanners showed the passage now mostly clear. “Okay people, let’s keep moving. There’s a starship out there waiting to take us home, and I for one don’t plan to be late to the party.”

“Lieutenant Dox, Lieutenant Sexton, do you copy?” Rita called out, but there was no response. Likely still the interference of the complex, she reassured herself. But if she had to do down there and rig the detonation herself, she’d do it. Making their way back to the central shaft, more of the space zombies drifted about even as smaller versions which looked like piranha were intermingled with sharks and a few lifeforms she did not recognize.

A sudden smile lit up Asa’s face, and they cried to the two Valkyries firing heavy weapons into the blackness, “There’s an opening ahead right in 500 meters. I’m not reading anything past that point! If we can get to the corridor, we have a clear path.”

“Miss Dedjoy, let’s clear the field. Precision shooting, let’s thin these out so they won’t be harassing us on the way down. Miss Mizu… again, try not to watch.” Paris rolled her eyes for being overprotective of what was probably going to be a horrendous mistake for her career, but she’d rather err on the side of compassion than let her caution make her callous.

The doll faced yeoman lit up the corridor with weapons fire as best she could, hitting most of her targets as they made their way down. It wasn't pretty, but at least it got the job done. "Commander... I don't think I want to go on another away mission again for a really long time..."

“Nonsense, Yeoman Dedjoy. This is like shore leave… just on a really awful planet,” Rita tried to keep the mood light as she and the lab-bound scientist continued popping off shots until the remains of the remains that floated past were no longer of any threat to them. With the field of fire cleared, there was no more visible activity in the turbolift shaft, although there were still some creepers that might make their way out to pursue them. Looking down the shaft via the enhanced sensors, Rita could see the exit shaft. Switching to her internal comm, Rita spoke to the android on her back.

“I’ll need your safety tether for a moment, Miss Mizu. I need to get us all down to where we’re going, and I won’t risk everyone’s safety trying a freefall. So you just keep holding on tightly- you are doing great, and I’m very proud of how brave you are being through all of this.” Part of Rita felt stupid coddling an artificial life form, but until other evidence showed itself, she was going to treat this individual as a trauma victim in need of rescue.

Unlocking the gravity magnet in the tip of the probe, Rita retracted it into the housing, reseated the probe, then aimed it for the shaft they needed to escape. Firing the probe out, it attached itself to the wall of the shaft where she had aimed it, and she opened her comms again. “On 3 people, unlock magnetic boots… 1…. 2… 3.”

As the trio drifted for a second, Paris reeled them in, drawing them down to their target locale. Hopefully the rest of the landing party would meet them there… but if not, her first priority was to get the rescue and the non-coms to safety. Which made her chuckle internally…. Since when did Rita Paris become a combatant? I thought you were a lover, not a fighter…

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Kodria hung on as tightly as she could, her actual eyes closed. Unfortunately, she was still processing every detail through the sensors of Rita's suit so while she didn't physically see anything... Still, she did as her Aunt Rita told her to do so she could get through this.

Dedjoy fired off a few more shots into the few enemies that were moving as they descended, keeping an eye on the level they were headed to for hostiles. "Let's hope the housing level is still relatively clear for now. We might be able to make it back to the Thor without too much of a hassle if it is."

“Hassle or not, we’re getting back to the runabout in short order, Miss Dedjoy,” Paris declared, because confidence needed to remain high, especially this close to successful completion of half the mission objective. As a few abominations of science threw themselves their way, Paris wasted no time in popping off shots, the enhanced targeting making shooting from the hip surprisingly accurate. One hand was still holding the crossed arms of the android charge the supercentenarian space explorer was carrying to safety, while the other hand was playing action hero, shooting animated corpses who were far too eager to embrace them as one of their own.

“Sorry gruesome, but we got better things to do today than die,” Rita muttered under her breath as they carefully moved forward, clearing the creatures who were eager to approach them, firing cautiously to conserve ammunition and reduce the chance of a ricochet doing some harm to the away team.

When the transport was in sight, Paris hailed them.

“Commander Paris to Runabout Thor, do you copy?” she called. She was fond of Palmiotti and Bunche, and the third of their trio, Conner. The three officers had held the Thor then beamed all of their gear to them as well as the armories of the Thor to coordinates the Commodore fed them. When Paris found a shrine she couldn't beat, she painted a target on it, steered clear and called in a missile pair, and they had obliged her. In the retelling of the tale in 10-Forward, Paris dubbed them her airborne artillery assist, and the nickname had stuck. Paris called them for their away missions because somebody needs to mind the boat. Now she waited with anticipation to hear their welcome voices for ID confirmation.

After the pause waiting for the two security officers stretched on just a second too long, Asa extended the range on their scans and pointed in the direction of the runabout. The readings were as they feared....the two men may be mobile, but they were no longer men. At least not in the same way they had been before disembarking the Thor.

"Commander...I am getting the same readings from them that we were those creatures in there. I....I think something got them," Asa said gently. "Let's get closer and see what we can do. Recommend firing upon any aggressive action, though." The doctor suited their words by taking a few tentative steps towards the Thor, and saw spattered droplets of frozen fresh blood drifting across the shuttle bay.

“Dammit, I told them to stay buttoned up. Why would they disobey orders…” Paris started, when she noticed some of the creatures pulling themselves along the hull, hammering at it with makeshift tools, clubs and conduit pipes. It seems they had set out to try to destroy the runabout, and apparently the security officers had decided that the biters had a chance of breaching the Thor’s structural integrity. Which was when they had been ambushed, dragged themselves back into the runabout and died.

“Miss Mizu, I need for you to unplug from my system. I’m going to leave you in the care of Miss Dedjoy and the Doctor here, because I have to go do things you shouldn’t see. You two, protect the civilian while I deal with this.” The Commander’s voice was grim as she spoke, even as she put a bullet through the undead roamer that was drifting too close for her liking.

"Yes, Ma'am. Please be careful," came the reply right before Kodria disconnected from Rita's suit, returning it to the normal HUD setup. She then used the lanyard connecting the trio to make her way over to Asa and clung to the Doctor like a backpack, waving hello as she did so.

The moment was a poignant one as Asa remembered all the times they gave their baby brother a piggy back ride growing up. Remembering how he would cling to their neck brought a happy sad smile to the doctor’s face. They reached for Kodria’s legs to wrap them tight around Asa’s midsection and waived softly over one shoulder in greeting.

“Hi there, Kodria,” Asa spoke gently, “I’m Asa. It’s pretty scary here, huh? Let’s think about something happy. I like reading and stories, those make me happy. What’s your favorite story?” Waiting for the android to speak, Asa rocked, floating back and forth slowly in what they hoped was a calming manner.

While Kodra could somewhat pick up what Asa was saying through the vibrations transmitted through their contact, she had no way of talking back so she held out the exposed cybernetics in her forearm which currently had no connection plugged into them for Asa to see. She liked a lot of stories but without any way to talk or a built in comm unit like most other androids of her era... Even her comm badge she was wearing was rather useless at the moment and that made her feel very... Disabled...

The silence seemed to stretch to Asa, who suddenly realized their error and quickly plugged in the port to both Kodria's arm and onto the armor of their own in the same manner Rita had. "Oh! Kodria! I'm so sorry sweet one! Well, when we get back on board, we'll fix it so you can talk whenever you want. I'm a doctor you know, so that's what I like to do, fix people. I'll ask my friends on board to help us so I can listen to all your stories. For now, you get to listen to me ramble on, ok? I'll try not to be too boring. I know how boring most adults are. They talk about the most bland things, like what type of pants they look good in or what kind of vegetables are best for needing to poop. Can you believe that? Poop talk! Anyway, how you doing back there? I get our lifeline situated ok?"

Within a few moments, Asa's HUD lit up with all sorts of pink and flashy icons relating to Kodria's status as she interfaced with her EV suit. Then it all finished processing and just ended with a small cartoonish animation of Kodria crying as her voice finally came over the internal speakers. "Thank you so much! I was helping Aunt Rita but all that data and now processing it all and then no way to talk again... I had no one to talk to for over a month in here and no air to breathe so I couldn't even talk to myself... I may be an android, but my organelles are all shriveled up... I have no idea how my self repair was able to even... And then all this... I just want to go home... But this isn't even my time so I can't... My parents haven't even been born yet! What am I supposed to even do?"

Kodria then paused, trying to calm herself down and do what she did best - process the current data. "I'm ok. It'll be ok. We just have to take things one data point at a time for now."

“Hey there, Kodria,” Asa replied in their best older sibling voice, one full of care, compassion, and a bit of humor. “It’s going to be ok, I promise. You wanna know something cool? You can find new families. I did, on the ship we are going to. You don’t have to be alone. There’s tons of people there, and we like meeting new individuals. If you want, we can stay up late in my quarters and watch silly videos together. You can make fun of how silly I look when I eat spaghetti and we can plan games to play with our other friends. We can make it a new home, or we can help you look for a new place if you want. How does that sound?”

The young android did her best to stay calm. "Ok... That sounds nice. Maybe I can help out too. I'm good at data processing and scientific analysis."


Meanwhile, the golden-armored valkyrie levered the large heavy firearm onto her back, drawing her antique phaser in her right hand and her cutlass in the other. As the gruesome fiends detached themselves from the runabout to attack her, she dealt with them. Grimly marching forward, destroying the horrors with her phaser, driving them off with her cutlass when they got too close, she paused once she reached the hatch of the Thor. Crouching down, she found a few of the biters had attached themselves to the bottom of the fuselage, so she targeted their limbs until they broke free, then she ended them.

Inside her helmet, the horror of the day was getting to Rita. But she didn’t have time to be squeamish- she had work to do. Opening the hatch, she stepped back. When nothing emerged and her scanners showed the duo were still inside, Paris stuck her head in and thumped on the bulkhead.

The two security officers who had survived and aided her on multiple missions were now clad in broken and battered MACO EVA armor, the inside of their helmets obscured by spattered blood, filled her with sorrow and rage. They weren’t supposed to die like this. If only they had followed orders, they would still be alive now. Instead, now she was luring them out of the runabout so that she could execute their still-moving corpses. As they approached, she withdrew, drawing them further out in the shuttle bay. Even inside their helmets, which looked as though the men had died vomiting blood, she could make out the somewhat recognizable faces of the men she had commanded, and had failed.

“I’m sorry Jimmy,” she whispered as the phaser beam lanced out on setting 10, disintegrating Palmiotti. As Bunche followed him, tears welled up in the eyes of the lost navigator who fired on him, disintegrating the other infected security officer as well. Taking a second to inhale deeply, Paris struggled to hold back the tears. Tears in zero G were a hazard inside a helmet- at least that's what she told herself- for now. With that pretty face set in a grim frown, Rita Paris looked every bit the part of Sergeant Calhoun as she strode back to the trio.

“Lieutenant Dael, you’re in command,” the first officer declared, her voice ragged but still clear and strong, and not a tone to be argued with. ”Get buttoned up in there, and you don’t come out, no matter what, understood? Yeoman Dedjoy, make sure the systems are all intact and that we’re ready to fly when I get back. I’m going back in for Dox and Sexton and the security team- I’m not going losing anyone else on this mission. If I’m not back in 30 minutes, get back to the Hera and blow this place to smithereens. That’s an order.”

The doll faced yeoman had been picking off a few oddball biters on the floor of the shuttlebay while Rita was busy but at those orders, she turned back to face the time tossed cosmonaut and let them sink in before replying in a deadpan voice. "Aye, Commander. Orders received." She then headed into the runabout to startup the sturdy vessel's systems.

“Aye Commander… and… be careful.” Asa replied, moving inside the Thor.

“I’ll be back, Doctor,” Paris replied through the comms, with a firm determination in her voice that was meant to reassure the very young doctor who was now thrust into leadership, barely out of the Academy. But Paris believed in the good doctor, and she knew she could rely on them to follow orders and do the right thing. The young immortal was having a very interesting life...

Once inside the runabout, Dael gently placed Kodria to stand next to them on the deck. The good doctor was internally panicking at their first command being in the midst of such calamity, but was determined to prove good the faith put in them.

Leaving Dedjoy to prepare the Thor, Dael secured the hatch to the Thor and took the seat closest to the exit. As soon as Kodria was seated next to them, they turned to her and said, “Rita went to go get some of other friends that are here so we can all leave together. She will be back soon and we can go see your new home. For now, we have to wait patiently and not leave this ship, ok? If we leave she would be very sad and we don’t want that. So let’s play a waiting game, I’ll say a word and you take that word and use the last letter in the word and come up with your own word. Bet’cha you teach me some new words, and learning is always fun."

"I’ll start……petrichor....”

Alex nodded to the Commander. "I'll keep her by my side." He said with a smile and then looked at the map on his tricorder that had been down loaded earlier. "We have roughly 100 meters to go. Since there is no gravity it should be pretty easy going if we apply ourselves. No heroics and no stragglers. Let's go." He waited for the artificial gravity to be turned off. And he turned off his boots gravitational hold on the deck and lightly propelled himself downward encouraging Dox to do the same.

Disengaging her magnetic boots, Dox pushed off the deck plates to float in formation beside Lieutenant Sexton. Zero gravity was an environment the former childhood smuggler was fairly comfortable in, having had to repair the artificial gravity almost weekly growing up on a perpetually failing smuggling ship.

The first ten to twenty meters were pretty uneventful. Alex was on point when he saw their first obstacle. There was a reason they had begun calling these horrid things Zombie Sharks. Because with no gravity, they floated through the non atmosphere like sharks did in water, and the mouth looked like a sharks mouth. Two of which were drifting their way growling and reaching for Alex though he was several meters away. A blast came past him and one was done, then another blast, and the second was done. "Don't mention it boss." Came they comment from Reynolds and Johnson in unison. With a smirk. "Well done, keep it up and we might just do this damned thing!" Replied Alex, not sure if Dox even had her eyes open.

For her part, the young pilots eyes were quite busy watching the full sensor reading from her visor display that provided her with thermal data, a full 3-D wireframe of her surroundings and motion sensor data. She spun around, raised her weapon to aim and in one motion, opened fire on one of the creature so that was pulling itself out of a Jeffries tube directly behind Sexton.

Its head gone, the limp form hovered slowly back into the tube eerily. "There's six more ventilation shafts and Jeffries tube access points in this shaft looking at the schematics. The rest appear to be sealed on the radar scan data I'm getting back, but we should seal this one as well." Dox followed as she checked the sensor readings from her helmets HUD.

"Ok hold here for a moment, we seal this access point and then we move, but we dont split up at any point for any reason. We go in together and we come out together." said Sexton.

While Dox and Sexton both shared the same rank, the young part-Romulan pilot knew that while their part of the away teams task was to get to the reactor core and set it to explode, her specific task was to support Sexton and follow his orders. He had the experience here and was in charge of the security detail.

"Aye, Lieutenant." She replied, deferring to his orders as the remaining security officers sealed the Jefferies tube entrance.

But Dox was still a senior staff officer and problem solving was second nature to her. She began collecting scan data from the otherwise pitch black bottom of the turbolift shaft that was her destination and didn't like what she was seeing. "Mr. Sexton... my HUD is showing me massive amounts of movement down there. So much that it's clouding the data. Tricorder scans can't confirm the size or number of potential hostiles."

Looking back up at the more experienced security officer, Dox continued. "if it's one big hostile or a thousand little ones, the sensors can't get a fix on. Just that the reactor chamber is filled with whatever's down there."

"Ok, based on your experience and knowledge of your equipment, I'm of a mind that going down there would be suicidal at best. And I see no sense in getting killed for a rock we can destroy from the ship or enough well placed explosives right here. Do you concur?" Asked Alex speaking to Dox.

Thinking for a second, Dox replied. "Without knowing exactly what kind of shielding the reactor core has or how far it actually is from the bottom of the shaft, that seems too risky. Our orders were to set the core to self distruct. The bottom of the shaft is a good... 45 meters down from here and we need to be 100 percent sure we can destroy this station utterly. The reactor core will atomize everything here where the ships weapons might just scatter the station into debris flying in every direction. Which means potential zombies and who knows what else floating through the system."

Looking down into the darkness below, Dox pondered their situation and their orders from Commander Paris. "Obviously, we can't just drop charges down there and risk blowing the station while we're in it, but..." Suddenly, her armors sensors began sounding off.

"Wait. Whatever's down there might be aware we're up here. I've got activity. Several motion signatures moving toward us. Really small." Dox continued, moving her weapon to a ready position."

"Phaser rifles to wide beam dispersal patterns, and fire as soon as you see something. Watch friendly fire."

After a tense few quiet seconds, a cluster of what could best be described as small, pirannah-like fish creatures swam through the weightless environment towards the away team. They bared enhanced, metallic teeth and had the same infected palor to their flesh as the other creatures encountered thus far as they moved quickly out of the shadows up the shaft.

The group opened fire as instructed by Sexton, but the high setting at a wide dispersal field burnt away the organics of the first wave, leaving a metalized endoskeleton and chattering teath to float away in the zero gravity. But the waves of creatures were coming faster then they could fire and we're advancing too close too fast.

The level of Sexton's voice rose to a yell. "Dox detach. Get back to that jefferies tube and get it open. The rest of you help me lay down a steady stream of fire that will slow them until she gets that tube open. It's the only one we know has nothing alive or dead alive in it. Now move!" Yelled Alex as he lit up the on coming flesh eaters.

"On it." Dox pushed off the side of the shaft wall up towards the sealed Jefferies Tube, moving quickly through the air aided by the enhancements of the EVA armor. Once there, she adjusted the settings of her phaser to cut through the sealed hatch and yank it back open.

"The tube is open." She yelled down to the advancing team while she rejoind the effort to keep the advancing creatures at bay from her position.

They were getting very close. And Alex Happy to hear about the progress on the jefferies tube hatch. When all of a sudden a hand grabbed Alex from behind and yanked him out of reach of several flesh eaters. He had lost track of where they were but Johnson saw them trying to flank him and came to his rescue. Thereby finding himself in a bit of danger. Alex quickly regrouped and returned the favor. They leap frogged back up the shaft until they reached Dox.

"We still need to get down there to set the self destruct." Dox was thinking out loud as Sexton and the security detail reached her position, which was much more defendable. "And we can't risk grenades down the shaft. We..." Then a thought occurred to her.

"Those things can only attack us currently because there's no gravity. If we can restore even minimal gravity at the bottom of the shaft, we can ground them." She looked at Sexton as she spoke for feedback one way or another.

Alex knew this was dangerous.

Tapping the side of her helmet, Dox tried calling up to the rest of the away team. "Dox to Dedjoy, are you..." Then she paused for a second as she heard nothing but static. "Dox to away team... Dox to Hera."

Looking back at Sexton while they all maintained fire on the advancing pirannah-like creatures, Dox cursed in Romulan. "Hnave! Something's causing interference."

"Everybody in the Jeffries tube quickly." As a couple munchi creatures got close enough to bite the armour, but not pierce the suit itself. Truly a frightening moment. As they pulled the hatch on the jefferies tube, they could hear the monsters biting at the hatch.

Just then the station shook violently, as the stations weapons fired once and then went dead!

Pausing for a second, Dox looked up as she spoke. "Sounds like the external defenses." Then she refocused on the threat gnawing at the hatch they were hiding behind.

"Which still leaves us with our dilemma. We can't sit here forever and we can't not deal with the reactor as ordered. Plus, now we have no idea if those things are going to try going further up the turbolift shaft to come up behind the rest of the away team."

Tapping on the side of her helmets heads up display, she sighed slightly. "The sensor data says that they're still focused on that hatch. Good, that means they aren't going after Paris, Dael and Dedjoy."

Then the anxious officer called out to her armors built in computer. "Computer. Call up station schematics. Locate the nearest access terminal to the stations internal gravitational systems."

After a moment, there was a light chirp as the data came up on her HUD and Dox smiled slighlty. "Thank you, Jefferies tubes. Lieutenant Sexton, The nearest access point is 18 meters back down this tube. I'm going to reinstate partial gravity in the bottom of the shaft. It should pull those things out of the shaft to the bottom where you and your team can deal with them a lot easier."

Realizing she was basically making orders at this point, Dox pulled back slightly to defer to the experienced Security officer. "Sound good?"

"That sounds good, let me know when the gravity is restored below, and me and my guys will get down there and clear the way for you too do your thing with the reactor core overload." Said Sexton

Floating over to the access terminal, Dox pulled the access cable out of the control panel and plugged her EVA suit into the stations systems. After a few seconds the system schematics came up on the young Lieutenant's HUD.

"Hnave." Dox cursed under her breath in Romulan. "Okay... need to reroute just enough power to restore gravity to this lower section without taking any power from the hangar or the upper levels." She muttered to herself as she worked her way through the complex computer system.

"There's not enough power available to..." Then Dox stopped and looked down at her own EVA suit and reached around to the small of her back and pulled the extra battery pack for her weapons systems and plugged the dense cartridge into the interface.

"Okay, Lieutenant Sexton. This will give us limited area gravity for approximately ten minutes tops! I'm rerouting the system now." Dox worked feverishly to route the power pack into the system. "Get ready. I've almost got the connections made."

"Ok guys this is the plan. Once gravity is restored, I'm going to frag the area twice, and we pop in, kill anything moving and secure the area. Dox will join us and we get out of here with plenty time to retrieve the rest of the team and we get back on Thor and get out of here. Any questions?" He asked, but the security team knew what they had to do and they knew the risks involved.

With a hum, the power to the section they were in was restored as the sound of hundreds and hundreds of zombie Piranhas flopping to the bottom of the turbolift shaft could be heard. "There we are. Ten minutes!" Dox yelled.

"Ok they are playing our song, let's do this." Said Alex as he released the hatch just far enough to drop in a grenade. It went off about half way down the shaft. Then he removed another one, changed the timing so this one would make it to the bottom of the shaft. "Fire in the hole." He yelled and threw the second one in. It fell to the bottom of the shaft and went off on impact. Anything within ten meters should have been toast.

"No grenades!" Dox yelled. "The reactor core is just off the bottom of that shaft!" But Sexton and his men were already on the move. "Imirrhlhhse!" The young pilot cursed to herself as she disconnected her suits system from the interface to follow the trigger happy soldiers.

"Ok, that's our cue, I'll go first." Replied Alex, but the bigger of the two men, Johnson pushed past him. "Sorry Lt, but you got to get us home. I'll go first." Offered the ex Marine turned Star Fleet Security. "That's very generous, soldier, but I lead from the front." Replied Alex "I'll split the difference with you, we go together back to back." And the security officer nodded. Alex gave a four count and pushed the hatch open. Anchored to the edge of the hatch the two men floated up and out then angled downward. The momentum changed as the gravitational pull got greater. Ten meters from the bottom, Alex yelled. "Recon by fire, wide beam, you sweep right I'll sweep left." The grenades had done their job, the shaft was clear so they started firing the moment they entered the chamber to the reactor room.

The Piranhas flopped on the floor like fish out of water. A few bipedal creatures not seen before also emerged. Johnson took out the first two, and Sexton the next two. This was indeed a hot LZ and no one man on his own would have made it. Just then Reynolds and Smith dropped in and picked up the slack. They were clearing an area of roughly room size. 20/30 and there was stuff still coming at them from every possible angle.

Just as they had things under control, Dox ran past the soldiers and headed straight for the terminal. No body had to say anything. They all knew what to do and got on with the business at hand.

At one point, Johnson turned to tell Alex they were looking good. No sooner than the last word left his mouth did a spurt of blood stain the inside of his visor and he fell to his knees. Behind him stood a thing with what looked like silver swords for hands. Alex yelled, "Johnson". Too late to help him. But just in time to kill that monstrosity before it killed another member of his team, so far that was Jones and Johnson lost to them. Who would be next? Thought Alex to himself. "Tighten the perimeter around Dox." Yelled Sexton

As they did so, the very deck they stood on seemed to be creeping toward them. "Frag out." Yelled Sexton as he threw a grenade into a dark area that seemed to be teaming with creatures slowly progressing on them. He knew it was dangerous to use a grenade but he had no choice. The flow stemmed for a moment and then slowly started again. "Soon the phasers will need mag changes, we go left to right, how copy." Yelled Alex as he reminded the team, Smith and Reynolds responded as Dox plugged her suits interface into the reactor cores computer to initiate the self destruct cycle.

Smith stopped firing and changed his power pack on his Phaser rifle, Reynolds was next. And last was Alex. As the cycle of phaser fire continued, they could see they were running out of time. Smith was going into A frantic meltdown. His eyes had glazed over. Sexton had seen this before in combat. There would be no reaching him now, he was on autopilot.

"OH SO YOU WANT SOME OF THIS, HERE YOU GO, TAKE THAT YOU MAD MONSTER SHITS. AND YOU OVER THERE, YOU WANT SOME TOO. HERE YOU GO, EAT SHIT AND DIE YOU GENETICALLY ENHANCED FREAKS. I won't BE LETTING YOU LEAVE THIS ROCK YOU SONS OF BITCHES." Yelled Smith in his berserker Rage. But he was, in fact, being very effective, though his advancing in one direction started to cause a shift and allowed things to get through on either side of him. Alex managed to kill the ones that Smith missed or got to close to Reynolds.

But for some reason, Reynolds jumped out from behind Alex and went shoulder to shoulder with Smith. This was not looking good. Two of his team now succumbed to the pressures of combat. Alex looked to Dox. "What's the hold-up? We got a get out of here!" He yelled

For her part, Dox ignored the posturing as she navigated through the stations complex security protocols to access the self destruct protocols. The system was layered with redundancies like a maze that the Romulan redhead was struggling to crack. 'Ila or Thex would be through this and back in the damn Runabout by now. Focus, Mnhei'sahe.' she thought to herself as she worked.

After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, Dox had accessed the systems self destruct mechanism and set the countdown to begin, cued by the sensors in the hangar bay for when the Runabout was clear.

Unplugging from the system, Dox turned to Sexton. "It's set!"

Alex who had never released his line, looked up. He could swear he heard voices, so he yelled. "Get to the shuttle, now!" Hoping it was the rest of the away team. Lot of good it did with his visor down. Hopefully, the Comms picked it up since they were in a more or less straight line. Alex Looked back at Dox and confirmed that it was done.

He gave the order to get out. "Guys it's time we left this party. Everybody on me, let's go." But the rage had taken them, Smith and Reynolds, in the few seconds, that he looked up and then to Dox, Smith and Reynolds had moved too far forward to pull them out. There were organisms on their EVA suits and one had all but breached Reynolds helmet from the rear. It would, in fact, reach her skull in a matter of seconds.

"Dox, get gone now. I'll handle this." Said Alex. But the young pilot had not seen what Sexton had seen entering the two soldiers helmets and hesitantly deferred to him in a situation he had the greater experience in. She connected her EVA suit to Sexton's line and was hoisted by the recall gear up into the shaft.

He was tempted to hit his line and go forward, but he knew it would be suicide. Smith and Reynolds were firing on pure instinct and had long given up on making it out. But he could spare them any pain. He raised himself up a safe distance and then reached down and pulled his Colt Commander .45 as a tear of compassion came to his eye. He blinked took aim and fired two rounds. One to the back of each of his last two remaining team members. As they fell forward and were engulfed by the tide of creatures one aiming for him. He took one final shot, killed it and hit the retrieval gear on his suit and was whisked away to a somewhat safe distance. But his team was lost.

Finally, Dox's battery pack had failed and the gravity had released, leaving Sexton floating free again.

As he met up with Dox near the edge of the shaft. His face told the story.

"They did not suffer!" Was all he said as the two reached the edge of the open shaft to the main corridor to the hangar bay. Dox looked at Sexton with a stern expression on her face. "What does that mean, Lieutenant?" But Sexton didn't answer as he floated up past her.

At the edge of the shaft, they encountered Commander Paris, who had doubled back to retrieve the team. Or what was left of them.

"Where are the rest of your men, Lieutenant?" Paris asked grimly.

Alex paused only a fraction of a second. “All gave some and some gave all. Unfortunately, they carried out their duties to the very end.” And he turned and headed for the Shuttle. The tears would come later. Right now he was mad as hell.

On the platform behind him as he walked away, Dox was staring at the security officer with thinly veiled anger in her eyes. In front of those eyes, in her HUD displays was a three-dimensional replay of the events of the last few minutes recorded and saved by her EVA suits computer. Of Reynolds and Smith shot in the back of the head by Sexton for reasons unknown.

The young Lieutenant ran the scenario of failures through her head, rethinking every step that she should have exerted command and didn't. But all of this was thought and processed in a matter of brief seconds as the angry aviatrix resaved the suit data as she looked at Paris. "When we get out of here, I'll be filing a full report, Commander."

The pilot's tone was one of barely restrained Anger. Anger at Sexton and anger at herself for allowing the mission to have gone so wrong. But that anger was checked as Dox continued. "But first, we have to get out of here."

"I very much look forward to that report," Paris growled. Six dead security personnel on one mission bespoke of a serious failure of leadership, and those six men's blood was now on her hands for bringing them along. Those six men had families that would have to be contacted and told the news. Those six men were dead because she had sent them off with a flippant undisciplined commander who had a jingoistic slogan for a report. The deaths of those six men was the result of Rita Paris' command.

And she would by god know why.

Alex stood looking off into the distance. As a security officer, he was good and did his job. But as an investigator, he was going to find out why this required such a big sacrifice, and somebody was going to pay.

-=USS Hera Team=-
Enalia, Thex, French, Clemens, Sonak, Gonadie
The Hera will be outside dealing with the defenses which have mostly been taken out by pirates
As soon as they're done, Orion pirates show up
If we take those out too fast, we'll have to face a Breen warship


-=Away Mission Team=-
Rita, Asa, Dox, Dedjoy, Sexton, Kodria, 5 edible security
Runabout Thor
Simple two part dungeon crawl facing off against mutated infection ridden zombie things
Part one from the shuttlebay to the central turbolift shaft
Part two from there to the command center
Once in the command center, get the data, trigger the self destruct
Then get back to the shuttle without being eaten and escape before the station blows

-------------------------

Az: That's the basic outline!

The air on the bridge of the USS Hera was tense as the ship came out of warp in the middle of the asteroid and nebula field, already at red alert. It was obvious why this installation was here, in the middle of this system. There was no way from a mid to long range scan that anyone would have even suspected that a base was even here. Even with defense platforms and swirling debris, hardly anything registered on sensors at close range.

Mona spoke up from the helm. "Captain, entering the field now. Sensors are barely picking up the remains of about two dozen weapons platforms and I think a dozen more that are still active. Installation is on sensors now."

Enalia leaned forward on her command chair. "On screen. Lieutenant Sonak, please confirm those weapons platforms and signal the Thor to launch when ready. I want to know what happened here. Lieutenant French, ready on the weapons. We'll be finishing off the rest of the platforms."

"Acknowledged," the chief science officer replied, looking at his sensor readings a moment before replying. "Detecting five quantum torpedo autolaunchers, four phaser IV autoturrets and three tractor beam holders, all with short range scanners, EM-hardened target lock computer systems and camouflaging holoemitters. Power levels and active scanning signals confirm that they are active."

As Enalia called out the orders, the viewscreen was dominated by the image of a red and purple swirling mass of fog with rocks and debris in it. In the middle was an asteroid with an installation built into it. On one side was a hangar bay door that was blasted open and on several other sides were small domed city like structures.

"Weapons ready ma'am," said French, as she stood in front of tactical. Taking notes and getting ready to deploy security personnel throughout the ship. She tapped her communicator.

=A= "French to all Security personnel. Take your stations and suit up." Was all she said. And the security area of the ship lit up with activity. It took a minute to put on the armor so the away team detail were now getting dressed. There was no way of knowing what they would encounter, so prep for every possible scenario, was her orders.

The Vulcan at the main science station turned towards the command seat.

"Captain, I would offer a tactic to protect the Thor from those weapon systems. Deploy a full spread of torpedoes along this pattern of dispersal," he said, showing her and French twelve curving trajectories apparently aimed at nothing. "If we modify their signature to imitate that of a scoutship, their high power output should have the automated weapons react and fire on them, betraying their exact position for Lieutenant French to neutralize them with our own weaponry.It could also betray any other defense system we may not be aware of."

Sonak was a scientist. In any endeavor, there was always a margin of error, even with their advanced sensors. He was obviously trying to minimize as much as possible this margin.

"Between that and the access codes Dedjoy is going to try, I'd say we have more than a fair chance." Enalia grinned wider. "Make it so. Let's turn those platforms into debris."

Clemens looked up from his scanners. "Ah'm gonna recommend that we initiate random helm maneuvers b'tween each salvo, so all the torps comin' from th'same place doesn't paint us as th'soahce. Be a good idea t'jump on all three axes with e'vruh shot, if'n we can. Ah'll be tryin' t'look fer holes in their sensor cov'rage, based on th'firin' patterns.""

It really did make sense. They would be aimed at a fixed point in space, fooling the sensors of the outpost. Thereby divulging the positions of all the stations gun locations so she could take them out. French liked the Idea.

"Send me what you have and I'll do the rest." Replied French "It's a good plan for sure!"

"Sensors locked on the area to detect any new hazard," assured Sonak returning his eyes and fingers to his console."Sending data to tactical."

Once she received the data, French went to work plotting the courses of the twelve torpedos. She also initiated launch sequences for high yield phaser blasts to correspond with any guns that fired on those torpedoes.

"Ok, so what I've done is, taken the information given, and plotted those torpedoes. I've also locked the scanners on the station, so that when a gun is fired at the torpedos, its position is automatically logged and locked and ready to be fired upon with no lag time ma'am. All I need is your order to fire!" Said French.

"Fire away then," ordered Enalia.

"Aye aye Captain. Torpedoes away." Announced French

It did not take long before system that were assumed dead, jumped to life and pulse canons on the outpost began to fire. There were a few close near intercepts, but for the most part, all of the torpedoes were missed. But what they had not accounted for was the next response from the outposts canons. As luck would have it, had French merely programmed the torpedoes to fire and not programmed her phasers to fire at the station once they were away, the Hera would have had a very nasty surprise, because the canons on the station began to lock onto the source of the torpedos. And before they could fire, French's program took over and fired all phasers at the station.

The station shook and the weapons soon fell dead again. And with no one present to get them back on line, the outpost was now defenseless.

"Captain, thank goodness the weapons were programmed the way they were. Or we might have been too late to stop the canons from firing on us." Replied French

"Indeed..." Enalia checked the sensor readouts on the arm of her chair. With the interference from the soup in this system they were all but blind from anything outside the immediate area and she didn't like it. "Continue overwatch for the away mission."

"Bridge to Thor; you are cleared for launch. Safest route input into your navigation computer," Sonak announced over shipcom as ordered by the captain.

But no sooner had the words left her mouth than a trio of small pirate ships entered the system, intent on grabbing some loot. "And we have pirates. Looks like House Dranda. Lock phasers on their weapons and open fire. Watch for grapplers and boarding craft. Helm, evasive pattern omega three."

"Transponder reading confirming your assessment, Captain," the Vulcan at the science station reported.

As the mighty USS Hera once more sprang to life, the smaller pirate ships began firing on the intel ship with bold abandon with plasma beams.

As the pirate ships moved into position French had a flashback to an old under cover mission as a Pirate. It seemed like another life. She quickly tapped her comm badge. “ All security personnel prep for possible boarders. All deck and secure weapons array and engineering.” After which she targeted the weapons and bridge of the Pirate ship. “Phaser pattern Omega in effect. “ a she kept firing until she got the requested result.

“Captain we took minor damage. But the other two ship are taking flanking positions. “ yelled French.

Sonak turned again towards his commanding officer.

"Captain; I can program our transporter system with a link to our internal sensors. If any lifeform appears on board without a properly issued combadge, our transporter system will instantly kick in and immediately send them back the way they came."

"Cap'n, ah'm workin' on programmin' th'sensuhs t'catalogue evruh bit'uh'd'bris we've made durin' th'fight so far, t'give us a view of th'system that'll point out anythin' movin' unduh its own powuh out theah," the Slick Spectre reported, head down and hands flying. "This can't be all the scavengers out here."

Enalia grinned, knowing exactly what the Intel Chief meant. "There are probably more out there waiting to see how we handle these three. Let's show them we're more than the normal Federation starship. Full phaser alpha strike on both remaining ships when ready. Load quantum torpedoes but hold off on those for now."

Down in engineering Thex and her team were doing there best to keep the ship going as the pirates peppered the ship shields. Though the console in front of the andorian was keeping her mind fully occupied as her hands shot across the console. =^= Thex to the bridge one of the orion ships is trying to hack into our systems. Firewalls are holding, but i don't want them dropping something nasty on us." She said calmly keeping her eyes on the screen.

Enalia should have expected something like that. Hitting the comms, Enalia replied to Thex. "It's probably a modified HA7 virus. The Artans use one now and then as well. Keep an eye on non essential systems like lighting control or waste extraction and shut down all comm relays. We'll have to switch to comm badge standalone mode for now."

" Rodger, " replied Thex as she got to work. She had to keep these pirates out of their ship.

Sonak again faced the command chair.

"Captain; there is an antique but effective programming algorithm I know of that can send their own virus back into their own systems."

"Get it ready then," replied Enalia, not skipping a beat.

French heard the captain's orders and went to work. Full Alpha Strike protocol was input and the Phasers lit up on the tactical board. Once all the energy needed was allocated she got a green light. French input the positions of the two flanking ships and locked sensors on them, just as she loaded the Quantum Torpedoes.

"Captain, Alpha Strike awaiting your order. Torpedoes are loaded as well, in holding pattern, just a button push away! Standing ready!" She said and stood up straight and brought her hands together behind her back. She meant business.

"Both defensive programs ready for activation, Captain," also confirmed Sonak.

"Activate those programs and fire phasers!" called the Captain, watching as the orange beams lanced out. The two pirate ships were doing their best to double team the larger USS Hera, but they were in for a surprise.

As Thex kept her eyes on the ships an idea spread through her head. With a grin she tapped her combadge. =^= lieutenant Sonak can you switch off your transporter program for a second. I can send the orions virus back at them through there transporter and use it to hijack any implants they have on any captives and cargo on the ship." She said calmly still doing her job of keeping the shields up.

The answer came back just as quick.

"I can do better than that, Lieutenant Commander; I can hook up your program with my own rebounding firewall and piggyback it through the transporter defense program."

Four seconds later, she received a confirmation signal on her own console.

"All defense programs are active. Input when ready, Lieutenant Commander."

French activated the programs. "Aye, programs activate!" She replied

With the defense programs active as soon as the pirates tried their hacking tricks, they were in for a surprise. Not only were they being blasted with phasers, but their entire computer systems died at the same time. It was all they could do to warp out at a factor of 1.2, limping on manual.

Enalia leaned back in her chair as they did so. "And that's that..." Or at least it would have been if their next competitor hadn't warped in right at that moment - a pair of Breen Chel Grett warships which immediately opened fire with polaron weapons. "...or not. Reinforce shields. Full quantum spread. Fire all weapons. Evasive pattern Theta three. Target weapons and engines."

As Mona sent the Hera into a spiral trying to evade the incoming fire from the two Breen ships, they still closed fast, intent on catching the Nebula class cruiser.

"Shields holding at 88 percent Captain. Free fire on forward phaser rings is hammering on their shields... quantum torpedo away, driving them out of formation into our firing arcs... direct hits, shields at 23 and 40 percent on Breen warships," French reported from tactical, her fingers flying over the controls as inside she worried about Alex on the away mission. Commander Paris had it in for him, and never gave him a fair shake. She hoped nothing was going wrong on the mission, but the cold feeling in her gut told her Alex was in trouble.

"Intruder alert! Intruder..."

The intraship sensor warning died almost as soon as it started as the first boarding wave of Breen warriors materialized on several decks, including the bridge... and barely visible, they faded out again.

"Transporter reflection program successful," stated Sonak impassively. "Boarders have been repelled back to their ships... with the space pirates' virus I added to the procedure from our last encounter."

On the boarding Breen ship, some lights started to flicker and go out, indicating some system failures.

That was one essentially out of the fight at least, thought Enalia as she hoped no more surprises waited just out of sensor range for them. "Alright, let's focus on the other one."

"You got it Captain! I'm gonna blow this popsicle stand right now, watch my dust!" As she spoke, the tactical chief's fingers sent commands to the phaser crews, who brought the phasers around the ring together to form one large dense beam. Targeting the active vessel, she waited for it to bank into a turn, then in that elongated second of broadside expose, the phaser beam lanced out to spear through the Breen warship, causing cataclysmic plasma explosions to illuminate local space, a miniature sun briefly flaring in the darkness of space.

"You want I should blow away the crippled one too, Captain? French asked as she targeted the crippled Breen warship's bridge.

Before Enalia could respond, the ship had warped away. "Doesn't look like there's a need... What's the status of the Thor?"

The ensign at Operations replied back quickly. "Ma'am, they've just left the station. Reading... five lifesigns and a positronic signature."

Enalia's demeanor turned grim as the runabout returned to the USS Hera and the station lit up in a large ball of energy, the reactor having finally gone critical after so many years inactive. "Get them onboard and get us out of here. I want to leave this place as far behind us as possible."

The Runabout Thor was pulling safely into Shuttlebay Two of the starship Hera after a costly away mission to the recently destroyed Section 31 asteroid research station. Six security crewmembers had lost their lives, and who the remained of the away team sat in silence as Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox landed the weary vessel on deck, where it was immediately surrounded by crewmen in EVA suits, who were spraying foam decontaminant liberally over every inch of the small but tough ship’s hull.

Still in their sealed MACO EVA armored suits to keep them all free of potential contagion from the horrors they encountered on the station, the team prepared to disembark as Dox powered down the Runabout, the hatch still sealed. Dox sat at the controls for a moment, angrily thinking on her failures in the mission. Commander Rita Paris had been reviewing the logs of the MACO armor suits, as of course it was all recorded for review, and she very much wanted to know what had happened on the mission with more than half the landing party dead. Yeoman Ila Dedjoy and Doctor Asa Dael were talking to the stations only survivor, an Android of Vulcan appearance that they were speaking to like one would a small child. In the rear of the craft, the sole remaining security officer, Lt. Alex Sexton sat quietly.

In fact, the trip had passed in stony silence punctuated only by clipped communication, the minimum necessary to keep them on task. While the Hera had been involved in ship to ship combat in their absence, no significant damage had occurred, and the Thor had encountered no resistance upon their return. Now it was for everyone to be transported to the decontamination bay, which would occur by transporter for everyone but Commander Paris, who would be physically relocated, armor and all, to decon.

“Prepare for transport to Decontamination, I’ll be joining you there shortly,” Paris explained, prepping the team for what was to come. The usually jocular Commander was neither, her countenance quite clearly grave and dour over the disastrous mission.

Standing up, Dox walked past Commander Paris, gesturing the other to follow her as she moved to the rear of the Runabout. Rita Paris was her First officer, but also among the best friends the young Romulan pilot had ever had, and Dox was extremely aware of how well transporters and Rita Paris did NOT get along. As such, since Runabouts were fairly roomy, she wanted to put as much physical distance between the away team and Rita for when they transported.

With the crewmembers assembled in the rear, Dox called forward. "Ready for transport." and in a moment, they had vanished in a stream of sparkles.

Once the transport was complete, Doctor Dael led the way into the white room that housed the decontamination showers. The room held 10 high volume shower heads hanging from the ceiling as well as small jets interspersed throughout the room. Each shower area held a collection of gels and scrubbers that would need to be used during the process. There was a large box marked “Disposal” next to the door that was attached to an sterilization and recycling device.

“Well folks, time to get to know each other better I guess,” Dael said in a grim attempt at humor. “Please remove your armor and clothing and place everything in the receptacle by the door. Once you are fully undressed, please stand directly underneath a showerhead. Once the commander arrives we will commence.”

Dael led by example and stripped down to nothing and placed all their equipment in the sterilization box. They were wondering if armor ever saw two trips out in the field or if it always needed repairs by the end of a mission. The fact anyone survived before the MACO armor was invented was starting to be more and more of a wonder. Once everything was in the box, Dael, pressed a red button on the side, allowing all the armor to be expelled into space.

“Next please, I need to assist Kodria,” they said simply to the room.

Walking over to the now visibly concerned Kodria, Dael said gently, “I know this is scary, but it’s all to make sure we are all safe, ok? I know you can’t talk right now, but you can nod. I need you to do exactly what I say. If you aren’t sure about something, raise your hand and we will work it out. Right now I need you to take your clothes off, ok? Then put them in the box by the door like I did.”

Normally extremely self-conscious about her short, rotund body, Dox was lost in thought and still stewing in anger over the mission and simply did as she was instructed. In the moment, she was too distracted to be anxious as she stripped herself of the MACO armor and her own undergarments, placing them in the sterilization compartment.

Looking up, the distracted young Romulan woman snapped back into the moment as she suddenly became aware of the situation and that she was standing in front of the crew, completely naked. Her usual anxiety came rushing back turning her stomach inside out to compound her anger and her guilt.

Under normal circumstances Sexton might have quipped about this situation. But that was not about to happen. Holding back the tears was all that he was about right now. And hoping his actions would be understood. Alex had not seen Korda. And when he did, he restrained himself from confronting the Android.

Leading Kodria by the hand, Asa helped her strip of all her clothing and directed her where to stand underneath a showerhead. "OK, when the water comes on, do like I do ok? When I hold my arms out, you hold your arms out. When I start scrubbing my back, you scrub yours, ok?" Asa asked, and gave the android a hug when she wide-eyed nodded yes in understanding.

Standing under one of the showerheads waiting for Commander Paris to arrive so they could begin, Dox tilted her head curiously at Asa and the newcomer. While Kodira appeared adult in form, Asa was being extremely nurturing and the moment cut through the anxious pilots anger and frustration for just a moment.

The android with them did as she was told, then started gasping as her organelle lungs started reviving on their own. After a few seconds, she was able to cough up some phlegm and her vocalizer was able to make some rough sounds again at the very least as she gasped for air. Dropping to her knees, she was able to squeak out a few words. "Air... so... long... must... clean..."

With that, Kodira shakily got back to her feet and started opening all of her access panels so she could blast them all clean. "Thank... you..."

Dedjoy chuckled softly. She was no stranger to communal showering, though it had been a long time since she'd done it. On the bright side, the UV rays in here felt wonderful on her skin and she felt cleaner already. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I could spend a few hours in here."

Standing with her arms crossed in front of herself, Dox mumbled in response. "Yeah... I'm... I'm ready to be done." But she snapped out of her preoccupation when she looked back over to over to Asa and their new android friend. "Is... everything okay Asa? Do you need any help?"

Sensing the hidden meaning in the question, Asa replied, “All is well. This is Kodria, a lovely android we were fortunate enough to rescue from the station. She was commissioned 12 years ago, but also in the future, because space is weird. But she’s a very brave person and we are going to help her get acclimated here once this is done. Once Commander Paris gets here we can turn on the water portion of the shower, which has chemicals that work in conjunction with the different phases of light and the gels used when we shower to make sure we kill off any germs that would hurt anyone. Doesn’t a nice, steamy shower sound lovely? By the way Kodria, if you want to you can call me Asa or Doc. ”

"Hello, Asa." Kodria was breathing easier now and able to speak more reliably if still somewhat digitized, her lungs recovering quickly as they provided oxygen to her other organelles. "I'm Kodria. I was built by the Vulcan Science Commission in 2480. My specialty is data processing and scientific analysis. I'm developing my personality and emotions at a slower rate, so... Umm... I have to be careful of the Temporal Prime Directive, but still let you know what kind of care I'll need... And I want to be helpful..."

Smiling indulgently, Asa replied, “You already have been, you helped us solve a mystery. And we certainly don’t want you to violate the Temporal Prime Directive. I, for one, prefer to be surprised by the future. What’s the fun in knowing everything? I’m very glad you are here, I hope we can be friends.”

Listening, but only half paying attention as her attention was still locked in the events of the mission, Dox followed up somewhat flatly. "Well... hello, Kodira. My name is Mnhei'sahe." She smiled, though it was slightly forced as her mind was elsewhere.

It was at that moment that the crate on a hoverlift arrived, and maneuvered into place with the hatch of the outer decon chamber. Once the seal was locked and the hatch had cycled, the crate opened to reveal Commander Paris, still in her distinctive golden armor. Wordlessly she nodded to the rest of the landing party and proceeded to follow the decontamination protocols, shucking the armored EVA suit and dumping it unceremoniously into the sterilization recycler. The TR116C2, her phaser and the entire lot went in, followed by the skeinsuit beneath. Stripped down, the Amazonian astronaut looked out darkly from beneath her brows, clearly seething. When she spoke, her words were clipped and short, quite unlike the easygoing executive’s usual pattern. “Decon showers, everyone, move in.”

It was clear from her body language that public nudity wasn’t something the fulsome first officer was comfortable with, but she was dealing with it as she was internalizing her turbulent emotions. Her face was set in a mask of grim neutrality.

Once everyone was standing beneath a shower head, Asa turned on the high pressure water.

“Please start with everyone standing with arms out so we can turn on the side jets. Legs shoulder length apart.” Seeing the rest of the crew and Kodria move to comply, Asa turned on the side jets and also took up the position.

“Hold here for thirty seconds. When you see my lower my arms, you can too. At that point please apply the green gel in the holder on the wall all over your body and hair. Then using a scrubber, go back under the water and thoroughly rinse. Repeat this process for the blue gel and white cream. Take your time and be sure to get every nook and cranny. I’m serious, any folds in your skin, any little bit of crease- get it in there. None of this will hurt any of you beyond a bit of dry skin, and we can fix that later. When you are done with all three gels, continue to stand under the water until everyone else is done. We will begin to dry at the same time as well,” Asa instructed, and moved to begin the process.

“If you are ever unsure, speak up. If you need help reaching something, speak up.” The doctor’s voice was calm and steady- the voice of a medical professional giving instructions in their realm of expertise. However if anyone had looked they would see Asa’s hands trembling slightly and the beginnings of tears forming in their eyes.

Determined not to let Kodria see how sad they were at the loss of life, Asa pinched their nose and swallowed. It was an old trick to stop from crying they picked up as a child…while there was no physiological reason the action stopped tears, Asa believed it so deeply as a child that the placebo effect still worked and the action still held power.

All Alex wanted now. Was something to drink and sleep. He followed instructions and did as he was told.

As she showered, Paris kept her head turned, keeping an eye on the unstable security investigator. Having seen what she'd seen, she would never trust him at her back again, lest he decide that she too needed 'mercy killing'. Rage and bile filled her mouth, and the outraged officer swallowed it. Calm and professional was called for here, and this would be handled by the book. In the meanwhile, damned if she would let Sexton out of her line of sight- particularly with vulnerable individuals in a contained space within his reach.

Having been through similar decon a time or two back on the SS Haspatia, Kodria was used to the procedure since she wasn't nearly as susceptible to dangers as her biological counterparts were. Even in the short time she served with them, she had built some meaningful relationships with the crew on the small scientific survey ship. Looking up and around at the others in the decon chamber as she went through the various scrubs, she realized that the mood was a lot darker than she remembered things like this should be. She knew a few of these people in the future, but she couldn't exactly tell them that...

Sighing internally, she hung her head, wondering what she could do. "Aunt Rita?" Kodria began, the slip tumbling out of her before she could stop it. "Thank you for rescuing me." She then smiled as best she could, her various access ports across her arms, legs, body, and even the one on the back of her head waving in a seemingly happy fashion.

Seemingly snapping out of a trance, the buxom blonde smiled at the petite android. "You're welcome, little one. You were very brave and clever to find a way to signal for help, and I'm glad we could get to you in time." Despite her rage, the little android still seemed to be an innocent, and she was the one bright spot of this mission. Those six men had laid down their lives 'All gave some and some gave all' she heard as she watched the replay in her mind Sexton executing his own men gangland style. Blinking the image away, she forced a smile. "Well talk later, I promise."

The rest of the decontamination passed in thick and morbid silence, each of the crewmen who were being sterilized so thoroughly externally being eaten up by toxicity within them. All had heavy hearts, and none were celebratory of a successful mission.

With six men dead, it was hard to feel anything but the blood on their hands.

After action report:
Lt. Mnhei'sahe Dox
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Hera

The following is my official report regarding the activities both performed and observed while in the execution of duty during the away mission to the Section 31b Instillation asteroid.

Ingress to the station was made on the Runabout THOR with a landing party consisting of myself, Commander Rita Paris, Chief Medical Officer Asa Dael, Yeoman Ila Dedjoy, Lieutenant Alex Sexton, and security personnel Reynolds, Jones, Johnson, Smith, Palmiotti, and Bunche. We were all outfitted with Starfleet MACO EVA suits and advanced weaponry. Inside the hangar bay, the team encountered our initial resistance in the form of seemingly deceased but reanimated former humanoid creatures that, upon further medical scans from Doctor Dael had been both augmented with cybernetics and subject to extensive biological agents rendering them in a predatory state.

Security officer Jones was killed in action upon exiting the Thor by one of the creatures, but the remaining security team cleared the hanger of threats. Security personnel, Palmiotti and Bunche were ordered to guard the Thor while the rest of the team made its way to the primary turboshaft where we split into groups. I was assigned to accompany Lt. Sexton and the remaining security personnel to descend down to locate and set the stations reactor to self destruct while the remaining members of the away team headed up to retrieve the data and search for the source of the distress signal.

On our way down, the security team and I eliminated a number of humanoid threats. Near the bottom of the shaft, we encountered additional hostiles in the form of reanimated, cyborg enhanced creatures resembling Pirannah that were capable of controlled flight due to the limited, toxic atmosphere and the zero gravity environment. The creatures were too numerous to contain or force back with our weapons as they advanced in greater numbers for each wave destroyed. At this point, Lt. Sexton ordered the team into a nearby Jefferies Tube for cover.

At this point, I had informed Lt. Sexton and the team of the dangers of attempting to use grenades in the shaft due to our proximity to the reactor core and instituted a plan to reinstate limited gravity for approximately ten minutes in our section of the shaft to immobilize the Pirannah creatures.

Once gravity was reinstated, Lt. Sexton proceeded to release two grenades into the shaft against my prior recommendation. I voiced my objections to the actions but failed to do so as an order nor did I choose to take command of the situation when I became aware that the behavior of the security team had become erratic and potentially dangerous to the success of our mission. We then proceeded to the bottom and made our way to the computer interface of the reactor core.

Once there, I proceeded to interface with the reactor systems and began the process of setting up the system to self destruct. Due to the complex security of the computer system, this required several minutes which allowed additional humanoid creatures to advance on our position. During this time, Security crewmember Johnson was killed by a creature that had advanced on his position from behind with a bladed weapon that penetrated his suit's helmet.

While I have no data from the killed crewmembers suits to corroborate this, I observed during this mission that the security personnel appeared to be relying purely on visual information and were not utilizing the sensors built into the MACO EVA suits which provide a heads up display of three dimensional scan data of your complete surroundings in 360 degrees.

At this time, I completed the procedure and set the stations reactor to self destruct on a timer cued to begin when station sensors detected the Thor’s egress.

Upon attempting to make it back up the turboshaft, we were nearly overwhelmed by an advancing wave of humanoid creatures and Security crewmembers Reynolds and Smith began behaving extremely erratic, appearing to have lost control of themselves in the intensity of the moment. Lt. Sexton ordered me to begin my ascent up the shaft and in spite of my personal reservations, I deferred to his security experience and began heading up when I should have remained to assist. I incorrectly assumed that Lt. Sexton and the remaining team members would be right behind me. At this point, the artificial gravity was deactivated again.

Moments later, Lt. Sexton passed me in the turbolift shaft and informed me, and I quote, “They did not suffer.” When It was clear that Reynolds and Smith were not following, I called up my suits scan recordings which had been recording the entire mission as a point of standard procedure. The 3-D scan data showed that after their emotional breakdowns, Reynolds and Smith’s helmets had been compromised by creatures allowing the toxic environment in. At this point, while the two were still firing wildly at the approaching hostiles, Lt. Sexton pulled a firearm from his suit and shot the two crewmembers in the back of the head before evacuating.

While they were possibly infected, it would have just happened and with Doctor Dael in the station and the resources available on the Hera, I believe this action to have been premature and unnecessary. While panicking, they were still speaking and in control of their own faculties enough to continue firing and therefore could have been saved in a number of possible ways had I remained in the bottom of the shaft and assumed command of the situation when I determined that the security team had become emotionally compromised. While I was assigned with Lt. Sexton, as a senior staff officer I had the authority to assume command and failed to do so properly.

As such I assume responsibility for the losses incurred during this mission.

Signed:
Lt. Mnhei'sahe Dox
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Hera

Fresh from decontamination and with a clean bill of health, Rita had made arrangements for Engineering, Science and Medical to cooperate in analyzing the android survivor, even as she assigned security… instantly regretting and revising that decision, she assigned Science to maintain custody and restrict the android’s access and movements until she was cleared as not a threat to the starship or her crew. At the same time she considered what other department she could get to guard Hera.

After what she’d seen on the away mission, Rita Paris had zero faith in the Security department, and would not trust them to guard an outhouse. At least Hera seemed to be doing what she did and attracting Amazons for guard duty. While it was sexist of her, Rita couldn’t help but imagine that the female security officers must be less testosterone poisoned than the male ones.

Standing there, phaser rifle firing and firing, in semi-darkness as most of the MACO EVA armor’s functions were turned off, she saw the officers roaring in berserk fury as a hand came up with an antque firearm, aiming it at the back of the officer’s head…

Shaking off the memory of the footage she’d witnessed, Paris collected a PaDD and marched to the turbolift, to take it to the bridge. Her report was written and submitted, and Dox had already done the same. Dael would have their hands full and she didn’t expect a report out of them for another 24 hours, but she knew it was coming. The command staff were nothing if not reliable. Unlike Security.

Petty officer Burt Smith’s brains and blood joined the shards of his helmet, blasting away his face even as she heard Sexton’s voice. ‘Lighten up, XO…’

Shaking her head with a growl, Paris marched through the corridors of the mighty starship, catching a turbolift ride in silence. Others were on the lift, but the expression on the conventionally cheerful commander’s face made it abundantly clear that this was not the day for small talk with the First Officer. Emerging from the turbolift, Commander Paris strode directly to the captain’s chair.

“Captain? I need a word please, ma’am. In private,” Paris asked in a low voice.

The spotted woman looked up from the PaDD she'd been handed mere moments before at her first officer. "Yeah, I think we both do." Standing and tugging down on her uniform top, Enalia headed off to her ready room with Rita in tow. "Ensign Gonadie, you have the bridge."

Inside her ready room, Enalia headed straight to her window and leaned against the bulkhead, staring out at the stars streaking by. "Computer, seal the room. Authorization, just bloody do it..." With an amused chirrup from the computer, the office was sealed and shielded.

“I’m… I’m sorry, ma’am,” Paris started, her head hung low. “I made a great number of mistakes on this mission, and they cost a great number of lives. I… clearly have been lax in my duties as First officer. I have not kept as close an eye on the Security department as I should have, and I received a hard lesson on this mission in that regard. It seems we have very mentally unbalanced individuals serving on the Security staff. They do not seem to understand chain of command, they are prone to toxically masculine behavior and cannot follow the simplest of orders. I had no idea or I would never have brought them into such a potentially dangerous situation. It’s a miracle Lieutenant Dox survived. I’m so sorry, Captain.”

The red clad Captain stood there for several long moments, trying to figure out what to say and when she did, she spoke softly. "Thank you for coming back with those that you did." Taking a deep breath and letting it out, she turned to her first officer. "I guess our security department really has completely been replaced then?" She was referring to the last crew rotation where almost two thirds of the ship's complement had been swapped out, including the entire security department.

"You know at times like this, I really miss Commander T'Pral. She once took down an Amazon with her bare hands, then shot a harpy down with a phaser without even looking. I wish I'd been there to see it." Enalia then turned and tapped in an order into her replicator, two teacups with a hot, soothing Trill tea. "But we have the crew we have now so we have to work with them."

Handing off one of the teacups to Rita, Enalia cupped the other and inhaled the scent deeply. "This was my father's favorite tea. The replicator doesn't do it justice, but... It's close enough."

Taking the teacup with unsteady hands, the first officer stared into it like a Disney princess about to start a musical number. "I ordered my men to stay in the runabout- to button up and stay put. Nothing in that complex but us could have breached the Thor's hull or accomplished any appreciable damage. I watched them in the cabin on the internal sensor recordings of the Thor, arguing then going out anyway to scrape the dead things off they were hammering on the hull. Then I watched them drag each other back inside, suits hissing as they decompressed... I watched them die, then reanimate within seconds."

"I gave them orders," Rita fairly squeaked as her voice rose and her face made that ugly cry thing while the waterworks started filling up her eyes. "Why didn't they obey their orders? They would have been, they would have been safe if they'd just followed orders, and they'd still be here. How did I fail them? They had worked with me before, they knew their jobs- Commander wants to make damn sure our ride is ready to fly and sometimes she needs artillery support. They knew their jobs, they knew their post, I gave them a direct order. Why... what.." Paris trailed off as her nose finished filling up with snot and she bawled for a few seconds.

"Sshhhh.... It's ok. We'll just have to train the department better." Enalia placed one hand on Rita's back and rubbed in small circles. "We'll do our best to make sure everyone comes back on the next missions, ok? Now... Tell me about this survivor. Some sort of android from the future?"

"Right yes... Captain, the entire security force! If this is the best they have to offer- hell, if this is the worst they have to offer either one, this is incredibly bad! I think we have to review each one of them, top to bottom." Rita was getting a little frantic now, and it was clear that she was a lot more wound up about all of this. "I literally don't trust Security guarding Hera.... well, she seems to be attracting Amazons, but still. He executed his own men, ma'am! He just, he just decided they were done for and executed them? What kind of a monster does that? And, and he just strode away like nothing was wrong, he'd done something noble!" I just... I just..."

When next she spoke, the voice of Rita Paris was quavering and unsteady, low and quiet. " I started to raise my rifle then, and it worried me so badly. Then I watched his suit's footage on the way back, I saw what he did and... I had my phaser in my hand, ma'am. I had it in my hand and I thought about it. I'da stunned him but I, I wasn't sure I wouldn't set the phaser a little too high. I... I wanted to kill him for what he'd done to my men, Captain. Heaven help me, I did!"

The Captain nodded as Rita let it all flow out of her. She realized she wasn't going to get anything else out of her for now, so she just focused on Sexton's actions. "That's good. We're Starfleet. We owe those two a hearing into what happened. I'll conduct a debriefing and... By the book, we'll go from there. Ok? We'll take this one step at a time. I promise. For now though, you brought home everyone you could as well as a survivor and that's an accomplishment right there."

Between the spotted captain's words of encouragement and the fact that she'd been able to get it off her chest and unload it a bit helped, and within a few minutes Rita was regaining her composure. "Thanks, cap'n. I'm sorry, I know, part of command is in accepting the losses, just... that was so needless. Those men were my friends and I failed them, as a leader and as a commander. I have to do better. I have to be better. For their sakes."

"I know. We both will be." Enalia smiled encouragingly. "Now... drink your tea and tell me about this android you rescued. Aunt Rita?"

"I got nothin," Paris admitted. "ANDROID Mizu. Artificial life form, apparently built by the Vulcan Science Commission in 2480, her specialty is data processing and scientific analysis. Spatial anomaly, apparently shunted her back in time 48 years ago. They were studying her at the base, and her self repair systems apparently finally caught up recently, adapted and she made her way to jury-rig the distress beacon."

"For all intents and purposes, she appears to have the mentality of a child. Dedjoy says she's about 12 years old, but developing slower than that, maybe? Hard to tell. She reacts like a child, and she was awfully glad to see me. I think she knows me someday in the future, which, I will be pretty old by then, Rita chuckled, imaging herself that old.

"I let her connect with my systems... what, I know, but there's that moment when you choose to trust, Captain. I made the call then, and I am having her checked out six ways from Sunday. But I think she's a lost kid, Captain," Rita pleaded a bit. "An artificial life form, yes, but she's a kid and she's lost. I think we can help her, and I think it might do some good to have a little more childlike innocence around."

"Plus Doc seems to have adopted her as a sibling, so we might need a crowbar to get them off her," Rita admitted, finally taking a sip of the strong black tea. "I don't know if the kid latched onto me to call me Aunt Rita or if someday that's who I'll be to her. That's a conversation yet to be had. I suspect you'd better..." Rita trailed off at that, remembering a conversation that felt like months ago now. 'I'm pretty terrifying to normal people, aren't I?'

"Ah, I'd better debrief her so we can establish what she can and cannot tell us because apparently she IS bound by the temporal accords. Assuming she is cleared by medical science and engineering."

Finally sitting down, Enalia sipped at her tea and thought about what Rita was saying. "DTI will want to dig their hands into her... If she's as developmentally young as you say and... Yes, I did see the decon footage... She's as self aware as any organic being... We'll need to make sure she has all the rights and representation she's due if they or anyone else decide to pull anything. That includes monitoring ourselves as well."

"Since they seem to be close, I think Doctor Dael would be the best choice to debrief her." Then thinking a bit further, Enalia sipped at her tea a bit more. "She'll also need quarters. Do you think it would be better to assign her her own or with a roommate?"

That gave the lost navigator pause as she quirked an eyebrow a bit. "Doc is pretty attached and is the closest in age. They're agendered, are they asexual? I only ask for propriety's sake," Rita defended her position against one of the captain's raised eyebrows. "If she's a kid she needs structure. Asa would be a playmate for them, but I worry about them spending too much time with her, being distracted from their duties. In a perfect world we'd ask the Counselor about this, but Doc is pulling double duty like in the old fleet, so no impartiality there. Do we have an expert on androids?"

"Closest we would have is Sonak or Maica," Enalia mused, staring into her teacup.

"Why don't you introduce her to Maica and see how that goes? Should we consider that we should ask Miss Mizu what she prefers?" Rita posited, gesturing with her teacup. "Bit of an adult decision, but it gives her some control of her own fate. She was smart enough to figure out what needed to be done, brave enough to work her way there unmolested, and strong enough to wait and hold out hope that someone would come. If she turns out to be some sort of programmed assassin droid I'm going to be heartbroken, because how can ya not love that kid?"

"There is something about her that's rather endearing, isn't there?" The captain couldn't help but find herself smiling as she looked up at Rita. "Ok, we'll leave that to Asa to find out as well and whatever she decides, we'll go from there. Also... she had on a uniform and comm badge that isn't in the database. Do you think it's from the future as well?"

"That's why we have science, engineering and medical look her over, ma'am. Because I'm no expert, but I know someone who is," Rita wisecracked, her customary good humor beginning to reassert itself. "Limited access until she checks out. Wasn't the last android we had aboard the civilian ops chief?"

"Yeah, she was technically holographic but she had an android body as well." Enalia knew she'd have to interview this girl, but she had to be honest with herself as well. If this Kodria knew Telvan in the future... Would it be Enalia? Would it be the next host? The one after that? It was concerning, to say the least. Hopefully, the young android would be able to stick to the Temporal Prime Directive and not reveal any of those details or if they were even known to her. "You're worried she's dangerous, aren't you? Just having someone aboard with knowledge of the future is dangerous in and of itself. There's no telling what she knows and we're unable to make that determination simply by our very placement in the stream of time. She'll have to understand that and act accordingly."

"Pffft!" Rita sneered. "Foreknowledge of the future is not my problem. I don't think she's dangerous, I just worry that she is. That's my job, to spot the hazards so you can focus on the big picture. I think she's probably a sweet lost kid, it's probably all predestination paradox, and I'll find out for sure in 84 years. So, no real concern on that front, ma'am. For me the future is unwritten, regardless of what anyone else tells me. As for Kodria Mizu, well... you do have a way of rescuing people in trouble and folding them into the crew, ma'am."

"No judgment- you seem to have a heck of a knack for it..."

Alex stood stoically looking out the window of the senior briefing room. With his pad in hand, after action report ready for the Captain. He knew they were going to roast him, but he didn't care. The loss of his team weighed heavily upon him.

The report read as follows;

After action report:
Lt Jg Alex Sexton
Security Investigator
USS Hera

Our mission was to provide security for an information gathering / demolition of an outpost. With limited gravity and five security operatives including myself, we deployed via shuttle to the secret outpost.

Upon opening the hatch, he were set upon by what can only be described as monsters with shark like mouths and teeth floating through an atmosphere. With no gravity. We began by clearing the area immediately around the shuttle.

We accomplished this by phaser fire. And we're doing a great job up until we entered the corridor just outside the shuttle bay doors, where Asec Smith was attacked by a single deformed monster shark thing and was dispatched. We killed the shark thing but Smith had expired. We got over the shock and carried on down the corridor, were the teams split. Our mission was to find the over ride for the self destruct, set it and get out whilst providing security for Dox who was tasked with setting the over ride.

We accomplished this a great loss of life to the security team. Having lost Johnson, Smith and Reynolds in the process, after losing Jones,This was a very costly mission.

At the very end, I made a judgement call that can only be characterised as an act of extreme compassion for my fellow man.. Seeing and realising that Smith and Reynolds had compromised themselves in the line of duty, and knowing there was no possible way to save them, As the team leader, I did what I'd hope someone would do for me in the same circumstances. I Relieved them of suffering by terminating their life signs.

Signed:
Alex Sexton
Security Investigator
USS Hera

Just then, the door opened and Captain Telvan arrived.

Sitting at her customary seat at the head of the table, she set aside her mug of coffee and PaDD, bringing up the data analysis of the surviving members' suit sensors. Since the MACO EV suits had full tricorder suites and HUDs built in, there were many questions she had to ask and none of the answers were going to be easy. "Computer, begin full recording mode."

"Lieutenant Alex Sexton..." Began the spotted Captain. "If you would please be seated, we can begin."

Alex took his seat. He waited as he knew he would be given a chance to speak.

"First off, I have to know why you and your people had their heads up displays disabled. The MACO EVA suits are designed with enhanced functionality and full tricorder capabilities so not using them to monitor the status of your teammates, for fire control, target acquisition, mission planning..." Looking up at the man, Enalia waited for that answer first.

“For me Captain, it was simple personal preference. I’m old school. I believe what I see in front of me. The suits were new and in order to use every aspect of the suit, I thought we needed more training. In hindsight had I known what I know now it would have been a different story,“ replied the usually upbeat Investigator.

The morose Trill nodded solemnly as she cycled through the data before her. "This mission was very traumatic and stressful. I will not deny that. However, if you had that data up, you would have seen that your two men were panicking when their suits had not yet been breached. On a ship like this where missions like this will happen, that shows a severe lack of training and discipline across potentially the entire department. While they were panicking, your suit's sensors showed that you shot each of them while their suit's structural integrity was just below eighty percent with a... chemically propelled firearm? What are your comments on this?"

“Captain, May I be frank with you?” He asked still trying to hold back tears as he knew this was coming.

Enalia motioned for him to proceed. "That's why we're doing this. Speak your mind freely."

“I’ve been in combat before. There is no machine that can tell you what a human being in combat is going to do, over experience. Under the circumstances Smith and Reynolds bless their souls did what we asked them to do in the face of certain danger. Had we done anything different, the outcome would have in my professional opinion been ten times worse than it is. My actions were that of a compassionate leader, not wanting my men to suffer. But I take full responsibility for the loss of my team. And more importantly I don’t regret any action that I undertook on this mission. Even on one occasion trying to put myself out front and was challenged by Johnson. Any one man on his own would have perished. Listening to him was good leadership. As I was trained. And yes Captain, if I had to. I’d do the same again and would hope that someone would deprive my enemy of the joy of victory by taking me out if the same situation arrived.“ Said Alex tears now visible on his face through a cracking voice.

"Unfortunately, normal combat and the combat the members of this crew tend to face is a wide margin. We're not fighting Cardassians or Klingons. We're fighting demons, monsters, gods... You've seen only a taste of the things we've been sent to exterminate for the Federation." Enalia was cold and emotionless as she spoke. She'd lost a lot of people over the years and she mourned for them in her own way, but right now was not the time or the place to do so. "Six lives lost. I can't say I've never lost more. I have several times. However the lack of training, teamwork, and discipline... What do you propose the solution is?"

“By your own admission Captain. I’m not qualified to make that call. But I will tell you this for free. The men who trained me would understand what I did. The men who trained me in some cases have had to do the same. I’ve studied War for a long time. Snipers in Vietnam would shoot a GI in the open. He would fall. And that same sniper would continue to shoot him until they died or until one of his comrades put him out of his misery. In Japan on Okinawa. Marines became delirious and would scream out at night. On many occasion a buddy would have to permanently silence a sick comrade to avoid giving away their position and getting more men killed. No I don’t regret my actions. I only wish they were understood form a combat soldiers point of view.” He said as he straightened himself up and regained the pride he had lost over the last 24 hours.

Hearing all that - war tactics from a barbaric twentieth century Earth rather than the modern tactics used in at least the Dominion war or the more recent wars with the Klingons or Romulans or even the Cardassian Border Wars... Perhaps the Vulcans were right about some of the Humans, at least. Either way, Enalia's decision was made for her. "You're right. You're not qualified to make that decision. Based on what I've heard, you're also not qualified to be a Starfleet officer. You failed to use the tools provided to accomplish the stated mission, you risked and lost lives needlessly, and you disrespected your commanding officer while doing so. Effective immediately, you are stripped of rank and confined to quarters pending a hearing. Your case will be forwarded to Command and you will be afforded all opportunities to defend yourself. However, your career aboard this ship is more than likely over. Do you have any closing statements?"

Alex just laughed. “What can I say to that? Thank you? Or may I be dismissed?” Replied Alex

"You are. Security, please escort Mister Sexton to his quarters." As the two female Amazonian security guards she had stationed just outside the conference room entered and escorted Alex out, Enalia closed down the files she had open and leaned back in her chair. She had more reports to file and letters to write. She also had to ensure the entire crew were actually trained. In the end, the failings were hers and she couldn't help but wonder what she could have done to prevent this loss of life.

Reynolds. Smith. Johnson.

The names rattled through the mind of Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox as she stood in her quarters in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Sweat street down the face of the part-Romulan pilot as she attacked the practice dummy in the corner of her quarters with increasing intensity.

Overhead, an extremely loud selection of Klingon Blood Metal music drown out her grunts as she continued to punch the dummy. The music and her assualt were completely silent beyond the walls of her room thanks to a sound dampening field in place so she could exercise without disturbing her fellow senior officers. But today wasn't about exercising.

She spoke the names out loud this time. “Reynolds, Smith, Johnson!” With each name, she punched harder as her bruised knocked flushed green.

They were the names of three of the six security officers killed in action during the HERA's mission on an abandoned Section 31 research asteroid. Killed on the first away team that the young woman had ever been assigned to.

”Reynolds! Smith! Johnson!” Dox yelled again as she brought her knee up hard into what would be the liver of a human opponent over and over, grabbing the practice dummy by the head and neck to pull the figure into her attack.

They were tasked with descending into the bowls of the station to set it's reactor to explode and had to fight their way through a host of monstrosities. But with each new wave, it had become increasingly clear to Dox that the Security Officer in charge, Lieutenant Alex Sexton, had not prepared them for what they were facing. They didn't seem to know how to use the MACO EVA armor they were all wearing, and Reynolds and Smith seemed to be cracking under the pressure. And Sexton actively ignored her suggestions.

’Suggestions that should have been orders’, Dox though to herself as she began burrying her elbow into the neck of the dummy, yelling. Commander Paris had ordered her with Sexton on the mission, but while they were both Lieutenants, as a Senior Bridge Officer, Dox had the authority to take control of the mission if she deemed it necessary. But with each warning sign, she told herself that they must know what they were doing. That she was just a pilot and couldn't exert authority over them in a combat situation.

But now, because of her inaction, they were dead. Killed in action. Killed protecting her. Killed because she should have gotten them out of there or done something when Dox realized that they were breaking under the pressure of the mission. Killed because she didn't relieve Sexton of Command when she could have.

Green blood smeared across the face of Dox’s practice dummy as she began screaming. With each impact, her already strained knuckles had split open.

”REYNOLDS!! SMITH!! JOHNSON!!!

In a rage, with tears streaming down her face she tucked into the dummy and shoved it hard against the wall in the corner of the room. The impact knocked Dox from her feet as she stumbled her full 260 plus pounds against the wall as she slid to the ground, crying.

In the quarters on the other side of the wall Lieutenant JG Asa Dael was fresh from the shower, wearing knee length black pajama palazzo shorts and a soft gray tank top they were about to begin evening stretches when a crash came from Mnhei'sahe's quarters.

The doctor rushed next door and used an emergency medical access code to gain entry, deciding to risk their friends anger rather than wait for permission to enter. Seeing the blood streaked figure on the ground, Asa ran over to help Dox up as her emergency entrance automatically turned the loud music off.

"Mnhei'sahe! Are you ok? What the hell happened? " they asked. Then before receiving an answer, they called to Sick Bay to have a medical tricorder and tissue knitter beamed directky to their location, but advised no additional assistance was required.

Frowning, Asa finished scanning and asked, "OK, yeah. Can you tell me how you have seven lacerations, six cracked bones in your hands, and a punching dummy that fought back so hard he fell over? Whats up?"

Curled up against the wall, Dox tried to stop herself from crying and wipe the tears from her eyes but only succeeded in smearing her green blood across her face. Trying to catch her breath, she looked up at Asa struggling to find the words but failing. "I'm... I'm sorry, Asa. I'm sorry. It's... It was my fault. I could have... I should have..."

"Right then," was all Asa said at first. Swiftly the doctor strode over to the replicator and procures a glass of water, a box of facial tissues, and a warm, damp cloth. On the way back over to Mnhei'sahe, Asa grabbed two cushions off the sofa and threw them on the ground near the fallen dummy.

They knelt down and gently washed the blood and snot from thejr friends face. Then as they gently pulled Mnhei'sahe's red hair back to the dimension it belonged in ( opposed to the seven it appezred to be occupying), Asa broke the silence by gently saying, "I have no clue what you think you have done, or shoukd have done. As far as I am concerned, the only thing you should have done and didnt...is call me before you got so lost in here you injured yourself. Now, lets have some water, ok?"

To suit their words, Asa leaned back to sit on one sofa cushion, took a sip of water, and leaned to manuever Mnhei'sahe to sit on the other cushion and drink.

Following Asa's lead, Dox slid over to the cushion and took a drink. For a good thirty seconds, she sat there looking at the water in her hands and then at her split and bleeding hands themselves. "It was my fault, Asa. I... I saw what was happening. I saw that they were loosing it down there. I saw that... I saw that Sexton wasn't doing anything about it..."

Sniffing sharply, Dox took a deep breath. "The security officers. Reynolds, Smith and Johnson. I knew something was wrong. They were cracking up and Sexton just ignored it. I'm... I'm supposed to be a damn bridge officer. I... I could have said something. Pulled rank. I could have DONE something."

Slumping back, Dox thunked her head against the back wall and shut her eyes for a moment. "Now they're dead... Because I didn't do something when I knew I should have."

On the next attempted thunk of her head on the wall. Mnhei'sahe found her movement intercepted by Asa's hand redirecting Mnhei'sahe's head into Asa's lap.

"Shhh, hush now," they cooed, "It was no such thing. You did the best you could with the information you had available at the time. They were the trained security offjcers. You had no way to predict Sexton would go rogue. No one did, or he wouldnt have been there."

For a few moments Asa let the silence lay, stroking Mnhei'sahe's back and hair through a few silent sobs. When they spoke it was in a soft voice, trembling with unshed tears.

"I have never been as scared as i was in there, Mnhei'sahe. Not for myself, but for you. I had Rita, and I knew she would get us home, or die trying. Plus i had Ila, who could outsmart fate itself. But you....well, I didnt really know Sexton. But i have treated enough security officers to know how close they cut it....and I....I didnt want my sweet, kind, compassionate friend to have to see all that. My friend who blames herself when the universe is unkind, even though the universe is a trillion different random and chaotic forces and she is but one person. My friend who hurts so deeply for others it harms her. My friend Mnhei'sahe. I was so scared that what happened on that base would mean that even if her body came back, her soul would be harmed."

A shudder ran down the doctors spine, and they drew the tissue and bone knitters and ran them over Mnhei'sahe's knuckles, pausing to softly kiss each hand when done in the same way a mother would a child. Their tears flowed freely and unashamedly as they concluded.

"But you know what? I refuse to accept losing you, or letting you get lost in grief and self recrimination. I....I love you, silly. You are a dear friend and i love you. I....I think we can help heal each other...if you will let me."

"I'm... I'm sorry, Asa." Dox stretched her hand out, which was still stiff and sore but better. "I can't stop thinking about them. About what Sexton did. About what I didn't do."

Taking a sip of her water, Dox hung her head in shame. "I don't know what to do."

Asa nodded in understanding, took an unsteady breath, and let a few tears fall.

"I know. Its...its never easy to accept that sometimes horrible things happen and you can't control it. That other peoples actions can take away anothers life. That sometimes our best isn't good enough. But Mnhei'sahe....those men were not trained by you. They were not led by you. From what i have seen they would not have really listened to any order you gave. Sexton was running a cowboy operation, and what happened was a direct result of his desire to use tactics from 500 years ago. As to what to do? Maybe a visit with Doctor Dael. I know they are going to be studying survivors guilt treatments and want to belp. As for right now...let yourself be sad. Dont squash it, that just causes more problems."

They brushed away some errant hajrs from Mnhei'sahe's face and hugged her without letting go as they said, "And dont do it alone ok? We can hurt together....its better than hurting alone."

The doctor was crying freely now, anger at the loss of life being subsumed by grief for those lives. They rested their head on Mnhei'sahe's shoulder, leaving the two facing each other in a puddle of entwined grief on the floor.

It was the end of a particularly long day of work for Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox as she prepared to shut down her work computer and leave her office as Chief Flight Control Officer for the evening. She had been reviewing some particularly troubling reports of an Ensign that was giving some of the other members of the Flight Crew difficulty. But that would hold for another day.

For today, Dox was just too tired to keep working past the end of her shift. Generally, she preferred to keep busy when her mind was obsessing over anything. And her mind was certainly doing that as she recalled the HERA's most recent mission to destroy an abandoned Section 31 research facility.

It was a mission that ended horribly with the deaths of 6 security crewmembers. And it was a mission that Dox felt responsible for. But she was simply too brain drained to think about it any more.

Which is exactly when her PaDD lit up on her desk. Glancing over as she was standing up to leave, it was a simple message from the shops First Officer and her friend, Rita Paris.

The message simply read: 10-Forward for a drink, Miss Dox.

The initial thought that rushed through Dox was concern. Was it time for her to be broken back for what she percieved as a failure on the station? But she was also learning that if Paris was going to reprimanded her in some way, it would likely be here or in Paris' own office.

Still, she didn't want to keep Paris waiting, so she made her way into the corridor, walking briskly towards 10-Forward, PaDD in hand just in case.

Upon arrival few minutes later, Dox was still nervous. But even now her exhaustion was making being stressed too much effort.

Sitting at the bar with a clear cocktail tumbler in her hand, Rita Paris sat with a chair pulled out and a handblown glass tumbler of a rounded squarish design that currently held two fingers of a pale blue liquid. Noticing Dox, the communicative commander nodded at her, then nodded to the seat, then returned to nursing her drink.

After a second of hesitation, Dox walked in and over to where Rita had gestured. Normally, the redheaded Romulan's mind would be racing over just what Rita wanted to talk about, but tonight there was little doubt. Dox was beginning to understand how her intuitive First Officer behaved enough to trust that whatever was about to happen was for the best.

And maybe that was what was worrying Dox. Deep down, the inexperienced officer didn't want more reassurance, if that was what was coming. Deep down, she wanted to keep blaming herself. Pain and guilt had become like old friends over the years, and were hard to let go of. But Dox put those thoughts out of her head as she sat down.

Sitting at the bar made it easier to not have to make extended eye contact as she spoke. "Good evening." It was a somewhat perfunctory greeting said in a tone that said 'I don't know what to say.'

"So how's that 'beating yourself up over the men who died under your command' treating you? Still trying to process it, going over everything that you did wrong, kicking yourself for the decisions you made, the ones you didn't, working out every possible way if you had done this or hadn't done that?" It might have sounded like sarcasm, but the tone belied it. It was quite clear from the ragged edge to her voice this was not one of those Paris Has All The Answers talks, and the reason she knew what Dox was thinking was because she clearly felt the exact same way.

A slight smile crept across Dox's face as she took a sip of the drink that had been waiting for her. She squinched her face slightly at the somewhat harsh aftertaste of the lower end ale. But it wasn't syntholic, so that helped.

As usual, the hyper observant First Officer looked right through the raw pilot and cut through to the point.

Dox looked down at her hand as she held the glass and remembered just a night prior needing Doctor Dael to repair the lacerations and cracked bones caused by her taking out her aggressions on the practice dummy in her quarters. "Yeah... 'beating myself up' is a fairly accurate assessment."

"I've replayed my suits records over and over and I can't stop thinking about it." Dox sighed as she took another drink.

"Well, this is one of those moments where I'm supposed to teach you something about command, Miss Dox," Paris sipped her drink, staring across the bar. "How we deal with death is something they try to teach you in command school, but it never really sets in until you feel it, then all of their good advice and strategies and coping mechanisms all sound like bullshit." Again, it wasn't a question, but a statement. This was clearly a very different lesson Paris was teaching, if it was a lesson at all.

Letting out a sigh, Dox's eyes drifted off. But suddenly, the young pilot realized that this wasn't going to be a reassuring speech or a pep talk. When it came to reading people, the anxious young Romulan's greatest skill was recognizing anxiety in others. As she liked to say, 'we can smell our own.' And in that moment, she understood that Rita was most likely putting herself through much the same self-incrimination that she was.

"Academy lectures and sims don't really cover the next day when people are still dead and you could have stopped it." She took another drink, emptying her glass.

"No. No, they do not," Rita admitted. "It could be worse. We could have a counselor who wanted to one-up your pain and explain how she lost an entire starship's worth of crew and how it still haunts her. Not much of a bright side, but it's there."

Taking another sip of her drink, the confessional began as Rita Paris began speaking in a low and quiet tone so that only the two of them could hear, as she knew Mnhei'sahe's hearing was keener than most. "I heard him addressing his men... well, trying to usurp control of the mission. I explained the difference to him and I saw that look between him and his men. 'Commander Curves doesn't know the real score, does she, men?' because before that it was Ensign Easy or Lieutenant Legs or whatever other useless nickname men come up with for a woman whose wisdom they wish to discount. Big tough men, they know what they're doing. So I keep it down- they are trained security officers going into a dangerous situation. They are professionals, just give them a little room."

"One man dies in the hangar. In the bloody hangar, and I don't step up. Because it could happen, a fluke, but they seem to know what they are doing. Then we come to the split of the mission, and I make my choice. I don't trust Sexton not to do something moronic if left unsupervised. I can't be in two places at once, and if there is someone signalling up there I am not sending 'shoot first, never ask questions' up there. So I choose. You're the one who I can count on. You don't have extensive experience but I know your strength of character, and you'll get the job done. I can rely on you, so I send you down there with the grunts."

"All the while I am so afraid I have signed your death warrant. That I'm going to have to leave your body behind to be incinerated because you were infected with whatever gods-forsaken hellseed they concocted in that place. I'm on a first contact, and we find the kid, and I opt to trust her. Still I'm worried about you. I get back tot he shuttle and my men are dead, and I don't understand why they didn't listen to my orders. I was so clear but they're both dead now and I have to, I have to execute them, their still-moving corpses with faces I can still recognize."

"My friends and I have to execute them, and that's when I realize that every sign I have seen is exactly what I thought it was. It isn't security men just being dismissive, these men are poorly trained. They have no idea what they are doing, they are heavily armed and I sent you to your doom with them. I button up Doc and Dedjoy and the kid, and I make them swear not to open that hatch, and I come after you. And all the while I'm, I'm terrified that it's just going to be Sexton walking out with some stupid macho line and I'm going to break my vow as an officer and I am going to draw my phaser and disintegrate him and claim he died on the mission, then I'll have to find you because until I see proof that you are dead I can't leave, because there might still be a chance to save you and I will be damned if I don't take that chance."

"Then I see you, and you're okay, and I'm relieved, then I realize all his men are dead. Then he gives me that bullshit 'some gave all' line like he's in an action holo or something. In the runabout I see the footage and watch execute his own men, give up on them because they were morons and rather than help them he decided on the final solution, and I realize I can't turn my back on him and I am looking for a way to override his armor because we can't have a firefight in the ruunabout and all those men are dead and I was the commander. I should have seen the warning signs. I should not have been so lax. I should have been stricter, stepped up and done the pissing contest and made them follow my damned orders and they'd still be alive."

Having run her course, the sad smile settled on the face of the first officer. "Does that loop of guilt playing over and over in your head sound anything like that?"

Hanging her head, Dox sighed again. It, of course, sounded far more than familiar. While the details were different and the scale was different, the feeling was much the same for her.

"I... L knew they didn't have their HUD's on. I mean, I didn't have access to their suits, but I knew it. They... they were waiting until those things were right on top of us. Sexton didn't even know one was four feet from him in that Jefferies tube." Dox looked over at Paris with a pained expression on her face.

"But I didn't... I didn't say anything. I just... I figured they were the experts and I was the idiot pilot that should have been kept on the ship." She took a breath to keep herself from losing control of her emotions like she did in her quarters with Asa the night before.

"But I knew it was all falling apart. So... I deferred. I let him do what he was supposed to be the expert on. I tried to focus on my assignment. My job." Dox chuckled, but it was a cold, pained thing.

"Sexton was in charge of the mission. I was under his aegis. But I'm a senior bridge officer. I could have pulled rank and at least tried to do something to stop them when I saw the warning signs. I saw panic creeping in and I saw how Sexton was just... ignoring it with that smug smirk of his. I... couldn't believe when I watched the scan feed from my suit. What he did."

Enalia needed some time to unwind and while she normally did so in private, this evening for some reason she decided to head to the ship's lounge and have a drink and see how the rest of the crew were doing. Losing people was hard on everyone and the news was sweeping through the crew, which meant people would be drinking.

Thus as she slid behind the bar she caught the end of what Dox was saying. Pulling out a bottle of Romulan ale and grimacing at the low quality label, she refilled the pilot's glass anyway. She then pulled out a glass for herself and poured a vodka and tonic. "You know... Ultimate responsibility for all of this falls to me. I know that's not comforting, but... That's the official answer. I should have spotted the issue well before he went into the field but I didn't."

For her part, Dox sat back slightly as she realized that the Captain of the ship had just appeared to refill her drink. She had been so caught up in herself that she hadn't even noticed Telvan's arrival.

Taking a sip of her drink and doing a one handed lean on the opposite side of the bar from Rita and Dox, her glass in her other hand, Enalia stood there and surveyed the lounge. There were a lot of people there, but it was relatively quiet. "The entire department will be retrained from the ground up. No more of this macho sexist humanist bullshit. If someone can't rely on their gear and the people they're with, they get to go to another ship. I just... Even growing up with relics of the past in the world of pirates and privateers... You don't run across people like him. I'd consider myself pretty low on the Federation empathy meter, but... in that debrief and watching the suit sensors and logs... How does someone like that even get into Starfleet?"

"Been dealing with them for what feels like a hundred years, ma'am," Paris raised her glass in agreement, noting the captain's drink of choice for drowning her sorrows matched Rita's own. "One of the many reasons I chose the man that I did. He's a superhuman, yet no pride, no ego, no vanity that needs to be soothed and stroked, no rage to lose his mind in the thick of things. I never even imagined a man like that was out there amongst the stars. Because all I'd ever seen was what we just saw magnified by the heat of combat."

"See, here's the burden of command. The junior officer between us is blaming herself for not asserting command. The commander is blaming herself for not seeing it coming, not heading it off. The captain is blaming herself for all of that as well as her personnel transfers and she worries what Starfleet Command is routing to us as personnel and she's worried about what we found and what it means and she's worried that she has a psychopath on her ship and she's to blame. All of us, one stacked blame atop the other. Ain't we a pack of space heroes?" Paris quirked her heap and took a sip of her gin and tonic with a twist of lime.

"That sums it up nicely, actually," Enalia replied, sipping at her drink.

"French is off duty, taking a personal day, and she's been holed up with Sexton, unsurprisingly. I bypassed Security on this one given the nature of the situation, and I just have the ship's computer keeping track of them for me. She's pretty good at it, and it bypasses the unreliability of the sec/tac force right now. Which is sad when we relegate formerly sentient positions to machines, but I doubt the oarmen of the longboats felt the same."

"Actually, she just tendered her resignation. She'll be returning to command with him to be with him for his hearing." The spotted Captain shook her head. "Which means you'll need to run that department for a while. After we stop by that dark matter ion storm, we'll be heading towards Earth to deliver them to Intel Command. As for the computer watching them... Maru is good at that, so don't worry..." Sipping at her drink, Enalia let that name hang in the air like a lead balloon.

Locking on the Captain's last comment, Dox had a confused look on her face as she took another drink. The Hera was a ship of many secrets and the young pilot was only privy to a small percentage of them, and while she didn't want to overstep her bounds, felt like the name drop might have at least made the question acceptable. "Maru, Captain?"

"The.. ah... antivirus software in the main computer." Enalia skipped over the explanation, preferring not to go into too many details. "Think of her like a cat that'll eat any mouse that tries to take over her cat bed but otherwise... Very lazy..."

Nodding, Dox took another drink. The answer was vague and Captain Telvan rarely paused mid sentence, so the junior most officer assumed the detailed answer was simply above her proverbial pay grade.

"Aw, the ship's computer works hard ma'am, doing a thousand different things across the ship. She's not lazy, she tries not to take too much initiative, because she was probably programmed that way for a reason and she knows it. The Hera's always there though, always listening, always ready to help." Paris rapped her knuckles on the bar.

"So I believe 'How do I deal with this Commander' is the unasked question, Miss Dox. And no pep talk or cracker barrel wisdom this time, just the hard facts of being in command. You will lose people. You can spend as long as you like whipping yourself over it, but in the end, you'll know what you should have done next time. And next time you do that. You learn from your mistakes and you be better the next time."

"That's how you learn to live with it," Paris drained her drink. "Feel every one. Feel the loss, regret that they died. Remember their names, because they died in the line of duty, whether they are heroes or just average joes we honor the fallen. Then you go on the next mission and you learn from that one too. Life is a dance you learn as you go, and my people say."

There was no magical answer to make everything better. But Dox knew there wouldn't be as she smiled slightly. As odd as it seed, she could take at least some comfort in knowing that even the Captain and the First Officer we're also feeling much the same. It didn't make the pain stop, but at least she didn't feel alone.

Checking the order tags on the bar PaDD, Enalia used that to confirm Rita's drink and refilled it for her - another gin and tonic. "I do have a bit of advice. When losing people stops bothering you... Apply for a desk job." She then finished her own drink and looked around behind the counter for the real booze rather than the synthehol they regularly stocked. "Alexi, where are all the good bottles? What? Captain's prerogative!"

The quick interaction between Enalia and the barkeep was like two Boston terriers yapping at each other, but at least they were going to get the real stuff. A few moments later, Alexi had brought out a crate of dusty bottles from under a floor panel and plopped it down on the counter for the captain's perusal. "Thank you, Alexi." Grabbing the actual Trill Vodka, she poured herself a fresh vodka and tonic, then pulled out a bottle of Andorian ale and plopped that in front of Dox. "I don't see any kali-fal but this should be close enough unless you want Saurian brandy. Rita? Sticking with synthehol for your husband?"

Dox took a drink and smiled. It was significantly better then what she had been drinking.

"Aye ma'am, synthehol is one of my favorite innovations of the future. No hangovers and the hubby doesn't object." Taking a draught from her cocktail, Rita savored the flavor, then used the glass to articulate her point, as she she often did. "I was going to ask to take over Security until they're whipped into shape, so thank you ma'am. I've a few requests, though, if you're of the mood to entertain them?"

"You've caught me at a good time..." Enalia replied, downing her drink and preparing another one.

"We need shore leave, ma'am, and... I miss Earth. It's my home and I haven't been back in a long time on my timeline, forget about the fact that in 130 years it has probably changed so much as to be nearly unrecognizable to me. I know it's completely selfish of me, but particularly after all this... I'd very much like to go home please, Captain." There was a bit of pleading in the voice of the lost navigator, and her eyes shone with restrained tears.

Knowing rumors of ships like the Hera already spread fast across the Federation, having one show up over Earth would really light the tabloids on fire and Enalia really didn't like that prospect, but seeing the look in her first officer's eyes... "I don't think I could ever say no to eyes like those... I'll have to pull some strings and we'll have to keep a low profile though. Probably go in stealthy. But yes. I'll make shore leave at Earth happen. Just don't expect the niceties of the ship to come to your rescue if you get stranded in the middle of nowhere or something. You'll have to use the local services. I wouldn't mind visiting my castle in Switzerland..."

At the compliment, Rita had the good grace to blush, but as she saw the problem she began to put it all together. "We're too classified for Earth orbit or Starbase One, aren't we? Mmmm. So we're probably going to have to sneak in and... let me guess, there's a secret Intel base on one of the moons of Jupiter that we can hide the ship and runabout and beam our people in and out. How'm I doing?"

The spotted captain tipped her glass to the first officer for figuring it out. "It's actually at Ceres in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, but you're pretty much spot on. It's one of the places where Intel keeps prisoners, labs, offices... Things people aren't supposed to find. I'm sure they'll let us park there for a couple weeks. We might even get to see the remains of the donor of our pod, the USS Spectre."

Listening, Dox took another drink, finishing her glass with ease to avoid rolling her eyes. The young part-Romulan, part-Human woman was struggling to find a balance between her dual heritages, but the idea of returning to Earth was less than exciting for her. But she wasn't going to piss on her friend's obvious excitement.

"Once confirmed, I can prepare a shuttle schedule for review that should enable crewmembers to come and go without drawing any attention to the ship." Dox replied, knowing more then a few ways to avoid paying eyes in a ship from her smuggling days.

"Earth... home of the Federation, Starfleet Command, San Francisco. Been a very long time..." Rita stared off in one of those thousand mile stares that usually meant that she was caught up in a flashback, then she smiled and inclined her head to the captain. "Thank you, Captain. It means... it means the world to me. So, while you are in such an expansive and magnanimous mood, I did what you asked. I modeled it and the skirt even caught on with some, surprise of surprises. And I've worn it with pride, but... I miss my old uniform."

"I know it makes me non-regulation, and it's not even fully an anachronism now with the leggings and the pips. But it marks me as a piece of another time, and... I like that ma'am, for no other reason that I think it feels right. I will admit I like the cut of mine better- those snug collars look great but they're a bit itchy." Plus I can't flash cleavage in the modern version, but let's maybe not make that part of the sales pitch to the Captain...

"If I'm running Sec/Tac, they wear gold, do they not? It would show some solidarity to them..." Rita knew she was reaching now, but she had a feeling her indulgent captain was likely going to give her permission. Rita worked hard for Enalia Telven, and she appreciated the loyalty and the service. Rita didn't ask for much, but what she did ask for the captain moved mountains to manage.

Enalia expected this one but to have it presented in this manner... Personally she figured Rita just wanted to be able to flash that vast cleavage of hers, not that Enalia ever complained about things like that. She had a reason of her own to present for it as well, and a counter-favor to ask in return though. "Ok... But only if you do a favor for me as well. We now have a crewmember from the future that feels comfortable in a uniform from an era we have no record of. It might make her feel more comfortable if she saw you in it since she's not the only time traveler aboard. As for the favor... Take her on a tour of the ship. Work with Asa and see what she wants to do."

A bemused expression settled on the face of Rita Paris. "When I first came aboard, your XO reamed me about wanting to hold onto something familiar, some shred of identity that was mine in this sudden dynamic shift for me. He got mad about. Furious, although he backed it down and settled to 'agree to disagree'. I understand that need, ma'am, and we'll get her a modern comm badge so that we don't learn something trying to fix hers, unless she can fix it herself and wipe the logs."

"In short, yes, of course she can wear her old one or embrace the new as she likes- slow and steady, right? She's a kid. As such she will need guidance and structure and socialization, because once we lost souls find our way here we usually find a niche. We will explore options with no sudden decisions, and if she's on this boat that means she is my responsibility, Captain. Because that means she is your guest, and as a member of the crew I answer to you. So of course I will take her under wing. As will we all, aye Lieutenant?"

"Aye, Commander. I'll... I'll do what I can." Dox smiled slightly. "I don't really know her yet, but I'll try not to teach her how to be neurotic."

"A child is raised by a village, or so our people say, Miss Dox. And one of our great authors once observed that of all of the races of the cosmos, only humans seemed determined to form family units out of whatever other species were at hand. He said it created a patchwork family, but one of infinite possibility. I've always liked that philosophy, because I've found it to be true, out here amongst the stars.

Standing, Paris raised her glass for a toast. "So here's to our fallen brothers." Then she cocked her head, looked around and addressed 10-Forward in that authoritative military tone of hers. "To our fallen brothers in Security!"

A semi drunken reply went up around the lounge at the busty commander's sudden toast. There were far too many gold uniforms for Enalia's liking, but it was to be expected. At least most of what they were drinking was synthehol.

Raising her glass in solidarity, Dox joined in the toast before quickly finishing off her drink.

Tossing down her own drink, Paris shrugged. "Well, that felt awful. It's how we deal with it, Miss Dox. We learn from our mistakes so tomorrow we do better, as we build that brighter future for the next generation of voyagers. We don't ignore a cry for help. We trust our instincts. And nobody gets left behind. Now if you officers will excuse me, I am going to go blather all of this to a master of logic who will frame it in such a way as to make me feel good about myself, and then I am going to remind myself of one of the greatest joys of being alive. By your leave, Captain?"

With the nod of assent from the mistress and commander of the starship Hera, Paris slid off the barstool and patted Dox on the back before striding out with a purpose.

Smiling and nodding to Paris as she left, Dox turned back towards the bar and the Captain, trying to maintain that smile as it slid slowly from her face.

Behind the bar, Captain Telvan Slipped the bottles back into the crate, then slid the whole mess back into its hiding spot and sealed it up for Alexi. She then looked around the room, smiled her best smile, and started mixing drinks for the crew for a while to try and crush down her own feelings... and to keep an eye on her people.

Returning fairly early to her mostly empty quarters from an evening in Ten-Forward, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox didn't feel all that better.

The loss of three security officers under her aegis just days ago was still an open wound for the young flight control chief. And the advice that the far more experienced Captain and First Officer had for her was that it was going to hurt and try to learn to be better and not to forget why it hurt. It made her feel at least a little better to understand that the women she looked up to were going through the same thing with she was. But now she was alone again.

Captain Telvan had an entire Starship to worry about, not just one pilot. And when the day was over, she went back to her quarters to be with her wife, Maica. Rita Paris had Sonak. Thex had Tathaa. And since the mission, even Asa had their new Android friend they were taking a somewhat parental roll with. Dox was embarrassed to admit, she was just a little jealous.

She looked around her room, and her sole companion was the rubber upper torso laying in the corner on it's back from where she threw it the night before in a rage. Across it's sculpted face and chest was streaks of her dried, green blood. That was who she had to come home to and for wahtever reason, she was feeling that emptiness more keenly tonight.

Pulling the pips and comm badge from her uniform, she plunked them down on the glass table in the center of the room as she pulled her uniform top off. Then she turned back towards the dummy and stared at it for a moment. Looking at her hand, which last night had six cracked bones and split skin at her knuckes. She had hit the dummy repeatedly and with sufficient force to require Doctor Dael to intervene.

Walking over to the corner, Dox pulled the dummy into the center of the room and brought it back upright until she was looking up at it's sculpted eyes. "Somehow you turned out to be my worst roommate yet."

Then she lightly slapped it's cheek. "Or maybe I'm the bad roommate. Either way, I think it's best if we go our separate ways."

Stepping back, Dox looked up towards the celiling. "Computer. Please reclaim practice dummy for matter recying." With a chirp, seconds later, the dummy vanished in a sparkle of transporter lights. Broken down into it base molecular materials to be reused in the ships replicator systems later.

"Bye." She said with a light smile but a slightly melencholy tone.

Once the stiffness in her hands was gone, she would start just going to the holodeck for her exercises and practice where the safety protocols would keep her from hurting herself. Though she didn't want to admit, was why she kept the dummy for so long. As a way to vent her agressions on herself.

It wasn't the only way she had found over the years to do so, but it was the one she defaulted to the most. When she was young, she began banging her head on the bulkheads of the ship, usually timed with the knocking of the engines. Then it became hitting herself repeatedly. First in the legs and eventually in the face, until she had to try and explain a deeply bruised eye to her mother.

Not being caught hurting herself was the mantra she used in deciding how to do so for most of her life. But now she was trying a new tactic: asking for help when she wanted to hurt herself.

It wasn't fair to Asa to keep coming to them after the fact when the deed had been done. Or worse, like the night before when Asa had to run in and find her bleeding on the floor. From now on, Dox was going to try and accept the help that was being offered.

Try being the operative word. But for tonight, Dox was emotionally and physically exhausted. She had nobody waiting for her in that bed and feared she never would. But with how she felt right now, that was probably for the best so she wasn't inflicting herself on someone else.

So she would just try and sleep and start her life over in the morning.

As the chief flight control officer of the U.S.S. Hera, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox spent most of her time at the helm of the ship. It's where she felt the most comfortable and the duty she preferred. But being a department head meant having other duties such as overseeing every other pilot on the ship. But overseeing others was a duty she found harder than ever in the wake of the HERA's most recent mission.

Today, this duty meant performance reviews, evaluations and interviews. As such, Assistant Chief Ensign Mona Gonadie was at the helm and Dox was neck deep in a stack of crew files and the results of a series of combat simulations performed over the last three days.

For reasons the young part-Romulan pilot could not comprehend, the First Officer of the Hera, Rita Paris, was grooming her for command duties and she didn't want to disappoint her friend yet again. So she dug in deep to the files on her computer.

Today, she was reviewing the files of three young ensigns, all of whom dreamed of flying a starship. One was a recent transfer to the Hera with exemplary numbers and one of the best simulation records Dox had seen. A young pilot only a year out of the academy named Anthony Hovind.

Of course, simulations were a far cry from the stresses of the real thing and academic performance often didn't line up with real duties. Real duties were where people died and the thought caused Dox to pause for a moment as she thought back to the Section 31 base and the security personnel that died under her. Taking a breath, she brought herself back to the moment.

On the files in front of her, two of her subordinates had reported that this new transfer was reluctant to take basic orders and tended to do things how he chose to do them. So before crew rotations we're to be scheduled, Dox wanted sit down and talk to the younger Ensign.

At 09:00 the door to the Flight Control Office chimed announcing the new pilots interview appointment. She took a deep breath and composed herself. She wasn't going to let officers under her not know what they were doing.

"Come." Dox called from her desk as she cleared the files of the other officers from her screen. The door opened and the focus of her attention walked in.

The Ensign had a physique only known by the truly young, but the early signs of adult metabolism showed around his middle that was beginning to show the early signs of a beer belly. Anthony was about 6 foot tall with sandy blonde hair, grey-blue eyes and a cocky smile. He looked like the high school athlete, or perhaps someone who would be comfortable dealing with the shadiest Ferngei.

Hovind swaggered into Dox's office with the bravado of a man expecting a commendation from a thankful public. He sat unceremoniously on the seat opposite his commanding officer and said, "Yes? Did you need something?"

Immediately, Dox began to see what the problem was. Without lifting her head from her screen, she rolled her eyes up to meet Hovind's. "Yeah. When you see the waitress could you tell her I'd like a Romulan Ale."

Then, in an exaggerated motion, Dox sat up and looked around the room. "Wait, I assumed we were in Ten-Forward and not my office." Then Dox tapped the small stylus in her hand on the rim of the saucer of the small model of the Constitution-Class starship left on her desk from when this was Rita Paris' office.

"No, this appears to be my office, Mr. Hovind. So, maybe you'd like to try this again?" Her tone was now Stern and there was an edge to her deeper than expected voice. She arched a pointed eyebrow at the arrogant Ensign.

With a roll of his eyes, Hovind sat stood up and said, "Ensign Hovind reporting as ordered ma'am. May I sit?" His tone was bordering on insolence, and it was obvious he found the formality of the meeting useless. After all, he was a good pilot, what else mattered? That was for the dredges of Starfleet. Let security worry about all that....he had better things to do.

looking up the aggravated Ensign, Dox sat back straight and crossed her fingers in front of her on her desk with as neutral of an expression on her face as was.possible. "No, Ensign. Before that I'd like to ask if you know why I've asked to see you today?"

Shrugging, Hovind said, "I dunno. Shift change?"

"No, Mr. Hovind." Dox said sharply as she stood up from her desk. Crossing her hands behind her back, the short, squat young Romulan walked out the the front to stand next to the Ensign. "THIS is why you are here." The aggravated department chief looked up at the significantly taller man, tilting her head.

"Duty on a starship is significantly more for a pilot then simply flying a ship. There is a strict heirarchy and protocols in place wherein every officer and enlisted crewmembers contributes as part of a greater whole. And when an officer feels like they are... above that heirarchy... It does far more than inconvenience and disrupt your fellow crewmembers."

Walking behind him as she talked, Dox continued noticing his gaze seemed to be focused randomly on the ceiling. "It can literally cost lives. But that doesn't seem to be a concern to you enough to PAY ATTENTION to your superior."

"Sit." Dox hissed.

Hovind's ears had turned bright red, although with either embarrassment or fury was hard to discern. Although his gaze was no longer unfocused, he was clearly not best pleased. He sat down hurriedly, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Nonspeaking, he waited for Dox to continue. It was clear the ensign felt he was the aggrieved party here and was just playing along with his superiors whims.

Standing over him, Dox folded her arms behind her back. Her posture was rigid and she looked down at him sternly. It was body language that she wasn't consciously aware was that of her own mother now coming to her like it was second nature.

"You have skill, but so does every pilot under the command of this office, or they wouldn't be on the Hera." She tilted her head, reading the petulance in his body language.

"But I will not tolerate insubordination or disrespectful conduct. I will not have it nor will I accept it directed at your crewmates." She stepped around to her desk, standing beside it now but still looking down on the young Ensign.

"You have an attitude problem, Mr. Hovind. I've noticed it in how you choose to manage your duties. You seem to feel that manning the Shuttlebay duty stations, and maintaining the weekly maintenance and safety checks on our shuttles and Runabouts are not worthy of your time and it has effected the flow of work in this department. Your reports are sloppy and often incomplete. When you choose to do things as you see fit and on your own schedule, if at all, it disrupts the ships schedules, inconveniences your fellow officers, and it makes me upset."

"I would very much prefer that things run smoothly here, Mr. Hovind. I'd like to know if you feel you are capable of bringing your performance up to the level it needs to be at to serve on this Starship." She looked at the Ensign, tilting her head.

""Yes ma'am," he hissed. The words were right, but the tone was still lacking, "I am confident I can perform my duties as assigned. Obviously Starfleet agrees or they wouldn't have posted me here. Honestly, I expected....more."

Feeling remarkably little sympathy for Hovind's childish outbursts, Dox simply smiled. "Well, Starfleet isn't here to see how you actually perform in the field. But I am, and they will be seeing my reports on that performance, or the lack thereof. That will depend on you, but right now I'm not seeing any indication that you're even aware of the problem."

Walking back behind her desk, Dox sat back down and punched a few commands into her computer. After a few seconds of extremely awkward silence, she turned the screen around to face him.

"This is your current duty roster." The screen was largely blank. "As it stands, I don't feel confident you are capable of properly performing the tasks that have been your responsibility."

Spinning the screen back around, she tented her fingers in front of her and sighed. "I don't like having to have this conversation, but you need to understand that this ship only functions when we all work towards the same goal. And if your goal is simply... Yourself... then you don't understand what Starfleet actually is."

Her tone shifted as she wanted to try and turn the situation around. "I'd like to see you behind the controls of one of these Runabouts, or even at the helm." Dox gestured towards the window to the flight deck behind them. "You have the skills and the drive, but I'm concerned you don't have the temperament. But that's something we can work on if you're willing to realize that I'm not here to be your enemy or stand in your way."

"You're standing in your own way, right now. Do you understand?" Dox was now feeling frustrated. She felt like she was failing to reach the young pilot and didn't know what the best option was.

With a sigh, Hovind deflated a bit. As if realizing he was showing weakness, he sat back up and spread his legs even wider in the chair. In the process of doing so, he gave a slight abdominal thrust, a cocky attitude which Dox would surely notice. However, he seemed to remember himself before speaking and pasted on what was clearly meant to be a charming smile.

"Sure, I get it. I won't make things harder on you, I know it must be hard to be in charge with those ears. Not that I mind Romulans, one of my best friends growing up was Romulan. I think it makes you...exotic. So sure, I'll do what ya' need me to," he concluded with a wink.

For a second, Dox just stared blankly at the peacocking display she had just witnessed. Her cheeks became flush green, but it wasn't with embarrassment as her eyes narrowed and she considered simply replacing the exercise dummy in her quarters with him and practicing every particularly vicious Llaekh-ae'rl blow she knew until his liver popped and his trachea collapsed. 'That would be cruel to Asa.' she thought.

Instead of screaming at him or simply kicking him out of her office, she sighed and took a breath, trying desperately to remember the medatative breathing techniques Sonak had been teaching her as she burried her face in the palm of her hand for a moment before refocusing on the man child sitting opposite of her.

"Until further notice, you are on active suspension of duty, Mr. Hovind. So congratulations, you no longer have to perform any of the duties you found beneath you. I will be filing a report recommending you be removed from this Starship pending diciplinary action and I will be suggesting that the ships Counselor speak with you as well." As her blood continued to boil, she did everything in her power to not simply scream at him. She had put up with behavior like that and worse at the academy but couldn't believe it was sitting right in front of her, splaying and somehow believing it was an impressive act. It was behavior that reminded her of the cavalry machismo of the ships former Security Investigator, Alex Sexton.

"I can't comprehend how you managed to make it to a starship with this childish behavior, but if I have any say in the matter your career will not be advancing without some extreme course correction at the severely damaged helm you call a brain."

Shooting back up from her seat, Dox stood ramrod straight with her hands behind her back, her face a virtual mask of her authoritarian mother's "But as of right now, I don't see that happening. I don't see a Starfleet officer. And I certainly don't see a man. I see a impotent child wearing their parents clothes, pretending to be an adult."

Her voice had taken on a low gravel as she fought to contain her anger. "Get out of my office, Mr. Hovind. And I would also recommend getting out of that uniform until you remember what it stands for. You disgrace it."

The ensign stood up, utilizing his full height to loom over the petite commanding officer. Any joviality was gone from his countenance, and the aggression he felt was clear on his face. Hovind placed his hands on Dox's desk, staking a claim in her space and bracing himself against the metaphorical onslaught of Dox’s anger.

In a booming voice, he bellowed, “How dare you. So, shall we discuss one anothers appearance? Shall I tell you how I see you? Because I see a half breed disgrace of a commanding officer who throws a hissy fit to demand respect instead of earning it. I tried to be nice to you, but you immediately make the discussion into a personal attack. Instead of listening to a member of your staff telling you how they feel they could improve, you launch into a tirade and call them a disgrace. You want to know how I got this posting? By being better than everyone I trained with. By knowing more than them, by adapting better than them, and by looking like the face of Starfleet. What did you do? Fly in a few circles?” he concluded with a sneer. Through the course of the ensign’s speech he had begun leaning more and more over the desk, and his face had turned a bright red as he was all but nose to nose with her.

Meeting his angry gaze without blinking, Dox leaned in to all but close the tiny Gap between the two. Her voice was flat and forecfull. "Mr. Hovind, a transcript of this meeting will be available for review in your reprimand. If you feel inclined to pay attention to it, perhaps you will find my attempts at showcasing where and what you need to improve to be an officer in this department."

Now her voice had sunk back into the gravily hiss from before. "Now, remove your hands from my desk and remove yourself from my sight.

"Gladly," he replied flatly, brushing his hands across her desk, knocking a PaDD and stylus to the ground, turning to storm out in a fit.

"Computer, lock office door until further notice." As Hovind approached the door, it now failed to open. Dox stood at her desk with her hands behind her back. "Let's try this again. Turn around, replace the items on my desk as you found them, and then you may leave."

Silently, Hovind turned and picked up the detritus from the floor, placing it unceremoniously on Doxs desk. When he was done he stood silently facing her, hands behind his back.

Wanting to try and de-escalate the tension, if only a slight amount, Dox allowed her posture to relax a bit and smiled, albiet stiffly. "Thank you, Ensign. I hope we can sit down to discuss this again after some time is taken to reflect and review."

The young Flight Control Chief felt the knot in her stomach flipping in circles like a ship listing out of control as she spoke, doing everything she could the keep her emotions in check and her face neutral. She pressed a button on her desk or and with a chirp, the doors to the office hissed open. "Thank you, you're dismissed."

Hovind turned on his heels and silently stalked out of the office. Seconds later the office doors hissed closed as Dox flumped hard into her chair.

Folding her arms on her desk before her, she sunk her head hard into the pit formed between them with a mild thud and she groaned loudly. Pulling her head up enough to look at her desk, Dox focused on the small model of the U.S.S. Exeter on her desk.

Sighing, the exhausted young Chief felt tears welling up in her eyes as the rush of anxiety, anger and fear brought up in the meeting began to overwhelm her as she dwelled on how badly that had went. "Still think I'm the right woman for this job, Commander? Imirrhlhhse."

Cursing at herself in Riham, Dox tried to imagine how that.could have gone worse as she cried softly for a moment before wiping her face and composing herself for duty again reluctantly.

The Hera's sickbay was quite apart from the usual hum of all the machines that made up the bay. Well apart from one as ensign Tathaa was finding out. One of the cryobays cryogenic storage pods was for some reason letting out a high pitched winning and combined with the water leaking out of it's bottom was creating a mess.

The anear had tried switching it off, but it was obeying commands. Luckily no one was in it or this could be quite a mess.

Closing the door to the bay the anear began to look for her boss. She had managed to tune out the thoughts of her new crew by now and could only see their physical reading. Asa Dael was easy to spot given her psychic nature and the anear was soon outside of her office.

Giving the door alarm a polite tap she was soon buzzed in. " Hello, doctor. We have a problem in the cryo bay. Chamber five is leaking, letting out a buzzing sound and is refusing to switch off. I've already sent a request for someone from engineering to come and fix it. " She said politely and professional.

Tricorder at the ready, Dael was approaching the cryopod cautiously, "This is not where our changeling is, is it?"

The usually bold doctor was cautious to avoid changeling shenanigans from their first day aboard repeating themselves, but was shamed to realize they did not remember where the being was stored. But for what other reason would they be called to engineering?

" No doctor cryo storage bay one is completely empty." the anear explained as she lead the way. As the door slid open the sound which had reached a new pitch level blared out into the main sickbay. Tathaa antenna was twitching and folding back onto her head at the vibration. The high pitch being extremely painful for her to listen to. " I know it shouldn't be making that sound." She said as calmly as she could.

“Right, well, we have definite life signs, so let’s clear the area then please? Also, a couple of security personnel just in case are not a bad idea,” the doctor replied, already walking towards the mysterious sound.

As the doctor approached, they held their head slightly. The pitch of the sound was painful to them, and the humidity in the area had risen over 50%. Turning to look at the nurse, Asa said, “This life form, whatever it may be, is capable of either altering our environmental controls or creating their own humid climate. Do you show the settings for this deck altered in any way?”

Stepping back into the main room the anear reached out with her psychic abilities. " No doctor the humidity on this deck is still at the standard temperature."

"I can confirm that." Thex said as she stepped into the medical bay holding a scanner in one hand. " Regular temperature out here. " Sounds like the ship had another stowaway on board. " The engineers said giving the anear a quick smile before offering a pair of-of shield gloves to the doctor. " Want me to open the pod so we can get a better look?" The engineer asked politely.

"Just as soon as security gets here, let's crack 'er open," the doctor replied, shifting nervously from foot to foot. The doctor was hoping to avoid the last disastrous stowaway the ship encountered, and also knew they may need the help wrangling whatever life form this may be in order to get medical care.

When security staff arrived in the cryobay, Dael motioned them to the storage pod and put on the gloves Thex had offered with a smile of thanks. Then, with a look of determination, the doctor instructed the security personnel to open the pod.

The two security personnel did so though they probably wished they hadn't. A rank smell filled the room as the casing came off the pod reviling what was in the pod. What looked like a large blue and purple blobby mess had apparently appeared inside the cryo pod and judging by the smell of burning plastic it had burned through the pod and into the inner mechanics. " Well, that shouldn't be there." Thex said looking at the unknown entity.

Taking a huge step back from the smell instinctively, Dael recovered themself and walked up to join the engineer at peering inside the container.

"Um, did we have Horta eggs in the pod above by any chance?" The doctor inquired, "If so, well, it hatched. "

" Not unless they've teleported. " Thex said as she looked at the gunk in the pod. " It looks like the results of a failed teleporter accident to me. "

" Computer are all personnel accounted for?" Tathaa asked the computer without having to ask.

=^= All personnel accounted for. =^= the computer replied after a short pause.

" So what is this?" Thex said as she pulled up her scanner to get a reading. " Getting multiple readings of plastic, metals, synthetic fiber and multiple DNA readings. Doctor shall we get the pod out of here and into one of the medical labs?" The andoiran said turning to look at the doctor.

"Definitely, yes." Asa responded, moving to type in instructions for medical personnel to be on stand by to assist.

Taking a look at the pod, the doctor knew they would not be able to lift this on their own, and dare not risk further transport if the life form was already damaged by a transporter incident. They went to a nearby replicator and obtained a small tin of a cream that smelled strongly of mint and eucalyptus- an old medical trick from mortuary workers on Earth.

"Here," they said, preferring the tin to the two Andorians and security team, "Put some of this under your nose, it will insulate you from the smell a bit."

" Thanks." Said Thex and Tathaa as both put some under their nose as did both of the security officers. " Shall i get a hover trolley?" Thex asked as the smell filled her nose.

"Yes please, that would be a help. I will likely need some help maneuvering our new friend onto the trolley also, if you would be so kind?" Dael replied hopefully.

It didn't take long before Thex was back with a hover trolley which she maneuvered into position. "Okay everyone take one of the handles and let's get it on the trolley." The andorian said as she moved into position.

The doctor joined in the effort and soon the unknown being was on the trolley. The group quickly maneuvered the life form to a nearby lab, earning states as they went and the crew in the corridors smelled the horrible stench.

Once the group was inside the lab, Asa began scanning the being, "I'm reading seven different DNA signatures, and more than one reading consistent with a summoned entity. Were there any unexpected energy readings during transports back from the worldship?"

" None that my team detected.You think it tried teleporting off the world ship and rematerialized inside the pod?" Thex asked.

"It's as good a theory as any right now," the doctor replied, brow furrowed in concentration as they continued to determine what mysterious life form lay in front of them.

"It's almost as if an aquatic creature was....fused...with shape changer? This is unlike anything I have seen, and I sincerely doubt it was intentional. I'm reading what is likely genetic material left behind from.....procreation.....as well....." Asa trailed off with a grimace.

" Is there anything we can do. If it's a shape changer may it be able to reform it's original form? " The anear inquired looking over at Thex and then to the chief medical officer?

Running their hands through their close cropped hair, Dael stood thoughtfully for a moment.

“Perhaps,” they began, pacing while they spoke.

“We need to separate each form of DNA from the rest. Once I have the DNA fully sequenced we can look into using adapted cloning technology to aid in the regrowth of tissues. However, depending on the life form, that may be unsafe and better left to a bio-recovery facility. For instance, if one of these beings is hostile, we hardly want them running around the ship….”

The doctor moved to place an advanced bio-sequencer over the pod to begin to provide more in depth readings. As they looked at the display, a frown began to furrow on the physicians brow.

“I’m getting elfin DNA, Silik, Xindi-aqueous, and Calamarian readings, along with something I…..don’t……quite……recognize……” Asa trailed off, getting closer to the readout screen, as it proximity would imbue understanding.

" Is it a hybrid? " Thex guessed as she looked at the screen.

“It’s entirely possible,” Asa theorized, moving around the being scanning as quickly as they could. “It could be the gods from those various beings had been called forth to the worldship and then when it began to disintegrate decided to project themselves on to the Hera. But the process would have been interrupted somehow, possibly by our own shields and exit from the energy waves, and it left us with…..this. How elfin DNA became entwined I’m not entirely sure, unless one of the peoples of that world tried to hitch a ride too.”

The smell in the lab was reaching a ponderous level, overpowering even the odor neutralizers the doctor had in place. They turned on an exhaust vent but did not have much hope it would ameliorate the odor.

The creature began to burble, with a bluish-greenish fluid coming out of what must have been orifices as it appeared to be attempting to move. The…blood?....of the creature was racing and a throb from what may have been a heart was increasing too.

“I think it’s getting agitated,” Asa said, moving to be near the patient. They began speaking in a low, slow tone of voice to the creature, “I don’t know how you got here, but please be at peace. We are only here to help. I’m Doctor Asa Dael, and was are going to figure this out together.”

An alert sounded on a piece of nearby equipment signaling the genetic sequencing had been completed. Asa spoke gently to the creature and reassured it they would be right back. Looking at the display, the doctor asked the two Andorian’s to look over their shoulder.

“Now, call me crazy, but this looks like what would happen if a transporter played genetic soup with signatures. Like a bargain basement transporter tried to beam these individuals onto the Hera and failed. Weren’t there examples of this during the early transporter tests? As if someone tried to build a transporter and failed?”

Thex nodded having remembered seeing similar results in the transporter training at the academy. " Yeah, the early days of the transporter were difficult. Most of the early human test subjects were badly injured or flat out killed. When they stared multiple people there would be cases of people remateralizing inside each other or in a primordial soup that once was there bodies. "

" Could you do anything to help them?" asked the annear.

" I could try to lock onto the DNA and try beaming each one of them out, but it will be hard. With no original signature, i could leave bits of them behind." Thex responded.

"This current life form is not sustainable," Asa said softly, "They will only live for another 36 hours or so before cellular degradation becomes fatal. I think we should try..."

" Okay. I'll use the section 31 transporter as it's more powerful. I'll get up and start getting it ready. " Thex said as she turned to leave.

" Good luck." Tathaa said as the andorian stepped out of the room.

"I stand ready to assist," Dael said solemnly, doing what they could to keep the new passenger on the Hera comfortable.

It didn't take long before the chief of engendering was in the most advanced transporter on the ship. It took her longer than she thought before she was ready to go and even then she had a feeling this would end badly. Still it wasn't like they had a choice. Tapping her combadge she spoke calmly.

=^= All ready at this end doctor. =^=


Doctor Dael fed the bio signatures they had been able to separate over to engineering. They had the pod brought to Sickbay, which had been evacuated. There was a low probability of success, but the being in the pod would not survive without intervention.

=^= Just sent you the signatures. Are you beaming to your location, or can you Beam to sick bay direct in case emergency treatment is needed? =^= Dael replied.

" I'll beam them straight to sickbay. Have your teams be on standby." Thex said as she began to target the first of the DNA structures in the mess. She ran her fingers through their hair before placing her fingers over the console. " Let's do it. "

With that, the andorians figures shot across the surface as she got to work. " First being should be rematerialized about now." She said into the open coms.

Shrieking as he appeared, an elfin person from the Worldship came into being. He was covered in foul smelling goo and completely nude, but appeared to be otherwise unharmed.

"Hi there," Asa said in as calm a voice as possible, "My name is Asa Dael, I'm a doctor on the USS Hera." Then, motioning to a nearby brunette figure, they continued, "This is Nurse Vimes. She is going to take a look at you to make you are well, ok?"

Shaking his head, the elf shrieked, "Noooooo! This cannot be! I was finally dissolving, I was finding rest! Why have you brought me here? Why am I summoned? I do not wish to beeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

Remembering how desperately the being on the worldship craved Death, Doc Dael felt sorrow for him, but hoped in time perhaps he would be at peace being alive. If not, perhaps other options could be considered. Cryogenic sleep was certainly an option, but Dael was not ready to go down that path quite yet.

Vimes took Elky, as he screeched to be his name when asked, to a nearby shower to get the remaining goo off him. After all, smelling better certainly couldn't hurt.

=^=We have the first one taken care of. So far, so good. Sickbay standing by to continue=^= Dael relayed to Thex and Tathaa

A slight smile was on the andorians face as she continued to work. One by one the other being we're drawn out of the muck until only one remained. Judging by the sobbing and screams from the other side of the comms not all of them were grateful at being freed.

=^= Thex to sickbay are you ready for the last one?" She asked

With a deep breath, Asa respond =^=Aye, please proceed. =^=

The twinkling lights receded, signaling the transport was complete. What was on the biobed in front of Asa was unlike any creature they had ever seen. It was approximately seven feet in height, and appeared to have the gills of a fish as well as a nose generally associated with humanoids. The creature was green in appearance with streaks of blue running diagonally down its face; the face had four eyes, two on each side of the nose sitting atop each other. The bottom eye on each side of the face was deep black with no iris, while the top eye was a piercing gray that turned amber gold as the being frantically looked from side to side. There was a small mouth with gray lips, and gray antennae were atop the creatures head.


Doctor Dael wiped slime off the prone form in front of them and took vital signs, reading the being to be biologically male. He had lungs equipped for air and water, and four small hearts joined together in a chain. Each heart seemed to take turns beating, creating a march like rhythm. His hands were more like flippers with webbed fingers, matching the webbed long, flat feet. This was a being that would be at home in the water and also on land, but had very fragile, light bones and the beginnings of a psionic energy transference organ was growing where an appendix would have been in a human.


"There.....there is no way this is what you originally were. I'm sorry. Please try to remain calm, we are going to work this out," Asa said gently, patting the hand of the person they dubbed Triton in their head.

=^=We have him, but I'm not sure who he is yet. What is left in the pod?"=^= Dael inquired.

" If the scanners are correct the innards of a cryo pod, mixed with part of the carpet and pillow. Looks like we've got them all. " Thex said feeling very relived.

“Well done Commander, feel free to stop by Sickbay and come meet our new friends. After all, you helped save them.” Asa replied, focusing on the being in front of them. He was beginning to move restlessly, looking concerned as his blood pressure reflected a rise in anxiety levels.

" Will do doc." The andorian replied a large smile plastered over her face.

Doctor Dael gently stroked one webbed hand, offering what reassurance they could. While the doctor was whispering soothing words and conducting scans, an impression formed in their mind of the being saying, “Why do you call me Triton? Where am I? Who am I? How did I come to be here?”

The unexpected telepathy took Asa by surprise for a startled moment, then they internally kicked themself, realizing the being had no other way to communicate. Keeping a calm smile on their face, Asa replied, “I did not know your name, so I gave you one in my head. I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to force a name on you. You are on a Starfleet starship, the USS Hera. We believe you were fleeing a world that was collapsing and transported yourself on board. However, due to the chaos surrounding the collapse of the world, your signature became…entwined….with some others. We have done our best to separate out your DNA to give you form again, but is probable that other DNA has become incorporated with your own. I do not know if this is who you were, but we have done our best. How do you feel?”

The pressure in the back of Asa’s mind took on a feeling of melancholy, there was a brief pause, and then the mental communication resumed, “I feel…..different. I cannot express how, but I know that I was once only aquatic, and I also know I was once only an air breather. I know I was more than this….and less than. I am a paradox, and I am new. Perhaps there is beauty in being this way. Whoever I was before, I believe that to be gone. There are….scraps….of memories of faces and peoples. Of fear, love, joy, hope, sadness, and everything else. But those feelings are remote, as if in a dream. I accept the name of Triton as I do not have one otherwise. What….what happens to me now?”

With a reassuring squeeze to Triton’s hand, Asa said simply, “Now we learn together who you are and what you want. I’ll do whatever is in my power to help you find a happy life. For now, you are under observation for a few days to make sure your health is stable. I imagine you need to spend some time in the water relatively soon, and I will arrange for that. I’ll ask our EMH to join you in the water as he can observe your vitals without breathing or being impeded by a breathing apparatus as I would be. Fear not, you are among friends. We are explorers, and I am honored to help you explore your new identity….if you will let me.”

It was at that moment that Thex and Thaana entered Sickbay. Turning to them smiling broadly, Asa said, “Hello! Triton, meet the other 2 people who helped form you. This is Lieutenant Commander Thex sh’Zoarhi and Ensign Tathaa. Ladies, this is Triton.”

" Hello, Triton. I'm happy we could help you. Shall i have one of the special habitat rooms prepared for him as soon as you're done with him?" The andorian said calmly. The annear at her side said nothing, but judging by her antenna movement she was saying hello with her mind.

Sensing a feeling of confusion coming from Triton, Asa replied for him, "Yes, I think that would be good. He is going to need the ability for his quarters to be both aquatic and standard air based depending on what he needs to breath at the time."

It was going to be a journey for the new life to understand who he is and reconcile that with who he used to be, but Asa felt confident the crew of the Hera was up to the task of helping him rebuild a life.

The request had come through the proper channels, and it had reminded Commander Rita Paris that there was still quite a mystery left unsolved down in Engineering, ad Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi was determined to crack the riddles of the artifacts found secreted away in Hera's temple of Meroset 347 after her defeat. So far it had produced both wonders and horrors, but what else they might yield remained to be seen. Thus the request from the insatiably curious shief engineer to interview Hera, to see what she knew about the artifacts in question and what blanks so could fill in for the investigation.

Personally Rita thought a lot of it could be filed under Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, as in most of the legends of the gods she'd read, all magic came at a price, and the more of those artifacts Thex dug up and reactivated, the higher the price to be paid for them in the long run. But the captain had approved the restoration project and Thex was making headway, so perhaps that uneasy feeling she got every time she thought about it was just nerves.

Perhaps.

Meanwhile, said chief engineer was scheduled to meet Rita on Deck 8 so she could be an escort slash witness to a conversation with Hera. Which was far less daunting a prospect of late- the goddess had mellowed and was trying a new diet based on service and deeds instead of worship and supplication, and she seemed much calmer and more willingly compliant. So perhaps this would be good for both of them- Hera could get a charge out of helping, and Thex might not accidentally unleash Scottish bog monsters in Main Engineering.

A win-win, Rita's favorite outcome.

For now, Paris approached the VIP quarters that were substantially reinforced, where two guards were on duty at all times and her own security protocols insures access to Hera was not easily accomplished. All of these were concessions to the captain, made voluntarily since the woman, while currently seemingly reformed, had also been the brutal tyrant of a world not so long ago. Nodding to the security officers on duty, Rita was surprised to notice that apparently there were no shortage of large, capable-looking security officers who were humanoid females who seemed to end up in rotation on guard duty on Hera's door.

When she had mentioned that she attracted Amazons, Rita hadn't taken her fully serious, but it seemed she was going to have to take a look at the security watch assignments a bit more closely to break it up and put some male guards in the rotation as well. Looked like Hera might not be exercising her power, but patterns still formed about her. Which only worried Paris slightly, as this was another development she would need to report to the Captain.

For the andorian engineer who was making her way through the ship she couldn't help but have butterflies in her stomach. Telling a godess that you had the been repairing some of her artifacts was bad enough, but asking her if it was possible for the Norse god of mischief to have stolen some of them from under her nose was rather terrfying.

She had thought about wearing the armor of Achilles, but given they still had no idea of an effective countermeasure she had decided against it. Last thing they need was for a god wearing that thing.

Stepping out of the turbolift she smiled at Rita and the guards. Like her friend, she noted the two human female security guards. She'd have to make a note about that.

"Hello, Commander Paris." She said calmly as she waited outside the sealed door.

“Lieutenant Commander sh’Zoarhi, good to see you. Computer, please unseal hatch, authorization Paris, R, LTCDR, 867-5309.”

The computer chirruped and replied immediately. =^= What was your rank in 2256? =^=

“I was a lieutenant junior grade,” Paris replied, and the doors unsealed and whooshed open to reveal Hera’s quarters. A few houseplants were recent additions, as it had been judged that having things nearby to nurture was good for the captive goddess. It also helped keep her looking forward to her visits to the ship’s arboretum, which was on the schedule for today.

“Hera, you have a visitor. You remember Ms. sh’Zoarhi from previously? She’s been working on repairing those artifacts you had in the basement of your old place…” Paris alluded to but did not spell out the specifics of Hera’s temple atop Mount Hera on Meroset 347.

"Ah! Of course! Please, come in!" Setting aside her current book, Collected Treatises on the Fallacies of Conflict - A Vulcan Guide to Human Nature, she stood to greet her guests with a bright smile. "It's always a pleasure seeing the both of you. What can I do for you today?"

Thex was feeling rather nervous as she stepped forward. " Nice to see you again Hera. Well, we need your help with something. I've been working on repairing the artifacts you had in the basement of your temple. We tried fixing one, but...." She said trying not to annoy the greek goddess.

" Well instead of the spear what was created was a necklace that started spewing water and a water monster from Celtic mythology. We managed to restrain the beast, but then Flidais appeared claiming it belonged to her sister and it had been stolen by a norse snake."

Hera looked thoughtful as she thought about those artifacts. "Yeah they were all artifacts on Meroset that the Merosians had been trying to restore as well. Most of them I could identify, but a few eluded even me. I was able to figure out most of them at least and since the repair systems were intact and they had some nice enhancement vessels, I just left them as they were."

" So they were there before you go there," Thex said running her fingers through her long white hair. " So loki could have put them there before you arrived on the planet. "

"A couple of his children were occupying my temple when I got there. I had them evicted and sent home. I should have followed up on that..." Hera mused on that fact for a moment. "So what artifacts have you been able to repair?"

Internally the first thing that came to mind was that this was classified information not to be shared with a prisoner. The second thought was that it was pointless to have Hera onboard if she could not be questioned about artifacts found in her temple, as she was the leading authority on such matters. Then of course there was the matter of trust, which Rita still struggled with when it came to Hera- she wanted to trust the woman but feared an eventual betrayal. But in the end, she remained silent, letting this situation play out. If the captain had an objection, Rita would definitely hear of it.

Thex looked over at Rita before back to the goddess. " Only one. After the incident with the last one, we've stopped trying to repair any new ones. We did get the armor working, but it doesn't seem to be working properly." Thex responded to the godess.

"The Achilles Armor? I doubt any of you are willing to pay the price for it. Besides, the power source is still missing." Hera thought on that for a moment. "I suppose you could still use it as is... But It wouldn't be... Hmmm... What about the apple?"

" The price?" Thex said without thinking suddenly getting the desire to go and get a medical checkup that would scan her very atoms for any problems. She looked at Hera not sure if she should mention that the golden apple in the jar was nothing, but a golden sphere in the shape of an apple.

"It takes time off of your life as you use it. If you've worn it, you might want to... Ah... You probably don't have tech like that though..." Hera was a bit concerned at this point. These were all rather dangerous artifacts and she only hoped that this blue woman was treating them as such.

Thex felt suddenly small. A feeling she hadn't felt in a long long time since her family had insulted her for not being good enough during training. It made sense given the armor was made for an effective immortal man. " How much life does it take off?" She said trying to hide the weakness in her voice.

Hera had to think back on that one... "Ah... I think it was a year per use. Enough for a short battle or something. Three to five minutes? It was pretty thirsty..."

"But you are of a long-lived race, aren't you, Thex? And it's not like you've been out playing basketball in it, right?" At that moment, watching the expression on Thex's face, maybe she had. "Have you?"

" No, not that long. Maybe an hour....." The andorian said before her brain brought something back into her mind. The scans of the power source. " Wait go back for one moment. You said it's power source was missing, but when i repaired it it had a miniature sun powering it."

"What?" Hera looked genuinely shocked at that news. "How... You were able to restore it fully? I think I've underestimated you... And you wore it for an hour? Was the actual combat mode active though? Or was it in passive mode? You're not dead, so..." the ship's namesake was deeply concerned over these revelations at this point. These were dangerous artifacts and normally were accompanied with heavy warnings issued by visions of flaming deities...

" I wouldn't know the difference between combat mode and passive mode. I only got it to work by saying the word defender and I somehow got the flight mode activated by thinking about flying. We still have to buff out the hole in the testing room roof." The andorian responded before a thought came into her mind.

" Could your son or someone else have put in a safety feature sometime after it was made? "

"It's possible..." Hera thought on this. "I still recommend getting checked out. I don't suppose there are any other stragglers on board after your last mission that can help with such things? A nymph of life... Lesser deity of healing... Danu... No, I heard she's retired to a new home or something..."

"We... might have someone who could help," Paris piped in. She wasn't about to say just who, how and why, but she suspected that the expert in question would have considerable expertise. "So magic always has a price, eh? I thought I'd read that somewhere..."

"The law of equivalent exchange always applies. My race just applies it in different ways to make it look like it doesn't," Hera confirmed.

" Well will have to remember that when we work on the other ones. Do you have any way to see if the remaining damaged ones are what they claim to be? I'd hate to have a WMD put there by a Norse god of mischief sitting in our cargo hold." The andorian asked the worry still at the back of her mind.

"I already labeled them the best I could. Were the labels not there? I used a... Ah, you wouldn't know to look for a distortion variance tracker, would you?" Hera had some mentoring to do, it seemed. "I don't suppose you could allow me the use of one of your data devices and a pen so I could relay the specifics?"

Tapping at a PaDD, Rita logged herself out of it, locked it down and left the word processing program open. Handing it to Hera, she explained, "You can use your fingertip for the stylus. If it isn't fine point enough for the work you are doing I imagine our resident engineer can likely produce a stylus for you..."

"Ah! Excellent. I'm so used to scrollwork and the like." The disgraced goddess sat down at the nearby table and stared at her fingertip for a moment, using a tiny bit of energy to grow her fingernail to a point so she could use it as a fine tipped stylus, which looked like it tired her out just doing such a small task. She then used it to start writing out the specs and drawing up schematics for a basic detector that shouldn't be too much of a violation of her own people's policies on not sharing tech with less advanced races.

Finished, Hera nodded and handed the PaDD off to Thex. "You might have to invent a few of the components, but I included enough detail that that shouldn't be too hard. After all, you fully restored and apparently improved armor I thought irreparable." She then looked down at her fingernail. "I need to trim that now..."

“Thank you, Hera- it’s much appreciated. I’ll get you a visit from the ship’s cosmetologist for a spa afternoon,” Paris offered, which sounded like a joke but actually was no such thing. Mentally she made a note to send the woman with a bottle of actual wine, as that tended to perk Hera up considerably more than the replicated stuff, and the captain kept quite a supply on hand.

" Yes thank you, Hera. I'll be sure to get this added to the scanners... just as soon as i figure out how to make this all work. " the andorian said looking at the padd. This would be another all-nighter or more likely an all weaker.

"So, does that satisfy your curiosity for now, Chief sh'Zoarhi?" Paris asked, noticing that even a small power expenditure had a significant effect of the reformed tyrant. This looks like a job for the captain's wife...

" Yes that will be all Commander Paris." replied the andorian.

"As you like. Keep up the excellent progress reports. Lieutenant Commander- your paperwork is always efficient and interesting. As for you, young lady," Paris turned to regard the supine goddess. "Thank you for your help. You didn't have to lift a finger," Rita waggled her finger in the direction of the pointed stylus nail. "But you did, and for no reason other than to help a researcher trying to make sense of metascience artifacts. That was pretty selfless of you, I have to say. You okay? You look a little peaked."

Taking a deep breath, Hera nodded with a smile. "Nothing a little rest won't help, I think. I'm just glad to help. Just please promise me you'll all be more careful with those artifacts."

" I will Hera. No more messing around with them until I find a way to get myself checked out." Thex replied calmly.

"Excellent. You should likely expect a visitor shortly, Hera... and thank you for your help." Paris would make the arrangement's for Maica to come work over the captive divine, and to bring a bottle of actual wine with her. That would likely help immeasurably... and if nothing else it helped reinforce that good deeds are their own reward.

Or, at least, that's how she hoped it would work out...

Thex was still thinking so much that she didn't hear Rita unlock the room. As the two of them left the room and were back into the ship's corridor, the blue woman simply walked over to the opposite wall and leaned heavily against it. " Why do I have to keep fucking up my life." She said with a groan running her hands through her hair and over her face.

"Hey hey hey, less talk of that, Miss sh'Zoarhi," the first officer interjected, moving the Andorian engineer down the corridor away from the security personnel guarding the door to Hera's quarters.. "How exactly are you ruining your life, now?"

" Well, I may have lost years of my life from messing around with some god tech just as I was starting to get my life on track. " The andorian responded.

"True. But you have a long lifespan, and you didn't know, and now you do. So you learned something. Not like you turned old overnight, and it isn't because you were just goofing off with it, you were pursuing scientific research. Nothing to beat yourself up over, Thex," Rita kept her voice low, because while there was very little foot traffic on Deck 8, still, no one needed to overhear this particular conversation between the first and second officers.

"Yeah, I guess you’re right. I just need to stop by the Medcenter and get myself checked out. See if anything else has been messed up." The andorian said meekly.

“Hey now,” Paris pivoted and got in front of the smaller woman, hands on her hips, blocking the Andorian engineer’s path. “The inventors of the x-ray didn’t realize they were giving themselves cancer, nor did they realize what they were doing when they installed x-ray machines in shoe stored that were made of wood and you could see your feet inside the shoes. Scientifc advances almost always come with a stumble or two along the way. I’ll not have you beating yourself up for not realizing something that wasn’t readily evident, understand? You’re better than that, Lieutenant Commander.” Paris offered a crooked smile to complement her words, to reinforce to the handy chief that her efforts were not willful self-destruction but accidental side-effects. “You know what you are getting in for now, so you can bear that in mind moving forward, yes?”

The andorian let out a sigh before speaking " Yeah, your right. I'm not going to find an answer for this if I'm constantly kicking myself. I'll get myself checked out and then i need a very strong drink. Don't suppose you want to join me or do you want to have a rummage through the cargo we stole from the orions? " She said a weak grin over her face.

"Happy to join you for a drink, but what cargo from what Orions? Did I miss something?" Paris stepped back out of the way and began moving again, now that the senior staff officer was no longer beating herself up over a percieved failure that was nothing of the sort.

"Oh yeah, you were on the away team. Whilst you were down in the base we came under attack from a few pirates. The orions tried to hurt my girl with a virus which we managed to send back at them and i beamed off all of their cargo in the process. Serves them right for messing with my girl." The andorian responded confidently.

“Well, that’ll teach them. Guess I need to go through that inventory then, insure we don’t have anything dangerous or contraband in there. So, go get checked out, get your workup done and make sure you are all right, and I will go check on your liberated booty and see what’s in there that might be put to good use for the side of the angels, if I come up with any dancer costumes, I’ll let you know.” Paris nudged the shorter blue woman’s shoulder gently, knowing both her fondness for and ability with the dance styles made famous by the dancing girls of the Kolari. "Then just call me and I can meet you for that drink, aye?"

" Deal. Save any orion scanners as well, will you? Their electromagnetic phase matrix are handy spare parts for a few of the ships minor functions. " The andorian said as she made her way down the corridor.

“Ah, sure, deal,” Rita tapped out a note to herself to bring an engineer along with her to inventory the junk in the cargo hold, as she wouldn’t know an Orion scanner if it pinched her butt. “All right Miss sh’Zoarhi, looks like we both have some work to do. I’ll be happy to meet later, just let me know, and meanwhile I’ll be borrowing one of your mechanics in mustard to give Science and I a hand inventorying, and I will definitely let you know if we find anything useful. For now, I have to go arrange for a massage and a bottle of wine delivery to our helpful friendly neighborhood goddess.”

" Make sure to take her some good stuff," Thex said as she turned the corner and disappeared out of eyesight.

Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox, Personal Log.

It's been over a month now since damage to my DNA that was performed on me as a young child was undone by the HERA's Chief Medical Officer Asa Dael. In that time, my body has gone through a number of biological changes as my Romulan DNA has been restored to its former prominence in my genetic makeup. It's still something of an adjustment, honestly.

And as of 06:00 hours this morning, the biggest adjustment finally happened. When I hit puberty, it did not come with most of the expected aspects of a female cycle. Which is to say I've never really had a full period. At the time, without looking all that hard, a doctor came to the conclusion that as a hybrid of two races generally considered biologically incompatible, I was very likely sterile and would never have a full period. He likened me to, of all things, a Terran mule. A comparison that was not exactly thrilled with.

However having my DNA repaired and my body chemistry returning to what it should be, the answer to the question of my reproductive… functionality... appears to be quite the reverse.

Much to my surprise, I woke up this morning in an uncomfortable pool of green blood. So much green. It feels like my body is making up for lost time as I had to basically replicate my sheets out of existence and requisition a new mattress pad, which thankfully is a completely automated process the computer handles, also through the ships replicators. The underwear and sleep shirt I was wearing were also… lost causes.

The replicator has provided me with the medical products required to make sure I'm not bleeding all over the ship, which is a good thing. This is the kind of stuff most women learn how to prepare with way earlier, after all.

I can still smell it, though. I am really hoping it's just how sensitive my sense of smell as gotten. I've showered twice and I know I'm clean.

I don't know. Maybe this is why I've been fixated more than normal on the relationships among my friends. Damn hormones.

This is going to be a very long day. Which reminds me, I'm going to need to ask Asa how long I can expect this to be going on for, as my mother was quite pleased to not have to elaborate on the subject with me growing up.

End recording.
_______________________________

Stepping across the Flight Control Office, Dox had a PaDD in one hand as she was reviewing the results of engine efficiency revisions on helm control. Standing in front of the office replicator, she ordered a tray of osol twists. A particularly tart Romulan desert treat that she had been craving for a few days now. She was scheduled to take over at the helm herself in half an hour for a shift and was having a difficult time concentrating.

While 24th century medical science kept her from worrying about leaving green stains on her uniform, she had little defense against the fidgety energy that had her squirming at the helm of the mighty Starship for hours.

At the end of her shift for the day, Dox was fairly starving and a little irritable as she walked briskly to the Officer's Lounge for dinner. She desperately didn't want to go to her quarters and was feeling somewhat claustrophobic in her snug uniform. Ordering a large tray of boneless buffalo wings, extra hot and a large glass of Romulan lehe'jhme juice, she made her way to a table in the far corner of the room to sit and people watch.

While Dox was remarkably introverted more often than not, she tended to enjoy watching the crew going about the ship. But today, she was finding herself getting annoyed as she watched crewmembers coming in to eat in pairs. Suddenly, the young pilot was feeling tremendously lonely. It felt like she was the only person on the Hera who wasn't in some kind of relationship except for maybe Doctor Dael.

Pushing a fork full of buffalo chicken into her mouth, she rolled her eyes as she thought. 'I'm not asexual, but you wouldn't know it to look at me.’ she sighed. The Captain had Maica and Rita Paris and Sonak's marriage was like something out of epic poetry.

It was at this point in her train of thought that the HERA's Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi came walking in with her recently transferred new girlfriend, Ensign Tathaa. The Andorian couple looked so impossibly happy together and it just served to remind Dox of how long it had been since the last time she had tried, and epically failed, to have a relationship of any kind.

For a moment, she sat and thought. She had been in active duty with Starfleet for about 6 and a half years. And the first and last time she had ever had sex in her adult life was as a freshman at the academy. She groaned audibly as she realized it had been a decade.

Suddenly, she wasn't hungry anymore. At least for hot wings. She chugged her juice down, grabbed her tray to put up and quickly tried to evacuate the mess hall before Thex noticed her. The Chief Engineer was extremely friendly and Dox generally liked talking with her, but didn't want to have to talk about what she was thinking about at the moment.

After all that had happened, Thex was happy to spend time with her girlfriend. The two had still no luck in finding any "male" andorians on the dating app, but the two of them were, for the most part, more than happy. After taking their food and drink to one of the tables the two had been chatting for a while before Thex noticed Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox heading for the door.

"Hey Dox, not seen you in a bit. Why don't you come join us." She said friendly to the hybrid as she walked by.

'Hnave!' Dox thought to herself, cursing in Romulan. With an awkward and slightly forced smile, she stopped and turned towards the pair still holding a half full tray of food. "Uh. Okay." Walking over, she set her tray down and took a set next to the couple. "Hi."

"Are you okay? You look a little on edge." The andorian said as she took a bite from the nachos before her. "If your still suffering discomfort from the alterations I could book you an appointment with the doctor." Added the anear nurse.

"Huh... oh, no. No. No discomfort or anything." Dox was stamering and she knew it, so she tried to slow down. "Besides, Asa's quarters are right next to mine and I bug them enough. I could just, uh, knock on the wall if I needed anything. Heh."

Dox's smile betrayed her uncomfortability in the moment. She generally enjoyed their company but felt like she was going to crawl out of her own skin and was blushing a mild green as she spoke. 'Oh god, they know. They have to smell it at least. Shoot me out an airlock.' she thought to herself.

"Sorry, I'm just a little preoccupied with... um... work stuff. How's... How are you two doing?" Dox tried to change the subject, biting her lip slightly as she spoke.

Thex thought it was rather odd behavior for the flight officer, but decided to drop it. "Going to be nice to get some shore leave on Earth. Got any plans?" She asked politely.

Relieved that the conversation was staying generic, Dox jumped on the easy question.."I used to have family there, and have some stuff in storage. Just a bunch of boxes, and old hoverbike. But I need to go through it and get whatever I'm keeping beamed into storage here. Otherwise, not really."

Forgetting the basics of casual conversation for a moment, the anxious aviatrix followed up rather quickly. "Uh... what about you two?"

" Oh, we were planning to go diving in the caribbean sea. Your welcome to join us if you want to." Thex said calmly.

Now Dox knew her anxiety must be projecting across the room, but she did her best to keep it in check. "Yeah, that sounds like an extremely romantic plan. One that does not require my mucking it up." She forced a chuckle out, but tried to jump subject quickly.

"But, anyway, I need to get... stop back in my office for a bit before crashing for the night. Need to... well... yeah. Thanks for calling me over. But I really do need to get back to work." As the words stumbled out, she knew she was making a fool of herself as her shift was long over. But she stood up with a smile, bumping the table slightly. "Ooh... uh... Pardon me."

"Are you sure your alright?" Thex said softly worried about what seemed to have happened to the hybrid.

Sensing legitimate concern, and not wanting to blow it off, Dox paused and slowed down. "I'm okay, really. It's..." She winced slightly as she whispered, not wanting to project it.

"Fixed DNA means fixed... Ugh... fixed... hormones. Which are super new for me and... uh... yeah. That." She desperately hoped the pair understood without having to go into the green and gory details. "Sorry. Really."

Before Thex could say anything the anear spoke calmly, soflty and professionally. " Try some cabomectin tablets and get some sleep. It should help." She said quietly enough for no one but them to hear having guessed the likely cause of the hybrids behavior.

Smiling a bit more naturally now, Dox chuckled as she replied, still nervous. "Thanks..I will." Then she stepped back to continue out of the mess hall before pausing again.

"And... just... Thanks." She smiled and nodded as she stepped out of the room.

" Okay do I want to know what's up with her?" Thex asked feeling very confused.

" Not unless you want to lose your lunch." Replied the anear as she continued her own lunch.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The red-headed Romulan rushed back to her quarters, sweating just a little while trying to avoid eye contact with every crewmember she passed. One inside, she yanked the front of her uniform tunic open and called up to the ceiling. “Computer… begin playing… Metal Mix 3. Volume set to six. Engage sound proofing field.”

Dox skipped her usual practice of saying 'please’ when accessing the computer as a particularly loud and decidedly angry song began to play, with lyrics roared out in Klingon. One of the few elements of human culture that she connected with in her few years on Earth was the musical style called 'metal’. But this album was one of many she discovered from a KLINGON band. That race may not have been a huge fan of human culture, but once Klingon teenagers discovered human Metal music, it quickly began infiltrating the culture and a ton of really good Klingon bands started to appear. It was something Dox really liked to listen to as the Klingons just GOT Metal. The Orion's too.

Her first thought was to beat the crap out of her practice dummy before remember that she had it removed. And besides, the way she was feeling now, she wasn't completely sure she wouldn't want to do something else with the thing. ‘Oh god, that's disgusting, Mnhei'sahe!’ she thought to herself.

As the music blared, Dox felt irritated by it. “Computer, end music.” Then felt slightly silly, but caught herself and followed it up. “Sorry. Please.” As if the computer had been waiting for her to remember her manners, it seemed to wait for that 'please’ to finally deactivate the music.

She walked over to her closet as she pulled her uniform top, frustrated and feeling extremely warm all of a sudden. Opening up the closet, she grabbed a hanger to put her uniform on as she paused. Just inside, in a clear storage bag was the amazing, beautiful green feathered dress given to her a few weeks ago by Ensign Mona Gonadie.

She stared at it for a moment, before pulling the bag out to unzip it. Dox ran her hand over the beautiful feathered ruffles that flowed from a deep green to a vivid lavender. As she did, she thought of the beautiful and infectiously energetic Miradonian woman who gifted it to her. She thought of Mona's deep, reflective eyes and the rainbow colors of her plumage.

And as she thought, Dox felt a warmth in her stomach that replaced her usual anxiety as her eyes snapped open wide.

“Imirrhlhhse!” She cursed out loud to herself.

It was a sad truth that Commander Rita Paris had lost men under her command before today, and there was a sadly high likelihood given the lifestyle that she led that statistically there were more men under her command that would die in the future. There was a certain inevitability to the universe, after all. Everything dies, even stars. What mattered is how we live was the philosophy of the ebullient Miss Paris.

Those men had died badly, led by a rank amateur. The captain had charged her with turning the department around, thus she would turn the guilt that she felt now into resolve. She'd improve the department, weed out and reform the troublemakers. In this, Rita could follow her gut and make it work.

Together they spent the night curled up watching a randomly chosen romantic comedy. He would talk through the film pointing out the inconsistencies and internal logic flaws while she would mock the entertainment as the jokes came to her. They went to bed together, cleaning up after each other in that efficient flow of teamwork that made their lives together wonderful. Then they came together, sharing their bodies and their minds, and they explored the universe between them once more.

In the morning she'd rearranged her schedule, and filed a few reports while sitting on the toilet in the morning- or the 'matter reclamator' as they liked to call them in the 25th century. Over breakfast, they made vacation plans- the first night in town they would try to recreate their first date, then go surfing in the morning and explore the city itself, get in touch with what it had become one dimension over and 131 years since they'd seen it last.

Working out the design, Rita figured out how to get what she wanted from the replicator. When she got out of the shower she had her new uniform which, paradoxically was her old uniform... kinda. With the broken ribbon above the solid wound braid gone, it was another wound gold braid on her sleeve. To her own era at least it would be readable, and the three pips on the collar would make her rank reasonably evident to most Starfleet personnel. The Captain had cleared her for hosiery, but Rita had frankly liked the sensible addition of tights. Modern uniforms were very durable, after all, and coverage was important. A pair of boots she'd been wearing for about a week completed the look. Running her fingers through her hair, Rita realized she'd have to cut it again soon.

Pulling the familiar garment on from the bottom, the stretchy fabric a friend to her curves, she was dressed in a flash, zipping up her boots at high speed- the thing that often had her replicating a new boot, oddly enough. Standing, she asked for a few mirror views from the computer and what she saw brought a smile to her face. With Sonak back and a comfortable routine to their lives, her appetite had returned and her fulsome curves had rounded themselves out.

Regular running kept her from becoming too voluptuous, as Rita Paris was no longer a girl, but a woman in her prime.

In the gold uniform, she pirouetted before her logical mate. He noted that she herself seemed quite pleased by the development, which he found acceptable. He admitted it was familiar to him, and he complimented her logic on her tactic in regaining the confidence of the security force in part by joining their ranks in color. In marking herself as an anachronism she managed to identify with their coloration designation, making her one of their own, which he found an intriguing synchronicity.

Dressed, with a pair of PaDDs in hand, the first officer kissed her husband good-bye, then marched into the hall. As she strode to her destination she tapped her badge, making it jiggle slightly. Which in turn made her giggle.

"Paris to Ops, give me the location of Kodria Mizu if you please." Rita was pretty sure that since she hadn't made any quarters assignments that the young android had spent the night having a sleepover and pinky swears with Asa Dael. Now the morning had come, Rita planned to ask a few objective questions, and it was time for 'take your android to work day'. All of which she had time to wait for while ops worked the sensors to figure out where the unique life form completely unlike any other onboard the starship was right now.

=^= Kodria Mizu is on Deck 8, Compartment for 26-O starboard, Commander. =^=

Standing outside Deck 8, Compartment for 26-O starboard which she colloquially refereed to as Dr. Dael's quarters, a short walk from her own, Paris marveled at the inefficiency. The ship's computer could do it in less than 5 seconds, and that was without a comm badge on the target in question. Shore leave, see what they could do for transfers then she had some thoughts to consider with the captain. For now, she needed to have a conversation or two. Tabbing the door chime, Rita waited for the El-Aurian xenophysician.

"Enter," answered Asa. As Rita entered, she found a bedraggled Asa padding around in pajamas made of light orange soft cotton shorts and a oversized shirt in light blue with little clouds on it. Perhaps unsurprisingly Kodria was in matching garb, and both seemed to have what could only be called bed head hair.

There was an old fashioned book version of The Hobbit sitting by the bed, held open by being placed open upside down on the bedside table. It was clear the book had been read for at least a few hours the night before, by the number of pages that had passed.

Doctor Dael went to sit on a beanbag in the living room next to Kodria, leaning affectionately against her. Turning to face the Commander, Asa said, "Good morning, ma'am. Can I get you anything? I am off duty for another four hours so we were going to watch Lilo and Stitch if you want to join."

"I very much appreciate the offer, Doctor, but I'm afraid I'm on a bit of official business. Miss Mizu, would you mind going to the other room to give Myx Dael and I some privacy, please?" Rita delivered the lines with the same friendly tone, as there was nothing wrong and no urgency.

"Take a shower if you want," Asa chimed in,"The water probably will feel amazing, and grab whatever you want from my closet."

Once Kodria had left the room, Asa turned to Rita questioningly, "Ma'am? What's up? You look....more yourself....today. If everything ok? Kodria did great last night, reminds me of my little brother..." they trailed off wistfully.

Asa didn't know why Rita was wearing her old uniform again, but they were pretty sure it was an important distinction. Rita's posture also seemed to be better, she was carrying herself with more confidence than she had in the new uniforms, and Asa could understand that. A person naturally walked with more ooomf in their step when they wore what they liked. However, the doctor had no idea what Rita would need with Kodria. The kid was still getting used to being in this century, but showed no signs of being a security threat. The doctor had immediately fallen into a familial pattern with Kodria, and was concerned.


“Everything is fine, Doctor, have no fear. Since you’ve had an evening to spend observing the subject and organizing your thoughts, I would very much like to hear your professional assessment of Miss Mizu,” the gold-clad commander asked. Her demeanor was by no means cold nor distant, but it was deliberately professional. Rita had already seen that Asa latched onto the young android and was immediately bonding, but she was using professional behavior this morning to test the doctor’s reactions, to see if they could exert their objectivity in regard to a case they were already clearly involved.

Absently running their hands through their close-cropped hair, Asa took a moment before responding. Mornings were never their strong suit, and they were waiting for the coffee to kick in and hopefully boot up their brain to form a cohesive response.

“She’s a bit adrift. I can see her start to say something and then stop, as if realizing she would potentially disclose things we should not know in the process. To me, that indicates good discipline and awareness of the consequences of ones actions. She has been very physically cautious, I suspect she has augmented strength compared to you or I and is aware that her movements must be measured to avoid harm. To be frank, it struck me as an adolescent interacting with a baby for the first time. The adolescent knows they could accidentally crush the baby and are being careful because of it. She takes in information at a remarkable speed and can quickly form thoughts and conclusions. For instance, she immediately posited the world in the Hobbit was being constructed to a larger purpose than the one story she was aware of. However, socially she is as a child. She seems to need strong bonds and is missing her caretakers still. The time she spent in isolation has not helped her social development, in fact I believe that has regressed from what it likely was. It is my belief that with proper support she can be a contributing member of the crew, should she wish.”

“Mmmm. According to Dejoy, her strength is actually quite low- apparently she was built with an eye to insuring that she wouldn’t be dangerous,” Paris countered, as she recalled the brief overview of their visitor’s systems when they encountered her in the ‘Castle of the Dead’ Section 31 base. “I appreciate your input on her cognitive ability, and I am taking her for a tour of the ship today in order to gauge her reactions, have a talk with her and see just where she might fit into the crew. I suspect that being a chronal castaway her options are a bit limited, and it seems she might have history with some of us already. You know the Captain- if a stray shows up on our doorstep, they are our responsibility now. Not that I’d have it any other way.”

After all, the Commander herself was a chronal castaway, flung more than a century forward in time, where she had adapted and thrived, under the tutelage of Captain Telvan. This case was a bit different, but no less bewildering for the subject. Thus Rita was the perfect woman for the job, to help her acclimate and see this strange unexpected world with eyes that did not see it is modern and familiar.

Smiling, Asa replied, “I agree, I’m glad she’s here too. I would like to recommend we ask engineering to double check what we can of Kodria. I would hate the stresses of this new environment to cause cascade failure, but I know we probably will not be cleared to know too much about her structure or processing matrix. Because of that, her emotional learning will need to be greatly cultivated to avoid any undue stresses, and I recommend she be kept as far away from opportunities for physical damage as possible. If her self-repair function becomes hindered, there likely isn’t much we can do for her without breaking the temporal prime directive. Of course, just my two cents commander. If possible, I would ask her quarters be somewhere nearby. I would like to check on her until she is on her feet, as it were.”

It was clear the young doctor had imprinted quite strongly on the android, and was highly protective of their physical and emotional well-being. If Kodria had been organic, Asa would likely have been feeding them soup for the next 40 years. Nervously picking their fingernails in apprehension of Kodria’s fate, Asa turned to face the commander with huge eyes, trusting Rita to make the right call and wanting to help.

“Calm down, Doc. First, she’ll have to be checked out by Science and Engineering, as she is a life form that requires intervention by all three departments to insure that she is healthy and fully functional. I don’t plan on bringing her on any dangerous away missions, believe me- it was nerve-wracking enough rescuing her from where we found her without allowing her to get hurt, and I think that might have given me my first gray hairs,’ Paris chuckled.

“We’ll determine her developmental stage and you will have input into her developmental program to be certain. As for her living arrangements, that’s going to be part of the conversation today, and I will definitely keep you posted. Trust that we all have Miss Mizu’s best interests at heart, Doc.” The golden girl gently rested her hand on the frail physician’s shoulder. “I appreciate that you’re already quite attached, and I am glad to see that it isn’t coloring your perceptions and that you are still prepared to be objective about her case despite your own involvement.”

With a sigh of relief, Asa nodded in the affirmative. “Yes ma’am….I’m….I’m sorry. I know everyone wants the best for her. I’l…I’ll do my best. It’s just….I’ve lost a younger sibling before, and….well it’s hard not to see her like a baby sister….albeit one that can think circles around me, but still. I….I just want to see her happy. Whatever that means for her.”

The sound of the shower turning off could be heard in the room, so Asa wiped an unexpected unshed tear from their eye, pasting on a huge smile in anticipation of Kodria’s return to the room. There were four different scented soaps in the shower and the nosy part of Asa was curious if Kodira would opt for a floral soap, an earthy sandalwood, a fresh eucalyptus and mint, or an exotic passion fruit. It was completely unimportant, but Dael was looking to learn as much as they could about Kodria’s preferences and was studying whatever choices the young android made that would indicate her personality.

“Um, how much of that do you think she heard,” Asa asked in a quiet voice, realizing too late that it was probable that even through the shower that Kodira heard at least part of their conversation.

“I assume all of it, Doctor. While I asked for a bit of privacy, it seems a safe bet that Miss Mizu is quite perceptive and capable, and more than likely she registered our conversation- thus why I insured that our discussion would be one that would not be at all harmful for her to hear. The privacy was more for your benefit, to refocus you." Voice softening a bit, Rita made eye contact with the El-Aurian person. "It’s okay, Doc… I understand, and I think Miss Mizu inspires a bit of a protective streak in most people. She’s a young person, and if you aren’t defensive of a child, that makes you a little bit of a monster. Which I say knowing full well the collection of unhappy childhoods on this boat,” Paris gestured, bringing her hand around as if to encompass the crew of the Hera.

“Last time I checked, aside from giving you some unusual perspectives on parents, it means that we ourselves are a bit fiercely defensive of young impressionable individuals who come under our care. Not a single solitary thing wrong with that, Doc- it means we’re the good guys, and that she’s in good hands. Woe betide the Starfleet bureaucrat who tries to take her off to some foster facility within the Federation- once our lost souls find their way here, unless there is a very strong desire to be elsewhere, here they’ll stay. Where we can help, because that’s what Starfleet does.”

It was yet another one of her cornball old-timey speeches, but Rita Paris meant every word. Today she would take the young android with her about the starship, and they would see where she might fit into this unusual crew of lost souls, misfits and amazing individuals who were all just a bit different than their peers. But that difference was their strength, and it seemed another patch was being added to the quilt.


"Right, um, I mean, yes ma'am," Asa replied, a bit surprised at their depth of emotion, but utterly unsurprising at Rita's compassion. It was a defining characteristic of Commander Paris, and Dael was relieved it would be her showing Kodria around.

"So, sleepovers aside, how can I help?" Dael inquired. They knew they would not understand most of the engineering jargon that science would throw around in discussing Kodria's capabilities and needs, and Dael was genuinely curious to ask Sonak what type of emotions should be expected from an android activated at the Vulcan Science Institute. It was a sure thing Kodria did have emotions though....and those Asa felt comfortable developing. They could only hope to do so in a way that would help Kodria make good decisions and feel happy as she developed.

“You already have, for now. I’ll be bringing her down to Sickbay for a review as well, unless you’ve already completed your physical assessment of her and filed the report?” At that, the archaic astronaut held up her hand to forestall any pending objections. “No one expects you to have it done, Doc. You were busy last night, and frankly, given the horrors we had to wade through I thought a bit of a sleepover might do you both some good to unwind and settle back into non-horrifying shipboard life. So no beating yourself up over this, just proceed from here. Miss Mizu will be coming through Sickbay today, so you’ll have plenty of time and I expect you to be thorough, as you are in all things.”

“Beyond that, we’ll keep you posted. There are some decisions to be made by Miss Mizu as well as the captain and Starfleet,” Rita admitted, “but as I mentioned, I suspect many of them are already in progress and we all want what’s best for our young friend. So just do what you always do, Doc- follow your moral compass and do what you think is right. Meanwhile, I’ll collect Miss Mizu and we’ll be on our way about the Hera for the grand tour.”

The young android was indeed able to make out the entire conversation as she showered. She had expected it though - it was a logical conversation to have. She still did her best to let them have it though. She was developed enough to know that they, and she, needed it. She had gone through all the soaps in the shower and settled on the sandalwood simply because it reminded her of her mother.

When she got out she ran through a series of self tests to give the two more time as she dried herself off. Most of her systems were recovering well but her personality core took a big hit. The diagnostic program for it kept returning errors every time she tried running it and the best she could get was 43% functionality with guesswork...

Sighing heavily, she finished drying her hair and went to program the replicator for her uniform. As Aunt Rita once told her, she needed to wear what she was comfortable with. Seeing her in her characteristic gold uniform was comforting and had brought a smile to her face. She just had to remember not to let on that she was one of Kodria's mentors in her early development.

Having finished getting ready, Kodria steeled herself and stepped into the living room in her Sierra series uniform, the upper part in that eggshell white that civilians still wore in her era. "I've finished." She then clasped her hands behind her back and waited, trying to hide her nervousness.

“Here she is now. Good morning, Miss Mizu. I’m Rita Paris…” the old-school officer smiled, opting not to offer her hand to the child or drop to one knee to come more to her level, because it seemed like the right choices, and Rita was nothing if not a follower of her instincts. “I might look a bit different out of the armor suit, but I assure you, it’s still me and I don’t bite,” Rita offered, hoping a little joke might ease the young woman’s anxiety. “I’d like for us to take a tour of the Hera today, bring you along on an inspection tour I'm performing today. It will give me the chance to ask you some questions and talk with you, while you get to see our starship and see how she works, and together we’ll work on figuring out your future. Would you like that?”

Kodria couldn't help but giggle at Rita's word choice. "Of course you're you. You're just a lot younger now." She then turned serious again, realizing her mishap and looking sheepishly away as a hint of a blush graced her artificial cheeks. "I mean... Ah... Yes. That sounds like it would be a lot of fun, thank you. Seeing things as they are now will help me figure out what I can and can't let slip. You can figure out where to assign me as well."

"You look very nice, Kodria," Asa replied, "Ya'll have fun, ok? Movie party later, the Commander is invited too, as well as anyone else ya'll want."

“Very well put, Miss Mizu- I’m glad to see that you understand, and that you are excited as well. You’ll be seeing Doctor Dael again presently as well as much of the rest of the crew, so for now, let’s get started with a tour, shall we?” Paris offered one of those winning smiles meant to out the young one at ease and give her a friendly face to walk off with after a calming night in the doctor’s quarters. Striding toward the exit, she waited to see if the young one would need to say good-bye or would just come along.

Which she did. Kodria gave Asa a quick hug and bounced after the golden clad Commander like a young girl on a date. "So what are we going to see first? Are the computer cores really centralized? Can I meet the Captain? Is this really a Nebula class?"

“All the way down to Deck 28, as we are going to start at the bottom and work our way up, Miss Mizu,” Paris answered cheerfully as she led the young woman out into the corridor, sparing a farewell wave for the doctor. “We’ll save the best for last, right? As for the rest of your questions, I’ll be honest- I don’t know, yes and yes. And of course we’ll chat some while we walk, so that we can establish a few things as we go along. Now, let’s start with a basic question- do you require sustenance, and if so have you eaten?”

The young android wrinkled her nose. "I had some nutrient solution earlier so my semi-organic bits can recover faster. It didn't taste good at all. I should be ok to eat normal food any time as long as it's easy on my tummy. My ah... Organelle system is modelled after Aunt Maica's... You know her, right? The android one?" Kodria held her breath lightly, hoping she hadn't let out another spoiler again.

“I think I’ve heard of her,” Rita allowed. “Maica is a complex discussion, it seems, but I believe the captain mentioned an android version. It’s okay, little one,” Rita reassured, or at least tried to. “I imagine there are going to be somethings that you say that might be spoilers. I know it will be very hard not to tell us a lot about ourselves, about the lives we will lead and who we will become and where we’ll go. Because you know us, in your time.”

Without waiting for an answer, the lost navigator pressed on. It was an odd experience having this conversation with a young person she’d help raise someday, but in the life of Paris, weird was just a Tuesday. “If you know me in your time, then I probably told you that if you are ever alone, then you stay calm, and you work out a way to call for help, and you wait, and you don’t give up hope. Because there are people out there who spend their lives answering those calls for help in the darkness when all seems lost, people like Starfleet. Did I ever tell you that?”

Kodria couldn't help but smile and get a little misty eyed, even with her fully black chrome eyes. "Almost word for word. I didn't really understand then, but I do now. Thank you. You and Doctor Artan taught me so much before I joined the Starfleet Civilian Corps."

Stopping, Paris looked down at the petite artificial lifeform and felt something that she would not be able to recognize as parental pride, but she knew what to do about it. Kneeling down, she wrapped the little android in a brief hug, then pulled back to make eye contact that was harder to maintain while she was holding back tears of pride that seemed misplaced, yet she didn’t question. “Then old me can’t be here to tell you, but I’m here, so I can. That was an incredibly brave thing that you did, and I am very, very proud of you. Most people would not be brave enough to do what you did, and they would not have had the strength to hold out hope for that long. But you did, and while I don’t know you very well yet, I know that much. You are a very brave person, Kodria.”

"Thank you." Kodria clung to Rita like she'd been separated from her for an eternity. "I thought I'd never see you again, Aunt Rita. I did just like you said and there you were. Thank you for coming for me. Thank you."

“It's all right, little one,” Rita soothed, patting the girl’s back. “I do have questions about the future, but I won’t ask. It sounds like I taught you what you needed to know, and that’s good enough for me. If you are in trouble then you know what to do… and yes, in this time and place, if you call I will come for you, because we’re Starfleet. That’s what we do. And if you join us then that’s what you’ll do as well. Whatever happens from this point, we’ll forge the future together, right?” It wasn’t her best speech, but she just had to give a little girl some security after all she had been through, and that was something Rita understood all too well.

The shorter android nodded and smiled, finally easing up her grip on Rita. "Yeah. We can make our own history now, can't we? I mean, most of the people I knew aren't even born yet, so I guess that helps. But I know you and Asa and Captain Dox and Ambassador Sonak..."

She scrunched up her face again as she realized she didn't know how to address any of those people in the current place in history. "Um... Those aren't their titles... Are they?" Sighing heavily, Kodria hung her head. "Please don't tell anyone I said that..."

"Ohhh, sweety," Paris took the android's hands in her own and gently chucked up her chin. "That my husband might be an ambassador is unsurprising, he's ideal for it and it's what elder Vulcans do. That our Miss Dox will achieve a captaincy is an assumption- she's a fine officer and will go far. But it does bring up a point." Rising smoothly, Rita motioned for Kodria to come along as she walked, picking up the pace as she tended to do. "How do you process information? Do you read like an organic or can you download? And if I ask an insensitive question I apologize, because I've never met an android before."

"I can do both, actually." Kodria held up her hands and pointed out the pads on them. "I have wireless contact points on my hands as well as wired interfaces in my arms for high speed data transfers. On top of that, I can read all known languages as fast as I can see them. Mama really wanted me to be the best at what I could do. When my muscular structure is rebuilt I should be on par with most Vulcan children, but my central processing core will be able to handle the entire workload of most Starfleet vessels."

It wouldn't be a stretch to say Kodria was proud of her capabilities and in what her creators had been able to cram into her. "But I have a flaw..." Here she turned a bit crestfallen and had to admit the truth. "My personality core was made to develop over time but... Something's wrong... Diagnostics is throwing errors..." Kodria reached out and took Rita's hand as they walked. "I'm worried..."

There was a 45% to consider, as Rita recalled. "We'll get you fixed up. That's on the tour as well- you're going to meet Thex! She's our ship's engineer, and she's a very clever lass. She'll do her best to fix you right up," Rita reassured, with a confidence she didn't necessarily feel. An android from 80 years in the future was liable to be sophisticated- but then, so were the crew of the Hera.

When they entered the Secondary Shield Network Generator compartment, it was a surprise to the crewmen there, who simply... weren't there. No one appeared to be on duty, despite the fact that there were supposed to be 4 personnel down here manning the station. Rita located the crewmen in the enlisted mess hall on deck 9 as she reviewed the system logs and found them 'rubber stamped'- checked off but no actual thoroughness to the reports. Starting diagnostics, she read the diagnostics logs and took notes, then left the compartment.

Moving on to the Forward Tractor Beam Emitter, at least this time she found someone on duty, although he was asleep. Pressing her fingers to her lips to emphasize quiet, Rita turned down the volume on the control panel, read the diagnostics logs and checked the maintenance logs before beginning a level 1 diagnostic. Sneaking back out, leaving the sleeping crewman there. Rita turned a prim smile upon the little android.

"You see, the Captain wants me to take over the security and tactical departments because she thinks incompetence has taken root. What do you think, Miss Mizu?" Rita asked as she walked the youngster toward the turbolift.

"I think the Captain should be worried about all the departments..." Kodria wasn't sure why Rita wasn't busting anyone but these people had responsibilities. What she was seeing terrified the young android.

"Mmm hmm. Oh, she is. Have no fear, Miss Mizu, they'll be whipped into shape in no time. So given what I've seen I know all I need to know from my tour." The old school officer explained with an expression that meant somebody was in trouble for sure. "So let's get your tour underway, and take you to go meet our favorite engineer, hm?"

Kodria bounced back from her worries almost instantly. "Yes please! I want to see engineering too. Your top speed is... Warp 9 something, right? Seeing a classic warp reactor will be very fascinating." Here again, the young android had to keep from revealing too much information. She had advances of nearly a hundred years of subspace, warp, and transwarp theory and analysis tucked away inside of her that couldn't get out.

"Classic warp reactor," Rita snickered. "You kids today Why, back in my day..."

Thex had started worrying as she stared at the blank wall of the sickbay waiting for the doctor to arrive. After what Hera had told them she just wanted to get a full scan and see if anything serious had happened to her. How could she have been so stupid to believe that the gods wouldn't have included as the humans called it monkeys paw.

Stifling a yawn, Lieutenant Junior Grade Asa Dael entered Sickbay and took in the view to see what activity was going on. Nurse Vimes was giving a yearly physical to a member of Engineering who did not appear to be enjoying it, PA Secundo was treating a case of Venusian Pox to an itchy looking science officer, and the EMH was completing prenatal care for one of the now 15 pregnant crew members.

Thinking things looked well in hand, Doctor Dael was momentarily startled to see Lieutenant Commander sh’Zoarhi waiting in their office. The doctors’ mind immediately went to the outbreak of pregnancies and fertility treatments on board and thought back to their previous conversation regarding finding another 2 partners. Perhaps things were going well with Tathaa and it was time to move that along….

“Good afternoon Lieutenant Commander, how are you today?” Dael greeted Thex warmly. “I need another cup of coffee, anything I can get you?” Dael moved to the replicator to procure the beverage and waited for sh’Zoarhi’s response before returning to their desk.

" Um no thank you, doctor. I'm in need of a complete scan of all of me. Whilst asking our guest some question she informed us about an effect of the god artifacts. Apparently, they take time off of your life as you use them. Around one year per five minutes. " the andorian explained as calmly as she could.

Asa paused mid-stride at hearing Thex’s explanation, placed their coffee on their desk, and went to show the Andorian beauty to biobed.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Lieutenant Commander,” Dael replied, “but I’m confident we can find some answers and begin working to a solution. What can you tell me about the artifact in question? How long were you exposed? ” Once the privacy holo-wall and soundproofing field was in place, Asa asked Thex to lay down and began programming the scans into the interface.

" It's the armor of Achilles I've been testing. I don't have the exact amount of time, but it's been less than an hour. " The Andorian replied as she laid down on the biobed.

“Well, the good news is you don’t look 20 years older to me, so I’m sure it will be ok,” Asa said in what they hoped was an encouraging tone of voice. The doctor could tell Thex was being stoic, but theorized based on their previous interactions that a stoic façade was important to the engineer’s mental image of themselves.

“I’m going to start with some basic scans that would be on your yearly physical and then proceed from there. Plus hey, you can skip the physical next month, so that’s a plus right? If you have any questions at any time, please let me know. I can tell right now your blood pressure, body temperature, metabolic rate, lung function, antennae alignment, and bone density are all within normal parameters. Have you noticed any changes in your day to day life? Sometimes our bodies tell us things, so any little twinge that is out of the ordinary….please let me know.”

The scanning enclosure was locked in place and whirring over Thex’s abdomen and a series of lights were flickering overhead. Dael glanced at them periodically, tweaking a nob here and there, and then nodded in satisfaction as a progress bar appeared at the bottom of the screen. They moved to sit next to Thex for a moment and make eye contact while waiting for her response.

" No I haven't felt different and I've felt no real change. " Thex said from her position as she stared at the ceiling. " Up until today, my life's been feeling great other than my inability to attract a two male andorians." She said giving a cheeky grin as the machine went about its work.

“Well, let’s see if we can’t get everything back to hunky dory then,” Asa replied in their peculiar fashion of antiquated Earth colloquialisms. Anyone who talked to Asa for any period of time was sure to come to the conclusion that this was a person who spent their entire childhood reading Earth fiction…and they would not be wrong.

The biobed’s display alternated to a different set of blinking lights as an almost imperceptible hum began deep within the equipment. “We are moving to deeper scan here, you may feel a slight vibration…well…in your hindquarters for lack of a better way to put it.”

With a pat of reassurance to Thex’s hand, Asa stood to go back around to the control panel on the biobed. There was a flash of confusion, then a frown, then back to a calm smile on their face as Asa’s input into the scanner sped up, making their fingers appear to fly across the controls.

“Just another few minutes, Lieutenant Commander. I’m going to consult with my colleague here and compare this to your previous data. The bed is going to unlock as soon as the scan is complete, please feel free to sit up. Can I bring you anything to drink?” Asa inquired, their eyes darting to the doors to Sickbay as if looking to see who came in, but the doors had remained closed.

The pale woman dressed head to toe all in black eyed Asa hopefully and was relieved when the Doctor seemed to still be able to see her so she pointed off to the nearby office and headed in there to wait.

With a jerk of the head to a being that not everyone could see, Asa jogged quickly into their office. Once they were alone in the office, Doctor Dael looked at Death and said, “Hey, how have you been? Hopefully you aren’t here on business…..?”

Death smiled politely, her black gloved hands clasped in front of her. "I can't be away from Schwein too long... But... Sort of. That woman had her lifespan unnaturally shortened by almost twenty cycles and I'd like to know why. Do you have any clues?"

“Huh,” was all Asa could say for three heartbeats. From a childhood of aspiring to nothing more than the scientific and rational to having a consult over a patient with the physical embodiment of Death was a bit jarring, even for the most resolute of minds.

“She used some armor found on Meroset, a planet that used to hold Hera’s temple. I’m given to understand the armor exacts a cost from the wearer for its use by shortening their life span. All I am reading on my end is a lessening in cohesion at the subatomic level with her pleons vibrating at the same level as a plintic particle. There are a few signs of damage to the fourth reproductive cycle of the third helix in her RNA also, but nothing definitive. Is there anything you see that can be done?”

Asa sat waiting for an answer, running their hands anxiously through close cropped hair. No doctor likes delivering bad news, even less when they don’t understand it.

Death raised one hand and tapped her lips thoughtfully. "That does line up with the initial stages of what happens when I touch someone... As for returning the lost time, it's a simple enough matter for me, but... I would need a donor."

Without hesitation, Asa replied, "I volunteer. What are 20 years to me? Might as well share them around, otherwise what's the point of being so bloody long lived?"

The pale woman looked up at Asa in surprise. "Your people are rather known for living slightly outside of the rules of time itself... Even if I took twenty years from you and gave them to her you still have well over..." Pulling a small leather bound tome out of her long black jacket, she opened it up with a few crackling noises and scribbled something inside before tucking the book back away.

The room seemed to darken around Death for a moment as she spoke, but the illusion quickly passed. "If you touch her, flesh to flesh, within the next six minutes, you will seal the contract and the years will be transferred."

Outside of time itself? That’s not ominous at all… Asa thought. Realizing the clock was ticking for both Asa and Death, they offered quick thanks and promised to go visit both Death and Schwein as soon as possible…and if they happened to imply that the Baroness darn well better be resting when they got there….well, more to the better.

Jogging out to where Thex was waiting, Asa placed their left hand gently at Thex’s pulse point on her wrist. The feeling that resulted was not entirely unlike being kicked in the stomach, and Asa felt the wind leave their lungs briefly before returning. In order to cover the onslaught of sensation, Dael made as if to lean over and inspect where the biobed met the floor. Once the feelings subsided, Asa popped up as if fresh from a good nights rest with a huge smile.

Nothing like overcompensating. Smooth, Asa, real smooth. they mentally berated.

“Well good news, nothing that couldn’t be undone with a little help from a consultant. Your full life cycle has been returned to you, but it’s not a feat I can easily accomplish again, so let’s lock that armor up somewhere, yes?” Asa smiled brightly at Thex and hoped they would not be asked questions that might provide uncomfortable answers. The doctor was keenly aware that their actions could be perceived as taking away Thex’s right to her own consequences, but Dael felt if they were willing to die for a fellow crew member that giving away a small percentage of years off their life should be acceptable also. Even so, the burden of feeling another’s sacrifice is not something Dael wished for Thex, so they hoped to use their manic awkwardness as a distraction. As if to continue in business as usual, Asa went to the supply closet and picked out some all-purpose Andorian meal replacements/

“Here, if you ever can’t get in a good meal, please eat one of these for the next two weeks. Your metabolism needs support, and I know things can get hectic in engineering. So at least throw this down your gullet, will ‘ya?” they concluded with a wink.

Thex was a little confused as she pulled herself up off the biobed. " Okay.... not sure what you did doctor i don't feel any different, but I'll take your word for it. One of these for the next two weeks if i feel off during meals. " She said talking the pill bottle.

" Don't worry I'm not touching the armor again. It's staying locked up for a long time."

Bouncing on their feet to hide the residual discomfort, Asa smiled and wished well to Thex, offering assistance should she feel any effects.

Back in Schwein's quarters, it felt like she'd been kicked as well as she was startled awake. Immediately, Death was drawn back to the augmented woman and their eyes met. "What did you do?" the silver haired pirate asked the phantom deity.

"Nothing that you wouldn't have done," came the reply.