Secrets...

Posted on Mon Jan 11th, 2021 @ 5:25pm by Ellie Greaves & Major Ashley Rogers

1,529 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Chapter III: The Hunt is On
Location: I.R.W. Ourainavassa
Timeline: 238701.20 / night

Ellie stroked the mess of scraggly, white hair on the pillow next to her. Sey had always looked so peaceful when she was sleeping, no matter how troubled her life got. One of many things she had always loved about her. Which made what she was about to do even harder.

Quietly, Ellie got out of bed, and threw on her clothes before sneaking out of the commander's quarters. The ship was quiet, as was expected of a vessel in dock. Of course, this just played into her hands, she mused, as she made her way towards the science lab.

But when she got there, the door was locked. "Shit," she cursed under her breath, before taking a small device out of her pocket and placing it onto the control panel. A few tense seconds passed, but, finally, the door slid open, and Ellie hurried in.

The lab was dark, lit only by the emergency lighting and the screen of a terminal that had been left on. Perfect. As quietly as possible, Ellie headed over to the terminal, and linked it up to her hacking device. Time to find out what the Ourainavassa's crafty young science officer knew about the derelict shuttle they had picked up.

Ash noticed the door to the science lab was unlocked as she walked by. She shakes her head as she walked in, "Oh Mila... you little workaholic." Ash has learned to not sneak up on Mila, especially if she didn't have her hearing aids on. But the woman at the console was definitely not Mila. She drew her side arm and aimed it at the intruder, "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing?"

Ellie jerked around. "Commander," she blurted out, before fixing her mistake. "Sorry, Centurion. I can explain." Behind her back, she retrieved the hacking device and put it back in her pocket.

Ash's eyes narrowed at the unwelcome guest, as she stalked around her like a predator circling it's prey. She looked at the console to see what was accessed and then glared at the woman in front of her, weapon still aimed at her head. Commander? Ash thought to herself, it's been a long time since she was a commander, what a curious mistake to make.... "I'm not asking again. Who are you and what the hell are you doing?" Ash increased the power level in her side arm. "Call my bluff... I dare you."

"Your boss would not be happy if you pulled that trigger, Centurion," Ellie responded. "We can't upset dear Sey, can we? As for who I am, we have been introduced. Lieutenant Ellie Greaves, Science Officer on the Starfleet vessel Amelia, NCC-" She stopped herself. "Doesn't matter, does it. You are chief of security on this vessel, I am intruding in an area I shouldn't be in. Sey made a good choice, giving you that job, I must say."

Ash made no attempt to lower her weapon, "Flattery and name dropping isn't answering the question. I'll deal with my boss later..." she continued to stare down the Starfleet Lieutenant. Ellie Greaves.... impossible. "We can sort that out after I clean your molecules off that console."

"Yeah, Sey would probably airlock you before you got a chance to explain. See, she already thought me dead once, and didn't hesitate a second to snap the neck of the guy who stabbed me." Slowly, Ellie walked away from the terminal. "Having her trusted chief of security vaporise me would not make her happy, especially not the day after she found out I'm still alive. You know, Centurion, you remind me of a good friend of mine. I know you are smarter than to risk your neck over this."

She pulled out a small device. "You and your scientist friend still haven't figured out how to get that strange fighter you picked up to work, have you? What if I told you that I have the schematics for it right here?" Smiling, Ellie pressed a button on the device, and a small hologram of a vessel of the same type as Ash and Mila's project appeared. "Epoch-class. Nifty little things, they are."

Ash still kept her weapon trained on Ellie. "What's a Lieutenant on the USS Amelia doing with the schematics to a ship like that? On some fancy little device like that one you're holding? Hmmm?" she asked, not letting the intruder gain any advantage. "You're not who you say you are... and I'm sure Sey would love to find out that someone is running around pretending to be her Ellie. Now let's try this again.... what are you doing here? And where did you get those schematics? I may not vaporize you now, but I'm sure if I get a hold of your precious Sey, she'd love to hear all about it... and then let me vaporize you."

Ellie smirked. "Ah, I should have expected you to play it this way, Commander Ashley Rogers, formerly of Section 31. You have a very colourful history, I must say. Makes for some good reading. Feel free to run all the fancy tests you have, by the way. I am exactly who I claim to be." She clicked a button on the projector, and the image disappeared, replaced with a hologram of the Hobus system.

"Yeah, I know you recognise that system. You and Mila are trying to find out what's so special about it. I've read your files. You aren't the only ones, you know." Ellie's eyes wandered to the weapon that Ash was still pointing at her. "Let's make a deal. You put that thing away, and I tell you what I know about Hobus."

Ash struggled to maintain her poker face... who the hell IS this woman?!? "I haven't been Commander Ashley Rogers in a long time, little girl. What's the catch?" There's always a catch. She's read our files? Is she Section? If so, Ash kicked herself for getting Mila involved in this.

"That may be so, Centurion," Ellie responded, surprisingly calm. "You can take the woman out of the Section, but you can't take the Section out of the woman. And no, I am not Section. I'm part of an agency that doesn't even exist yet. And at the same time has existed for as long as the Federation. Yeah, it's confusing, but time travel tends to do that. I'm what they call a Temporal Agent."

Ash holstered her weapon angrily, "Oh hell. The only thing I dislike more than the Section is fucking time travel!" She glared at Ellie again, "Does Raven know this? And what about Hobus? Did someone already screw up the timeline?" She wishes Mila was here, temporal paradoxes gave Ash a headache. "If I toss you out of an airlock now, will we stop the end of the universe or will it start it?"

Ellie chuckled. "Can't answer that question, because I don't know. As for people messing up the timeline, that's what I am here to figure out. And you know it's messy when people across several universes get involved. Yeah, it's that bad."

She shook her head. "No, Sey has no clue. And it needs to stay that way, at least for now. I'd be grateful if this conversation never happened, if you get my gist," she added, holding out the projector. "The Epoch-class vessel you have in your hangar was one of the timeships sent to observe a phenomenon that will occur at Hobus. Unfortunately, its mission was not a success. It came under fire, and the pilot bailed out with a temporal transporter. I have no idea how it ended up here, though."

Slowly, she began walking towards the door. "When you connected it to your power grid, the emergency transponder was activated. I was sent here to determine what data was left. Whether Commander Rogers managed to fully wipe the system before she bailed. And to assess your crew's suitability to helping us out."

Ash was tracking everything Ellie was saying until that last part, "Did I mishear you... who bailed? And helping out? How?" The slow throb that was developing in her head become a full on headache. Ash rubbed her head... wishing she just went straight back to her quarters rather than stopping by to see if Mila was still working. Maybe there's an alternate universe where that happened....

Ellie threw the little projector to Ash. "Don't worry about it. Just keep this between the two of us." She gave Rogers one last wink, and walked out of the lab.

Ash held the little projector in her hand and looked around the empty room that Ellie just vacated. "What the hell just happened?!" She mumbled to herself. She checked the time... far too late in the night to wake up Mila. Ash put the thing in her pocket and sent a message to Mila so that she would see it when she woke up, "I have a pretty big surprise for you when you see this message..."

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