Who's in Charge Here?
Posted on Sat Nov 19th, 2022 @ 8:46pm by Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Captain Freya Mannerheim & Subcommander Kaiae t'Lien & Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Ashix Zirda
Edited on on Sat Nov 19th, 2022 @ 9:19pm
3,434 words; about a 17 minute read
Mission:
Chapter VI: Racing the Storm
Location: Commander's Ready Room, Ourainavassa
"So, with Rehana and Five helping, Skidbladnir will be ready to join the evacuation effort. We've beefed up the shields, added Lieutenant Lynn's modulating cloak tech, and made sure all the replicators and other facilities on board are operational. She also has a full compliment of torpedos and the phasers have been freshly calibrated, just in case. I won't be on the ship personally, but Eilif is a competent man and will make sure everything goes off without an issue, I have full confidence in him."
Freya tapped her badge to turn off the projection of the Nygardian ship and smiled. "The situation on Amelia is also under control at the moment, as much as I can assess it anyway. At least I don't think they'll be a problem to the departure from Drozana. From what I understand, all ships will be heading straight for the temporary home for the refugees, right?"
"We are...working on that." Kaiae kept the statement deliberately vague; for a few reasons--one, to limit knowledge of where everyone would end up at first; second, because she still had hope they'd find a better place than any of the cheap Ferengi casino land Arnason and T'Ango had found; but they might be running out of time on that. If they ended up having to buy it as a holding spot; maybe at least they could get a good resale price for it later when they moved to a more suitable planet...Though given Ferengi tenancies, somehow she doubted that.
The Captain nodded. "Good. When the operation starts, where do you want me? I may be the one in charge of this little flotilla as far as the Terrans are aware, but we both know that is in name, and in name only. I will give the order for Amelia to return to headquarters when everyone else leaves for the Romulus system, but, honestly? I don't intend to go with them. Working with them again has reminded me why I never wanted to go back in the first place."
"Have you considered going on the Nygard ship then, perhaps?" Kaiae replied. "That is, assuming your second actually follows that order and leaves. Otherwise my recommendation is something along the lines of 'stabbing her'." Kaiae trusted Freya more than the Terran Rogers, certainly; but she trusted Hatham further; and wasn't sure exactly what sort of situation she might be leaving him to handle, with all the Terrans in play.
Mila smiled at Ashix as the turbolift doors opened onto the bridge corridor. She had led her straight to Ourainavassa, which was handily docked for resupply, and directly to the Commander's office. "Don't worry, the Subcommander might come off a little cold and paranoid at first, but that's really just Romulan nature. I actually quite like her. Just be polite and professional and tell her what you can do, you'll be fine. I'll introduce you as a potential recruit for the Operations department, okay?"
Ashix Zirda had remained relatively quiet since they had arrived aboard the Ourainavassa, barely comprehending that the young Mila had even spoke with her as they walked along. Vessels had always been of interest to her because he people used so few of them during their travels and exploits amongst the stars. In reality her people eschewed the use of vessels in favor of the trajector technology that they possessed. Now though it was firmly entrenched in the hands of the Borg. She could only wonder what Hell they were enforcing on others thanks to it.
"Okay," she answered thinking it was the most basic answer she could go with as she remained silent.
"Okay," Mila repeated, and pressed the door chime.
Before Freya could respond, their discussion was interrupted by the door chime. Freya cocked her head. "Expecting anyone?"
"No." Kaiae frowned, one hand going nearer, but not directly to, a concealed weapon. "Though this close to Drozana, what seems to me prudent to expect is mainly 'trouble'."
Freya simply nodded as her own hand moved to the dagger on her belt. As a courtesy to the still very sceptical Romulans, she hadn't brought any weapons beyond the elaborate blade that was part of her uniform as an officer in the Imperial Starfleet. "Shall we see who it is, then?"
The door opened to reveal Mila and Ashix. "Subcommander, I-" The young lieutenant stopped herself when she noticed Freya was in the room as well. "Oh, apologies, Captain Mannerheim, I did not know you were here. Pardon the interruption, but I have found a potential recruit for the Operations department."
The Sikarian nodded respectfully to the others as she introduced herself. "Ashix Zirda," she said politely as she stood near to Mila. "I apologize for arriving aboard in this state. I have nowhere else to go."
The Terran returned the nod and moved her hand away from the dagger. "Captain Freya Mannerheim." She glanced at Kaiae. "I'm, to put it simply, helping out. This here is Subcommander Kaiae t'Lien, the acting Commanding Officer of this vessel." She turned to Mila. "And I am sure that she will agree with me, Lieutenant Lynn, that we need to have an urgent conversation about operational security."
Kaiae's only response was a thin, slightly edged barely-smile; half a grimace almost, that concurred while she tried to rapidly assess the new arrival. "And what sort of experience do you have; or references to inquire of?" Kaiae asked Ashix, stalling for time while she tried to figure out exactly what she was going to do about this.
"I hate to tell you that most of my references are on the other side of the galaxy and, worse off, they were assimilated by the Borg Collective and probably wouldn't give a glowing review," the Sikarian woman answered bluntly. "I was lucky enough to escape before the Borg could do too much damage to me."
Freya narrowed her eyes and turned to Mila. "So. You have not been able to even verify her identity, let alone her claimed skills, and you brought her onto this ship? You do remember that we are running an operation here under highest security? But, as I said, we will have that conversation later."
Mila simply nodded and turned bright red.
The Captain returned the nod, and turned back to the new arrival. "So, Ashix Zirda, that is a very handy situation if you were to try to sneak yourself onto a vessel and be able to avoid any questioning. You say the other side of the galaxy. Now that is indeed a very long way to go. Where exactly are you from, and what are the skills you are supposed to have?"
Kaiae's tense muscles relaxed ever so slightly; even better than asking such necessary questions yourself, after all, was having someone else ask them, allowing you to benefit from the answers without showing your own cards.
"I am Sikarian," Ashix answered directly and firmly. "I ran a very successful shipping business until a Starfleet ship known as Voyager visited my planet and caused some problems for the locals. Maybe you heard of them? I hear they're quite popular on this side of the galaxy. Anyway, I'm fairly familiar with computer systems - even the primitive ones that you utilize - as well as enhanced transporter technologies that you could only dream of on this side of the Quadrant. That's part of the reason my people were so sought after by the Borg because our transporters became part of their Cubes."
Freya nodded and activated the holoPADD in her badge, quickly bringing up a library of historic logs. "Let's see, then. Voyager." She swiped through the list. "No, not the probe, not the V'Ger incident, not I.S.S. Voyager, not the fake ones... there we are, U.S.S. Voyager, the first one. NCC-74656. Federation Stardate 48642.5, which translates to Standard date 237108.23. Planet Sikaris." She quickly skimmed the report. "Voyager and her crew enjoy the hospitality of the Sikarians, a very hedonistic culture. They learn of their Trajector technology, try to acquire it, end up stealing it, and it doesn't work."
Nodding to herself, the Captain turned to the Sikarian. "So, sixteen years or so ago, a Federation starship comes to your world, and shortly after them, the Borg show up and assimilate the entire planet. I'm surprised to hear anyone at all managed to escape that."
"Just lucky I guess," she answered coolly. She looked at the gathering, carefully considering how far to go with the description of how and why she was here. While she looked like the run of the mill Sikarian again, the reality was that the nanoprobes that swam through her bloodstream were still highly sought after and worth a small fortune.
She sighed, "I survived through the usage of the Trajector technology that you mention. I was 'acquainted' with the person who sold the trajector technology to Voyager's crew. It was almost happenstance that the Borg came soon after because the trajector technology that failed with Voyager was very much operational and effective for my people. An off-world group grabbed the attention of a nearby cube and they came after my people."
The Captain smirked, immediately convinced that there was more to Ashix' story than she let on, but decided not to mention it for now. Instead, she reached into one of the pockets on her belt and took out an old, clearly broken, tricorder, and a tool kit. "Well, that explains how you might have ended up here, although I am sure the Subcommander will have some more questions. But first, let's see how good you are. I was going to ask Lieutenant Lynn to take a look at this tricorder, find out what's wrong with it and if it can be fixed. It's a Federation design, taken out of service years before Voyager's journey, nowadays mostly used by independent cargo haulers and the like. Quite popular with pirates as well, I am told."
She held out the device and toolkit. "Well then, Ashix Zirda. Show your engineering skill and tell me what's wrong with this thing. And, if possible, fix it."
"I thought that I was going to primarily be working in logistics, not engineering, but I am sure I can manage," she accepted the device and the offered toolkit, taking a close look at the equipment. Had she still been a drone she could just release an injection tubule and quickly run a diagnostic of the piece of equipment. For the first time she regretted not still being a drone.
Popping open the equipment housing built into the back of the device, she started looking through the various pieces of circuits and the like. This was an older piece of technology for sure. While most of the modern vessels and equipment she had seen utilized isolinear and even bio-neural circuits, this scanner still used duotronics. She might as well have been asked to make them a knife out of stone. Still, there was often a trick with duotronics where she came from when they weren't scanning properly. Adjusting a diode she smiled and handed the scanner back, "I inverted the ambient pulse discriminator. Should work fine now." She smiled smugly.
Kaiae's knowledge of Federation technology - let alone the antiquated type - was limited at best; though she supposed it probably still edged out that of many RSE officers and crew; one had to know at least some such things as a comms officer like she had been, albeit to a far lesser degree than an engineer; and tending more to software than hardware. She covered for any inadequacies by raising one brow slightly and turning to Mannerheim, who was holding the device - and theoretically understood the details better, inasmuch as her universe's technology had dovetailed at all with the Federation's. "What do you think?"
The Captain smiled. "She does seem to know her stuff," she replied, in Rihannsu, after quickly activating a small device in her pocket that suppressed any translation hardware running nearby. "Although I do think there is something about her story that she's not telling us."
She released the activator on the device, reengaging the translators, and turned to Ashix. "The operations department handles smaller maintenance jobs as well as logistics. Things that engineering alone simply wouldn't have the time for. You seem to be skilled enough, but of course it's the Subcommander's decision whether to take you on as part of her crew. I'm only here in an advisory role."
Kaiae was feeling increasingly backed into a corner; a member of this ship's crew - an officer, no less - had approached a stranger, seemingly without much knowledge thereof, invited them to join up, and personally brought them back to do so. Her options were narrowing to 'take a risk on an extremely unknown quantity' or 'look like she had no control of her own by backing out'. Stalling for time again, she took a Romulan scanner off her equipment belt and tossed it at Ashix; might as well find out if her acumen extended beyond Federation tech. "And what about that?" It wasn't broken; but she was curious to what degree, if any, the woman might have with the general design.
Ashix looked at the Romulan issued technology and studied it for a second, carefully maneuvering the tool around in front of her eyes as she surveyed. Opening the device the scanner sequence came online, the device beginning limited scans. "Hmmm," she expressed as she checked the readout, "looks like it's functional, but I suppose it could be better now couldn't it?" She popped off the equipment access plate on the bottom of the device and looked at the internal circuits. It looked relatively routine, until she came across a small chip port within the device. She smirked, wondering if the Romulan had known just what she was holding.
"So, for how long have Romulans been including Borg tech in their scanners?"
A couple of choice curse words ran through Kaiae's head; half of them directed at herself; what she was wearing today included equipment - like that particular scanner, unlike the one hidden under her tunic - sourced from this ship's stores; and half of it probably modified by the ship's original owners, the Tal'Shiar, in unknown ways. Ways like that. Stupid of her not to have checked it better before adding it to her equipment, given that issue.
"Engineers are always experimenting." Kaiae said aloud, leaving not directly answered either way the question of her own knowledge of or not. "Tell me though then; of your own knowledge, how do you feel the addition enhances the device, or would recommend further changes?"
"The Borg circuits enhance the ability of the device to process what it is scanning," she pointed to the older unit, "making that one there even more of a dinosaur than it was a moment ago. There aren't many more enhancements that could come, at the moment at least, unless you had access to a Cube and an Operations Drone," she said too much and she realized it. She had been an Operations Drone at one point, completing such tasks and analysis. She closed the scanner and handed it back over, "It'll get you what you need."
Mila, who had remained quiet since the telling-off, had her interest piqued by the discussion of Borg tech. "You know, there may be a possibility to recreate similar technology. All we need is some modified nanoprobes, really, I mean, Voyager's EMH did some pioneering research into their application for all sorts of things while they were out in the Delta Quadrant, I'm sure you will find it interesting. Oh and did I mention that we have an xB on bo-"
"Lieutenant" The Captain cut her off with a sharp tone. "I think that's quite enough of the security breaches for today, don't you think? Although I must say, I don't think I've ever heard you talk that much out loud in one breath. I've seen how you can be when you sign, I mean, your hands never stop, but I never thought you'd do it out loud." She laughed as Mila turned bright red, muttering - and signing - an apology.
"What she said, however, is true, which is why Borg nanoprobes are so highly sought-after. They have myriad uses in medicine, as well as technology, yet nobody so far has been able to recreate anything similar. People have tried, of course, and one day they will succeed. But I'm sure that's still a long way away."
"Well." Kaiae gave a just-so sharp head-nod to Ashix. "We will consider your interest and contact you shortly on Drozana as to our decisions." She flicked her eyes at Mila next, hoping the penetrating gaze communicated not just her displeasure, but the need to collect the items they had given the woman to assess before they escorted her back to the station.
Suddenly, the Captain smirked. "You know, Subcommander, this woman here has proven that she is indeed highly skilled, at least where small devices are concerned. And I also believe the young Lieutenant to be quite a good judge of character. I can understand your hesitation in taking her on, of course, as this whole operation is very delicate. But still." She turned to the replicator behind her, and when she turned back, held a small pin, as well as one of Mila's replicated badges, in her hand.
"So, while I already expect you are not going to be happy with this at all, I am making the decision to enlist her to our little operation, with the Starfleet rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Equivalent to a Romulan Sublieutenant. While I would like for her to be working on this vessel, I will take full responsibility for her conduct and her actions. Which means she would also fall under my vessel's disciplinary code." She shrugged. "Unless you want to supersede that call, of course, Sublieutenant? And, of course, only if Ms Zirda wishes to take the appointment."
Kaiae would have questioned Freya's sanity in agreeing to take on a stranger like this without time to even attempt to check on background more; except that would have looked even worse in front of this unknown quantity, since they were, for the moment at least, known allies even aboard Drozana by this point, probably. Which left her with very few good options except to wave a hand slightly to the Terran captain as if to say 'you can have her then; I'm not going to risk it'.
"Forgive me for my ignorance of your customs and culture," the Sikarian interjected, "I am from across the galaxy after all, but rank and titles never mattered much to me. I'm fine with whatever you decide so long as you have use for me."
The Captain shrugged. "All it determines is where you sit in the hierarchy of this vessel, and how much you get paid. Now, since we don't have any medical records for your species on this vessel, please go down to medbay and have the doctor do some examinations, to create a baseline profile. After that, please see the quartermaster, who should be in the mess hall dealing with her other duties as ship's cook, to get yourself some quarters." She pinned the communicator badge to Ashix' chest, and the rank pin to her collar, similar to how the non-uniformed crew with Romulan rank wore their insignia. "Mila, I mean, Lieutenant Lynn, can show you where you need to go. Unless you have anything to say, Subcommander?"
Ashix waited to hear if there was anything else said.
Kaiae had a great deal she wished to say, to Freya and Mila alike; but judged she could say exactly none of it at the moment in front of the Sikarian without making the situation even worse than it was, and so gave a sharp, human-style jerk of her head 'no', instead.
The Captain smiled. "Very well. Lieutenant Lynn, please take Lieutenant Zirda to see the doctor, then take her to the quartermaster to get her set up with a place to stay. Once that is done, call me, because we need to have a conversation."
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