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Understanding is a Three Edged Sword. (A story of the USS Heinlein)
knightraider6
Member Posts: 396 Arc User
in Ten Forward
((also abit of a crossover with another Cryptic game, Enjoy!)
USS Heinlein, Moab blockade, September 13, 2412
Captain Rhonda Evans probably should have been excited, but to be honest, she was too nauseous to really care about anything else other than the contents of her stomach. Eating the bacon was probably not one of her better moves, but dammit she was hungry. Still, it was only a few hours, then they'd be off the blockade for a week, rotating back to Risa. Most of the crew would be on leave for a few days, as well as picking up some replacements, transfer orders from Starfleet personnel waited for no one. They'd have a few days off, with the exception of Commander Daniels. He'd been tasked by fleet to oversee yet another 're inspection' of the Heinlein. Not that the Wells Class ship needed one. It had performed flawlessly since she had received it after the loss of the Agamemnon to Fek'Ihir. TOO flawlessly for some, hence the corps of engineers gearheads trying to find out just what it was that made this ship different. Supposedly the tech wasn't too far advanced, despite being a Wells class. The Timeships were few, and mostly well picked over by Tholians when Starfleet did manage to recover one.
Of course she knew the reason why the ship was different. Technically, Temporal Investigations should have held onto the ship, instead of giving it to her, especially after one of the crew who rescued her was her future great-granddaughter. Or great-great granddaughter, she wasn't sure.. But then, TI was, well compromised by future agents, who had requested her assistance as she had done this kind of thing before in a different universe. Besides, it wasn't like she was doing anything that would technically violate the Temporal Prime directive - even if her XO who was an AI from the future who had scrubbed any memories of beyond the current time,or the very non-standard computer system.
Which is why the subspace rift was a surprise. It had been beta shift, she'd been taking care of paperwork in her office when the ship, no, the universe seemed to get dimmer, then shook like a small dog playing with a stuffed toy.
On the bridge, Maureen was the first to re awaken, to a darkened ship. Even the emergency lights were off, the fans shut down, not even so much as a beep from anywhere. She sat up carefully, gravity was out too, the movement threatening to throw her off the deck.
There were good things at times about not being a full organic she thought as she looked around-there was nothing threatening on infrared or ultraviolet, though... someone was in the Captain's chair, and it wasn't her Captain - but it was someone familiar. "Q?"
"Should have known the Skin-job would be the first to wake up," he replied, prompting a scowl from Maureen.
"You do know how offensive that term is."
"Would you prefer artificial person?" he asked as gravity began to come back on line, followed by lights.
"I'd prefer if you'd quit endangering Rhonda every time you show up, you know what's at stake here."
"Bah,you know me better than that."
"I'll give you that - so why are you here?"
"To deliver a warning," Q actually looked troubled. "There's something that pulled you into this universe," he said. "And the Continuum cannot intervene."
That caused an almost Vulcan-like eyebrow raise. "You can't intervene in something?"
"You must understand, while we are far advanced, we are not the only such beings in the multiverse - and for us to intervene here, would permit others to meddle in your universe."
Systems were coming on line, and there were groans from the more organic crew as they began to regain conciousness. "I think I understand," Maureen replied as she sat back down at the helm. Turning her head, she noticed that he was gone already.
Typical Q, she muttered as the ready room door opened, and a slightly wobbly Captain Evans emerged.. "Are you alright?"
"Been better," Rhonda replied as she sat down in her seat. "Status report, What the hell happened?"
"Don't quite know yet, though we're in a different universe according to Q, who poofed out right before you woke up."
Rhonda and half of the bridge crew groaned. . "Oh, not again."
Ten minutes later, they had no more answers, but plenty of questions. They were nowhere near Risa, instead somewhere, well it might have been near Andoria, it was hard to say, with no navagation beacons showing up. The really worrying thing was the Transwarp conduits that were detected on long range sensors.
"I'm getting something Captain," her science officer, a Ferengi named Nix, said from his station. "Not sure just what it is though, I don't recognize the ship design, it seems to be some sort of short range shuttlecraft - though what it's doing out this far is unknown."
"Bring us in closer and lets take a look. Any life signs?"
"None so far, but it is long range..."
"True, keep the shields up, and bring us in close."
There was more debris as they got closer, some of it obviously Borg, others...
"What the frinx?” The Ferengi said, stunned by the sensor readings. “Sir... the hull on that ship is aluminum alloy, with a ceramic tile cover. That hasn't been used since...well probably when you were young."
"Thanks for making me feel old," Rhonda said with a smirk. "Years don't count if they were in an alternate timeline." Though if one counted calendar years she was over four hundred, instead of the twenty seven birthdays she actually experienced. "But yeah... it looks like one of the Shuttles we had in the early 21st century, except it doesn't say NASA on it. and it's in pieces."
"I think I can put together the markings," Nix said as he scanned the debris... "U... UNTIL. Until what?"
"That we need to find out. I take it no life signs given the condition?"
"Actually..." he tuned the sensors a bit. "We're getting something... A Borg drone."
The air seemed to get several degrees colder on the bridge. "TRIBBLE... well... we won't learn anything by leaving it sitting there.”
"Are you sure Sir? Bringing a drone aboard is usually a very bad idea." Nix replied, while not much seemed to scare the Ferengi, Borg tended to spook everyone.
"Don't worry," Maureen replied. "They can't assimilate me, I'll handle questioning him. Her. It. Whatever." Which was true... at least so far. "Plus, if these readings are right..."
"You're right... it's recently assimilated. Which means-"
"Which means maybe they can be saved," Rhonda said. "Bring them aboard, I'll head to sickbay-"
"Uh, sir? getting close to a drone isn't a good idea at the best of times..."
"I'm aware of that, Mr Nix - but I'm also the most qualified. Besides it's not like we haven't done it before. Danny, you've got the con, let's go see if we can help this being."
Sickbay, USS Heinlein
The force fields were up, the standard de-assimilation tools were ready - now they just needed the patient. "Alright, beam 'em in." Rhonda said from behind the other side of the field.
There was the familiar blue sparkle, then there was a figure... "What the hell?"
It was a human, male, wearing what was left of what looked like a NASA flight suit - in fact, there was a NASA patch on it, along with one that said UNTIL, like the wing of the shuttle. "Resistance is futile," he said, before he was rendered unconscious. "Alright, let's get to work, people," Rhonda said as she picked up her tricorder.
Nine hours later.
They were extremely lucky, the patient had only been assimilated a short time. Borg tended to replace more and more of the organic structure over time, the longer one was assimilated the harder the conversion back was. She'd had harder patients to cleanse Borg tech from, this one was relatively easy, though it still took several hours.
Finally he scanned clear enough, thankfully there hadn't been any major alterations that weren't easily repairable.
"He's regaining consciousness, Sir," Nurse Realt said, the Cardassian bringing the lights up just a bit.
Rhonda put her PADD down and walked over. "How are you feeling, Major Thomas?"
The liberated drone blinked at first the nurse, then Rhonda's fur covered form... "You... you're not human?"
"Well technically I am, just bitten by a radioactive skunk when I was a kid," she replied. "Realt here, well he's from Cardassia, so no, he isn't human."
"H... how did you know my name?" he asked curiously, still slightly disoriented.
"You had your wallet with you. I recognize the Michigan driver's licence, but never heard of any place called Millennium City to be honest."
"It... it used to be called Detroit before it was leveled... who are you people? What was that thing that attacked us?"
"Just a second, when was Detroit destroyed?" The Major looked at the new voice, an average sized red haired woman, in a similar uniform to the other two. "It's important."
"It was... 1993, no, 92. Dr Destroyer leveled most of the city when a group of heroes tried to stop his asteroid doomsday device."
Rhonda and Maureen looked at each other. "Alternate time line, then - ah don't know to be relieved or worried even more now."
"Both," Was the XO's reply.
Vessel 7 of 39
[No active transwarp conduits detected]
[No signals from the collective as well.]
The drones had been in this situation before. Well not these particular ones, but what one of the collective knew, all knew. There were procedures for this, the Borg had procedures for most everything - usually 'assimilate'
[Unit nine of eleven will be augmented]
[Confirmed - what of unit three of six - that unit has far more strength than would be expected from an offshoot of species 5618 - the flight and invulnerability is an asset as well]
[Unit three of six is still regenerating after being assimilated - it will take time before that unit is capable of being augmented further]
[The unit is also resisting assimilation. Recommend destruction of unit]
[Denied - unit three of six will be assimilated. Its biological distinctiveness and power will be added to and enhance our own]
USS Heinlein
Their guest had rested, and eaten, and was ready to talk. "We were investigating something that popped up on one of the deep space warning satellites a few days ago. Dr Silverback had an experimental ftl drive system that he offered to UNTIL to check it out with. We had a couple heroes with us, we didn't think we'd have much of a problem, especially with her along." He snorted. "Hell, she could probably lift the shuttle by herself, and she had zero problems flying in space - she was faster than we were actually."
"Heh, sounds like someone I used to know," Rhonda said with a nod, sipping her hot chocolate. "Not that I would have, being this isn't the Earth I came from."
"Oh she wasn't from this Earth either, said she was from some place in Rhode Island - forget what she said it was called. All I knew is that my kids were excited because Kelly Lamb would be going along with us, and they got to meet her. They have all her albums and have seen her every time she played in the are- hey are you alright?"
She didn't even remember dropping the mug, or falling over out of her chair, hitting the ground hard, as the memories hit her hard...
Rhonda had known Kelly since, oh 2004 or so. She had escaped from her 'owner', a would-be world ruler who had captured the sheep hybrid from an experimental lab he had raided. He had used her as muscle in his schemes until she rebelled. The last time she saw her, It was 2008, the two of them had gotten out of town for a break - visiting Rhonda's cousins in Japan with her mother. It was still unnerving to see the posters of her mom back when she was a factory rider for Kawasaki in her cousin's bedroom, but then Shenji had always been, well, to be honest, a perv. Finding her own posters was even worse.
But he had connections, for a couple of visiting teenage heroes from Paragon City. Luckily the fact Kelly's creators had made her to be fluent in most languages, and her mother teaching her Japanese from the time she was a young girl kept them from making too much of a fool of themselves - especially when the show he'd booked them on was one of those idol singer contests, and they were expected to perform as well as judge. The fact they both were good singers, were loved by the crowds, and could both fly as well... there were times that she wished she was still back there. It was a good gig, while it lasted. Then the interdimensional attacks began again, right before Schrodi shoved her through the portal to Starfleet Academy.
All she'd asked Schrodi once she ran into her in her new universe, was that Kelly was alright, that she found a place she'd be happy. But this... "They assimilated her?" she asked the Major, her eyes wide.
"If that's what you call what they did to me, yeah. They came on board somehow, some sort of teleporter. She went up to one and just said "Hi!" like she always does - it stabbed her with something, and then she started screaming - things kind of went haywire after that, then the shuttle came apart."
"Captain, we need you on the bridge," the intercom chirped. She shook her head as if to clear it, one crisis at a time. "On the way," she said as she stood up tiredly.
"Mind if I come with you?" the Major asked.
Rhonda pondered it for a moment, then shrugged. "Normally we're not allowed, due to time travel regulations - but you're from an alternate timeline, which makes that all sort of moot. I'll warn you, it's not that impressive."
"Hey, it's bigger than the Excelsior class shuttle we were in," Major Thomas replied. "And it doesn't feel like the antigrav that Dr Silverback invented."
"Different mechanism, but the physics is probably the same. I'm more of a medical doctor than an engineer," she admitted as she led him back to the bridge. "Whatcha got, Nix?"
Major Thomas blinked as the Ferengi tactical officer turned towards the Captain. "Two targets, one about sixty thousand kilometers, class 4 Borg Tactical Cube. Damaged, looks like it’s drive is offline. The other... well, it's fast, it's approaching, and not a typical probe..."
The captain looked like she'd been punched in the stomach. "Let me guess, about 1.5 meters, under 50 kilos?
"Exactly, and it's, well it's a drone and it's not. Approaching visual range."
TRIBBLE. She forgot how fast Kelly was. "Raise shields!"
"But it's just one drone?" Lt Nix may ask why, but when the captain says raise shields... "Shields up - Frinx!"
The ship shuddered, as the small figure slammed into the shields. "...did she... did she just punch the ship?" Maureen exclaimed, almost falling out of her seat as the ship shook.
"She did, and dented the shields, too - forward shields at 87 percent." Lt Nober at tactical replied.
It was definitely her, while the Lieutenant looked on in stunned shock, the diminutive drone drew back her fist, slamming it into the shields. The ship rocked again. "Shields down to fifty percent!"
"What's the status on the warp?"
"It's up-"
"Get us out of here - she'll be through in a few minutes at that rate."
"But where to, Sir? We're not in our universe-"
"No, but we know where to find backup. Set course for Sol."
The Heinlein pulled away, as the assimilated hero began to pursue, only to leave her behind when the ship jumped to warp. "She's fast... but not ftl capable, at least."
"No but that Cube is, or will be as soon as it’s repaired. We've got to take that down," Rhonda said with a sick feeling in her stomach. Back when she had the Agamemnon a Tac cube would have been a hell of a fight, and her old ship was a Galaxy-X. The Heinlein? Outgunned wasn't the word to describe their situation. "Who's this Doctor you mentioned, Major? We may need to meet with him." While their tech seemed to be far lower....she knew from experience that crazy hero-scientists had a way of pulling something out of their labcoats to save the day. Or blow up the world. At least back where she grew up, and this seemed like the same kind of timestream.
"Dr Silverback? He's in Millennium City, but honestly, if this is cosmic level stuff, well, he doesn't leave Earth. There is that blue cat girl that lives on the moon though, Schrodinger or something."
Rhonda’s jaw almost hit the floor. "Oh, HELL no..."
To Be Continued...
Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed
Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear
But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear
Oh, oh.
Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin'
I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin'
All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
Trying to find, trying to find where I've been.
Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir.
Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear
Ohh.
When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down...
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down
Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there
Let me take you there. Let me take you there
Led Zepplein, Kashmir
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed
Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear
But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear
Oh, oh.
Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin'
I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin'
All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
Trying to find, trying to find where I've been.
Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir.
Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear
Ohh.
When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down...
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down
Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there
Let me take you there. Let me take you there
Led Zepplein, Kashmir
USS Heinlein, Moab blockade, September 13, 2412
Captain Rhonda Evans probably should have been excited, but to be honest, she was too nauseous to really care about anything else other than the contents of her stomach. Eating the bacon was probably not one of her better moves, but dammit she was hungry. Still, it was only a few hours, then they'd be off the blockade for a week, rotating back to Risa. Most of the crew would be on leave for a few days, as well as picking up some replacements, transfer orders from Starfleet personnel waited for no one. They'd have a few days off, with the exception of Commander Daniels. He'd been tasked by fleet to oversee yet another 're inspection' of the Heinlein. Not that the Wells Class ship needed one. It had performed flawlessly since she had received it after the loss of the Agamemnon to Fek'Ihir. TOO flawlessly for some, hence the corps of engineers gearheads trying to find out just what it was that made this ship different. Supposedly the tech wasn't too far advanced, despite being a Wells class. The Timeships were few, and mostly well picked over by Tholians when Starfleet did manage to recover one.
Of course she knew the reason why the ship was different. Technically, Temporal Investigations should have held onto the ship, instead of giving it to her, especially after one of the crew who rescued her was her future great-granddaughter. Or great-great granddaughter, she wasn't sure.. But then, TI was, well compromised by future agents, who had requested her assistance as she had done this kind of thing before in a different universe. Besides, it wasn't like she was doing anything that would technically violate the Temporal Prime directive - even if her XO who was an AI from the future who had scrubbed any memories of beyond the current time,or the very non-standard computer system.
Which is why the subspace rift was a surprise. It had been beta shift, she'd been taking care of paperwork in her office when the ship, no, the universe seemed to get dimmer, then shook like a small dog playing with a stuffed toy.
On the bridge, Maureen was the first to re awaken, to a darkened ship. Even the emergency lights were off, the fans shut down, not even so much as a beep from anywhere. She sat up carefully, gravity was out too, the movement threatening to throw her off the deck.
There were good things at times about not being a full organic she thought as she looked around-there was nothing threatening on infrared or ultraviolet, though... someone was in the Captain's chair, and it wasn't her Captain - but it was someone familiar. "Q?"
"Should have known the Skin-job would be the first to wake up," he replied, prompting a scowl from Maureen.
"You do know how offensive that term is."
"Would you prefer artificial person?" he asked as gravity began to come back on line, followed by lights.
"I'd prefer if you'd quit endangering Rhonda every time you show up, you know what's at stake here."
"Bah,you know me better than that."
"I'll give you that - so why are you here?"
"To deliver a warning," Q actually looked troubled. "There's something that pulled you into this universe," he said. "And the Continuum cannot intervene."
That caused an almost Vulcan-like eyebrow raise. "You can't intervene in something?"
"You must understand, while we are far advanced, we are not the only such beings in the multiverse - and for us to intervene here, would permit others to meddle in your universe."
Systems were coming on line, and there were groans from the more organic crew as they began to regain conciousness. "I think I understand," Maureen replied as she sat back down at the helm. Turning her head, she noticed that he was gone already.
Typical Q, she muttered as the ready room door opened, and a slightly wobbly Captain Evans emerged.. "Are you alright?"
"Been better," Rhonda replied as she sat down in her seat. "Status report, What the hell happened?"
"Don't quite know yet, though we're in a different universe according to Q, who poofed out right before you woke up."
Rhonda and half of the bridge crew groaned. . "Oh, not again."
Ten minutes later, they had no more answers, but plenty of questions. They were nowhere near Risa, instead somewhere, well it might have been near Andoria, it was hard to say, with no navagation beacons showing up. The really worrying thing was the Transwarp conduits that were detected on long range sensors.
"I'm getting something Captain," her science officer, a Ferengi named Nix, said from his station. "Not sure just what it is though, I don't recognize the ship design, it seems to be some sort of short range shuttlecraft - though what it's doing out this far is unknown."
"Bring us in closer and lets take a look. Any life signs?"
"None so far, but it is long range..."
"True, keep the shields up, and bring us in close."
There was more debris as they got closer, some of it obviously Borg, others...
"What the frinx?” The Ferengi said, stunned by the sensor readings. “Sir... the hull on that ship is aluminum alloy, with a ceramic tile cover. That hasn't been used since...well probably when you were young."
"Thanks for making me feel old," Rhonda said with a smirk. "Years don't count if they were in an alternate timeline." Though if one counted calendar years she was over four hundred, instead of the twenty seven birthdays she actually experienced. "But yeah... it looks like one of the Shuttles we had in the early 21st century, except it doesn't say NASA on it. and it's in pieces."
"I think I can put together the markings," Nix said as he scanned the debris... "U... UNTIL. Until what?"
"That we need to find out. I take it no life signs given the condition?"
"Actually..." he tuned the sensors a bit. "We're getting something... A Borg drone."
The air seemed to get several degrees colder on the bridge. "TRIBBLE... well... we won't learn anything by leaving it sitting there.”
"Are you sure Sir? Bringing a drone aboard is usually a very bad idea." Nix replied, while not much seemed to scare the Ferengi, Borg tended to spook everyone.
"Don't worry," Maureen replied. "They can't assimilate me, I'll handle questioning him. Her. It. Whatever." Which was true... at least so far. "Plus, if these readings are right..."
"You're right... it's recently assimilated. Which means-"
"Which means maybe they can be saved," Rhonda said. "Bring them aboard, I'll head to sickbay-"
"Uh, sir? getting close to a drone isn't a good idea at the best of times..."
"I'm aware of that, Mr Nix - but I'm also the most qualified. Besides it's not like we haven't done it before. Danny, you've got the con, let's go see if we can help this being."
Sickbay, USS Heinlein
The force fields were up, the standard de-assimilation tools were ready - now they just needed the patient. "Alright, beam 'em in." Rhonda said from behind the other side of the field.
There was the familiar blue sparkle, then there was a figure... "What the hell?"
It was a human, male, wearing what was left of what looked like a NASA flight suit - in fact, there was a NASA patch on it, along with one that said UNTIL, like the wing of the shuttle. "Resistance is futile," he said, before he was rendered unconscious. "Alright, let's get to work, people," Rhonda said as she picked up her tricorder.
Nine hours later.
They were extremely lucky, the patient had only been assimilated a short time. Borg tended to replace more and more of the organic structure over time, the longer one was assimilated the harder the conversion back was. She'd had harder patients to cleanse Borg tech from, this one was relatively easy, though it still took several hours.
Finally he scanned clear enough, thankfully there hadn't been any major alterations that weren't easily repairable.
"He's regaining consciousness, Sir," Nurse Realt said, the Cardassian bringing the lights up just a bit.
Rhonda put her PADD down and walked over. "How are you feeling, Major Thomas?"
The liberated drone blinked at first the nurse, then Rhonda's fur covered form... "You... you're not human?"
"Well technically I am, just bitten by a radioactive skunk when I was a kid," she replied. "Realt here, well he's from Cardassia, so no, he isn't human."
"H... how did you know my name?" he asked curiously, still slightly disoriented.
"You had your wallet with you. I recognize the Michigan driver's licence, but never heard of any place called Millennium City to be honest."
"It... it used to be called Detroit before it was leveled... who are you people? What was that thing that attacked us?"
"Just a second, when was Detroit destroyed?" The Major looked at the new voice, an average sized red haired woman, in a similar uniform to the other two. "It's important."
"It was... 1993, no, 92. Dr Destroyer leveled most of the city when a group of heroes tried to stop his asteroid doomsday device."
Rhonda and Maureen looked at each other. "Alternate time line, then - ah don't know to be relieved or worried even more now."
"Both," Was the XO's reply.
Vessel 7 of 39
[No active transwarp conduits detected]
[No signals from the collective as well.]
The drones had been in this situation before. Well not these particular ones, but what one of the collective knew, all knew. There were procedures for this, the Borg had procedures for most everything - usually 'assimilate'
[Unit nine of eleven will be augmented]
[Confirmed - what of unit three of six - that unit has far more strength than would be expected from an offshoot of species 5618 - the flight and invulnerability is an asset as well]
[Unit three of six is still regenerating after being assimilated - it will take time before that unit is capable of being augmented further]
[The unit is also resisting assimilation. Recommend destruction of unit]
[Denied - unit three of six will be assimilated. Its biological distinctiveness and power will be added to and enhance our own]
USS Heinlein
Their guest had rested, and eaten, and was ready to talk. "We were investigating something that popped up on one of the deep space warning satellites a few days ago. Dr Silverback had an experimental ftl drive system that he offered to UNTIL to check it out with. We had a couple heroes with us, we didn't think we'd have much of a problem, especially with her along." He snorted. "Hell, she could probably lift the shuttle by herself, and she had zero problems flying in space - she was faster than we were actually."
"Heh, sounds like someone I used to know," Rhonda said with a nod, sipping her hot chocolate. "Not that I would have, being this isn't the Earth I came from."
"Oh she wasn't from this Earth either, said she was from some place in Rhode Island - forget what she said it was called. All I knew is that my kids were excited because Kelly Lamb would be going along with us, and they got to meet her. They have all her albums and have seen her every time she played in the are- hey are you alright?"
She didn't even remember dropping the mug, or falling over out of her chair, hitting the ground hard, as the memories hit her hard...
Rhonda had known Kelly since, oh 2004 or so. She had escaped from her 'owner', a would-be world ruler who had captured the sheep hybrid from an experimental lab he had raided. He had used her as muscle in his schemes until she rebelled. The last time she saw her, It was 2008, the two of them had gotten out of town for a break - visiting Rhonda's cousins in Japan with her mother. It was still unnerving to see the posters of her mom back when she was a factory rider for Kawasaki in her cousin's bedroom, but then Shenji had always been, well, to be honest, a perv. Finding her own posters was even worse.
But he had connections, for a couple of visiting teenage heroes from Paragon City. Luckily the fact Kelly's creators had made her to be fluent in most languages, and her mother teaching her Japanese from the time she was a young girl kept them from making too much of a fool of themselves - especially when the show he'd booked them on was one of those idol singer contests, and they were expected to perform as well as judge. The fact they both were good singers, were loved by the crowds, and could both fly as well... there were times that she wished she was still back there. It was a good gig, while it lasted. Then the interdimensional attacks began again, right before Schrodi shoved her through the portal to Starfleet Academy.
All she'd asked Schrodi once she ran into her in her new universe, was that Kelly was alright, that she found a place she'd be happy. But this... "They assimilated her?" she asked the Major, her eyes wide.
"If that's what you call what they did to me, yeah. They came on board somehow, some sort of teleporter. She went up to one and just said "Hi!" like she always does - it stabbed her with something, and then she started screaming - things kind of went haywire after that, then the shuttle came apart."
"Captain, we need you on the bridge," the intercom chirped. She shook her head as if to clear it, one crisis at a time. "On the way," she said as she stood up tiredly.
"Mind if I come with you?" the Major asked.
Rhonda pondered it for a moment, then shrugged. "Normally we're not allowed, due to time travel regulations - but you're from an alternate timeline, which makes that all sort of moot. I'll warn you, it's not that impressive."
"Hey, it's bigger than the Excelsior class shuttle we were in," Major Thomas replied. "And it doesn't feel like the antigrav that Dr Silverback invented."
"Different mechanism, but the physics is probably the same. I'm more of a medical doctor than an engineer," she admitted as she led him back to the bridge. "Whatcha got, Nix?"
Major Thomas blinked as the Ferengi tactical officer turned towards the Captain. "Two targets, one about sixty thousand kilometers, class 4 Borg Tactical Cube. Damaged, looks like it’s drive is offline. The other... well, it's fast, it's approaching, and not a typical probe..."
The captain looked like she'd been punched in the stomach. "Let me guess, about 1.5 meters, under 50 kilos?
"Exactly, and it's, well it's a drone and it's not. Approaching visual range."
TRIBBLE. She forgot how fast Kelly was. "Raise shields!"
"But it's just one drone?" Lt Nix may ask why, but when the captain says raise shields... "Shields up - Frinx!"
The ship shuddered, as the small figure slammed into the shields. "...did she... did she just punch the ship?" Maureen exclaimed, almost falling out of her seat as the ship shook.
"She did, and dented the shields, too - forward shields at 87 percent." Lt Nober at tactical replied.
It was definitely her, while the Lieutenant looked on in stunned shock, the diminutive drone drew back her fist, slamming it into the shields. The ship rocked again. "Shields down to fifty percent!"
"What's the status on the warp?"
"It's up-"
"Get us out of here - she'll be through in a few minutes at that rate."
"But where to, Sir? We're not in our universe-"
"No, but we know where to find backup. Set course for Sol."
The Heinlein pulled away, as the assimilated hero began to pursue, only to leave her behind when the ship jumped to warp. "She's fast... but not ftl capable, at least."
"No but that Cube is, or will be as soon as it’s repaired. We've got to take that down," Rhonda said with a sick feeling in her stomach. Back when she had the Agamemnon a Tac cube would have been a hell of a fight, and her old ship was a Galaxy-X. The Heinlein? Outgunned wasn't the word to describe their situation. "Who's this Doctor you mentioned, Major? We may need to meet with him." While their tech seemed to be far lower....she knew from experience that crazy hero-scientists had a way of pulling something out of their labcoats to save the day. Or blow up the world. At least back where she grew up, and this seemed like the same kind of timestream.
"Dr Silverback? He's in Millennium City, but honestly, if this is cosmic level stuff, well, he doesn't leave Earth. There is that blue cat girl that lives on the moon though, Schrodinger or something."
Rhonda’s jaw almost hit the floor. "Oh, HELL no..."
To Be Continued...
"It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
0
Comments
The bit from the Borg's point of view works well, which is always fiddly.
I particularly loved the way it starts with a super-AI called Maureen and a dodgy bacon incident! Somehow Trek is much more lovable when it's not all stainless steel and blue lights, and after all, what group of human beings in any century possibly could be?
*squeeeeeeeeeee*
*Meanwhile magnitude 3 Earthquake detected somewhere on the west coast*
Ahem.
Glad to see you back, I thought we'd never see another work of art featuring Ms. Rhonda. Great to have you back @knightraider6, I always enjoy reading your work!
Take your pictures down and shake it out
Truth or consequence, say it aloud
Use that evidence, race it around
There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary
Don't the best of them bleed it out
While the rest of them peter out
Truth or consequence, say it aloud
Use that evidence, race it around
There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary
Kudos, my hero
Leaving all the best
You know my hero
The one that's on
There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary
There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary
Foo Fighters: My hero
Several Days Later
The trip to Earth was both uneventful and stressful. Technically, she was committing a prime directive violation some would say, though it’s being an alternate timeline the Prime Directive probably wouldn’t apply - but the borg protocols overrode those, at least according to some statutes. She'd finally given up and would let JAG sort it out once they got back. If they got back.
The feeling of running away with her tail between her legs didn’t help any. It hadn’t even been a week since Kelly had been assimilated-reversing it at that stage was easy. Assuming of course they could penetrate her defenses to knock her out to do it. The sheep hybrid was as close to indestructible when her defenses were up as any meta being Rhonda had ever known of-hell Kelly even survived being hit with a low yield nuclear warhead. There had to be another way to get at her, hence running back to the Sol system.
It was weird, seeing Earth without the looming presence of the Starfleet facilities in orbit. No massive Space Dock, no shuttle transfer facilities, no weather control satellites. That's not to say the skies were empty, there were smaller stations here and there, a few manned platforms, and a ruined asteroid base just past geosynchronous orbit that the Major told her was one of Doctor Destroyer's bases that was destroyed by the Champions years back.
"We've got company, Captain,” Lt Nix said as they entered earth’s orbit. “there are... people in orbit?"
She sipped her hot chocolate, looking calmer than she felt, almost like old home week in some ways. "Some meta beings can survive, and even move in space. I knew a few who were actually born in space back home, one friend of mine was a sentient star, basically - or would be when he got older." she explained.
The Ferengi just shook his head. "I'd say that's impossible, but there's a purple skinned human girl in a bikini off the port bow. Either this universe is mad, or I am."
Rhonda just laughed. "That's how I felt every morning," she said as the Heinlein assumed a standard orbit. On the screen the girl had pulled her phone out and was taking photos of herself with the Starfleet ship in the background. The Captain just shook her head, laughing softly. Some things never change.
"Also sir, nothing on hailing frequencies, but we are picking up something in the gigahertz range, frequency modulated transmissions it looks like."
"Sounds about right for the early 21st century. We got it decoded yet?"
"Should have it just about... there we go." Nix brought the image up on the main view.
There was a gorilla on the screen. Well a dapper gorilla, with small gold round spectacles, and wearing what looked like a Brooks Brothers suit, with a white lab coat over it.
"Ookay, definitely have gone insane," Nix muttered under his breath.
"This is Dr Silverback, attempting to contact the unidentified alien vessel - oh! Major Thomas!" he said, seeing the human on the bridge. "We were worried when we lost contact with your shuttle, I take it you ran into some trouble? "
"You can definitely say that doctor, if it hadn't been for these people coming along, I'd be spending the rest of my life as a mindless cyborg."
"A grim sounding fate indeed. So who are your new friends?"
"I'm Captain Rhonda Evans, commanding the United Federation of Planets starship Heinlein. The entities Major Thomas was attacked by are known as the Borg, we're not sure if they created the dimensional rift we ended up coming here through, or were sucked through from our universe the same as we were."
"Ah, I was wondering about the insignia on the uniforms. I was wondering if you were coming back from a science fiction convention."
That got an amused giggle from Rhonda, with confused glances from the crew. "I could just imagine the fanboys squealing if I walked into one of those with a working mark 2 phaser."
"That would be amusing, though probably a bad idea. At any rate, I have notified UNTIL and the Champions, who are ready to discuss this threat with you."
"Sounds good, Doctor, we'll transport down in a few moments. Heinlein out."
Renaissance Center, Millennium City Michigan, USA
In some ways it was the same, in others, far different. The towers easily rivaled some of the larger buildings on Andor or Rigel for size, the colorful humanoids in skintight costumes flying around them on the other hand... Commander Daniels and Lt Thyl were looking around rather wide eyed, the human and Andorian not surprised by the varieties in life forms... but... "That shouldn't be possible, Captain," Thyl muttered as a white furred teenage wolf-girl bounded past, easily clearing ten meters per leap. “Not in this gravity-and how are they flying? That’s not scientifically possible.”
"Different reality, different laws of physics perhaps. Wouldn’t be the first time, if you think about some of the stuff in the archives, especially back in Kirk’s day. We'll have plenty of time to sight-see later, gentlemen," Rhonda replied. Especially if we're stuck here, she thought, unsaid, though she knew it was on their minds, as well. "Let's go see what they can offer to help stop that Cube."
Several hours later...
"Well that was useful."
Rhonda sighed. "Honestly, I can't say I blame them too much. They get alien invaders regularly here it seems, the Borg just seem to be another threat to them. Between the Qulaar, Gadroon, attempted interdimensional invasions, not to mention the plots from Viper and various other meta-organizations, I can see why the government would be a bit shy about sending their best and brightest on just our word."
“And why did that Senator think we were actors, and this is a ‘publicity stunt’?” Thyl asked in confusion.
“Because, as a quantum physicist catgirl explained to me when I was younger, ‘Everything is real somewhen.’ Also there is Heinlein’s ‘World as Myth’ theory.” Rhonda shrugged “Just our luck that this is a reality where where Starfleet is fiction.”
Daniels just shook his head. “which explains why he asked if I could get the autograph of the actor that played Ambassador Picard, and tried to do his voice. But Picard is french, not british.”
“I know, was the same where I was a kid,” Rhonda replied. “When I heard him give a speech at the Academy, I expected him to sound like a Shakespearean actor, not Inspector Clouseau.” She shrugged “they’ve run into similar situations before, so the government feels they can handle it.”
"But the Borg are worse than anything they've run into! Hell we ran into some of those 'alien invaders' when we broke for lunch - didn't even need to go beyond stun setting one on my phaser."
"Relax," Rhonda said. "Remember, it was the government types that were doubting. That Defender guy, and Silverback and the others were taking it seriously. They just don't have much in the way of FTL capable ships. Silverback is working on plans to defend the planet should the Borg arrive, but those will take time..."
"Meaning it's on us to make sure they don’t."
"Maybe," Rhonda said. “We have a list of people they said we should ask to come along” she said.
“Yeah, some of these names tho..’Lazer Boy? American Ghoul?”
Rhonda just chuckled “hey I was known as Polekitty for years, those names are normal-ish compared to some.” She looked up at the darkening sky, the moon was close to full. “plus, if Major Thomas was right..there might be someone here who I know can help.” She tapped her combadge, and the three officers vanished in a shimmer of light.
Renaissance Center
“Ghoul, you’re stinking again.” Lazerboy said crossly, “Can’t you do something about that?”
American Ghoul tossed her hair and regarded him with empty eye sockets. “I will, as soon as I can stop by the mortician’s, same time I pick up my shampoo.”
“She does have kickass hair.” Infieri cracked, “Seriously, Liz, these guys look like they might be a little less rough-and-ready than the cops you normally work with.”
“So you’re saying I should kit up for court instead of a fight then?” American Ghoul asked, “Splash on the febreeze and the perfume, try to make the latex mask look natural?” she held up her hands-really just mounts for talons, “Kind of hard to hide these, though, isn’t it? and if the briefing’s even half-true, all that stuff will get in my way.”
“The smell.” Lazerboy insisted. “Seriously, you’ve got the eau-de-roadkill going on.”
“it’s been warm out...but yeah, before I get on someone’s rocket-ship, I’ll do the full embalming thing.” she snapped, “but you’re going to have to put up with the smell for a little longer.”
“Why?”
“Because the alternative is I visit the University and have a couple cadavers for dinner from the ‘body left to science’ truck.” she snapped, “If these ‘Starfleet’ people express a problem with your usual level of belly-aching, I’ll do it...but only if it’s really going to be a problem, otherwise, I’ll just use the funeral-home cosmetics and a nice shampoo to reduce and mask the grave-odor.”
“You could always have Doctor Silverback run you through the disintegrator again-when you came back from one of those you’re almost human looking.”
“It hurts and it sucks.” American Ghoul stated, “I could show you how much, but then I’d have to explain sending a Hero to the afterlife early...and that’s with both ‘Mom’ and the nice chaps at UNTIL...and the effect doesn’t last.”
Superhuman Detention and Holding Facility supermaximum security Yucca Mountain, Nevada…
“She doesn’t look like much.” Ivar Thorson, the Heinlein’s security chief mentioned as he studied the monitors.
On the screen a woman in a straitjacket and bit was being led out the door of a cell with thick, quilted padding by guards in heavily padded uniforms.
“Looks can be deceiving.” Dr. Silverback commented, “Lisa here was a one-woman crime spree from Bellingham Washington all the way to San Diego before she was captured, and she managed to harm several of our strongest superhumans.”
“Really-is that why the cell’s padded? Is she crazy?” Rhonda asked doubtfully.
“No. she’s not crazy, the padding on the walls of her cell is what’s holding her in.” Dr. Silverback noted.
“Aad the hug-me jacket?” Ivar asked.
“Keeps the guards safe-she could become a serious threat if she were able to struggle hard enough.” The Warden contributed.
“I’m not convinced.” Ivar said.
“Let me convince you…” Dr. Silverback toggled a recording, “This was the Federal depository in San Francisco-they had warning she was coming.”
On the video, a young woman walked up the sidewalk under a constant hail of gunfire-that included a tank and several TOW missiles. Her clothing was shredded, but she kept getting up, otherwise apparently unharmed.
She proceeds on the tape to physically defeat several dozen riot police and soldiers, then a pair of known supers, and when she reaches the building, she started punching it, breaking through the reinforced concrete wall to enter.
A few minutes later, she walked out, with a small bag of something, in her wake, dozens of injured soldiers, a tank that made the mistake of trying to run her over, and four members of the West Coast Champions lay on the ground in various states of injured, broken or nearly dead.
“This was real?” Ivar asked.
“Real. Two members of the West Coast Champions had to retire due to injuries.”
“How was she captured?” Ivar asked
“She surrendered.” silverback told him, “We got lucky-her bipolar disorder hit a low point and she failed to commit suicide, so she gave up...Kelly Lamb brought her in.”
“So she is crazy.” Ivar said, relaxing.
“We don’t call it that.” Silverback told him, “First because Lisa has good reasons for her disorder, and secondly because it’s...socially unacceptable.”
“Even for us” Rhonda added, causing the chief to flush just a bit “Still with the stuff we have it may be treatable.”
“Your word to god’s ears on that.” Silverback commented, “Before her rampage, she was in VA care, and eating antidepressants like they were candy after she got back from the middle east.”
Ivar frowned, “What happened?”
“Her unit was overrun by Isis during the Mahdi incident, she was captured and watched her comrades being tortured to death for three weeks before heroes could find them, overcome resistance, and pull her out-there’s Post Traumatic Stress, which probably ties to her trigger, at least nine suicide attempts, not including attempted ‘suicide by superhero’ and incidents like the depository.”
“What’s her power?” Rhonda asked.
“Immune.” Silverback stated, “so far we haven’t been able to properly gauge her invulnerability, but as you saw on the tape, it seems to work in a semi-reactive fashion-when stimulus reaches ‘break’ point, it’s whatever the source is that breaks-whether it’s a fist, a tank, or that wall. Physically she’s shown no more strength than a normal woman of her age, but she can battle her way through reinforced concrete in seconds..and Mister Thorssen, you do not want to try punching her-at least, not hard enough to risk serious injuries to a normal person.”
“Thus, the solitary confinement and the padded cell.” Rhonda reasoned, “because she is small enough other prisoners would think she’s weak and get hurt attacking her, and the padding is the only way you’ve figured out to keep her contained if she decided to walk…”She peered at the figure on the screen. “If she’s willing, we’ll take her.”
As they exited the building, Chief Thorson muttered “I get the feeling that they’re picking out people to help that they’d rather don’t come back.”
“You too? Not really surprising to be honest, we did kind of sell this as a possible suicide run.”
“Verðr þat er varir ok svá hitt er eigi varir.” he replied, “Much happens that one expects the least. We have fought the metal draugr before and emerged victorious.”
“Yeah-but we had the fleet with us too, and we had the Agamemnon. A Galaxy X Dreadnought has more firepower just in the saucer section than we do in the entire ship.”
“I believe in you my Jarl, you will find a way.” He replied with conviction.
Rhonda’s communicator chirped. “Yes?”
“um, Captain, we’ve got a bundle of clothes on the transporter pad.”
She just sighed, her face in her palm “Send a shuttlecraft down, this one we won’t be able to transport-her invulnerability apparently covers transporter beams as well.” Shaking her head, she looked at the map her hosts has helpfully given her “Come on Ivar, I need some food, and possibly a drink before I talk to the next people on this list…”
Washington State Special Detention center (Juvenile)...
“...four possibles here...now there’s a familiar name…” Commander Maureen Stone looked at the files.
“You don’t want that one, trust me.”
“Why not? What did she do in this universe?”
“She’s being held until she’s eighteen for multiple murder with a superpower.” he explained, “she ‘hijacks’ machinery, it’s a master-category power and she’s potent-but she’s also a TRIBBLE psychopath… Forty seven counts of premeditated murder, and nine counts of premeditated murder of a law enforcement officer. We keep her sedated-you’d probably have to do that too. The only reason she didn't’ get the death penalty was she’s underage.”
we need firepower. “I want to see her.” Maureen stated.
The girl they brought up was pale, freckled, and had carrot-orange hair tied back with a scrunchy.
The girl gave her a short wave, and signed to her, and Maureen heard “Hello.” from her communicator, “you have interesting stuff, very...comfortable.”
“Do you know who I am?” Maureen asked her.
”you’re not from the probation board, and you’re not local. I guess it must be important.” her Communicator replied for the girl in front of her. ”is it about the noisy crowd that’s coming?”
“You can sense the Borg from here? They’re still light years from Earth.”
The girl tried to sign her reply, and gave up, ”Noise, I..it’s weird okay, the machine’s noisy. Keeps me awake at night. You’re dressed like you came from a Spacetrek Convention, but those aren’t props, are they?”
That prompted a curious glance from the guard, and a grin from the red headed Commander. “Neither is the ship in orbit.”
“USS Heinlein, Wells Class Temporal vessel registration NCC-93785, She’s hurt, it’s very annoying that you’re letting her hurt like that.” Phoebe said firmly through the communicator.
“We were actually rotating back for maintenance for both the ship and the crew when we got sucked into this reality. The nearest heavy facility is, well technically Mars orbit-but not in this timeline. So it might as well be non existent till we get back.”
”I can fix it, if you’ll get them to let me.” the girl’s expression was serious, ”Just need to make the tools...they won’t let me have tools here. It’s very boring, even when the men from the military come and ask me to figure something out for them-your ship looks like lots more fun.”
She hadn’t used this in a while...Temporal Investigations would have a stroke if they knew of it-but then they thought she was just a temporally adjusted officer from the past.. Accessing her bio neural implant, she synched with the communicator “They say you are charged with premeditated murder..did you kill them, and why?
Phoebe closed her eyes. ”they deserved it. The first ones were doing stuff to us-trying to make us, like, better and stuff-only not fixing what was wrong, the rest were trying to stop me from getting away.”
”A sadly familiar story, at least in some parts of the 24th century.” Maureen replied, before consulting with the heinlein’s AI {you were listening I take it?}
{I am} Jonny replied {and I agree. She comes with us. While Rhonda could help her-she’d be much better further upstream. And one Pheobe Kian in that timestream is enough at the moment.}
Turning to the guard she simply said “We’ll take her.”
“Oh no, it’s not that simple. There are still state charges that are pending, and she’s-” The guards mouth dropped, as a blue glow filled the other side of the armored glass, and Phoebe disappeared in the transporter stream.
“Hey look at it this way-if you’re lucky, we won’t make it back.” Maureen smirked as she felt the transporter lock onto herself as well.
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Made it nearly seventy days,
Losin' weight without speed, eatin' sunflower seeds,
Drinkin' lots of carrot juice and soakin' up rays.
But at night I'd have these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat.
Not zucchini, fettuccini, or bulgur wheat,
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat.
Cheeseburger is paradise.
Heaven on earth with an onion slice.
Not too particular, not too precise.
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.
Heard about the old time sailor men,
They eat the same thing again and again;
Warm beer and bread they say could raise the dead.
Well, it reminds me of the menu at a Holiday Inn.
But times have changed for sailors these days.
When I'm in port I get what I need;
Not just Havanas or banana or daiquiris,
But that American creation on which I feed!
Cheeseburger is paradise medium rare with mustard'd be nice
Not too particular, not too precise
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.
I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draught beer
Well, good god Almighty which way do I steer
For a cheeseburger in paradise
Makin' the best of every virtue and vice.
Worth every damn bit of sacrifice
To get a cheeseburger in paradise;
To be a cheeseburger in paradise.
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.
Jimmy Buffet, Cheeseburger in Paradise
Las Vegas, ten minutes later...
It had been years since she’d had real cheeseburger. True they sort of had them in 2412, but the meat wasn’t real, and it never seemed quite the same. Still, the little hole in the wall place that one of the guards at the facility had suggested was perfect. Ivar for that matter had obviously never eaten one , and was puzzled by some aspects of his meal. “This is almost but not quite completely unlike cheese-i don’t think cheese really is this color.”
“It’s, well, complicated” she said, taking a sip of the first real Dr pepper she had in years as well, something else that wasn’t the same. Their meal was interrupted by four men in black suits and a general who looked hopping mad.
“That’s not a look I’d expect-” Ivar murmured.
She’d dealt with these types before in her past, and honestly was kind of expecting it. “Can I help you gentlemen?”
“Ma’am, there’s a national security issue, one of your officers has absconded with a National Security resource…”
She knew-she’d gotten the message on her PADD as soon as Maureen had gotten back to the Heinlein. Phoebe was currently in sickbay getting checked out, that data was also on her PADD. “You mean the fourteen year old savant who is about fifteen kilos underweight for her age, showed multiple recent bruises, and signs of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques?”
“Overlord, yeah. You have any idea how dangerous she is?” the General spoke up.
“I have a fair idea-and even then she might not be enough to save your world. Much less get me back to mine-but stopping the Borg from assimilating your galaxy is worth it for us to try to stop.”
The Air Force General looked deeply unhappy, but nothing compared to the sense of suppressed rage from the civilian men accompanying him.
“She’s a murderer, you’ve just put her in contact with enough equipment to kill the lot of you!” one of them spat out.
But the military man was still silent...then, “You have someone who can handle her?” he asked quietly, “some means of controlling her?”
“Several, and not only that, we can probably help her. She is only a kid,” Rhonda said calmly, suppressing her own anger “she isn’t an asset-attitudes like that probably led her to kill people trying to get out. Treat a child like nothing more than a tool, and of course you’ll have emotional damage.”
The general’s eyes seemed to flicker a bit, then he said, “Just so you and I are perfectly clear, Captain, the United States Air Force had nothing to do with what homeland security did to that kid...but I’ll confess, we had a hand in keeping her off death row. I’m sure mister Stiles here feels otherwise, but as far as I’m concerned, and my service is concerned, you’re welcome to keep her.”
“Assuming we live through this, I’ll take you up on that” she replied, ignoring the scowls of the black suits. “Starfleet wouldn’t do something like that to a kid either General O’Neil” she said, reading his nametag on his class A’s. “governments on the other hand...well they sometimes try to bend things for the ‘greater good’, even when I’m from. But those of us that serve have to remember why we do, at the end of the day.”
USS Heinlein, later that day
“Welcome aboard sir” The transporter officer said as Rhonda and Ivar stepped off the transporter pad. “The XO is getting quarters set up for our guests, she said give her an hour or so to get things settled in. For some reason she wanted them separated -they’re currently in the ship's lounge.
“Well some of them were on opposite sides of the law down there, so that sounds good, how many did we end up volunteering to come along on this?”
“Five total Captain,” The Vulcan Lieutenant replied.
She nodded. “Would be better to have more, but we really don’t have room for many.” Wells Class ships weren’t very big to start with, more than a dozen passengers and things began to get crowded. As it was most crew on the small ship shared quarters, her own quarters also doubled as her ready room and office.
“Correct Sir, we did have to reject a few.” Lt T’ran mentioned. “The duplicator from Phoenix-she counts as a few, right?”
“Yeah, a duplicator would be a bad idea against the Borg. One gets assimilated..they all do. I see the martial artist got declined as well, good. Hand to hand vs Borg is a good way to go around saying ‘resistance is useless.” all your life.”
mess deck, USS Heinlein…
“...like the whole world has ‘fragile’ written on it, you?” Lisa was acclimating to the presence of American Ghoul and the other hero rather less awkwardly than her profile indicated.
“So how bad is it?” he asked her.
“Okay, I trip and fall, and stuff breaks-other people’s stuff.” she said, “Engineering guys spent a couple hours just setting things up so I don’t damage the bodywork in here by accident.”
“How did they manage that?” Laser Boy asked, young enough to be curious and not realize he was being rude.
“Her-.” Lisa pointed at quiet girl entertaining herself with what appeared to be a pocket console videogame of some kind, “They asked her what she’d do…”
“Well she is more used to abilities of this timeframe” a tall, hispanic looking man who suddenly materialized by their table said, dressed in a similar uniform to the crew.
Laser Boy blinked-for a moment when he appeared the man was almost transparent. “What are you?”
“John Rico, the photonic avatar of the ship's main systems.” He replied, handing Lisa a bracelet “Here, wear this-it will have the same effect as using the emergency force fields to make sure you don’t hit something too hard, while getting rid of an annoying buzzing sound that some humans are capable of picking up. Plus this works off the ship as well as long as it’s charged.”
“..Anywhere off the ship?” she replied, taking the bracelet and slipping it around one wrist.
“As long as it’s charged yes.” the AI replied. “And yes it is able to used anywhere-I copied the connector on your communications device.”
Rhonda paused doing a quick headcount while cutting through the mess deck. “I only see four, where’s the other one?”
“That one-only real professional of the group.” Lt T’ran replied, the vulcan not really knowing what to make of the costumed adventurers or former criminals in the mess. “Staff Sergeant-Major Jeb Kincaid, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Asked when the briefing was, asked for material on the mission, and is reading up so he’ll ‘know what questions to ask’ he said.”
“Sounds reasonable.” Captain Evans replied as she stepped onto the turbolift. now there’s only one left to find…the one I’ve been avoiding. She was so lost in her own thoughts that when she stepped out of the lift and onto the bridge she nearly jumped when Ensign Coffe leapt to his feet. “Captain on the Bridge!”
forgot the kid had watch, she muttered under her breath, though for a second she looked almost double her mass due to her fur poofing out. He was good-but still over eager at times. “As you were” she replied, the eager young ensign resuming his seat at the helm. Trying to reclaim a little dignity she sat down at her seat, hitting the com “Evans to Engineering, what’s our status?”
”All systems nominal Captain, we’ve got full warp when you need it. Weapons as well.”
“Thank you commander, won’t need either just yet. Helm, take us out of Earth orbit, and into orbit of Luna.”
“Uh Sir? regulations state that approval for changing orbits, we have to talk to traffic control-”
The captain just smirked and pointed at the very empty viewscreen. Ensign Coffe looked at it, then sheepishly said “oh yeah, nevermind Sir. Setting course for Lunar orbit.”
low Lunar orbit over Mare Tranquillitatis
Finding her wasn’t as easy as she’d have hoped. With the high population of felinoids in this reality, and the fact that that there were several bases on the moon, one even with a huge laser cannon pointed at earth, a simple scan wouldn’t have worked. Looking for high levels of quantum distortion on the other hand..
“Got her!” Lt Nix cried out from tactical.. “But what the frinx? This can’t be right…”
“What can’t be?”
“She’s on the surface….well I can get her on visual Captain.” He fiddled with the console and an image of the dusty surface of Luna appeared on the screen...along with a bright blue felinoid-wearing a pink swimsuit napping on a chaise lounge. “I’m not reading any atmosphere...yet she’s out in the open, asleep.”
“Sounds like who we’re looking for alright “Rhonda replied. “I haven’t worn my EVA suit since I had Michael, hope it still fits.” she said with a grin, starting to get out of her seat. “I didn’t put on too much wei-” There was a bright white flash of light, and the Captain was gone in mid sentence.
Mare Tranquillitatis
It was a nice nap-but then it wasn’t long enough it never was. And someone was watching her. Schrodi lazily opened one eye and looked around, no, no one here-no wait-there. 75km up. Familiar presence too-wait it’s her! she’s here! Well not here, she’s there but easy enough to fix that!
It was very disconcerting to go from getting out of your seat in one gravity, to flailing in one sixth gravity-with no atmosphere. One second Rhonda had been on the bridge, the next, her lungs were threatening to burst out of her chest. Fortunately she had been talking when whatever happened did, and didn’t even have time for her instincts to try to foolishly hold her breath. She could feel her mouth begin to freeze, she knew from training she had maybe ten seconds before passing out. As she fumbled for the com badge, Schrodi continued just enthusiastically jabbering away-or would be if there was any sound to carry. Everything was starting to go black when the feline got a horrified look on her face, and there was another flash, suddenly there was both pressure, air and warmth around the two of them.
“OhgeezeI’msorryIjustgotsoexcitedseeingyouagainIforgotthatyouneedtobreatheuphere!I’msousedto-eep!” She was cut off as Rhonda got back to her feet, and managed to get her hands around Schrodi’s neck, shaking her back and forth so hard the feline’s head rattled like a bobblehead doll.
“You had something to do with this didn’t you! This is the second time I’ve ended up in another universe away from my family! You better send us back or else-”
There was another white flash, Schrodi disappearing from Rhonda’s grip and re-appearing behind her, causing her to lose her balance and fall on all fours. “I’m sorry” she replied “and I didn’t have anything to do with this. He might have, but you know if I had planned this, I wouldn’t have forgotten you need air to breathe.”
Rhonda sighed, brushing lunar dust off her hands as she got back to her feet. “No, you wouldn’t have forgotten that,” she admitted. “And we’ve got bigger problems. The Borg are here.”
“WHAT? How… wait. Doesn’t really matter how. They’re not supposed to be here - for that matter, neither are you, me and Trung sealed the dimensional barrier at Goralis. Well not ‘me’ me, you know what I mean. not that I’m not glad to see you even if I did almost kill you accidently.”
“Wait..you didn’t have anything to do with this?” Rhonda asked dubiously
Schrodi shook her head “Come on-bringing the freaking Borg here? To an Earth that only has basic ftl because they reverse engineered it from the Galdroon? Gimmie a break, even at my worst I wasn’t that irresponsible.”
“Like sending a wounded sixteen year old girl to an alternate future timeline?”
Schrodi looked down. “You would have died before your next birthday if I hadn’t, along with your family. With you gone..the government there didn’t look too close at them after the hero purge of 2012 in that timestream. A lot of good folks did die, I couldn’t save everyone…”
Rhonda just sighed as her communicator was beeping frantically now that there was atmosphere to hear it. “Evans here, I’m fine.” she responded.
“Captain, are you allright?”
“I’ll live, Stand by Heinlein.” She turned to Schrodi “Anyway, we need your help in stopping them.”
The feline looked upset, her hands holding her tail in front of her. “I.. I can’t.”
“What do you mean can’t?”
“Look, you’ve dealt with Q before. They’ve got rules...that's one reason for what happened to the me in your timeline, well your new one anyway. I’m here, and I can watch, but I can’t interfere-cause if i do, then the Adversary has a free hand to do the same.”
“The what? What are you talking about?”
“You think the Q are the only hyper advanced race out there? They might like to let you think that...but there is a cold war that has gone on for longer than this galaxy has existed. The Q are one faction, another faction...well it’s best you never know their name. Names have power...Adversary is what I call them, others call them the Masters. If I go interfering with stuff from your universe, even if it’s here..then they would feel free to do the same. Next thing you know star systems get turned into weapons, galaxies exploding left and right, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!”
Rhonda sighed and slumped down on the chaise lounge. “Damnit...there’s no way in hell that the Heinlein can take down a Tac Cube..specially since they got Kelly. I don’t think we’ve got anything onboard that could even hurt her, not even the Transphasic torps.”
“Wait, they WHAT? That shouldn’t be possible...their nanoprobes shouldn’t have been able to penetrate her defenses. unless..she didn’t have them up and just ran up to them and said ’Hi!’ like she does..that's what she did didn’t she?”
“Got it in one.”
“Damnit…” Schrodi paced as she thought, muttering under her breath as if discussing the problem with someone. Suddenly stopping in mid step she spun. “Ok, I can go with you as an advisor..but you’ll have to get her out and then stop them.”
“Great, got any more impossible tasks for me?”
“If I didn’t know you could do it, I’d just pop out there, snap my fingers and fix things, consequences be damned. But I’ve got faith in you” Schrodi said with a smile “I always have. you wield the most powerful weapon in creation.”
“What’s that?”
Schrodi just grinned, and beeped Rhonda’s nose, before reality flashed and they were on the bridge of the Heinlein. Schrodi’s swimsuit had vanished, and she was now dressed in a Starfleet uniform matching the crew. “Love” she said with a grin.
Rhonda just shook her head and sighed, sitting back down in her chair “I hope your right.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
I'm a little wrong-footed by what's just happened here. I haven't read any other stories with these characters before, so just to check: is Schrodinger actually a Q, in the form of a blue catgirl quantum physicist? (In a superhero setting, a Q's behaviour barely even seems weird the way it does in Star Trek. They've found a universe at the outrageousness level they evolved for!)
Also, just for curiosity's sake, whose is Phoebe Kian? Is she originally yours, or Marcusdkane's, or do you share her?
I see what you did there and I salute you!
I see what you did there and I salute you! [/quote]
Basically-yes. She was an engineer/quantum physicist who got exposed to the quantum ftl field that powers the slipstream drive-merging her mind with every version of her in every reality. in the STO verse, she gave up the power (and brought several duplicates over, these have appeared in the Mastersverse stories. Her backstory is here http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1121137/we-do-what-we-must-because-we-can-schrodis-story/p1 hopefully not too hard to read-haven't had a chance to go over it and make sure it survived the great forum migration.
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
So Schrodi is not actually a Q of Q fame, but has the same kind of powers. I thought she might actually be a Star Trek Q on grounds of personality (this universe's version, at least - "What We Must"'s version was a little more professional, as you'd expect with the different background, at least until all the others started getting in on the act...). But then, as I say, for a universe of this genre, Moon-Schrodi is no nuttier than most - Q himself would feel right at home here! That makes sense on grounds of background too when I think about it; there is no code of discipline for superheroes! Also... she's a cat.
I am so high, I can hear heaven.
Oh but heaven, no heaven don't hear me.
And they say that a hero can save us.
I'm not gonna stand here and wait.
I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles.
Watch as we all fly away.
Someone told me that love would all save us.
But how can that be?
Look what love gave us.
A world full of killing, and blood-spilling, that
world never came.
And they say that a hero can save us.
I'm not gonna stand here and wait.
I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles.
Watch as we all fly away.
Now that the world isn't ending, it's love that I'm sending to you.
It isn't the love of a hero, that's why I fear it won't do.
And they say that a hero can save us.
I'm not gonna stand here and wait.
I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles.
Watch as we all fly away.
And they're watching us (Watching us)
They're watching us (watching us) as we all fly away.
And they're watching us (Watching us)
They're watching us (watching us) as we all fly away.
And they're watching us (Watching us)
They're watching us (watching us) as we all fly away.
[Chorus]
Holodeck, USS Heinlein
If they thought he looked like a Viking before, here on the holodeck there was little doubt. Chief Thorson had in addition to a phaser, a circular shield strapped to his back, and a wicked looking axe on his belt. “All right. This is the enemy” he said, as a Borg drone materialized next to him.
“Yeah I’ve seen those episodes” Laser Boy replied,prompting a glance from the others.
“Have ye? Well then.. Computer. Load historical record, battle of Defara, hill 123. Begin playback.”
The room shimmered and changed...suddenly there was a lot more Borg, and a few defenders behind a broken fence line. “Holy bleep, that’s a lot of them!”
“Holy bleep?” Phoebe said with a smirk.
“My mentor told me heroes don’t cuss.” Laser Boy replied, as the swarm of drones threatened to overwhelm the few defenders.
“I don’t know about that-they cussed a hell of a lot at the bank job” Lisa replied. “They’re faster than I thought they would be-but then they’re not actors in rubber suits either. And who’s the lardass? They’re breaking ranks too-looks like they were starting to panic.”
“They were-the Borg nearly overwhelmed them. And the lardass wielding an I beam is Captain Kevin Monroe-he held them together long enough. The borg touch you-you’re one of them, if they don’t kill you. And sometimes even then then can still assimilate your corpse if it’s not too badly damaged.
Phoebe frowned, “Tag, you’re ‘it’.” she observed.
“Indeed. They can also adapt defenses to your attacks-and what one knows, they all do.”
“Fence-post seems to work.” Lisa noted, “maybe crowbars?”
“You’re not TRIBBLE serious...she’s not serious, is she?” Phoebe asked.
Ivar just grined “physical attacks are one of their weaknesses. Computer, training program 421.” The battle scene changed, replaced by a squad of tactical drones. He pulled his phaser as they began to advance, the first one fell, the second was barely wounded however as it adapted. As the drone closed in he blocked with his shield, swinging rapidly, the axe coming up in a vicious sweep, sending the Drone’s head flying across the holodeck. Before it hit the floor he had gone to the next, the drone spasming as major systems were damaged, almost but not quite cleaved in two, then the final one shoved back by a shield as his phaser beeped “recalibrated’. He then switched weapons and destroyed the last one.
“My go. Reset it.” Lisa said, “let’s see if these guys can do the job.”
Ivar offered her a phaser, and lisa shook her head, “I’m not supposed to have guns-court order.”
“I really don’t think that applies here, but suit yourself.”
The drones reset, this time in a different formation, advancing on all of them-with four times the numbers.
Phoebe took the phaser, as did Ghoul.
Lisa stepped forward…
The first drone grabbed, and then, looked puzzled, as Lisa wound up with a full-strength punch directly to the face-a move every street-fighter on earth will tell you is a ticket to broken fingers.
The drone’s head came apart in a crimson and gray-matter splash, and a second fired some kind of energy-weapon-that flayed her shirt, but left unmarked skin beneath.
Her kick was likewise ‘unwise’-but it was the DRONE’s armored leg that shattered.
A second one grabbed her other arm as she shook the first off, and looked puzzled again-this time, the injector-needles from his wrist bent visibly against her skin. It lashed out with a perfect strike-one that would have killed her instantly-only to have it’s arm nearly Jellify against her abdomen. Cybernetic parts rained from the broken drone, and Lisa punched for the armor over it’s chest. Her fist came out the other side with a wet crunch.
Laser Boy’s mouth gaped like a goldfish, then realized he had his own drones closing on him. He panicked and fired at them wildly-which worked for the first few shots, until they adapted. As they continued to adapt, chanting ‘Resistance is futile’ he turned and focused a blast-and in the space of his movement, Lisa stepped into the path-blocking the blast that would likely have blown a hole in the hull.
Ivar recognized it was a full-power blast only because the the young woman’s jacket was mostly disintegrated, along with her tee-shirt, bra and the tips of her hair. “What the TRIBBLE were you thinking?”
The blast had been so close-range that her slap was not accompanied by a step forward. “Didn’t anyone at that shake-and-bake hero school teach you the difference between training rooms and real life, Kid?”
The boy was transfixed by a pair of, admittedly somewhat small, but well formed TRIBBLE framed by the smoking, charred rags of a borrowed Starfleet away-team jacket, along with the melted remains of starfleet issue energy-dampening armor and the sparking remnant of a personal forcefield generator.
“I’m..I’m…” Laserboy stammered, staring at her chest.
Lisa poked a finger under his chin, “Eyes up here.” she snapped, “don’t stare at the boobies, look me in the face so you actually get it. This looks like outdoors, but we’re indoors, and through that wall you can’t see, is outer space, and you can’t breathe in outer space, you blow a hole in the ship and you will die.”
“He seems pretty focused on your TRIBBLE.” Kincaid said.
“Well, they are pretty nice, I need a shirt…” Lisa sighed, helpfully a black bar saying ‘censored’ materialized over her chest, “You would not believe how many jackets and shirts I went through before I was caught...and pants...and god, the underwear!” she tapped Laser Boy's cheek, focusing on him again, “Look, at my eyes...Laserboy, the people we’re going up against, they’re relentless, but they are not, unfortunately, stupid, you need to be on your ‘A’ game.”
“and “ Kincaid added “we need a way to change the frequency of your blasts for when they adapt. Goggles maybe.”
Phoebe frowned, and the holodeck stuttered for a second. “Visor.” She said, “the blasts are in a set range, so we can tune it with a visor-like in the X-men.”
The Chief nodded. “All right. We’ll get engineering started on that, take a break and we’ll pick this up later.”
“Um…”
“I’ll get you a shirt.” Ghoul volunteered.
conference room, USS Heinlein...
“So, when you surrendered they said you had, like , ten bucks in your pocket?” Laserboy asked.
“Seven fifty.” Lisa said, stirring her breakfast with a fork.
“But-you hit a federal depository-”
“And walked out with fifty thousand in cash and a lump of pure Questionite the size of my fist, yah…did you know, that Questionite subjected to gamma rays is one of the most toxic substances known to man, or that you can make it nastier if you hit it with particles from a supercollider like the one I attacked in Texas?”
“Didn’t know that, no.”
“Pure poison, Kill you in about half a second, especially ingested.” Lisa said, and took a bite. “I figured it was just the thing-got it verified, too. I had enough to kill every person on the north american continent.”
“Um...jesus...no.. ah, what happened?”
“I ate it, first bathed it in the particle stream of the Texas Supercollider, then I ate it.” Lisa told him, “By all rights, She-” She pointed at American Ghoul, “Should be the only person in the room who can talk to me. Isn’t that funny?” she added with a wide grin, “Now, want the hilarious part?”
“Lay it on me…” Laserboy said.
“Kelly Lamb spent a week collecting my TRIBBLE-because it was the most dangerous TRIBBLE on earth, and she’s the only thing that isn’t me who could get close to it without dying. At that point, I figured nothing was going to work, so I turned myself in and the rest of that month, I was shitting into a radioactive hazmat container in the basement of Yucca Mountain, so she could toss it into the sun.”
“Why were you trying to kill yourself?” Laserboy asked, concerned.
“Because I’m a waste, I sat by and let them kill my buddies in front of me when they couldn’t torture me anymore.” Lisa told him. “I TRIBBLE deserve it-but I don’t get to...Listen, I’ve tried about everything you can name. VA thinks it’s just survivor guilt...and PTSD, but you know what? I failed them, and everyone else in that war.” she scooped her food around the plate, “SO...I started out small, y’know? Shotgun pellets taste like TRIBBLE, so does burnt powder. Hanging was kinda peaceful, but again, a no-go, couldn’t get the rope to hold tight enough to crush my windpipe, and fast drop? Rope broke, falling on knives was funny, diamond bit drills were funnier, so I started really experimenting. Jumped off a cruise ship over the Laurentian Trench? Drowning’s no good, pressure didn’t crush me, and it’s dark down there. I spent that winter in Antarctica and aside from it being TRIBBLE-cold like you wouldn't believe-nothing. So I tried jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, base-jumped off a tower in Millennium city, picked a fight with a few villains, including Dr. Mordite? No go, but he did give me the recipe for the Questionite thing ‘just in case’...the crime spree was to see if anyone on the ‘good’ side of the law had what it took...and failure...though I did have a nice bike I stole from this hell’s angel for a while until it got all shot up…so in the end, I hit ‘fuckit’ and let Kelly Lamb bust me in the open, see I figured I had at least a couple capital crimes, and the government might be able to do it-only the TRIBBLE jury voted for life imprisonment instead of the Death Penalty-even after I spent my testimony insulting everyone in the courtroom, plus the president, every congressman I could name, everyone in my former chain of command…”
“I remember that one!” American Ghoul announced, “I saw it live on C-span! The prosecutors brought in a psychiatrist who told them you were definitely off your nut, that you were suicidal, and that because of mental infirmity, you couldn’t be executed.”
“TRIBBLE Lawyers.” Lisa said with a shake of her head, “ANyway, once I was in Yucca Mountain with my very own cell, nice padded walls, soothing music in the background, hugme jacket and flavourless mush three times a day, they gave me as many antidepressants as they could buy...and nothing. The first year I was in, the department of prisons sent me a shrink a day, it was kinda funny after a while.”
“That can’t be all of it.” American Ghoul said. “I can buy it to a point-”
Lisa took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. “I...am going to die a virgin.” she finally said, “I will never have kids- I’ll never get properly laid...see, my power? guess what else can’t break?”
“EW..” American Ghoul and Phoebe flinched.
“Hey, it’s not like nobody tried.” Lisa said casually, “There’s...oh, fifteen or so arab ‘fighters’ for the Mahdi who tried to do to me what they did to Kensington. I understand most of them died of infections after they tried.”
The men in the room flinched visibly.
“So yeah. No white picket fences, Lisa’s going to die an old maid.” she concluded, “So, like, why not see how far you can push it, maybe something breaks the skin, you know? Maybe if I can find something that can hurt me...but, so far, no dice. TRIBBLE still hurts, but it doesn’t do injury.”
“How is it you didn’t escape?” American Ghoul asked.
“You know, being a blonde…” she shook her hair out, “and being..well, not ugly, sorry Ghoul, a captured American or European woman brings a decent price in the slave-markets in the Middle East-as a sex slave.” she said, “Most of the buyers don’t want the merch marked up, so they restrain you with the same padded cuffs they use for restraining seizure patients.”
“Oh god…”
“Yeah. when they found out they couldn’t ‘break me in’ the normal way, they got creative. There are memories I don’t want to live with, besides being there while they tortured twenty four of my closest friends to death.”
“You must really hate them then.” Phoebe had adopted a wrist-holoplayer to serve as her voice.
Lisa nodded. “It burned me up when the UN negotiated peace over there.” She said, “it’s funny how it works-UNTIL has managed to keep me from making a return trip, courtesy of airport watch-lists they put in place as soon as I walked out of Bethesda...see, they’re afraid I’ll go on a killing spree over there, because I didn’t see any of the faces of the guys who tortured me.”
“Would you?”
Lisa toyed with her food, contemplating, “Maybe.” she admitted, “But it was easier to get a black-hat hacker to find the ones that turned informant and were in safe houses in the U.S...which is why I started in Bellingham.”
“That wasn’t in the news.” Laserboy said.
“Who’d want to admit to having them?” Lisa asked him rhetorically. “I actually let one of them live, and couldn’t finish the rest of the list...you don’t tear a man apart in front of his family, especially when he’s trying to forget the war as hard as I was.”
“Pretty soft for a villain.” Phoebe commented.
“Yeah.” Lisa said, “Pretty soft…” she stared into space, “It’s easier when they fight back, when they don’t drop to their knees and beg you to forgive them.”
“Not in my experience.” Phoebe’s avatar said, “but then, mine all fought back-and got others to help. I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t.”
“DOesn’t mean I didn’t try.” Lisa said, “I just couldn’t hit him hard enough-I beat his TRIBBLE pretty good, knocked out a few of his teeth, but I couldn’t manage the killing blow...and when I realized I didn’t have it, well, i stopped...and started looking for a means to end it-for real.”
“Why not?” Phoebe pressed, actually looking up at her.
“He didn’t fight back.” Lisa told her, “He let me beat him to a shuddering pulp, and he didn’t fight back...when I stopped, all he wanted was me to promise I wouldn’t do it to his family.” she shook it off. “I was ashamed of what I was doing.”
“Didn’t stop you from a tri-state crime spree. Or your crime-tour of the American West...” Laserboy pointed out.
“Only the most incompetent crime spree in history.” Lisa countered, looking at Laserboy, “You realize all those robberies, I didn’t clear ten grand off most of them?”
“Yah, but you really trashed a lot of cops.” He accused.
“Yeah...they were combatants.” Lisa stated, “I tried not to kill any of them, but you gotta realize, laser-face, after hitting nine CIA safehouses and informants and fronts, and with a list for fifteen more? I was already in the bad books, digging deeper seemed the logical direction to go, it’s not like I could get a straight job and all that TRIBBLE.”
“And the Armored car in portland?” He demanded, “What about that one?”
“Base-jumping off the Tower in Portland? Yeah, I suppose that looked bad.” She said, “that was hit number eight-the guy was working for the company and he did fight back…for about thirty seconds-I pulled down maybe eight grand off that-everything I could fit in my pockets that wasn’t covered in blood.”
“You...ah, didn’t use your fist on him…”
“Nope. Crowbar.” Lisa said, “worked pretty well too, had a good swing, felt kinda like Gordon Freeman...only not so smart as he’s written in the game, movies or novels...you know, I liked Portland, it was like Seattle was back in the nineties, land of the freaks and the home of the brave…and if I were a TRIBBLE, I think that’s where I’d like to be...unfortunately, outside of clever banter, I’m not even bi...I don’t think.”
Briefing Room, USS Heinlein
“Is everyone on this planet as messed up as they are?” The Bajoran physician was past angry, bordering on furious.
It was a valid question Rhonda thought, as she sipped her hot chocolate. “Beggars can’t be choosers. It ain’t like we had a lot of hard proof we could bring them to ask for help.”
Dr Thartik shook her head “even during the occupation it was rare to see people with many mental issues, at least the children, and the suicidal case. Captain she is too young, and the other too vulnerable to be drug out on something like this!”
“The alternative to leaving them there was worse. Miss Kian-”
“Overlord is what she told me she wanted to be called.”
“-was locked almost a mile underground, in solitary confinement undergoing daily interrogation. Even if she had no powers..ah still would have found an excuse for getting her out of there.”
“Even though she’s a murderer?” Commander Daniels asked.
“Given that the murders were committed between the ages of eight and twelve..yes.” She glanced around the room at her department heads. “Would anyone else here have done differently?”
There was a silent moment. “Probably not Captain,” the CMO conceded. “I have the medical reports on our guests as well. There’s nothing that is contagious on any of them..at least that I can detect. Lisa Quentin... I could barely get any information on her. Scanners wouldn’t work, medical tricorder couldn’t do anything more than basic vitals...I couldn’t even take a blood sample.”
“Her invulnerability?” the Captain asked.
“If that’s what you call it. How she manages to eat I have no idea-with her cell walls that strong, she shouldn’t be able to process oxygen or food for that matter. Yet she’s told me she’s survived hard vacuum.” The Doctor shrugged “Kincaid, he’s in exceptional health for a human in his mid 40’s-if humans were capable of transferring heat with a wave of their hand, chilling something down to a low of 150 kelvin. With humidity over twenty percent, he could fill this room with ice in under a second. Then there’s ‘Laserboy’...refused to take his mask off, or tell me his name. Says it was ‘against the hero code’ or something. Commander Daniels could better brief you on his powers.”
The Engineer nodded “after the first run in the holodeck we took him to the hangar bay and opend the outer doors. He put out close to 1210 megawatts of power from his ‘blasts’.
“How much power do our arrays put out?” one of the science officers, Lt Commander Cana asked.
“We’re running Mark XII Advanced Antiproton Arrays.” Daniels replied. “The kid is only about ⅓ of their power..if he hits a drone with it at full blast he may well vaporize it.”
“Until they adapt” Thyl replied gloomily, the Andorian Tac officer looking at the worst case. “then the kid will probably panic. What about the last one?”
“The, uh, ‘American Ghoul’” she said rolling her eyes at the name “Elizabeth Chamorro. She’s, well. Dead. No pulse, no respiration other than what’s used for speaking, zero detectable cellular activity. Yet she is still not only moving...but despite having no eyes at the moment has no problem seeing.”
Several of the officers glanced at each other, while Chief Thorson simply nodded “I’ve seen such things in my day where I came from-but tended not to speak of them. They tended to make the counselors nervous and doubting my sanity.”
“To be honest Chief, If you told me about her I’d be recommending intensive therapy and perhaps medication. Yet there she is, not even the Prophets are rumored to be able to do such.”
“Different universe” Rhonda replied “different laws of physics. If we do get stuck here...it may be that some of us may start developing abilities.”
Dr Thartik shuddered. “Reason enough to get out of here if there’s a way.”
“Schrodi owes me more than one favor. I think when this is done she can get us back.”
“That’s another one Captain” Commander Daniels said “She wandered through engineering, and reached through the intermix chamber and adjusted it by hand because she said we had an imbalance and it was keeping her awake.”
That caused many wide eyes around the table. “Did we have one?” The captain asked.
“Yes-but it was well below standard minimums, .00000000000000024 percent off balance. Only barely detectable, and even that is within the monitors margin of error.”
Rhonda just shook her head. “That sounds like her. HAve you ever dealt with the Q commander?”
“No..but I know people who have.” he replied.
“She’s basically batting at Q’s level. She could turn the Borg cube into a planter of flowers and a very surprised looking whale if she wanted.”
“Then why doesn’t she?”
“Because I have rules I have to follow.”
Daniels nearly jumped a full meter as Schrodinger walked through the wall of the ship into the briefing room. “Trust me, I wish I could. But that would be seen as a direct intervention against the Adversary.”
“You think they’re the ones that sent the Borg here?” Rhonda asked.
“It’s likely. They aren’t just after your universe you know. They want it all.” Schrodinger replied, her tail twitching. “Why is something I don’t know, and I hate not knowing.”
Borg Cube 7 of 39
She was ready. One of the first protocols. If the collective is without a central node, one must be made for the good of the collective. “Status report”
“Weapons will be operational in thirteen point six cycles. Full drive in eighteen cycles.”
“Good.” she looked down at herself, much less, well armored than she had been before. But such is the way of things. “Nearest races for assimilation.”
“Species 3259’s home system is within twelve units-however we are detecting no signals from that direction. We do have knowledge from drone three of six about species 5618.”
The Queen absorbed the data. So..different from what they had faced before. But so much the better. No Starships, no Starfleet. True the members of species 5618 did seem to be similarly powered as unit three of six. “Continue repairs. We will proceed to species 5618’s homeworld, and assimilate them, and these ‘Champions’ into the collective.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
And I'm fascinated by your logical teasing out of Lisa's invulnerability. I think I could put the doctor straight on how she can take in food. Cell walls (technically, cell membranes, it's plants that have cell walls) don't actually have to be "broken" to put substances in or out, they have built-in gateways for that kind of thing - having "holes" in them is "working as intended". Raises the question of what, exactly, happens if she DOESN'T eat, though. ...And she probably knows the answer to that and all.
Kelly had to... yuck! I think that comes under the heading of "this is personal". And I wouldn't like to be the poor Borg cube standing in front of Lisa when it's personal.
Overlord, indeed. One thing Phoebe is not suffering from is a small head.
Laserboy's something I keep trying to write for more than one character; someone who knows all the military stuff (or equivalent) backwards, and indeed looks down his nose at anyone else, but doesn't really know anything else. It's not really that hard maybe but I'm nervous. I shall watch Laserboy and copy what he does.
i really want the basic story behind this quote now.... Just...curious~~~~
It's all a Nemesis plot.
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
(Insert It'sReal\It'sFake Meme)
And death's a bit too much
They call on me by name, you see
For my special touch
To the gentlemen, I'm Miss Fortune
To the ladies, I'm Sir Prize
But call me by any name
Anyway, it's all the same
I'm the fly in your soup
I'm the pebble in your shoe
I'm the pea beneath your bed
I'm a bump on every head
I'm the peel on which you slip
I'm a pin in every hip
I'm the thorn in your side
Makes you wriggle and writhe
And it's so easy when you're evil
This is the life, you see
The Devil tips his hat to me
I do it all because I'm evil
And I do it all for free
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need
While there's children to make sad
While there's candy to be had
While there's pockets left to pick
While there's grannies left to trip down the stairs
I'll be there, I'll be waiting round the corner
It's a game, I'm glad I'm in it
'Cause there's one born every minute
And it's so easy when you're evil
This is the life, you see
The Devil tips his hat to me
I do it all because I'm evil
And I do it all for free
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need
I pledge my allegiance, to all things dark
And I promise on my damned soul
To do as I am told, Lord Beelzebub
Has never seen a soldier quite like me
Not only does his job, but does it happily
I'm the fear that keeps you awake
I'm the shadows on the wall
I'm the monsters they become
I'm the nightmare in your skull
I'm a dagger in your back
An extra turn on the rack
I'm the quivering of your heart
A stabbing pain, a sudden start
And it's so easy when you're evil
This is the life, you see
The Devil tips his hat to me
I do it all because I'm evil
And I do it all for free
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need
And I do it all for free
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need
And I do it all for free
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need
It gets so lonely being evil
What I'd do to see a smile
Even for a little while
And no one loves you when you're evil
I'm lying though my teeth!
Your tears are all the company I need
Conference room, evening of the second day…
“...best defense is to go on the offensive.” Lisa argued, “It’s asymmetrical as a situation-they have more firepower, larger numbers, a super-powered weapon, they’re faster, and they can achieve positional advantage. our side lacks speed, numbers, and firepower, and we’re at a technological disadvantage-these guys do come out of a Spacetrek reality-five hundred years technological sophistication, and if I remember the Borg episodes right, they know every inch of the tech-base this ship is built off of.”
“I agree with the maniac.” Phoebe’s avatar quipped, “It’s like taking on a powerful group of heroes-if you sit back in your lair and try to avoid them, they just-”
“HOW the TRIBBLE would you know? You only faced one group of heroes directly your whole career-and they arrested you!” Lazerboy scoffed.
Phoebe shrugged, and her avatar spoke, “Yeah-I tried to play it safe and defensive and you heroes kicked my little adolescent TRIBBLE-but for two years I was chewing up organized criminals and secret societies that you guys still have trouble taking on, not to mention the fifty three kills I was convicted of, including nine cops, and five of those were in the ‘special weapons and tactics’ groups. We need to play offense, if we try playing a defensive game we’re gonna get spank’d and everyone here but maybe Ghoul and Lisa is going to be sayin’ ‘Resistance is Futile’ in a black gimp-suit with pieces by ILM and David Cronenberg.” she looked frustrated, as her avatar added, “We need to kick them where it hurts fast, do max damage before they can adapt their tech or tactics.”
“If we try to play, as you put it, ‘offense’ we’re still going to lose! They’ve got Kelly Lamb.”
“So we tie her up or take her out…” Phoebe’s avatar suggested, “Maybe I can ‘hit’ their tech enough on her while she’s tied up to free her mind-”
“Who’s going to do that?!?”
Phoebe looked at Lisa, who shrugged, “I’m the obvious choice.” she said, “I didn’t get a chance to actually fight her, mind...but considering the things that so far have failed to do more than embarrassing nakedness? I’m our best ‘delay Kelly for a while’ option-that frees Laserboy to hammer the cube with his energy bursts and Kincaid to use his cold-powers to slow them down and trip them up. If we kill a few, Ghoul can hijack the corpses and add more chaos.”
“My god, that’s so…villain thinking!” Laserboy scoffed hotly, “Those are people trapped like that!”
“Collective Will.” Phoebe’s avatar stated, “Hurt them enough, and collectively they won’t want to stay. That buys us time...besides, you can’t make an omelette without-”
“Stop it!” Kincaid barked. “Don’t finish that sentence, Overlord, you’re no more casual about collateral damage than I am!”
“It’s not collateral.” Phoebe’s avatar stated calmly, “it’s doing what’s necessary to win. Just like when I put Lt. Grady’s car through that bridge abutment-or when I spammed alvin with those soda cans. People get hurt in super-fights, it’s a fundamental fact. We either fight to win, or we give up now...and I intend to fight.”
“Why?” a voice from the doorway asked, and a blue-furred being in starfleet uniform stepped in.
Phoebe turned and looked at the infamous Schrodinger, and her avatar said, “Okay, three of us might survive trying to play defense...maybe. But none of those is me or You, Laserface, or Kincaid.”
“You did not answer the question.” Schrodinger stated, “WHY, Phoebe? Why do YOU want to fight?”
“I got out of prison, and I won’t let anyone make me a slave again.” the girl’s avatar stated. “I’m free, I intend to stay that way. The Borg oppose my freedom, so they gotta go.”
“A few other people also oppose it.” Schrodi mentioned.
“Yeah, but I can handle those myself.” Phoebe’s avatar stated, “I’ve been exercising, and there’s always an angle to work in a modern world with machinery-I can take it over and if I have to, I will.”
You could hear a pin drop after her statement.
“What? I’m a Bad guy. Geez.” Phoebe shook her head, “You guys expect some kinda altruistic garbage? I’m in this for numero uno, it gets me out of jail, out of the faraday cage, and out of Homeland Security’s hands-I’m not going back, I refuse to, but I’m not going to add a new chapter to the Evil Overlord rules of things you gotta be stupid to do-like letting a bigger villain than me have a stab at the world.”
Her holoimager put up a font over her head, “Bad Person”, and she signed, the avatar translating, “I know what I am, and I’m comfortable with it- to paraphrase Psychopomp Geko , Bad Guys never Quit.”
Kincaid looked thoughtful, “What if you find you can take them over?” he asked quietly.
Phoebe shrugged, her avatar spoke, “Don’t know. I expect that nobody but Doc Schrodinger here would have the balls to try and cage me again, but given what the Borg are? Ew. no...I’d have to break it just because...the Deimos Project cured me of wanting to live in that kind of environment, and I want to be free, not chained to some massive thing full of enslaved people. Only ‘good guys’ wanna do that.”
Schrodinger seemed satisfied with her answer, “what about YOU lisa?” she asked.
“Because they might be able to kill me.” Lisa stated, “If they can’t, then I can beat them, and maybe..because it’s what you do when a threat this big shows up…” she looked a little distressed trying to explain it better.
Schrodinger looked at American Ghoul. “And you?”
“You know why.” Ghoul said, “You know what they represent, what they are, and why I’ve got to be in this fight...besides that, I owe Kelly Lamb a favour.”
“Same here.” Kincaid said, “because it’s the right thing to do...and because it’s Kelly Lamb.”
Laserboy managed to look afraid, ashamed, and at the floor.
“So” changing the subject, “Do you have a plan?” Chief Thorson asked.
Schrodinger just grinned “Yep!” she said, then vanished in a flash of light.
“...I hate it when she does that.”
Two hours later, in the corridor…
“You still owe me a milkshake.” Phoebe’s avatar hissed into Laserboy’s ear.
“Leave me alone!” he shouted, turning around and expecting to face her.
She wasn’t behind him, he almost relaxed as he turned back toward the turbolift.
She grabbed his arms with her hands, and slammed him into the wall, with a hard stare on her face, she shook her head in negation. no.
“You didn’t answer the question.” Phoebe’s avatar hissed, beside his left ear now.
“Stop It!” he almost begged.
”Make me, Hero.” from his right now, her avatar had a mocking tone. ”you brought it up-yeah, heroes stopped me before. You want to make the cut, but you’re too TRIBBLE scared to take little old me, aren’t you, Hero.”
He tried to push her away, and she caught his right arm in a lock and twisted, bringing him to his knees. “Villain’s first rule-be decisive.” her avatar told him, “I didn’t just kill those criminals-I took over their operations. When they finally caught me, I was running half a city, and ready to take the other half...and I was thirteen. YOU wouldn’t have made the cut the way you are now-you jumped for the chance to prove yourself-but you’re not ready and that’s going to get people killed.”
She twisted harder, pinning his back with her kneecap, her other hand in his hair, forcing his face to the wall.
“What do you want??” he begged.
“I want my milkshake, I want my date, I want you to be ready to fight these things without being a TRIBBLE woosssie.” she manipulated his head harshly with each point, “I want you focused, and if that means I have to beat it into you, that’s what I’m going to do. You will fear me more than you fear the Borg.”
She pulled back on his hair, “I am your worst TRIBBLE nightmare, Hero, a girl who wants your attention and isn’t shy about it-.”
Then, she kissed him. “If you do it good, then I’ll make you feel good. One way or another, I’ll make you a man, but you better grow a spine.”
She shifted her grip to a choke-hold, and when he came to, she was gone.
Phoebe’s ‘Room’-the Brig…
“Was that really necessary?” Captain Evans demanded, stepping through the force-curtain into the cell Phoebe had chosen for her ‘quarters’.
The girl had decorated it with a variety of disturbing choices- a poster for “World Domination in Retrospect” showing the fictional anti-hero Psychopomp Geko dominated one wall, the others were covered in quotations from both fictional, and historical villains.
“You really bought into the villain label, didn’t you?” Rhonda asked, sitting down on a shelf.
“Spend a year in solitary confinement and see what conclusions YOU come to.” Phoebe signed back, laying her book aside.
“Laserboy, in Corridor A-16, about two hours ago.” Rhonda scolded, “If you weren’t already in the brig, I’d have to throw you in...so what was that about?”
“Yes.” Phoebe signed, barely looking up from her reading, “He’s minion material. Class AAA firepower, two years of school, but underneath the spandex and the fancy visor, he’s jelly.” she signed with an expression of disapproval, “He’s got a hawt bod, but he needs...direction-He’s seventeen and he’s less prepared for this than I am.”
“And you think bullying him is the answer?” Rhonda demanded.
Phoebe rolled her eyes, and manifested the avatar to do her speaking. “He’s not getting it. First he freaks in training, then, he freezes up in the next round, then he’s like mister ‘ohshitIfuckedup’ when Blue-fur asks the simplest question.” the girl snorted derisively. “HE is supposed to be a Hero-not a woosie, and there’s no time left.”
“And the kiss? You realize it could be construed as sexual assault, don’t you?”
Phoebe rolled her eyes again, “Please…” her avatar managed a tone, “That was hardly sexual assault. He didn’t even try to use his tongue.”
“I meant you, assaulting him.” Rhonda clarified.
Phoebe shrugged, “Villain!” her hands signed it as her avatar said it, “I left his pants intact, and I didn’t do anything else to him once he choked out-he could’ve fought back...or, y’know, taken control.” The girl sighed, “Maybe if I wore a short plaid skirt and cat-ears or something…”
And Rhonda blinked. “You were Flirting?”
“Didn’t work.” Phoebe signed, “Maybe I needed to be more aggressive. In the fiction, guys dig it when a girl is in charge and Heroes are all supposed to be all over the whole ‘turn the villainess from the dark path of evil’...so maybe I need to switch up to a costume of stripper-floss?”
“Oh my god...Phoebe, you…it doesn’t work that way.”
“Yeah, but we got zero time.” Phoebe countered, “So I gambled and it turns out he’s a wet noodle…or maybe he’s TRIBBLE or something-or maybe I’m just ugly. Anyway, he isn’t the kind who’d want to ‘get to know the real me’ anyhow-he’s a Hero.” she finished, rolling her eyes, “Heroes don’t exactly wanna hang out with felons.”
Rhonda snorted, then chuckled, “Don’t try the stripper-floss, those costumes are both uncomfortable, and impractical.” she lectured, “Try using a little makeup and treating him like a human being instead of the enemy.”
“No Time.” Phoebe signed emphatically again, “I read the files on the Borg, and I saw them in reruns, and then the training sim...we got no time-besides, you ‘get to know’ someone so you have a future-what’s my future, Captain? Is there gonna be time to take it slow? ‘Cause I don’t think so...TRIBBLE, I think my head was clearer before my body decided to TRIBBLE with it.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Ivar saw her sitting near the ‘windows’ (not really windows per-se, Starfleet engineering isn’t that stupid…)
“Mind If I join you?” he asked.
Lisa shook her head, and took a sip of her drink, “Have at it.” she said.
His nose wrinkled at the smell from the fortified glass. “Methyls?” he asked.
“Bartender says it’s the strongest thing they can get the replicator to produce-some kind of Pentaxian booze, supposed to be deadly poison.” she favoured him with a smile that showed semi-even white teeth. “So far, not even a buzz, but the taste is..unique. They told me to please avoid spilling any, since it’ll strip the pigment from the carpet and the table.”
He flinched a little. “I imagine it would…”
She fished into her pocket, and produced a pair of prescription bottles.
“What are those?” he asked.
“Prescribed by Veterans Administration doctors, one of them is a heavy anti-depressant, and the other is a tranquilizer.” she told him, “They don’t work either, but they’re…” She shrugged, “Not bad, there’s kind of a sweet plastic taste to them with a bitter back-bite, and I can pretend I’m mixing medications and getting high...so chief, what’s keeping you awake?”
“Two questions-but I’ve got a third.” He told her.
“Well, maybe I can answer them and maybe I can’t-five years in solitary has kind of kept me out of the loop.” she told him.
“Doctor Schrodinger.” He said.
“Oh…” she put the pill bottles back in her pocket, and tossed back a handfull with a deep swallow of toxic brew. “Okay. Doctor Schrodinger....alright, we’ve got Space Trek Legacies on reruns, you have a ‘Q’ fella?”
“Q? The all-powerful superbeing?” he asked, “Yes.”
“Okay, She’s ‘Q’ but without the rules, god-like power, doesn’t interfere in normal life most of the time.” Lisa explained, “God-like power, weird motives and nobody’s figured her out yet. See, she’s not someone anyone counts on to show up, but if she does, it’s usually endgame-she let the QuLarr and the Gadroon invasions happen, but she didn’t let the Ordash-who were a lot more powerful and already beat the heroes-she just erased them. She flattened Doctor Mordite, but let Doctor Destroyer run loose until the Champions put him down.”
"Why the difference?"
She shrugged "Cause Destroyer just wanted to take over earth, and Mordite wanted to destroy the universe. Plus she said 'we can handle Destroyer."
Phoebe…
“Why did the file call you ‘overlord’?” Johnny asked.
Here in the holodeck, especially without the others, Phoebe could pretend she had both hearing, and voice-at least, with Jonny.
“I was eight.” she explained, “It sounds badass as a handle when you’re eight years old and you don’t even need a keyboard to go on the internet through some orderly’s unsecured cell-phone.” she stopped, and grinned, “You know, it still sounds badass. Basically I picked it because it sounded bad-TRIBBLE, and because I could make their security systems my TRIBBLE...which is how I found out we weren’t there to fix us.”
“Us?” he asked.
“There were forty of us in the Ward when my mom and her live-in dropped me off.” Phoebe told him, “Mom told me I was there because they could help me get normal. Her and...what was her boyfriend’s name?...I think it was Paul by then, they almost screwed up the intake appointment ‘because they ‘partied’ with Hektor and Fang the night before...anyway, she told me it was a special government hospital where they’d fix my ears...only I think it was just getting rid of me.”
In a corner of the room, a figure formed from hard light and force fields of a scrawny woman with the same red hair-only it was a tangled mess, the same green eyes-only they were sunken in and bloodshot, and a sickly pallor to her skin that showed the needle marks in her arms in stark relief.
“That’s your mom?” Johnny asked.
Phoebe nodded. “Yeah. I don’t remember her boyfriends so well-she had a lot of them, sometimes she’d bring ‘dates’ home, and the next day, if she wasn’t out making a score of ‘medicine’ she’d bring home food. THose times, and the times the social services lady came by were almost normal.”
Observation room…
Maureen looked at the images Phoebe conjured in the holodeck, and it was like dying inside.
Lounge
“What was the difference?” he asked.
“Mordite wanted to exterminate the human race-and he had the knowledge to do it...well, everyone but me, anyway.” Lisa said, “I let him go because he promised he’d solve my problem-that he was the only one who could-but, well…” she shrugged, “Didn’t work out. Schrodinger basically let me go when she took Mordite down.”
“Just let you go?” He asked.
“Yeah, I told you, nobody’s on the ball enough to figure her out.” Lisa said, “She let me go, let me rob that federal reserve bank, but she told Kelly Lamb where to find me and what to say-Kelly told me that much when I surrendered.”
“Did you fight Kelly when you surrendered?” Ivar asked.
Lisa shook her head, “Nope...I was too busy being freaked out that what I was trying didn’t work, but did put a whole lot of people in danger-she got me to a safe place where the results of my mistake wouldn’t kill everything in a twenty mile radius.”
“Everything?” he asked.
Holodeck
“Did the social services lady recommend the program, then?” Johnny asked.
Phoebe frowned, “I think so...one of them did-we changed caseworkers a lot, usually we’d move to a different place two or three times a year, and every time, I’d have to go with her to the social security office and the welfare office, so she could sign up for stuff, I’d meet a new one, they’d find out I was deaf, so they’d sign at me, and they’d always ask the same questions-how I was doing, was I being mistreated…” her frown deepened, “It really sucked. By the time mom turned me over to the hospital, I was making sure the checks from the state went to bill's first, forging her name on the rent checks, paying the phone bills so she could get calls from Johns and Pimps, and holding her face over the toilet when she was too TRIBBLE up and passed out.”
The scenes played out on the walls, a jumble of decaying apartments and thinly insulated trailers, scenes from a tarantino movie about poor people.
“But you knew she was going to leave you there?” Johnny prompted.
Phoebe nodded. “Yeah. I knew. She said ‘goodbye’ instead of ‘I’ll see you soon’ when the nurse took me through the door. I think I know why, too.”
“Why?”
“I hid her heroin.” Phoebe told him, “Hid it, then dumped it into the toilet. Broke her rig too-I was eight, I knew what she was doing.”
“What did you know?” Johnny asked.
On the walls-all four, a bearded man in a cowboy hat with a thick Welsh accent stated, “...it turns you into a dog and then it kills you, it turns you into thief and a TRIBBLE and then you die in a public toilet with an embolism in your arm...”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Jonny asked.
Phoebe cocked her head, an expression of contempt on her face. “Half mom’s ‘dates’ were cops.” she told him, “So was the guy who brought her the H. cops are TRIBBLE corrupt or they’re fools, there’s nothing in between with them and nothing different...except maybe the new guys who haven’t been on the job long enough for it to corrupt them-and those guys don’t get into vice-enforcement, and besides, I’d be losing my mom and going to a State Home. those places are the worst.”
“So she dropped you off..then what happened?” Jonny redirected the question.
“They tested us.” she said, “Gave us these ‘innoculations’ and tested us...made us solve puzzles and stuff. It was fun for a while. The puzzles got more and more extensive…”
Observation room…
“Lemmy Kilmister?” Rhonda said it first. “She used a clip from an interview with the front man for Motörhead?”
“It’s a good quote.” Maureen stated. She leaned forward and instructed Jonny to redirect away from the facts of Phoebe’s family life.
Lounge
“Well, not me, but it probably wasn’t a great idea to mix particle-bathed questionite with a meatball sub and a diet orange soda-the farts would’ve been horrific...they were, tripped rad alarms all over the Yucca Mountain complex.”
“What were you trying to do?” he asked.
“Undo my invulnerability so I could have a TRIBBLE life.” Lisa told him, “it didn’t work. I got to spend the six weeks from arrest to arraignment...I told you that story already.”
Ivar frowned, “So you’ve never tested your power against hers.”
“Nope, but I can probably take her.” Lisa said, “it’ll suck, she’s fast-but it’s the whole unstoppable object versus indestructible one.”
Holodeck
“It went on for years-but after a while, some of the other kids started...breaking.” Phoebe said. “Seizures, flipping out, they’d flip or they’d seize and then, they’d be taken away to ‘rest’-only they didn’t come back...and nobody’s parents visited. It hit some of the others harder than me-I kind of expected mom wasn’t going to come pick me up...until Jordan’s parents showed up one day, it was before the first Christmas at the facility.”
“And what happened?” Johnny asked.
“They took her out.” Phoebe stated, “It was all smiles when they left, but there was a...a sensation. I knew she was coming back, because a lot of orders were being sent.”
“And then?”
“They brought her back hurt.” Phoebe stated, “THere was an accident, y’know? Only I kinda knew it wasn’t...when she could get up again, she was like, scared of some of the other kids-especially some of the boys who really liked the testing-and she couldn’t talk with me about it, since she couldn’t sign, and I wasn’t so good at reading lips.”
Time elapsed on the walls, and the number of kids dwindled like a time-lapse movie.
“One day, Jordan sent me a message while we were doing a special puzzle on the computers.” Phoebe said, “I answered it, I let her know she wasn’t alone...and that I’d help her get out.”
“Why did you do that?” Johnny asked.
“Because...it was the right thing to do.” Phoebe told him, “Jordan was already getting headaches-the same ones the kids who had seizures got before their brains broke. Her parents were gone-there’d been an accident, right? Only it wasn’t. The car was hit at exactly the right angle to kill the people in the front seat, with exactly the right amount of force to only hurt someone in the back seat.”
The ‘accident’ played out on the wall monitors.
“She needed my help, and I was tired of being contained.” Phoebe explained, “I already knew I could survive on the outside-I’d been keeping mom alive, you know? We thought we were being pretty clever, and that we’d get out clean...only Anthony figured out what we were going to do and warned the Agents running the program.”
A boy Phoebe’s age appeared, and spoke silently to a man in a sport coat.
“So I Improvised.”
All four walls of the holodeck filled with images of violence, and violent deaths-electrocutions via earbud radios, automatic doors opening and then slamming closed on men, severing limbs and crushing body parts. A Lawnmower outside chasing down an unnamed agent, running over him, chewing him up to unrecognizable human hamburger.
“Jordan got away, Like I promised.” Phoebe told him, as cars with government plates swerved off the road into trees at high speed, or flew over curbs to ram into structures.
“That was two years ago?” Johnny asked.
“Yep. once we got out, I made Jordan a bank account and a name, with a social security number and everything-even a birth certificate, so she could get a passport to Canada, out of Homeland Security’s reach.”
“But you stayed in the U.S.?” Jonny asked her.
“Had to.” Phoebe said, “Had to because I had to find out about mom, find out where she was in the system, see if she was okay.”
On the screens, a police report, and digitally filed autopsy appeared.
“I had to visit her.” Phoebe added, “Only, see, they don’t give welfare-junkies real graves, there was a little plastic stake over the spot they put her ashes in.”
The images faded to a single line…
“Death by Overdose”
“She’d been dead for years.” Phoebe filled him in, “but I knew how to solve puzzles by then, so I decided to solve the puzzle of where she got the Heroin that killed her...and I did.”
On the screens, a pair of police officers got into a car, it started, rolled out of it’s space in the station parking lot, turned onto the street, accelerated, did a 180, and rammed the station at full speed.
“I found her suppliers.” Phoebe explained, “I found the guys that ‘hooked her up’ and I made them pay.”
Another image, a prison floor, a cell door opens, an inmate starts to step out, the door slams closed through his body, and latches.
“I found her pimp too.” Phoebe told him, “And made him pay-I drained his accounts and put his special files on the internet-all his blackmail material, so his enemies would find him and kill him.”
“Then, I still didn’t feel better...so I went after his allies…” she added. A succession of violent accidents scrolled around the room-heavy machinery, automatic doors, electrocutions at computer terminals, a man killed by a coke-machine spitting cans at high velocity, doors locking on their own…
“That’s more than fifty two people, Phoebe.” Jonny told her.
“We’re confidential, right?” Phoebe told him, “I was only convicted of fifty two of them-the ones that were so far outside of ‘happenstance’ that they could be pegged as not real accidents. The cops went to outside help, and they got the Canadians to give them a hand-and the Canadians had a savant, who was good at finding patterns...so Jordan turned me in.”
“Are you angry with her?” Johnny asked.
“Nope.” Phoebe said, “She did what she thought was right-enough of the kids who were taken away went nuts first...besides, once I was ‘in the system’ Homeland Security couldn’t really touch me without explaining what they did...or so she thought.”
“She wasn’t on the list.” Jonny said.
“She wouldn’t be.” Phoebe told him, “I checked as soon as I was out of the faraday cage. Jordan had an accident while training with the Canadian hero team...they gave her a nice funeral I wasn’t allowed to attend-but she died free. I got to spend the last year with Agent Derwald hanging over my head as a threat if I didn’t answer Admiral Fitzsimmons’ questions and solve the puzzles she wanted me to...and sometimes, if my answers weren't’ what they wanted, he’d ‘counsel’ me...waterboarding is not fun, Jonny, I don’t recommend it.”
“What kind of puzzles did they want you to solve?” Johnny asked.
“Gadroon technology, energy weapons, special sensors.” Phoebe explained, “Seems Doctor Silverback wasn’t giving them results fast enough, they wanted a ‘backup’ in case the Heroes didn’t give them enough military technology, or lied about not being able to copy some alien or supervillain’s weapons tech.”
Observation Room
“And Starfleet would do the same thing with her.” Maureen almost spat.
“Hey they ain’t near as bad as early 21st century black ops organizations-”
“Two words. Section 31.”
“Technically three words…”Rhonda replied. “But yeah…they would be all over this like white on rice.” She looked back at the monitor “leaving her here really isn’t an option though-assuming we live through the next few days and find a way to get back home.”
One good thing about being an AI is being in multiple places at once. “Don’t worry. If we get that far, I’m bringing her ahead to when 31 isn’t an issue.”
Captain Evans raised an eyebrow. “More stuff that we’re not supposed to know yet?”
“The situation has changed. Temporal Prime directive does not apply when facing a potential class V dimensional incursion.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Then again, the Masterverse is just a bit askew from Trek, and essentially-magical Eldritch Beings exist there, so...
Recall the scene in Highlander where Connor and Ramirez were racing on the beach... At first, Connor gets out of breath and gives up, signalling his quitting with a wave of his arm. But. As he grows more comfortable with the ongoing endurance which the Quickening affords him, he then learns that he can not only push himself to his limit and out-pace Ramirez, but that the Quickening enables him to maintain that pace... (presumably counteracting the lactic acidosis on a cellular level)
In the Masterverse stories, Marcus is no stronger than (or even as strong as) any of the Vulcans he ever fought, he simply had enough of a knowledge of martial arts to be able to use leverage and momentum to his advantage (or at least, to stop them maiming him). Equally, in the 'start a fight thread', the result of that encounter was that while he got in a hit on the Klingon, the Klingon's shipmates then piled in and beat Marcus up, because he didn't have super-human strength to fight them off
I see the stars through me
Tired mechanical heart
Beats til the song disappears
Somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me
So cut me from the line
Dizzy, spinning endlessly
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
Shatter me!
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
If only the clockworks could speak
I wouldn't be so alone
We burn every magnet and spring
And spiral into the unknown
Somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me
So cut me from the line
Dizzy, spinning endlessly
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
Shatter me!
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly
There's no one to catch me if I take a dive
I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same
The world is spinning but only in gray
If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly
There's no one to catch me if I take a dive
I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same
The world is spinning but only in gray
(Only)
Somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me
So cut me from the line
Dizzy, spinning endlessly
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
Shatter me!
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
Four days later, nearing 40 Eridani
It looked familiar, but it wasn’t. There were no Vulcans here. There was a planet, but it wasn’t inhabited anymore-possibly the race who left ruins on the surface never had a Surak. At least their guests weren't too annoying. Well with the possibility of LaserBoy...The kid meant well..but he acted sometimes like he was about twelve it seemed, and the only reason she let him come along in the mission was he was capable of producing focused energy blasts that the Mark XII phaser cannons on an Avenger class ship couldn’t match. Which would be good..if he didn’t get assimilated too. That would be the last thing we need Rhonda thought to herself as she looked at the dead world spinning slowly below them on the screen in the conference room.
“We have the Borg on long range sensors Captain-they’re at the edge of the system. Still seem to have no warp power, moving at impulse speeds. They’ve changed course towards us as well.”
That didn’t take long-but then there wasn’t that many warp signatures out there in this version of the galaxy. The borg like many life forms, viewed FTL travel as proving of intelligence, thus worthy of being assimilated. “ETA till they arrive?”
“Three hours, eleven minutes and sixteen seconds if we don't attempt to evade them.”
Great. And of course her crew was looking at her for a plan. Damnit I’m a Doctor, not a strategist. “Well, we’ve got three tricobalt devices on board, a full load of transphasic torps-”
“Latest reports from Omega stated that the Borg have managed to adapt to those.” Maureen replied, the first officer not happy to share that bit of information.
…”and we know they can probably adapt to the antiproton arrays after a few bursts-possibly faster than we can recalibrate them." There was a reason why Starfleet standing orders were to not take on Borg vessels alone if possible. "Not to mention they’ve got someone who could pick up Earth Space Dock and hit us with it.”
“Which leads me to another question Captain.” her Andorian science officer said. “This idea of trying to liberate one single drone…”
“Come on Thyl,” Daniels replied, he'd gone over the shields himself after their first encounter and found them in perfect working order. “That one drone did as much damage to our shields with two punches as we’d take if we’d been hit by a full spread of the new Mark XIII Quantum torps. Now imagine what she’d do if she got through the shields to the ship.”
Thyl simply nodded. “Point-though being she is so dangerous, why even risk the ship? That...unnatural one-”
“Which one?” Nix replied, prompting chuckles from many.
“The dead one. She said if necessary, she could kill this drone-”
“Kelly” Rhonda replied.
“Yes. You have a past relationship with her Captain, are you sure it isn’t clouding your judgement in this matter?”
That caused her to blink. “It is a valid point Sir.” Commander Daniels replied.
Her XO just looked thoughtful. “I know” Maureen said” you are adamant on getting her back, but it is a great deal of risk to the ship.”
Rhonda sighed, rubbing her eyes. “In oh, 2002, or maybe 2003, we’re not sure exactly when, a biotech company that Ah’m not going to name because ah loathe the self styled ‘Countess’ that ran it, started what they called the Revenant Hero Project. The idea was to create a force of metahumans under the total control of this company.”
“Kind of like Amar Singh and his augments?” Or the Denali?” Thyl asked.
“Pretty much, though the Denali did their genetic engineering out of self preservation, big difference. This company planned to use the DNA of metahumans, but cloning them was still experimental and failed-a lot. So they needed prototypes for the project, using both meta and sheep DNA, as sheep were at the time easily cloneable.”
“She’s the prototype.” Maureen stated.
“No one knows for sure-some think they used DNA from Songbird, and maybe Atlas.” she shrugged. "Which would explain a lot about her powers."
“2004..that would make her,” Dr Zof, the Heinlein's Tellarite medical officer “younger than Miss Kian-only eleven, maybe twelve years old, given the local date.”
“Technically-she’s a clone. She came out of the tube adult-well adult as she is going to look. Anyway, a would be world conqueror broke in, broke her out and used her as muscle. Me and some friends kicked his TRIBBLE, and got her out of his clutches in the process. My folks ended up adopting her. Dad was in the PPD, so he was also like her probation officer and guardian.”
The room was quite other than the humm of the environmental system. “So she’s family.”
“Yeah. Closest thing to a little sister I ever had.” She sighed, looking down at her mug on the table. “I’ve talked to Elizabeth too. If we can’t get her out...she’ll take her down. I can’t let her suffer in there.”
“Well..hopefully it won’t come to that Captain.” Nix replied, trying to cheer her up. “Dr Schrodinger probably has some wild scheme to get her out and stop them, from what our guests are saying.”
“Speaking of which” Rhonda replied as she stood up, ending the meeting “I guess I’d better go check with our resident Mad Scientist. Johnny, where is Schrodi?”
“Dr Schrodinger is in hangar bay two” the AI responded.
“What the hell is she doing there?”
“Making another coffee maker out of a shuttlecraft warp core?” Daniels replied with a grin.
Rhonda just rolled her eyes “Don’t know how you can drink that stuff” she muttered, as the Chief engineer laughed.
“Best coffee I’ve had in decades-especially if you brew it with deuterium.”
“Nevermind, Maureen you’ve got the con. The Crazy Cat lady, or one of her Continuum counterparts got us into this, she’ damn well better have an idea for getting us out of it.”
Shuttle Bay, USS Heinlein…
“What’s that?” Lisa asked.
Schrodinger held up a sphere of scintillating energies wrapped in a field of her own devising, “Ten kilograms of Schrodrite.” She said, “Or maybe it’s Korbomite...they’re omega particles assembled into something very much like matter. Hell, maybe I should call it Baloneyium or Unobtainium.” the cat-like being licked her whiskers, playfully, then handed it to Lisa, “Hold this for me for a moment. We need to get their attention.”
“What the Hell are you doing!?” Rhonda demanded stepping out of the turbolift, eyes locked on the ‘Korbomite’ lump Lisa was cradling in her hand. Out of reflex she pulled out a tricorder-hopefully it wasn’t coffee compressed to the density of neutronium again.
“Just a little-” Schrodinger began.
The tricorder immediately locked, an omega showing on the screen. “GET THAT OFF MY SHIP!!”
“You got a better way to get their attention?” Schrodi asked. “Don’t worry-I made it appear. If we need to get out of here I can make it disappear.”
Grinding her teeth Rhonda just sighed “Fine, whatever. Anyway they will be in weapons range in a few hours assuming we don’t maneuver-or they get their warp drive back. So what’s your brilliant plan?”
It only took a few minutes to lay it out.
“Th..that’s the most stupid insane thing I’ve ever heard!”
“No trust me” Schrodi replied “I’ve got tons of more Insane stuff than that-”
“No. No freaking way. This is the Borg we’re dealing with-”
Schrodinger fixed her with a look “and this is Kelly you’re trying to get out of there. Brute force won’t work. You know that..but you also know her heart.”
“...still, she’s assimilated. They know what she knows-”
“Knowing and feeling are two different things.”
Rhonda shook her head “The Borg don’t feel.”
Schrodi just gave her an enigmatic smile. “Trust me on this ok? Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
She sighed. “Fine. We’ll do it your way-but I’m not risking the ship. We’ll have to find another place to bait them to.”
“I don’t think the Vulcans, or whatever they were down there will mind anymore.”
“True” Rhonda mused “still can’t exactly transport Lisa-and I Don’t want that TRIBBLE you whipped up interfacing with the ship in any form, not even the transporter.”
“Those’re shuttles, right?” Phoebe asked.
“Yes,”
“Anyone know how to-”
“I’ll handle flying it.” Rhonda replied "Lt Nix, Lt Vesa and ya'll will be with me, Chief Thorson, you and the tac team take the other one."
“So this is a Shuttle episode?” American Ghoul quipped as the others arrived, “Exciting-what? I watch the show!”
Overlord made a gesture and snorted as she followed them into the runabout. Everything that they’d need for Schrodi plan was already lashed down in the cargo area-of course it was. If they needed a freighter full of tribbles, Schrodi would probably make one appear. She shot the Caitian a dirty look as she continued forwards.
“What was that?” Kincaid asked, boarding second.
“I said, don’t crash. If the show’s right, these things fall out of the sky with depressing regularity.” Phoebe’s avatar manifested on her shoulder to say, “I don’t think we’ve got plot-armor on this run.”
Lt Nix looked annoyed as he sat down-and strapped himself in, which Phoebe had to admit, people on TV never did.. “Look kid. This may be similar to a fictional universe in your reality-but where I’m from, you’re fiction. I’ve seen early twenty first Terran graphic books with you, and people like you in them. Worth a good bit of latinum to the right collectors. Things that you ‘saw’ have little or no bearing to the reality we live in.”
“ALL of us?” Laserboy asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t deal in those things. I just saw them in my cousins warehouse. He deals in exotic collectables.”
“Cool.” the young hero said. “I wonder if I’m cooler in fiction…”
Phoebe reached over and slapped his thigh, then signed something.
“PHOEBE!!” Rhonda barked, “remember what we talked about?”
Nix just shook his head “these things don’t fall out of the sky all the time, there’s not a different alien every week trying to eat something, Starfleet Captains don’t sleep with planetary governors, we don’t trip over subspace anomalies-”
“Uh, well we did hit one on the way here..”
“And I heard someone in the lounge mention ‘kirking it up’-what’s that then?” Lisa asked innocently with a smirk.
Kincaid also smirked, “when we pulled into argo-port in need of R&R…”
Enough! Rhonda yelled, feeling not only like she was losing control of the situation, but wondering if she ever had control. Muttering under her breath she brought the systems up. “Everyone sit down and strap in. Nix, stop teasing the locals.”
“Aw, he didn’t even get the first verse…” Lisa quipped.
“Probably for the best-children present.” American Ghoul commented coolly, “Though considering what’s playing on the R&B stations these days, it’s really a very tame song…”
Captain Evans grumbled to herself as she plopped down in the pilot's seat. Dammit i’m a starship captain, not a den mother.
Phoebe, in one of the jump-seats, shook with silent laughter.
“Oh dear, she just read the lyrics…” Ghoul commented, “Fish songs do that.”
In the other front seat Lt Vesa raised a very Vulcan eyebrow, fitting considering where they were headed was the counterpart to her homeworld “The other runabout is prepared, and the gear you requested is loaded-though we did not load it" she said, glancing back at Schrodinger, who was seated in the back, sipping on a cup of tea. "However I must say Sir, this plan is, frankly absurd.”
“We’re stuck in an absurd universe” Rhonda replied as she watched the hangar bay doors open, readying for takeoff. “Personally I’m just glad we ended up in somewhere that’s at least vaguely familiar to me. Could have been worse, could have been Oz, or Wonderland…” she shook her head. “It IS something the borg haven’t dealt with-and it’s one of the well, weaknesses of who we’re trying to get out.”
The Borg…
The collective felt a spike of excitement as long range sensors announced a possible glimpse of perfection heading for the planet.
Species 5618 could wait. THIS was important.
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Well he did say Captains didn't do that, he didn't say anything about Admirals.
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.