Late Nights

Posted on Wed Aug 28th, 2019 @ 8:54am by Jaeih Dox-t'Aan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy

Mission: Family Detention
Location: The Intel Pod
Timeline: 2396 - During the Vulcan Pilgrimage

It was oh two twenty hours and the Intel Pod of the U.S.S. Hera was mostly quiet. For an intelligence ship, the number of actual intel officers was relatively low, all things considered. And a number of key positions were, in fact, filled not by Starfleet officers at all, but by civilian assets.

Once such an asset, the Romulan operative Jaeih Dox, was up working late as she usually was. Insomnia was a trait she had passed to her daughter, the Hera’s Flight Chief, Lieutenant Mnhei’shae Dox, but hers ran considerably deeper for different reasons. So, as usual, she preferred to spend her time working. Working meant her mind was occupied and she didn’t like her mind to be unoccupied for any length of time. Being alone with her thoughts was… unpleasant.

So, with even her more unusual companions, Ensign’s Gavarus and O’Dell, sleeping off a night of drinking, Jaeih was alone. But she had many areas of expertise that served the Hera well. As an engineer, she was an expert on Romulan Cloaking Technology and regularly consulted in the R&D Department with her daughter-in-law, Ensign Mona Gonadie. And as a former operative of the secretive Tal’Shiar, she was an expert in much, much more. But tonight, the skills she was putting to use was in cryptography.

The Hera’s Intel Chief, Lieutenant Sam Clemens, had given her a massive stack of sub-space coded messages that was a pet project of his to try and decode, and Jaeih had a head for pattern recognition and creative problem solving that he liked. It helped that she found the work engrossing and very distracting. Although it could also get tedious over time and she had been staring at the same lines of code now for two and a half hours and was feeling her mind start to stiffen like a runner’s legs during a marathon.

And while most anyone else would simply call it a night, Jaeih didn’t want to sleep. Tonight, her thoughts were particularly unpleasant and she wanted to stay occupied until there would be more faces and voices in the morning to remind her she wasn’t alone. But for now, Coffee was required.

Locking her workstation at a small cubicle desk adjacent to Clemens’ office in the Intel Pod, Jaeih stood, straightened the gray Intel uniform top she wore and made her way to the department’s lounge and the nearest replicator for a cup of the brhon caelis coffee that her daughter had programmed in. It was a particularly strong, startlingly bitter Romulan blend that both women preferred, and it was calling to Jaeih.

Down the unusually quiet corridor was the break room, and as she entered, Jaeih was surprised to find that she wasn’t alone in the pod that night. For there in the break room was the Captain’s Yeoman and the Intel department’s self-described “Mad Scientist”, Ila Dedjoy who seemed to be enjoying a late-night snack of some sort of pate while studying her own PaDD.

With a glance up from her data, Ila set aside her fork. "It is unusual for anyone else to be up here at this hour. I assume something weighs heavily on your mind?"

Raising an eyebrow at the unusual but intriguing Yeoman she had worked with a few times since joining the ship, Jaeih procured her coffee and stepped over, standing at the table.

“Good evening, Miss Dedjoy. Or, perhaps, morning is more appropriate.” Jaeih replied somewhat plainly, partly evading the question as she tended to. Perhaps a weakness of her race, she thought. “To a degree, something is always weighing on my mind. Pressure making gems, and the like. But tonight, I wanted to spend some additional time on the cryptographic study Lieutenant Clemens assigned me. What occupies you this evening?”

"I have been taking another look at the equipment in the molecular data structure lab to cross-compare the technology with my own data storage research." Without hesitation, Ila pulled up her comparison chart on the tech lab used to write data directly on the molecules in RNA and her black crystals and offered it to Jaeih. "Though they would seem nothing alike on the surface, on a quantum level, they are much alike. My crystals just happen to be able to do it natively."

Looking over the data, Jaeih tilted her head at the complexity and took a sip of the bracingly strong coffee. “This is beyond me, to some degree. I know a bit about data encoding on molecules, but more from the point of view of an agent trying to get information somewhere covertly. This, however, seems to indicate an ability to store vast quantities of information with near-limitless volume.”

“However with your crystals, I would imagine that the fractal lattice structure would give you that much more interior surface area for data encoding? Folds upon folds… possibly even utilizing different levels to cross code different data... like 3-Dimensional chess.” The elder Dox wasn’t anywhere near Dedjoy’s level but appreciated the science for its own sake and was quickly pulled in to the topic.

"Exactly, but on a higher, 4th quantum resonance that makes more room, the more is used. And I had to integrate those crystals into my own neural net and limbs to stabilize the systems. Thus I have no way to calculate my capacity. I just... Am..." The doll-faced android smiled softly for a bit before continuing. "Sorry, I guess I'm just trying to understand myself better is all."

Scoffing, Jaeih took another sip. “Is not the acquisition of knowledge a key aspect of your Starfleet's charter? Why would this not extend within? You have nothing to apologize for.”

In the short time the two had worked together, the always inquisitive intel agent had learned a good degree about the tragic story of Ila Dedjoy and her current status quo of her mind inhabiting an android body of her own design and manufacture.

"True enough. No apologies then. So is there anything I can help you with? I have some time if you need any help or anything." Ila was certainly innocent, with her hint of a smile and wide eyes on her doll-like face.

“Nothing in particular, really. The ship’s computer has run over the files a number of times and picked out all the recognizable ciphers and patterns. There are seventeen different rhyming schemes in use with characters from fourteen different languages leading me down... of all things... a poetry rabbit hole.” Jaeih took another sip, looking directly at the brilliant Yeoman as she did. "I'm pondering that there might be a clue in that direction."

The elder Romulan noticed that some crewmembers avoided eye contact due to the uniquely large size of Ila’s eyes, which Jaeih found both dishonorable and rude. “But I enjoy the proverbial hunt. I simply needed some additional energy to help re-focus my mind as it was getting a touch foggy and I’d like to keep at it a while.”

"Ah yeah, cryptology. I was never all that good at it myself." The doll-faced Illaran found that having her large-eyed, unblinking gaze finally met equally an intriguing matter and felt compelled to aid Jaeih in any way she could. After all, it was rare that anyone would meet her gaze at all, let alone hold it for this long. "However, I do have a database system that may be of service, if you don't mind visiting one of the custom labs."

Smirking ever so slightly, Jaeih took another long sip of her coffee feeling much more alert now and quite enjoying the interaction as she replied, “Not at all. Additional resources may yield better results so long as I’m not keeping you from your own tasks.”

"Not at all. I have plenty of time." Standing, Ila dumped the remains of her food into a nearby replicator and tucked her PaDD into a pocket before heading out towards one of the custom labs. "It's one of the original labs from when this pod was part of another ship so some of the tech looks a bit dated, but it's still on par with anything we have today... Mostly..."

It was only a short walk down the corridor to the lab in question where Ila unsealed it and added Jaeih to the access roster. "And this is coincidentally, the lab I mentioned before where we can write data on strands of RNA." Some of the tech certainly did look like it was from the duotronic era, but most of it was also holographic, giving a stark contrast to the differences in tech levels. "There's also a suite of cryptanalysis and cryptography equipment I wasn't able to make much headway on."

Taking in the wildly differing styles of both technology and architecture, Jaeih raised an eyebrow with interest as she walked behind the petite young officer, hands behind her back as usual. Mentally cataloging the details of such things were second nature to her from her years of intense espionage training, but it was a pleasure to be able to do so without subterfuge.

In some respects, Jaeih found the labs to be an outward extension of their chief occupant. The slight girl with the large eyes. The nigh-indestructible android that carries herself with fragility in her mannerisms and body language, no doubt a psychological remnant from the period prior to Jaeih’s meeting before her mortal form was all but destroyed. Still, the elder Dox woman was analyzing and processing the information. The young woman was, like most she met on the Hera, a unique contradiction so far afield of anything she was taught to expect while still within the Imperium.

But her attention piqued at the cryptography equipment. “Oh, that is intriguing to be sure.”

"If any of this can help you in any way, please feel free to make use of it. I've added you to the access roster for the lab." Ila glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. "Lucky, load our Tal'Shiar decryption database, if you would be so kind."

"Right away, Miss Dedjoy," replied the male, British voiced AI as several pieces of tech lit up and holographic displays snapped to life.

Watching the data populate on the screens, Jaeih was suitably impressed. She had never felt she underestimated Starfleet while she served the Tal’Shiar, but she was quickly realizing during her time on the Hera that she had in an incredible variety of ways. “Consider me both impressed and intimidated, Miss Dedjoy. This will, no doubt, increase my productivity and provide me with a plethora of additional distractions for sleepless nights.”

Ila giggled softly. "I think that's the first time I've ever intimidated someone. Possibly one of the very few times an Illaran ever has - we're descended from a prey species, after all. Anyway, I'm very honored to have been of service. This was all part of the now disassembled Section 31's equipment so it was dedicated to staying one step ahead of the Tal'Shiar, House Pegh, the Obsidian Order... You get the idea."

The slight smirk widening as she spoke, Jaeih replied without taking her eyes off of the displays. “Anyone not properly intimidated by intellect clearly has none of their own, my dear. Respect where it is due.”

Then she looked back at the young woman, slightly glad that her verbal admission of ‘sleepless nights’ from a moment ago seemed to have gone unnoticed, she made the same deep eye contact she had been making most of their interactions. “But I thank you for your assistance. As for Section 31, even we had difficulty ascertaining their existence within the Tal’Shiar. It was quite the enigma worth cracking. Ironically, by the time I had acquired concrete proof and viable data on them, I was already a smuggler.”

"Indeed, until the Dominion war I hear they were almost as elusive as House Pegh." Ila was referring to the Klingon's own house of spies that even the name was rarely heard of. "And I only know of them because of the archives in this room."

“As it should be.” Jaeih commented, looking thoughtful, and in spite of the coffee more than a little tired now as well. “Such organizations have their place, but exist best unheard of. It’s when they begin to announce themselves… flaunt their plower… that all know that they have reached too far. Stopped serving the needs of their people and feeding, instead, their own agendas.”

The former Tal’Shiar agent was clearly speaking from a position of familiarity as the weariness set in further on her brow.

A lesson that the Obsidian Order learned far too well, I'm sure," replied the doll-like android wryly as she tapped at one of the consoles. "I must admit some level of curiosity on your thoughts on that subject."

Looking down with a half-lidded smile, Jaeih raised an eyebrow. Her instincts told her to evade the question but her experience on the Hera told her the opposite, and she had committed herself to a path of truth as part of her attempt at reconciling with her daughter. “The Obsidian Order was far too proud of their reputation. As is the Tal’Shiar now. And I can only hope a similar fate befalls my former benefactors for all they… we have done to dishonor the Rihannsu people. They have abandoned mn… their honor in favor of power.”

Editing herself away from evoking her own daughters' name in a fashion that might seem awkward, Jaeih sighed and continued with much more deadly earnesty. “When I was younger, I believed in the cause, Miss Dedjoy. Protect the Imperium from all who would do it harm from without and from within. And I fought for that cause with all the fire of a zealot for a time. And it took far too many deaths on my conscience to show me how far I had come.”

Ila nodded thoughtfully. "Personally, I think that that was one of the reasons why Section 31 collapsed as well. During the Dominion War I suspect that they were responsible for far too many of the less savory bits. As for House Pegh... I can only assume that they stick to a strict adherence to honor since there's a rumor that a clone of Kahless is their leader."

“A pity my people are fresh out of clones of Rihannsu who still understand honor.” Jaeih chuckled lightly, changing her tone back to a more positive one.

"Well... To be fair, you might have to go back quite a few generations to make sure the..." Then the humor caught up with her and Ila let out her own soft giggle. "Ah, well, then someone will have to spread understanding through the people then, right?"

"You might have better luck finding a clone of S'Task himself than finding a Rihannsu that the people will listen to who still understands honor, Miss. Dedjoy." Yawning out loud this time as she evoked the name of one of the founders of ch'Rihan, Jaeih was clearly showing her fatigue now.

A serious look fell across Dedjoy's features once more. "We have the tech on this deck to not only make such a clone, but collect an original DNA sample. You should know better than to joke about such a thing around me."

Smirking, Jaeih chuckled lightly. "It's probably best not to follow that idea to any conclusions, logical or not, Miss Dedjoy." Then, rubbing the bridge of her nose, Jaeih sighed. "But who knows what the future holds for my people. Perhaps it might be best that I continue my work in the morning. Coffee is clearly not doing enough to keep me as awake as I would prefer."

"Then it sounds like you should get some actual rest," Ila replied with a hint of a grin and a slight tilt of her head. "It has been an honor and a pleasure speaking with you."

Nodding, Jaeih scoffed lightly. "I'm hardly worthy of 'honor', my dear. But as always, I appreciate your efforts and assistance. But yes, while I may loathe it, sleep may be required. Thank you."

The elder Romulan woman went to turn towards the door as she smiled, "Jolan tru, Miss Dedjoy."

"May the stars guide your dreams, Miss Dox," replied Ila, giving a traditional 'goodnight' from her world.

Nodding, Jaeih turned politely and left to return to the turbolift and her quarters.

She was still the spacious VIP quarters she had when she first arrived, though she was no longer under guard and had free access to the ship. The room was spacious and comfortable with tall windows letting in the starlight and reminding her she was free once more. But as she walked, her mind drifted back to a different time. A time before she was a mother. The time that made her dread sleep.