The 5 Year Mission

Posted on Tue Dec 10th, 2019 @ 2:18pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Wed Dec 18th, 2019 @ 12:25am

Mission: Neutral Zone Neutrality
Location: ARW Golden Ghost
Timeline: 2396

There had been tenderness, and there had been passion, and the woman so very tied to the material world reassured herself that she inhabited it, rather thoroughly. And as she sought to doze afterward, her mind was still puzzling over the problem, teasing it, prodding it.

In the hours since Oulette had shown her hidden identity, Rita had placed the woman off limits save to the doctor. She trusted that her precautions were still being faithfully observed- although, she realized, she was not on a Starfleet vessel, and on this vessel, her ranks were more of a polite deference than actual command capability within the rank structure. Right now, Dox was the captain of this vessel, which, she realized, had added to her anxiety. She was accustomed to being more than humored or deferred to on a Starship, and being the mission commander while her subordinate was commander of the vessel, whose crew held no allegiance to her whatsoever was disconcerting for her.

Plenty of unstable ground to go around, it seemed.

But Dox hadn't contacted her. If- again, a very long shot- if Dox had been activated then right now the starship might be making all due haste to the colony. But Rita hadn't felt a course change nor speed, and in an old bird like this one, even with newfangled insides, Rita felt confident she would have recognized the signs. But she held course and speed for now, so that hadn't changed.

Instead, more than likely, Dox was wondering what the hell was going on, and Rita was letting the sweat cool from reminding herself that where there is life there is hope, and she was most definitely alive.

Patting Sonak silently, who was reviewing some quadratic integer quantum equations in his head while he meditated, she rose and padded to the shower, considering her next move. A thirty-second sonic shower later, she grabbed her previous day's uniform- no sense in replicating a new one, because she'd still need sleep tonight. Slipping into it with practiced ease in seventeen seconds time, the lost navigator knelt on the bed to kiss the last Kolinahr, drinking him in with her eyes as he gazed at her, seemingly dispassionately- but only to one who did not know the subtleties of his expressions.

Stepping up t0 the door, as it slid open, she took to that brisk military stride of hers, thick-soled explorer's boots gripping the floor as she moved confidently toward where the prisoner was being held. Because she wagered that's where she would find Dox, puzzling over the problem in her own way. Besides, it wasn't a Starfleet vessel. You didn't just tap your comm badge to ask the computer where someone was at the moment. This was a freebooter that flew by different rules.

But the Brig wasn't where Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox was. She wanted to be there to try and figure out just what had happened, but the ship's Doctor, Helev t'Liun, had been the one to inform Dox of the order from Rita, and Dox was obeying it.

Which, in and of itself, was frustrating. Rita hadn't contacted her herself after the attack and made an order specifying that Dox not have access to the captured spy. It was extremely troubling to the young pilot and the lack of other information was digging around her brain like a hungry worm.

She didn't know about Rita's concerns. She didn't know what had also happened on the Hera. She didn't know why Rita hadn't talked to her since the incident. Which all birthed too many questions in her already overburdened mind.

So, after a fitful attempt at sleep that hadn't helped, she was up and around. Like the last time she had been on the Golden Ghost, she had a hard time relaxing. So, just like last time, she found herself sitting alone in the crew mess with a cup of coffee and a spread of PaDD's in front of her to review the mission information for the thousandth time.

It took a while for the gold-clad commander to find the restless Rihannsu, but eventually find her she did, with a bit of help from the Bridge. The graveyard shift comms officer had obliged her in locating Dox's comm badge, a standout on the Artan vessel, which pinpointed her location and led Paris to the right location. Which, upon entering, she took in at a glance- a stack of PaDDs and flimsies, a cup of cold coffee, an officer working into the night who couldn't sleep, and most of the pieces fell into place rather quickly for her.

You created the situation, even if you didn't create the circumstances, Rita. Time to face the music.

Striding in quietly, Rita crossed the room and smoothed out her skirt as she seated herself at the table, not opposite but to the left of Dox. "I suppose I owe you a few answers."

Of course, with those keen ears of hers, Dox had heard Rita’s usual and distinct stride coming down the corridor as the ship was unusually quiet. But knowing wasn’t the same as being prepared and the young pilot didn’t want to deal with whatever was about to be said. It was a conversation she had imagined in her head from a handful of different directions, none of which was pleasant for her to think about.

There was a moment of silence between the two women as Dox put her PaDD down and, turning slightly towards the woman she considered a sister, replied softly, “You’re my superior officer, Commander. Beyond that, you’ve saved my life more than once now and I wouldn’t even be here right now if not for you. You don’t owe me anything. That said... “ there was a weakness in her voice as she continued, “I would greatly appreciate some.”

"As we were expecting, Lieutenant Oulette turned on the doctor- something triggered her, and a hidden personality emerged. We caught her, and I had her isolated. Sonak admitted that he might not be able to detect a personality implant such as that in others were it not activated, and... that gave me pause." Rita picked up one of the PaDDs, tracing her finger along the outer edge of the slender tablet. "I contacted the Captain to report, and simultaneously, Mister Varnok- the Cardassian intelligence officer- was activated during the nebula battle, and Rendal got the lion's share of the protomatter data Dedjoy had in the pod. So my paranoia has been running a little rampant today." Those bright blue eyes came up to meet with those of the dark-eyed Romulan, and in that expression, Dox could see the weariness in them, the toll such doubt took on the usually forthright and honest to a fault officer.

Looking in those weary eyes, Dox began to understand what must have been going on in Rita’s own head all this time as her own expression shifted to a blend of surprise and shock. “Varnok? Nouhha… was anyone hurt back on the ship? Is Yeoman Dedjoy okay?”

"Dedjoy seems to be none the worse for wear, and no, he didn't hurt anyone. But the fact that he's been deep cover and suddenly triggered, at the same time that Oulette was shoehorned into this mission by the insistence of a Vice-Admiral, no less, got me... well." Rita paused at that, setting the PaDD down and leaning back in her chair.

"Back in the old days, during the 5-year missions... part of what kept you going was crew unity, you know? We all knew one another, and we were all in this together for the next five years, boldly going, exploring strange new worlds... and whatever happened, you knew you could rely on your shipmates. It was us out challenging the universe, pushing back those frontiers, seeing what was out there and handling it, because we knew we could rely on the people around us. Everyone was dedicated, everyone was Starfleet, and everyone would give their all for the crew, the mission, for one another." Pausing in her reverie, Paris shook her head.

"It's not like that anymore. Now we travel on starships without Starfleet crews, we have officers who don't even know they are brainwashed, and we boldly go, but not in the open, not honestly. We sneak around because that's how we outsmart our enemies, and we have to because that's the universe we live in. It's... not something I am accustomed to," Rita admitted, pinching the bridge of her nose as the headache she had been fighting on and off for the past day tried to reassert itself. "Not knowing that I can turn to my shipmates when trouble strikes, because we're not on a Starfleet starship. Or our enemies may have gotten to our own crew, may have turned them into enemy agents that don't even know they have been compromised... it's... hard for me, Miss Dox."

It wasn't the best of admissions, but it was an honest one.

“And, logically, you thought about me and had to wonder. I spent a month on that ship and you couldn’t know what happened every minute I was there. How could you be sure... if the person who made the report was now a sleeper agent?” Dox said, as the air felt like it had been kicked out of her, understanding now what Rita had been going through. “And it’s not as if you can just ASK me if I’ve been compromised... if I legitimately don’t know.”

“I can say… if I’m brainwashed… I’m going to be furious. I fought my proverbial ass off against that kreldanni machine. It hurt like hell.” Dox tried to joke lightly as she fidgeted with her cold coffee mug, trying to push back against a wave of depression she felt coming towards her.

“Sorry… I… That was a bad joke. Not my strong suit.” Dox hemmed and hawed for a moment as she tried to figure out what to say next. “So, what changed that you’re here, now? Did you talk to Commander Sonak?”

"Oddly enough, that was a considerable consideration. If you had fought and resisted it, and you found out that you hadn't after all..." Rita paused at that, her words trailing off before she redirected. "Yes. I'll be frank, I was... well, after I found out about Varnok, I was a bit overly paranoid. I couldn't confide in you, which is more disturbing than I realized for me, and with any of the crew suddenly suspect, I looked around at the crew of mostly strangers here whom I cannot vouch for in the least and... you get the idea."

"So yes, Sonak to the rescue. he talked me down, and calmed me down, and helped me get back from 'what do I do when I logically must suspect everyone, and in particular the one I need most on this mission' to a more sensible 'how do we face this and overcome it'. Have to love that man of mine's logic... when the universe refuses to make sense, he's always a eye of the storm for me. Good thing he's fascinated by logic and emotion combined," Rita joked, then her eyes met those of the Romulan rebel.

"Sonak assured me that if you or your mother were compromised, despite his admission that there are variables and possibilities, he is quite positive in your case that would know if that were the case. Also, he gave you full credit for resisting the Ju'rot machine, because he said that your mental defenses are second only to his own. High praise indeed from the man who once contained a Talosian mind within his own, and lived to tell of it with his sanity intact," Rita relayed, a reminder in her mind that she likely shouldn't mention Talosians around others, particularly on a civilian vessel. But she'd worry about the death penalty later, assuming this universe had the same General Order. "So while I might have made you miserable keeping you out of the loop while I dealt with my own anxieties, take that compliment for what it's worth, hm?"

“I know what a compliment from Sonak is worth, so… thank you.” Dox replied with pursed lips, not quite knowing what she was feeling at the moment. “I understand. You had to be sure. It’s just…”

There was another long pause as Dox looked back to Rita, “When I realized that for Rendal, I was bait to try and lure the Hera into a trap… I tried to call out to Mona. I tried to tell her to tell YOU... not to come for me.”

“Rendal… She… she put in in a chair. Locked me there so I couldn’t try to kill myself because she knew my mother taught me how to if I was ever taken. And when I thought I didn’t have anything left… after what she did to my father… I saw you. I know I was just hallucinating. I was exhausted and dehydrated and… but I did. I saw you standing there in front of me, giving me one of those perfect speeches that you never have to rehearse for, telling me to hold on. Because you’d come. You’d always come.” Dox looked down at the table in front of her and let out a long breath.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here, Rita. I’m going to do my best to not screw this all up, I am. But… having you here means everything. And when it felt like you… like you didn’t trust me anymore… I didn’t know how I was going to do what I have to do.” Dox was clearly letting her emotions out as she shook slightly and ran a finger over the tip of her ear.

"That's the problem, Miss Dox. We need one another... that was the lesson of the five-year missions. We could pull off just about anything if we all stuck together as a crew. The circumstances change- but that's the nature of things, is it not?" Rita gestured to the retro Romulan bird of prey mess hall, which was essentially unchanged from what it would have been in her day, which was itself a refitted pirate vessel turned privateer, now under the command of the subordinate officer before her. "The key is that trust between us all. When that's shaken, we all falter."

"I'm sorry that I doubted you, Miss Dox. Captain Dox- I'll admit, that's one I'm still trying to get used to, but it's settling in on me. Call me old-fashioned or competitive, but I always figured you'd catch me in rank before you passed me right by." A chagrined smile slowly spread across Rita's face as she spoke, half-jokingly. "I felt I would be remiss in my duty had I not addressed the possibility that you and your mother might be compromised. Because if that were the case, both missions were suddenly in considerable jeopardy."

"I had to address the concerns of my conscience before I could arrive at a confident decision," the spirit of the 23rd century stated plainly, adding, "which I hope you can appreciate."

“I can.” Dox said, nodding her head lightly, “I… I would have had to have done the same thing if I was in your shoes. And it would have felt horrible. I’m sorry.”

The young Rihannsu pilot looked over at her friend and let the crack of a smile out, “And please, don’t call me that. I’m not a Captain. I don’t know why they gave the Ghost to me, but I’m not a Captain. It’s… it’s just us. ‘Dox’ is fine, please.”

"But you ARE a captain. This is YOUR crew," Rita emphasized pointedly. "They elected you their leader, even if you didn't ask for the job, Baroness. I would be remiss if I did not recognize it on your own vessel out of courtesy to the captain of the ship regardless of who it was. Just taking a bit of getting used to is all. Sonak would call it wounded pride, and he'd be right. So bear with the old fleeter who is still adapting to the freebooting future."

"Uggggh…" Dox groaned pointedly as she flumped her head lightly into the table with an exacerbated thunk that caused the small pile of PaDD's to slide slightly. "This is kreldanni ridiculous."

"I'd want to say that I can't wait for everything to go back to normal, but it isn't going to, is it Rita?" Dox said, pulling her head back up and nervously running a finger over her ear. "This is the new normal, isn't it?"

"Normal is relative, Miss Dox. You know that by now. To be fair, you signed on for the dual life- Starfleet and the Romulans, Starfleet and the Artans... that dual nature of yours will likely be a repeating pattern throughout your life. Straddling both sides of the divide will never be easy, but it will make you adaptable." There was no acrimony nor sarcasm in the voice of the human explorer. Instead, she just laid out the facts as she saw them, as she always had, and delivered them with a smile. "Like the wise man says, life is what happens while we're making plans. Just remember, unlike all of those dark days on the Forager- you are never alone, now. There's always someone who has your back- shipmates, sworn to serve together. It may not be deep space and the 5-year mission, but that doesn't mean we can't strive for the same espirit d'corps, aye?"

"Indeed. Not being alone in all of this makes it all that much more manageable." Dox replied, looking at one of her PaDD's and thinking. "Or at least, a touch less... daunting."

"Espirit d'corps... Hm. Commander, Lieutenant Oulette... Have you talked to Sonak about the possibility of helping her? If this was the work of the Ju'rot device as Maenek t'Liun suspects, then she's been used. She's not fully responsible. If there's even a chance of that, we have to at least try." the Rihannsu Lieutenant Commander asked with a look of quizzical concern on her face, as her eyebrows knitted slightly.

Somewhat taken aback, Paris looked surprised. "Why... would we not? She's a Starfleet officer- one of our own. She's been victimized and had her agency removed from her- why in the universe would we not do everything in our power to help her, Miss Dox?" This time Paris stated it plainly, quite suddenly a command officer with a question to which she expected an answer.

"I just wanted to be sure we were on the same page before I started making proposals is all, Commander," Dox replied in a more straightforward voice and tone. "I never considered it an option that we wouldn't help, but I was unsure on what level of involvement I would have in that help until now. That said, I've had a lot of time to think about it and I think we should have Maenek t'Liun run as many deep neurological scans as possible. Anything as invasive as the Neural Extraction Converter has got to leave some kind of... fingerprint. Something we can detect."

"And if Commander Sonak's plans are in any way similar to the technique we used to free my Grandmother, then if we perform that under medical observation, we would be able to see exactly what areas of her brain have been affected."

"I believe he is thinking that you and the Doctor accompany him in his metal probing, as he can rely upon her medical knowledge and your experience. I had assumed you would be onboard for it, given the circumstances, and I assume the doctor will also be willing, as it is what's best for the patient. But that's tomorrow," Paris redirected, laying in a course closer to her original point. "We're still in the here and now. So, I believe I've brought you up to speed at this point, yes?"

Nodding, Dox replied, "Aye. And I appreciate it, thank you." Her response was sincere but twinged with the slightest hint of curiosity, not knowing where Rita was leading but trusting her to never have that path be astray.

"This mission- dealing with Rendal, who's so hell-bent on getting her hands on protomatter technology while sending undercover infiltrators at us seemingly with ease- it isn't going to be an easy one. It will try our souls, and the ties that bind us as a crew. So forgive an old lady for having reasonable doubts, and try not to let it burden you. As for all of this," Paris offered with an encompassing gesture, "Look at it as your post-Starfleet retirement plan?"

"I do, Rita. Thank you. I'm working on my own side of things. Trying to not take everything onto myself and assume that I did something wrong. It's not always easy, but I am trying. I like to think I'm getting better." The perpetually anxious Rihannsu pilot smiled. It wasn't forced or artificial as she looked over at her friend. 

"Leaps and bounds, Miss Dox. I believed in you then and I believe in you now," Rita reassured with a clasp to the shoulder and a little shake.

"As for the Ghost..." Dox looked around her at the strange ship that had somehow become hers, "When this mission is all over, I just want to see how she flies. You want a go at the helm?"

"I wouldn't say no. Take turns putting her through her paces?" Paris replied, ever eager for a chance to actually just fly for a change.

"Well then, we have yet another reason to succeed at this mission," Dox said with a playful grin. "And I don't think the Captain will object."

"There is that. Come on. neither of us is going to get much sleep tonight, so a nightcap, to toast your captaincy, my friend. What do you say?" Rita stood and stepped to the replicator, snapping out her foldable PaDD to interface with the unit, to have it create one real version and one synthehol, in those hand-blown squarish tumblers the locals seemed to prefer. Picking them up, she carried the cocktails carefully to the table, handing the real Romulan ale off to the Romulan, while she drank the 'not harmful to braincells' version her husband preferred.

Looking at the foggy blue liquid, Dox smirked and shook her head as she chuckled lightly and joked. "If I'm the Captain here, I don't suppose I can order you to stop calling me that, can I?" 

"As this is essentially classified as a civilian vessel, I still outrank your captaincy in it with Starfleet rank," Rita reasoned. "So no, you can't order me to stop. But I won't tease either. Fair?"

"Fair." The outranked young officer said with a grin as she pondered what to say. "What did your old classmate call it? Back in that recording from the Khitomer accords?"

Then, the words came to the young, redheaded pilot as she lifted her glass to meet Rita's. "To the Undiscovered Country."

Then Rita held her glass up and clinked it to Mnhei'sahe's. "To the Golden Ghost..."

Dox smirked and shook her head as she chuckled lightly. "And my post-Starfleet retirement plan. May she survive my Captaincy."