A Little Chat Is All

Posted on Sun Jan 5th, 2020 @ 6:26pm by Kodria Mizu & Commander Rita Paris
Edited on on Sat Jan 11th, 2020 @ 2:15pm

Mission: Neutral Zone Neutrality
Location: USS Hera, Deck 2, Commander Paris' Office
Timeline: 2397

Sitting in her office going over paperwork, Rita Paris noted the stardate, translated into the Earth calendar by the archaic digital clock display of the date back on Earth which sat upon her desk. It had been a gift from Dr. Nathan Lange, the ship's surgeon aboard the USS Exeter back in 2266. Lange had understood the concept of keeping track of the seasons and holidays of their homeworld, as they spent so long away, hurtling through space at incredible speeds. The vintage appearance of the piece, as well as the simulated woodgrain of the cabinet which housed it, were all replications simply designed to appear authentic. The circuitry was state of the art duotronics. Which Rita, of course, could rewire in her sleep.

Seeing the new year had arrived immediately brought to mind her five year plan, and she considered it. She now had one year and eleven months before conception, on the timeline she had established, in order to insure the time and place of her son's births. The old fable might or might not have been true, but Rita believed it, and that was enough. Across the globe, on new year's day every century, a few gifted individuals were born to greatness. Considered by the ancient myth to be protectors of the planet, they were an extension of it's immune system, as it were. There was no scientific data to uphold this theory, nor was there even much in the way of mythological reference, in truth. But it was an old Earth legend Rita had come across in her youth that had always stuck with her.

Now, as she steadily moved toward such a date, with the most remarkable man in the universe bonded to her for life by her side, she couldn't help but try to insure her offspring would come into the universe... into the world, her world, Earth... on January 1st, 2400. To Sonak, who appreciated how myths often had basis in reality and saw his wife's superstitions as hopes for the future, it would just be Stardate 77000.0. But if all went well, it would also the date of the birth of his sons into the universe. At least, if Hera's predictions came to pass, and her first pregnancy resulted in twins. Like Romulus and Remus.

Glancing up, Rita shook her head at that one. Those were DEFINITELY not going to be their names, that was for certain.

Considering the future brought up another matter on her mind, and she decided there was no time like the first day of the year to attend to both old and new business.

"Computer, please seal my office. Classify all recordings your eyes only to myself and Captain Telvan only until further notice, and encrypt this data with... something that will make it self-destruct rather than be improperly decrypted, best you've got, Computer. I trust your judgment," Rita leaned back in her chair and started at one of the empty seat there opposite her.

"I will engage Maru's encryption, meow to insure file security, Commander," the ship's computer replied, as it tended to the request for the polite officer. As per usual, she replied, "Thank you, Computer."

"All right Kodria. I think it's time you and had a little talk, young lady..."


"I know what you're thinking.... and no, you are not in trouble," the antique officer offered, trying to put her theoretical audience at ease as she addressed empty space. "If I've guessed right, then you're a sort of neural clone of Kodria. The one we have locked in a time vault as she gets back to the future the old-fashioned is the one who put you here. Just like she insured she left a copy of the robotic schematics of her chassis in the computer, which saved Yeoman Dedjoy's life. Maru knows you're here, and you two worked that out in advance with original Kodria."

"Those messages- she did record some, but you're editing as you go. The more we change the timeline, the less you know of future events, but like Cassandra you're trying to steer us around obstacles. Because time is still trying to flow as adherent to the original timeline as possible- a few changed dominoes doesn't always mean a completely alternate future. Or at least that's my guess," Rita admitted, folding her hands together and cupping the back of her head. Propping her boots up on her desk in a display of casual nature seldom seen in the Commander's office, the fantastic first officer smiled pleasantly at the empty chair. "But, I'm not the genius in the family, and I could be way off base."

"Except that I'm not, am I Kodria?" Rita looked around, eyebrows up. "I sealed the room and prepared to commit to something unprecedentedly clandestine, so I know you had to eavesdrop. Ship's computer is here recording for me, so I figure so are you. Which means with all of the holographic wizardry that lets Maica go to the beauty salon, you can come take a seat and talk to me, hm?" Pausing, Rita let her hands loose, bringing them up slightly in surrender. "Not mad. You are not in trouble, and this does not mean that you get isolated, quarantined or sent away. You have my word as an officer, okay?"

With that said, Rita sat back and waited to see if her theory was correct, and that a version of Kodria was still aboard, trying to help. If it was, being called out like this would likely terrify her, no matter Rita's assurances. But the kid was brave and smart, and she'd figure it out. So Rita gave her a minute to think it over.

A minute was all the young woman needed. After a long minute of silence, a holographic Kodria materialized- but rather than just the android from the future, several small holographic screens with high speed raw data scrolling across them floated around her. With a bit of a lopsided grin similar to that of her grandmother's, she rested a hand on her hip. "So when did you figure it out, Aunt Rita?"

"You were a bit too spot on with some of your timing and predictions," the human explorer admitted casually, clearly following through on her promise and presenting no anger about the events. "With events changed already, your foreknowledge wouldn't have covered the knowledge you possessed... I believe it was specifically after the death of Ararena Telvan. In your timeline, Enalia killed her, and I suspect I know the rest of that- your mother literally never knew her own mother because she was raised by Arenara in Enalia's body. Which sounds no less crazy now than when I said it the first time. At any rate, you advised us on something after her death, with knowledge you couldn't have known. That was when I figured it out."

"I kept quiet about it to see just how much meddling you were prepared to do, honestly. But you've been very judicious about what you nudge and how, and you really are trying to be as responsible as possible. Which is why I haven't called you out. Honestly, I'm not surprised... it's something I would have done in your shoes. Since you didn't ask to be placed here like this, that means you aren't to blame. So, I thought we might have a little chat and clear the air. Because I must say, I'm very proud of you for how you've been handling the situation." There was no sarcasm nor rancor- instead, it was honest pride that Rita was offering.

The young android adventurer from the future had impressed them all when she had arrived, and she'd touched each of their hearts in different ways. Which had made her farewell bittersweet- for her own good, so as not to endanger her own timeline, she'd been sent back to the future the old fashioned way. Placed in chrono-stasis until the day she had been accidentally zapped to the past, when she would be awakened by the people who had put her there... all considerably older, of course.

But the presence of a virtual Kodria was an element that required discussion, If nothing else, because Rita had a concern or two. But for now, she wanted the young one to know how well she had done. Rita had grown up without praise, from the one person she strove for it from so desperately. Thus in her own dealings, particularly with children, she was always careful to express the honest praise she knew they needed to hear. To know they had made those whom they respected proud. It was how she commanded, how she would parent, how she would teach, and how she would govern. In the moment, it was hopefully reassuring.

"I... Thank you..." It was obvious that the holographic Kodria had expected a lecture rather than praise. She had indeed been careful, as well, and even coming out like this was breaking one of her core rules about this. However, the security protocols in place were pretty tight, so she deemed it safe enough. "So I'm not in trouble for all of this? I mean, I'm changing the course of my own history, aren't I?" Rather than the former proud look she'd adopted before, now she looked a bit sheepish as she relaxed a bit.

"No, you aren't in trouble, and as for changing your own history... well, yes and no," Rita explained, leaning forward to be more engaged. "Original Kodria- she's got a lecture coming her way about all of this, for sure. But she isn't here. Her future may not be fixed, but she will get there regardless. You, on the other hand, are here, now. I can't isolate you in the system and contain you and ship you off to the future as well. Even if we tried to, I suspect Maru would just hide enough of you to save you and let us continue on, thinking you were gone. Then you'd be even more cautious about your messages, maybe not advising us when we needed it, and it would just keep you more isolated than you are now. Which is part of why we're having this discussion."

"I don't know if I ever told you this story," Rita's voice grew a bit reserved as she recounted one of the worst chapters of her life to the young life form. "Once upon a time, I was a ghost. For nearly five years. I was there for the whole mission. I couldn't do anything to affect the physical world, which made it a tiny bit different than your situation. But I couldn't talk to anyone, couldn't interact, couldn't sleep. In the end, it was the loneliness that drove me craziest," Rita paused to reflect on that for a moment, the memories still with her to this day.

Looking back up at Kodria, Rita smiled a wan smile. "If I was right, I couldn't let you just be a ghost too, kiddo. No one deserves to be that lonely, and I should know. You'd have Maru, but you're a bit more social than that, and having to just watch us all and figure out when you could help... it's a stressful life, and a lonely one. I couldn't do that to you."

"I don't have all the memories of the me in stasis... But I do remember that one. I always thought how sad and lonely that must have been, and how strong you were to have gone through it." The young girl moved around the chair across from her Aunt Rita and and slipped into it, contemplating things as they were, the holo-screens about her bobbing a bit as she did so. "I guess, in a way, we share a bit of that now. Since I've been watching over all of you all this time, unable to interact directly. I shouldn't even be talking with you here, now."

"But it was the right thing to do," Rita reassured the young woman, who so often seemed to find herself out of her depth in her adventures- a trait with which Rita was intimately familiar. "Now, as I said, you aren't in trouble, but we need to find a way to deal with the situation. Although I suspect that the answer is going to be 'leave well enough alone and let her be'. I still have to report this to the Captain- she is your grandmother and it's happening on her ship, so she has to be informed, and she will be the one to make that call."

"While your foreknowledge of history is problematic, you have shown an exceptional amount of restraint and responsibility. I think we might just find an accommodation so that we can manage some coexistence. Because I can't condemn you to years of life as a ghost, little one. You didn't ask for this, but you are here, and I'm pretty sure I can't 'send you back' like the original model. So we're going to have to come up with a plan, Miss Kodria... but I'm pretty good at plans," Rita offered with a smile.

"That's definitely true," quipped the young holo-Kodria with a hint of a happy smile peeking through. "I remember you telling me about the time you fought off an entire flock of... Ah... Nevermind. Suffice it to say that I've always been impressed with your stories and the plans you've come up with, even on the fly."

"We'll figure it out, Kodria. For now... it was very brave of you to come forward and let me know you were here. I am guessing that was part of your programming- to be as careful as possible not to reveal yourself. But I'm glad you answered me... I have to admit, I've missed you, kid, That really was one of the hardest calls I've ever had to make... now here we are again, but this time the circumstances are different, so we'll see what I can work out with the captain. For now..." The anachronistically uniformed officer rose from her desk and came around it, arms outspread.

"C'mere and give your old auntie a hug," Rita offered, adding, "I am so proud of you for being so brave... where did you learn that?"

With a soft smile and hints of moisture in her eyes, Kodria hopped up and all but leapt into her aunt's arms, the holographic screens bouncing around her dimming down for the time being. "I learned it from you and Aunt Dox and Uncle Sonak and... So many others... If it weren't for all of you, I'd have never been born, you know."

"I know," Rita replied softly, hugging the holographic version of the young android she'd rescued from a Section 31 base that had gone Romero. Without realizing why, tears began to fall as she held the slight form of the android girl from the future.

In the short time she had been among them, Kodria had been a bright light of hope and innocence, with a touch of hero worship as she encountered the figures of her present in the future. But in the here and now, they were young adventurers instead of mature and staid figures. It had been Rita who had realized the danger and devised a solution as to how to keep the girl from the future from polluting the timeline and changing the past, potentially wiping herself out of existence. Which of course endangered her own future- otherwise, if she were to be honest, Rita would not have cared nearly as much. It was far easier to let the future be it's own caretaker, as to her it was always unwritten.

But Kodria had stirred a defensive instinct in Rita Paris that was rather maternal in nature, and she had become determined to insure that Enalia's android granddaughter would not wipe herself out by meddling in her own past. Thus she had proposed and executed a plan to seal the young woman in cryostasis, augmented by chronal anchor technology from the DTI, which would insure that in 2494 when Kodria awoke, she would still exist. Even if the universe around her was different than the one she had left, she was a survivor, and she would be alright. While Rita fully planned to be there, her own life was nothing if not tumultuous, and she could never make such a commitment. Although she was determined to do her best to be there when the little android's eyes opened again, nearly a century from now.

But in the here and now, she held the ghost of the brave young woman which she had left behind in an effort to save them all from perils she know of, perils she would learn of, and perhaps save them even from themselves. Because Kodria was the best of all of them- literally. As her brain engrams had been formed by the files in the Hera's computers of Samuel Clement's backup copies of his own onboard processor, she was comprised in part from all of them, which had set her on her life's course. Then the versions of them she knew had guided and raised her, teaching her what they had learned of the universe since that scan decades before her creation.

In that moment, Rita knew nothing of the girl's engrams or their connection, nor did she care. Instead, she realized a simple truth that was quite powerful to her. Sniffling, she squeezed the young woman protectively for a few seconds.

"I've really missed you, little one."

By now, the holographic version of the young android was crying freely.

"I love you so much, Aunt Rita."

"I love you too, Kodria. Now let's get you a life onboard the Hera..."