Lt. Robin Hopper: Control Is An Illusion (Part 2)
Robin Hopper
((OOC – Just realizing I wrote “END” in my last sim. Whoops! Should have been “TBC”. There is some overlap with my last sim here, but from a different perspective and with some tags added back in…))
((Type 10 Shuttle “Gatineau”, Shuttlebay – USS Independence-B))
Usually bright and peppy, Robin now felt absolutely deflated. Her optimistic bubble had been stretched to its limit when it became apparent that the Targhee, along with all hands, had disappeared into a spatial anomaly leading into an adjacent universe… and the revelation that her own counterpart in this dark and twisted place was some sort of psychopathic killer, who had remorselessly murdered a political prisoner, had burst it.
Now, she had her head down in her work, doing her best to focus on just ‘pushing through’ and following the mission plan. She certainly did not wish to look up and find herself looking into the black irises of the woman whose mother had been cruelly taken from her by… well… Robin. But not.
She recalled joking with her fellow Science cadets at the Academy – now many years ago – when the fabled alternate reality of the Terran Empire had come up during a post-lecture night on the town. They’d each enjoyed speculating on what the “evil” version of themselves would be like… She’d imagined herself on the bridge of a dark and gloomy starship, midriff exposed, wearing a wicked-looking goatee… Now it didn’t seem so funny.
Esma: There are several methods likely to be effective: disabling the equipment by causing a power loss, blocking transmission between relays through interference, and reprogramming the sensor array to ignore the Independence and other non-Betazoid imperial vessels.
Wong: I could reprogram it to ignore us and other non-Betazoids if I can get in.
At the Ensign’s words, Robin looked up from her own terminal. She realized, taking a proper look at the woman for the first time, that she’d never seen her before around Amity. It occurred to her that she must be a newer transfer… She didn’t even know her name. Robin’s cheeks turned red at the thought, but she nodded encouragingly, hoping to make up, in some small way, for her earlier inattentiveness.
Hopper: ::Looking over her shoulder:: I can help as well – but, I’m sure it’d go a lot faster if our Betazoid, um, friends, assisted as well. They’ll be more familiar with the computer systems than we will, and we’re working against a clock here.
She avoided looking at the women sitting in the back of the shuttle, looking away even as one of them spoke.
M-Tri’lea: You don’t act like it. The Empress performs executions faster than you lot get a shuttle started.
Carter: Tell me what you know about the control node for the sensor net. Tell me what I need to know to get inside the net.
M-Wil: You're awfully bossy. Especially for a man...
M-Tri'lea: What makes you can order us around?
Carter: It's in your best interest to do so. If we die. You die.
M-Tri'lea: This isn’t a suicide mission. None of you are prepared to die – you’re not even prepared to accept the likelihood that your missing friends are almost certainly dead at the hands of the Empire or, if not, then the Alliance…
What a bleak and awful place this universe was. Robin regretted ever joking about it. Even with the fantastical “Terran Empire” long gone, this universe had failed to heal itself. Other, perhaps worse, powers had simply risen in its wake.
Robin did her best to listen to the conversation, with her back turned. Instead, she completed plotting a safe path through the benamite fields of the Nuriootpa Solar Nebula – or whatever they called it in this reality – and towards another system in their equivalent of the Barossa sector.
Suddenly, she noted Ikaia at her side. Looking at him with surprised eyes, her eyes only widened (and her brows only rose further) as he slid a PADD out of one the large pockets in his baggy shorts and passed it to her.
Wong: I'm just going to let you know now that I'm not going to force you to read this. But the EMH down in sickbay really wanted you to have his copy of T'Senara. He was ah… adamant that you read it.
She took it from him, looking down at it in bewilderment.
Hopper: ::Confused:: What? How does the EMH on the Indy even know me?
((Flashback – Sickbay, USS Jemison, Months Earlier…))
As the doors to the Jemison’s Sickbay slid open, Hopper led Richards inside with a businesslike hurry in her stride, nodding to the junior medical officers on standby as she passed them on her way to the EMH’s office. She was surprised to see him sitting at his desk with his feet up, a PADD in hand.
EMH: ::To Himself, looking at PADD:: You can be my doctor any day, T’Senara.
Hopper: Doctor, we are at Yellow Alert. Is this what you call “prepared” for triage conditions and testing radiation poisoning?
Richards: “Underprepared” maybe…
The white-haired EMH slowly looked up at the pair, and lowered his PADD so that it was sitting on his lap, the illustrated comic’s cells visibly showing the comic that he was reading. Hopper furrowed her brow.
EMH: Welcome to sickbay. Are you the medical emergency?
Richards: You should be thankful I’m not…
Hopper: I’d like to see you on your feet, Doctor. We’re conducting a rescue operation and, personality subroutines or not, I expect an EMH to be active when activated.
oO Unless you want to be the medical emergency… Oo
((End Flashback))
She still needed to send that letter to the EMH design committee. This Mark VII iteration had a deplorable excess of personality in her opinion.
Hopper: What, do they have some sort of obnoxious old hologram book club or something?
Ikaia wouldn’t have time to respond, however, before the stubborn Betazoids began to lay out an option. Robin shook her head and tossed the comic PADD onto the ledge in front of her to deal with later.
M-Tri’lea: The sensor grid, like much of Keehani Ukinix’s plans, was manifested as swiftly as possible. Her paranoia would never allow a vulnerability to linger. But haste leads to cut corners. The grid’s strength is also its weakness. It is designed to detect the Empire’s enemies – but friendly ships pass entirely undetected. Not even a sensor blip.
Carter: Scotty...how are you at spoofing their patrol ships?
Reade: It should be no issue sir.
Carter: Allright. Let's finish our pre-check and get airborne.
Esma: All systems ready.
Reade: Everything is good on my end.
Hopper: Course plotted and laid in, Commander.
Wong: Response
Wit final preparations made, John took the center seat and tapped his combadge to let the crew remaining on the Indy know it was time for their side mission to get underway.
Carter:=/\= Shuttle Gatineau to Indy Actual. We're ready to depart.=/\=
Ukinix: =/\= Response? =/\=
Carter: =/\= Thank you Commander. We'll get it done. Gatineau out.=/\=
As the comm channel closed, the doors opened below them with a slight rumble. The sensation as the little craft prepared to launch reminded Robin a bit of riding the NX-01 Shuttlepod Simulator at the Jonathan Archer museum. She instinctively held on to the terminal in front of her, preparing for the drop ahead.
Carter: Allright, here we go...
As it dropped, there was a brief moment, before the inertial dampers kicked in, where Robin felt her stomach jump into her throat. But it was over in an instant, and before they knew it they were out of the Indy and floating through space.
Carter: Reade, how much time do you need to reconfigure the warp engines to match the patrol ships' signature?
Reade: I need around 15-20 mins to make it happen.
Carter: Robin, how soon do we reach the net at warp two?
Hopper: ::Tapping at her screen:: 16 minutes, 12 seconds on the most straightforward route.
Carter: All right Scotty. You and Esma have that long to make it bullet proof.
Robin glanced across the small cockpit at Scotty and Esma – that was her name!
Reade: You got it sir.
Esma: Yes, sir.
Carter: All right then. Let's go get our people…
The shuttle cleared the Indy’s vicinity and, once it had reached a safe distance at thrusters and impulse, began the jump to warp two.
M-Wil: By Mother's Grace, our lives are in the hands of these misfits...
Wong: Response
M-Tri'lea: A bunch of Terrans, a Klingon, and a Vulcan. It sounds like the set up to a terrible joke. The punch line of which is probably “agony booth”.
Robin remained quiet, focused on reviewing updated sensor data as it came in. She did not care to correct them on the technicality that she was only half-human, or that she couldn’t properly be considered a “Terran”, having been born in the Beta Quadrant. For all she knew, Theta VII didn’t exist in this universe anyways.
Instead, she comforted herself in the distraction of subatomic microanalysis. Long-range sensor scans converted into higher resolution short–range data. It was remarkable how alike and yet unalike their reality was to Amity’s… even the benamite here had a different quantum signature.
Carter: Terrans in our universe are quite resourceful. You will see that soon...
M-Wil: Well, at the very least then, if you're going to do this, you should do it right.
One of the Betazoids – the one who called herself Wil, but who’s only similarity to their own Wil was the accent… and even that sounded different… made her way across the little cockpit to Scotty’s terminal. Robin thought about grabbing for the phaser at her hip, but thought better of it as the woman’s words sunk in. She watched, over her shoulder, as “Wil” provided them with a bit of help.
M-Wil: Here's the warp signature of a typical Betazoid imperial patrol ship. You'll want to match that sooner rather than later.
Reade: Thank you for that, this should help us.
M-Wil: I'd rather not end up before the Mother Eternal anytime soon--or as a cloud of space dust from an overzealous patrol.
Reade: I can totally understand that.
M-Tri'lea: ::Sarcastically:: Well… Thank the Four for that.
Wong: ::To M-Tri'lea:: Since we're still en route, we have plenty of time to kill in the meantime.
Robin looked up from her terminal, at Ikaia, in surprise. Did he really think these people, as hardened and serious as they were, would be interested in small talk? Let alone with–
M-Tri’lea: Oh, of course, by all means… Let the informal interrogation begin.
oO Hmm… Oo
Robin still couldn’t bring herself to look at… Daughter Polgonz. Instead, she shifted her gaze to “Wil”.
Hopper: We’re really not like that. Can’t you tell, we’re different?
M-Wil: Response
Ikaia shook his head.
Wong: This isn't an interrogation. I'm just having a conversation. Is that still a thing?
Polgonz shook her head in response – though whether she was mocking Ikaia’s gesture or responding genuinely, Robin couldn’t quite tell, given her aversion to looking straight at her.
M-Tri’lea: ::Mildly amused:: You really don’t understand do you? Where we come from, all it takes is one wrong word – one errant thought – in a simple conversation to land you at the mercy of the Mother Eternal’s judgment… Many good people lost their heads, thinking they were “just having a conversation.”
Hopper: ::Aghast:: That’s awful.
Robin realized that, for the first time since she’d encountered them in the brig, Polgonz’ words had drawn her to look at the woman’s face. Her distinctly Betazoid eyes, like pools of black water, drifted to her, revealing a small yet unflattering reflection of Hopper’s face. She quickly looked away again.
M-Wil: Response
Wong: Well I'm a bit curious - You and Miss Wil seemed a bit distressed in being in our universe in the first place. You don't seem very comfortable.
M-Tri’lea: Are you comfortable here? Would you like to stay? No, of course not. Everything about your reality feels wrong…
M-Wil: Response
M-Tri’lea: Besides, we have unfinished business here.
As she said that, Polgonz’ eyes almost seemed to alight with an inner fire, like flames dancing against a bare night sky. Robin could practically feel the heat radiating from them but, like a moth drawn towards a flame, couldn’t bear to look away. She didn’t doubt that at least part of that unfinished business involved vengeance.
Wong: You had the opportunity to head home to your universe in the shuttle chase. Why didn't you take it? What happened?
M-Tri’lea: An error in judgment… Trusted the wrong person. ::A glance to Wil:: Last time I’ll make that mistake.
M-Wil: Response?
Robin nodded, solemnly, as she turned back to her work, trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a universe where trusting one’s friend, or one’s family, could leave one utterly betrayed. Her mind strayed to a place she’d not wanted it to go since this had all begun… To the thought that she might never see the person she trusted most again…
((Flashback – Hopper’s Quarters, Amity Outpost, New Years Eve))
She watched as he left, tried to shift positions, but couldn’t find one that made her feel any better. There was probably no way for her to be comfortable now – not for some time. She found herself, as many do when they are beside themselves sick, thinking longingly to a simpler time when her mother might have held her and comforted her. She sighed.
Hopper: ::Trying to speak to him in the other room:: I can’t help but think this is a bad omen.
Richards: How do you mean?
He’d come back and she gratefully took the water, using all her remaining strength to pull herself up to a sitting position, and gulping it down. It was about the only thing she could imagine stomaching at this point. She tucked her legs up towards her body, in a sort of sitting fetal position, cradling the glass of water in her arms.
Hopper: ::Holding the glass out, asking for a refill:: How many ‘good years’ start like this? ::Glancing his way with gratitude in her eyes:: Then again, I do feel thankful… You came back at just the right time. For me, anyways. Really bad timing on your part.
Richards: ::Refilling her glass from the pitcher:: I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s all bad. Look at it this way, It can only get better, right? ::Warm smile:: As far as the timing goes… ::Shrugging:: I’m just glad I was there to help.
Nathan set the pitcher down, taking a seat next to Robin.
Hopper: Thank you… For saving me – ::sighing:: – from my own idiocy. I should have been more careful. I was just… Trying to have fun. Trying not to think so much.
Richards: I wouldn’t call it idiocy. ::Smirking:: Recklessness…maybe. But all the same, You’re welcome.
Hopper: I’m glad you came back… I’m glad you’re still here. That you’re staying with me. I can’t imagine what I would have done without you.
She reached out, resting her hand on his cheek, slowly and gently running her hand along his face. Nathan reached up, lightly touching her forearm.
Hopper: I have someone like you looking out for me… Someone I know I can trust… And I guess that’s a pretty good way to start off a new year.
Richards: ::Smiling, shrugging:: What are friends for, afterall?
((End Flashback))
Robin clenched her jaw and steadied herself for the rest of the mission to come. They were still alive. Nathan was alive. She would know if he wasn’t – she’d feel it, she was sure. Which meant she had to be ready for anything. Polgonz wasn’t the only one with unfinished business… He’d been there to protect her. Now it was her turn to protect him – and nothing was going to stand in her way.
((OOC – Will complete the next bit at the control node tomorrow, hopefully!))
TBC
