Ensign Richard Matthews - Contingency Plans
Matthew Gough
OOC - Some people still need the chance to sim, so this is just a reaction sim. Keep the numbers up and a siming schedule. But not pushing things forward because I know how it is to play catch up. Sorry!
((Deck 1, Conference Room, USS Khitomer))
If you could change your fate, would you? But what was fate? A locked in predetermined set of events that each individual being in the universe had been assigned at the moment of their coming into being? Not to mention inanimate objects, wasn’t it just as much the asteroid’s destiny to smash into that world, ending all life on it? As much as it was the life forms currently living on that world to be snuffed out in an instant?
Fate, predetermined destinies, the idea that somewhere something was weaving their threads of fate into some sort of tapestry of events that might allow for a few alterations to the fabric of design. If someone didn’t like the pattern, aka their fate. But would fall apart if key pieces of stitching were altered, and so they just couldn’t be touched.
As fantastical as that might have sounded. As comforting as it might be to a person who felt like they had little or no control over their own life. To Richard, the thought that everything was set up to go a certain way sounded so dull. Terrible and dull.
But now was not the time to be waxing poetically in his own little world. Trying to define something so abstract. When truth be told, Richard really never gave much thought to it anyway! The closest he got to deep thoughts about time was when he calculated how much sleep he would get if he fell asleep right at the moment that he closed his eyes.
Connor: So what is the exact plan, then, Ginny?
Grabbing onto that line, like commander Dewitt had thrown him a life preserver, Richard pulled himself back aboard the conversation.
Admiral: Khitomer must get to the prisoner camp before the Lattice attack. We must strike first.
Ayemet: Admiral, I’ve had my taste of the Lattice Alliance hospitality :pause and then speaking slowly: But you can’t seriously think that by killing this individual it will somehow change everything for the better? You’ve no idea the effects their death might have.
There was also the very real possibility that events were transpiring in the galaxy that would have someone else filling the role this person would take on. Richard didn’t believe that they had a destiny. But he could believe that everyone’s choices led towards specific outcomes. And it was the choices each individual was making at the moment that would propel this someone to power - and if not them, then someone else.
But that would be because of the choices they were all making in the war. Not because this one person was destined to mess everything up.
Admiral: You misunderstand. It's not just the one I want to kill. The entire facility needs to go. It's the only way to stop the raid for sure.
Richard: :: Head tilting to the side in confusion :: I really hope you mean ‘evacuate the facility’ and not ‘destroy it all’ because the later is such a stupid plan.
Any: Response.
Ayemet: You expect us to help you? Why would we do that?
Tori: Because if you don’t, you die.
So, skipping over talking things out and right to threats? This was dangerous, these people were dangerous, already pushed to do something as extreme as time travel. Richard couldn’t help but wonder if Tori mean that as just the warning that it was. That they would meet their ends in the war to come.
Or would these three be welling to kill others, like past versions of their friends, too achieve their goals.
Tori: Not all of you, not all at once, but most of you soon enough. :: Beat :: Mostly pointless deaths fighting pointless battles. If you don’t like the sound of that, then open your ears.
Michaels: ::To Tori :: Miss, unless you desire to become a Cassandra... and if you do not know what that means, I am certain that Admiral Lacy can explain it... you may wish to consider the need for trust. Your male companion's... Kael is it not? I assume you were not named after Superman... Your companion's "answer" to my question has convinced me that there is a great deal you are not telling us. Whatever your reasons, it does give the impression that you do not trust us. That leaves us :: beat :: that leaves me little reason to trust you.
Ohnari: ::stern:: Lieutenant Michaels that was entirely unnecessary. Do not insult them. While this is a lot to take into account..I am sure there is a sense of urgency on their part, considering what was the timeline Admiral? A week's time? A little desperation is understandable.
oO Note to self, don’t express any negative views about the future people around Doctor Ohnari, mom mode has been activated. Oo
Admiral: Lera has a point. We haven't told you everything, because we—I didn't want it to cloud your judgment. Starfleet principles aren't worth much anymore, to us, any more than Napoleonic principles are worth to you. ::to Tori:: Another European conqueror, with a much better reputation.
Hobart: Might as well tell us.
Admiral: Might as well. After the raid, Khitomer and newly-promoted Commodore Shayne were tasked with organizing the search for the Alliance launching point. Khitomer, Ronin, Renown, Lowell, and Cadence were all deployed, but it was Khitomer that got lucky. Or unlucky, as it turned out.
Shayne / Any: Response
Admiral: We followed a lead to an uncharted system, just a series of letters and numbers on a star chart. They saw us before we saw them. The battle was brief. We crashed onto an L-class planet. Survivable—for a while.
Richard: :: Taking notes again :: I kind of would like more info about that. Maybe we could focus on preventing loss with this foreknowledge of how things will go. Before we jump the gun and start assassinating innocent people. :: He looked up from what he was writing down :: Because, again, just to confirm with everyone. ‘The entire facility needs to go.’ sounds an awful lot like kill them all.
Any: Response
Admiral: Between the battle, the impact, and the nearly three weeks it took for Starfleet to find us, less than half the crew survived. Those that did were pulled off the line.
Richard: :: Looking down again :: So let's avoid what we can. Who can go over the crash, the events leading up to and after. So we can work out contingency plans? I’d be happy to drop by your holding cells to talk later if that is easier. It sounds like we will be going to the place where we crash anyway, if it’s an Alliance strong hold.
He glanced at the other two questioningly, because future Ginny wasn’t finished yet. But he’d ask her for extra details too if she was welling.
Any: Response
Admiral: That was the beginning of the end. They knew what they'd taken off the board, and hit DS33 hard and fast. Within a few months, the Federation gave up all claim to the Isles. But the Alliance was never going to stop there.
Biting his tongue, least he sound like a broken record, and keep talking over the people in the room whose opinions actually mattered at the moment. His eyes darted to the command staff, a few of whom he personally didn’t quite think should be in on these talks to begin with. Wasn’t there rules when it came to these sorts of things and officers and their families?
In any case, Richard really hoped that he would get the chance to pick the future visitor's brains just a little. Prevention was one of his more favored forms of disaster relief. Even if they couldn’t prevent the major disaster. Maybe they could prevent other things.
Any: Response
TAGS/TBC
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Science Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A238908RM0