The Round Robin
Posted on Sun Oct 20, 2019 @ 2:00pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD
1,450 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Nibiru
Location: USS Castelnaudary
With lunch out of the way, it was time for questions to be answered. Obviously everyone here was exceptional in some way. Amber a telepath and telekinetic. Tiffany a hologram. Penny some kind of artificial lifeform too. Nicole a vampire (but that was already known). Jasmine was a species she didn’t recognize. Cassandra some kind of magic user? Questions for her might wait for another day. But today, Dr. Camille Lévesque, PhD, Lieutenant jg in Starfleet, would start getting answers.
Uncertain where to begin, she walked the corridors to find...someone. Anyone. So she was happy to run into Penny, one of two people aboard Victory (aside from her girlfriend) that she considered a true friend.
“Soooo...” she said as she walked up beside Penny. “Since lunch I’ve been thinking about what to ask everyone. I think I have it down to a simple three that will tell me everything I need to know. I think.”
"Aloha to you too," Penny said, grinning and grabbing Camille by the arm, matching her pace. "Only three is pretty good! When I found out who they all were, I had, like, twenty questions every ten minutes. Amber, Nicole and I were holed up in Amber's quarters for almost 24 hours straight. They kept taking turns napping while I kept asking stuff. Believe me when I say, I totally understand how you feel right now. So, fire away! What's question one?"
“First, how did you get recruited?” Camille was pretty sure that her scientific curiosity would get satisfied as people answered a question like that. And she’d also ask for permission to access some basic biographical information.
"During my first year at the academy," Penny said. "I was arguing with Vice Admiral Barrows about doing a double major and having a field assignment--I know...I'm nuts. He said so too," she said, seeing Camille's look of surprise. "Cadet Chintapalli, you are overreaching. Even fourth-year cadets wouldn't attempt such a foolhardy workload," she said, imitating the Vice Admiral's pompous tone. She shrugged. "Anyway, we're going back and forth and then in walks a full blown Admiral in full blown Admiral gear, and he tells me he'll offer me a field assignment." She grinned as they stepped into a turbolift. "Heck of a field assignment, huh?"
"Indeed!" Camille said, grinning back. "How did he identify you, though? And how did he know of your nature prior to that? And, this may be a weird question, Chintapalli? Not Naroot?"
"I don't know how he decided on me," she said hitting the button for her destination. "I mean, he was my interviewer at my initial application interview. Maybe he was screening cadets and took a liking to me, I don't know. And Chintapalli is the name I applied to the Academy under," she explained. "My adoptive parents' name. When I got my memory back, I went back to my given name, Naroot."
Camille nodded. “And so you were admitted into the League.”
"Well, not right away," John said, sitting back at his station on the bridge. "First they subjected me to a psyche test where they framed me, saying I was a spy sent to infiltrate them, and that I murdered Captain Edwards."
“Wait, what?” Camille asked. “Why would they do that?” She began to wonder what further nonsense she might be put through.
"Because I was a spy sent to infiltrate them and potentially kill Captain Edwards," he said, matter-of-factly.
“Oh.” She took a deep breath, lifted her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose and corner of her eyes, and sighed. “That means the League has enemies. Did you work for this Blackhawk man we just disrupted? Or some third party?”
"I was activated by Oliver Baines to be one of his generals," Tiffany said, tapping her fingers on her desk. "He was ready to begin actively attacking the Federation, and dozens of undercover operatives were sent in to replace Starfleet Officers. I was unique since I wasn't a replacement, but rather a completely new person. When I infiltrated the Nazareth, however, I found out that our planning wasn't perfect. We had no idea that Amber was a telepath. I did my best to avoid her, but being her head nurse that was difficult. In the end," she said, sighing, "they found me out. Admiral Markus made a comment about 'keeping enemies closer,' but I think he was just being merciful. He knew if I left his protection I'd be decompiled."
“And now you’re the Captain,” Camille observed. “I used to work at Jupiter Station and am familiar with the Emergency Command Hologram subroutine, though I’ve never met a sentient one. But you mentioned someone. Oliver Baines. Just how many enemies does your League have?”
"Too many," Meesa said, shaking her head. She poked and prodded at Penny's stomach, hooking up diagnostic equipment, and scowled. "You need to go in for more regular checkups."
Penny rolled her eyes. "I would, but the Chief Engineer keeps getting uncomfortable when I walk into his office and take my shirt off, and Nicole can only do so much."
"If you don't mind me asking," Camille said, "exactly what kind of artificial lifeform are you then? I had no idea until yesterday. Oh, if I'm being insensitive, please tell me." She reached over and gave Penny's hand a gentle squeeze. "I think of you as my best friend aboard the Victory and don't want my scientific curiosity to ruin that."
Penny gave Camille a grin that could have lit up the sector. "The Federation calls us Mudd-Type Androids. I'm a Mark II. I was built by the first generation of them in order to function around humans and evaluate whether or not you're a danger."
"Given all the threatening humans you've been working around, for, with, and against," Camille wondered, "what are your conclusions so far?"
"Honestly, there are days I don't know how Humans have gotten this far," Amber sighed, sitting back down behind her desk. "For all the advancements we've made, there still exists so many of those basic instincts that drive people to make the wrong decisions."
“You’re able to talk about that in a detached way,” Camille observed. “I thought Cassandra was the counselor. Are you just that self aware or do you not have those basic instincts?”
"Both," Amber said. "A perk of genetic perfection and good upbringing."
“Genetic perfection?” Camille asked. She thought back to what she knew about such ideas. Genetic engineering of humans and other sentient species was generally outlawed with some exceptions, but that didn’t stop people from trying. Several advanced humans were institutionalized on Earth. Hardly perfect. But there had been other attempts in her lifetime. And shortly before... “Are you from Darwin Station?”
Amber's eyes narrowed. "Nicole's been filling you in, I see," she said. "The Darwin Genetic Research Facility, yes," she said. "I am the last surviving member of Section 31's illegal experiments there."
“Nicole’s said nothing that I hadn’t pieced together myself first,” Camille said, perhaps a bit more defensively than she intended. She didn’t want to get Nicole in trouble, and Nicole had done nothing wrong. “I didn’t realize that those experiments were Section 31. Makes you wonder what other illegal activities they were involved in.”
"We hardly have to wonder," Cass said, sitting back on her couch. "Our group works to counter their actions frequently. Sometimes their goals are noble, but often times their means are not justified by their ends."
Camille nodded solemnly. She was concerned about this group that might solve the Federation’s problems by any means necessary. But it sounded like there were lines that they wouldn’t cross. “You’re making me feel better about this, Cass. I appreciate that. It’s not every day that someone learns a secret this big.”
Cass smiled. "I'm glad I could."
"Of course," John said, "there's still the real issue."
"Can you keep that secret?" Meesa asked.
"Because your life may depend on it someday," Amber said.
Camille looked straight into Captain Edwards’ eyes with a resolve that few might have expected. Perhaps that, half a year ago, no one would have fathomed possible. “You can count on me, Madame Capitaine,” she said. “I may not look like much, but as Nicole will tell you, I’m stronger than you might think.”
Nicole smiled and took Camille's face in her hands, kissing her softly. "I know you are." She pulled their covers up and snuggled close. It had been a very long day.
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