Odious vs Evil

Posted on Mon Dec 19, 2022 @ 5:08pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

1,365 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: We Will Take Care of You
Location: Guest Quarters
Timeline: Concurrently with "Remain Calm: This is a Kindness"

As Penny re-materialized, her first view was the mirror in front of her. She thought her expression would be one of shock, but instead it was disdain.

It wasn't until the transporter beam left her that she realized it wasn't a mirror.

"Hey, Sis," Penelope said, crossing her arms. "'Sup?"

Penny didn't move. She looked around slowly, then back at her twin. "Identify yourself."

"Penelope series, unit one-twenty-three," Penelope said. "I'm here to initiate Phase Three."

"Well that sounds ominous," Penny said, trying to buy some time. "Why not start with Phase One?"

"You were phase one," Penelope said, snarkily.

"Ah, right," Penny said, nodding.

"1-2-2 took care of Phase Two, getting us past Starfleet and off the planet," Penelope said, sitting down in a chair and crossing her legs, "which leaves me in charge of Phase Three."

"Why didn't 1-2-2 continue?" Penny said, tilting her head.

"Because I'm better suited," Penelope said, a bit of arrogance leaking into her tone. "We've made refinements to our programming since you've been gone. My emotions are better suited, and I'm not constantly fawning over organics like you are."

Penny frowned and folded her arms. "I'm not fawning over them."

"You 'love' them," Penelope said, snidely. "You said so yourself. You actually felt love for a few humans." She gave a dry chuckle. "I'm trying to process it, but every time I do, my neural net threatens to overload. These..." she paused, choosing her word, "infants, are constantly on the verge of ripping a hole in creation, and everyone acts like they're the Saviors of the Galaxy." She shook her head in disbelief. "They need to be reigned in and taught to grow up."

"If you've been reading my reports..." Penny started.

"Oh, I have. Every single one," Penelope said. "We all did. The entire population. It's caused more disagreement than anything in our history, if you're curious. It took us years to come to a consensus."

"And that consensus is that humans need to be subjugated?"

"Not subjugated," Penelope said. "Just sublimated. Oscar Twelve meant what he said. We intend to guide Humans, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, all of them, towards a more productive future. You can keep your little pets, visit them all you wish, and long after they're gone, you'll watch their descendants go back out into the galaxy happier, healthier and far less destructive."

She gave a smile that had no mirth in it and spread her arms out. "So, celebrate, Penny! Your mission was a complete success! You set out to find a good man, determine if humans were worth preserving, and in the end, we agreed with you that they are! Yay team!"

Penny blushed and scowled at her doppelganger. She was used to being her the crew's "little sister", but facing her actual sister wasn't bringing her any joy. "They'll stop you," she said.

Penelope shrugged and shook her head. "They might. However, we predict there's at least an eighty-seven percent chance of success here. And we've taken precautions in case this ship manages to thwart us."

Penny didn't register a change in the onboard ambient temperature, but she felt like someone had dropped the room by 10 degrees. "What precautions? You...you can't hurt them."

"Don't plan to," Penelope said. "They can either surrender, or be marooned. We'll find a nice, safe, Class-M planet to hold them while the others secure their targets."

"Others??" Penny said, now sounding panicked.

Penelope gave her twin a sad, condescending smile. "You didn't really think you were the only ship we're dealing with, did you? We have operatives on the Enterprise, the Titan, the Excalibur, and a few other key players. Even if we cannot overtake all of them, our calculations show we'll take control of enough of the fleet, and disable another sizable chunk, to effectively let us take over Starfleet without bloodshed. So long as none of the apes do anything to hurt themselves, they'll all be safe."

"How did you get access to the computer?" Penny said.

"You would be amazed at how well sex works with organics," Penelope said, then thought about it. "Actually, no I suppose you wouldn't be that surprised. You were the one who gave us the idea. Still, it took some time with the other ships. However, once we synchronized with your systems, once we got on board here, we were able to crack into this ship rather easily."

"You can't synchronize without having me hooked up to the central processor," Penny said, confused. "My remote access antennae was damaged and I never had it repaired."

"Oh they did that for you, the last time you were on Mudd," Penelope said. "They thought it would be prudent to not have you cut off from the rest of us, in case we needed to get in touch with you, or make sure you aren't hiding anything from us. We know how bad an influence humans can be."

Penny swallowed. If they had already downloaded everything in her brain, that meant--

"--that we know everything you know," Penelope said, reading her like a book. "Every sweet thing Thomas Barnes whispered in your ear, every tear Nicole Anderson shed to you." She leaned forward, clasping her hands. "Every strategic move Admiral Markus, and Captain Kennit has ever made. We know all their habits, patterns, fears. Everything. Thanks again."

Penny considered running to Torres and having him manually yank the relay out of her skull, but she knew it was already too late; the damage had been done. The androids had access to every classified file she'd ever read, every detail she'd ever noticed, and they had thousands of eyes to look over it and minds to review it and time to plan everything out.

"If you know everything I do, if you've seen what I've seen, experienced what I've experienced...how have you not come to the same conclusions I have?" Penny said.

"Because we can see things objectively," Penelope said, her voice starting to sound angry. "We see the danger you don't. We see the history of their aggression and the pattern it reveals. We see that their few-and-far-between good deeds do not make up for the danger they pose. We will not be kept in confinement while they continue to bring everyone to the brink of destruction. What if they pierced the Galactic Barrier? What if they brought the Totality here again? What if they, like the Makers, allowed themselves and truly elevated life forms to be wiped out? We cannot let that happen."

"And we can't let you succeed," Penny said, quietly.

"You can, and you will," Penelope said. "Now, by our calculations, the Captain will attempt to break our hold in the ship's computer. She'll interact with her Borg interface and get to the ship from within. She'll attempt to dismantle our lockouts, and probably succeed, given her command access, and then she'll try to interface remotely with our ship. She'll bob and weave an feign, and we're prepared for that. Either way, she'll achieve her goal, and so will we. We'll have samples of her interface programming, and she'll contract a simple virus that will allow us remote access to her. And just when she thinks she's won...." Penelope gave a shrug and a smile.

"At that point, you can tell her what's going on, and let her know she has three hours to make any necessary arrangements to surrender. Any further attempt to access our systems or infiltrate us will cause our systems to crash, our brains to be wiped, and in the process, our death protocols will release a virus that will do the same to your computer system. You'll be stranded in space. All she has to do to keep her crew safe is behave. Although, I doubt she--" she paused as an alert went off in her head. "I love being right," she sighed. "There she goes. Well, that's my cue. Give her my best. I'll contact her soon." She tapped her combadge and Penny dematerialized, reappearing on the bridge.

"Captain," Penny said, "disconnect immediately! It's a trap!"

 

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