Surrender

Posted on Sun Jan 8, 2023 @ 3:41pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

926 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: We Will Take Care of You
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Penny followed the Captain into her ready room, head down, arms wrapped around herself. She had a brief memory of stepping into a dean's office with similar feelings and filed the thought away for later comparison and analysis. She wished she'd never signed up to come on board and put everyone in danger. She wished Nicole and Camille were there. She wished the Admiral was there. She wished she could just self destruct. There was no one to protect her from whatever punishment the Captain would bestow, and while her programming didn't cause her to shake with fear, she still felt that level of emotion.

She stood in front of the Captain's desk and in a small voice said, "I know you have no reason to believe me, but I honestly had no idea this would happen. They kept me in the dark the entire time. And I'm sorry." She tried to hold back tears, looking up at the Captain's face.

"Can you identify what they've done to our computer and undo the damage they've done? Restore control of the ship to us?" Kennit asked, rather than respond to the Lieutenant's statement.

Penny swallowed hard. "I...I don't know," she said. "I may be able to find it in the system, but I don't know if I can get around their work. They'll probably have anticipated our trying. They may lay booby traps."

"You don't know." Kennit echoed. "You don't know?" she asked again, her voice rising slightly in tone. "Then what exactly are you doing on my ship? You don't know or you won't?" she snapped, a dangerous note creeping in her voice.

"Don't," Penny said, feeling like she'd been kicked. "Considering they didn't tell me they were coming, that they intended to betray us and that they've been working on this behind my back with ulterior motives for, literally, my entire life, I'm kind of in the dark here. The damage that crippled me when I first arrived on Earth was never completely repaired, so unfortunately they probably know more about me than I know about them."

"The enemy never tells you when they're coming." Kennit said. Then, with an odd roll of her eyes she added "Well, except in the old 20th Century movies about that James Bond character. The Klingons don't give warnings. The Romulans don't give warnings. The Borg don't give warnings. It's too late to sit here and cry over the past when the future is in jeopardy! Can you assist in getting control restored or not?!"

Penny tilted her head. "Of course," she said. "Why didn't you ask me that first?"

“Lieutenant you just told me you didn’t know whether or not you could identify what they did and restore power and control to the ship.” the Captain said, irritation heating her tone of voice unmistakably.

"You asked me if I could undo it and restore control. I don't know if I can, but of course I want to assist. I don't want them going ahead with this plan any more than you do." She blinked. "I guess I'm not really surprised at your distrust, but then again, despite my efforts, you never really got to know me."

She was trying. Lord knows she was really trying to keep calm and not allow emotion to cloud her judgement but sometimes… the Captain just stared at her junior officer without speaking. Rhea didn’t quite trust herself in that moment.

"I tried to get to know you," Penny said. "Tried to join you for lunch those few times, engage in some conversation. I tried to get to know Torres too." She shook her head. "You both are really committed to the antisocial bit. Especially Torres. I barely had anything about him to talk about...." She stopped, her mind racing. Finally, she looked up at the Captain. "I really don't know him."

“This is not the time..” Kenny started to say before Penny interjected and cut her off.

"No, I mean...I don't know him! Past his file, I don't really know him!" Penny said, looking brighter. "If all of their intel is based on my letters home, then that's their weakness! They were preparing for Nicole, Camille, Cassandra, AJ....all the people I've informed them about." She blinked quickly. "We need to call a meeting. People I haven't gotten to know that well. They need to come up with the plan. That'll be the hardest thing for the androids to predict."

“A staff meeting can be arranged.” Kennit allowed.

"Well, technically I've already started scanning the computer," Penny said. She looked at the Captain's terminal, which lit up with the ship's code scrolling by at lightning speed. "Evidently they reactivated my remote access subroutines," she explained. She paused and looked down at her hands. "Could I ask a favor?"

Kennit did not answer verbally, but did nod her head as she waited for Penny to continue.

The terminal's screen changed to a file directory. "I left a letter here for my parents for...when this is over. Just some things I want to make sure I tell them, that I love them, and so forth. Just...tell them there was an attack, I died during the fight or some such."

She cleared the screen and looked back at the Captain. "I'll go to the briefing room and begin assembling a list of crew members to call in. Give me an hour to try to break through."

“One hour.” The captain agreed.

Penny nodded and stood up, walking out quickly.

 

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