Conspiracy of One

Posted on Jun 05, 2014 @ 7:55am by Lieutenant Russ BaShen
Edited on on Jun 05, 2014 @ 7:57am

Mission: All Our Yesterdays

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"Conspiracy of One"
Con'd from: "What a difference 20 years makes"
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Stardate: 2.140605.1855
Location: USS DISCOVERY
Scene: Bridge

Another jolt shook Russ as he gritted his teeth. Despite subtle adjustments to their flight path and his constant watch on their trajectory, the ship continued to be rocked by a constant bombardment of space rock. The effort felt futile. He knew consciously that what he was doing was buying the DISCOVERY more time, but after the upper port nacelle had been struck, Russ knew their luck would run out eventually.

“Engineering,” he called through his comm badge, “Maynell, I know we’re strapped on power, but can I get anything more to thrusters? I’m dying over here.”

[[No can do, compadre,]] Maynell’s voice came back genially. Over the past 24 hours of constant calls between the two, the two men had developed at least a decent working relationship. It was better than the treatment he had received by the other human female aCEO that Crichton had, and Russ had been glad that Maynell had been left behind to work with him on this situation. [[I’ve already cut power from cloaking and defense systems, and rerouted to shields and hull – tactical was not too happy with that. There isn’t anything else to cut from.]]

Russ rubbed his face. “Holodecks?” He asked, knowing the answer.

[[Tapped.]]

“Stellar Cartography?”

There was a pause. [[I missed that…]] Maynell admitted, [[but it’s not much to work with. The power draw is minimal.]]

“I’ll take what I can get,” Russ smiled in grim triumph. He rattled off a few more systems, but there was nothing else that Maynell had missed. Russ sighed. “Thanks anyway, John.”

[[You got it.]] Maynell cut the comms.

Another jolt, but Russ ignored it, feeding the newfound power into thrusters, and programming new maneuvers. It was not much, but Russ guessed that with the additional power, he would at least be able to dodge a bit better. Happily, he found the ship more responsive and agile. **Every little bit helps,** he thought with satisfaction as he edged the axis of the ship ever so slightly and watched an asteroid move past the DISCOVERY harmlessly.

Just then, a chirp behind him caught his attention. [[Stonn to DISCOVERY.]]

“Kane here. Report, Commander.”

[[Mister Crichton has suffered an injury while attempting to repair a computer console, Captain. It is minor, but I am requesting that he be beamed to sickbay.]] Russ glanced back questioningly.

“Acknowledged.” Kane sighed. “Transporter room, beam Commander Crichton back.”

Russ tossed a look to Crewman Clarkson, who was standing by at the moment. “Clarkson, can you get this? I fed the thrusters some extra power; try to keep us from getting hit.”

She nodded and stepped in to take his place as Russ turned to face the Captain. “Sir, by your leave; I want to go down and check on Commander Crichton.”

Kane raised an eyebrow and began to say something, but then stopped. “Do you have any medical knowledge Lieutenant? I don’t want you underfoot…”

“I do sir. Commander Reardon knows; I signed up with her as an auxiliary nurse in case of emergencies. I just want to make sure Crichton is alright.”

Kane nodded thoughtfully. “By all means then. As soon as Reardon thinks he is ready, I would like to send him back.”

“I’ll convey the message, Sir.” Russ acknowledged, and quickly moved up to the turbolift.

=/\=
Scene: Medical bay

The door hissed open to reveal a mix of bleary-eyed patients standing about as a young female nurse was rapidly trying to process them all. By the medical beds, Bonnie Reardon was struggling with Jake Crichton, who kept batting away her hand. “I’m fine, dammit,” Jake said gruffly, wincing a little. “It’s just a sore neck.”

“You have a concussion, Jake, at the very least. Hold still!”

“I need to get back to the CENTURY! I almost had it!” Jake shot back, swatting away a medical tricorder.

Russ approached the two. Bonnie glanced up. “Mr. BaShen, I’m sorry, if this is about medical treatment…”

“I’m here to help with Jake,” Russ interjected quickly.

“I don’t need help!” Jake dodged away from a probing neural monitor.

Bonnie was beginning to get red in the face. “You are not going anywhere unless I give you a clean bill of health, Commander!”

Russ jumped in. “Jake, just let her work. Talk to me; what happened?”

Jake grudgingly settled down, and winced for a second as he rubbed the back of his neck. Commander Reardon tossed his hand aside, and began scanning in a huff. “I’m not quite sure,” he admitted. “One minute, I… I thought I found the console where the original signal was sent out from… and just as I got to it…”

He shook his head, causing a wince of pain, and Commander Reardon to grunt in annoyance. “Sit still!”

“I’m fine! Commander Stonn was overreacting!” Jake snapped.

“Wait, Commander Stonn was there?” Russ asked, a tingle creeping up his spine.

Jake looked up in surprise. “Well, yeah. He said there was a circuit overload in the console. But that’s impossible… It was all clean… It had to be - "

Russ eyed Jake. A circuit overload would have caused an electrical shock, and would have left some kind of burn, or at the very least, Jake would have been short of breathe. Neither of these symptoms seemed present. The tingling in the back of his neck grew stronger. “You were facing the circuits at the time?”

“Yeah, I was just about to…”

But Russ wasn’t listening anymore. Commander Reardon was scanning the *back* of Jake’s head, and there were no signs of injuries to his front. His mind was racing…

And Commander Reardon was speaking. “Russ, I appreciate you stopping by, but I have it from here.”

Russ snapped out of his reverie, and nodded. “Yes Ma’am. Jake, I’ll see you shortly.”

Jake grunted as Russ turned. As he left, he could hear Bonnie arguing with Jake again, but he did not pay it any mind. He had to see the Captain.

=/\=
Scene: Bridge -> Ready Room

Captain Kane was still sitting at his chair when Russ entered the bridge. He turned to see Russ, and nodded in acknowledgment. “Mr. BaShen.” Concern suddenly flooded his face as he noticed Russ’s preoccupied look. “How is he?”

“Huh? Oh. He… he’s fine sir. Commander Reardon is tending to him now…” He hurried to get all the words out, and then took a deep breath. “Can I see you, privately?”

Kane’s face moved to a puzzled look. “Can it wait, Lieutenant?”

Russ shook his head. “No sir. I think this is urgent. I should have said something sooner.”

Kane studied Russ for a long moment, and then glanced around the bridge. He nodded to Byte. “Lieutenant, you have the bridge.” Byte acknowledged and moved to take Kane’s place as he strode past Russ. “My ready room, Mr. BaShen.”

Russ braced himself, and followed the Captain. The door slid aside, allowing the men entry. A moment later, the door slid behind them, and they were alone. Captain Kane stared hard at Russ. “Well, Mr. BaShen,” he began, “What is this about?”

Now that the moment was here, Russ was hesitant, now slightly uncomfortably. “Sir… I don’t really know how to say this.”

The Captain’s eyebrows furrowed, but he remained silent for the moment. When Russ failed to make progress after a few more seconds, he finally prompted him, “Lieutenant, you did not come here to stare at me and say nothing, I hope. Please state your business.”

Russ inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. “It’s about Commander Stonn. I think he’s up to something.” The Captain’s eyes narrowed, but otherwise, he did not react to the announcement. Russ rushed on, “Look sir, when… when he questioned you on the bridge earlier…” Russ began.

“First officers are supposed to present alternatives, Lieutenant,” the Captain observed.

Russ shook his head. “Sir, it’s not just that. Look, call it a pilot’s intuition. I… There is something about his actions that are… off.”

Kane contemplated him for a long moment, before speaking slowly. “Lieutenant, I am not sure what you have against my first officer, but if you mean to tell me that you pulled me aside simply because of some tingling sense…”

“Commander Stonn threatened me sir,” Russ interrupted, blurting out the truth. Suddenly, like the faucet had been turned on, Russ began to speak hastily. “I had been drinking with… another crewmate. We were reported to Commander Stonn. Commander Stonn brought me in privately, and told me that if I wanted to stay in Starfleet, I would keep my mouth shut and do what he said, and maybe he would sweep it under the rug. He told me… he told me things that I thought were gone from my record, and threatened to use his influence to see me drummed out of the service.

“I thought it was threats at the time… but then I saw him argue with you, and I got to feeling… I don’t know sir. I wanted to tell you then, but then we got caught up with everything else going on, and I talked myself out of it… I thought maybe it was just me. But then…

Russ shook his head. “I went down to see Ja… Commander Crichton, and asked him what happened. His story didn’t add up – Commander Stonn had called him in as having been caught in a circuit overload – that would have produced an electric shock. But I didn’t see any evidence of it – it looked like Crichton had been hit from behind, not shocked….

Russ stopped and caught his breath. He finally met the Captain’s eye. “Sir, look. I know I’m not a model officer. I also have a tendency to jump to conclusions… I don’t know if I am making a mistake in all of this, but I don’t want something to happen and to have been silent. I can’t live with that.” He exhaled. There was a long pause. Russ felt a disquiet in Kane, and wondered if he had gone too far.

**Well dammit, if he’s going to throw me off the ship, I might as well be honest.** Russ began to vent his feelings. “Sir, I… I’m sure you didn’t even want me here. I remember the DISCOVERY as my first home away from home. I was here when she first launched… and now all I see are ghosts. I see the way you look around at the ship, like you are seeing something else too. I never got that feeling off you like I did Captain Alaica; I always knew that I was welcome with her, and I could speak my mind. Maybe it’s not fair to you, but I felt at home with her.

“But she’s not here anymore. You are. And dammit, if there is anything I am, it’s loyal.” Russ stuck out his chin. “If I am going to be thrown off the ship for being who I am, then so be it, but I’m not going to pretend that I’m something I’m not. I’ve spent a long time hiding, and trying to drink away my problems. But I’m better than that, dammit.”

He spread his arms. “Accept me as I am Captain, or throw me off. But I owe it to you to be honest, and to warn you if I think that there is something off. I think Commander Stonn is up to something.”

There was another lengthy pause. This time, Russ sat in silence, out of words to say. It had felt good to get the weight that had been gathering since they had first embarked off his chest. He maintained his lock on the Captain’s eyes.

Finally Kane spoke. “Who was the other person you were drinking with, Mr. BaShen?” His question seemed like a non-sequitur amid everything else that Russ had said.

Unbalanced, Russ hesitated. “Uh… I’d… I’d rather not say sir.”

Kane raised an eyebrow. “I could make that an order, Lieutenant…”

Russ struggled with himself for a moment, and then ventured, “It will have to be that then sir.”

The Captain watched him. Russ squirmed. Finally, Kane rubbed one hand over his face. “Well, Lieutenant. You can add candor and fearlessness to your qualities; you certainly aren’t afraid to speak your mind,” he mused, turning around and striding to his desk, still contemplating Russ’s words. Finally, he turned back to Russ. “Thank you, for your honesty, Mr. BaShen. I will take your words under advisement.”

Silence filled the air once more. Russ wondered for a moment if this was a dismissal, and shifted uncomfortably, trying to decide if he should leave. Then the Captain spoke again. “This is my home too Lieutenant. I had many friends here. There were many memories.” He turned his gaze coolly to Russ. “No one can replace those that came before, Mr. BaShen, and it is always hard to forget those who have passed on.” Silence. “But… new memories can always be made.”

Russ was unsure how to respond. Kane saved him the trouble by changing the topic once more. “Our discussion stays within these walls, Lieutenant; understood?”

Russ nodded smartly, and clicked his heels together. “Aye sir.”

Kane nodded. “Take the helm, and see if you can keep us viable for that much longer. You are dismissed.”

Russ saluted, and strode out. He glanced back briefly over his shoulder as the doors closed to see Kane leaning over his desk, a pensive look on his face.

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NRPG: Jerome, be gentle on me.

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Christopher B. Del Gesso
As
Lt(JG) Russ Gerodi Bashen
Flight Control Officer
USS DISCOVERY