Crossroads

Posted on Nov 20, 2015 @ 12:50am by Lieutenant Commander Aerdan Jos
Edited on on Nov 20, 2015 @ 12:50am

Mission: Civil War

"Crossroads" (continued from "Pouvoir Absolu")
~*~
Location: USS Phoenix
Stardate: 2.151119.2233
Scene: ExO's quarters
~*~

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
~Woody Allen

~*~

Cade Foster stretched himself out over the back of the couch in the executive officer's quarters and was currently lamenting to the man's girlfriend. Both of them had a sneaking suspicion that this might turn into quite a scene once the owner of the room reappeared, which was exactly where there was an open, undrank bottle of Tarkarian Gin on the table.

"You know she's a fangirl." he groaned. "She's cute, she's talented and she's... she's actually nice to me."

Zabrielle Liden chuckled, indulging in the mixture of pleasure and pain that was mingling on Cade's expression. "And this is a bad thing, why?"

"Oh come on!" Cade protested, flicking a hand in the air. "How am I supposed to react to such attention? I'm not nice, I don't get giddy."

"Do you want to be nice? Do you want to be giddy?" She echoed, leaning forward to stare at him critically. "You're a big boy, Cade. You can do whatever the hell you want."

A heartfelt scoff punctuated the air. "Like hell I can. I have three pips again, and that means there are certainly things that are off the table. Especially when we're preparing for a civil war."

"Please." Dr. Liden waved a hand in his general direction in a charmingly dismissive manner. "Sex before battle is a time honored tradition."

If he was drinking, Cade would have snorted alcohol out his nose.

"Not with a teenager, and not with a co-worker." He tossed back.

She laughed. "I sleep with the almost-boss. What's your excuse?"

"I'm not as sexy as you?" He offered back casually.

"Weak." A flippant judgment.

"I don't want to be thrown in the brig again?" Trying slightly harder - this, at least, was truth in his mind.

"Eh..." she shrugged. "Getting warmer."

"How about we're in the middle of a fucking war and while I'd love to bone a sexy young thing, I have better things to do than mentally damage a valuable medical co-worker; and quite frankly I'm too old for manipulative, non-consensual sex right now." An honest shrug. "Besides, sex is better when you can idly enjoy it by a shore at your own leisure. Not when you're on a time limit to destruction."

For many long seconds Zabrielle said nothing, but she smiled fondly. Maybe it was twelve lifetimes of experience that made her one of the few people who could expertly manipulate Cade Foster into sharing hints of his true soul with her. Maybe just the fact that they were old friends meant she knew him better than most. But hearing him in his own voice lay down what he actually though hearkened back to older, happier times.

"When did we grow up and start caring?" she asked nostalgically.

"When we had no other choice." he returned. "After a while living a shallow, self serving life like leaves one a desiccated corpse. I deal with enough dead people - I don't need to be walking around dying inside."

She drifted up towards him, offering a small embrace, a gentle touch on his shoulder.

"Don't be cheating on your blue-Klingon!" Cade sassed, brushing the affection away. No matter how good it felt, he had already decided Zabrielle was off limits - and while he trusted her, he never did trust his own self control in such matters.

"Never will!" She tossed back, hopping away. "Besides, he'll probably be back any minute and you know how hot under the collar he'll be simply finding we ambushed him." Blue eyes twinkled merrily. "Not that I mind it when he's hot."

"You're bad..." Cade teased. "And I'm not sure Andorians and 'hot go toget--"

His humorous statement was cut off by the shrilling of a red alert, a demand for all staff to stations. Cade snapped up to attention, on his feet in a heartbeat.

"Shit." He was halfway out the door as he intoned, "that can't be good."

"What is it?" Zabrielle queried, rushing to follow him.

Cade spared a moment to turn back. "War came early."

~*~

Scene: Bridge
Time Index: Three hours past the ultimatum

Kane had left to go hash things out with the scattered powerbase of the resistance, leaving Aerdan Jos to sweat it on the bridge of the Phoenix. His muscles were starting to ache as he kept himself uncomfortably still while reading a myriad of readiness reports - none of which looked good.

The odds were not in their favor and it would take a miracle or an act of madness to change that, or even give them a glimmer of a chance.

Not that Aerdan Jos was a quitter. If he was going to die, he had already decided long ago that he would much rather go down fighting until the last breath than roll over and play dead. Still, he would rather fight with a chance of victory, rather than a suicide mission.

Chronometers didn't tick - they hadn't for centuries, but his own mind heard every single hum of the ship and interpreted as a mounting cacophony of the steady countdown to doomsday. 24 hours was just long enough to make someone think they had a chance without being long enough to actually do anything. The bridge crew was silent, each of them industriously working on optimizing the ships system in a vain attempt to bleed a hint of an edge over the massive fleet before them. Aerdan didn't have the heart to tell them that it was futile. Maybe because he held that same glimmer of hope in his own heart. It was the only thing keeping them going.

The silence on the bridge was so overwhelming that Aerdan Jos nearly jumped out of his seat when the bridge doors opened. Doors that were immediately following by a loud, crass, familiar bark.

"Jos. Office. Now!" Cade was already headed there.

Aerdan's eyes narrowed. If this was some of Cade's bullshit he would have the man's head. He was just about to call him out on said bullshit - but Cade was making a beeline for the executive officer's ready room, carrying a big shiny black medical case with him. His posture and stride said he was all business. The bridge crew was looking up in various states of curiosity.

Rising from the chair, the Andorian took a few steps forward. "Mr. Byte, you have the bridge until I return."

{{Affirmative.}} The android replied as professional as ever.

With a deep breath to steady himself Aerdan ascended the steps to the top of the bridge and followed Cade into the dimly lit ExO's office. He waited only until the doors closed before settling his hands on his hips and lisping in an exasperated tone, "Why have you come to the bridge, Cade--"

"I know how we beat them." The older man interrupted, setting the case on the desk and staring Aerdan directly in the eyes. And he got quite a good reaction for his effort.

The blue jaw dropped, antennae perked up in belated shock. "You're not serious..."

"I am fucking serious." Cade clipped back. "It'll need work - but I think I have an answer."

Aerdan couldn't stop blinking. Sure, Cade billed himself as a genius. And he was a pretty legitimate medical genius. But he wasn't a tactician, and he wasn't an engineer. Commander Jos simply couldn't think of a single thing medicine could do that would turn the tide of this situation. "I don't believe you."

Cade smirked. He loved being underestimated, it just made him look that much more brilliant. With a flourish, he clicked open the case and removed a very curious black high-quarantine sample case. "Remember these?"

Aerdan's face turned a ghostly shade of powdery blue. He did, in fact, remember it well. It was a bioweapon, one that he created - though it didn't start out that way. He had been working with Peter Aspinall to find a way to stop the Zanders Collective from assimilating the whole of Andalusia. They had also been on a time limit - 60 hours before Lorn of Borg destroyed the entire facility to prevent the spread of the collective.

The tight time limit had prompted some fast engineering of independent nannites to be used as a counter weapon to the growing collective. It worked - a little too well. Not only did it reverse the Zander's Collective, it attacked free Borg.

"I thought the Federation ordered those destroyed." Aerdan had certainly sat though enough trials about it. To this day he still didn't quite know how he avoided a full court martial, beyond the thin excuse that he had never intended to create a bioweapon.

"They were." Cade shrugged, not giving a hang about the rules any more now than he did back then. "These were the nannites that were removed from yours truly. My own personal nannites if you will. So I kept them."

"So you could wave them in my face some day?" Aerdan shot back, with a sudden defensive streak.

Cade's throat and cheeks turned pink. "Well, I had considered it at the time. But shit, we've come a long way from then." He set the case on the table. "This might just save our asses now."

Aerdan rocked on his feet. The nannites were specifically designed to attack other nannites at the cellular level. Peter had done some impressive modifications on them, and no one could deny the effectiveness of the final product. But how did one take a nannite designed to enter cells and attack its friends and turn it into something that attacked enemy ships? Well - he only knew one person who might know.

[[Jos to Crichton. Can you spare a moment?]] It was asked in that tone of 'you're going to spare a moment' - which happened to be the sort of tone that engineers hated, no matter how quiet and professional the voice on the other end of the line was.

[[We are stretched to the limits down here, Commander]] The chief engineer's voice returned. [[I can't spare anyone]]

Aerdan took in a deep breath, trying to convey the seriousness of the situation in as few words as possible. [[I need you in my office, and I need you right now.]]

Cade's laughter was immediate and intense. "That sounds like a kinky sex come-on, you know?"

"You think everything sounds like a kinky sex come-on." Aerdan spat back without thinking.

Dr. Foster waggled his brows. "Maybe it should be! Sex before battle really calms the nerves!"

[[You two realize I'm still on the line?]] Crichton's voice had gone from perturbed to downright irritated.

Cade grinned wildly. Aerdan had the decency to flush a dark shade of navy. [[Look, greasemonkey, what short blue and tongue-tied means is that we think we have something that will drastically tip the tide of this upcoming altercation but it needs an engineer's eye so get your ass up here.]] Cade filled in helpfully.

A pause, long enough to make Jake sputter a little. [[You're kidding.]]

[[He isn't.]] Aerdan returned, soberly.

Another pause, and when the voice from Engineering returned it was far more rushed and placating. [[I'm on my way.]]

~*~

When he wanted to, Jake Crichton could soar through the hallways of the Phoenix. Part and parcel of being its engineer meant he knew every shortcut and trick to getting from point A to point B in the least amount of time. That and his legs were pretty good at double-time as well.

He found Foster and Jos brooding over a case full of black medical quarantine tubes, in the ExO's dimmed office. "Please tell me you didn't call me here to discuss body parts..."

Aerdan straightened and shook his head slowly. "Nannites."

Well, it caught Jake's attention - enough to pique his interest, but not enough to believe Cade's arrogant affirmation that this would be the key to the Essentialist defeat. "Nannites aren't exactly uncommon anymore."

To answer him, Commander Jos held out a PADD. "Not just any nannites. They're modified Borg nannites, designed to attack other nannites at a cellular level though gamma radiation and omicron particle emissions. Basically they're search and destroy nannites designed to de-assimilate Borg at the molecular level."

Crichton rocked on his feet, reading the data over as his brows slowly climbed sky high. "This was the bioweapon that attacked liberated Borg... There was a Federation cover up..." He had heard about it in passing, and it had been confirmed by Daisy Davidson while they were both on GS2. The nannites were destroyed, they had to be - otherwise they could have killed every liberated Borg in the galaxy. He lifted his eyes, feeling a slow chill run across him. "You created this?"

"Peter helped!" Cade grinned from the peanut gallery at the back of the room.

Aerdan's expression was far more apologetic. "We were trying to save lives! And we were on a time constraint!"

"People died!"

The Andorian took in a long, shattered breath. "I know, all too well."

Getting down off his perch, Cade strode forward - somehow the irritating and crass voice of reason in the quagmire. "Look, that's neither here nor there. Crichton - can you modify these things, again, to attack the essentialist fleet?" It was enough to snap both men out of their darkened thoughts and back to the matter at hand.

"Possibly." Jake frowned, setting the PADD down and picking up a canister. Inside were a million dormant nannites that had the potential to do great - or horrible - things. "It's dangerous."

"And getting blown to bits by a madman isn't?"

Jake grit his teeth. Cade had a point. "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll let you know."

~*~
NRPG: It took me an unbelievably long time to write this. Stupid headcolds >.<
If you need reference to the original nannites, I have all the original posts and will be happy to share them. I actually don't work this weekend so I'll be working on gamestuffs!
~*~

Jamie LeBlanc
Lt. Commander Aerdan Jos
Executive Officer
USS Phoenix
"Why do we fly? Because we have dreamt of it for so long that we must"

~Julian Beck