A Blighted, Hateful Backpost

Posted on Dec 19, 2015 @ 9:29pm by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Dec 19, 2015 @ 9:29pm

Mission: Civil War

= A Blighted, Hateful Backpost =

(cont'd from "Second Star To The Right")



LOCATION: USS PHOENIX

SCENE: "Clean" Lab, Main Engineering

STARDATE: [2.15] 1219.1818



TIME INDEX: Before "Behind The Scenes"



Safely ensconced within their clean suits, Jake Crichton and Cade Foster stepped out of the vestibule and into the lab proper. They'd already forwarded the data on the Borg nanites to the lab computer, and Foster had arranged for his sample vial to be beamed into a containment unit at the far end of the laboratory. Jake could see the vial, behind the ghostly static of a force field. He didn't head for the containment unit, though; his first stop was to a workstation, where he initiated a series of diagnostics on the lab equipment, starting with the safety field around the nanites.



Cade Foster, on the other hand, didn't want to wait. He went straight for the vial, blowing by Jake without a second glance. Jake looked up in time to see what Foster was doing, calling out just before one of the doctor's gloved hands pressed the release control on the containment unit.



"Hold it!" Jake said. Foster froze, and turned to look at Jake, his face screwed up in an expert combination of confusion and annoyance, his hand hovering a half inch away from the release control.



"What is it?" Foster asked.



"I'm running diagnostics on the lab's safety equipment," Jake said. "And on your little friends there, too. I want to make sure they're really inactive before we take them out of that containment field."



Foster's frown somehow deepened. Jake was impressed.



"You already did all that," Foster grumbled.



"Right," Jake nodded. "That was before we broke them all down at the molecular level and transmitted them via focused particle beam to a new location."



Foster raised an eyebrow, apparently not picking up what Jake was throwing down. "So? What's the big deal?"



"Do you have any idea how much energy goes into a transport?" Jake asked, returning his attention to the diagnostic console. "Between the molecular breakdown, compensation for Doppler shift, and particle transmission, you're looking at enough juice to power a small shuttlecraft at sublight speed for at least a few days."



"Anyone ever tell you you're a huge nerd?" Foster asked, sounding bored. Jake ignored him.



"Somebody clever might see all that extra energy and decide to skim a little off the top," Jake said. "It wouldn't take much to gas up all these nanites, so I want to make sure they're not feeling frisky before we drop that containment field."



"I've had them for years," Foster said, rolling his eyes. "They're dead as disco, Crichton."



"And if you're wrong?" Jake asked, glancing up from his workstation at Foster. "When it comes to Borg nanites, I'm not taking any chances."



"Wuss," Foster said.



"Or maybe I can replicate a big butterfly net, and let you chase them around them lab trying to round them all up again," Jake said, shaking his head. "Look Foster, I know we're on a time crunch here, but the last thing we need right now is to compound our problems by cutting stupid corners."



"You cut corners all the time," Foster said.



"Because I know what I'm doing," Jake said. "And as someone who knows what I'm doing, I'm telling you: that field stays up until I say otherwise."



"Oh come on, live a little," Foster said, and he turned and pressed the release control. The field disappeared, and Foster reached in to pick up the vial of nanites. He turned, a wide grin on his face, to see that Jake was scowling at him.



"See?" Foster asked, balancing the vial on his palm. "They're fine."



"What the *hell* is wrong with you?" Jake asked, storming over to where Foster stood to stare up into the doctor's face. The effect was diminished a bit because he had to stare through the faceplates of their suits, but Jake was too angry to care just then.



"I'm impatient, for a start," Foster said, a slight smirk creasing his cheeks.



"I've had it with your bullshit, Foster," Jake said. He snatched the vial out of Foster's hands, no longer concerned with maintaining the integrity of their containment.



"Hey-" Foster started, but Jake had already turned around and started for one of the clean lab's experimental stations, forcing Foster to hobble after him.



"You're here to assist *me*," Jake said, not looking back. "Not the other way around."



"Oh, sure," Foster said, rolling his eyes. "Keep telling yourself that."



Jake roughly inserted the vial into a scanner bay, then stepped over to a command console and initiated a full molecular analysis of the nanites inside the vial. As he worked, he continued to speak, not looking over at Foster.



"And if you're not prepared to follow my orders," said Jake, "...then you can get your wrinkly ass out of my laboratory, before I do it for you. You understand?"



"You really should be more careful with that vial," Foster said, leaning casually against the scanner station to sneer at Jake. "Didn't you know that something something Doppler something something particle beam might turn them back on?"

"Yeah," Jake said. "I already know everything's a big damn joke to you. If the fighting starts, I'm sure you'll be laughing your ass off as the people around you start dying."



"Like I did with Varn?" Foster said, a hint of accusation in his tone. Jake straightened immediately, turned to face the doctor, and jabbed a finger a quarter inch away from the faceplate of Foster's suit.



"Don't," Jake said. "Just don't."



"Why, you gonna hit me again?" Foster asked. "You're the one who accused me of dropping the ball and getting Varn killed, Crichton. I just responded in kind."

"*You* were the one who'd gone missing," Jake said. "The ship needed you - your *crewmates* needed you - and where the hell were you?"



"Maybe I was running from all those technicolor radiation ghosts you were so wrapped up in saving?" Foster said. The usual mocking tone of his voice was gone, now he just sounded angry.



It was somehow a relief for Jake to see that the medic was capable of being offended, of taking umbrage at the accusation that Jake had laid at his feet. Jake knew he wasn't being precisely fair, that Foster did not bear as much responsibility for Thomas Varn's death as Jake was suggesting, but Jake also did not feel any particular need to spare the doctor's feelings on this score.



"I was trying to save the ship," Jake said. "We had no idea what the Amaterasu would do if we openly attacked them. We still don't even know for sure if they were aware of us, the last thing we needed was to provoke them!"



"Great eulogy," Foster scowled. "You should have read it at Varn's funeral."



Jake balled his fists, was about to smash open the doctor's faceplate, safety protocols be damned. Foster seemed to see this, but he didn't shy away. He stood, facing down Jake, face presented as if he were daring the blow to land. Jake gritted his teeth, fists tightened so much that they hurt... but then, a soft chime came from the workstation, indicating that the molecular scan Jake had initiated had completed. This served to break the tension - or, at least, water it down a little - and Jake turned to the console to examine the results. Foster stood where he was for a moment longer, before stepping over to examine the console's display from over Jake's shoulder.



"Molecular scan indicates the nanites are inert," Jake said. "No internal power, but all the pathways are intact. Once we make the modifications, we should just have to feed them a little bit of energy and they'll be up and at'em."



"Our own private army of microscopic attack dogs," Foster said. "Cool. Very cool."



"There's some steps to get through between then and now," Jake said, reaching into the scanner bay to remove the vial, more gingerly this time. "But we're off to a good start."



"Look at us, getting along like old war buddies," Foster said, slapping a companionable hand against Jake's back a little harder than was necessary. "I knew we'd make a good team."



"You haven't done anything yet," Jake said. "Except almost get your ass kicked."



"I consider that a vital part of your process," Foster said. "What next, monkeywrench?"



"Next, we need to figure out a way to keep them from turning around and eating us after they're done eating the enemy fleet," Jake said. "I guess this is the part where your expertise is supposed to come in handy?"



"I'm really more of a 'high-concept' sort of guy," Foster said. "You look better with your hands dirty, anyway."



"Figures," Jake said, rolling his eyes. "Well, we'd better think of something fast, because I don't think Marxx and his fleet are going to wait around for us to get this right."



Foster started to reply when the chime from the vestibule sounded again. Both men looked up to see another suited figure stepping into the lab. It was hard to make out who it was from behind the faceplate of their suit, but Jake was glad for some company other than Cade Foster.



"Hi," Jake said, trying to sound cheerful and managing a decent job of it. "What can I do for you?"



The figure stepped forward. "I'm Asta," she said. "Ensign Asta Elgin?"



The name didn't ring any bells for Jake. He kept looking at her, waiting for some additional information about who she was and why she was here. His steady gaze didn't seem to make her uncomfortable - that is, any more uncomfortable than she already was .



"I guess I'm Sylvia Warren's replacement," Ensign Elgin said.



=[/\]=



Ensign Elgin was a big help.



Not only did her robotics and nanotechnology expertise speed along their work with the Borg nanites, the young ensign's outright refusal to engage with Cade Foster's caustic personality provided welcome relief for Jake. Ignoring Cade Foster was a trick that Jake had never quite mastered, but Elgin had managed it in record time. With no one to rise to his bait, Foster even turned down his unique brand of "charm" and pitched in where he could, and the work started to come along at a surprising pace.



Elgin's idea was simple: code a resonance frequency into the nanites that would stop them from attacking friendly ships. With every ship in the loyalist fleet transmitting the frequency, they would effectively be inoculated against the nanites, and would be able to sit back and watch at their leisure as the Borg bugs dismantled the Neo-Essentialist fleet. It was a good plan, and sped along with Elgin's nanotech expertise and Foster's own first-hand experience with the nanites, they were able to implement it quickly. Jake had insisted on hard-wiring a kill switch into the nanites as a redundant safety measure, but it hadn't taken very long, and soon they were loading the reprogrammed nanites into the specialized delivery devices that Jake had designed. All that remained was to share the resonance frequency with the loyalist fleet... and, of course, to deliver the package, which was a part of the plan that Jake still hadn't quite wrapped his head around.



When they'd completed the work, Foster excused himself, apparently eager to find some new victims who weren't immune to his verbal barbs. Jake and Ensign Elgin lingered, running a final series of diagnostics on the nanites and the delivery mechanism, in a final round of i-dotting and t-crossing that Cade Foster had no remaining patience for.



"You studied at the Daystrom Institute?" Jake asked, as they waited for the computer to complete a round of check-ups on their modified nanite swarm.



Elgin nodded. "Yes sir," she said. "After graduating from the Academy. I was working there when all of this started."



"All of this?"



"Edgerton," the ensign said. "The Neo-Essentialists. The CENTURY decloaking over Paris, and everything else that happened afterward. It was an... interesting time."



Jake briefly recalled his time in the Papakura Stockade, after Edgerton had maneuvered him into taking the blame for the destruction of the USS DISCOVERY. The stockade's commander, a Vulcan named T'Prell, had been a Neo-Essentialist stooge, and made certain that Jake's stay at the facility was as unpleasant as possible. Jake had been tortured, beaten, and interrogated, finally giving up the truth about what the crew of the DISCOVERY had learned in the K-60 system. That knowledge had accelerated Edgerton's plans, and had helped to fuel the PHOENIX's desperate flight from Earth.



Jake shuddered. "Interesting," he said. "Yeah."



"I've started going over the reports of everything that's happened since then," said Asta. "Rawyvin Seth, Arthur Embry, the Amaterasu... I'm amazed you managed to keep the ship in such good condition, running with a skeleton crew."



"Long days, short nights," Jake shrugged. "We managed."



"You're humble," Elgin said. "It's annoying."



Jake gave her a sidelong look, but couldn't help from grinning. "My apologies, *ensign*," he said, putting some emphasis on the rank but still smiling.



"Uh, sorry, chief," Elgin said. "Sometimes I forget where I am."



"Since your resonance frequency idea is gonna make me look like a genius in front of the captain, I'll let it slide," Jake said. "What were you working on at the Daystrom Institute?"



"Robotics," Elgin shrugged. "Artificial Intelligence. That kind of thing."



"Anything specific?"



"I had recently started work on a new shipboard behavioral interface," Elgin said. "We wanted to have an upgraded ARCUS interface in production by next year."



"ARCUS?" Jake asked.



"Advanced Reactive Computer User System," Elgin said, spelling out the acronym for him. "A holographic artificially intelligent interface between the ship's computer and the crew. They were all the rage a few years ago, but they fell out of fashion during the war. The earliest models were a little too cumbersome to deal with under fire."



"No time to repeat yourself in battle," Jake nodded. "Make sense."



"We wanted to improve the program's natural language processing capability," Elgin continued. "Give them a better of understanding of words in context. The early ARCUS unit sometimes needed clarification of idioms, figures of speech, slang... and I guess soldiers don't hold back on the salty language. The 'colorful metaphors' had a way of confusing ARCUS, and so my team was trying to fix that. Until I had to leave."



Jake nodded again. "Edgerton."



"Edgerton," the ensign sighed. "Commander, is this plan really going to work? Even if they get the nanites in place, is Captain Kane really going to activate them?"



"If it comes to that," Jake said, nodding slowly. "Yes. I think he will."



"Even if it means killing all those people?"



"Even then."



Elgin's eyes drifted towards the floor. "What kind of man is he?" she asked quietly.



"The kind of man who doesn't like to lose," Jake shrugged. "Look, don't worry. Admiral Marxx isn't an idiot. When he sees Kane isn't bluffing, he'll stand down. There's still a chance to end this without bloodshed."



"Then why do you have Rochemonte and Chaucer trying to improve our shields?" Elgin asked.



"Redundancy," Jake said. "You can never be too careful."



"I hope you're right," Elgin said. "Because Commander, when we turn those things on..."



"I know," Jake said. "I've presided over the creation of these sorts of things before. You know exactly what they can do, how powerful they are. You're maybe one of the few people who really understands it. And you pray none of the people in charge will be desperate - or crazy - enough to use it."



"But what happens when they do?" Elgin asked.



Jake sighed. "Then you lose a lot of sleep. But when the time comes, you still build the next one."



"That's..." Elgin started, then trailed off. "I don't know what that is."



"The job," Jake said, giving her a sardonic smile. "Worst part of it. But the alternative is everyone you know and love getting killed. The choice is hard, but you gotta make it, or believe me, Edgerton will make it for you."



"Aye sir," Elgin said.



The station chimed, signaling the end of the final round of diagnostics. The weapon was ready. Jake looked over at Elgin.



"Good work today, ensign," he said. "I'll take it from here. Check in with Rochemonte, she'll have work for you."



"Thank you, chief," the ensign nodded, her tone once again all business. She gave a final look at the vial of nanites, the weapon she had helped to create, and Jake saw her polite smile falter somewhat. Then she straightened, and made for the exit. A little while later, Jake followed.



=[/\]=



NRPG: Had a scene with Jake and Foster I didn't get around to doing before, plus I wanted to get in some interaction with Jake's newest ensign. Since we were talking about ARCUS recently, I thought I'd throw in a bit of flavor text there, too. I am now off the hook.



ALIX: Hope I did okay with Asta!



Shawn Putnam

a.k.a.

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX