Down The Rabbit Hole
Posted on Jun 09, 2017 @ 6:07pm by Lieutenant Tomas' Vukovic
Mission: The Romulan Way
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Location: USS PHOENIX
Scene: Bridge
Star Date: [2.17] 609.1333
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We are so screwed, Tomas' Vukovic thought to himself.
He'd spent a lot of time on the fringes of Federation space at the behest of Section 31, and he wondered how many of the PHOENIX officers were aware of that fact, because it could make things ... uncomfortable if they knew whom he'd worked for prior to his current posting. Hell, they'd be uncomfortable if they knew that Xana Bonviva had found him cooling his heels and all other parts of his mutated anatomy in a highly secure holding facility. He was pretty sure the Captain knew. He assumed the Captain knew. It just didn't seem to make any difference. He didn't recall a lot from their previous experiences on GATEWAY station all those years ago. Their paths hadn't really crossed much, and he had decided not to remind anyone of that history anyway.
He was BORG. The officers and crew knew that for sure. Thytos had made it clear she had her eyes on him ... even though they were blind. Doctor Jos knew what he was as well, seemed thrilled about the chance to check him out, even though most of what he'd found confused him. And he'd rated a lieutenant's rank, which was a surprise since he'd never actually gone to Starfleet Academy. Section 31 wasn't big on rank. Either you were good at what you did, or you were dead. And it wasn't much concern who pulled that particular trigger. But Tomas' had survived years in that culture. He was flexible. He'd survive here, too.
If the Romulans didn't shoot him.
It wasn't well known how the Romulans reacted to the BORG, even in their largely non-aggressive current iterations. And he wasn't just any BORG.
"Understood," Kane spoke to the Romulan Commander and laid a hand on Tomas' shoulder.
Tomas' didn't flinch.
It had taken awhile to overcome that personal reaction to touch. There weren't any women in his life. His parents were alive, but back on LUNA. And the only other people who had ever touched him while he was undercover for the Section ... wanted him dead. Kane had done it without any warning, without any pretext, it seemed. Some people were like that, he knew. They conveyed their confidence by friendly physical contact. Hand on the shoulder. Pat on the back. Whack up the backside of the head. He made an effort to smile, but didn't turn his head.
"Follow them, Mr. Vukovic."
"Aye, sir," Tomas' acknowledged.
He reached out to the boards and ... without even thinking ... plugged in.
His body stiffened as his mind filled with a sense of the ship in its entirety. It was like tapping into a live wire. He breathed, and it was the mix of gasses pumped throughout the ship. He glanced around, and it was the sensors reading everything around him ... the Valore Class Warbird, the buoy markers delineating the Neutral Zone, the nearest stars and the gravitational forces they exuded into the surrounding space. He knew where everyone was in this great ship, because the ship knew exactly where everyone was. He could tap into any part of the ship and listen in, or he could limit his range just to the Bridge. He felt the ship begin to warm at its heart, it's engines coming on line, coming to Warp.
It was heady stuff.
He'd never done it with a ship this big. It was not altogether pleasant.
Around him, he heard quiet exclamations of concern. He felt the men and women around him notice ... something running through their systems. Something they'd not seen before. Station by station called out an alert.
"Mr. Vukovic!"
Tomas' forced himself to withdraw. To be alone again.
The man who'd called him, Commander Crichton, the first officer, stood at the engineering station where he'd apparently tracked Tomas' presence back to his station at the helm.
"Aye, Commander," Tomas' replied, waiting for the other shoe to fall.
"That'll be enough of that," the man said quietly.
Tomas' swallowed.
"Aye, sir."
He noticed Kane smile, nod at his exec and leave the bridge.
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NRPG: Thought I'd give Jake a chance to interact with the new guy.
=/\=
Kenneth Field
writing for
Lieutenant Tomas' Alexei Vukovic
FCO of the USS PHOENIX
