Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Comp Science Lab 2- Post-Jefferies Tube

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Comp Science Lab 2- Post-Jefferies Tube

Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Comp Science Lab 2- Post-Jefferies Tube

(snip)

Cochrane looked at her and a mischievous smile crept across his face. “Damn, Calloway. I thought you’d be better at this whole ‘spy’ thing. Look, just tell them something. But throw a bit of truth in it so it checks out. Try…” and he looked around the room for a bit and then snapped his fingers. “Tell them there was a massive power surge and it feedback through the experimental system. The tech is fine for the most part, but anything connected to the network reacted to the spike in power, including the PaDD which simply activated. But thank the stars you are the only one in here. Do you know what would have happened if to Skipper saw that? He’d be on the comms to Admiral Yi in a second. Catch my drift here, L-T? I mean, come on. It’s and experimental system. They can’t know for certain that it wouldn’t do that. And any ship captain worth a damn would be trying to check this out first thing, right?” and he leaned forward again and said “I may just be some schmuck Security officer, Calloway. Or whatever your extended background check showed. But I know a thing or two about subterfuge. And now is the time to practice a bit of it, or we both are screwed.”

Cochrane, CO

There was a war playing out inside her head that would be obvious to anyone watching her. Faye gritted her jaw slightly and didn’t hide her frustration. “I’m not a spy! That’s the point. Even when I did work for S.I. before I snuck myself across borders, sure, but I wasn’t undercover as you know it. And contrary to popular belief, Intelligence work is rarely the cloak-and-dagger sort of stuff that people romanticize. I’m a data specialist, that’s all. But I have a knack for languages and a weird sense of justice on top of my profound loyalty and rebellious history. It suits them.”

She moved away from him, trying to find a way to make him understand. “Just because I’ve kept secrets in the past, doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.” Faye stopped had turned in his direction once more. “Don’t you see? This was supposed to be my fresh start, a new beginning after surviving Hell. The longer I play games here, for either them or you, the farther I get from semblance of life. I will follow your orders, and make it looked damned good, but if you’re going to give them to me, understand that they have a cost you may not see yet.”

Lt. Faye Calloway, CIO

Cochrane let her vent and listened as she spoke. When she finished, he looked at her and slowly shook his head. “Calloway… none of us ever really get a fresh start. You, me, the crew… hell, no sentient being I ever heard of. Of course, you can send yourself to the left armpit of the galaxy where no one knows you and think you are getting a fresh start. But you can’t get away from you. You bring your hell with you wherever you go. The trick is learning how to use it in the present and not let it use you.” and he stood slowly and began walking around, looking at things absentmindedly, picking up a device, setting it down. Not actually looking at anything, just moving.

She tracked his movements keenly, her frustration still worn in her features, but in particular her stormy pale eyes.

“We are and always will be anchored to our past. We are products of that past. It makes us who we are in the present. We carry our scars, our losses, our victories… all of it… with us all the time. The best we can hope for is to find a spot and group of people who accept us as we are now, regardless of what our past is. Now that I can tell you is possible. In fact, it’s all around you right now.” He picked up the device he brought to her earlier and looked at for a moment, then shook his head in a most dismissive manner.

In truth, she wanted to laugh at that. If there was anything that was true, it was that Faye really felt like she fit in anywhere well enough to engender that kind of true acceptance. There was the surface acceptance borne of words, but it was too easily false and Faye didn’t trust it. Only on a few occasions had she ever truly felt accepted, and it was only ever with very particular individuals. A ship’s worth of people who would do that for her? She doubted it existed, even here.

“Calloway, just because because you didn’t enjoy what you did in the past doesn’t mean that it isn’t what you did. And while we may not want to play the game that Intel has so graciously put all of us in, not just you, we have to play it. For as long as is necessary. The only thing that has changed in the last few moments is that we now know we are in the game, and who gets to say when the game is over. It was them. Now? Now it’s us. And now is when we take back our own. You may not like it, Faye. I would be surprised if you did, because I certainly do not. But we have to deal with what is in front of us. Right now, that’s getting your system online and your aft-section out of the line of fire. Fortunately, those two things go hand in hand. But if this is going to work, you need to be what you were sent here to be. Intelligence. With all the connotations and stereotypes that go with it, for now. Faye, like it or not, right now you are a spy. You were tasked with gathering intel and performing covert observations on your own crew and reporting it back to the Intel Section all while installing some kind of covert computer system under the very nose of the ship’s crew and Command staff.” and he looked at her directly. “That’s pretty spy-y.” he said with a slight grin. “But so what? Spy is just a job description, same as janitor or president. So be a spy. Just do it for yourself this time. Use what you can do to save your own ass. There is nothing wrong with that, Faye. In fact, that’s the smartest move you and I have. The faster you can put their minds at ease the faster we can get this done and get them off your, and by default our, backs. And that makes this ship better off.” and he sat back down on his crate. “And it keeps you on board, which is what I want to see happen.”

In all her interactions with him so far, Calloway had known him to be a genuine person and he had seemed very willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. And yet, she was genuinely surprised by that simple statement. She wanted to ask, ‘why?’, but perhaps the answer didn’t matter.

“And before you ask, no I’m not. No one is going to know you were ordered to check up on them. I’m gonna chalk that up to ‘Crap best left out of ship-wide memos’. We have enough to do without people getting their undergarments all twisted up over something none of us could control.”

Cochrane, CO

This time Faye snorted. “Fair enough. It’s not like there were any real red flags to find. That I know fo so far,” she said with rueful smile.

Regarding the captain, Calloway too her time working through her options. There was very few and his plan did have the best outcome for the ship. Because at the end of the day, she was assigned to the ship as its protector, just acting in a very different way. If she screwed herself over, then she couldn’t do that. Moving forward and stopping in front of him, Faye held out her hand. “Alright, Captain Alexander Cochrane. You’ve accepted a rebel and a spy into your midst willingly. All I can do is pledge to you that I will do everything I can to never make you distrust my loyalty. And I might make a lot of mistakes, but I never make a promise I’m not willing to uphold with my life.” Whether he knew it or not, Faye was not prone to dramatic vows and this was actually a more significant act of vulnerability than any quiet confession she’d share with someone.

Lt. Faye Calloway, CIO