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USS Eagle, NCC 2185

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CPT Kematsopoulos & LTjg Richards

JOINT LOGS
Joint Logs by Myth, Stoffe and Nouri

Title: O, What a Tangled Web We Weave, Part Four
Location: The USS Eagle
Setting: Captain's Quarters


"So, let me see if I have this right . . . You asked Hanson to fix a bot, one that is called ... Mrs. Bot. He said he would fix it, but you broke his nose anyway?" the Captain repeated what he thought she just said.

Leah remained seated as she'd been ordered, but she couldn't help fidgeting a little. Overall, it turned out she preferred being questioned on the bridge in front of everyone. At least there had been a tactical board to look at! Plus it was easier to not like the Chief of Security. That Captain was just too reasonable and nice. "Um..." Leah sighed. It hadn't seemed like such a ridiculous fight when it was happening. "Yes, sir."

"What did he do to upset you?" The Captain was trying very hard to understand it from her perspective. That approach he felt was usually best.  

Leah's face went red. "I-I-I screwed up! I- He's the most-!" Leah took a deep breath, trying to avoid saying anything that would dig her in deeper. Not that there was much further to go, really.

"Most what?" he asked raising an eyebrow. This wasn't making any sense to him. From his experiences with LT Richards, he had always found her to be polite, respectful and professional.

"Sir, I overreacted is all," Leah answered tightly. "I don't take being insulted all that well. He wanted to see how far he could push me and he found out."

The Captain paused for a moment to think. ~At this point in time, critical parts [of this new plan] are resting on two people who most likely hate each other and would most likely prefer to fight than anything else. How can we fight these intruders and possibly others of their kind with such advanced technology and knowledge if these two are going to continue fighting themselves?~ Then he spoke, "Can you put your differences aside? Can you work with him? I need to know the extent of this."

"... I would. I doubt he'll listen to me, though, sir. Can't blame him for that." Leah didn't like the idea of working anywhere in the same cosmos with Hanson let alone in the same room as him, but she wasn't about to let that take away her job either.

"We have some very serious work to do and a lot is riding on us being successful. I need to know if you can work with him, even closely if necessary for the good of the mission and all of us," said the Captain.

Leah scowled. "We did pretty fine locked in here, sir." At least not counting the missing wall ... toilet, shower, tub, all the Captain's personal items there and - well, the whole bathroom, actually. But that was at least as much Hanson's fault as it was hers, Leah felt.

"What happened then?" he asked. From the report he received from his Yeoman, it was just by luck the five of them were spared. The constant fighting between the two junior officers had wasted precious time during a crisis.

"Happened?" Leah sighed. She didn't like admitting to listening to Hanson at all. "He did the ordering. I listened." ~Mostly...~

This surprised the Captain. From what he had learned of Hanson, the Ensign didn't seem to be the type to want any authority or to take charge. This was one of the young man's problems and one that helped keep him from being promoted at his previous billet. He'd have to figure out why this situation was so different from what was on Hanson's record. "What did he say?" the Captain asked.

"Like I explained before, sir." They'd already gone over most of this while waiting for the doors to be opened. "If he hadn't been here, we'd all be dead." Leah didn't like owing Hanson her life, either.

That line of questioning didn't get him want he wanted to hear, so he tried something else. "What was it like working with him? How did he react?" Captain Kematsopoulos asked. He needed to know more about Hanson, how he worked under pressure and how the problems between him and the young lieutenant would affect the mission he was about to give them. He needed to keep the information as compartmentalized as possible to avoid any further contamination or to tip off the Intruders that he knew one of their secrets.

Leah was confused. "He knew what he was doing, like he'd done it before I guess." Actually he hadn't seemed very Hanson like at all. "We worked fine together, sir." That was glossing over a few little wrinkles, but since everyone had in fact survived it didn't matter too much.

"That's good then... You can work with him?" he asked hopefully.

"Aye sir." Leah would have agreed to just about anything at that point. The alternative was being off active duty - perhaps permanently - and she'd already had enough of that. Besides, Hanson was still unconscious, so it was more a theoretical proposition than anything else.

"Good to hear that. What do you anticipate that the Ensign will say when I ask him? " the Captain asked hoping to get some more information and for the Lieutenant to come clean on everything.

Leah shrugged. She had no idea how Hanson's mind worked at all so predicting what he might do or say about anything was impossible. "I think if it's what you want him to do, he'll do it. He seems to respect you a lot, sir."

The Captain had hoped for more information, but that was a good response. She sounded like she was going to be able to work with Hanson and put the differences a side. "Fine! Next," he started to say.

Leah sat back in her chair, relieved to be moving on to any other topic.

"Where does Mrs. Bot come from?" he asked getting up.

That caught her by surprise. For a moment she'd forgotten that the Captain didn't remember the Red Dwarf mission. "Oh! Mrs. Bob was on the Red Dwarf in the worm hole, sir."

"Mrs. Bob then? So you have two bots?" he asked, knowing more than he let on. He was disappointed that she didn't correct him on the bot's name earlier. It implied to him that she wasn't being entirely honest about the whole thing. Before he felt Hanson would be more of a loose cannon in the mission, but he was now having more doubts about LT Richards.

~ Uh...~ Leah did not like lying. Or rather didn't like it anymore, and she'd gotten herself into quite a few of them now. "I brought two over, yes sir." Technically that was trueish. Bob and his wife had their kids after coming aboard. And the Arnwahk wasn't hers any longer so it didn't count

The Captain was very disappointed in her response and tried not to let it show. A few more things on a different topic started to click. "And they did not go through quarantine?  This is what CSEC was concerned about?" he asked.

~Phew!~ Leah felt like she'd passed that bit of scrutiny all right. "More or less, sir. He found out when Bob got himself on the sensor logs."

As she said this, a tiny bot popped out of seemingly no where.  It just casually entered the main room from either the kitchen or the front room and stuck its "head" around the corner to gather information.

Leah noticed the little robot and was profoundly glad the Captain was currently blind. She'd had enough of trying to hide robots when the AMOs had insisted on scanning her quarters earlier.

"Ah, well you have to have the bots and whatever they have come in contact with looked at and decontaminated in case. One can never be to careful about these things. You wouldn't want the whole ship to get parasites or something..." he explained, unaware of what really happened.   ((   https://usseagle2185.tripod.com/rbwomzb23asechanson3ll.html   ))

~Er...~ "I think they were just doing a sweep for parasites before, sir." Leah answered keeping an eye on the robot. She recognized this particular bot from before - he tended to be more adventurous. Actually, overly so - he'd almost blown their cover peeking out from under a couch earlier.

"Good then. Anything else I should know about?" the Captain asked. At that moment, the curious  baby bot skittered into the room and into full view. It ended up close to the larger bot and gift pile which was near the partition.

Leah considered. It would be a relief to tell someone about the many botlets, but that would put them at risk of being confiscated too. She doubted she'd be able to keep Bob and his wife out of CDR Unstoffe's hands, but maybe the botlets could be protected somehow. "No ... that's all I can think of, sir."

The Captain gave her another chance to come clean on everything that could cause an obstacle to what was ahead of them.  He asked, "I need to know what else can cause a problem..."

"Well, ... there is one potential problem, sir." It had only occurred to her on the bridge while Unstoffe was cross examining her story.

The Captain paused.  "Yes?:" he asked, hoping she'll tell him...

"Someone's gotta be blamed for Ensign Hanson's getting attacked. If CDR Unstoffe starts an investigation he might find out more than we want him to." Leah looked at the Captain. She had the feeling that he knew something more but she had no idea what that could be.

"Good point. Recommendations? Pending a medical report," he replied.

"You want me to take the blame for it?" Leah asked straight forwardly. "I'm the most likely suspect anyway. Maybe he won't push the investigation if I admit to it."

"Thanks for your offer. A lot is riding on keeping as much as possible information away from the intruders. ... These are very specialized intruders. I don't want to ask you to do such a thing and hope we can find some other way." At that point, he opened the partition, deciding to take the risk and let her in on the big secret he wanted to keep as much as possible from the crew and thus the intruders.

"You are not to discuss the following with anyone else at all," he ordered.

"Aye sir." Leah agreed readily even though this probably meant more lies to tell.

The partition raised, revealing what appeared to be his ordinary neat bedroom except for Hanson's latest creation and some bits of plant that could be seen only if you looked very carefully.

The Captain went to the night stand on the right of his bed.  It still had whatever the new weird contraption was that Hanson had cobbled together before the security team came. He opened the bottom drawer and pulled out an odd device. "Have you seen this before?" he asked.

To Leah the object looked a bit like a miniature vacuum cleaner. She wondered if her punishment for the bathroom incident would be cleaning duty. But then again... "It's a phaser, right? Somehow it just gave off weapon vibes.

"Correct. Very advanced design...but a logical progression of Federation technology. I need to know if you see this anywhere else. It doesn't belong here. The design and components.. From what my reading devices tell me is inside... it can't be from here," he said.

"I haven't sir. But if it isn't from here - where is it from?" Leah studied the phaser. He was right. It did seem like Federation technology.

"The same place the intruders are from and why we need to keep this out of all the records and limited knowledge to just a few of us," he said.

"Aye sir," she replied.

"They are all from the future or some alternate universe," he announced.  

Hail the Captain of the USS Eagle

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