DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Trek, Star Trek Online or any of the content within. This is a work of Fan Fiction and is intended for nothing more than entertainment value.
EPISODE 1: Reflections (Pilot)
The interior of the partially assimilated Saber Class USS Viceroy violently shook with another impact, this one bad enough to send showers of sparks from a newly ruptured EPS relay in one of the nearby walls, several Borg Drones even being flung from their alcoves dead.
Another violent hit sent a flaming support beam down from the ceiling entangled in now fusing wiring and bio-neural circuitry that popped and snapped before losing power, the few lights aside from the sickly green glow of the alcoves and Borg terminals now flashed off.
"Lieutenant Twenty-One! The Commander is dead! That makes you the highest-ranking officer left on the Away Team! What the hell are we going to do!" yelled Ensign Bron, an easily alarmed and slightly heavy-set Bolian.
Bron sat beside the body of Commander Keating, who had just been crushed by the falling support beam. Bron was the team's only Medic and a fairly good one at that. Ahead of him stood Lieutenant Fourteen of Twenty-One, a tall and lanky young woman with dark hair and cold blue eyes, the right of which dimly illuminated by the series of small green lights in her Borg implant leftover from her lifetime of being a Drone.
"I was an observer on this operation, Ensign. I believe that burden of command in this situation falls on either yourself or Ensign Farrell" Fourteen replied in her low, cold voice.
"Ma'am, with respect we're stuck on a partially assimilated vessel and have lost all contact with ours all while being stuck in a fight between the Borg and Undine. For what we know our ship may be destroyed and burning out there, and begging the Lieutenant's pardon but you've had much more experience with the Borg than any one of us has. You are the most qualified to lead!" Farrell barked out in his thick Irish accent while once again checking the corridor's intersection for any Drones headed their way.
Fourteen considered this and after another jarring impact from a plasma beam fired by the Undine she made her decision and spoke over the roar of a now spreading fire, just barely getting over its volume with her calm tone.
"Understood. I am assuming command of this Away Team, any objections will be noted and in the event of a general court marshal or disciplinary action against us as a result of this decision I will take the blame personally"
She paused, listening for objections, and hearing none she continued.
"Very well. Our first objective will obviously be getting off this vessel, it is severely compromised and losing power, not to mention the entire crew has been assimilated putting us at a severe tactical disadvantage. We should make our way to the bridge and try and establish contact with the Nightingale for a beam-out before we make the foolish mistake of trying an escape pod"
With that Fourteen tied her long black hair back in a ponytail, it had been in one before but it had long since come undone by the visceral lurching and pitching the ship had been doing in it's death throws. Meanwhile Bron packed up his medical gear in it's case and Crewman Drex, a female Trill Engineer in her late twenties and Crewman Beasley, a young human man that now represented one of only two of the surviving six-man security detail that had beamed down both readied their equipment to move from the relative safety which had been the shielded area Fourteen had created.
When the fighting had started, Fourteen had used the newly installed Borg-tech to erect a Borg containment field around their small section of Deck 3 from both hull breaches and any Borg or Undine that wanted to get at them.
"Farrell you and Beasley get behind me, I'm taking point on this one. Make sure you two have those Compression Rifles set to a rotating modulation… scratch that let's try out the I-Mod chip prototypes. We'll try and get past any of the Drones between here and the bridge but I seriously doubt that they'll let us pass unabated by. Drex, Bron you two keep behind us and keep low"
"Yes Ma'am" both tactical officers called back, shouldering their rifles standing side by side at the containment field.
"Understood" replied Drex, looking a bit concerned by everything.
Fourteen tapped away at the cylindrical console beside the containment field, pausing a gloved finger over the last button
"When the field drops I want us all double-timing it to Jeffries Tube Five at the end of this corridor, stay in a box formation and if you have a strong desire to get out of this individuality intact than I'd suggest that you don't let the Borg within arm's reach of you".
With that she tapped the last button and a low-toned series of beeps sounded from the console, on the third one of the containment field's sides dropped and Fourteen drew her dual Anti-Proton pistols from her chest holsters, holding them low as she strode along ahead of her team, eyes darting side to side surveying the Drones still in alcoves and ones that were despite the decaying condition of the ship still assimilating it right down to the wall panels.
As the team reached the Jeffries Tube access hatch Fourteen, still after all this time able to hear the Borg's subspace communications when in close proximity, spun leveling one of pistols and squeezing off a lone shot that made a terrific crackling noise as it connected with the head of a Drone that had strode up behind Bron, it had even begun to lift it's arm to assimilate him. As Bron jumped in fright Fourteen coolly spoke
"I remind you, eyes and ears. If any of you get injected with nanoprobes I will be forced to eliminate you, and I expect any of you to do the same for me. I'll happily die before going back"
None of the team replied, though Bron subtly nodded approvingly at Fourteen who promptly returned it, never losing her look of absolute determination she had since the onset of fighting when the mission had gone horribly wrong.
They had beamed in to search for any non-assimilated crew of the Viceroy, the small ship had disappeared on a simple charting mission then started sending out Borg signals that were detected by a small listening post in the nearby B'tran star cluster. The USS Nightingale, a research vessel set aside strictly for studying the Borg, and more specifically how the Borg re-purposed captured technology and adapted it for their own use was sent in to find any survivors and to study the changes to the ship before scuttling it.
Fourteen had been assigned to this crew just after her debrief on Earth after her liberation from the collective. Her official role until today was as an observer, as an expert on the collective from her nineteen years in it she was a walking encyclopedia on the Borg. She was among those selected for this away mission and while this was not exactly out of the ordinary her first instinct told her something was off, having deliberately ignored her gut since it started giving her subtle hunches just a few months back considering them irrelevant she had disregarded her own warning about the mission. This day would forever change how she looked at her own instinct.
After keying in the combination to release the magnetic locks on the Jeffries Tube hatch and lifting the handle to swing it open Fourteen had to brace against the wall as the ship shuddered again, this one feeling quite different than the other weapon strikes against the hull. She paused a moment, trying to remember something oddly familiar from her time in the collective.
"Curious" she said in a quiet tone.
Beasley picked up on this and pulled his Tricorder from his belt, flicking it open as he did. After a few moments scanning He began to explain.
"Ma'am, it's an Undine vessel, it's attached itself to the Viceroy's hull!"
As if this was some kind of cue there came a great noise from deep inside the wall beside Fourteen, having heard this noise enough in the last hour to know all too well what it meant, she jumped away.
"EPS Overload! Scatter!" Fourteen shouted, still trying to get clear of the impending blast.
That blast came just as she had finished issuing that last order, the force of it smashed her against the far wall and the world went dark. After about a minute of nothing Fourteen became aware of something shaking her by the arms. She opened her eyes to see Bron looking down at her, concerned look on his face.
"I am undamaged" she said, trying to believe the statement herself
"That may be so, Ma'am… but we're separated from the others. A whole chunk of the deck above us just came down between us".
Fourteen visibly scowled at this, sitting up and looking at the incredible damage in front of her where the others had just stood, she ran the odds in her head of their survival and just as she decided them dead her combadge made an upbeat little chip
"Lieutenant, talk to us!"
It was Farrell, aside from sounding a bit disturbed by what had just happened he sounded fine. The miscalculation both surprised and pleased Fourteen, who despite her usual enjoyed being wrong this time. She tapped her badge
"Farrell, Bron and I are undamaged but separated by a solid piece of bulkhead from Deck Two. While I may still be able to reach the bridge through this gap I believe your group will likely be unable to bypass this collapse. I want you to redirect to Shuttle Bay One on Deck Four. Try and use a shuttle's comms or transporters if you can find the Nightingale. Report in with progress regularly"
There was a long pause, no doubt Farrell thinking this all over before his eventual response
"Yes Ma'am… listen for what it's worth, good luck. Goes without saying we could all use some right now. Farrell out"
Fourteen stood, collecting her two pistols before returning them to her holsters, with all the damage that had just cropped up no Drone in this section would even give her a second look and aside from that the subspace comms from the nearby Borg had turned into a wanton chaos of splintered command lines that told Fourteen a Processing Node had just taken a nasty hit. Surveying the damage to the ceiling and deck above Fourteen hatched a plan
"Bron, you think you are capable of climbing this debris with me? If not I will find an alternative path for us"
"Yes, Ma'am. Besides I'm all for getting out of here".
Half way up the latticework of wires and buckled metal Bron and Fourteen were again jarred by an impact, both held tight and when the familiar feeling subsided Fourteen though it to be another Undine ship connecting to the Viceroy. Taking one hand off its hold on the debris she ratcheted her Tricorder open, it didn't activate and after shaking it then tapping it off the debris pile she closed it, returning it to her belt.
"Federation technology is so… frail. I believe that may have been another vessel hard docking with the Viceroy. We should be prepared to face Species Eight-Four-Seven-Two, it is obvious there is something on this ship they want"
"Species Eight-Four… what?" Bron asked sounding quite confused
"Sorry, Undine. Old habits die-hard, I believe that is the expression correct? My Tricorder is non-functional. Scan the corridor ahead for us, Ensign".
Bron produced his Tricorder; in his case it was a Medical Tricorder, incapable of scanning like the standard issue one. Nevertheless he tried his best to get a reading and soon spoke up
"Ma'am I'm getting something. I don't recognize these life-signs at all. With this Medical Tricorder it's the best I can do for you right now".
Fourteen looked down at him from where she was still clinging to the debris and leaned his way a bit
"Pass it to me, let me get a look"
Fourteen studied the readings and after a brief few moments the vast knowledge she still had from the collective provided her the troubling answer she was after.
"Species Nine-Three…. Right you don't know Borg designations, my apologies, Ensign. Hirogen, looks like two of them. What could they possibly want with this ship? We'll deal with it as it comes, let's get going".
Finally on Deck Two, Fourteen drew a lone Anti-Proton pistol and flicked on the small light she had attached to it, a field modification she had the forethought to attach months earlier after boarding a derelict Sphere. The discovery of those Hirogen life signs troubled her, knowing enough about them from the collective to understand just how deadly their hunters were.
Approaching an intersection in the corridor Fourteen checked right, her dim light illuminating the hallway ahead.
"All clear right…" She started, soon being cut off
One of the large tri-pedal Undine had come from the left, swatting her from it's path before turned towards Brun, he frantically reached for his small handheld Phaser. He fumbled with it making panicked noises and as the Undine drew back its right arm, adorned with some form of bladed gauntlet, to strike an unexpected series of Tetryon blasts connected with the creature, causing it to wretch in pain before running down the corridor to the left.
Fourteen had landed face down and soon pushed herself up, gasping for air past the pain and after having been winded fairly badly by the blow. Beside her the narrow beam of light produced by the tac-light on her Anti-Proton beam illuminated a cone shaped bit of the carpeting of the floor. She watched a large set of feet enter that cone from it's base and stop a moment beside her, she stared at the scraped up blue paint on them, noted the calm rhythmic breathing of the wearer of that armor before those feet moved on down the corridor. Still recovering from being winded she watched another set of feet approach, these stopped beside her too… only this time they turned to face her.
Before she was aware of exactly what was going on she felt herself being lifted by a strong hand on the front of her uniform, that strong hand soon pinning her against the wall before a gruff voice broke the awkward silence
"You are a frail thing, however I would be willing to bet you would still offer a better hunt than most of what I am given by the Alpha. The Romulans really do give us very little to do…"
Fourteen felt something cold, wet and sticky on her forehead being pressed into place with what felt like a thumb
"I am the predator, and you are my prey. Once we finish the hunt for that foul creature, I shall return for you. Your cybernetic implant will make a nice trophy for the females"
With that she was let loose and slid down the wall, staying absolutely still until the sound of movement became too distant to hear. Finally retrieving her pistol Fourteen then turned to where Brun had been
"Brun sound off if you're still with me" she said quietly
"Here ma'am… I'm sorry I just choked, He would have killed you and I would have been hiding…" he trailed off, sounding close to an anxiety attack
Fourteen had already had more than her share of Brun's anxiety to know once he got started that it would not soon stop. After fixing her uniform jacket she dropped a hand on his shoulder
"Ensign, you are a doctor. You took an oath to do no harm and to most physicians I have come across that is something sacred to them. Come on, let's keep going"
Brun nodded at this, not saying anything in return. Out of curiosity Fourteen moved to an offline console built into the nearby wall. She shone the flashlight beam onto it, the light reflected back into her face and soon a mirror image of her ghost-white face appeared in the glass. Aside from a minor cut under her left eye that was bleeding slightly she was unharmed, but what she was really interested in was what she had felt on her forehead. It turned out to be some kind of pasty blue ink, recalling more about the Hirogen her right eyebrow rose
"He claimed me… blue, that's a Beta I think" she said to herself
"Oh my" Brun added, voice shaking.
Just about to get back en route to the bridge a horrible and guttural yell of pain sounded from where the Hirogens had gone. Moments later the familiar noise of the weapon they had fired at the Undine moments ago echoed down the corridor, followed by another yell, though the weapons fire continued for a full minute before the next exclamation.
"The Predator must never be killed by the Prey!"
Fourteen turned to Brun after a moment's consideration
"Ensign continue down this corridor and use Jeffries Tube Two to reach the bridge and try to hail the Nightingale"
"Ma'am you can't seriously be considering helping an alien that just claimed you like livestock!" Brun snapped back.
Fourteen stared at him then answered dropping her tone lower to calm him down
"Brun, it is our duty as Starfleet officers to render aid to anyone that needs it. And it sure sounds like he needs it right now. It may seem foolish now, but this may be the first step to better relations with the Hirogen and by proxy the Romulans who employ them. Now I gave you an order"
Brun moved down the corridor, stopping about two seconds later to throw his medical gear to Fourteen
"You'll probably need that. Good luck, Fourteen. It may seem fatalistic of me, but I've always seen you as one of my few friends" he said in a frightened tone
"Likewise. And Ensign, there are more than likely no Borg between here and the bridge. They seemed to have been using the Engineering Section as their control area. Just the same, be careful".
After slinging the medical kit over her shoulder Fourteen preceded down the dark corridor, pistol held out in front of her tightly with two hands, sweeping her light side to side and even checking the ceiling. The Undine bothered her, even scared her… which not many things managed to do. The Borg and them went way back, almost forty-five years now, and not one memory file in the Collective's memory was anything pleasant. Besides that, given their zeal for killing Borg, Fourteen was well away that had it not been for the fortuitous arrival of the Hirogen that she would have absolutely been killed on site thanks to her visible implant over her eye and on her left hand.
The first sign of the Hirogen was an armor segment on the floor, Fourteen kicked it gently and found that piece of armor had what looked to be what was left of one of the Hirogen's arms. She continued forward and found more and more of the body until eventually coming upon a cast-aside rifle that was easily half her height in it's length. Fourteen holstered her pistol and picked up the rifle, instantly noting it's weight despite her augmented strength. For her it was usable with just a slight bit of challenge, but for a normal human it would have probably been far to heavy.
After playing around with the buttons on the weapon's display screen, Fourteen quickly grasped that this weapon had on-board sensors and after activating them walked with the weapon pressed firmly into her shoulder as it lead her to the surviving Hirogen. She leveled the weapon at its head and from where it sat slumped against the bulkhead, weapon draped across its lap it looked back at her with pain filled eyes
"I am Lieutenant Fourteen of Twenty-One of the Federation Starship Nightingale. I would prefer to not have the use this, but if you give me a reason to I absolutely will" as always, her voice was calm and had a somewhat cool tone to it.
"After I claim you as prey and promise to hunt you, you decide to offer me assistance? You are either out of your mind or the most arrogant creature I have ever come across" the Hirogen answered, sounding to obviously be in as much pain as it looked he was.
Fourteen was quiet a moment weighing the options. She knew the danger of the situation as well as the opportunity to be had here. She lowered the rifle she held to her hip, still leaving it aimed at the Hirogen
"I have a proposal for you. I will get you back on your feet with my medical supplies here, in return you will help evacuate what is left of my away team and then beam them to my ship if it has survived the exchange. After that if you still want to hunt me I will remain willingly. My duty is to my team and if it means sparing them, so be it"
The hunter studied her a moment, his initial unimpressed attitude seeming a little harder to detect now
"We will need to finish this hunt, this prey is most… persistent"
His tone gave Fourteen enough a hint to make an educated guess
"Correct me if I am wrong. Your Alpha started a hunt against the Undine and at some point it became apparent that it was no longer the prey, somewhere along the line the roles switched"
Fourteen was careful with her wording here, trying to avoid angering the Hunter.
"You are correct, we chased him initially and after a week's time he came after us with reinforcements from his own people, we destroyed most of them however in the end we had to flee from the hunt. It gave chase until earlier today when it changed course for this system"
Now understanding Fourteen nodded, thinking the current situation over and soon put everything together nicely.
"It came here to reinforce more of it's own kind against the Borg, after all their zealous destruction of Borg ships seems to mean more to them than life itself lately. And I am going to guess that your Alpha hadn't had enough of this prey of his, was taking it personally and decided that by docking with this ship it had made a tactical error"
The Hirogen narrowed it's eyes at Fourteen, making her tighten her grip on her rifle, though she didn't hint any of her apprehension on her face. For a brief moment before the alien responded to her she was torn between thinking she had finally established a working relationship with it or provoking it.
"You may seem like such a fragile little thing, but you are worthy prey. I accept your terms"
The Hirogen pushed its rifle from its lap and Fourteen approached and only once directly beside him did she set her weapon down in exchange for her medical kit. As she worked the Hirogen continued fidgeting about uncomfortably, obviously wanting to get back into the fight. This complicated Fourteen's work and after about five minutes she managed to repair the Hunter's internal bleeding and as she worked on fixing its broken arm she paused a moment.
"I didn't get your name before"
"Beta Repth. It is quite strange having a conversation with my prey".
Fourteen continued her work on the broken arm, wondering if she wasn't just sealing her own fate; though, this Hirogen did seem to be coming around to the idea of her helping him. Two minutes later and she was done, standing from the Hunter's side as she again slung her medical kit before digging into her right pant's pocket producing a small set of micro-circuitry tools. After selecting the right one for the job and removing the glove covering it, Fourteen set to work on the implants in her left hand.
"What is it you are doing?" The Hirogen asked, leaning in to get a better look.
"Your weapons are insufficient to kill the Undine, well eventually it of course would however after a quick modification I could upgrade our weapons to bring it down in one or two shots".
As the Hunter continued to watch intently Fourteen lifted her rifle from the floor, resting it's butt on the ground and standing it vertical while she lined up her left hand with the weapon's on-board computer and soon deployed her assimilation tubules into it. Within seconds the weapon's screen had gone from a light teal to a sickly greenish yellow and the rest of the rifle had sprouted a few hoses and fiber-optics lines. This made the Hirogen recoil slightly as he watched. Fourteen soon motioned for his weapon and as he held it out she again deployed her assimilation tubules.
"Don't worry, I can't actually assimilate life-forms any longer unless I reactivated my nanoprobe's original programming, in which case I'd lose myself in the process. Little modifications like these are perfectly safe. If you are wondering what I have done it's quite simple, the rifles now fire modified nanoprobes that are delivered with the weapon's normal discharge that are coded on how to attack and destroy the Undine's tissue, a technique the Borg used in the Delta Quadrant to…" Fourteen was cut short by the Hunter, giving him a slight look of annoyance as he spoke.
"We need to attack him before he tries to escape. You will go right and I will go left"
"Naturally" she said, sarcasm weighing heavy on her voice as she did as told.
For what seemed like five whole minutes Fourteen moved forward, sweeping slowly before finally finding the Undine inside a room whose door had been blown in. She had gotten the drop on it and as she knelt to take the shot, steadying her breath and raising the Tetryon Rifle to her shoulder bad luck reared its ugly head in the form of one of her own orders. Her combadge beeped before the loud and heavily accented voice belonging to Farrell came blasting over it.
"Lieutenant! We made it to the Shuttle Bay but can't raise the Nightingale, what's worse is now we got Hirogens…."
Fourteen ripped the badge off and threw it down the corridor, but it was far too late. The undine having heard it turned and charged at her at an incredible speed from the depths of the Mess Hall it had invaded, as it drew within ten feet Fourteen fired, catching it in the mid section. It flinched a second and she landed another shot on it, this time on its middle leg, she lined up for a third try but never had the chance. It charged again, this time closing the distance and with Fourteen already having her back against the wall she rolled to the left, dropping her rifle and producing both of her Anti-Proton pistols as she rose. Realizing she need only wait a few moments while the nanoprobes tore apart the Undine's organs she would use her sidearms to stall it, and stall it she did as she tapped the triggers in rapid succession, backing up slowly as she did.
As it looked like the Undine was about to try advancing again Fourteen heard a shot from behind her that found its mark in the middle of the Tripod's face. It stood stunned a second then slumped forward stone dead, looking behind her Fourteen saw Beta Repth now slowly lowering his rifle and looking quite pleased with himself. The air had taken on an unpleasant odor of burning flesh from all the anti-proton bursts that had seared the Undine and as Fourteen held back gagging she retrieved her combadge before turning her attention back to Repth
"Do you intend on keeping your end of the bargain?"
"Absolutely. One could say I owe you my life… a most uncomfortable situation" the Hirogen answered, sounding quite frustrated.
Fourteen thought as fast as she could about how to get something useful out of this situation for not only herself but also the entirety of the Federation. It really didn't take long to arrive at what she did.
"If you would like to repay me then come back to my ship with me, talk to the Starfleet Intelligence officers we have on-board. I am certain they can grant you amnesty if you divulged what you knew about the Romulans to them. Also, if I someday find myself in a command position I promise you that if you talk to them I will see to it personally that you are repaid for it"
The Hirogen nodded approvingly at her and began walking down the corridor towards where they had boarded, pausing just once to look back at Fourteen.
"Wipe that mark off your head, female. It is improper for a Hunter to carry such a thing. Notify your crew to standby for beam out".
Not lost on how large a compliment this was Fourteen was prompt in wetting two of her fingers with spit and wiping the paint from her head. Once done with that she fitted her badge back on and tapped it, trying to come up with how to explain this one.
"Away Team, this is Fourteen. Standby for beam-out to a somewhat unexpected destination, I have a Hirogen Hunter that agreed to help us in exchange for helping him. He is to be trusted so no one do anything foolish"
Fourteen and Repth walked back to the small Hunter's Escort attached to the Viceroy's hull and once inside Repth was prompt in beaming the Away Team aboard. Everyone had made it out unharmed much to Fourteen's relief and the only thing that brought more relief was a few minutes later finding the Nightingale running silent, and really only superficially damaged.
"Regeneration Cycle Interrupted" came the computer's monotone drawl.
Fourteen stepped forward from her Alcove, opening her eyes to see Commander Hudop, a middle aged Vulcan she had been friends with since just after her liberation standing before her.
"Rear Admiral, forgive me for waking you, however you regenerated well past your usual nine hours, enough so that you are now an hour late for your bridge shift" he said in his usual emotionless tone.
"I appreciate the concern, Hudop. Just another unwanted side effect of wrestling with my humanity as it keeps trying to reassert itself. Another dream about the past, my last mission on the USS Nightingale and how I met Repth this time" Fourteen explained, stepping down from the elevated platform that her alcove sat upon.
Hudop watched as she picked up her B-01 style uniform jacket from her small polished steel coffee table and pulled it on over her black undershirt leaving it unzipped, soon switching her badge from that undershirt to its rightful place on the jacket.
"You remain a mystery to me, Fourteen. There are times when one could truly imply make a better Vulcan than myself".
Fourteen grinned at this very slightly as she tied her hair back then pulled on her gloves.
"We've been over this more times than I can count my friend. I see emotions as both pointless and usually irrelevant wastes of both time and energy, I know you have agreed to that in the past" she said, now fitting her chest holsters, still holding her customized Anti-Proton pistols, on over her jacket.
"You are at your core human, and it is not normal nor healthy for a human to ignore their emotions. As much as you would like you cling to that aspect of your Borg side eventually you won't have a choice but to acknowledge your human side, that may be what these dreams are trying to tell you." Hudop said in an almost preachy tone that Fourteen had come to be all to familiar with over the past four years
Fourteen walked to one of her two small rectangular windows and looked out into the swirling green nebulous gasses and electro-static discharges flashing like lightning inside that pea soup and stared out a moment, listening to the faint yet present voices of the collective echoing in her head and the faint and intermittent noise of the harmless little shock-waves caused by the static as they bounced harmlessly off the shields and hull.
"Another charming day in the B'tran Cluster" she said sarcastically before continuing
"I do acknowledge them, actually. I have over the past few years trained myself to be able to use them to my advantage in combat against the Borg as well as numerous other occasions against species I faced as a Drone. However I have learned through great hardship and incidents like that unfortunate one with the Gorn Ambassador that I am much better off suppressing them, thankfully the Borg left me the little gift which was mental discipline"
Hudop nodded approvingly at this, then changed position so he was holding his hands behind his back in a very thoughtful looking stance.
"As I have said many times in the past, I see you as a kindred spirit. Though, I have witnessed several instances of double standards from you" he said; now taking on an almost curious tone.
"Helping Beta Repth, I know. I may not express emotion but it is never the less there. That day three years ago I had a gut feeling and I went with it and that same gut feeling saved my Away Team later that day. Don't think I'm without conflict on the subject. I just know how I have become comfortable in living and I would prefer against changing that. Now I'd say we've wasted enough time for one day, the Doolittle isn't going to captain herself. Care to join me on the bridge?" Fourteen replied, heading for the door while finally zipping up her uniform jacket.
"As always" Hudop replied falling in behind her.
Once on the bridge Hudop took his position in the First officer's chair and Fourteen got on with her daily ritual of walking station to station, today pausing beside Repth and exchanging what had become their usual greeting of just a nod. He had not only been granted amnesty a few years back but had also after Fourteen pulled many strings become the first and only Hirogen in Starfleet. Just like Fourteen he had specialized in Engineering and excelled in about every area. With her meteoric rise to Rear Admiral, Fourteen had the power to recruit who she wanted and made good on her word to pay Repth back, making him her Operations Officer.
Once comfortable with the status of her customized Griffin escort, Fourteen walked to her captain's chair and after a final few moments studying space outside in her main-viewer she allowed herself to drop gently and silently into her chair.
"Computer, begin Day Shift" Fourteen said, a slight hint of enthusiasm behind her voice.
End of Episode One.