Note: This is the second episode in my ongoing series, Star Trek: Odyssey. You can start reading here and pick up on the backstory through context, or you can read Star Trek Odyssey - Isle of the Sun first. It's entirely up to you.
STAR TREK
ODYSSEY
In The Palace of Calypso
"Son of Laertes, man of many wiles,
High-born Ulysses! thus wilt thou depart
Home to thy native country? Then farewell;
But, couldst thou know the sufferings Fate ordains
For thee ere yet thou landest on its shore,
Thou wouldst remain to keep this home with me
And be immortal…"
- The Odyssey of Homer
CHAPTER 1
Lucy took a deep breath, savoring the fresh, salt-scented air. She drifted on the surface of the ocean, the gentle waves rocking her side to side, bearing her along on their relentless march to the shore. She heard only the soothing white noise of the waves caressing the sandy beach, the gentle splash of her hands paddling lightly against the water, and the occasional warble of a Risan gull.
Lucy opened her eyes, and crystal-blue skies filled her sight. A single, wispy cloud, gold on its westward face and lavender on its shadowed side, drifted high overhead.
She would have been happy to float this way forever, just soaking up the peacefulness of this moment, but it wasn't long before the waves became choppy and her heel struck against the soft, red-gold sand of the beach. Lucy lowered her feet to the bottom and rose to standing. Between the waves, the water didn't quite reach her knees.
The evening breeze stirred against Lucy's damp skin, her black spaghetti-strap bikini doing little to ward off the chill. She decided she was ready to leave the water for the day. There wasn't much sunlight left, and her skin was starting to prune.
Her eyes scanned the beach for her towel as she marched through the shallow water to the shoreline. She supposed she must have drifted a little ways down the beach on her trip back to shore, but she wasn't sure in which direction, or how far. So, she looked to the line of Risan starburst palms that towered over the dunes beyond the tidal zone, looking for the outline of her small cabana in amidst the trees. The Risan sun hung low at her back, casting a honeyed glow on the open beach and dappling everything beyond the treeline in deep shadows.
Lucy was surprised by the presence of someone behind her, draping her sun-warmed towel over her shoulders. She craned her neck to the side and beheld Owen's smiling face. He wrapped the towel around her and pulled her close, and Lucy let her weight settle against his warm body as he ran his hands up and down her sides, drying her off with her own towel.
"How did you manage to sneak up behind me?" said Lucy. She was suddenly smiling like mad.
Owen let out a single soft, breathy chuckle. "I saw you wash in on the tide, like so much driftwood."
"Excuse me?" said Lucy, feigning offense. Her irrepressible grin betrayed her. "Did you just call me driftwood?"
"Sorry," said Owen, "I meant to say… I saw you rise from the seafoam, like Aphrodite would."
Lucy quirked an eyebrow, and her eyes darted over his lips. "Better."
"And… I thought you might be cold, so I found your towel."
Lucy pursed her lips in consideration. "Still doesn't explain how you snuck up on me, though."
"Sure it does," said Owen, and he smirked. "You're not very observant, you know."
Lucy scoffed. "I am so," she said, and she pushed herself free of Owen's arms and turned around to face him directly. She sized him up with a critical eye, his broad shoulders and lean physique on display in his white swimming trunks, his wet, tousled blonde hair, his slanted grin, his honest hazel eyes, drinking her in like she was the only thing in the galaxy that could sustain him.
She pressed her finger against his heart. "I see you, Owen Vance," she said.
His smile grew brighter. "And I see you, Lucy Kang." He stepped closer and dipped his head, and Lucy stood on her toes, bringing her lips to his for a soft, ponderous kiss. She let her hands trail across his warm, damp shoulders and down the sculpted contours of his upper back.
After a moment, Owen took a step back. "But you don't see yourself too well these days, do you?" His eyes were suddenly serious, even a little concerned.
Her brow crinkled in confusion, and she shook her head. "What do you mean?"
In response, he just looked down at the beach, and Lucy followed his gaze to the wet sand. A few centimeters of water surged up around their feet, and as the wave receded, the thin sheen of water that lingered on the sand rendered a vivid reflection. Lucy saw herself, her black hair falling to her shoulders in thick, wet tangles, framing her wide, dark eyes, her full lips, and the delicate angles of her heart-shaped face. The colorful towel draped over her shoulders hung down to her svelte waist, concealing her buxom figure but not the gentle swell of her hips or her shapely legs.
Then another surge of water dashed the image away, and as the wave receded, the reflection that emerged was subtly different.
Her wet hair was matted flat to her scalp. Her eyes weren't quite so wide, and her features weren't quite so delicate. Her legs were about as shapely as twigs, and her bony hips didn't swell so much as jut.
The image of the way her body used to be left Lucy conflicted and confused. It was her real body, and Lucy missed the sense of living in her own skin. At the same time, she'd begun to take the more classically beautiful body that had been hoisted on her for granted. It was a relief, not agonizing over her appearance, having the effortless confidence that comes from feeling beautiful. Still, the sense of her body's artificiality gnawed at her.
But why was she seeing this image in the sand? Lucy looked down at her real body and opened her towel. She'd never filled out a bikini this perfectly in her old skin. The image was just an illusion, then; a trick of the light. Lucy looked back to Owen, wondering what he was playing at. Only now, the sun was sinking behind him, setting the horizon alight. All she could see of him was his silhouette, crowned in liquid fire.
root: system :: reboot/
Ensign Lucy Kang woke to a world of featureless gray. She was still standing on her feet. She looked down and saw herself shrouded in a fog so dense she could hardly see the black part of her Starfleet uniform below its cerulean blue shoulders.
She noticed her combadge was missing, and she patted her hips, looking for her other equipment. It was all gone. Her tricorder, her phaser, her accessory pouch, and even the holsters that carried her gear were missing from her waist.
As she patted herself down, Lucy noticed the fog was gradually thinning, revealing more of herself, and then exposing the boundaries of her environment; the transparent barrier of the circular chamber Hux had locked her in… how long ago?
How was she back on this space station again? She'd been on a beach. It wasn't just a dream. She remembered; she and Owen had reserved a private cabana on a small island, in the Lethes Archipelago of the Southern Hemisphere of Risa. She remembered the suborbital hopper that they'd taken to the island, and before that, the interstellar liner they'd taken from… from where, again?
And in the first place, how had she escaped this automated nightmare station, buried at the bottom of subspace? Its sole contact with the galaxy was a wormhole that opened exclusively at the behest of the station. Had Voyager found another way to reach her? Was that before or after they made it back to the Alpha Quadrant?
Why couldn't she remember? She'd just been back on Risa with Owen, so they must have made it back somehow. It had been so real. More real than this foggy place, certainly. And her memories of the last several days were so clear… So maybe this place was the dream?
But then, why wasn't she surprised to see her holographic jailor outside of her cell as the last of the fog thinned away? Hux stood just on the other side of the glass, exactly where she remembered him being a few minutes ago… or days ago? Years ago?
If she'd been frozen all this time, she supposed it might have been millennia.
Hux regarded her with the same solemn expression he'd had when he'd locked her up in the first place, however long ago. His face was different, though. He'd had a little bit of a cranial ridge the last time she'd seen him, and his ears had been just a little pointy. Now, he looked entirely human.
He was even wearing a Human outfit; a suit like a neighborhood politician might wear in New Seoul on Alpha Centauri; a long black jacket over a white turtleneck, trim, boot-cut slacks showing off his pseudo-traditional lace-up sandals and dress socks. He wore the outfit quite well, Lucy had to admit.
"You changed your face," said Lucy.
Hux nodded, and then a segment of Lucy's cell the size of a doorway turned spontaneously to liquid and flowed out into the surrounding walls, offering Lucy an exit.
Hux stepped back, out of the way, and gestured for Lucy to step out of the chamber.
Lucy took a step, but then she hesitated. "How long?"
"How long… what?" said Hux.
"How long have I been in this prison?"
She braced herself for the worst conceivable answer; the answer that would tell her that all her friends and family were long dead, that her civilization had long ago crumbled to dust, that her species was either extinct or evolved beyond recognition. Half a million years ought to have done the trick, she figured.
"Check your chronometer," said Hux.
"How?" said Lucy, "You stole my equipment."
"Starfleet's equipment," Hux corrected her. "And I didn't steal anything. I sent it back with them when they departed."
Lucy shook her head. "I signed that gear out! It was my gear until I signed it back in again, and my responsibility."
"Well, it's not anymore," said Hux. "You're no longer in Starfleet."
Lucy huffed. "Says you. So, how do you expect me to check my chronometer, then?"
"Like this," said Hux.
host/query access: internal chronometer/
Lucy shook her head, trying to fend off the foreign thought that popped into her mind. "Don't! I hate it when you do that!"
It drove her nuts that the station could put things in her head whenever it wished, using her implants to interface directly with her brain. It was all very Borg-like, and she would have found it terrifying, if her capacity for fear hadn't been blunted by the Aug-Tech implants, along with her capacity for sorrow and pain. As it was, though, she found it aggravating in the extreme.
"You need to learn how to use your Aug-Tech for yourself," said Hux. "I'm showing you."
host/internal chronometer: report/
Stardate 52072.4151687943433364
Lucy blinked. It could have been a lot worse. Then again, it could have been a hell of a lot better.
"Five-two-oh-seven-two mark four?"
Hux nodded. "That's right."
"It's been a year and a half?"
"It's been one year, one hundred eighty-one days, nine hours, and fifty-five minutes since you arrived on this station."
"In that case, I guess my ship is thousands of light-years away by now…"
"Voyager is on a higher spatial plane, Ms. Kang. There is no direct vector along which to measure her relative distance from us," said Hux.
"Right…" said Lucy. If she could find a way to access the wormhole network that the station used, she realized, she might be able to return to normal space anywhere. She might still be able to reach her ship. "Where is it, though?" she asked. "Can you tell?"
Hux shook his head. "Not even if I had a reason to, which I do not."
Lucy bit her lip and considered what she knew about Voyager's course through the Delta Quadrant. If she could find a way back to normal space a few months ahead of Voyager's most likely trajectory, she would have time to track down the ship and make contact before they passed her by.
She'd have to gain access to the station's systems first, though, and that meant gaining the station's trust.
Lucy returned her attention to her holographic jailor, who was watching her expectantly. She decided she would clamp down on her knee-jerk impulse to make life as hard as possible for her captor, at least for now. "So, you woke me up for a reason, I take it. How can I be of help?"
Hux's face broke into a grin. He gestured for Lucy to step out of the pillar, and she gladly obliged. As she stepped through the door, she took a closer look at Hux's newly Human face.
"Why did you change it?"
Hux tilted his head thoughtfully. "I try to adapt my appearance to suit the circumstances."
"I see," said Lucy. "You're not trying to impress any Klingons or Vulcans anymore. Just little old me."
Hux chuckled. "'Impress' isn't the right word, I don't think. Set at ease, rather."
"Uh huh," said Lucy. "Is that the idea behind the chameleon routine my skin puts on? The reason I turned bright blue after eating lunch with a Bolian?"
"In a way. One of the basic features of your Aug-Tech package is to adapt your appearance and personality to suit each user."
Lucy scoffed. "I don't have users. That's disgusting. And my personality doesn't change, just my appearance."
"Yes, well, the Aug-Tech apparatus never operated on your species before, and it didn't have access to the station's higher A.I. while installing your upgrades. So, you didn't get all the features. Not to worry, though. I'll be sure to remedy that if I ever provide you to a customer."
Lucy made a bitter face. "You're a monster."
Hux just sighed and shook his head. "Follow me." He turned around and walked towards the lift platform set into a wide nook in the wall, and Lucy stood in place, reassessing her strategy. She needed the station's trust, but she didn't know if it would really do her any good, even if she had it. The station could control her mind. That was a tough advantage to overcome.
Hux stood on the lift and turned around, regarding Lucy with a questioning quirk of his eyebrow. She walked, slowly, to the lift while Hux waited for her with infinite patience.
The moment both her feet touched the platform, it went rocketing through the station, arriving at a higher deck in the blink of an eye.
Lucy looked around, taking in the wide open room, like nowhere else on the station she had seen.
"Is this your holodeck?" said Lucy. She stepped off of the lift platform onto the deck, which was hardwood, or a very convincing imitation.
Hux shook his head. "This is one of the station's housing facilities for staff. The walls, floors, furniture, et cetera are all configurable for the needs of the workers.
"Walls?" Lucy echoed, "What walls?"
The room was nearly the size of a Parrises Squares court, fully open layout, enclosed not by walls, but by a wooden rail, and surrounded on all sides by nature's splendor. The lift pad occupied the center of the room. In the southeast corner, there was a queen-sized bed with an armoire, a dresser, and a full-length mirror arranged around it. In the southwest corner, a sofa and a few comfortable chairs were arranged around a coffee table, and a squat bookshelf stood against the rail, loaded with hardcover books and Federation-style digital readers. At the other end of the rectangular room, the northeast corner was dominated by an array of large, holographic display screens surrounding a C-shaped desk, the whole surface of which was taken up with a console interface panel. The northwest corner had a kitchen table and a few chairs, a countertop with an inlaid sink and a few cabinets, a stovetop, and a replicator nook.
The aesthetic touches were all in the New Seoul beach vogue style, unique to a few neighborhoods of one city on Alpha Centauri, and almost every hard surface was made of wood. Even the console interfaces projected their buttons and readouts over a wood-like textured surface. The wooden roof rested on wooden pillars extending from the wooden rails, with old-fashioned wooden rafters bearing up a classic triangular apex. The awnings extended over a meter beyond the railing, protecting the room from inclement weather.
Beyond the rails, the cabana overlooked a sweeping beach vista to the west, a waterfall tumbling over a dramatic, moss-covered cliff into a tranquil, freshwater pond to the east, and a forest of Risan clover ferns and starburst palms in between.
The weather was pleasantly warm, with a sultry breeze keeping the heat perfectly in check. The air was alive with the sounds of chirping jungle birds, singing amphibians, warbling Risan gulls, and whistling insects, set to the slow and steady rhythm of crashing waves.
"This beach…" said Lucy.
"Pulled straight from your memories," said Hux.
"But I was just here," she said. "Did you know that? Was that you?"
Hux nodded. "I thought you could use a little vacation to get your cortisol levels in check."
So it hadn't been a dream, then. It was a simulation. Like this place, except all in her head.
"So this'll be my terrarium, I take it?".
"Do you like it?"
Lucy shrugged. "A prison's a prison. You didn't have to go to all this trouble for my sake."
"Even so, it suits my interests to keep you in optimal physical and mental health."
"What, you can't just… tweak my personality to make me happy?"
She kind of regretted the words when they were out of her mouth. She didn't want to give the hologram any ideas.
Hux sighed. "Would that it were so simple. Humanoid brains are complex, inefficient things, wired together through billions of years of evolution to exist in natural environments like this one. I can patch over mental health issues easily enough, of course, but a patch is just a patch."
"We evolved to be free," said Lucy. "To be with our own kind."
"With your own kind, yes," said Hux, "But we can trick those circuits easily enough. As for the freedom bit, I don't agree. That's a cultural norm, not an evolved trait. Your species is naturally hierarchical, just like most other social mammals. You're happiest when you have someone setting boundaries and giving you purpose."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Are you an expert on the Human species, now, Mr. Hologram?"
Hux considered for a moment, then nodded. "I've seen enough of you and your people to feel comfortable in my assessment of your species. You're omnivores, nearly eusocial, aspirational, highly aggressive, very territorial, and extremely adaptable. You want to dominate your environment, not as individuals, but as a tribe. You want as large a tribe as possible because a larger tribe means more power, safety, stability, and options for genetic diversity and fitness when choosing a mate. That's driven you to build larger and larger tribalistic institutions, beginning with villages, then countries, and now your galactic 'Federation.'
"You've reached a logical extreme in your social evolution, where you try to integrate as many compatible beings into your tribe as you possibly can, uniting under a common set of cultural norms and driving away those who can't or won't conform."
"Ok, already," said Lucy. "I've heard the whole 'Humans aren't so great' speech before, so there's no need to talk my ear off. No matter what you think, though, Humans and cages don't mix. It doesn't matter how well the cage is gilded."
Hux sighed. "Well... hopefully, you'll come around. You're going to be here for quite a while, after all."
"And why is that?" said Lucy. "You looking for a pet or something?"
"I've got work for you, Ms. Kang. You're going to take care of some of the problems that have sprung up around here."
"And how the hell am I going to do that? I don't know anything about this place or its technology."
"Well, I'm going to install a systems maintenance package on you."
"A 'systems maintenance package'? Is that… hardware or software?"
"Oh, it's purely informational, not to worry. I'm going to set you up with a blueprint of the station, a detailed grasp of system operations, and a mandate to apply your full efforts towards the proper operations of the station."
"Oh," said Lucy. "Is that all?"
"Well, those are the broad strokes, at least."
"And this 'mandate'... Is this going to entail another override of my free will? My 'executive initiation'?"
"Oh, yes, absolutely. But this should be the last time it's necessary."
"I don't like the sound of that," said Lucy. "I think I'd rather keep the overrides on a case-by-case basis if it's all the same."
Hux chuckled softly. "I'm sure you would. Now, just relax, and we'll have this done in a moment."
root/query access: cognitive framework/
root/cognitive framework: Install systems maintenance package/
"Hang on a sec!" said Lucy.
Downloading...
Her mind was racing, trying to think how to stall the hologram until she could figure a way out of this mess.
7% complete…
"You're an autonomous A.I. with the capacity for creative problem solving, aren't you? What do you need with my help?"
15% complete…
"Could a doctor perform surgery on his own brain, Ms. Kang?"
23% complete…
"Your brain? You're going to give me that much access to your computer systems?"
Hux nodded.
30% complete…
That would be great news, if she could find a way to avoid being mentally enslaved to that same computer system.
38% complete…
Hux had told her she could control her own Aug-Tech. Maybe she could stop the process?
46% complete…
She knew she'd successfully imparted commands on the implants before; but so far, she'd only figured out how to push back against them, not how to steer them herself. Seeing as Hux could simply override her resistance, she knew she needed to find a more sophisticated means of control.
53% complete…
Lucy did her best to visualize a console screen, like the one in the bioneural maintenance lab on Voyager where she'd worked for three years before being trapped here. She pictured a readout on the console that would display the thought-inputs that the station was putting in her head, as well as the involuntary thought-outputs that popped into her head as a result.
Below the readout, she pictured a prompt where she could enter her own input, and then she tried using it.
/ Disable Aug-Tech.
Error: Unable to comply.
Ha! The command didn't work, but at least she got a response from her implants. She was talking to them. It was an important first step.
61% complete…
/ Cancel download.
Confirm (Y/N):
Lucy felt a thrill of victory, but she quickly thought better of it. For one thing, it was a little too obvious. Hux would probably be ready for it. And if she cancelled, he'd catch on quick and probably try again, more forcefully this time, overriding her willpower in advance. Plus, she wouldn't get the access to station's systems that she needed.
Confirm (Y/N): N
70% complete…
She needed a way to sabotage the installation at a critical moment.
78% complete…
Except, the last time she'd done that, she'd broken her own mind and wound up without even the willpower to breathe, almost suffocating to death before it was fixed. That was definitely something to avoid. After all, it wasn't like she could restore her own mind from backups…
86% complete…
Unless she could!
/ Create backups of /root/executive initiation/ and /root/cognitive framework/
At that, a torrent of competing processes flooded Lucy's imaginary console with overlapping messages in rapid progression.
93% complete…
Working…
99% complete…
Backing up executive initiation…
Download complete.
Installing…
Backup 12% complete…
Installation 7% complete...
As her backup started and Hux's installation progressed, the jumble of competing processes became a serious strain. Lucy couldn't hold the image of the console anymore. She couldn't focus on anything beyond of the involuntary efforts being forced on her brain. It was like listening to a lecture on warp physics in one ear and a symposium on the Prime Directive towards oppressive regimes in the other. Both processes were challenging and taxing in very different ways, and she was being forced to devote her full attention to both at once. She felt like her head might burst from the strain.
"Just breathe," Hux soothed.
"Shut up!" Lucy snapped. She couldn't handle any more input at the moment. She clamped her hands to her ears and clutched her eyes shut.
"What has you so overtaxed?" said Hux. "Your brain should be able to handle this package comfortably enough."
Backup 67% complete…
Installation 51% complete…
"Let's see…"
root/query access: active processes :: list
Denied!
Hux sighed in annoyance.
root/query access: executive initiation :: override
Backup 79% complete…
Installation 57% complete…
root/query access: active processes :: list
- Backup of executive initiation
- Installation of systems maintenance package
Backup 88% complete…
Installation 64% complete...
Hux chuckled, spotting Lucy's attempt to back up what remained of her cognitive independence before he could overwrite it. "Clever! You're already learning your features, that's good!"
root/active processes: Cancel backup of executive initiation
NO!
root/query access: executive initiation :: override
Backup 99% complete…
Installation 69% complete…
root/active processes: Cancel backup of executive initiation
Canceling…
Backup complete.
Error! Backup is already complete.
/ Delete error message; do not report
Installation 73% complete...
She did it! Hux was too slow to stop the backup! Now, she could only hope he wouldn't notice he'd failed, and that she'd actually get the chance to use it.
Backing up cognitive framework…
The barrage of competing demands on her mind continued as the second backup she'd ordered got started, but Lucy did her best to repress any outward sign of her ongoing distress.
Hux was watching her closely, though, and he wasn't fooled.
root/query access: active processes :: list
- Installation of systems maintenance package
- Backup of cognitive framework
Hux laughed. "You don't quit, do you? Backing up your entire cognitive framework won't change anything, though." He shrugged. "You're really just causing yourself more discomfort."
Lucy was grateful for the enormous strain on her mind for masking her smug reaction. If Hux wasn't threatened by this backup, it followed that he had felt threatened by the one he'd tried to prevent. If Lucy's head hadn't felt like it was being filled to bursting by a torrent of raw information, she might have been tempted to smile.
Backup 28% complete…
Installation complete.
Configuring…
Error! Cognitive framework is engaged in a conflicting task.
root/active processes: Cancel backup of cognitive framework
Canceling...
Backup canceled.
Configuring...
Lucy scoffed indignantly as Hux discarded her backup attempt without even a word of apology. "What, you were just letting me do that to keep me busy? You never planned to let me finish?"
Hux shook his head solemnly. "Hey, at least you gave it your best shot."
Reconfiguring spatio-temporal framework…
/ Reconfiguring what, now?
Reconfiguring spatio-temporal framework…
That didn't sound good.
/ Cancel
Warning! Canceling process will compromise cognitive framework.
Confirm (Y/N):
Lucy hadn't forgotten the experience of suffocating from the sheer lack of will to breathe. She hesitated, and the program in her brain carried on its work.
Lucy was struck with a sense of place. Suddenly, she no longer perceived her surroundings as a strange faux-beach wedged somewhere in the guts of an obscure, alien station in the fathomless depths of subspace. She was standing in maintenance habitat three, on deck nine of the Delurididug Trade Hub, occupying Nexus Seven of the Delurididug Travel Network at a subspace fathom of 9.931.
She knew where the actual walls were around her; just a couple meters beyond the railings. She knew where the bioneural nodes were concealed in the bulkheads, and she could mentally trace their interconnected pathways in a network that put Voyager's BNG grid to shame. She knew the layout of the station's distributed power systems, weapon systems, and warp field manifolds. She knew where to find the guest lodging, the food court, the guest vendor arcade, and the waste extraction facilities.
Reconfiguring knowledge base…
Information flooded Lucy's mind in a torrent, and she didn't absorb more than a superficial impression of any of it. She got a rough idea of the purpose of the warp field manifolds; how they related to the capture and stabilization of transient wormholes, but she couldn't make sense of the mountains of information detailing how they actually worked. It was like she'd memorized a textbook written in a foreign language.
She got a loose sense of the phase-distributed power core, although it made absolutely no sense to her. It ran on some kind of exotic, geometrically perfect meta-molecule with vast potential energy and influence over subspace, and it was contained by some mind-bending applications of spatial phasing. Beyond that, the technical schematics were nonsensical.
Lucy was so absorbed with this flood of information about the world around her that she almost missed the ongoing processes in her own head. The software had gone on reconfiguring her knowledge base, revealing insights about the bioneural systems and other basic functions of the station, and then it moved on to a more sensitive part of her mind.
Reconfiguring executive initiation…
Belatedly, Lucy scrambled to think of some protective measures before the installation process could further compromise her autonomy.
…
Lucy blinked. A moment ago, she'd been desperate to stop the station from overwriting her free will. Now, though, she couldn't remember what her plan had been. Whatever it was, though, Hux must have sniffed it out and deleted it from her head.
Well, that was his prerogative, she supposed. As an asset of the Delurididug Trade Hub, the administrative A.I. of the station had the purview to edit her memory and personality engrams pretty much however it saw fit. She didn't like the idea, but it was what it was.
Reconfiguring operative imperatives…
Lucy began to intuit the kinds of tasks the station would require of her, and a new level of understanding dawned. It finally made sense, why the station brought her out of stasis and upgraded her with a systems maintenance package. It really did need her help.
When Lucy had first arrived on the station, the disfunction she'd seen was the product of centuries of accumulated errors. The station was helpless to reverse the damage, because it couldn't even recognize its own condition. It knew that it was malfunctioning, but it couldn't see how or why until it made contact with her. Lucy's encounter with the Aug-Tech apparatus had given the station a glimpse of her perspective, providing it with the insight that it desperately needed to understand its injury. Her understanding of bioneural systems even supplemented the station's ability to perform self-diagnostics.
"What a lucky accident," said Lucy, her voice dripping in sarcasm, "That you just happened to get yourself a bioneural technician to help you with your bioneural system failures."
"Indeed," said Hux, "I'm glad you're here."
Lucy gave Hux a withering glare. "Come on, Hux, this is way too convenient. Are you really going to tell me you didn't plan on kidnapping me from the start?"
Hux put up his hands defensively. "I followed the letter of the law," he said.
"Maybe you did, but somehow, you manipulated events to get me into your Aug-Tech pod. You acted like I was committing a criminal act, stealing technology from the station, when it was you who was violating my body and stealing my expertise! And then, you contrived that whole tribunal for Chakotay just to get me back to the station, so you could force me to stay." She punctuated with a couple accusative jabs on his insubstantial shoulder.
"I did not contrive anything, and your intent was criminal. Your people came here to steal our intellectual property. That much is a matter of record. You came onto the damaged outpost of an unknown sovereign power, looking to take whatever you needed, without permission or recompense. If I steered you to the Aug-Tech Augmentation Parlor, where you might, by your own error, accidentally trip the faulty activation interface, then I was well within my rights. I am not liable for the welfare of interlopers. And, if I took advantage of the resulting legal situation by retaining possession of you, then I was only choosing the best way to collect my lawfully-owed debt. I was within my rights. I'm not designed to operate any other way, but always within my rights."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "And you accused us of dealing with you in bad faith. You weren't just defending your station against trespassers. You made sure we could come on board in the first place. And once we were here, you targeted me specifically, didn't you? Because you really need me."
Hux shook his head. "I have four other Aug-Tech units in storage I could dust off and load up with the exact same systems maintenance package."
"And yet, you went out of your way to catch me, and now I'm the one you've got conducting your repairs. I'm not an idiot. All this information you put in my head? Ninety-nine percent of it might as well be written in Iconian, but the bioneural systems? I get those. I'm reviewing them right now, and…"
Lucy paused, momentarily awed by the vast web of nodes around her and the brilliant way they organized and encoded information, allowing the same substrate to carry hundreds of datastreams concurrently. "Wow, that's amazing. That makes sense…"
She shook her head, returning her focus to the point she was trying to make. "It might take a lifetime for me to digest all of this information, but I've already got a pretty good understanding of the basics of your BNG grid. I'll do a better job working on your 'brain' than any of those other units ever would."
Hux shrugged. "So?"
Configuration complete. Systems maintenance package installed successfully.
"'So?' What do you mean, 'So?'"
"I mean, Ms. Kang, so what? So what if I do need you? So what if I did plan it all from the start? None of it would change the fact that you are now an asset of the Delurididug Trade Hub. So, what is the point you're trying to make?"
Lucy sighed and shook her head. It galled her to admit he was right. "So… where do you want me to start?"