Rating: T

Setting: Set during the 24th Century

Disclaimer: CBS/Paramount owns all, and I own nothing, not even the words. That said, the idea is mine – please do not repost this anywhere without my permission.

Chapter 3 - Decisions

- Onboard the Eisenhower-

Commander Tolov was being led to the captain's quarters by the first officer and the Marine Sergeant. As they were moving down the corridor, she was noting the significant technology around her. On all the wall panels, there were no overt indications of manual buttons or interfaces. She looked back to the corporal, "How does everything function on this ship?"

"Ma'am," Styler answered, "Most, if not all of the interfaces are voice command or holographic. Some of the basic interfaces are touch-based, but not all."

"So, do you utilize AI to increase efficiency with your systems?" she asked.

"That type of information is classified, ma'am."

She nodded, "No problem, commander. I'll be sure to bring it up when I talk to the Captain."

Styler nodded, and they continued down the corridor to the Captain's quarters. When they reached the door, sensors detected their presence before any action to announce their arrival at the door. "Enter," the disembodied voice of the captain said over a hidden speaker.

The doors parted, allowing the trio into the room. Moving into the room, they saw the captain at his desk waving them over. He looked up from his computer display, "Commander Tolov, please sit," motioning to a couch over to his left. Looking up at Styler and the marine, "Styler, thank you. Please leave Sergeant Tyler outside. I'll comm him if I need him."

Styler nodded, "Yes, sir." He looked at Tolov and smiled, "Commander, once the captain is finished, I'll be at your disposal for anything else."

From her seat, Tolov replied, "Thank you, commander. I'll be sure to remember that."

As the first officer and Marine Sergeant left the room, Captain Thompson waited until the door had closed before saying anything. "So, I wanted to speak to you privately before we got back to the Richmond. I have to be frank with you, not many in our country do not want to have anything to do with Earth," he sadly said. "However, some in our government have expressed the need to help our cousins, but your current Federation laws and our policies prevent us from revealing ourselves. The fear of genetics in your population is still apparent."

Tolov took this opportunity to ask, "So if we're not wanted in your society, what's your plan for us?"

Thompson sighed, "Well, there are many in the government that asked me to leave you with another civilization and not even bring you back. A few want to assist and liberate Earth, but those are a small minority."

She was shocked, "So, as I asked before, you'll let Earth die under the Dominion?"

"Sadly, that's the opinion of a majority of our elected officials. You see, when you get to Richmond, you'll know why we can't let the Federation have access or knowledge of our technologies. We've kept a tight lid on it, and we have a strict non-interference policy, much like your Prime Directive, but much more rigid.

"If we were to liberate Earth, what's to say that humans will turn on us and expect us to conform to your Federation laws? If you preach non-interference, will you let us go our way and not contact us again?"

"I honestly can't say anything to that effect, sir. I do know that people are suffering and have been killed. The Dominion has effectively destroyed our way of life…"

Thompson interjected, "...destroyed by your misguided Federation policies. We witnessed the first contact between you and the Dominion and how some of the missteps of that initial relationship fostered the rumblings of war from the beginning." He paused. He looked away, "I apologize, Irina. Let us not argue."

She changed the subject, "Captain, what are you going to do with us when we reach your homeworld?"

"You'll be sequestered for a bit. Standard medical quarantine until we can determine that you can survive in our environment. Due to our augmentations, many illnesses that you would have caught have been eliminated from society. Our doctors can provide you with enhancements to make you healthier. Still, for every non-genetically enhanced race that we encounter, we have to make sure they can work in our environment before allowing them access to our public areas. I promise that you can address any elected official or military leadership, though I doubt that any decision to liberate Earth may fall on deaf ears. I'm not pessimistic, just realistic.

"Other than that, for the members of your crew, each will be given a choice to stay in our society or find lives on any of the other inhabited worlds. If you stay with us, you'll be provided a choice for some type of augmentation to assist in your acclimation, but only enough that you're comfortable with."

Tolov was silent for a bit, digesting all that she heard. "Sir, I'd still like the opportunity to present my side for liberating Earth. I can see your technology is way beyond even the Dominion's, but it would also put your people at risk."

The captain nodded, "I understand. I'd do the same thing if I were in your shoes." He moved to a cabinet behind him and brought out a flask, "Do you like alcohol, Irina?"

"I'm Russian, of course, I do!" She smiled.

Thompson smiled back, "Then let's take a break from all this at the moment and have a drink. I have some vodka here if you like?" He pulled out a bottle of white liquor and poured two glasses half full.

"Yes, please!" She said, taking one of the glasses from him. Drinking it down in one gulp, she said, "This is good! Did you make this on your planet? It's as good as any I've had on Earth!" She downed the glass empty.

He nodded, "Made in our distilleries back on Richmond. We tried to bring the best of our culture with us when we left Earth, and many of our ancestors couldn't leave without the ability to make good alcohol regardless of the country it came from," he smiled. He poured her glass some more vodka.

She got up and walked over to the viewport. Looking down into her glass, she was silent for a bit. "To be honest, Captain, I don't know what to think right now. I wasn't the captain, but I know he'd want the best for the crew."

Looking at her, Thompson nodded, "I agree with that sentiment. Irina, all you can do is fight for your crews' rights and make sure they are safe. I promise nothing will happen to them. They'll be treated respectfully and with dignity."

She looked back at him, "I think I'm done for now. Can I get an escort back to my bunk?"

Thompson nodded. He looked towards the door, "Sergeant Tyler, can you come in, please?"

With that, the door opened, and the Marine came in, "Yes, sir?"

"Please escort Commander Tolov back to her quarters?" he asked.

"At once, sir." With that, Irina handed the glass back to Thompson, "thank you for being honest with me, Captain."

He looked at Tolov, "If you any more questions, let me know through the XO?"

She nodded and followed the Marine out the door.

- Richmond System -

As the Eisenhower came out of slipstream outside the American Republic system boundary, hails were exchanged, and encryption protocols were followed for authorized access. Moving at sub-light speed, the ship made its way to the system's primary port of entry. This port of entry allowed for segregation of all incoming foreign ships. It was dual-purposed as a military base for Republic starships coming and going.

The Federation humans were processed from the Eisenhower and sent to the Republic's medical facilities. Each of the humans was stripped of their clothes and provided sterile gowns for their examinations. Since their clothes could have brought significant disease or introduced unknown pathogens into the Republic, they were incinerated, much to the Starfleet officers' surprise. None of their technology, though inferior, was kept, except for a few com badges that were placed in EM & subspace shielded containers for later examination by Republic scientists.

Each of them was processed by medical doctors and advanced medical scanners that mapped their DNA down to the quantum level. Once completed, each of the humans was provided a comprehensive scan data of what was found. Some of the humans had latent genetic disease markers on their DNA not yet discovered by Federation science. Each of the humans was offered the option of 'fixing' those markers permanently to prevent any future occurrence of any potential disease. All of them took the offer, knowing that it could help them in prolonging their life.

The medical process was unlike anything the Earth humans had experienced. Subjected to very invasive scans, it quickly mapped their entire genome and gave the Republic doctors results. At the end of a long day, the Federation humans were provided the ability to choose appropriate clothing for their entry into Republic society. Sitting down and looking at the options, they were soon overwhelmed at the choices. Eventually, clothing was selected, and they found themselves all sitting around a common area to discuss what had just happened to them.

Sitting around a table, Commander Tolov opened up the discussion, "So, everyone, report what you have seen so far."

Starting from her left, Lt Remington began, "Ma'am, this place is almost like a dream. The technology is short of being magical. The replicators are very advanced and very similar to our Federation technology. Not to mention their starship design is very far advanced than anything the Federation has."

She nodded, "Agreed, these humans are very advanced. It's almost they deliberately increased their intelligence to make additional leaps and bounds in technology...and it worked." She looked around and said, "Everyone here knows that these humans are Augmented, right?"

Everyone nodded, with a smattering of verbal confirmations.

"With that being said, they are still very polite and not condescending at all. This goes against everything I heard or read about Augments within the Federation."

"Ma'am," a Lieutenant Commander Stennis began, "they left the Vulcans behind. That wasn't very 'enlightened' if I may say so."

"I'm not defending them, but these humans have a great distrust of Vulcan and their people from early in their history around Earth's first contact. Something about them taking away humanity's ability to choose their destiny. Their laws even forbid any contact with that race...yes, it's ironic. Now they are significantly more advanced than Vulcan, but at the same time, still very xenophobic towards them. Wonder why? Perhaps we'll never know."

Stennis continued, "So, commander, what's to become of us? I've heard unofficial statements from the Eisenhower crew that we'll never go back to the Federation and we have to stay here in this society. Is this true?"

Tolov nodded, "Yes, I'm afraid that is true. None of us can ever go back to Earth, regardless if the Dominion is there or not, and never let the Federation know about this human society."

"So, even if there is no Federation to return to, we can never go back?" Asked a blonde hair chief petty officer named Rebecca Landry.

"Yes," responded Commander Tolov, "Chief, you are correct. We can never go back."

That caused a bit of concern among the Starfleet crew.

Tolov looked around what remained of the crew, "I've been told to present two options to everyone since we're stuck here for the foreseeable future. We can continue to live here in this society, or, two, the Republic will allow transport to some other alien culture that will allow you to emigrate to. The only caveat is that you have to be accepted into that culture where you're going to. If you choose option one, the Republic will generously 'augment' you in some regions of your body to better function in this society. If not, then they won't. There will be a massive learning curve for each of us, but it'll take about a year for each of us to acclimate. Let's face it, not only are they physically better than us, but our intelligence is comparable to a child for them. Our options to live and contribute to this society are very limited in our non-augmented state.

"Now, the decision doesn't have to be today or tomorrow, but it has to be soon so the Republic can decide on how best to accommodate us. Tomorrow, we're going to meet some civilian heads of state to welcome us to their country formally. From watching their public news feeds, which there are many of them, their society is openly friendly but very chaotic. There are many things to do here… the choice is something I see they encourage and conformity to a single standard is not at the top of the list.

"Looking at various historical records that are publicly available, I've seen a consistent theme of freedom of choice here and a general sense of, 'if you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone,'" Tolov finished.

"But commander, what about Earth and the Federation? Isn't there any way we can convince them to help us?" Remington asked.

"Not at present, lieutenant." Tolov responded, "I'm pretty much powerless to make my point to them at this time."

After hearing this, most of the other crew sat there silent, but Tolov could still see that many of them would have a hard time dealing with this situation.

"Everyone, one final note," she began, "Don't get me wrong, I don't like being here any more than you do, but right now, we can't do anything about it. Make the best of the situation, learn while you're here. For you history buffs in the group, this is an opportunity to learn about a part of human history that may have been hidden from us."

Still silent, the crew nodded and then dispersed to the individually assigned quarters they had been provided. Some stayed in the common area to talk or socialize, but most of them left the room. Tolov was one of them...she had nothing to do anymore except find some more vodka if she could. She felt she could make better decisions if she drank a bit.

TBC