Author's note: Here's
another chapter. Things have been busy, and I've been trying to avoid Kessel turning into a Mary Sue (not so easy with a non-psycho Augment, since by definition they're stronger, smarter, tougher, they can eat an entire package of Oreos and not gain an ounce, they can get away with wearing those jeans, et cetera.) Served up for your reading pleasure, Paris-Janeway arguments, miniskirts, and Tom's expertise in 20th century sci-fi.
The bridge was beginning to pick up steam. It was a few minutes before shift change. The gamma-shifters were getting ready to end their shifts and hand over their stations to the senior crew. Tom had gotten here early. He needed to speak with Captain Janeway. Hopefully, he might get her before she took the conn.
The gamma-shift flight controller looked over at him. Tom shook his head and waved him off. "Just a few minutes," he said. A moment later, Captain Janeway emerged from her readyroom with a cup of coffee in hand. That was good; she was a lot more tractable after her morning jolt of coffee.
"Good morning, Lieutenant," Janeway said pleasantly. "I hear B'Elanna and Harry are out of sickbay."
Tom nodded. "Could I speak to you for a moment?"
The captain nodded. "Of course," she said.
"In private?" he persisted.
She gave him a curious look. "All right," she said, and turned around. "In my readyroom."
Tom followed her in. She took her seat and gestured him to the chair in front of her desk. "What's on your mind, Tom?"
Tom paused, swallowed, and wondered how to phrase this. "It's about the council," he said.
"What about it?" Janeway asked, her eyes narrowing just a bit. Their argument had not been so easily forgotten, apparently. Well, if he was going to get chewed out over this, it certainly wasn't the first time. Better to just get it out.
"I'm not going to be able to serve on it," Tom said.
Captain Janeway paused, and her eyebrow went up. "Lieutenant Paris," she said coolly, "I thought we had discussed this."
"I'll be taking part in the hearing," he said.. "As Ensign Kessel's defense counsel."
Silence stretched into a few long moments in which he could almost feel the temperature dropping. He felt his palms begin to sweat. Captain Janeway's death glare was dreaded and feared among the crew. Even so, he sat up straight, refusing to bend.
"Defense counsel?" Janeway asked icily.
"Yes, captain," he said. "She is entitled to defense counsel, isn't she? The regs say she is."
The captain stared at him. "Of course she is," she said frostily. "Mr. Paris, I'm well aware of the regulations. I don't appreciate you trying to circumvent my decisions."
Tom paused. This had to go carefully. "I'm not," he said. "I'm still part of the hearing. I'm just taking a different role."
"Mr. Paris," Janeway snapped, "I told you before. You are a senior officer on this ship. When I ask you to do your duty, I expect you to do it."
"With all due respect, Captain, I am doing my duty."
"By trying to sneak out of something you don't agree with?" Janeway asked harshly.
"I'm not," Tom said. "Captain, isn't it our duty as senior officers to see that justice is done? Isn't that the meaning of a court-martial?"
"This isn't a court-martial. I told you that already," Janeway said, and paused. "You've done a great deal to turn yourself around, Tom. You've earned the trust of your co-workers. You've earned my trust. Yet on this, you balk and fight me like a sulky teenager. Why?"
"Permission to speak freely in answering that question?" Tom asked.
Janeway scowled. "Go ahead," she said, sounding angry and disgusted.
"You know who Captain Jean-Luc Picard is, right?"
"Of course," Janeway said. "Captain of the Enterprise."
"He said something once. He said that the first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Scientific truth, historical truth...or personal truth. That it was the guiding principle of Starfleet. That you didn't deserve to wear the uniform if you couldn't hold that up. It spoke to me. After all, that's a lesson I learned the hard way. After the Moneans, I told you that serving under your command had changed me for the better. That's true. And I can tell you're not happy with me, and you think I'm trying to get out of this council. I assure you that's not the case. You showed me an example...you showed me principles. But it comes down to what Captain Picard said: our first duty is to the truth...and sometimes, that's our personal truth."
"I believe that Erika Kessel has a case to stay in Starfleet. I believe that discrimination is wrong, and I think it's a betrayal of Starfleet's principles. We can pretty it up and rationalize it all we like. We can come up with great-sounding reasons by the terabyte. We can point to Khan Noonien Singh. None of that makes it right. That's my personal truth. I have to stay true to that, and if your opinion of me suffers for it, that's a price I'll have to pay. I've tried going the other way. Believe me, captain. It isn't worth it."
He had her attention; he could tell that. Her eyes were fixed on his, not wavering an instant. She still wasn't happy with him; he could tell. Her face was hard and not giving much away. All the same, he could see her eyes soften thoughtfully. Well, at least he wouldn't be serving time in the brig for this one.
"I see, Lieutenant," she said firmly. "Very well, then. I'm not sure how you intend to approach this case, but if Ensign Kessel wants you as her defense counsel, then so be it. Mr. Tuvok will be presenting the case for Ensign Kessel's removal. We'll be convening a council of officers, and I will be overseeing the hearing. I'll see that you receive all the documents associated with the case."
Paris nodded slowly. "How long until the hearing?" he asked. Inside, he was nervous but didn't want to show it. Tuvok presenting the case? That wasn't good. He would be a formidable adversary.
Janeway eyed him carefully, but there was a bit more respect in her gaze than before. "Seventy-two hours, Mr. Paris."
He nodded. Having a deadline made it more real to him; this was something he would have to do in the next few days. This was clearly going to take up a lot of time.
It seemed Captain Janeway knew this as well. "You'll have to prepare a defense, of course. We'll assign Ensign Culhane to cover your shifts for the next few days."
The name made him wince; Culhane had been bucking for his job ever since he'd gotten a taste of it back during Tom's thirty-day sentence. Tom had privately loathed him ever since. Wouldn't it be ironic if I kept Kessel in Starfleet but lost my own job out of it?
But of course he couldn't say anything like that, even if he thought Culhane was a little weasel. Instead, he smiled pleasantly. "Of course, captain," he said ever so politely.
Her eyes remained on him, probing and searching. Did she approve? Was she still angry? It was hard to tell. "Mr. Chakotay, please summon Ensign Culhane to the helm."
And I hope he steers the ship into an asteroid or something, Tom thought.
"Also, Harry is going to be working with me," he added.
Captain Janeway nodded. "He's on medical leave," she pointed out. "Very well, then. Dismissed."
Paris turned and headed back to the holodeck. It was time to get his game face on and plan what he was going to do. The first thing was to go get his faithful legal assistant. Harry was in his quarters, and let him right in. He looked a little better after a night's sleep.
"You're off early," he said pleasantly.
"Captain Janeway dismissed me from helm duty until the hearing," Tom replied. "For the next few days, I'm a lawyer, not a helmsman."
"Then we ought to collect our client," Harry said agreeably.
"No, you think?" Tom said, grinning. "Computer, locate Ensign Kessel."
"Ensign Kessel is in holodeck two," the computer announced.
"You feel up to a walk?" Tom asked.
Harry shrugged. "Yeah, all right," he said, and got up.
Tom watched him carefully, trying not to make his concern too obvious. There wasn't any nice way to say it: Harry still looked awful. Even so, he seemed game.
Tom tapped his combadge. "Paris to Kessel."
"Go ahead," came the response.
"We need to talk. Computer says you're in the holodeck. Mind some visitors?"
"No," Kessel said, "that's fine."
It took only a few minutes to reach the holodeck. Tom stopped and opened his mouth, about to announce himself. Before he got a word out, the holodeck doors opened smoothly. He closed his mouth and grinned sheepishly.
I hate how she does that, he thought.
"How did she...?" Harry trailed off.
"Augments can hear a lot better than we can," Tom said. "She probably heard us coming out of the turbolift."
They proceeded forward into the holodeck. The doors hummed closed behind them. Apparently, Kessel wanted them to join her in whatever holosim she was running. Tom stopped and glanced around. This was something he'd seen before. Gray halls held obnoxiously bright red doors. Holographic crewmen ran back and forth, wearing a uniform much different than his own: red and gold shirts over black pants. And the ladies were wearing miniskirt uniforms in the same color. Painted on a wall in block lettering were the words USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701.
A goofy grin crossed his face.
"The Enterprise!" Harry said, grinning himself.
For a moment Tom wondered why Kessel had picked this holosimulation to run. Then again, he had a pretty good idea of why. Before they could say more, a red door wssshed open, and Kessel strolled out.
Tom Paris had always had an eye for the ladies. Even now that he was married, he still looked. He wouldn't cheat and he loved B'Elanna, but he was still married, not dead. Looking and doing were two different things. There was true art in a woman's form, he believed. It wasn't sexism, not really, although he hadn't ever been able to explain it without getting slapped. He knew women had brains – Captain Janeway and B'Elanna had taught him that lesson well. But brains and beauty weren't mutually exclusive. Every woman had some element of beauty. You just had to find it.
He had often thought that modern Starfleet uniforms tried to make beautiful female bodies into sexless neuters. A jacket that served to muffle a woman's chest; pants that cloaked lovely legs and curved hips in boring black serge, hideously ugly shoes for men and women alike – no, Starfleet uniforms of today did precious few favors for the female figure.
They could've learned a lot from the past.
Kessel wore a miniskirt uniform in science blue, with the standard black nylons and boots of the era. Her combadge seemed anachronistic and out of place where the patch should have gone. She pulled off the ensemble pretty well, he noticed. She had a good figure. A lot better than he'd thought, actually. Apparently those long-ago scientists who designed the Augments had similar ideas to his own on how they should look.
Eyes above the neckline, he told himself. You're a Starfleet officer and a married man, you're her counsel and she's your client, and counsel does not stare at a client's thighs...no matter how attractively presented they may be.
Next to him, Harry swallowed, smiling nervously. Tom sighed. He knew Harry. Harry thought Kessel was cute, and yes, that uniform was sexy. But you had to be cool with women, and Tom found himself suddenly dreading the thought that Harry was going to do something like drool or get flustered or something. He just wasn't smooth with the ladies. Tom knew without looking that his friend was breaking a sweat.
"Hi," Tom said.
"Guten Morgen," Kessel said pleasantly, and tilted her head curiously at Harry. "I thought you were still in sickbay."
"Um," Harry said. "No, no. I'm out. I'm going to help Tom with the case. You know, research. Stuff like that."
Kessel brightened and nodded. "Good," she said. "Glad to have you on board."
"You look nice," Harry added.
Ack, Harry, Tom thought. First off, we're here to work. Secondly, you're better off not mentioning the dress. Cause if it comes out the wrong way you can crash and burn right there. She's an Augment, I assure you she knows her hemline barely covers her butt.
Yet Kessel didn't seem offended. "Thank you," she said, smiling. Tom got the distinct idea that Kessel didn't mind Harry's appreciative glance.
"Whatcha doing here?" Harry asked.
Kessel's mouth quirked. "Visiting family," she quipped. A moment later, the turbolift doors opened and several men came out. They wore red jumpsuits with gold trim rather than the old-fashioned Starfleet uniforms and carried stolen phasers. A similarly dressed woman walked up to the three Starfleet officers.
"This way," she demanded. "Obey me or you will die at the hands of my lord, Khan."
"Why?" Kessel said, not moving. "Sie koennen dieses Schiff nicht stehlen. Starfleet wird das niemals zulassen."
The woman looked blank and waved her phaser. "Stop your nonsense! This way! Or I will kill you all where you stand." Her eyes hardened cruelly at her captives.
"Freeze program," Kessel said, and the woman and her cohorts froze without a word. Kessel looked at her defenders over for a moment.
"That's wrong," she said thoughtfully. "Kati spoke twelve languages. She would have understood German. Nor was she ever that violent. She usually preferred letting Khan be the brutal one. He was the overlord, after all."
Tom blinked, remembering she had mentioned something about her sister and the Enterprise. Now that he looked, it was plain as day. The two women had the same dark hair, pale skin, and green eyes. The planes of their faces were very alike.
"Your sister?" he said.
Kessel shrugged. "Biologically, yes," she said.
"How do you know?" Harry asked curiously.
"When Khan's people were arrested after they tried to take over, they took fingerprints, pictures, and DNA samples, just like any other prisoner," Kessel explained. "The DNA scan is still in Starfleet databases."
Tom nodded. They took a lot more than that, but Kessel didn't need to hear about that. "So what were you doing here?" he asked.
Kessel shrugged. "I played first as an Augment and then as a Starfleet officer," she said.
Tom sighed. Sure, Kessel had the same right to play on the holodeck as anybody else did, but this wasn't helping. "The idea here is that we're trying to get you to be both. Stuff like this...doesn't necessarily help. It can get taken the wrong way."
"Oh," Kessel said, and seemed surprised. Tom surmised that she hadn't really thought about it that way. Yes, most holodeck simulations were private, but the command crew could look in at them if they wanted to. Tuvok was good; he wasn't going to miss showing Kessel using the holodeck to buddy up to her more violent siblings.
Then again, maybe this was something he could use. "What happened when you played as an Augment?" he asked.
Kessel opened her hands. "I stopped. I didn't see the point."
Interesting, Tom thought. "What do you mean?"
"I don't see why Khan wanted to take over the Enterprise," she explained. "He should have known that he couldn't do what he wanted to. The crew would fight him, just as they did. Even if he had succeeded, he would have had only one ship. Did he really think Starfleet would just let him waltz around the quadrant, destroying whatever he liked? They'd have sent every other starship after him and blown the Enterprise to shreds rather than let him have it." She eyed him for a moment curiously. "There have always been a lot more of you than there are of us."
She was right on both counts. Starfleet took the possibility of a rogue ship very seriously. If Khan had taken the Enterprise, Starfleet would have blown it away rather than let him terrorize the Federation. After all, Captain Janeway had been willing to risk the destruction of the ship rather than let it fall into the wrong hands. Heck, when they first ended up in the Delta Quadrant she'd risked it every other week.
Other things she'd said interested him, too.
"There are more of us than of you," he mused.
"Forty billion of you. Forty-eight of us," she replied. "On this ship, one of me and a hundred and forty-five of you. We've always been hopelessly outnumbered."
That was interesting. The Eugenics Wars had left its mark on human history. Khan and his ilk had been viewed as grave threats to humanity, so grave that anyone like him wasn't allowed a role in society. Yet Kessel seemed to think of humans as a threat, and the Augments as the ones threatened.
And how wrong was she? After all, once she'd been unmasked, Captain Janeway had begun making plans for booting her out of Starfleet. Rules on the books had demanded that very fate for anyone whose genes had been tinkered with.
"If you feel that way, then why did you join Starfleet?" he asked.
Kessel sighed. "I was born on Earth, too," she said plaintively. "I grew up around humans. For better or for worse, the Federation is my society, too."
Bingo, Paris thought. Good stuff. Great. This is what people need to see and hear.
"Is this the only sim you've been running?" he asked.
"No," Kessel said, and looked blank. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Tuvok's going to be presenting the case against you," Tom informed her. "He might just quote the rules and say that's all there is to it. But he's smarter than that. The only way we're going to win this is by challenging the rule itself. We have to show the rule is outdated, and that you're not a threat. Now, if you've been running holosims where Khan wins and hacks Jim Kirk's arms off or Soong's Augments dissolve Jon Archer into goo or something like that...," he smiled, trying to make it easy. "That doesn't help our situation here."
Kessel seemed vaguely offended. "I've never dissolved anyone into goo," she said. "It's not easy to break down cell walls like that. They're very hardy, all things considered. And you'd have to break down millions of cells. It's hard to dissolve people."
Only you would answer that by explaining the science behind dissolving people, Tom thought.
"Glad to hear it," Harry quipped.
"What were you running?"
"An...adaptation," Kessel hedged. "It's from an old 20th century movie – the old kind, on a screen, -- which is in turn adapted from a novel. I'll show it to you if you want to see it. It was considered one of the best science fiction movies of the late 20th century. It was called Blade Runner, and the novel it's from was--,"
Tom grinned suddenly. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick," he finished.
"Classic," Harry added. He had read the book before, but Tom had introduced him to the movie. "There's a reason both of them are in the ship's database."
A look of surprise crossed Kessel's face. Tom found it somewhat enjoyable.
"Didn't think us puny humans would recognize it?" he asked.
"I didn't say that," Kessel said defensively. "I...just don't think you quite saw it the way I did."
Tom chuckled. "Probably not. But let me guess: your favorite character was Rachael. The android, or replicant, who thought she was human."
"Well, yes," Kessel hedged. Tom grinned. She hadn't thought he'd heard of either of them. In fact, science fiction had been one of his favorites as a kid.
Another idea occurred to him. "Interesting, isn't it? In both of those, the replicants were kept at arm's length, not allowed on Earth. They were killed if they did. From what I recall, most of the Augments were hunted down and executed after the Eugenics Wars."
"That's not all," Harry put in. "Even if you go back to Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, you see the same thing. Frankenstein and the monster ended up in a pretty ugly struggle."
"True," Kessel said stiffly, "but it doesn't help me much. All those stories suggest that humanity can create...," she paused and clearly struggled for words. "Augments, replicants, androids, monsters...manufactured biological life. You can create us, but you can't share the world with us."
Tom grinned. Confidence filled him now. He had a good idea of where he wanted to go. "Exactly so."
Kessel shifted nervously. "How does that help?"
"Because," Tom said. "We like to think we're better than that." He gestured around the halls of the simulated old ship. "Even back then, we wanted to think we'd grown beyond such things. That we'd really learned something from everything we've been through. If I went out there and grabbed four or five crewmen and asked them if they thought humanity should be like that, that that's how we ought to be, they'd be horrified. We want to be better than that. But we're not always successful. People need to hear that. They need to ask the question. Are we ready to share the universe? We claim to be. We share it with everybody else. But now that we've committed to that principle, we need to carry it out. Augments and all. Otherwise, we aren't any better than Rick Deckard, shooting an unarmed woman in the back – for what? Because she dared to overstep her bounds. Because she wanted us to share the world – or the universe -- with her-- and we wouldn't."
Only after he had finished did he realize he was waving one hand in the air admonishingly. Both Harry and Kessel were staring at him. Surprise was etched on both of their faces.
"What?" Tom asked.
"That's quite the argument," Harry said. "You've thought this out."
He hadn't thought it out, not really. It had come from the heart. He hadn't thought of any of it. But Tuvok would surely figure out looking at Frankenstein and other fictional examples of artificial life. He'd have to figure out a way to negate that. Without being arrogant, he thought that he'd done a pretty good job of it. Turn it around, and ask if Starfleet officers thought they could do better than that.
"Thanks," Tom said. He found the appreciative, thoughtful look on Kessel's face to be a better reward. Harry had faith in him. Harry always did; that was one of Harry's strong points. Kessel? He wasn't so sure. She'd given him the idea that she thought he was a dumb flyboy doing this for a lark. From the look on her face, she was reconsidering that. And something more, too: hope.
Tell you what, Kessel. Just wear that dress for Harry once or twice and we'll call it even.
"We don't have a lot of time," Tom said. "The hearing will be in seventy-two hours. So let's get--,"
The door chimed, indicating that someone was outside the holodeck.
"Come," he said, and then thought maybe he should have asked Kessel, since this was her holodeck time. He glanced at her. She simply shrugged, apparently willing to let him take the lead. Odd, in a way: Augments were supposed to enslave humanity and kill people and things like that. Then again, he had to remember that Kessel was both younger and lower-ranked than he was. Her deference to a superior officer wouldn't have been surprising in anyone else. That, he supposed, was what people needed to think about.
Seven of Nine entered and looked around in imperious puzzlement for a few moments. "I did not intend to disturb your holodeck time," he said. "Ensign Kessel, I wish to speak with you."
Kessel raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Me?"
"Yes. I understand that you are an Augment."
Before Kessel could say anything, Tom jumped in. "Don't answer that," he instructed the ensign. "Seven, look. I'm her counsel. If it's about the case, you talk to me."
Seven turned and gave him what he thought of as the Official Seven Haughty Look, Patent Pending. "I possess capabilities that many humans do not. I am interested in speaking with another who has such abilities and her reasons for concealment."
Tom sighed. Because she understands finesse a lot better than you ever will, that's why. "Not now," he said. "After the hearing, maybe. Until the hearing, I say no."
"And who are you to make this determination?" Seven demanded.
"Her counsel. I have the right. Go look it up," Tom informed her.
Seven's lip curled back. She hadn't expected to get any sort of pushback, and it probably hadn't occurred to her that blabbing before the hearing was a dumb move. "I am willing to offer assistance in return," she said, sounding oddly sulky and petulant.
"What kind of assistance?" Tom asked.
"Legal research," Seven said promptly. "I am capable of searching the ship's database for relevant legal material. I believe that this can provide substantial assistance to your defense."
Kessel took a step backwards, and Tom remembered that she'd commented that she didn't like Seven. "Why would you do this?" she asked, a bit distrustfully.
"As I said," Seven replied, "I wish to speak with someone else who has...an outside view on humanity. For the ship to waste your talents because of this regulation is...inefficient. There is also an element of self-interest which I will not hide. Starfleet regulations require your dismissal because of your genetic enhancement. Starfleet regulations also permit Starfleet officers to destroy the Borg wherever they encounter them."
Kessel's lips twitched. "You are in no danger on this ship," she said, with a little more venom in her voice than he had expected.
Seven paused. "Yes. On this ship," she specified. "Captain Janeway has elected to assist me. If we do return to the Alpha Quadrant, other Starfleet officers may not be so compassionate. Ensign Kessel, I am aware that your situation is no doubt...stressful. I would not wish such a fate on anyone. However, I must point out, whatever the result of this hearing, no one in Starfleet would be allowed to simply kill you.. So long as I remain Borg, I do not enjoy such protection."
Now it was Paris's turn to be thoughtful. Yeah, when you broke it down, Seven had a point. Starfleet officers were allowed to use any means necessary against the Borg, and so a Starfleet officer could, theoretically, attack Seven and point to that order as justification.
Of course, when that order had been issued, the Borg had been a threat. They still were. Then, nobody had ever thought a Borg drone who had been in the Collective so long could ever be returned to humanity. But then again, when the ban on Augments had been adopted, nobody had ever thought that an Augment might be a scientist who preferred working quietly in the biolab to enslaving her less gifted shipmates and going on a war of conquest.
It was his job to make everybody think about that.
This could be tough going. Seven probably only wanted to help, and she could sift databases better than most people. She didn't have a lot of heart, though, and this was going to be won through heart. Besides, she stressed a lot of people on the ship out, and that included Kessel.
"Do you wish my assistance?" Seven asked, looking at Kessel.
Kessel glanced at him, seeking guidance.
Tom swallowed nervously. "As your counsel," he murmured, "I would suggest taking any help we can get. We're up against a Vulcan, you know."
Kessel eyed the former drone suspiciously "All right," she said, slowly and unwillingly.
"All right," Tom said. "Well, then, we have our work cut out for us. We've got a lot to do. We have to plan our strategy, we've got to do our research, and we've got to figure out what Tuvok's going to do and what we can do to counter it. Let's get to work."