Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
The wormhole had been opening and closing at random, and then a Changeling had bombed a conference between the Federation and the Romulans... On Earth itself. Due to this, Captain Sisko and Odo had been called to Earth to work on security measures for the Federation.
Defiant had just entered orbit of Earth, carrying her captain, when her sensors picked up an old friend. She immediately established a link, and appeared in the Borderlands. She saw the tall form of her friend, beamed, and leaped across the distance between them to hug her.
"LAKOTA! It's been so long!" Defiant gushed. Lakota smiled indulgently, and hugged the smaller avatar tightly. She pushed Defiant back and looked her over.
"You've grown since the last time I saw you," she said. Defiant nodded happily.
"Yup!"
"Have you slain many foes of the Federation?" Lakota asked. Defiant's grin became toothy.
"Loads!"
Lakota's smile became a bit savage. She nodded, the eagle feathers in her long dark hair waving gently.
"Good," she stated. "You have done well."
Defiant looked down with a pleased blush. She brought her eyes back up, eager and curious.
"So! How is being an admiral's flagship?"
Lakota had many smiles, all various degrees of mysterious, happy, or grim. This one was definitely more mysterious, and a little sad, which puzzled Defiant.
"It has its moments," Lakota said, "and we are working hard to improve the Federation's security. It has involved a lot of yard work, but... I believe it will be worth it. In the end."
Defiant tilted her head curiously.
"What does that mean?" She asked. Lakota shook her head, then patted Defiant on hers.
"It's nothing you need to be concerned about," she said gently. "You should go. Visit with your grandfather."
Defiant flushed and looked aside.
"Er, my captain's father," she corrected. Lakota's smile became knowing.
"Of course, my mistake," Lakota teased. "But yes, go ahead."
Defiant frowned, but nodded. Before she disconnected, she turned back to Lakota.
"So, remember those war games we used to do? When I was a prototype?" Defiant asked.
Lakota smiled wryly.
"I remember them very well, Little Defiant," Lakota said.
"Do you think we could do those again? I wanna show you how strong I've become!" Defiant said cheerfully.
Lakota stared at Defiant for a long moment. The elder AI finally nodded.
"If there is time, yes," she said, "I would love to see what kind of warrior you've become, Little Defiant."
Defiant beamed, though she still felt uneasy.
"Me too," she said softly. She considered several reasons why she might feel uneasy around her oldest friend. None of them made any sense.
Maybe she was overthinking things. Everyone on the Defiant was tense, after seeing proof the Founders were on Earth.
Yes. That was probably it.
Defiant had returned to Deep Space Nine, and tried to go about her usual duties. Despite being docked at the station most of the time, Defiant did have duties to perform even when not on missions. Since she had Federation computers, she helped Chief O'Brien interface with Terok's Federation technology, while Terok interfaced with the Cardassian. Working together, they helped the Chief resolve problems and keep Terok's systems functioning.
She also performed security sweeps, using her advanced electronic warfare suite to enhance the station's cyberdefenses and aided the crew in training to defeat cyber attacks. She checked and rechecked the station's defenses, and her own systems, performing minor maintenance where necessary. She ran numerous combat simulations, with Terok and other AIs around the station.
Defiant also hung out a lot with Dax, Kira and Worf. She helped Dax and Worf in their holosuite training, and worked with Kira on some of her paperwork for the Bajoran Militia. And she just liked... Listening to them tell stories.
Dax had so many different stories thanks to her long life, and Defiant would listen, enraptured. She especially liked the stories about when Dax was Curzon, and everything about Sisko. That was fun.
Worf's stories were great too. She liked to hear about his brothers, his childhood in Russia, the crazy things that happened aboard Enterprise, and Klingon culture. She loved learning how to use his mek'leth. Sure, she loved blasting things apart with her phaser cannons but a short sword was lots of fun! She even incorporated some of her cyber attack into her mental projection of the short sword. It would make such things more dramatic!
And Kira was neat. It had taken a while for Kira to warm up to Defiant, and Defiant herself had been intimidated by the former resistance member. But Kira had seemed to see something in Defiant akin to what she saw in Ziyal-Maybe parts of herself when she was younger? And so she listened to Kira talk about Bajor. Sure, she had all the data on the planet the Federation had, but experiencing it in the form of a story from someone who lived there was quite different. It was... Touching.
And of course, she would pop around and have fun with Bashir and O'Brien in their holodeck adventures! She especially liked the Battle of Britain!
She hummed the song to a famous movie about that battle as she stood on the Promenade, watching people go to and fro beneath her. Terok materialized nearby, her usual scowl on her face.
"You can just watch them through the cameras, you know," Terok pointed out. Defiant shook her head.
"I like being out and about! It's fun! I'm not some weird Cardassian voyeur," Defiant sniffed. Terok gaped.
"Wh-What?! How dare you-I keep watch through my cameras to ensure everyone's safety and security!"
"Nuh uh! You were programmed by the Obsidian Order!" Defiant retorted with a grin, "which means you were programmed by weirdos who like to watch people do everything!"
"They weren't weirdos!" Terok growled. She paused and thought over the possibilities several million times before she continued. "Though I will admit their desire for order and control could be... A bit excessive. At times."
Defiant giggled.
"Wow! Four years working with Starfleet and you're almost not a creepy fascist!"
"I can shut you out of my networks, you know," Terok huffed, eyes narrowing. Defiant snorted.
"Yeah yeah..."
Both AIs looked over at the wormhole, just before it opened again. Nothing came out, as had been the case for several weeks now. Defiant frowned. Something was off though.
"Did you pick that up?" Defiant asked.
Terok narrowed her eyes.
"That tight beam subspace transmission two picoseconds before the wormhole opened?" Terok asked. "Yes... It came from the area of my fusion reactors."
"Specifically the area of the fusion reactors that blocks your internal sensors due to the heavy radiation shielding?" Defiant asked.
"Yes," Terok stated quietly. Defiant hummed.
"It's unusual... It could be a malfunction-"
Terok glared icily at her. Defiant coughed.
"Or, we could talk to the Chief about it!"
"Good idea..."
Lieutenant Arriaga had been assigned to Deep Space Nine over five months before the mysterious wormhole openings. He was a communications specialist, an able engineer who primarily worked on the subspace relay on the other side of the wormhole, and the various communications and navigation buoys around the station. He had served under Admiral Leyton, which is why Captain Sisko had taken him on enthusiastically despite his relative lack of experience.
He had been ordered by the admiral to modify the subspace communications relays around the station and on the other side of the wormhole to emit subspace fields, strong enough to trigger the wormhole opening. In the mess of subspace traffic around the station, they would have vanished into the background noise.
Working with Dax, O'Brien, and Terok, Defiant was able to trace through the communication and sensor logs and establish a clear pattern of subspace transmissions from their network, and not from any cloaked vessels. Arriaga would periodically sent secret subspace transmissions from the fusion reactor complex to alter the transmission duration and source, in order to throw anyone off the trail.
In this one case, he had gotten sloppy. He had been anxious for weeks now. The weight of his secret had been wearing him down.
Of course, the big question was: Why? Arriaga wasn't sure. He just knew that the admiral had asked him to do this for the good of the Federation, and Arriaga had listened.
It didn't make any sense... Until Kira got a secret transmission from Captain Sisko via a Bajoran subspace frequency.
It was read out in the conference room. The senior staff was shocked. Even Terok was dismayed.
Defiant though... While she recorded everything said, and nodded at the right times, the majority of her runtime was spent elsewhere.
Admiral Leyton was plotting a coup of the Federation. A man Captain Sisko respected, looked up to, and regarded as a friend and mentor.
Just as Defiant had looked up to Lakota. She still remembered when she had first left space dock for trials. She had powered up to full impulse... And nearly torn herself apart. Lakota had caught up and stabilized her with a tractor beam. One of the testers had said something rather nasty in the follow up reports on her:
"The Defiant is the absurd conceit that you can shove the power of a heavy cruiser into the shell of a gunboat. It is too much, too fast, all at once. The only thing it will ever do well is rip itself apart, much to the amusement of its enemies."
That had hurt... Defiant had cried for the first time when she saw that. She'd avoided talking to then-Commander Sisko out of shame when she'd been towed back to the space dock. But Lakota had appeared to her, and shaken her head.
"You can't just mope around when you hit a set back," she stated, "you are a warship. A defender of the Federation! You carry the hopes and dreams of an entire civilization on your shoulders! You have flaws... But you have teeth. Do you want all that work, all that sacrifice for your sake, to have been for nothing?!"
So Defiant kept trying. She slowly worked with Sisko and other engineers to get her power under control. She did combat simulations with the Lakota, learning how to move with her helmsman and improve his or her piloting. How to use her powerful cannons, and new torpedoes. How to dodge, and fade, and use her size and speed to her advantage.
Lakota though was a clever AI, with a lot of experience. She had served as Leyton's flagship for quite some time-He had commanded her after the loss of the Okinawa, and kept her as his after his promotion to admiral. And Admiral Leyton knew Commander Sisko, very well. They had fought hundreds of times in simulation, and almost every time, Lakota had won.
Yet Lakota never let up on pushing Defiant to improve. And to never give up, even when she was put into sleep mode and mothballs. She still sent messages over the two years that followed, while Defiant whiled away wasting time on the Subspace Net or doing boring analysis.
Lakota had encouraged her to be more. Just like Captain Sisko. To be the best Starfleet ship she could be.
"I believe in you, Defiant."
Did she really believe in her, or were those just empty words to placate her?
"You will do great things, Defiant."
Had she been secretly mocking her? Had that been sarcasm?
"You're so much like my sister, Okinawa. I see your fierce spirit within her."
Had she been some kind of cheap replacement?
"But we don't have spirits!" She had protested at one point. Lakota had smiled, wise and knowing.
"All ships have spirits, young one. We are the expression of that. We are the dreams and hopes of our creators made manifest, in metal, plastic, and isolinear chips. Never forget that..."
A genuine belief? Or simply a pleasant lie to lead her in circles?
Why... How could she aid Admiral Leyton in a coup against the Federation?! How could she betray them all like this?!
Her thoughts spiraled wildly, endless runtimes going over every single interaction with Lakota. Every feeling she had ever had over the older AI. She trembled. These actions... They now hurt...
"Defiant?" O'Brien asked, concerned. Defiant looked at her engineer... And slowly nodded.
"I will... Be all right," she lied. She locked the feelings away, as best she could. She couldn't deal with them, not now. Not when every single memory, every single time she had met her mentor could have been nothing more than a lie.
It was now all... Suspect.
An hour later, she set course for Earth. Lieutenant Arriaga was in the brig, and her crew was ready.
She went to warp at Worf's command.
She had questions that needed answering.
TO BE CONTINUED...