Playing with Fire

Posted on 27 Apr 2020 @ 1:03am by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov & Ensign Gwen Leighton

Mission: Mission 4 - Race against the machine
Location: The Brig
Timeline: MD2 16:00
2458 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Fox lay in the brig with a small, satisfied smile on her face. Her plan hadn’t exactly gone as she had expected but still, right now she was where she wanted to be. By now those Cetea fools should have managed to activate one of the planet killers and transmitted that information to her slaves. The Cetea were now expendable and she could use this half witted Federation crew to get rid of them.

For now she was contented to wait where she was. She was safe from her enemies. Fed and provided for. Not gourmet cuisine but she could live with it. No doubt someone on this ship would try and use her for their purpose and she could manipulate them further but for now, she would wait.

Michael arrived in the brig, requesting to see the Mirror Universe Jane Doe. He still didn't want to call her by Fox or Amelia, that was something that was very firm in his mind. He had no clue as to how he was going to start a conversation with her when he walked in to where she was being held, behind a barrier. He looked at her curiously, mentally comparing her with Amelia. They did look a bit alike, could be considered identical twins. There were some differences though, minute differences. Just like he picked up on his own sisters differences, they being identical twins too.

"Yup, dangerously beautiful." he commented. "Good afternoon hope your day has been restful." Michael stated.

Gwen, nestled in the corner in a chair, made herself as invisible as possible. She was there but not. Unless they did something stupid and then her presence would be felt. For now, she just quietly read her PADD.

“You here to watch the fun too?” Rose whispered to Gwen, having slipped into the brig behind Hawkins, “how long until she threatens him ya think?”

Gwen smirked, "Or flirts with him. Under two minutes. "

Fox tossed her head to the side and glanced briefly at each of them. “Three of you today? Well, aren’t I blessed. She resumed looking up, her mind working all the time. “No Aidan with you? He really is not interested in his child is he?” She placed her hand on her stomach. “And no Syvar either? Mind you, I hear that it’s the ‘other’ me that’s looking after him now.”

Michael's right eyebrow raised slightly, a piece of information that he didn't have before. It was Aidan's DNA that was stolen.

"On that note, about the child, if someone were to have stolen some DNA and impregnated themselves with it, its like getting a sperm donor just to have a baby. In Earth's past, people would donate their genetic material, it would be placed in a bank and if someone were interested in having a child without any sort of emotional connection with said donor. The donor would not be interested in knowing that they had fathered a child. Why would Aidan be interested in having any emotional connection with you and the child especially since you were a thief."

She answered without looking into at him “Please! You make it sound so sinister. You should have seen the looks he was giving me. I could tell he was interested but was unable to act. I think I’ll have to talk to his wife about this, he’s not to be trusted.”

"So you would be okay if something like that happened to you. Taking something from you without permission, or for that matter, impregnating you without permission? I really don't see you taking something like that lightly. I could picture you, ripping said person to shreds." Michael took a couple of steps nearer to the containment field. "Why are you so desperate in your endeavors. Is something happening in your universe, something like it starting to unravel?"


This remark made her smirk. “And you would be right. I’d have killed anyone who tried which goes to show that Aidan didn’t put up much resistance or he wanted me to try. Either way, he was weak.” She still didn’t move from her position on the bed but continued her conversation with Michael. “What makes you think I’m desperate? I’m lying here without a care in the world.”

"I would say that the brigs in star fleet are more comfortable than what a person would find in the 1790's. so I will have to agree, you are living in the lap of luxury." Michael chuckled. "However, I still think you are worried, desperate enough to come to this universe to get something you need in order to get help. And you keep on talking about Aidan. I think there is an attraction you have for him. Or is there another Aidan from your universe that you lost or desperate to have a piece of him. To pretend that the child you now bear, is one you wished to have with the other one?"

She looked at Michael and her eyes narrowed somewhat but she did not answer the question immediately. She then laughed coldly “He was a convenient target, nothing more. Don’t you have any intelligent questions for me? Are asked, blowing air threw her lips. She suddenly stopped and sat up quickly, her face turning green. “Ulp.... you’ll have to excuse me a moment.” She managed to get out before she had to dash to the sink and be sick.

"Morning sickness, not a fun thing to deal with from what I've been told and have observed. If you'd like, I can request ginger tea with lemon." Michael stated. "As for intelligent questions, what would YOU consider intelligent questions. I'm here just to speak with you. After all, I did get hit with a phaser set to stun by you. Which reminds me of something, thank you for not having the phaser set on kill."

"probably a mistake on her part rather than kindness" Rose commented, recalling her own pregnancy.

Fox had swilled her mouth out with water and came back and now sat on the edge of the bed. "I really don't like your Federation phasers. Too quick to incapacitate and even on maximum setting death is too... sterile. I was doing some research and found a rather nice weapon, even if was made in this universe. A Varon T disruptor. Now that is a weapon to respect. It tears a body apart from the inside out, quite slowly. A pity only 5 were ever made." She looked at Belikov "I still don't like you but you've got some spine so I can respect you for that.

She took a deep breath. "Well, now that out of the way. What would you like to talk about? I suppose you want to know what those Cetea fools are up to."

“Why not, seems as good a better place to start as any” Rose said, moving forward to stand beside Hawkins. “You should check out the Romulan Disruptor again”

"Romulan disruptors, nasty weapons."Michael remarked. "I would like to know about what the Cetea is up to. Though I am thinking, that a bit of it has something to do with Planet Killers. Another thing that I would like to find out, is how you made your way to this universe. I do know that it has happened at least two previous times, people coming from another universe, a mirror universe."

She considered his words for a moment before replying. "Apparently, those Cetea are not very happy with you.... Well, you as in the Federation. You sided with their enemy. Someone called the Bak'u and now they're hell-bent on destroying both them and you. They paid me a lot of latinum to bring them to this planet so they could use one of those planet killers to exact their revenge. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to get one of those darn devices activated. In my universe, the Alliance control that planet and they can't get them working either. When the Ceta tells me how they accomplished it, I can return to my own universe. I'll be welcomed as a savior of the Terrans and drive the Alliance back intot eh hole they crawled out of.

Rose looked confused, “wait, the Ba’ku? Are these Cetea a code came for the So’na or something?”

Fox shrugged "I don't know and frankly I don't care. What you should be concerned about is these people now have the ability to destroy planets and impressive as he firepower on this ship is, it's still no match for one of those planet killers, not to mention the fleet of ships they have as well."

Rose turned to the others, “This could be worse than we thought, if it is the So’na they could use these planet killers to strike at the Federation, or even the Ba’ku”

Fox continued to show no interest. "I couldn't care less if these Ceta burned the Federation to the ground but..... " Her face changed to a sly smile "I might be persuaded to help you with your Ceata problem in return for some better living arrangements and continued medical care for my child."

"You might be persuaded?" Michael looked at her directly. "Lady, you are here as you are a danger to this ship as well as to others, you are incarcerated. And just like the women in Earth's past who were pregnant and serving prison sentences. They got the obstetric treatment for them and the unborn child, but, they did not have any special quarters. You got yourself pregnant so as to try to hold sway over whomever you assaulted. Not going to work. I came here, to find out about you, how you got to this universe. Why you think you need to go through your so called mighty plans and not ask for help. Instead, you are a rather controlling individual, an abusive female chauvinist. From what I am hearing you are a wanna be female Napoleon. "Michael's normal niceness fading away. "You haven't stated anything that is of any interest, so quit playing the pregnancy card."

Fox folded her arms. “Ok. Let’s drop the preamble and get down to it. I have information. Information that you need if you want to survive. The Cetea have ships. More than enough ships to reduce this one to a pile of debris. I also know that I sold them a great number of weapons for these ships including photon torpedoes, disrupters and tri-cobalt warhead to compliment a number of illegal subspace weapons they still have. I told the Cetea that these weapons were top of the line, which they are. What I didn’t tell them is I kept a copy of the arming and detonation codes for said weapons. I also might have made a some notes on some of their shield frequencies. I told them I needed access to their computers. They were so trusting. Now the price to you for some of this information would be relocation to better living quarters.” She sat back down on the edge of the bed. “The ball is in your court now.”

Michael's eyes narrowed at the information MU had just plopped out onto the proverbial table. It sounded like it would be factual, but since MU was a rather smooth in her lies and prevarications, Michael wasn't going to take a chance. Also he remembered the captain was rather adamant about being the final judge on what happened where MU was concerned.

"Since none of us have that sort of authority to say yay or nay, I am calling for the Captain to this little conversation we are having. He should be able to tell us if you are bluffing or not." with that Michael tapped on his comm badge.

"Captain Reynolds, would you come down to the Brig, you are needed."

Rose kept a close eye on the mirror Fox, thinking of the multitude of ways she could use to get this information without the need for negotiations. True most of them were frowned upon by Starfleet, but what they didn't know wouldn’t hurt them. “How do we know this information is legitimate? You could be feeding us half truths to get to somewhere with less security”

“On route,” Jon replied. There was only one reason to go down to the brig and it was Fox shaped. He walked in a few minutes later. “What do you need me for Ensign?” He directed at Hawkins.

Michael quickly brought the Captain up to speed as to what happened then finished up by saying, "And when she seemed to lay all of her cards on the table, that is when I felt you really needed to come down and hear what she had to say."

Jon nodded, “Gotta have proof your information is correct before we talk better lodgings,” he said firmly. “So I’ll leave you to figure out how you can do that.”

“Perhaps you could provide us with a few names or places we could use to confirm your story” Rose suggested, “or even disprove”

Fox thought for a moment. "Ok. Why don't you talk to the Cetea yourselves? If I was able to fool you I'm sure the Fox that you have can do a half-decent impression of me. you can get all the information you need right from the source. Hand me a PADD and i'll give you the subspace frequencies you need to contact them. I gave them a coded file that only I could break so they know it's me they are talking to. However, I made it so easy for me to guess that my.... beautiful looking counterpart cracked it in less than 30 seconds when we were planetside. They will tell you that everything I've told you is true and if you're really clever, you might be able to get even more information out of them."

"I'll consider it," Jon said simply. "But in the meantime, your quarters stay the same. Right I'll be getting back to the bridge."

"Thank you for coming, Captain." Michael responded, then turned to MU. "and as i stated, the Captain has the final word." looking at those who were with him."It looks like I am finished here. "

OFF: Good place to end

●●●● Captain Jonathan Reynolds
Captain
USS Andromeda


MU Amelia Fox
npc Fox


● Ensign Michael Hawkins
Chief Operations Officer
USS Andromeda

○● Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov
Intelligence Officer
USS Andromeda

● Ensign Gwen Leighton
Apprentice Chief Security / Tactical Officer
USS Andromeda