Dust

Posted on Nov 24, 2015 @ 4:17pm by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Nov 24, 2015 @ 4:19pm

Mission: Civil War

= Dust =

(cont'd from "Nemesis Resurrected")



LOCATION: USS PHOENIX

SCENE: ExO's Office

STARDATE: [2.15] 1124.1246



Jake was standing at Jos' terminal, combing through the schematics of the modified nanites. The work would have gone faster is Jake had access to more sophisticated equipment down in Engineering, but Jos and Foster had insisted that this be kept quiet. Jake didn't like the idea of explaining why he was carrying a vial of potentially catastrophic Borg plague to any of his team in Main Engineering, and so he'd agreed to find out what he could with a standard tricorder.



Aerdan Jos was standing erect, motionless, with his hands behind his back as he watched Jake work. Cade Foster slouched in a nearby chair, drumming on each arm rest in a slow rhythm, like an overseer pounding a drum in the bowels of a galley. The steady "*pat!* *pat!* *pat!*" had started to grate on Jake's nerves, but he did his best to ignore it. Foster, tired of waiting, finally, let out a long, theatrical groan.



"This is taking fore-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-"



"I get it, Foster," Jake said, without looking up from his tricorder.



"No no, wait, I wasn't finished," Foster said, holding up a finger to stop Jake. "...-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-v-e-r."



"Cade," Aerdan said, giving the old doctor a hard stare. "Let him work."



"No," Jake said, snapping the tricorder shut and turning off the terminal. "I'm done."



Foster blinked. "What does that mean, 'you're done'?"



"Can the nanites be modified?" Aerdan asked.



"Yes," Jake nodded. "Getting those things to attack the Essentialist fleet shouldn't be a problem, just a question of making them hungry for starships instead of Borg."



Foster grinned triumphantly at Aerdan. "See? I told you so."



"The problem-" Jake continued, "-is that this plan is insane."



Aerdan's antennae twitched. "Jake, we don't have a plan. We are cataloguing our options."



Jake turned, and gestured to the vial of nanites still standing on Aerdan's desk. "Releasing these things is not a good idea. *Especially* not after reprogramming them to attack starships. Our fleet and their fleet are made up of the same types of ships. If we miss anything in the recalibration, these nanites might be just as happy coming after us."



"So you'll be careful," Foster said, waving this off. "Crichton, we can shut them down right here, and right now. This can all be over."



"Does Kane know about this?" Jake asked, not to Foster but to Aerdan. The Andorian exchange a look with Cade, then turned to face Jake.



"I will bring this to the captain's attention when I feel it prudent to do so," Aerdan said. "And not before. Is that clear, commander?"



"But sir," Jake started.



"Is that clear?" Jos repeated, more firmly. Jake frowned, but nodded.



"Understood, sir."



"Good," Aerdan said. "Jake, nobody's suggesting we do anything without evaluating our options."



"I am," Cade chimed in. Jos ignored him.



"This weapon might turn the tide," Jos said. "Even the threat of its use may be enough to buy us the time we need. Now: in your professional opinion, is this plan viable?"



Jake sighed. "Deployment would be your biggest obstacle," he said. "Marxx will definitely shoot down any probes we launch. Fleet positions are to spread out to beam them or transmit them via particle beam, you'd just lose most of them in space. Once the fighting starts - that is, *if* it starts - we have a better chance of punching through their defenses and deploying the nanites, but as long as we're staring each other down like this, they're gonna spot any move we make."



"Could we find a way to shield the probe from detection?" asked Jos.



"I can try," Jake said. "Without knowing all the countermeasures Marxx has in place, I'd say it's 50/50."



"And if we get it wrong, it could trigger the battle," Aerdan said. "What about manual deployment?"



Jake raised an eyebrow. "Like what, I load up a few pepper-shakers full of these things and someone goes over there and sprinkles them around by hand?"



"A covert team," Jos said. "I understand that Thytos and Barton have been working on a tactical strike on the CENTURY."



"And they'll have a blast!" Foster said. "See? This plan is going great!"



"Sir," Jake said to Aerdan. "Again, I have to advise-"



"I know, Jake," Aerdan started, nut Jake didn't stop.



"Deploying these things is dangerous," Jake said. "If we get even one thing wrong while reprogramming them, they'll disable every ship in this system, indiscriminately. I'm talking total system failure: no shields, no life support. Even if we weren't picked off by a Neo-Essentialist battleship, we could all suffocate, assuming we don't freeze to death first."



"You're being melodramatic," Foster said.



"I'm really not," Jake said, scowling at Foster. "There's a reason the Federation ordered these things destroyed. They're dangerous and unpredictable, and you're asking me to screw around with their programming under a timecrunch just in case we *might* have to kill every man, woman, and child in the enemy fleet. And what about the people down on E-4?"



"They'd never make it through the atmosphere," Aerdan said. "Re-entry would destroy them."



"As far as we know," Jake said. "These are Borg nanites, Commander. They adapt. They might be capable of anything. If they make to the surface on E-4, they'll obliterate that community. Their power plant, their replicators... they'll be stuck down there with no food and no technology. And any rescue ship that shows up will wind up floating dead in space like the rest of us."



"That's a worst-case scenario," Jos said.



"Engineers tend to focus on those," Jake said. Foster rolled his eyes.



"I appreciate your reservations," Aerdan said. "I remind you that I have them, too. But we don't have any more time to waste debating this. If this is going to be a viable option, we need to start working on it now. Can you make the modifications or not?"



Jake turned to look at the vial on Aerdan's desk, full of an inert black dust. Soon, he would bring that dust to life, and imbue it with terrible purpose. **Ugh,** Jake thought. **Foster's right: I *am* being melodramatic.**



"Yes," Jake said. "I can make them."



"Alright," Aerdan said. "We need to bring this to Kane. How long will you need?"



"You're asking me?" Jake said. "I'll do my best with the time you give me, but honestly, I'd need a week to be satisfied I'd done everything right."



"It will go faster if you work with someone with experience with these nanites," Aerdan said. He turned to look at Foster. "Cade, you'll work with Commander Crichton on this."



"That's really not necessary," Jake said.



"Now wait just a minute," Foster said, at the exact same time.



"That was an order," Aerdan said. His tone was final. Foster grumbled, then turned to look at Jake.



"If there's a scholarly paper in this, my name goes first," he said.



=[/\]=



NRPG: Not very long, but a post just the same!



JAMIE: Hope I did okay with Aerdan and Cade!



Shawn Putnam

a.k.a.

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX