Rage

Posted on Sun Jan 17th, 2021 @ 3:50am by Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD & Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Commander Mindo
Edited on on Thu Jan 28th, 2021 @ 7:39am

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Sickbay (USS Pandora)
Timeline: Two days after "Aoife"

The days after Aoife's death were full of activity and frustration in equal measure for Cailus and Shae. Both were put on bereavement leave, removing the distraction of work, but also giving them far too much time to think. Neither Cailus nor Shae wanted to think, to process what had just happened. That was just far, far too dangerous. They wanted to act, to strike, to find a little girl who was in desperate need of help.

Unfortunately. the universe wasn't so forgiving. Despite initial hopes, Shae's efforts to locate Aoife (the real Aoife, the other Aoife, the original Aoife...they still didn't know what to call the hypothetical girl) were hitting a brick wall. Cooped up in their quarters and slowly losing his mind at being trapped, even if he was trapped with Shae, Cailus simply had to escape. Thus, one afternoon he slipped away to begin preparing a shuttlecraft. Wearing his uniform as he was, nobody questioned Cailus as he worked, first requisitioning a large type-11 shuttle then dismissing the munitions chief from the armory with a lie about an inspection. Some covert manipulation of the computer records and quick reorganisation ensured that it would be weeks before anyone noticed anything was amiss, even if anyone was looking. Ironically, the same training that enabled Cailus to identify such improper behaviour was the perfect guide on how to get away with doing it himself.

It was just as well, because a lot of was missing from the Pandora's armory. Four phaser rifles, eight phaser sidearms, two combat knives, medkits, numerous explosives of different sizes and more were all gone. The katana hung in the mess hall down in the Crescent had been removed, ostensibly for cleaning. More, the shuttle itself was armed to the teeth. Rather than its usual complement of micro-probes, the shuttle's magazine was loaded with sixteen micro-torpedoes, with enough firepower in the antimatter warheads to devastate an entire city.

None of it was authorised. If Cailus was caught, he'd face a severe reprimand on his official record at least, or a full court martial and prison time at the worst. Nevertheless, he didn't care. Indeed, as he worked in the back of the shuttlecraft, loading weapons and explosives into various lockers, he seemed strangely at peace, humming as he worked.

Shae was getting frustrated with her contacts within Intel. They were being wishy washy about whether they knew this Aoife who had died was a 'fake', though Shae shuddered to think of the girl as a fraud because their emotions for one another had been very real; Intel also wouldn't come clean if they knew where the 'real' Aoife was. Shae was about ready to use her trump card, going public with all the dark and dirty secrets Starfleet and the Federation wouldn't want getting out, but if she did that then there would truly be nothing else for her to bargain with. While she waited for her contacts to respond to her latest 'request', Shae decided to sneak down to Astrometrics to work out a plan for getting out of the Expanse, hopefully unnoticed. There was a Talarian convoy a fair distance away, if they didn't move out of sensor range before she and Cailus were ready to depart, then they could hide among the convoy, maybe even attach themselves to one of the freighters...

As Shae studied the Talarians' route and other possible escape routes, she received a message on her console that the new autopsy reports were ready. Shae felt that sick weight of doubt in her gut; what if these new reports removed the hope they had now by proving that the little girl laying in the morgue really was the true Aoife? Ignoring these reports wouldn't make them go away, so she marked the message received and tapped her commbadge.

"Brennan to Griffin," she said, her voice thick with anxiety. "The new reports are ready for us; I'll meet you down in Sickbay."

Carefully organising some photon grenades in a locker, it took Cailus a moment to tap his combadge. "Acknowledged, on my way." His stomach roiled at returning to Sickbay, and he could hear the emotion in Shae's voice that suggested that she felt the same way, but there was nothing for it. Not wasting time, he finished storing the grenades than hurried down to Sickbay, his stride abnormally long and quick. It was sufficient that Cailus got there at the same time as Shae, meeting her in the corridor on the way.

"Shuttle's nearly ready," he said brusquely. "We'll be able to leave on a few minutes notice."

Shae nodded. "I think I've found a way out of the Expanse, but it's time sensitive," she said, inferring that she needed to work harder to get the location from Intel. Arriving at the double doors to Sickbay, Shae paused; she didn't want to go in there, there was nothing but pain and heartache for her in there, but eventually she pushed forward and entered the bay.

When she entered, she saw Lieutenant Mindo standing over an exam console with the EMH.

"Hello, Lieutenant," said the EMH, looking up. Mindo remained preoccupied. He looked puzzled, hovering over the table.

"I found something very peculiar in Aoife's body during the autopsy," the EMH continued. "It was a cybernetic implant I did not recognize. I asked our Chief Engineer to examine it for me."

"A...what?" Cailus said, baffled. He reflexively glanced down at his own cybernetic hand before looking back at the EMH and Mindo. "That can't...how the hell wasn't it detected before now?"

Now Mindo looked up, realizing there were new people in the room. "The implant was biologically fused with Aoife's physiology, not unlike a Borg implant," Mindo said. "The only way we'd find it is if we'd known to look for it in the first place."

"It was by chance I found it in the autopsy, still... 'alive,' as it were," the EMH said.

"It's still active?" Shae asked, aghast that this had been inside her daughter. "What have you learned from it? What does it do?"

"And what do you mean, Borg?" Cailus interrupted, his voice now on the verge of becoming frantic. He glanced at Shae, forcing himself to stay calm for her sake, but he couldn't hide how his heart was suddenly hammering. "Like...like Borg nanoprobes? Like assimilation?"

Shae heard the panic in his voice and so she reached out to take his hand. "It's alright, love, I doubt she was being assimilated," Shae said in an attempt to sooth him. "Let's just hear what Mindo has to say before we jump to panic."

Mindo took in a breath. "It's not Borg. It's smaller. About the size of a grain of sand, lodged in the brain."

The EMH nodded. "It is not uncommon for some parts of the brain to function for a short time after death. But I noticed an anomaly in Aoife's hippocampus when I did a neural scan. It was then that I discovered the invasion."

"I don't know for sure, but I believe the implant was transmitting a signal," Mindo said.

The EMH nodded. "That part of the brain is linked with conscious thought and memory."

Mindo nodded. "And technology exists, though crude, to transmit what could be considered 'thoughts.' As if someone was using the implant to read Aoife's mind."

"A transmission from such a device could potentially interfere with brain function. It is possible it could have exacerbated Aoife's aneurysms," the EMH concluded.

"So... She might still be with us if it wasn't for that little device?" Shae was torn in two as she tried to process this. "And this thing was transmitting her thoughts? To who? Where was this device transmitting?!" she asked, fighting hard against the tears in her eyes.

"Somewhere close," Cailus said bitterly, his hands balled into fists.

"I have no way of confirming that," said Mindo.

The EMH nodded. "And I can neither confirm nor deny the implant's involvement in her death."

"Dammit!" Shae shouted out of rage and frustration, looking about ready to punch someone or something with her fists balled at her sides. "Why couldn't they just leave us alone?!" With a deep breath, she quickly recomposed herself. "I'm sorry, that was unprofessional of me," she said, but her voice still quivered from the raw emotions.

"Forget about professional," Cailus said, his voice thick with tension. He reached his arm around behind Shae, grasping her shoulder before turning his hard eyes on Mindo. "We need to know more. Everything you can possibly tell us about this thing. About what happened. Every last detail."

Mindo shrugged. "I don't really have any more details to give. I don't even know from where it originates!"

"THEN FIND OUT!" Cailus roared, his eyes briefly manic, but just as quickly as the fury came, it vanished. He sagged, his eyes lowering down to the floor before returning to Mindo. "I'm sorry. Just...please. Do whatever you can. Anything. We need this. Aoife is gone, we just...we need this."

Silently, Shae reached out to take Cailus' hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, not just for his comfort but for her own as well.

Mindo's eyes widened at Cailus' outburst. For the first time since they'd known each other, Mindo was intimidated by Cailus. He made eye contact with the broken man. "I will," Mindo said quietly. Then, to Shae, "I promise. For Aoife."

"Thank you, Mindo, we know you'll do everything you can," Shae said softly, gently guiding Cailus by the arm to leave Sickbay. They were both so shattered by the news, but Cailus especially in this moment given the scare of Borg involvement, and right now all Shae wanted to do was go back to their quarters where she could still smell Aoife among them, still find evidence of this child who had stolen their hearts and was now gone.