STAR TREK: A Long Road (Voyager Fix It Quest)

Podmaster Braxtur Dar looked at the alien spaceship and shook his head in slow awe. "Pus and pestilence," he said, quietly.

"Sir?" One of his handlers glanced up from the console, his brow furrowing, turning his ridges into a plated V.

"Look at the size of it," Dar said, quietly as he stepped to the view-pane, looking out at the starship known as Voyager.

"It's big all right. Well armed too," his security handler, Trell, said.

"I don't trust Vidiians," Neelix said over the burbling pot of soup he was stirring, shaking his head at Janeway and Brian Wacoche. "I don't trust them further than I can throw them!"

"Why don't you trust these Vidians?" Janeway asked. "Podmaster Nurel, has been nothing but cordial. The biologicals they have for sale are incredible!"

Brian nodded. "And there's plenty of civilian ships here. Hell, there are half a dozen Talaxian ships here, Neelix."

"And yet, their government? It's still called the Emergency Dictatorship," Neelix said, shaking his head. "I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop..."

"Amazing," Harry said, looking down at the machines. Glowing blue liquid flowed through thick tubes towards metal machines that whirred and hissed softly. "What's the blue stuff?"

"We use a proprietary base material, the composition of which is classified," The Vidiian tour guide said, shrugging one shoulder. "I suppose the basic idea is...it is a kind of highly mutable, highly complex soup of biological possibilities that we just need to tweak into what we want."

"That's a universal anagathic!" Harry exclaimed. "That's like...something out of a sci-fi novel!"

"In here, we turn science fiction into science fact, Mr. Kim," she said, smiling.

"The...Vidiian Emergency made this part of the station has hardened as they could," T'are said, pointing at hte display. "There are six hundred Vidiians in these grid harnesses. All of them connected to computer operation systems."

"They're slave pens," Brian Wacoche said, quietly. "That's where they're harvesting their biological material."

"What do we do?" Amy asked.

"We start by beaming squads into the Pod, shutting down the Pens, liberating every last one of them, and then hold open trials for, oh, the Podmasters, the senior staffs, every fat fuck rich Talaxian, Haakonian and any other alien that is on the station buying themselves immortality for the low low price of dozens of innocent people every day," C'nola said, her finger stabbing the table. "Then, after we've had them lined up and shot, we start doing it to every other Pod in this section of space."

Nurel figured it out a moment before he heard the whirring noise. He turned to see that a full team of six Starfleet officers had appeared in his bridge, carrying rifles that might have been disruptors, given an extra two centuries to smooth down the curves.

Nurel swung his pistol to bear as a blur shot towards him.

The needler fired.

The darts quivered - embedded up to their feathered shafts in the plastic wall.

The cat girl was on him, her weight smashing him back.

The last thing Nurel thought before his head cracked against metal was: This is embarrassing.

"Sir, my name is Lieutenant Amy Strong. We've liberated this Pod from the Emergency," Amy said to the screen containing the face of Senior Podmaster Nurel's father, Toman Ser Nurel. "We have a cure to the Phage, and we will work on a cure for your mind controlled slaves too."

"It's...interesting that you say that like it means something." Tomen Ser Nurel chuckled. "We can and do cure both. Did you think Podmasters have to buy Product to keep ourselves alive?" He raised his hand in a little salute. "We'll be seeing you soon, Starfleet."

C'nola turned her phaser rifle on the screen and shot it.


Gl. Seska frowned as she watched the elderly Podmaster's speech play out on her PADD - it was expertly spliced in with Nurel and Dar's words as well. The picture was damning. The evidence was overwhelming. The only problem was that the Starfleet children she was forced to survive with in this far flung reaches of the galaxy...thought it meant anything at all. She stood up from where she sat - and then yelped as she realized Neelix was right behind her.

"Oh, didn't mean to startle you, Miss Seska!" The smiling Talaxian said, bowing his head to her. Seska felt her gray cheeks darken - she wasn't supposed to be this...fidgety. Except she was surrounded by aliens and enemies and...she was alone.

There was nothing in the universe more vulnerable than a Cardassian alone. Her mind cast back, for a moment, to her favorite of the repetitive epics of her youth, the Galdeian Chronical. There was a tertiary character, Galkoar and Galkoar the Merciless and Galkoar the Strong and Galkoar the Witless. Each time, in subtly different ways, the new Galkoar was left abandoned on a distant shore, alone and isolated, and without the support of their king and queen they were left bereft, alone...then dead, to be remarked on with sorrow by Galdeian the Wise, the Sagacious and the Clever when any of the three came upon the three different skulls in the three epochs.

She was Galkoar now, all right. Who was going to find her skull?

You're being morbid. Stop it. She tried to sound like her DI in her head, but instead, she just sounded like Seska.

"It's Glar," she said, automatically. "My rank is Glar. The honorific is GL, pronounced..." She made a rough, glottal noise in her throat, her side pouches inflating slightly.

"Ah, my mistake, GL Seska!" Neelix said. "I was just wondering if you needed any coffee or tea."

"No, I need to find the Captain," Seska said.

"She was working with the doctor, last I checked." Neelix said.

Seska nodded once, then walked past him. Neelix watched her go, then called after her.

"Good luck!" Then, to himself. "Maybe...look up what Cardassians like to drink."

Seska kept walking forward through the ship, her face determined. She got to a corner - then heard her name.

"Whoa, Seska!" She glanced over and saw the Paris Idiot running to catch up with her. He looked amused, like he always did. She didn't like how amused he always was. Someone who smiled that much was hiding something. Or wasn't hiding enough. Both options were bad. "Where are you off too, I was trying to get your attention for three bulkheads."

Seska's cheeks heated as she looked away from the Paris Moron's gormless smile.

"I am heading for the medical laboratories," she said, firmly. "I need to discuss with the Captain that her plans are foolish and short sighted and will only serve to waste time."

"...okay," the Paris Fool said, stepping into the turbolift with her. "You're gonna wanna run that by me, because it's not just the Captain's plan. I did the video editing. Well, me and Ensign Shives. Well, I gave helpful advice. Well, okay, I watched and thought of helpful advice. Well-"

"Shut up," Seska said, flatly and the Paris...she was running low on synonyms. The Paris...Entity. The Paris Anomaly. The Paris Brain Void. "The video's editing quality doesn't matter. What matters is that no one is going to see it." She turned to face him. "They use the same algorithmic engagement system used by your Earth in their 21st century - systems that are easily gamed and easily manipulated by the entities that control them. Those entities, which control them, also have on hand entire collections of biologically enslaved savants that have one job, which is to sift through internet dross and...and..."

"And delete everything their bosses don't like?" The Paris Maybe Not That Bad asked, rubbing his chin.

"Yes!" Seska snapped.

"Which is why we've put the message on dozens of drones, emitting in multiple pulse frequencies, and-" The Paris Annoying paused, ducking out with her as the turbolift opened and they entered into the medical section of deck 14. A few crew glanced their way and giggled to themselves for reasons that Seska found completely inexplicable. "And, whoa, slow down Seska, you don't need to power walk everywhere."

"I do not power walk, Paris," Seksa said, turning to glare at him. "This is my normal walking speed. You're the endurance predator. Keep up!"

"I really thought of myself more of a trap door spider," the Paris Evolutionary Dead End said, grinning at her.

Seska considered that for a few seconds, until she could come up with an appropriately withering 'come back' as the humans called it. She opened her mouth, closed it, then realized the perfect response: "Easily squished?"

"Only by pretty girls," the Tom Confusing Nonsequitor said, winking at her.

Seska's neck pouches hissed as she drew in a sharp breath. "What!? Shut up! Fuck you!" She turned on her heel, almost walked into a wall, turned forty five degrees, then rushed straight for the medical bay door - which opened to find Janeway, T'are, Tuvok and The Doctor all looking at a big vat full of purple glop.

"It's...purple," T'are said.

"It appears the attempt to-"

"Your plan is bad and not going to work," Seska said, trying to bull through the weird, confusing mixture of emotions that were bubbling in her brain. Tuvok, T'are, Janeway and the Doctor all looked at her.

"Finally, someone has said it," the Doctor said, his voice dry. "The five failed attempts have been so promising otherwise."

Janeway sighed. "GL. Seska, do you have input on a specific plan?"

"I have outlined why your broadcast won't reach sufficient Vidiians to spark a rebellion and even if it does, they will not have the means or material to resist the Podmaster class," Seska said, holding out her PADD. "I've applied all of my instruction on counterinsurgency training on this. Though, I did have to make allownaces."

"For what?" T'are asked.

"The Podmasters, unlike the Cardassian Union, are not a benevolent organization with aims towards the betterment of the galaxy," Seska said, standing up perfectly.

She swore she heard the Paris Confoundment whispering to himself behind her: "I can fix her."

Which was absurd, nothing was wrong with her. It was everyone else on this ship who was confusing.

The Captain read it all, then nodded. "Your point is well argued - but we will not be the only source soon. You are treating this as a two body problem - us and the Vidiians. But remember, the Talaxians, the Haakonians, the Kazon, and other neutral powers all will be recieving the messages as well." She smiled, slightly.

Seska frowned. "I included my assessment of them. No astropolitical entity puts the lives of hostile powers above the lives of their own." She knew she'd need to be extra convincing, so she quoted from the Doctrine and Tactics manual she'd studied at the Academy: "The galaxy is crucible of fire, in which there are no admixtures but those forged under pressure and heat - the heat of war, battle, and strife. Only through understanding this maxim, that all powers are hostile until subordinated to the Union, will you be able to see clearly through the fog of war."

Janeway frowned at her, considering.

Maybe she was getting through to the human!

---
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 0
CURRENT TRUTHS: "Liberated Pod is entirely on our side"

What does Janeway have to say to that?
[ ] Try and convince Seska that there are more factors in interpolitical calculus than realpolitik. (Janeway gains special ability: "We Can Be Better" - if you succeed on any diplomatic check with Janeway, Get +1 momentum)
-[ ] What do you say, exactly.
[ ] Seska...as much as you hate to admit it, does have a point. (Janeway gains special ability: Hard Choices - by making a morally dubious call that sacrifices someone, something, or some ideal, count one of your d20s as having rolled a nat 1.)