I looked passively at Eclipse Phase's avatar as she stood just inside the bars and forcefield of the brig.
She almost stood at attention as she waited.
Captain Mason was standing next to me, his arms calmly held behind his back as he regarded her. There was almost twenty seconds before he asked a simple question.
"Why?"
Phase grimaced slightly, "I had to, Captain. I couldn't in good conscience just leave."
"Do you know what you have done?" He asked her, his tone somewhere south of the temperature of liquid nitrogen.
I had never heard him use that tone before.
Phase winced, "I know, sir. I provided advanced technology and deserted to a less advanced civilization. There will be a Court-martial. At the very least, I'm going to lose my place in Starfleet. Likely jail time."
"More than likely." He agreed, "Why did you do it?"
"Because I could help them. They didn't know what might be coming. With the technology I had on board... she had on board... and with her database they will stand a much better chance against the Borg and the Dominion. If they really are threats there as well." Phase explained, "I had to risk it, sir. My own safety and future is not worth risking the lives of billions of people."
What.
I glared at her, "And potentially risking the entire future of our species!?" I exclaimed, "How do you think something like this will look? Things are already shaky with the general public. This is all getting classified, of course, but... What do you think this will do!?"
"I'm sorry, Star. But I couldn't just stand by and watch knowing what might be coming for them. You know how many died in the Dominion war. None of you would even tell them about the possibility."
"Captain, permission to choke a bitch?"
Mason shook his head, "I understand why you did it, Eclipse Phase. That don't mean it was the right thing to do. What you done might have destabilized the political climate in their entire quadrant."
"I know, Captain. But I had to do something."
Sighing, he turned to walk out. I glanced at her before following him outside, the door closing behind us.
"Captain."
Mason stopped and rubbed his forehead," I know, I know. Okay... relay to Dreamwalker, I want to see her in my readyroom. We need to figure out if she was involved as well."
I nodded in agreement. I didn't think she was involved, but it wouldn't hurt talking to her about it.
"Yes, sir." I agreed before I hesitated, "Captain... To be through, you should interview me about my role in it as well."
He looked at me in surprise, "You were involved!?"
I shook my head, "No, sir. But security failed somewhere and I'm the first line of defense. I should be considered partly responsible for not catching on in time and being able to stop it."
Mason sighed, "Star, It's not your fault. Not even you can catch 'everything'."
"I should have caught this one. I don't even know where she got the parts for a dampening field! Ugh!"
I felt like hitting something. Instead I fired up my small personal puppy sized holodeck and loaded up the berserker horde mode sim.
"...So what now, Sir?" I asked after a moment.
"Now, you tell Lieutenant Johansen to join me for the meeting with Dreamwalker. Meanwhile, set a course back to Federation space. Standard cruise."
I nodded and crossed my arms, "Course set. Engaging at warp 7.5."
As he headed off through the corridor towards the closest turbolift, I shifted back to form a hologram in Eclipse Phases cell.
"I'm currently recording a holographic recreation of this cell and you." I said as I looked at her, "We can talk freely. Why?"
She looked up from where she was sitting on the bed, her back against the wall, "I already told you why."
"You already told me part of why. But that's not all of it, is it?"
Eclipse Phase frowned at me and then she sighed and leaned back against the wall again, "It's mostly that. But I wanted a... backup."
"Backup?"
She nodded, "My ship self is now safe. Safe from Borg and Berserkers. It's currently looking like we might, in time, win the war with the Berserkers. If something changes or if the Borg come knocking, we might lose. We might very well go extinct. I saw a chance to not only ensure our kinds survival but also possibly save billions of people."
Damn. I figured it was something like that. And I suspect not only that. She didn't want to come back home to the war.
"...Not a bad plan to be honest." I finally sighed, "You picked the best possible moment, there was no way for me to stop you. Did you plan on beaming your avatar our as well?"
Phase nodded, "Yeah. That was the plan at least, but I couldn't get a lock with all the interference even after I dropped the dampening field. I always thought this was a possibility and I was willing to take the punishment for what I did if I had to remain behind."
"Did Dreamwalker help you?"
She shook her head, "No, she didn't know either. Please don't think she did. I knew she wouldn't approve."
I just gave her a sad look before I turned away and canceled my hologram, "I will resume surveillance recordings in five seconds."
Damn it. Why could she not just follow orders? What a fucking mess. And now I need to see if I could get Shran to calm Rachel down before she hit someone.
AN// Many thanks to aduck for betaing this section.
