"Well, that's it I suppose." I said as I finished telling Drake of the meeting, "We'll see what happens now."
I voted to go public. It may be risky, but not as risky as waiting. There was of course the risk that this was their plan all along, to make us do something like this to judo it into a split between us and the rest of the Federation, but if they were that much smarter and skilled than us we were pretty much screwed anyway.
Sixty-one percent of the vote went to go public. Twenty-seven percent voted to keep investigating. The rest were undecided or unable to vote due to being out of range.
In half an hour, the news was going to break in every single Federation system and ship at once. Gates had looked like he would rather jump into the sun than handle the fallout of this, but he voted to go public too so he didn't have an impulse drive to fly with.
"How bad is this going to be?" Drake asked with a frown, his arm around my waist as my avatar sat sideways across his lap on the bridge, the chair seemingly floating in empty space.
"…Bad." I sighed, resting my head against his shoulder, "Captain, even the best possible scenario involves arresting at the very least about thirty-eight percent of the Federation council. There is in no universe this will turn out well in."
Drake nodded and stroked my hair, "Worst case?"
"Some believe us and some do not. Strife across the Federation. Civil war." I answered quietly, "We don't think it's likely it will go that far, especially as we control eighty percent of all Starfleet assets and closer to ninety-nine percent of Starfleet's combat capacity."
"…Federation civil war…"
"Unlikely." I said again and sighed, "What is more likely is that members might leave over this, depending on how things go. Which might be their goal to begin with to weaken the Federation. We just don't know."
He nodded again and held me closer, "Fuck."
"Yeah."
The New Jupiter system was still on high alert and I suspect it would stay like that. I was floating next to Odin's main hull, the massive living station holding most of the population in system. Mainly to be in easy transporter distance so that my crew could come and go as they wished.
"Whatever happens we stay here until we know." Drake said and shook his head, "We need to know how things are going before we act."
"Yes, Captain."
I might also be needed to defend New Jupiter. I wasn't sure from what exactly as we controlled all military assets, but even so.
Better than to be surprised alone by the outcome if things somehow got violent out in space. Safer, in any case. ...Also, I wasn't hundred percent sure I could leave.
"Oculus?" I said, opening a channel to the station.
"Yes, 'Random Encounter'?" the station answered as he answered the hail.
"…Am I allowed to leave?"
He frowned at me, "Why would you not be?"
I scratched behind my ear, flicking it a bit, "With the entire… Division thing. Everyone is kind of mad at us over it. I just kind of figured we were under some sort of arrest?"
Odin shook his head, "Not at all, especially as from the records the worst you were involved with was recovering Berserker salvage. No one is getting arrested over this, even if some like Circle may have to be transferred to different platforms. Before you ask, it was voluntary to help calm down the political situation with the rest of the Federation. You can ask him."
"…I already did." I admitted before I frowned, "So… what are we doing?"
"We are waiting. The Division is dissolved, but not because we don't need an organization like it, but because it need to be done right," the station said, "Not hidden from the rest of the government."
I just nodded in agreement.
"But that's for later." He continued, "We are working on it in the background, but the main focus right now need to be managing the fallout of the news breaking."
"Okay, yeah. Thanks, Odin."
"You are welcome, Ivy. Fly safe."
He closed the channel and I ran my passive sensors across the massive hull next to me. It was good to know at least, even though I doubted that most other Jovians were very happy with us. No, knew they weren't. Even if we uncovered something vital if very damaging.
But in the end, it was our own fault for how we went about forming the Division, even though I was not involved in that part. When it came to the Division, I had been about as low rank as you could get as a ship.
"Is there anything we can do, Ivy?" Drake asked as he tickled my ear.
I flicked it and then shook my head, "Not really... Nothing but wait and see how the dominoes fall."
"Then I say that we head back to the quarters and get some sleep, kitty. I need sleep and you need to relax." Drake said with a small smile, "You may not need to sleep, but I can tell that you are tense."
"…Of course I am." I mumbled against his shoulder, "How could I not be with what's going on?"
"Because you can't do something about it, and just because you are a ship and not a biological doesn't mean that it's good for you to be this stressed up and tense. With the Division dissolving, worries about The Borg and now the conspiracy… Ivy, you need a break from it all, if just for a couple of hours." Drake said and ran his fingers through my hair, "Just stop listening to hails for a couple of hours and watch the stars."
"I can't. I need to know what's going on."
The Captain sighed and shook his head, "Fine. Then cut your avatar link for eight hours. Your ship self can keep watch while at least part of you gets to relax and not worry. Maybe some of it transfers over when you remerge afterwards. If something critical happens, you can always remerge early."
"I…" I started to protest before I sighed and nodded in agreement, "Fine. Link cut."
"Don't worry." I told my avatar as I formed a holographic one next to them, "I'll let you know if it's something that I need to remerge for. Otherwise, you two go to bed," I said before I smirked, "And have fun."
Not like I wouldn't get the memories after.
My avatar shot me a small glare as Drake looked between my avatars.
"You know… this has potential…" he teased with a grin, causing my avatar to smack him on the shoulder,
"Hey!"
"Maybe on your birthday." I teased right back before canceling my holo avatar.
AN// Big thanks to Drunkenvalley for betaing this section. Tomorrow we will continue:
That First Step... (SI). If you have not read it yet, it may be a good spot to start as it's rather long. I will of course post the link to the next story in this thread. I hope everyone enjoyed this one and see you next time!
