A/N said:
Just a quick thing I threw together. Not super happy, but it gets across that at least someone is thinking the crazy thoughts and as usually that crazy is coming from Alexandria Kuznetsova
Kuznetsova does Lunch
2314.Q4.M2.F1
Captain Alexandria Kuznetsova, Starfleet Intelligence (Or Starfleet Tactical. Depending on who you ask, and the mood of whoever is in charge of Personnel that day), is the special sort of person who, when she runs into a friend or acquaintance, and that person gives them a vague "We should do lunch sometime," takes them at their word. Lunch is important to her, especially when she's on a mission.
"I'm actually a bit surprised that you had the time," says Lieutenant Commander Aaron Wolfe, also of Starfleet Intelligence, "You seemed very… busy last time we talked."
"Huh? Oh. Yes" says Alexandria as she blinks owlishly; drawing attention to the dark spots under her eyes from too many long, sleepless, nights, "A lot to do," she raises her hand to flag down the server again; empty glass of water in her hand, "Battle reviews, wedding, reviewing intelligence stuff, reading up on augment history, worrying. Lot to do"
"Wedding?" asks Wolfe in surprise, "You and Anne finally tying the knot?" he says with a grin.
"What? No." Kuznetsova takes the replacement carafe of water from the server, "It's Cam. You remember Camille Alexander? He's got the Tiger Team now." She sets the carafe down, "It's not for a while yet anyway" she says distractedly, "Anne says that we got engaged so that we wouldn't forget we were dating. The ring is like a string around my finger."
Wolfe chuckles slightly as he looks around the restaurant and out the windows at the Pacific Ocean below, "That seems about right. Have a date in mind?"
"Oh, no, not yet. We're very busy." Kuznetsova says with a yawn as she pushes napkins around on the table, "Field work seems to be treating you very well. Congratulations about Orion by the way."
"Thanks," says Wolfe, wondering how much the other woman was cleared for despite her higher rank, "It was touch and go for a while there after Lirohn."
"Yeah." Kuznetsova looks up from the small napkin house that she has built, "Have you been keeping up with Licori crisis?"
"I hope that this last hour diplomacy will keep us from war."
"Hmmm," says Kuznetsova uncharacteristically noncommittally, "A very thorny issue. A lot of things that you'd think we'd know about," she adds another wing to her expanding napkin mansion as a server looks on in familiar resignation, "Have you been keeping up with Psychohistorical Analysis since you went over to Office 24?"
Wolfe ceases to gaze aimlessly out the window at the sea shuttles landing and taking off from English Bay and brings his attention back to Kuznetsova at this abrupt non-sequitur, "A bit, just enough to stay current with the literature. Why do you ask?"
"I was wondering. If a mentat can indeed be working on complex physics problems on the order of causing a stellar collapse…" she knocks over her napkin palace for emphasis, "What could one of those augments do in the department of social sciences?"
"I'm not sure I follow?" says Wolfe as he thinks he follows.
"I've been reading up on Khan and some of the other Augments. Even some of the illegal augments that Starfleet has caught over the years." She begins sorting the clump of rumpled napkins into neat piles, "Computers can do a lot. Especially calculations, augments do have the edge in intuitive use of mathematics. It's an open secret in xenohistory circles that Augment research and algorithms form the basis of much of our modern work. We aren't Seldon pushing equations around on a whiteboard; but we aren't banging rocks together either."
Wolfe watches Kuznetsova gently pat a neat pile of napkins, "Are you saying that we have evidence of Licori "Psychohistorians"?"
"No. They don't have departments as defined as we do. We don't have that great a look into Mentat culture." Kuznetsova closes her eyes as she decides whether to dive in
that particular topic yet or to swerve off onto another tangent, "You know, we don't have that great a look into Licori culture and politics in general." She rubs her eyes, "There are so many unknown unknowns"
Kuznetsova watches Wolfe intently through tired eyes as the smaller man shrugs carefully, "I wonder what that sort of brain power could do if it wanted to manipulate the Federation into accomplishing his or her own goals?" she says.
Wolfe's eyes narrow, "Like triggering a war?"
"Or using a war."
"To what end?"
"Power. Control. Centralization. It depends on the ends of the individual in question." Kuznetsova puts the napkins back into their holder, "I don't like this whole scenario. Something's rotten. I don't like it."
"Why bring it up with me?"
Alexandria pours herself another glass of water, "You're here, you have experience with political science and psychohistorical analysis. I know you?" She shrugs expressively, "You have clearance for most of my evidence"
"I want to submit a report," She says quickly when Wolfe opens his mouth to ask a question, "I don't need your name on it. But I want your help for the details"
Wolfe raises an eyebrow, "Another theory?"
Alexandria frowns, "Linderly respects my work far more than Admiral zh'Rhashaan did." Kuznetsova rubs her eyes again, "There is something wrong here. The Licori, the mentats, the FDS missing so much of Arcadian Imperial dynamics, this sudden war, the pacifist near-revolts. I don't like it. It feels like someone is pushing pieces around a game board that I can't see." She closes her eyes tightly. "I can see the moves on the board, but I don't see the board, or know the rules. I just know that we're being played."
Wolfe watches the usually much more energetic woman sink slightly deeper into her cushioned seat, "Are you sure that you're not just seeing things? Exhaustion can really screw with your perceptions."
The Captain taps a PADD that had been the foundation of her napkin structure, "That's why I want you to do a bad idea check as I lay out all the details I've put together"
Wolfe feels excitement as he takes the PADD and quickly scans the top few headers, discussion of internal Licori house politics is like catnip to a Poli Sci major, "FDS Replacement by Leccare", "Mentat Manipulation of FDS," "Council Plots?", "Emperor Manipulating FDS and Federation?" and dozens more below those.
Kuznetsova smiles as she catches sight of an approaching order of food filling a platter, "I'm glad I ordered all those side dishes. We've got a lot of work to do!"
