First Contact with the First Officer (Part I)

Posted on Tue Sep 7th, 2021 @ 11:38am by Lieutenant Zero & Commander Grace Vetur
Edited on on Tue Sep 7th, 2021 @ 11:42am

1,257 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Out of Time
Location: First Officer's Quarters

ON:

Zero walked down the corridor, his gloved hands behind his back, as his head remained forward and focused. He disregarded the curious looks and double takes by the officers he passed, he was used to all those things already, as he was determined to make it to his destination.

Once he arrived at the First Officer's quarters, he tapped the chime to signal his arrival. He stood there straight and at attention, Gold Uniform neatly pressed, while he waited for the doors to opened.

Grace was sitting on her couch, going over data on the two ships. "Come in," she said, setting the PADD down and standing to greet the new arrival.

Zero walked into, his gloved hands behind his back, as his mechanical blue eyes stared straight ahead. "Lieutenant Zero, Chief Operations Officer." His eyes finally focused on the woman in front of the desk. His eyes seemed to slightly zoom in on her face before adjusting back to his standard vision.

"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant," she said. She waved a hand to a chair. "Please have a seat. Can I get you a drink or something?" She'd read the notification of a new officer, but she had never met a former Borg before. His eye was both fascinating and disconcerting.

"I do not require anything." Zero replied as he walked to the chair and slowly sat down. He placed his gloved hands on his legs as he looked over to the woman again.

Grace nodded and sat back on the couch. "Tell me something about your experience in Starfleet."

Zero sat there for a moment before replying quickly. "I limited my interactions with other Cadet's and focused on my assignments. By keeping myself focused on classes I was able to pick up another major which will allow me to be more versatile." He paused for a moment, tilting his head slightly, before adding. "My life as a Borg Drone kept some of my classmates at arm’s length. Others felt it necessary to challenge me to work out their grief with losing someone to the Borg. I did not allow such incidents to distract me from my goals."

"Yes. I can see how those who do not understand that drones do not have free will would blame you for what the Borg have done in the past. But hopefully, once they get to know you, they'll come to understand that you are an individual." She paused. "Perhaps one of the counselors could help with that?"

Zero raised a brow slightly. Her statement seemed odd. Is she suggesting that those who could not understand that need a counselor or does he? His curious look remained slightly before he asked. "Are you to imply, because of their actions, I require to see a counselor?"

"No. Only that those who blame you for what the Borg did do not understand Borg," she clarified. "The only reason you would need to see a counselor is for your routine evaluation."

Zero nodded, a bit relieved that what she said was now clarified. "Yes. I will place that in my things that are still required. The last evaluation was given to me by a questionnaire. The counselor that was assigned to evaluate me decided that would be a more efficient way. My short answers and lack of knowledge about my origin and experience as a Borg no longer suited his previous methods. He did not approve of the long moments of silence between inquiries."

Grace raised an eyebrow. "That's odd. It's understandable that you wouldn't know your origin if you were assimilated as a child." He didn't seem to have good luck with counselors, either. "I'm sure there's a counselor here you can work with."

"That is up to the Medical department to determine." Zero replied quickly, a slight shrug escaping his posture, as he remained in the same position he began in when he sat down. "I do not know if I was even assimilated as a child. It is possible, but without a record of when I was brought online, there is no way to know. I do not see how a counselor can help me with memories I do not have."

"They can't. But they can help you adapt to being away from the Collective and adapting to life in Starfleet," she said. "But you're right. That is up to medical and counseling. My job is to ensure you settle in as a department head."

She paused for a moment before switching subjects. "As you may know, we've recently encountered two ships from the past. One Federation and one Romulan. I've asked Lieutenant Bálor to see if there's a way to send both ships back to their own timeline. We don't know if it's possible and we don't know if we'd be fixing or altering our timeline by doing so. There are a lot of variables to consider. Right now, we don't even know if we need to consider them. First, we need to ascertain if it's even possible to send them back. If not, there's nothing to discuss except how to get them settled in to their new reality. Right now, I need to know what we're looking at and what our options are. I'd like you to work with Lieutenant Bálor. Find out, if you can, how they ended up here and if we can reverse the process. Once we know that, we can look at other options."

"All other options are irrelevant." Zero responded quickly. "Prior to my arrival here, Commander, I was called to Stellar Cartography with Lieutenant Bálor, Lieutenant Mizuhara, and Lieutenant Stone to discuss the same dilemma. I had reservations with the option to return them back to their own time because there are many alterations that could occur if their status is altered. Starfleet's Temporal Prime Directive also clearly states that: All Starfleet personnel were strictly forbidden from directly interfering with historical events and were required to maintain the timeline and prevent history from being altered. The directive also restricted people from revealing too much about the future so as not to cause paradoxes or alter the timeline. No information has been given in order to determine whether these ships are meant to return back to their previous timeline. Furthermore, returning these ships could alter our history which proceeded upon their disappearance. It may also alter events in both factions resulting in, but not limited to, officers being erased from existence. Events being changed and altered in a drastic fashion. There is simply not enough information to proceed with returning them to their respective moment in time to signify the alterations will not result in a butterfly effect that ripples throughout the galaxy and affecting other historical events in the progress."

"Valid points. There is also not enough information to say that they aren't supposed to go back, that they don't belong in this timeline. We need all the information we can get. We'll probably have to consult Starfleet Command before making a final decision." If the Ontario had gone back in time, they could simply look in the historic records, but there was no way to say if sending the two ships back in time would fix or break history. "I would like all the information I can gather. Only then will we know if there is a decision to make or if they need help acclimatizing to their new home."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Grace Vetur
Executive Officer
USS Ontario

&

Lieutenant Zero
Chief Operations Officer

 

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