Subject: Grail: 'Unexplored Spaces' - Sisters...II: Eve's Tale part 2

USS Grail: 'Unexplored Spaces' - 'Sisters....II: Eve's Tale - Part 2

by

Lt. (jg) Eve Mallory & Lt. Comm. Janice Hargen

<<Stardate: 47307.20- 19:30>>

Location: Janice Hargen's Personal Quarters

"V'jur?" Janice asked, a bit confused. She ran through her

memory banks automatically. Her eyes widened slightly

when she found the entry, something she studied far back

in the Academy. "Wasn't the crew of the original Enterprise

involved with stopping it?"

Eve nodded. "Yeah, they were," she replied. "I

was fascinated when I heard about it; one of Earth's

old deep space probes is found by a sentient race

of machines, rebuilt, and then comes back with all the

knowledge it's managed to pick up on it's travels." She

sighed with regret. "It's a damn shame we never managed

to get any of that information; just think what we could

have learned!"

"Anyway," Eve continued, "Once it was over, I was

determined to find out all that I could about V'jur and

what had happened. So I contacted Starfleet and asked

for access to the data. Imagine my surprise when not

only did they let me take a look, but they let me interview

the Enterprise crew, including Kirk, Spock and McCoy."

Janice raised an eyebrow, almost Vulcan-like in her surprise.

Starfleet never just gave out critical information like that.

*Not only giving her access to confidential information, but

letting her interview the officers involved as well? Especially

since they were Kirk, Spock and McCoy!! There had to be

something more to this...*

"Anyway, I never stopped to wonder why Starfleet was letting

me do this, but I was grateful to them. I spent months going

over McCoy's scans of Lt. Ilia, the readings taken from V'jur,

all of it. Then I got summoned to Starfleet Headquarters by

the Head of Starfleet, Admiral Nogura..."

*******************

Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, Earth - 2272

<<NRPG: Eve speaks in [ ] because back in 2272, she is using

a voice synthesizer>>

[You want me to *WHAT*?!] Doctor Eve Mallory exploded.

Admiral Nogura smiled. "I want you to be on the Alonzo went

it follows V'jur's path," He repeated. "You're the best expert

on the V'jur incident there is. You've studied the data, interviewed

survivors, had access to things we've never shown anyone else.

There is no one better qualified."

Eve stared at him for a long moment. Then she moved slightly,

the light glinting off her cybernetic hand. [Kirk warned me about

you,] She said finally. [McCoy too.]

Nogura's assistant stirred slightly, as if to say something, but

Nogura held up a hand, stopping him. "What did they say?"

He asked casually.

[That you're a games player. That when you want something,

you get it. Usually by stacking the deck in your favor.] Eve

replied. [I suspected something when you allowed me unrestricted

access to all the data, including the scans McCoy did on the

Ilia-probe.] She smiled. [You've been trying to recruit me into

Starfleet for about two years now, ever since the Nobel Prize.]

"Are you surprised?" Nogura asked. "Why shouldn't I go

after new blood? Especially someone as talented as yourself."

Eve shook her head. [You're desperate, Nogura,] She said.

[Daystrom is still in his little rubber room, playing with string,

Trevellian hasn't come up with anything original in years, and

McConnagh is about to quit on you. You need someone with

a reputation, someone you can parade in front of the press, like

you did with Kirk when you forced the Admiralty on him. So

you went after me. You made a good guess that once I saw all

the data, interviewed the Enterprise crew and got a look at what

V'jur left behind, and then offered me a place on a ship that was

going to try to make contact with these machine creatures, I'd

jump at the chance to sign up.]

There was a silence again. Nogura was first to break it.

"How did I do?" he asked.

Eve grinned. [Pretty good.] She replied. [When do we leave?]

********************

"You met Kirk?" Janice asked curiously. "What was he like?"

Eve shrugged. "A man," She replied. "Just like anyone else.

Nogura had hyped him beyond all recognition; first Captain

to bring his ship and crew home relatively intact, and a

handsome devil to boot. He needed to justify the expansion

and new ship classes, and Kirk was ready-made for him."

Janice nodded, understanding what she meant. As wonderful

as Starfleet was, and however devoted Janice was to it, she

would never agree with the ideas of most of the heads of it.

She could think of so many Admirals that had only one thing

on their mind - themselves. She shivered, thinking of how

quickly they had just taken Kaya from her "father" without

another thought. And how distressed he had been afterwards.

Of course, those were all memories implanted in her head. She

shrugged off those thoughts, and brought her attention back to

Eve's story. "And then what?" she asked, gently prodding

Eve forward.

Eve shrugged. "I took basic Starfleet training, and took my

place aboard the Alonzo. We left Earth and rendezvoused with

a Klingon ship to pick up their scientists and a couple of

'military advisors', and picked up V'jur's trail. Pretty boring

actually, at least till we got to the wormhole, then things

got really interesting."

Janice frowned. *'Interesting' always meant something more

than just interesting.* She leaned forward in her seat.

"Wormhole? What happened?"

"We fell through." Eve replied. "It was pretty rough, and

we sustained some damage. But that was nothing to the

discovery that the wormhole was one way only; if you tried

to go through from our end, the gravimetric pressures

would have crushed us. So we went forward."

"Then, about six months into the trip..."

*******************

USS Alonzo - unknown location: 2273

[Computer, analyze model.] Eve turned away from

the screen to the small tray of instruments. She picked one

up with her free hand and inserted it gently into the slot in

her mechanical hand. It slotted in with an audible click.

=/\=Model #A4567 will function within specified parameters=/\

Eve smiled. [Good. Display readouts.]

The screen lit up with the information. Quickly, she scanned

the columns of data, and a faint frown marred her features.

[Computer show detailed readout on section 24, and run

second level analysis.]

=/\=Procedure will take 5 standard minutes=/\

She stared at the new readout for a moment, then with a faint

sound of disgust, turned back to the collection of circuit boards

and the object that rested in the middle of them, leads leading in

and out of it like veins.

The model was running perfectly in simulation, but there was

still an area of concern with the backup and secondary

functions. That one area was still showing signs of continued

degradation, and Eve couldn't figure out why. She narrowed the

field down, but was beginning to look as though there was a

flaw in the original coding itself.

*Should have written up new codes, instead of using old ones!*

She thought. *Old language can't handle the new procedures..*

The red alert klaxon blared with a shocking suddenness, making

her jump, and almost spilling the artificial heart to the floor.

=/\=Brace for Impact! I repeat, Brace for Impact!=/\= The

words, overlaid with a sense of panic blared from the speakers.

Mallory got to her feet, but before she could do anything, the

ship gave a giant lurch, and then seemed to roll. Equipment,

padds, anything not held down, went flying, including Eve.

She hit the wall with an impact that knocked the breath out of

her and slid down it stunned. Pain exploded in her head,

far more than she was used to.

The ship lurched again, sending her tumbling, wringing fresh

waves of pain from her, and a low scream from her lips. She

impacted with the edge of a table, and was sent back again by

another lurch, this time impacting with the comm panel, which

exploded in a shower of sparks. The charge earthed itself

through Eve, and this time the pain in her head was indescribable.

She did not know how she remained consciousness, but she

still fell to the floor in an untidy heap.

The ceiling and walls seemed to crumble, and part of one wall

collapsed into the room, burying the table and computer

terminal. The lights went out, cloaking the room in darkness,

only illuminated by the sparking of various connections.

Eve tried to move. Nothing. not even the slightest twitch. She

tried to cry out, but nothing came from her mouth but a vaguely

electronic lowing.

*The charge must have shorted out one of the links!* She

thought, panic beginning to well within her. *nonononoicant

belikethissomeonehelpmepleasepleasepleasennononononono

nono..*

Something moved in the shadows. Eve could only barely see

it in the darkness, but her mind, already screaming with panic,

sparked with joy.

*helphelphelpmepleaseicantmovepleasepleasehelpcantspeak

cantmovenononono..*

Darkness.

**********************

Janice swallowed thickly. *It must have been horrible, not

being able to move or even speak.* Her heart flew out to

Eve. "So... what happened then?" Janice asked, her voice

barely a whisper.

"I woke up on the USS Nova." Eve replied. "Inside a

containment field. I couldn't figure out where I was, and no

one would tell me anything. I discovered that was dressed in

an old-style Starfleet uniform, but that was nothing to the

shock of discovery that my cybernetic arm was suddenly

flesh and blood." Her eyes went distant. "Then the Captain

shows up, and asks me the date. I thought he was nuts; any

idiot knew that the date was, but I humored him, told him it

was 2273. Besides I wanted to know why we'd been followed

through the wormhole." Eve glanced at her hand again, which

had clenched tight. "And that's when I found out that it

was 2*3*73, 100 years had passed, and..." She closed her eyes

for a moment. "...I freaked out."

Janice could barely contain a gasp of shock. She put a

comforting hand on Eve's shoulder, wishing she didn't make

Eve relive this over again. She fought back the pained expression

that wanted to come over her face - she doubted Eve would

want her pity. Afraid to ask for any more information, she

just nodded.

"I figured out that I might be a Replicant almost immediately,"

Eve continued. "But I was seemingly totally flesh and blood,

which confused me." She gestured at herself and the screen.

"See, when V'jur copied Ilia, it copied her exactly; but that

hadn't happened with me at all. I didn't have any of my

cybernetics.

"At first I thought I'd been healed by whoever had done this,"

Eve face took on a wistful look. "That had always been one of

my dreams, to be human and normal, just like everyone else. But

then I got a look at the preliminary scans and that all came

crashing down on me." The sadness was visible in her eyes. "I

was human all right, I just wasn't made out of any organic

material." She wiped a hand over her face. "I really wanted it

to be a nightmare at that point; I wanted to wake up in my bed

on the Alonzo, to find that everything was OK." Her face

changed again. "But I didn't wake up. And it got worse."

*My God, how could it possibly get worse??* she thought,

horrified. "What happened, Eve?" Janice asked gently.

"The Nova took 3 months to get to Lerins Station, where

I was taken back to Earth for a de-briefing, and testing."

Janice gasped and recoiled, pulling her hand away in an

inhumanly quick jerk. It was the one thing Janice had really

feared. The testing. To treat a sentient being like an animal, to

be poked and prodded as they desired, to have no free will of

your own... Janice turned her face away so that Eve couldn't

see the tears that sprung to her eyes.

Eve shuddered. "They put me through every test they

could think of," she continued, one hand now picking at the

fabric of the couch. "And I was getting interviewed by all

sorts of people, most of whom didn't believe me, who thought

I was some kind of advanced Borg. I made a friend while all this

was going on; she was on the team that was testing me." Eve's

face was hard. "Then one night, she got me out of the complex

and took me back to her quarters." She smiled. "It was great;

out from under the tests and the questions and...." She

gestured. "...just everything. She cooked me dinner, not

something out of a replicator," Eve paused. "Then she seduced

me."

Janice had finally turned back to Eve, back in control of herself.

But she jerked when she heard Eve's last sentence. Her

eyebrows furrowed in confusion, her eyes were filled with pain.

"Seduced? How?"

She shrugged. "I was an easy target; confused, pissed off,

and just fed up with everything. Next morning, she got me back

to the lab and it all starts again. But I managed to sneak a look

at her computer clearances, and decided that *I* wanted to

know what they'd discovered about me; I figured I had a right

to know, and no one would tell me anything."

"It works, and I'm in, going through all the info they've been

collecting," Eve pointed at Janice. "It's all on the file you read

remember?"

Janice nodded, silently dreading what was to come.

"And that's when I see a file that's apparently on-going, but

untitled, by my friend. I open it up, and for a moment, I don't

believe what I'm reading." Eve's face has gone dark with

remembered anger and shame. Up until this moment, she

hasn't been looking at Janice, but now her eyes meet the other

woman's. "It had been a set-up. The team wanted to test my

sexual responses, so they drew lots to see who got to take me

to bed." Eve was on her feet, unable to sit still under the force of

the memories; she started to pace. "And I fell for it!" She

exclaimed.

Janice stood quickly, and without thought, hugged the woman

opposite her. "I'm sorry, Eve," she whispered. It was all she

could say. She didn't know how long she just hugged her,

hoping that she could make the hurt go away just a little.

Finally, she held Eve at arm's length and looked at her. She

seemed a bit calmer than before. Janice bit her lip. "What did

you do?"

"I went crazy," Eve smiled lopsidedly. "I threatened to bring

legal action for the abuse I'd been subjected to, raised a holy

stink, basically." She sat down again.

"Starfleet wanted me out the way; they didn't want me around

to begin with and the kind of fuss I was threatening to make

gave them the perfect excuse to send me to the Grail. I think

they'd have sent me here anyway, after they saw what I could

do."

"What you could do?" Janice echoed, confused. Just when

she thought she had been following the terrible story, she lost

the plot again. *Did I miss something?* she asked herself,

quickly reviewing the conversation in her mind.

Eve was silent for a moment, her eyes resting on the couch.

This was the last truth. The one that was going to turn Janice

away from her.

She looked up, staring unflinchingly at Janice. "I can talk

to Borg."

(Do I really need to say it? Oh OK...)

TO BE CONTINUED

Jason Cleaver & Vivian Salib