Recruitment

Posted on 04 Oct 2012 @ 9:16am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Amril

2,198 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Secure Quarters
Timeline: MD10 - 1630hrs

[ON]

Amril was in the quarters he had been confined to, having nowhere else to go, of course. He was sitting in a chair reading a PADD while music played in the background, an orchestra piece with a Bajoran distinctiveness. When the door chimed, the vorta looked up, cocking his head and eyeing the door with lilac eyes.

"Enter," he called.

The doors slid open and Evelyn and took her first steps into the Vorta's assigned quarters. Her past experience with Vorta prisoners always involved force fields, and them laying still on a bed. Seeing him in a chair, reading, with music filling the room, a stark contrast. Evelyn hadn't decided if it made this meeting easier or worse. "Greetings."

"Ah, welcome," the vorta declared, standing up and putting his PADD on the armrest. "Oh," he continued, catching sight of John in the doorway, "and Commander Holliday, this is a pleasure."

Holliday did little to reply, he still wasn't comfortable with this situation, and instead chose to do nothing but nod in acknowledgement to the Vorta's greeting, and waited to see what happened next.

Amril continued, "I was just taking the opportunity in the spare time you gave me to broaden my cultural horizons. The briefings we receive in the Dominion are not nearly as extensive, and I must say the Obsidian Order is a terribly clumsy organization, they do not focus on culture and understanding, only on information of a directly military nature. It is no wonder the Cardassian Union failed." He chuckled as if that failure were a great joke. "I understand the Federation much better now."

"I'm not here on a social call... we can discuss galactic history and cultural comparisons when the ship isn't in danger of being wiped off the map... I let you out of the Brig, it's time you did something for me."

The XO retorted, the Cardassians had been taken advantage of by a power-hungry lunatic and their own fear, the fact that the Vorta would even find the destruction of a culture vaguely amusing was enough to make Holliday want to lunge towards him and blacken his eye.

"Oh, of course," Amril agreed readily, "Indeed. It's a lovely ship and I'd hate to see it destroyed. Did you know your computer talks? Delightful. Ah, now then, what do you need me to do? Some trouble with the ships coming after you?"

"The vocal interface is a standard feature." He replied curtly. John had no idea how a Vorta could remain so pleasant at almost every moment of the day, in fact he had never heard of one losing their temper. Of course Holliday knew that the particular trait in question was no doubt one bred into them over centuries of genetic manipulation, but it was still impressive, if not a little sickening.

"I understand Dominion power conversion systems are more advanced than the ones Starfleet has - your systems give a higher efficiency rating than ours. I want you to help our engineers adapt our systems accordingly."

"Oh, come now, commander," Amril replied, nearly managing to sound disappointed, "I do know your situation already, there is no reason to keep me in the dark. I cannot help you if you give me a solution but not a problem."

Evelyn was listening to the exchange, studying the Vorta. "For someone to say they know of the situation, I would think you know of the problem." Evelyn spoke, taking step closer to the Vorta. "I'm curious as to what number are you. From what we understand of the Dominion cloning process, the sixth or seventh clone is usually the defective ones."

"The problem is the Klingons are going to blow your cloned ass back into primordial soup if we don't get enough power to our new drive system before they flush us out of this nebula, is that a good enough one for you to solve?"

Holliday too was curious about the background of this clone, but right now, he felt that Coleman's line of questioning was on too much of a tangent to be considered a valuable use of time for the XO to back. There would be plenty of time to finish their interrogation once Galileo returned to Federation space.

"New drive system, Commander?" Amril asked, cocking his head to the side. "You see? You did not mention that before. Why do your systems need to be adapted to a propulsion system with a higher power usage?" He smiled disarmingly, "You are in luck; I was stationed on a test facility for new Dominion craft. I'm quite knowledgeable about interstellar propulsion, in theory. What sort of drive are you using?"

Evelyn arched her brow, eyes shifting to Holliday. She wasn't yet convinced if they should trust the Vorta however it seems trying to determine so isn't a priority. She kept quiet, allowing Holliday to answer the Vorta's question.

"I believe that Miss Coleman is the best versed to explain that to you... suffice to say, I trusted you enough to let you out of the Brig, so I'm trusting you to repay that favour to me... agreed?"

Holliday felt almost stupid to be calculating the chances of a Vorta negotiating with him, usually he would come up with a dozen reasons why this was a bad idea, but essentially, right now, at this exact moment, they had very little choice in the matter.

"Oh, of course, Commander," Amril said, "I did offer my assistance after all, and I would never go back on my word. This, however, seems like quite a project." He glanced at Evelyn. "Lieutenant Coleman? Please inform me.

Coleman looked at the Vorta, pressing her lips together as her mind began formulating a simple explanation. "We need to increase our power output by 60% of the norm. The new system, as far as I know..." she paused, and then looked at Holliday. "You know this is will be far too complicated to explain in... I'm sorry." She apologized and then turned to Amril. "Eee-ja maa'na hoo'va, baa'ji k'traav-aja dee'jen'rada." Evelyn continued to explain the principals of Sienna to Amril in Dominionese.

Amril raised his eyebrows in surprise, entirely ignoring what was actually being said. "Where did you learn to speak Dominionese, Lieutenant?" he interrupted, "You know I speak Federation Common, don't you? No need even for your universal translators. Ah, though I won't object if you want to speak in Dominionese."

Evelyn she smirked at Amril, "I picked it up during several... intelligence gathering missions during the Dominion War." She, lowered her head slightly, "I am aware you speak Federation Common, and I apologize if I had insulted you, I assumed your comprehension of the new propulsion system would increase if explained in your native language."

"Oh, it's quite all right, Lieutenant," he replied, "Whatever language you wish to use is fine. The Founders designed me to learn languages and I am fluent in the standard languages of several Alpha Quadrant powers."

"Fundamentally, our new propulsion system amplifies the warp field to a greater factor than our traditional warp system. Instead of simply warping the space-time fabric around the vessel, the effect would also transcends the spatial plane and would be multidimensional." Evelyn paused for a moment, making sure the Vorta was following.

"Your ship has a transwarp drive?"

Evelyn shook her head, "No, however this propulsion system has similar properties to transwarp." Evelyn sighed and shook her head, "What the hell am I doing?" she mutters to herself as she walked to the terminal in the Vorta's room. She manually entered the encryption key to unlock the station and pulled up the necessary files on Sienna. "Amril, this is the new propulsion system we'll be deploying." She said gesturing him to join her at the station. "I've only unlocked these files for you so you can review them, if you're going to help you might as well know the damn thing we're installing."

"Allowing me review your data will certainly be more efficient," Amril agreed, moving to the console and studying the readouts. "Ah, fascinating," he said, "Show me the schematics for the drive mechanism and the equations you are using... I think I will be able to interpret them."

Evelyn tapped a few keys and brought up the necessary information. "Don't forget to say please every now and then." She commented, taking a step away from the terminal to give Amril better access.

"You'll have to forgive me, Lieutenant," Amril said as he looked over the schematics. "I am designed for logistics, I've not had the opportunity to hone my diplomatic skills completely."

Evelyn moved towards Holliday, her eyes not leaving the Vorta, "I never thought I'd say this but..." she started to whisper to John, "I like him."

"Coming from you Lieutenant, that's high praise." John had to reply with a smirk on his face. It seemed for the most part, the Vorta was going to honour his part of the deal, and if the most hard to please member of his crew was seeing Amril as an acceptable risk, Holliday wasn't going to argue.

"Just... don't let his flattery go to your head. You still report to me, remember?"

Evelyn raised her brow as she looked at him, "Of course, Commander. No need to sound jealous." She said as her gaze shifted back to Amril.

"Not at all. Simply mindful of the chain of command... anyway, after your recent engagement with the Klingons, I have to ensure that the mental strength of my officers is maintained. Protocol Lieutenant, nothing more."

The XO smiled once again, as he moved back to watching the Vorta and waiting for his analysis of the situation.

"Do I need to remind you, Commander, this officer has been serving Starfleet since long before your grandfather was born?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest, gripping herself as she started to feel a little annoyed. "I've been through much worse experiences than the incident I had with the Klingon, never had that impacted my performance or my adherence to protocol, with a single exception."

For one reason or another, Holliday seemed to enjoy these little tiffs between the two officers, in fact, he positively adored them - it was hard to find a good debate in Starfleet these days, but Coleman never let him down. With a wry smile on his face, he winked to his subordinate and held off the urge to laugh.

"Hey, just looking out for you Grandma.... no need to kick off... at your age that's just bad manners."

Evelyn's head snapped towards him, eyeing him, wondering what has gotten into him. "You trying to make me break protocol?" She asked arching her brow, "because you are very close to with that 'grandma' remark." She looked looked away and then smirked, "You young whippersnappers have no respect for your elders."

"Those who are very young do not always do as they are told - right? Just wanted to make sure you hadn't lost that aggressive streak. Nice to have you back Miss Coleman."

"Jonathan, I just don't know what to do with you." She chuckled, shaking her head.

"That makes two of us Lieutenant." He chuckled as well, before realising that they had been paying very little attention to their Vorta guest for the past few moments, having been asking him only moments before to analyse their data.

"So... Amril... can it be done?"

"Oh, it's quite fascinating," Amril said, turning to them. "My facility worked with a similar technology. I suppose by now they might have developed it. The technology is sound, but the physics is not. I believe with some simple adjustments I can rectify the problem, if I have access to the right resources. Even a ship of this size should be able to generate enough power to sustain the necessary forces for a short period. Of course, I do have some concerns, Commander, I must admit..."

"Concerns?" The Commander replied, folding his arms and slightly cocking his head to one side as he waited for the inevitable Vorta reply, however diplomatic that may have ended up being.

"You see... I have very much enjoyed my solitude, the opportunity to learn about your people from the databanks. But it is not as good as real observation. After I..." he smiled disarmingly, "ah, assist you, perhaps we could arrange for me to have... normal civilian access?"

"That will be a matter for the Captain to decide... however... if you help us... I will make sure she gets my recommendation on the matter as soon as we get home... good enough for you?"

Evelyn looked between Amril and Holliday and resisted the urge to sigh. Turning toward Amril she spoke, "Amril, if you don't help us we'll all die that is the case. If you do help, as Holliday asks the Captain, you and I can discuss humanity and we can exchange observations." Evelyn offered.

"You are both commendably understanding," Amril said, "shall I get to work?"

[OFF]

Amril
Vorta Defector
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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