Re: Day 33 [1400 hrs.] Spooks Should Be Spooky, Damn It
Reply #29 –
Lt. JG Dantius Thi Anh-Le | Leaving the mess hall | Deck 13 | USS Theurgy | Attn: @Griff
Anh-Le shook her head. "So they probably have access to memories. That's almost worse than a Changeling. Deck 11." She grimaced at the thought. "You say the infected doctor...bedded half the crew? Is that literal or a figure of speech?" Probably the latter, but in Starfleet it paid to make sure. Sometimes, 'alien god-thing with a mariachi band and scantily-clad women on the Bridge' meant exactly that.
I swear, if they didn't have video evidence I wouldn't believe a word of some of those Enterprise logs...
Anh-Le admired the Romulan's ear as the blonde brushed her hair back, then her hearing caught up with the rest of her. "Yeah, my thoughts exactly. The real problem, though, is that we know so little about them. We don't know how they think, how their bodies work, how they infect other people, heck, we barely have an idea of what they might possibly want, and even that makes no sense because it boils down to 'they're evil'. We know nothing about their society, what little we have of their ideology is dubious at best--frankly, I suspect that most of the intel we have on them is bogus to some degree.
We don't know for sure how long they've been active, but they've had elements of the Fleet suborned for at least half a decade, probably longer--they could've infiltrated the Founders and started the Dominion War, too, and we may never even know." Anh-Le paused for breath, shuddering at the thought of just how deep in the shit the Federation--and by extension, Anh-Le herself--was in. We don't even know how they nab people. They could nab right here and make me do whatever, and there'd be nothing anyone could do to stop it. They could nab me and make me watch as they use my body like a meat suit! That thought chilled her to the bone.
"Our society's entire point is bringing people together, it's something we're damn good at. But we deal with hard, flesh-and-blood reality, the pain and rage of real people who've been fucked over, by bridging the gap and communicating with people we can see and touch and relate to on a fundamental level, not these...I don't even have the words to describe them. Normally, when we encounter something like this, the Q or the Metrons or the Organians or some other alien god-things show up, smack us around a bit, and we have to prove that we are not, in fact, godawful people when push comes to shove. I don't know why the Q haven't intervened in something that's clearly their wheelhouse, and I'm starting to think that we might not be able to win.
"And this is my third day on the job," Anh-Le concluded with a rictus grin. "I think I'm doing alright, all things considered. Want to talk about something less existentially depressing?"