A Truth Divided - The Fate of Many
by Lieutenant Jasmine Daisuki
Post Details
Jana took stock in what was at her disposal, for now she had dealt her hand in with that of the Federation on the thin thread of hope they would hold true to their word and grant her asylum… that they would even live to keep that word. She had enough raw materials to make the cure and she had Herrod’s own personal craft to deliver it into the atmosphere. She had a database of biotech that was her own work and that of others who disapproved with what the Commander had done and forced them to do. But that…was it.
Her theft and the combined events of his capture had initiated the war that raged on the surface in one last feeble attempt to wipe out the rebel faction and have something left to salvage and hand over to the Commander when he arrived in system from the slipstream. Here at the bottom of the sea in a place she had built herself for emergencies, disposing of the engineers afterwards, she watched as the batches of the cure brewed themselves in canisters. The high volcanic activity would ruin any scans to detect her for now, but she had to act fast. Once she had the cure she needed to get it airborn as soon as she could and then rendezvous with the Vulcan and his people. She would have no way to know whether they would be able to get their shuttle working, but for their sakes she hoped so. None of them could afford to be on this miserable world when the Commander arrived, least of all her as well.
There was a small part of her that wanted to rescue her fellow scientists, but she knew better; they all knew better. It was everyone for themselves when it came to escaping the Commander and the Others. To risk getting caught was unacceptable and they had all agreed at one point in time to share each other’s work and that one day when the opportunity presented itself, escape and see the truth revealed. Unsung heroes was a term she had learned from the Dornian’s and that was what they were. She played dumb to most people, especially Herrod, but she knew the truth behind why they were in the place they were. There was no way to conceal the fact that without the stone, they couldn’t reproduce. Instead of working with the Others, they had stolen it and now they were the hunted ones. A lot of work went into trying to figure out what it was that the stone did, but it was beyond the realm of the science they knew. The Others wouldn’t stop until they got it back… that was several thousand years ago.
The Others had the advantage of being more advanced as they had a much larger population focused on science. Her faction was a rebel one that thought they deserved to be in charge. Instead of working on advancing their race, her faction made weapons of war. Now they paid the price of that choice as the hunt was coming to an end soon. With the failure of the Dornia project, the Others would be upon them soon and they wouldn’t be able to repel them. It only made sense to her to throw in her lot with the Federation, a force which she thought capable of doing just that.
As the minutes trickled into hours she picked up a small black orb and pressed the combination to unlock it, the sphere splitting in half to reveal a pale blue glowing stone that pulsed with a warm life. She was torn in what to do with it, for on one hand she didn’t wish her faction ill but this was not theirs to have. She should return it to the Others but in doing so she would condemn her people to a slow death. Herrod would explode if he knew she had it, but no one had changed the code from when she had studied it years ago and so it was easy enough to grab on her way out. The Commander had disagreed with them having it, but the farthest advanced force should be the one to carry it away from the Others and that was them.
And now it was her and her alone that would decide the fate of thousands, and the thought was a slightly sobering one. She had done some harsh things in her life, things she was not proud of, but this dwarfed any of those by far. It was way too late in the game to try and study the stone to solve both faction’s problems, though there was a minor hope in the Federation being advanced enough to be able to figure it out. She didn’t consider herself a bad person, though most Dornians might see her as such… she just did what she had to to survive.
She didn’t blame the Others for chasing them to known ends of the galaxy to retrieve the stone either, for their numbers were thinning as well by now. They were doing what they had to as well, and that only left her own faction which was caught being the bad guy, paying for their own crime. And while it was also a version of doing what they had to to survive, it was brought about by their own actions and not those of others or circumstance. Jana closed the orb back up and placed it in the ship for safe keeping, she had the cure to work on and would figure out what to do with it later. This sort of decision shouldn’t be made on the fly anyways.
The rest of the time became used to rip out any of the tracking devices she could find, as well as boost all the shielding to maximum and affix the dispersion nozzle to the outside of the hull. She was no mechanic, but it hadn’t been too hard to convert one of the aft laserbeam units to suit her purpose. The entire tank assembly would be outside on the hull as well, so if she had to go into space there were no integrity issues.
Finally time had run out and she had to launch with as much of the cure as she had made, the entire surface world enganged in a bloody war and the Commander close enough by estimates to show up any time. There would be no returning, so she set her hidden base to self destruct after she was airborn. The next few hours were hectic then as she began her dispersal and fought off the airships Herrod sent after her. He was forced to use Dornian craft and that was probably the only thing that saved her and allowed her to finally arrive at the shuttle after all of the agent was airborn and beginning to reverse the virus she had helped engineer.
The Federation had not managed to fix their craft and several of the rebels with them died trying to defend the others while they all piled onto Jana's ship to try and escape the planet and evade the Commander. There was nothing her ship could do on the surface and Jana was fairly certain that the Commander would simply bomb the planet when it was discovered she was on it and she had the stone.
Timing was everything, and it was proving to be bad as the Commander chose that moment to appear out of the slipstream with an escort. Herrod wasted no time in implicating her and soon enough she was forced to try and fend off the escorts in the hopes that they could live long enough for the Federatioin ship to arrive, something which the female Captain had said was imminent by her calculations. Whatever discussion had happened between the Vulcan and the Captain, she was not privy to, but the woman accepted the Vulcan's offer of asylum and that was all she needed for now.
by Lieutenant Jasmine Daisuki
Post Details
| Title | The Fate of Many | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Jasmine Daisuki | |
| Posted | Sat Jun 27, 2009 @ 7:43pm | |
| Location | ON: Dornia Prime - Hidden Base |
Her theft and the combined events of his capture had initiated the war that raged on the surface in one last feeble attempt to wipe out the rebel faction and have something left to salvage and hand over to the Commander when he arrived in system from the slipstream. Here at the bottom of the sea in a place she had built herself for emergencies, disposing of the engineers afterwards, she watched as the batches of the cure brewed themselves in canisters. The high volcanic activity would ruin any scans to detect her for now, but she had to act fast. Once she had the cure she needed to get it airborn as soon as she could and then rendezvous with the Vulcan and his people. She would have no way to know whether they would be able to get their shuttle working, but for their sakes she hoped so. None of them could afford to be on this miserable world when the Commander arrived, least of all her as well.
There was a small part of her that wanted to rescue her fellow scientists, but she knew better; they all knew better. It was everyone for themselves when it came to escaping the Commander and the Others. To risk getting caught was unacceptable and they had all agreed at one point in time to share each other’s work and that one day when the opportunity presented itself, escape and see the truth revealed. Unsung heroes was a term she had learned from the Dornian’s and that was what they were. She played dumb to most people, especially Herrod, but she knew the truth behind why they were in the place they were. There was no way to conceal the fact that without the stone, they couldn’t reproduce. Instead of working with the Others, they had stolen it and now they were the hunted ones. A lot of work went into trying to figure out what it was that the stone did, but it was beyond the realm of the science they knew. The Others wouldn’t stop until they got it back… that was several thousand years ago.
The Others had the advantage of being more advanced as they had a much larger population focused on science. Her faction was a rebel one that thought they deserved to be in charge. Instead of working on advancing their race, her faction made weapons of war. Now they paid the price of that choice as the hunt was coming to an end soon. With the failure of the Dornia project, the Others would be upon them soon and they wouldn’t be able to repel them. It only made sense to her to throw in her lot with the Federation, a force which she thought capable of doing just that.
As the minutes trickled into hours she picked up a small black orb and pressed the combination to unlock it, the sphere splitting in half to reveal a pale blue glowing stone that pulsed with a warm life. She was torn in what to do with it, for on one hand she didn’t wish her faction ill but this was not theirs to have. She should return it to the Others but in doing so she would condemn her people to a slow death. Herrod would explode if he knew she had it, but no one had changed the code from when she had studied it years ago and so it was easy enough to grab on her way out. The Commander had disagreed with them having it, but the farthest advanced force should be the one to carry it away from the Others and that was them.
And now it was her and her alone that would decide the fate of thousands, and the thought was a slightly sobering one. She had done some harsh things in her life, things she was not proud of, but this dwarfed any of those by far. It was way too late in the game to try and study the stone to solve both faction’s problems, though there was a minor hope in the Federation being advanced enough to be able to figure it out. She didn’t consider herself a bad person, though most Dornians might see her as such… she just did what she had to to survive.
She didn’t blame the Others for chasing them to known ends of the galaxy to retrieve the stone either, for their numbers were thinning as well by now. They were doing what they had to as well, and that only left her own faction which was caught being the bad guy, paying for their own crime. And while it was also a version of doing what they had to to survive, it was brought about by their own actions and not those of others or circumstance. Jana closed the orb back up and placed it in the ship for safe keeping, she had the cure to work on and would figure out what to do with it later. This sort of decision shouldn’t be made on the fly anyways.
The rest of the time became used to rip out any of the tracking devices she could find, as well as boost all the shielding to maximum and affix the dispersion nozzle to the outside of the hull. She was no mechanic, but it hadn’t been too hard to convert one of the aft laserbeam units to suit her purpose. The entire tank assembly would be outside on the hull as well, so if she had to go into space there were no integrity issues.
Finally time had run out and she had to launch with as much of the cure as she had made, the entire surface world enganged in a bloody war and the Commander close enough by estimates to show up any time. There would be no returning, so she set her hidden base to self destruct after she was airborn. The next few hours were hectic then as she began her dispersal and fought off the airships Herrod sent after her. He was forced to use Dornian craft and that was probably the only thing that saved her and allowed her to finally arrive at the shuttle after all of the agent was airborn and beginning to reverse the virus she had helped engineer.
The Federation had not managed to fix their craft and several of the rebels with them died trying to defend the others while they all piled onto Jana's ship to try and escape the planet and evade the Commander. There was nothing her ship could do on the surface and Jana was fairly certain that the Commander would simply bomb the planet when it was discovered she was on it and she had the stone.
Timing was everything, and it was proving to be bad as the Commander chose that moment to appear out of the slipstream with an escort. Herrod wasted no time in implicating her and soon enough she was forced to try and fend off the escorts in the hopes that they could live long enough for the Federatioin ship to arrive, something which the female Captain had said was imminent by her calculations. Whatever discussion had happened between the Vulcan and the Captain, she was not privy to, but the woman accepted the Vulcan's offer of asylum and that was all she needed for now.