PNPC Rol'Q - A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the Ship While the Truth Is Putting on Its Shoes

[Jalana]

((Juliet's sim of Rol'Q one of the kids on board captures well how the ship at the edge of the Federation is dealing with the news from Earth, that reached them delayed. To them the conflict is still going on, because they only hear about it through the news))

 

((Corridor - Deck 13, USS Constitution-B))

 

Rol’Q had been in the arboretum with his uncle when the attack happened. All the red alert lights when on, which was normal. The sirens really hurt his ears, but he was getting used to those alert noises from living on a starship. So he kept working on his science project about plants. Then the ship started shaking. Something exploded. Rol’Q fell into the little pond in the middle of the arboretum. It was something they’d always talked about, that the ship might be attacked while he was living there. But he hadn’t been afraid. He was a Klingon! He wasn’t going to be afraid of battle.

 

And that was wrong. He hated the ship shaking. He was scared. He told Uncle Savok that he wanted to go somewhere else. But Savok was busy helping someone who got hurt and yelled at him to be quiet and stay put. Well, not yell. But raise his voice, how Vulcans yelled. Rol’Q had wanted to go somewhere else, somewhere where the ship wouldn’t get hit and shake as bad. So he’d slipped out of the arboretum and asked the computer to take him to a safe place. But that just took him to the security center. Rol’Q had been gone for a while now. His uncle (and probably his aunt too) would be looking for him and would be really mad that he’d run away in the middle of a battle.

 

Rather than go back right away and get in trouble he’d been exploring the ship a bit. He never got to do that. Nobody ever told him that the Conny was so big! But exploring didn’t feel as great as he thought it would. Maybe it was just the battle. But everybody seemed so unhappy and scared. People had been whispering to each other and talking about something bad that happened on Earth. Most of them were so worried about whatever was going on that they didn’t even notice him looking around.

 

He had thought that maybe he would see Sarek through the little windows in the corridor looking into the Sitach- whatever they called the dolphin labs and that might cheer him up. But no. Not even the ship’s smartest dolphin could cheer him up today. As he passed by the door to one of the dolphin rooms, two Starfleet officers were arguing about something while working on repairing something.

 

Aleskee: President Chekov was all about standing strong. He’ll see us through it.

 

Moya: You see that snippet of telemetry they keep playing on the FNS? I wouldn’t be surprised if the president was vaporized or has already been turned into a Borg himself.

 

The President? He kept hearing people talk about some big event on Earth. He was going to watch it with Aunt Ana later. But the President was on Earth. They’d just talked about the President and the capital on Earth and how that was the biggest person in charge of the Federation in school. He was going to give a speech they would all see for Frontier Day.

 

Scarier was the idea of the Borg. He knew about the Borg. They were so scary even the kids on Vulcan didn’t like to talk about them. What were they doing on Earth? He thought about that as he continued wandering down the hall. He passed a different lab, where a Bolian woman was comforting a crying Human guy in what looked like the science lab gear Savok wore while working in the lab.

 

Licasin: There there.

 

Nerayo: My first ship was the Excelsior. A good one. Good people! They can’t just be gone.

 

Licasin: Ayene, I’m sorry. But I can’t deny what that looked like.

 

A ship was gone? Like destroyed? Near the shuttlebay, he saw two engineers so focused on replacing a wall monitor they didn’t notice him. One of them was going on some crazy rant about the Borg and a whole bunch of other stuff.

 

Nichols: No way the Borg just waltz into Sector 001 and take our entire fleet over. It’s gotta be an inside job. Another admiral gone mad making some kind of crazy power play. Not to mention the Tholians are clearly in on it. I heard Davis say that he heard one of the engineers say that was definitely a Tholian web. I’m telling you, it’s all connected!

 

The other guy didn’t seem to like what his friend was saying. Rol’Q still wasn’t sure what everyone was talking about. Nobody was explaining it how he could understand it. Everywhere he had gone, people were talking about something bad. But since everybody already knew about it, they said things like “attack” or “what’s happening at Earth”. Or people were just staring at their PADDs looking sad and not really talking. Nobody ever told him and the other kids anything about what the ship was doing. But it seemed even worse now. It felt like everybody on the whole stupid ship knew what was happening but him.

 

He heard three people talking inside a crew lounge. Something about an attack. Curious if he could finally hear what happened, he snuck up to the door frame and listened through the open door.

 

Jeni: I don’t want to be a pessimist, but if the fleet’s been assimilated everyone on Earth is as good as dead.

 

Rol’Q’s eyes widened and he peeked into the room. A Bajoran woman in red, a Vulcan man in blue, and an Andoria in gold with their back to him were all talking. He quickly leaned back behind the doorframe and thought about what he’d just heard.

 

Rol’Q: oO Everyone’s dead?! That’s close to home. What about Vulcan? Oo

 

Vulcan was a boring planet. Nobody there knew how to have fun. But he still liked the people there. His teachers and the people around town, and especially his grandparents. He really didn’t want them to be dead.

 

Sylok: That’s an exaggeration. We know there’s been scattered reports of violence but the only confirmed casualties seem to be the Excelsior.

 

Zh'Rha: There’s planetary defenses, the spacedock, any ships that didn’t get assimilated. They’ll pull through. Figure out a way to get-

 

The Bajoran interrupted her.

 

Jeni: We saw the same broadcast, right? That fleet of ships looming over Earth in perfect formation?

 

Sylok: They were demonstrating Fleet Formation Mode.

 

Jeni: And then they BLEW UP another Starfleet ship!

 

Starfleet blew up another Starfleet ship? That didn’t sound possible. Maybe Klingons would do that if another Klingon ship was behaving dishonorably. His dad had told him about the Klingon civil wars. But Starfleet didn’t do that. They were about stunning people and following rules. She had to be wrong about that.

 

Zh'Rha: …we’re not saying it isn’t bad, but you have no idea what they plan to do next. Maybe they want something somewhere else in the Federation and this just keeps the majority of the fleet bottled up.

 

Jeni: Yeah, right, the Borg have a phaser to the head of the Federation but its just a distraction. Earth. Is. Doomed.

 

Between each of those last three words she slammed her hand on the table to add to the point.

 

Sylok: Not every ship is at the Frontier Day celebration. There are many like the Constitution that could mount a rescue if Starfleet feels it is a sound strategy.

 

Jeni: It’s still a massive fleet. And you all should both be more concerned, because this is gonna take down all of your homeworlds.

 

Sylok: That is quite the leap in logic.

 

Zh'Rha: I’m sure the top brass are reaching out to everyone to formulate a plan to battle the fleet if it comes to that.

 

Rol’Q smiled a bit, agreeing with her on that. That’s what always happened. Whether it was the Borg or the Dominion or something else entirely the good guys would fly in and save the day. It was how things worked in Starfleet. The people on the Conny always saved the day. At least according to his aunt.

 

Jeni: And how long is that gonna take? You think we can just gather up what’s left our fleet, the Klingons, anyone else we can get in on this fight like that? Once the fleet gets through Earth’s planetary defenses and gets done turning Earth to glass ::Pointing to the Vulcan crewman:: Vulcan is gone. ::Pointing to the Andorian chief:: Your homeworld is go-

 

He got a bit worried when she talked about Vulcan getting destroyed too. Her predictions were interrupted by the sound of a chair quickly scraping across the floor from someone standing up very fast. The Andorian lady sounded very angry.

 

Zh'Rha: Look, you better stop all this doomsday stuff right now or I swear I will-

 

Curious, he peeked around the door to see what was going on. The Andorian woman had stood up and looked like she was about to jump across the table while the Vulcan man in the science uniform held an arm out. Rol’Q thought the Vulcan might have seen him and hurriedly ducked back out of sight while continuing to listen.

 

Sylok: Everyone calm down. There’s no need for a fight in h… ::He trailed off, having seen something.::

 

Uh-oh, he wasn’t fast enough. He’d been caught spying on a grown up conversation.

 

Zh’Rha: What’s wrong?

 

Sylok: I thought I saw…

 

Rol’Q didn’t stick around to hear the rest of it. He ran off further down the hall. He had hoped that hearing them talk would help him understand what was going on. But now he only had more questions. Was Earth okay? What about Vulcan? He ducked into a supply closet and sat down on the floor to think. Maybe he should go back to their quarters or to sickbay and just get yelled at for running away. He was going to get in trouble for it eventually. Right now all he really wanted was to know that everything was going to be okay.

 

Everything was going to be okay, right?

 

 

Rol’Q, Son of Kolrriq

Civilian

USS Constitution-B

 

===as simmed by===

 

Lieutenant Commander Laria Herren

Mission Specialist/Second Officer

USS Constitution-B

A239402AG0