Dr. Robin Hopper: What We’re Made Of

[Rebecca Iko]

This sim by @Robin Hopper was an amazing blend of fun wit and serious worry. In 2442, Between the transporter room where Wil Ukinix sits, ripped straight from 2401, and sickbay, Hopper learns that her husband Nathan Richards has irumodic syndrome. As always, Keegan's writing wonderfully shows the nuanced character's thoughts and feelings on the whole matter, while she also tries to deal with what is right in front of her. There wasn't a certain part of this sim I could pick out, so you get the lot of it.

 

((Science Lab, Deck 14 – USS Glacier, en route to the Delta Quadrant - 2442))

 

Even after all the work she had put in to ensuring this plan would succeed, Robin was still somehow surprised that it had worked. Wil was there, in one piece, pulled from the exact moment in time that she’d calculated… Everyone seemed to be a little baffled by that, Wil not least of all. Even the computer seemed a little nonplussed, as he tried to get it to recognize his reappearance after forty years of recorded death.

 

There was a brief pause, a little tone that indicated the computer was trying to work out how to reconcile the information it had just been provided, and then a chirp.

 

Computer: Identity confirmed. Welcome aboard, Commander Ukinix.

 

Then another tone sounded; A little blurp-y alert.

 

Computer: Voice identification authorisation codes expired. Command codes expired. Bioscans expired. Limited access to ships systems granted for the next twenty-four hours. Please proceed to Starfleet Security and Starfleet Medical for re-authorisation.

 

Ukinix: Oh god, from First Officer on a diplomatic outpost to visitor on a starship. Great.

 

Robin watched as his gaze shifted from the computer terminal to her face.

 

R. Hopper: ::Shrug::  Don’t look at me. I haven’t been a Starfleet Commander in nearly twenty years… In fact, there are only a few people on this ship right now who would have the authority to verify your identity.  ::Tersely::  My daughter being one of them.

 

Ukinix: ::Raised eyebrows, slight shock:: Daughter? 

 

Keehani: Captain Alexis Hopper, of the USS Resilience.

 

Wil put his fingers on the sides of his temples and squinted his eyes.  oO Add that to the pile of explanations then, I guess… Oo  There were so many things to explain, so many events to fill him in on, it almost seemed like an impossibility. Not to mention figuring out how and when to break all the bad news to him – and there definitely was a lot of bad news from the past forty years.

 

Ukinix: Then let me speak with Captain-- Hopper, geez that sounds weird when it’s not Robin we’re talking about. And it sounds like I need to see medical and security to get my auths back, pronto.

 

Keehani: Wil Professor Jansen Orrey be sufficient?

 

Wil’s eyes snapped open at the mention of his old shipmate. Jansen had been hit particularly hard by the news of Wil’s death… Robin knew they had served together before, and been close. Putting them back in a room together was sure to be a memorable experience.

 

R. Hopper: I’ll get you some quarters sorted – goodness knows, we have more than enough spare rooms aboard right now… If you need space, fine, but whenever you’re ready to talk – now, in an hour, in a couple of days – I’ll keep myself available.

 

Ukinix: Oh, no, you’re comin’ with me. You brought me here, you don’t get out of this. I need to understand what you’re gonna do with me now that you’ve brought me here…

 

She nodded, a small smile coming to her face. Robin hadn’t wanted to overwhelm him anymore than was necessary – but the fact that he was already willing to hear her out was encouraging. 

 

He looked down at the PADD on the floor, picked it up, then shoved it into Robin’s hands.

 

Ukinix: ... and what you plan to do with me now that you have what you wanted.

 

Tucking the outdated slab under her arm, she crossed to the transporter terminal and collected her own PADD. Holding it out to Wil, in exchange for the one he had provided, she explained.

 

R. Hopper: A bit of light reading for you, when you feel up to it. This PADD contains a timeline of… relevant events. Things that have transpired over the past forty years that you ought to know. Some good. Most bad.

 

Ukinix: Okay, thanks... but I still want the most important parts explained to me. And I still need my clearances. If I’m not going to be a Starfleet officer, I’m not going to help. You got your PADD, and now I’m forty years out of my depth.

 

Keehani: Robin, leave the quarters to me. I am a Mother Perennial, I will be able to demand quarters for my cousin, right next to mine.

 

Before anyone could say anything, she spun on her heels, and walked out of the lab, the train of her long shiny dress following behind. Robin felt like she could breathe a little sigh of relief with Keehani out of the room – and if she had something to make her feel useful, then all the better.

 

Ukinix: That’s like looking into a mirror of that parallel universe Empress version of her.

 

R. Hopper: ::Amused huff::  If you think I haven’t made that comparison more than a few times…

 

She turned to look at him, surprised that, even after all this time, she felt comfortable being candid with him. It wasn’t how she’d imagined. He didn’t feel like a ghost out of her past at all. In fact, if anything, she felt a little revitalized in his presence – a bit like her old self again. 

 

R. Hopper: Alright, then your next stop is Sickbay.  ::Gesturing::  The turbolift is this way…

 

They passed into the hall, the doors sliding open gracefully. She watched, out of the corner of her eye, as he looked at the mundane technology around him with a fascination only an out-of-time Engineer could muster.

 

R. Hopper: I suggest you start in early 2402, as the Hirogen Civil War got into full swing. I’ve left out some of the gory details, but needless to say, your time as Amity’s First Officer might have been a fair bit shorter than mine – but it was a lot sweeter. I’ll need to swing by the bridge on our way… To ask a favour.

 

((OOC – Within the context of this Act, this is where the Ready Room scene with Robin, Alexis, and Nathan occurs, whilst Wil waits in/by the Turbolift reading his PADD…))

 

((A Little Later – Sickbay))

 

Robin’s breath was caught in her chest. Just a few minutes ago she had felt such relief. She had even begun to feel like herself again, a shred of unforced optimism peeking through the shroud of darkness that always lingered on the periphery. The “family meeting” she had just extricated herself from in the Ready Room had dashed that to pieces. 

 

oO Irumodic Syndrome… Oo  she clenched her jaw and tensed her face to keep her expression from giving away the bitter frustration she felt inside.

 

She glanced at Wil, fiddling with his old combadge, blissfully unaware of what it really felt like to watch those around you – everyone you cared about – wither and die. Whether at the hands of the Hirogen insurgency, the Lattice Alliance’s planetary bombardments, or just from the cruel unfeeling mercilessness of time. She couldn’t help but envy him a little. How sick was that? To envy a man who had missed out on forty years of history, just because of how miserably hopeless they had been… and continued to be.

 

The door behind them slid open. Robin bit the inside of her cheek, trying not to show how close to losing it she was in front of her stoic daughter.

 

A. Hopper: Response

 

Wil, perhaps instinctively sensing Alexis’ serious nature, snapped to attention before relaxing his stance somewhat as she approached.

 

Ukinix: Captain. Pleasure to meet you-- oh, I can see the resemblance! ::To Robin:: Wow, I can really see it. Proud mum, huh?

 

A. Hopper & R. Hopper: ::Simultaneously::  Don’t.

 

Robin’s eyes shifted to Alexis, meeting her equally-irritated glance, before she sighed and rolled her eyes.  ((OOC – I received permission from Alexis’ writer for the above!))

 

Ukinix: Ooh, awkies. ::changing subject:: So um, I need re-authorisation, because, you know... ::sideeye at Robin:: I’m forty years in the future.

 

A. Hopper: Response

 

Orrey: ::speaking up:: Forty years in the future you still can’t string a sentence together without ruffling a captain.

 

The elder physician stepped forward out of an offset section of the Sickbay. Robin had scarcely had time to say “hi” to him either, she’d been so busy and preoccupied with the temporal transporter. Now, seeing him properly, she could really see just what a toll time had taken on him as well. With no regard for Orrey’s elderly bones, Wil grabbed the old chap and gave him a big squeezing bear hug.

 

Ukinix: Mate you don’t look a day over forty years older than when I saw you yesterday.

 

Orrey: You are a liar and always have been. 

 

To Jansen’s credit, the old man hugged his friend back with near-equal fervor.

 

Orrey: Brother, have I missed you.

 

R. Hopper: ::Clearing her throat::  Gentlemen…

 

A. Hopper: Response

 

Breaking from the amicable embrace, Jansen set the tip of his cane on the floor again and relaxed his weight into it, turning his attention away from Wil long enough to take in Robin and her blonde doppleganger (at least, according to Wil’s reaction).

 

Orrey: Alexis. You didn’t come by for tea when you were at Command last don’t think I didn’t know. 

 

A. Hopper: Response?

 

The doctor gestured for Wil to take to the biobed as he shuffled around the room, closer to Robin.

 

Orrey: And Robin you still owe me that Okinawan sweet potato coding for replicators at the Academy. ::glancing at Wil:: They work faster but ingredients still should be locally sourced.

 

R. Hopper: Actually, I came prepared, Doctor.

 

She reached into the pocket of her long coat and pulled out a small data module for Orrey, placing it in the old man’s hand.

 

R. Hopper: A properly-curated replicator beni imo – along with fourteen preparations from the local restauranteurs… Though, you know it’s actually an American root vegetable, don’t you, Jansen?

 

She was sure he knew. Of all the old folks from Amity, the Professor was one of the few who Robin had maintained semi-regular communication with. Granted, they typically came in the form of these ‘recipe challenges’, but it was still good to have someone yank her out of her proverbial shell now and then. At least her counselor seemed to think so.

 

R. Hopper: ::Clearing her throat::  Wil is here for his annual physical. Forty years worth of them. Given his temporal displacement, you can probably forego the thirty-or-so prostate exams he’s owed.

 

Ukinix: Response.

 

Orrey pressed the panel on the wall and all eyes shifted to the display as it shone into existence – a holographic display providing a breakdown of Wil’s key health metrics, including the genetic readouts from the temporal transporter’s signal buffer. Everything looked alright.

 

Orrey: Well you didn’t reverse anything on the trip here..that’s good..Still going to look deeper.

 

R. Hopper: Were you concerned a pregnant salamander would pop out onto the transporter pad, Doctor? We were very careful – and I’ll add that Commander Moonsong-Orrey, Lieutenant Monroe, and Sam Richards were all integral to successfully carrying out the transport.

 

She eyed Jansen, as well as Alexis briefly. Despite her misgivings about Starfleet and the way it seemed to inevitably break everyone who wore the uniform, she couldn’t deny that it also had a proven track record of producing capable officers – nor could she pretend that seeing her daughter in Command Red didn’t elicit some degree of pride in her. She remained convinced that Alexis was following this path for the wrong reasons, and that it would eventually hurt her daughter in the same way it had hurt her, but Captaincy did suit her.

 

oO I wonder if she’s inherited irumodic syndrome…? Oo  The thought intruded on Robin’s thoughts uninvited, and she immediately felt her throat tighten with anxiety. When she and Nathan had learned they were having a child, she had been in such a tizzy. They had run all sorts of common tests, and she’d been oh-so-careful to ensure that Alexis wouldn’t carry her own prothrombin gene mutation that led to her blood-clotting disorder and her lost limb… The thought of screening for something as rare as irumodic had never occurred to them and now that Alexis was an adult, if she did carry the gene, there was nothing that could be done about it.

 

Fortunately, the only ‘mind-reader’ in the room was Wil, and he was more of a ‘vibe-reader’ than a true telepath… and the vibes were always bad these days. Anyways, the conversation continued.

 

A. Hopper/Orrey/Ukinix: Response

 

R. Hopper: We detected no cellular degradation in the transporter bay – and we managed to contain and disperse the chroniton particulates and tachyon radiation safely. Jansen, are there any other health concerns we should be worried about…?

 

She shifted, a little nervously, finding it hard not to suddenly push this all aside like it didn’t matter and start picking the Doctor’s brain about Peridaxon treatments and the project health outcomes for irumodic.  oO God, of all the times to tell me, Nathan… Oo 

 

A. Hopper/Orrey/Ukinix: Response

 

R. Hopper: So, we can confirm that this is the same Wil that was alive in 2401 and, given that he was in good standing with Starfleet Command on the date of his apparent death, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be eligible for reinstatement… At least, provisional reinstatement while he gets ‘caught up’.  ::To Alexis::  Commander Hopper – what is your assessment?

 

If Alexis was as stalwart a commanding officer as she seemed, then Robin thought she’d at least give Wil a fair shake.

 

A. Hopper/Orrey/Ukinix: Response

 

TBC

 

 

==

Dr. Robin Hopper (Retired Commander)

Classified Temporal Research Lead,

Daystrom Institute

Character Wiki Page

V239806K11