RP Log: What Was That About?
| Roleplay Log | |
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| Participants: | |
Location(s):
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Stardate:
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| 2022-09-05 10:26 | |
- Chief Engineer's Office <USS Sao Paulo NCC-122004>
- This dedicated office is large and designed to meet the needs of the officer and billet assigned to it. The carpet is steel-blue with navy-blue trim, with the bulkheads, walls, and furniture in a subdued pewter colour. The room is bathed in a soft glow from the overhead lighting panels, and a glossy black panel set into the bulkhead opposite the door provides access to an LCARS interface. A sizeable desk is positioned in the center of the room, with a tall backed swivel chair behind it. A display curves out of the desk with a touchpad set into the desk at its base, and on the opposite end is a tall, built-in lamp. In front of the desk are two mid-sized chairs, and two workstations are built into the bulkheads on either side of the room in small cubicles.
LePage walks into the office, away from the relative din of Main Engineering and the Bridge. It's quiet enough to hear a pin drop as he takes a seat and gestures for her to take one as well.
Hauser sits down in the offered chair. She looks at the chief, but still doesn't say anything.
LePage gets settled and regards her across the desk for a long moment. "I'm not ignoring the need to work on this issue... but that can wait for a second. Are you okay?" he asks firmly, but with a tone of compassion.
Hauser nods. "I'm fine, sir," she offers back.
"Are you?" LePage counters. "You went from chatting up Commander Coil to looking like you'd been phasered in about ten seconds"
She studies the floor, then first one workstation, then the other. Finally, she looks at you. "What was he talking about? What mission? What future?"
LePage seems to chew on the inside of his cheek and sigh. "You should know I suppose, it's all in archives somewhere anyhow. When we were in the Delta, we came across a structure, it was some sort of temporal gateway. Stepping through it took us to what appeared to be an apparent future"
"That one doesn't show up in the Phoenix's released archives," she says. "Not everything does."
"Yeah, I guess it doesn't surprise me things like that might've gotten redacted. Probably by the temporal commission" LePage replies. "You know about the Humanist movement, yes?"
Hauser slumps in the chair. "You know who I am, and you have to ask me that?" Then she pauses. "Or, maybe you don't know who I am. What's your name, anyway, sir? I didn't catch it."
"I know who you are... Your dad talked about you a lot" LePage chuckles, a little grimly. "My name is Gordon LePage. You might have some knowledge of who I am by the name of Bonk"
She frowns, pulled momentarily onto a new mental track. "Wait, you're that guy? Almost ruptured a dining room window with a bunch of brass inside?" She chuckles in spite of herself. "I heard that story, yeah."
"Yeah. I'm the guy. I was your dad's guy for a couple months. If it wasn't for him, might not have gotten into the Fleet when I did" LePage says. "But yeah, I asked you that because I know who you are, but I don't know what you know. I'm sorry if that's blunt of me"
Hauser twirls a lock of hair around her finger. "I was ..." She sighs. "I was on Spacedock when the humanists attacked. I heard some of ... some of dad's transmissions. That's when I had to believe it. That what people were saying about him was really true. That he had turned into that."
"I know... I know" LePage nods, his tone belying that the realization was a shared experience between the two of them. "But when we stepped through this gate and were sent to the future, it was one where... Admiral Hauser had more or less managed to infiltrate all of Starfleet with Humanist agents. Phoenix was one of the last bastions for honest officers. Long story short, he showed up in a pretty big ship and rammed his way through Phoenix, destroying it with us onboard" LePage shutters hard, that memory clearly VERY unpleasant. "Then we woke up like we never left, outside the gate"
For a couple of minutes, Hauser appears to process that. "He wasn't always like that," she says finally. "I don't know why he became so ... fixated. Once upon a time, he just wanted to build new ships and show me how ... how things ran." She wipes at one eye. "Then he started worrying about the future of the Federation. I don't know all of it. But it slid downhill from there."
LePage sighs. "You and me both. My parents, they were uh... well, similarly minded. Not even the Federation, but Earth first. Just wondered why the hell we had to do all the heavy lifting for colonies they'd never even been to"
Hauser nods. "He started worrying about the Federation's security. And talking about how humanity played a central role in the Federation in the past and now. But that doesn't mean it had to go ... that far."
"Yeah... Yeah" LePage nods. It's clear that he's already regarding Hauser differently, but not giving her the same look as most people. If nothing else, he seems extremely sympathetic. "You deserve to know. I'm no councilor, by any means but I understand where you're coming from..."
Hauser nods. "Thanks, sir. I ... I better find quarters and bunk down. If that's ok? I'll report to wherever you like in the morning."
"Yeah. You do that. Meet me in here next cycle after you've checked in with Medical, then we can talk about your billet. Sound good?" LePage asks.
Hauser nods and stands. She finds a smile for the lieutenant, a small one. "Sounds like it'll run, sir. See you then." She heads out.