Smart Guns

Posted on Fri Jun 17th, 2022 @ 12:10pm by Lieutenant JG Melissa Jones & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar

Mission: In-Between (S1:E2-S1:E3)
Location: USS Vengeance
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 0900
1733 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Rhen entered engineering with both his robots behind him holding a PADD he rarely came to engineering cause he kept busy in his armory looking after the ship's arms and equipment. This was his first time in the main engineering so he needed directions he noticed an Orion nearby. "Excuse me," He said as he walked up to her looking at his PADD. "Where can I find, Lieutenant Jones?" He asked politely.

Revana looked over from the console where she was standing and gestured politely in the direction of the Chief Engineer. She said nothing however, preferring to keep her mind on what she was finishing. She wasn't technically on duty during Alpha Shift, so she was only in Engineering temporarily.

Melissa was in her office with an underperforming crewmember. "You have been in multiple places that were not assigned to your maintenance detail for the past few days. You will tell me why there are such diversions in your maintenance schedule."

"Apologies, Lieutenant. I've had to take care of multiple EPS overloads over the past few..."

"I have not noticed any abnormalities in the EPS system. I am linked to the Vengeance. I know when there are abnormalities. You will tell me why you deviated."

"Lieutenant forgive me I.... " The crewmember started screaming inside Melissa's office.

"This situation is entirely avoidable. All you have to do is stop lying to me and the pain will stop. But perhaps an agonizer is not motivating enough. Melissa grabbed his arm as he as groveling and snapped it several times.

"Alright.. I've been sabotaging this ship's systems!! You Terrans are a plight upon us.. Especially you.. robot bitch."

"The Captain will decide your fate." Melissa noted.

Rhen hearing screaming didn't wait for the Orion to reply someone seemed hurt and he felt a need to go help. He ran past her and another crewman towards the noise barging into Melissa's office. "What is going on?!" He shouted before seeing the Chief Engineer standing over a crying crewman. "Chief, what happened?"

"No need to concern yourself with this. I am simply teaching my subordinate why it's a bad idea to trifle with me. Now then chief. What other sabotage did you do?

Rhen cleared his throat a little. "Uh, Chief, before you go on disciplining further may I inquire about armory item 245R?"

Melissa looked at Rhen. "My Repeating Phaser Rifle? What of it? It's a standard tripod-mounted Marine Repeater. I simply have the upper body strength to handle such a weapon."

"You failed to return the repeater, Chief, I am here to collect it for due maintenance and storage." Rhen motioned for his two DOT-7s to come in behind him. "I can have my robots collect it and we will be out of your way while dealing with that," He jabbed a thumb at the whimpering crewman on the floor.

"You will take appropriate care of my repeater. I am quite fond of that weapon, and it needs notches four approximately twenty-three Ocampa that I riddled with holes in the last mission." Melissa mentioned.

As his Robots collected the repeater and began to carry it out Rhen nodded before stopping and turning back to face the Engineer. "Lieutenant, before I leave I want to offer you a proposal."

The Crewman drew a knife and charged Rhen. He was grabbed from behind and tossed like a ragdoll against a bulkhead. "Ensign Nazar.. Please send Crewman Harris to sickbay. I want him back pristine condition so I can continue disciplining him. Since we are cut off from the Empire, we cannot afford to lose his skills."

Nazar looked at her boss, her eyes wide with surprise again. Working for this woman had so far been the most interesting part of her short Starfleet Career. She'd never gotten on her bad side so far, but she noticed Lieutenant Jones preferred to deal with problems in a very mechanical way. She whistled for the strongest engineers she could find to take hold of the enlisted on both sides and go with her to Sickbay.

"You were saying Ensign? Something about a proposal?"

Rhen fixed his collar on his uniform thinking how lucky he was Melissa saved his bacon. "Yes, I was just going to inform you I am currently working on redesigning all of our weapons aesthetics I have a design for the repeater that would reduce the weight by replacing most of it with a carbon fiber and polymer material."

"I can lift a significant amount of weight Ensign. Perhaps a repeater designed specifically to my unique capabilities. I am quite interested in upgrades to my own capabilities." Melissa noted. "Done properly, such a redesign would increase our chances of survival in this quadrant.

"I have factored in your capabilities actually that is what I do your best bet is weight reduction for faster reaction time and," Rhen pulled out a PADD of a list he compiled. "I made a list for you to review."

"Fascinating... You are quite efficient, Ensign." Melissa noted with a slight admiration in her voice. "Survival this far from Terra will require perfection. You seem to understand this."

"Fighting for survival in a gladiator arena for three years does wonders." Rhen replied. "You learn to be perfect or die."

"It seems we've both fought in this Empire for our right, Ensign." Melissa noted. "I had to learn to survive, but not in the same way you did. If I did not, I would have been dissected into specimen containers years ago."

"Why would they do such a thing to you?" Rhen asked. "Was it punishment?"

Melissa spoke. "My parents were true masters in the field of Cybernetics." She noted. "It's not just impants, They created bio-technological cybernetics that fuse all the strengths of standard cybernetics and none of the weaknesses. However, My parents did not view me as a daughter. I was Unit 09 Revision A" Melissa noted. "They did not believe Cyborgs deserved parents.. humanity.. love as you humans call it. I was to be the first for their bid to grab power in the Empire.. I made sure one day that they couldn't make more of me than my past eight brother's and sisters... Which they murdered to finally make me."

"Your own parents?" Rhen crossed his arms clearly disturbed what he heard.

"The Empire found me, and immediately began studying me. I went from parents who did not love their daughter, to Scientists that were fascinated too much by me. Coveting my secrets. They learned how to slave my primare bioprocessor to command codes. So that I would follow every order, and be eternally loyal to the Empire." Melissa noted. "And so I am loyal to the Commanding Officer of this ship, whoever that might be. If Captain Petrov suddenly commanded me to kill you.. I would obey." Melissa noted. "And if someone with those codes commanded me to have sexual inercourse with them.. I will obey.. But I was not designed for procreation." Melissa noted. "My reproductive organs were removed to make room for additional enhancements."

Rhen took a seat not sure how to process what he heard. "I suppose you don't wish to hear my sob story especially if odds are you are going to kill me cause someone orders you to."

"You asked, But to be fair. What is your story." Melissa noted.

"My Dad ran a salvage business growing up I learned how to fix things or even make them better. But I didn't want to be just some salvager I wanted more. So I built my own gym out of junk and started bodybuilding at first. But I got noticed was asked to join the Betazoid Olympic weightlifting team and I was good at it but then again compared to Pekleds you are always good at things. But I mean I was really good I won medals and was a celebrity on Betazed." Rhen leaned back crossing his large arms while recalling his past experiences.

"Adversity breeds strength, Ensign. Continue."

"Anyway, I met my wife and things was great until we came across a couple of drunk assholes who tried to rape her. I sent them both to the hospital but low and behold one was the brother in law of the Emperor. My wife and I were arrested, tried, and sentenced to three years in the gladiator arenas. They forced me to fight for my life everyday and they made her a whore forcing her to sleep with other men. Once our punishment was done and I was alive still. We was broke and homeless so we joined Starfleet," Rhen paused shaking his head focusing on Melissa. "Well here we fucking wound up."

"Do not consider this being 'trapped in the Delta Quadrant.' Think of this as an opportunity." Melissa noted. "What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. Just like I am about to show to my crewman. He will survive.. I will remove weakness from him, and he will be better. I wonder if the crewman can survive what was done to me? I'll have to ponder this."

"Well while you are testing you're theory might I make a suggestion on your crewman problem?" Rhen asked curiously.

"You may, I do have to take him to the Chief Inspector before my duty shift ends." Melissa noted. "I believe he needs Lieutenant Quevremont's skill set."

"Stick a explosive device on his brain." Rhen replied while a devious smug on his face. "He gets out of line BOOM!!"

"And his entrails all over my nice clean warp core." Melissa noted.

Rhen waved a finger between them. "It's just a thought is all I but it is up to you." He turned to leave. "Just think on it, Chief, in the mean time get back to me on my proposal for your repeater."

"Firepower is not only a priority. We need to make our weapons easily adaptable. I feel somehow we will have to develop new defensive technologies soon." Melissa noted.

"Well, I am willing to help make sure nobody wants to fuck with us so give me call." Rhen said hopeful she take up on his offer. "In the meantime, I have to get your repeater cleaned and put away...let me know on if you like me to work on a new repeater for you." With that he gave a nod and left.