Your Side, My Side, and the Truth (Saber Flashback, Part 3)
Posted on Sat Oct 12th, 2024 @ 2:12pm by Chief Petty Officer Chip Lauder CPMV
1,561 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Boys of Summer
Location: USS Vigilant, Cam Bath's Quarters
Timeline: 2388, Days after the attack on Sagan Prime
ON
| USS Saber, Cam Bath’s Quarters
|1 Day Later
Cam was awoken by his door chime. He laid there, hardly able to move. The door chimed again. His tired, aching body wouldn’t permit him to move. Finally came a knock on his door.
Cam pulled himself off his bunk and sat on the side. His tired voice strained, “Come.”
Lauder stepped through the portal. He offered Cam a warm smile, “Hey.”
Cam stood to attention with a sharp upward thrust, “Good morning, sir.”
“Whoa! Whoa!” Lauder chuckled, holding up his hands. “Take it easy, man, and cut it out with that ‘sir’ stuff, we’ve talked about this.”
“Yes… sir—Petty Officer.”
“Have a seat,” Chip said. He pulled up a chair opposite the young Crewman, leaning forward a little, “I have a favour to ask.”
“Anything,” Cam replied.
“As you would’ve noticed, Lieutenant Reynolds seems… determined to undermine us and our mission. She has filed a formal grievance with me regarding our recent engagement with that weapons shipment.”
“Oh,” Cam seemed surprised.
“She believes,” Lauder said, standing up, pacing around the room, “That we destroyed those weapons freighters without cause. A ship full of munitions!”
“Those weapons were destined for a Federation target,” Cam said, as if he was repeating a doctrine, “The very threat they pose threw the rules of engagement out the window.”
“It would seem your more of an expert than our lawyer,” Lauder replied. He rushed back to his seat, “Cam, she wants to use our records to bring charges against us. Can you believe it? And when she brings her charges fourth, she’ll attempt to bring us all down. Not just me; she’ll go after Sype, she’ll go after Nurse Platt, she will come for you. I don’t want anyone going to prison—especially you.”
Cam sat in quiet reflection. “I-I don’t want to go to prison.”
“Nor should you, especially for a crime you didn’t commit,” Lauder replied. He pulled an isolinear chip from his pocket. It’s irredescent green glowed in the dark room, “This is a copy of our sensor logs from the engagement. Take it. Take it.”
Lauder forced the chip into Bath’s hand. “What-what do you want me to do with it?”
“I need you to overwrite our logs, to ensure that the truth makes it in there. The information on that chip will provide what we need. Our sensor readings were incomplete, you know she will use it to discredit us. To destroy us. I can’t allow that. Only you can do this.”
“Okay,” Cam nodded. “I-I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Lauder stood. “Come and see me when you’re done.”
|USS Saber, Computer Core
|3 hours later
Clammy hands inserted the isolinear chip into the main computer core’s main drive. A program that Cam had written just before he arrived in the computer core engaged. Data fragments flashed before his eyes, the computer dumping and writing a new truth to the official logs of the USS Saber.
“All done,” Cam said with a grin. He yanked the chip from the computer core and went for the exit, but he crashed into a figure in the darkness. He stepped back, the figure’s face catching some photons from a dim floodlight, “Lauder?”
“I wanted to make sure the job was done properly,” Lauder replied. “It’s done?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” Lauder grinned wolfishly. “You’ve done well, Cam. I have another request.”
“Anything.”
“Lieutenant Reynolds,” Lauder whispered, beginning to pace again. “She’s going to disagree with this account, no matter what the official record is. We need to do something about her.”
“Discuss the situation with her? Perhaps convince her that those ships weren’t full of passengers—”
“There’s no convincing that needs to be done!” Lauder spat.
“But nothing will stop her. She can’t be reasoned with. Her continued presence on this ship is little more than a roadblock to our continued success. If we continue her way, nothing will get done. We both know that if she can’t cost us our careers, she will cost us our lives.”
Cam hung his head.
“You know that needs to be done, Cam, as much as I do,” Lauder said. He stood and moved closer to Cam, getting up in his nook. “I need your help again. One last job.”
“I can’t kill her,” Cam stated.
“Neither could I,” Lauder responded. He gripped Cam’s shoulder, “There’s no way I could ask anyone to do that. I couldn’t do it myself. But we both know she can’t be on this ship, and we both know what we need to do. But I can’t pull it off. This is another job that only you can do.”
“What is it?” Cam asked.
“There’s an M-Class planet in this system, a little world called Chiko VI. You see where I’m heading here?”
“I think so.”
“It’s a gorgeous little world. We beam her down with some supplies, a shelter, everything she needs,” Lauder explained, “We’re protecting her, if anything, at this point. She’s safe and she’s out of our way.”
“But,” Bath struggled, “That planet is the site of a Breen military base… how—”
“She’ll be okay, we’ll beam her to an uninhabited section of the planet—”
“But—”
“It will be fine, Cam,” Lauder reassured. He placed both hands on the young man’s shoulders, “All we need is for you to beam her down.”
“Okay.”
“Using Lieutenant Reynold’s access codes.”
“What?”
“You wouldn’t want this coming back on you, would you?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“Good,” Lauder smiled. “I know I can count on you, Cam.”
|USS Saber, Outside Reynolds’ Quarters
|3 Hours Later
Leaving her quarters, Reynolds headed off for her allotted lunch break. Lauder had revoked her replicator privileges, in case she tried to pull a swift one. The litigating Lieutenant walked down the starship hallway, the Petty Officer now running his little banana republic deciding he could spare an engineering technician to guard her around the clock. Dodging debris that had yet to be cleaned up, she heard someone approaching from the rear.
"Lieutenant!" Cam called behind Reynolds, thundering up to the woman and her guard.
"Oh, Crewman Bath," Reynolds nodded. "Good tidings. I suppose you've come to deliver my forty lashings."
"Actually, I thought we could do lunch," Bath replied. "I'll take it from here Miss Wilson. Lauder has cleared it."
Wilson wasn't one to argue. She'd trained with Bath as a cadet and had been on guard duty for days. She disappeared as quickly as Bath resumed walking up the corridor with her.
"So, how is your stay in 'hotel hell' going?" Reynolds asked.
"You insinuate I don't enjoy being a part of something important," Cam replied.
"You too, huh?" Reynolds scoffed. "I figured he'd get you all after a while. Figures."
The two walked in silence for a while. They entered the turbolift.
"Mess hall," Reynolds called to the ship's computer. They stood in silence again as the turbolift whirled its way to Deck 4. Reynolds sighed, "Halt turbolift."
"What are you doing?"
"The logs, Bath," Reynolds began, "I reviewed them before, to make sure I wasn't barking up the wrong tree in objecting to Lauder's actions. They've been changed."
"How could you be so sure?"
"Because I have the originals," Reynolds said. "I downloaded a copy as soon as I could. It would seem that our saved copies contained conflicts."
"If there are any changes, I'm sure it's just a delayed write with additional data." Cam explained.
"Don't give me that, Bath," Reynolds spat, "That doesn't wash with me."
"Lieutenant, please," Bath pleaded.
"You're the tech guy around here. He put you up to it, didn't he?"
Bath looked away, "Computer, resume turbolift."
A moment later, the lift doors parted, depositing the pair near the mess hall. They ate in silence. Sat for a little longer in silence. The place emptied out. The pair sat in the dark, the light for the stars the only thing illuminating the ruined room.
"I have orders to put you off the ship," Bath mumbled, looking down, pushing his salad around his plate.
Reynolds nodded. She took was pushing food around as the pair say in the liminal space between conversation and action. "I figured my time had come. What's the plan?"
"The M-Class planet in this system. Lauder has prepared everything you'll need. Better than an execution, I guess,"
"Better than dying on this ship in league with traitors," Reynolds shrugged. "When am I facing the noose?"
"Momentarily."
Reynolds processed her situation. She reached into her pocket, extending her other hand to show no ill intent as Bath instinctively reached for his phaser. She slapped an isolinear chip on the table. "Take this. If you survive, send this to my colleagues at JAG. Better yet, send it to Lauder. Don't let him forget what he's done."
Cam swallowed hard. He looked at that chip. It glowed green, just like Lauder's did. He thought on it, feeling the weight of Reynold's expectant gaze. He reached out and grabbed it. It went into his pocket. He felt his heart sink as he looked back up to Bath.
"Now, where's that goddamn transporter room?"
OFF
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