Networking ((Kent))

[Samantha_Kent 0]

The severity of the situation didn't really hit Sam until after it was really too late to turn back.

 

She was indescribably grateful for the willingness her little team had displayed to throw themselves headlong into the scheme she had cooked up with Eagle and Kat in their absence. They had just returned from that city where everything was rapidly going to hell in a handbasket; as Sam had paced sickbay waiting for their return, she had become more and more convinced that they would simply refuse to return again, dismiss the overeager young science lieutenant's idea, run for the hills. On some underlying level she supposed she'd even hoped they would. The risk involved here was considerable and Sam and Kat had flown at breakneck speed to set it up -- delay or uncertainty on the part of the returning hostages might have given her time to second-guess herself. But they had had given her none, had instead jumped onto the biobeds with a will and sent their consciousnesses into an alien computer network without a backward glance. They had trusted her idea implicitly, had not questioned her judgment. Even for Sam, whose heart was pounding with the need for speedy action, the rapidity of the decision had made her head spin.

 

This whole situation did...the city, the gravity, the technology, her malicious doppelganger, the dying stars, her sudden authority -- not to mention the Cardassian. Torre Ze'Rea -- that was a Bajoran name! Bajoran...and yet shimmering into sickbay with Daena, Tom, Malik, and Archie -- for whom Sam had not really had time to spare a moment's thought -- was that unmistakable reptilian facial structure. That grey, rubbery look housed in the gold collar and grey shoulders of a Starfleet engineering uniform. Sam's stomach had bottomed out as if she had swallowed a boulder. This was the engineer on whose computer abilities Sam was banking the survival of them all? What was she doing here anyway -- what was a Cardassian doing aboard the Arcadia? But there was no time, and this Cardassian with the Bajoran name was willing and knew the layout of the Caress like no one else with her skills did, except Archie, and all Sam knew was that he was out like a light. There was no choice.

 

So she swallowed her pride, her fear, and the abrupt, instinctive anger and settled herself onto a biobed next to Torre, let the alien neural links settle on her head, and relinquished her consciousness to the hacked Aether neural net.

 

It was a dizzying, nauseating, disorienting experience but when she opened her "eyes" again, it had worked. She had settled into a body of sorts again -- distinctly alien but at the same time definitely hers. And that, of course, was when it really struck her what she had asked these people to do.

 

Kat had said to her back in sickbay that she and Eagle shared the responsibility for the success or failure of this plan, but Sam didn't believe it. She couldn't. This was her plan, which she had dived into based on a shaky understanding of alien technology, the support and trust of the incredibly brave people beside her, and an ego bruised and humiliated by the presence and actions of Archie's "creation." She didn't pretend to know if this was the right choice or even the best choice -- she only knew that no one had stopped her, and in the chaos of the current situation that was not nearly enough to be reassuring.

 

She forced the fear down as she looked around, following the Cardassian deeper into the Caress facility, trying to see everywhere at once, watching for signs of the AI that they had been told was here. Intellectually, she hoped they would able to get in and out without ever running into the interference of the marauding AIs. Pragmatically, this seemed remarkably unlikely. Emotionally...she wanted to see this inverted version of herself with her own eyes...so to speak. But that was not something to hope for.

 

She almost got her wish anyway -- just as the Cardassian had begun trying to hack the database, Sam turned to find that suddenly there were two versions of Lieutenant Servo, the difference being that one of them was carrying a rifle and pointing it at Torre. Sam had half a moment to reflect that she had no idea what kind of mental damage they might sustain should their physical representations here be harmed, and then the firefight started and there wasn't much time to think about anything anymore. It didn't last long but it was enough to leave her shaking with adrenaline and terror.

 

Prophets and Jesus God...what have I gotten us into?