Star Trek The Next Generation The Gift: A Star Trek SI

[DarkDestroyer]

I got the call from the oncologist on Friday afternoon. Both scans were negative in terms of any new growth. The second nodule is still around the same length as it was three months around 1.4 cm. I have a TEENY cluster of them near the middle of my bottom throat upper chest but they think those will dissolve. The CAT scan showed nothing anyone was worried about so that means I've now graduated to the six month check up stage. So I'll be doing this again in March of '27. He is referring me to a colleague...I've forgotten what their title is...and doesn't appear to be imminent as I didn't immediately get a booking call from the office for it. So everything on THAT side of the body is honky dory right now.

Moving is still in flux. I am now in my final month at the house---or at least that is the intent. I am still not going to submit my notice until after we've secured a place. My roommate has moved out and is staying at one of their friends house. If I happen to find something on my own, he's fine with that but we'd both prefer to still find something together. So this is going to be on hiatus until after I move and am settled down---which means likely the fall time. I'd like to resume this to time it with Star Trek's 60th Anniversary in Sep, but we'll see.

 

[DarkDestroyer]

Paramount-SkyDance Own Star Trek. For Entertainment Purposes Only. Non-Profit.

The fog rolled across San Francisco bay, creating a near misty illusion as I entered Vice-Admiral Sarah Cooper's office. The office was---spartan---Sarah was a practical person. Highly analytical which is why Alynna had promoted her. Cooper had been in SI since she was a raw, newly graduated Cadet. She had wanted a different path than her crewmates which immediately got her flagged by the agency as a top recruit. It has paid off for her all these decades later as the second most powerful person within the division. Somehow we've established this strange rapport we have.

"Welcome home, Mr. Young. I trust your trip was uneventful." Sarah greets

"It was. You still look surprised that I'm here."

"I am. I thought you'd back out. I'm slightly impressed that you haven't."


"What do you want from me, Admiral, why am I here?"

"Your future knowledge has been, frankly wasted with what you've been doing on the Enterprise these past six years. Starfleet Intelligence, had we had our way from the start, would have recruited you and used that knowledge to enact policy changes that would have accelerated your grand plans for the galaxy ten fold. Instead---you wanted to use that to have adventures on the Enterprise. All well and good. No one knows better than you the dangers the galaxy poses. You have claimed that you want to get us ready for war, but you're not a solider, you've experienced dreadful things---yes---but you have no idea what is truly out there. I intend to remove the veil."

She punched up a holographic sphere that showed a map of the galaxy including all the hot botton galactic powers. A green dot brightens over Bajor, a tiny white dot represents Deep Space Nine, and a serious of dots near the station represent the Wormhole. Cooper then brings up profiles of former Minister Jarro Essa. Vedek Winn Adami. Li Nalas, along with Ro, and Sisko.

"You want to know why you are standing in this room now, Adam? THIS is why. Your decision to expose the Circle by sending Lieutenant Ro that data file on the Circle you had compiled was a fundamental shift in your line of thinking. Up until that point, your actions and specifically how you decided those actions were made with meticulous, calculating thinking---i.e. you were overly cautious about everything you decided to. But something changed when you chose to hit the terminal button that day. That day---you became an Intelligence asset without knowing it."

I frown.

"Let me continue. After the Circle had been dismantled, Jaro and Winn's activities were exposed and shut down...and Li Nalas was asked to step up to help his people once again, to end the legend, and be a real inspiration---your little beautiful mind went to places it was forced to go, the bigger picture, Mr. Young. You began to suspect a...conspiracy. Not just any conspiracy, perhaps the biggest conspiracy facing our generation and the one before it---why we chose to do nothing to help the Bajorans. From your conversations with our erstwhile boss, you learned of her attempts to warn Starfleet Command---the evidence she and her slain partner attempted to provide---and were told to ignore, the Prime Directive was invoked and younger Lt. Nechavyev was quieted. But now she's running around on an investigation that has even the slightest possible chance of being true to see if there are moles planed deep within the foundation of the organization sworn to protect the Federation. All of that is Intelligence operative thinking, Adam. I've read your psyche profile. I have read ALL the reports on you from your colleagues. You've been doing Intel work this entire time and not known it. THAT is why you're here today. That is why we want to use you." Cooper explained.

The Sphere changed to a profile of me. The reprogrammed Borg nanites running through my blood stream. Giving me status as an "above advanced human". Cooper flashes that shark teeth smile of hers and I shiver slightly.

"These---separate you from everyone else. They regenerated your foot, have healed your broken, chronic ailed body, and created something that has been wallowing around. They give you an edge Adam. You need to take advantage of this. The others see what happened as a tragedy that happened that needs to be overcome, we see you for what you truly could become. A living weapon. Accelerated healing. Enhanced reflexes. We're going to refocus you into forged steel, Mr. Young."


Ignoring Sarah's recruitment push I instead respond differently.

"On Risa, I revealed that I scared. You told me you would train the fear out of me. I'm ready to begin." I say with arms relaxed behind my back.

Cooper tapped a small control on her desk. Instantly, the high-arched windows overlooking San Francisco Bay shattered into raw, cascading blocks of green light. The sleek mahogany desk, the secure terminals, and the pristine Starfleet Headquarters walls dissolved into thin air. The simulation rezzed into existence around them with dizzying speed, replacing the office with a dark, rain-slicked alien metropolis underbelly. Neon signs in broken Orion language buzzed overhead, casting long, erratic shadows across a damp, debris-strewn alleyway. I immediately become alert.

"Meet your handler and prepare to defend yourself, recruit." Cooper orders

I stagger back slightly, my boots splashing in a pool of holo generated water. A figure emerged wearing an all black tactical jumpsuit...a figure with striking blonde hair I immediately recognized.

"Ishara?!!"

Ishara didn't respond though, closing the distance between us with a speed I hadn't anticipated. She lunges forward with a brutal, snapping kick aimed right at my sternum. I throw up my arms in a double cross block, absorbing the impact, but the sheer force of her momentum skidded my boots across the wet pavement. Ishara didn't give me a second to breathe. She pivoted seamlessly on her heel, using the recoil of the block to whip a backfist directly at my jaw. I ducked under the strike, the rushing wind of her fist whistling past my ear. I stepped into her guard, attempting to utilize standard Starfleet security grappling techniques to lock her arm. But Ishara wasn't a standard Starfleet opponent. She was raised in the lawless pits, and gang wars of Turkana IV. She countered by driving her forehead straight into Adam's nose.

"Fuck..." I breathe out winded

White-hot pain flashed across me , but as blood began to trickle from me nose, the reprogrammed nanites swarmed the injury, numbing the pain receptors and instantly sealing the ruptured capillaries. Beverly and Data had programmed them to instantly begin regenerating any ailment or injury they detected upon it occurring. I catch Ishara by the vest before she could disengage, twisting my hips to execute a heavy, battlefield hip-throw. Ishara slammed into the rain-slicked ground with a heavy thud, but she rolled backward with the impact, sweeping her leg in a wide, vicious arc. Her boot caught Adam behind the ankle, taking his legs out from under me.

I hit the pavement hard, rolling instinctively to avoid a lethal, descending heel-drop that cracked the simulated concrete where his head had been a fraction of a second prior. He sprang back to his feet, slipping into a tight, low tactical stance. I start panting, and wipe the blood from my face.

"Not bad old man." Ishara flashes that grin at me

"What...the...hell...Ishara?"!!" I exclaim

She relaxes her pose while explaining her journey.

"I wasn't fitting in, in spite of your gracious encouragement," Ishara replied, stepping back to roll out her shoulders. "I needed focus. My experiences and time on Turkana... overwhelmed me at times. I was a pain in the arse to my professors. This got word back to SI—they recruited me and... well... I feel at home at last."

She dropped back into a low brawling stance, a cold, challenging glimmer in her eyes. "Now I have to deal with you. What was Lieutenant Morani doing with you on the Enterprise? Doing kid fighting sessions? You're good, but you're lazy. I know you don't want to hurt anyone, but you're not on the Enterprise anymore, recruit—we go again. Push yourself, trainee."


"Alright...round two it is." I say and then kick into Batman mode.

I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, retreating into a highly structured mind palace. In that mental space, the training halls of the Enterprise-D materialized. I saw Lieutenant Morani's fluid, defensive Aikido stances. He saw Worf's brutal, uncompromising Mok'bara katas. I tore down the rigid barriers dividing the styles, fusing them into a singular, predatory flow designed for the gutter. I then opened my eyes and do Neo and Morpheus hand gesture to Ishara.

"Let's dance."
Ishara was already in mid-air, driving a flying knee toward my jaw. Must register that as a favourite move of hers. Adam didn't block. He pivoted under her trajectory with the low, sweeping grace of a Klingon martial artist, letting her momentum carry her past me. As she landed, I stepped into her blind spot, launching a brutal elbow strike that cracked hard against her tactical shoulder plate.

Ishara grunted, spinning instantly with a lethal capoeira-style kick aimed at my temple. I slipped the blow by millimeters, my mind palace calculating her recovery time in real-time.I caught her extended leg, using her own Turkana momentum to drive her backward into a pile of simulated cargo crates. The wood shattered with a deafening crack. Ishara bounced back out of the wreckage like a cornered wildcat. She lunged with a blinding flurry of straight punches, her fists moving in a blur of street-fighting fury. I shifted into a tight, textbook Boxing guard, tucking my chin. I absorbed three heavy blows to my forearms, parried a fourth, and then exploded forward. I then drove a vicious palm-strike directly into her sternum—a technique Worf had taught me to shatter an opponent's center of gravity.


The impact knocked the wind from Ishara's lungs, sending her skidding five feet across the wet pavement. She dropped to one knee, clutching her chest, gasping for air as the rain poured over her face.

I stood over her, my breathing heavy, my hands raised in a low, adaptive stance that belonged to no specific academy handbook. For the first time, I wasn't holding back out of fear of hurting someone. I was fighting to survive. I then turn to face Admiral Cooper.

"End program." She orders

"IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?!" I roar with my Batman voice.

"It is a start." She says and leaves the two of us in the holdodeck.

A new, different, beginning has begun.

 

[DarkDestroyer]

I found a new place today, and took it! So now moving can officially begin. It's technically not available until Sep 1st, but I explained my current situation to the landlord and that I'm planning on leaving under duress, so he mentioned he'll see how he can accommodate that. I do not have a lot of personal effects, so it's an easy move, my friend is going to be helping me, and I can stay at my parents until I am able to assume control of the room. But everything is finally looking up.

 

[DarkDestroyer]

The move went very well. My friend and I were in and out in two car trips. I went back for room inspection today and actually got my deposit back. So I can relax a little bit now until I am able to take possession of the new room on the 1st.