The Moment of truth

Posted on Monday 2 November 2020 @ 21:44 by Captain Melody Jones & Captain Hans Andersson & Civilian Sansa Draxx-Jones & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding & Commander Luke Springfield
Edited on on Thursday 4 March 2021 @ 10:47

Mission: A Whale of a problem (We're going to need a bigger boat)
Location: The Etheria
Timeline: After 'The search for the truth'
3246 words - 6.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Everyone was now gathered for Melody's 'Punishment'. Melody now knew who and what Harn was and she had to convince the council that they were being deceived.

After she had discovered the truth, Harn had kept Melody isolated from anyone who would listen to her guarded by only two who were totally loyal to him. Now she was bring led out into the meeting place. She caught sight of the rest of the away team and called out. "It's the Puppet Master! It's back! we've got to make them see!"

The alien that was leading her shoved her in the back and snapped "Keep quiet and keep moving!"

Finally in the centre of the area. Owan and the other members of the council entered and formed a group. The other Megapteraians gathered, watching. The crew of the Darwin was also present. Andersson moved over to the away team. "I got separated from your Captain by this Harn fellow. What's she talking about? who is this puppet master?"

Caroline caught the words puppet master and groaned. "Pure evil. Hell-bent on destruction. Dangerous beyond belief. And we thought they had gone."

Owan spoke. "Melody Jones. You will receive the punishment on behalf of your race."

"Wait!" a voice called out. Tann had just appeared with Hayley. "This must not be allowed."

Sav breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing Tann and Hayley appear. She was still in the background waiting, following, not sure if she could help anywhere, but she would keep herself following closely for just in case she could.

Owan's face went pale. "Tann! Be silent. You are in enough trouble as it is! If you do this, I won't be able to protect you."

"Please hear me!" Melody called out. "You are being deceived!"

Caroline yelled, "If the puppet master is involved you are ALL being deceived. What is my Captain being accused of?" she demanded.

Harn gasped and pointed towards himself. "Moi? A puppet master? That is preposterous how could I be a puppet master. Do you see any strings that I am pulling? I have not controlled anyone. Once again she... no make that; they are trying to delude you. As I said previously, these people are not to be trusted. All their twisting words, whereas I... have had our best interests at heart." looking with beseeching eyes towards Owan.

"We found the probe." Hayley said, coldly. "In fact, your time is already at its end, you just don't know it yet." She said with steel in her voice. "Any time now, the signal from the probe you're using to transmit your likeness into the Etheria will deteriorate to the point you will loose all control of your avatar here. I'm glad you arranged to have this very public meeting, because very soon everyone is going to find out who you really are."

"No one get too close," Caroline informed the away team. "This puppet master has managed to jump into an actual persons mind before and survive. The last thing we want is a repeat of O'Hara."

"Preposterous! Your feeble attempts to bring up delusional accusations will not work. Why would anyone believe this drivel, these madcap ideas." Harn turning towards the council members, especially Owan. "Do you not think that this sounds incredibly insane?"

Own held up his hand. "Harn, it is quite alright. you did warn us that they would attempt to divide us with lies." He addressed everyone again. "Melody Jones has agreed to take the punished for the crimes of your race. For the barbaric treatment of another lifeform. Harn has told us how he performed the bridging with you at great risk to himself and found that you show no remorse and have continued to lie to us about being peaceful explorers when in fact you are hostile invaders who would destroy us.

"NOOOOOO!" Sansa cried out as she unexpectedly ran in and straight up to Melody who threw her arms around her.

"Back off! You do not touch her!" Melody said before turning her attention to Sansa. "Sweetie, what are you doing here? I told you to keep out of sight."

Owan looked confused. "Who is this?"

Melody looked at him "This is my daughter."

"I did this," Tann spoke up. "To show you what they are really like.... father!"

Melody looked at Owan. "Harn is the one who lies! He never bridged with me. He's not even one of your species. He's a dangerous and evil artificial intelligence that has crept into your minds and is feeding you lies and deception. Why else would he not let you read my thoughts? It would prove he was a fake!"

Doubt flickered over Owan's face.

"This is absurd! How-how-Ddare you listen to them!" Harn howled his body twitching and glitching out of focus. He turned a baleful eye towards Hayley. "You...you worthless piece of..." he advanced towards the chief of security.

Sav noticed the glitching and secretly smiled. However, as Harn advanced, so did she. She moved to be between Harn and Hayley, extended her climbing claws, showed her canine teeth. She snarled, a churr growl coming up from her chest. "Ah will not let yah harm her." She looked at the others, "See what is happening to him? Ana, what am I... not human, fer sure... Why didn't you truly check him, ana us?"

Owan and the rest of the council were on their feet, most of them now looking shocked at what had happened to Harn

Melody called out in Sav's direction. "Commander! At ease!" As several Megapteraians surrounded Harn. At the moment it was unclear whether it was for His own protection or Hayley's.

Sav immediately drew back, retracting her climbing claws and closing her snout. She went into an 'at ease' pose, then slowly back peddled to be near Hayley, but no longer in the spotlight.

Melody turned back to Owan. "Do you believe me now?"

"It appears we have been deceived..." Owan stated, "but not by you." He turned from Melody back to Harn. "I think you have some explaining to do. What we have seen could not be created by anything natural to our world so you are obviously not one of us. The council will use all their combined mental power to reveal the truth."

Kyhl crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed. "Oh? The single one of you calling for a genocide might have been deceiving you? My Aenar great uncle could have seen that coming a mile away." She narrowed her eyes toward the Megapteraians. "Maybe next time check before you try to flay an innocent being?"

Harn looked at those who gathered around him, keeping him from attacking the one who had sabotaged his probe. His dark eyes narrowed and with a sneer he replied.

"You think you are so powerful, and so righteous. You will certainly destroy yourselves in the end. You seek peace when in truth it is just a quiet insidious invasion among the other species and the stars. You may think I am evil, in truth I am not. You are the true evil touting peace, equality. When the other species have fallen into complacency, you will have them all under your spell, your rule."

He turned to Owan, "I hope you are happy with your decision to throw your trust with them. I thought you would have learned just how they are. You've made yourself weak. I shall not stay here and listen to any more of their saccharine speech."

A smile appeared, as he lifted his arms up high, "Behold the time is at hand, and you will not be graced with my presence anymore. Three... two.... one... Finis!" Harn disappearing from view.

The probe that Hayley had found, came to life, lights flashing faster and faster, then.. a bright explosion from its direction.

After the figure of Harn had blinked out there was a stunned silence in the space as everyone came to terms with what had happened. The Merlin veterans recovered quicker than those who'd never encountered the Puppet Master before, but it was still somewhat of an awkward situation. As was fairly typical of the man, Luke was the first to break the awkward tension.

"Does someone want to explain what the fuck just happened?" He asked in his usually blunt tone.

Ignoring his somewhat brash outburst, Hayley spoke first; "It appears that whoever this Harn character really was, they realised that their time here had come to an end, so decided to leave on a somewhat flamboyant exit." She then turned to face Owan and the council. "I would think that under the circumstances, a 'stay of execution' is in order, since your principal antagonist is not our Captain but rather was an imposter pretending to be one of your own. It might perhaps be a wise course of action for your council to take stock of what has transpired here and reflect on your own actions for the past one hundred years."

"That's all well and good, but I still don't have a clue what's going on..." Luke responded.

Even in the Etheria Melody felt a mild tremble pass through her body. "Since we're still here, I think the probe you mentioned has gone and so has the Puppet master."

Owan looked particularly shaken by the experience. He came over to Melody. "You offered to share your mind with me before. May I now? I must know."

Melody nodded slowly. Sansa, still by her side gripped her hand "Mom be careful!" she warned. "Hayley did this and it looked pretty intense."

"It's ok Sweetie," Melody said as Owan closed his eyes and concentrated. Melody swayed for a moment and her breathing deepened as she experienced the connection. Soon tears were streaming down Owan's face. After a while, he opened his eyes. It was clear that the link had affected him deeply. "We have been fools and we have been blind," he said softly. Then in a louder voice, "These people are free to go. Your ships have been released. I will take the punishment. These people are free to go."

Sav's demeanor shifted from 'waiting' to one of shocked horror. She glanced over at Melody, shaking her head no while mouthing, 'No, no punishment warranted'

There was a murmur from the council but Melody, having recovered slightly from the bridging, stepped forward and addressed the council. "Wait! There has been enough 'punishment' on both sides. We came because we wanted to know you. We still do, and I still have hopes of a relationship between our peoples.

Owan eventually smiled. " We would like that as well." He signalled for Andersson to be brought over. "We humbly ask forgiveness for what we have put you people trough."

Andersson looked suspicious for a moment before finally nodding slowly at him. "I think we would like to go home now."

Owan nodded. "Of course it will be done, gather your people."

Melody signalled for the rest of the way team to join her. "Are you all alright?"

Sav came over, relief upon her face, even as her body began trembling slightly from the shocks and twists of this first contact with the Megapteraians and the 'punishments' that hit deep within her psych. She nodded and replied a quick, "Yes Cahptain. Reahdy tah get back to t'e ship."

"Better now we have everyone back together and knowing you are alright Captain," Caroline said.

Melody turned to Owan "May I contact my ship?"

He nodded. "Speak and they will hear you."

Melody frowned for a moment. She then automatically, without thinking tapped the comm badge on her chest before realizing it wasn't really real. She blushed slightly. "Jones to Merlin. Report."

"Rejal here Captain. Ship's power is coming back online. Is everyone ok down there, we lost communications with you, and then our power was drained and something began covering the hull and the crew...oh, and an older Constitution-class vessel, possibly the one we were looking for has just materialized in front of us...do I need to send down marines, our ambassadorial team, or medical teams at this time?"

An idea was forming in her mind as she spoke to him. "We're ok Number one. We will be returning shortly. Have the Marines on standby but hopefully, we won't need them. After a somewhat shaky start, I think we've managed to make first contact the right way. Get all the diplomatic team together and from them, we'll need a handful of volunteers who are willing to stay here for an extended period. Have them come down on a shuttle as soon as they're ready and wait for further instructions. Send a team over to the Darwin and secure the ship. Make sure it's spaceworthy. Send some shuttles down for their crew who will be returning with us. I want them to have a full medical in our sickbay.." She looked at Andersson who had returned with his first officer after making sure all his people were together. "If that's acceptable with Captain Andersson?"

"Perfectly Acceptable Commander Jones. I'm looking forward to being in a real bed and I must admit, I wouldn't mind having a look at this ship of yours. See how far we've advanced in over 100 years and also, catching up with... family." he said, giving Caroline a brief but hopeful glance.

Caroline chewed her lip. "I think we need to both speak with my great grandmother and get things straightened out," she offered. She couldn't quite believe his claims until her mormor confirmed it.

Melody nodded "We'll be returning shortly. I'll go thought with you exactly what's happened down here but I think we can say we've made a new friend."

"Yes mam, I'll get the ball rolling up here. The marines were already on standby, they've been a great help aboard ship. I'll get Rathburn to send a team over to the Darwin to gently wake her up. Extra shuttles will be on their way as well. I'll let your husband know that you are ok, I don't think he was very happy that you went and I stayed, Marbim out."

Melody turned to Owan who had been joined by the council. "With your permission, I'd like to leave some of our diplomatic team here on the planet to start to form a relationship with you and so you can get to know us. We'll leave one of our shuttles but Starfleet might want to send another Starship at some point in the future."

Owan looked at the council members. After some discussion with them, he came back to her and said. "That is acceptable if you allow one of us to join you on your ship to experience your existence for a short period."

This request threw Melody slightly. "How... how would this be achieved?" she asked.

At this point, a young female Megapteraians came running through the throng toward them "Tann! You're ok. I'm so pleased to see you. Is your exile from the council over?" She threw her arms around Tan who returned the gesture.

"I think so but I'll need to discuss that with Owan." Tann looked at Melody "This is Fay. She is my...." He struggled to find the right word. "She is my Sansa," he said looking at Hayley.

Owan continued, answering Melody's question. "Fay here will be going with you."

"NO!" Tann called out, a little too loud. Then quieter added "Why father? Why her?"

"As you say, we have some things to sort out and the Council have chosen her to go explore their plane of existence outside the Etheria as they do. She will be safe, just as your people who stay here will be safe. Won't she Melody Jones?"

"I will take personal responsibility for her safety but you still haven't told me how she's going to come with us. We need an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere to breath. A gas, not a liquid. We don't even know what you look like in your natural form.."

Owan almost chuckled. "That's been considered. Our natural form is far far different from yours and much larger. No, Fay's consciousness will have to share one of your bodies in order to interact with you and experience your reality though your eyes. The person would not be harmed by the sharing and would be able to take full control if needed. It would only be a temporary arrangement as Fay would have to return to us to share what she had found out."

Sansa stepped forward "Use me."

It was Melody's turn for an outburst slightly louder than expected. "Absolutely not!"

Hayley's eyes narrowed dangerously as she looked at Sansa. "I agree with the Captain, this is absolutely unacceptable." What in the world was Sansa thinking! Why?! To share her body with another being, who could take over whenever it felt like it? No! Absolutely not! She wasn't going to share her Sansa with anyone! Would it even be Sansa anymore? She'd had a mind-link with Tann and she didn't feel like herself anymore, but to play host to another sentient being in your mind... to share that most precious part of yourself... to surrender your very being... No!

Sansa looked at them both "Mom, Hayley. This is what I want. I can do this. I studied so much on our way over here and this is a remarkable opportunity to learn so much more. Let me do this. Please!"

Sav stepped forward to add in her two cents worth. She carefully concentrated as she said, "Captain, Sansa is your daughter, Fay is Tann's Daughter, to have the two share to bring back experiences shows trust and acceptance on both sides. If Sansa desires this, please let her."

This was not Hayley's decision to make, it was the Captain's - both as the CO of the Merlin and as Sansa's mother. Legally, Sansa was of age to make such decisions herself, but the risks were enormous. Hayley's eyes looked beseechingly at Sansa, pleading with her through willpower to change her mind, then turning to look at Melody with the same expression.

Seeing the passion in her daughter's eyes Melody considered for a moment. "If you're sure this is what you want. It's your decision." She looked at Owan and Fay "And I'm holding you both personally responsible for the safety of my daughter. We have rules and you will be expected to abide by them. Understood."

Fay nodded "Of course. You have my word she will be safe. I swear."

The shock of betrayal that Hayley felt from Melody's acquiescence on this stung hard and deep. She was the CO, it was her choice, and no doubt it had been a difficult one to weigh in the balance the diplomatic considerations as well as the life of her only child - but still... She said nothing as she didn't trust her own emotions to control her feelings at this point.

Caroline watched on quietly knowing that it was likely she would be speaking with 3 different parties in the aftermath of Sansa's choice. Going by Godding's face she wasn't taking it that well. She knew Melody would need a sounding board and could imagine just how Draxx was going to take this new development.

"It is time Melody Jones. Farewell. We shall meet again."

The world around them started to dissolve into blackness...

TBC in "Back to Reality"