Time's Orphan

Posted on Thu Dec 21st, 2023 @ 8:52pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Ensign Kate Kono
Edited on on Tue Jan 2nd, 2024 @ 3:29pm

Mission: Hard Earned Peace
Location: USS Washington

Despite most of the senior officers being fairly busy with the diplomatic talks, Kate seemed to be enjoying the amenities of the ship, specifically the holodeck. She seemed to have a passion for historical programs, especially of the variety that allowed her to pilot ancient Earth aircraft. But the fact that she was yet another of time's orphans aboard the Washington was not overlooked by Hela, in fact, quite the contrary. As Kate was completing another holodeck session Hela began to speak with her, "Do you miss your time that much? Miss those that you left? Wonder what became of them, if Q erased you from memory or if your disappearance was an unsolved mystery?"

Kate shrugged and shook her head.
"Q gave me the opportunity. He even had a few tricks up his sleeve and adjusted my parents into the timeline without them knowing it. I looked them up and there's a version of me back there that nobody ever missed; a version of my life, my parents... Apparently it's a version of me that said no willingly because she likes it." Kate stepped away from the Holodeck with Hela. "He packed my head with all of this knowledge of this time and century including things I would need to know for my position and memories that aren't real, from a time in Starfleet Academy I know I never actually had. But I guess someone must have had some strings pulled with Q to allow me to have my rank. I've even been given a few missions here and there that occupy my time pretty well."

Kate entered the turbolift with Hela and called out the deck to the intelligence office and continued.

"... Q pretends to do things just for fun but he's really a well-meaning person hidden behind the mask of a clown." Kate hoped Q didn't hear her say that even as she admitted as much. "He saw a girl that was lonely to begin with, and gave her an adventure that affects the lives of a whole new family I'm a part of in exchange for living an adventurous life to what ends only he knows... But I do know that he wouldn't have done this to me and given me the choice if there wasn't some --- 'wild and strange prophetically asinine and convenient universal plan' that we are all a part of that Q concocted." Kate giggled a little and shook her head.

"To answer your question, no. Not at all. He took the best parts of me with me and left the best parts for an alternative version of myself where it could be used for the betterment of dimensions and timescapes shared by us all." Kate grinned. "and... I love it here!"

Hela was annoyed with this surprisingly chipper time traveler. She wasn't fond of Q, but somehow Q had done something with this mortal that almost seemed to thwart the opportunity for her to do anything to her. She had only one possible card to play, "Surely you miss your family though. Perhaps you'd like to see them again?"


Kate smiled back at Hela. "I'll see them again. It's totally okay. And I'm sorry if I came off wrong last time we met. You just took me by surprise, and I think you have the potential to be a cool person no matter what anyone else says about you." Kate walked into her office with Hela and did a happy jump out of habit before spinning around in front of the replicator. "Want anything?" She asked while having the machine replicate a batch of uncooked carrots, which happened to be her favorite snack next to cake.

Hela was beside herself. This mortal had no fear, no concept of the potential danger she might be in. She seemed to actually like Hela, showing an almost childlike innocence towards her. Hela didn't know whether to be flattered or angry. "Are you asking if I want some sort of comfort food?"


Kate gave a playful little growl and flopped into her seat dramatically across from her desk and chewed on a carrot a moment.

"Well, what do you want to do? What do you do for fun that doesn't involve being a little meanie and hurting people or causing various amounts of strife." As Kate asked the question, and as she spoke the words, she gradually twisted her body in the seat and her head was laying completely upside down in the desk while looking at her from an inverted angle. The young Ensign smiled at her in friendly way while squeezing the last of those words out of her mouth in an inquisitive, high pitched but intentionally scratchy growl at the end and then took another bite out of her carrot and chewed it while looking at her from that upside down angle for a second before suddenly straightening up and jumping onto the desk to sit on her knees after finishing the carrot. "I know you can conjure up just about anything but you're free to join me on the holodeck anytime you want if you need a break from..." Kate shrugged her tiny, framed shoulders and shook her head as if trying to force out the last words. ".... Whatever it is you do on routine. It'd be good for you to hang out and get away from important things sometime." She ticked off her fingers, "... Movies, music, simulators, athletic sports, comedy, puzzles..." She raised her dark Asian eyes while thinking. "I'm here for you if it doesn't involve being on the wrong side of all this crazy ship politics. There's no point in taking a moment to enjoy even if we're at odds or whatever!" Kate was honest, straightforward, and true.

She looked Hela over for a response while smiling at her. The girl knew that this person in front of her was probably some sort of omnipotent being with malevolent intent but the way she saw it, she was in Hela's sights whether she liked it or not so she didn't see any other reason to combat her other than simply being her friendly, happy, gentle, inquisitive self just as she would anyone else and she was sure it showed.

Hela was dumbfounded. It was as if she were the mortal, and this woman was the god. Was she being toyed with, like some cat toying with a mouse it knows it is going to kill. This sort of thing didn't happen, not to her people, and certainly not to her. Perhaps her father did this sort of thing, but the mortals had erased his physical form from this reality, and that wasn't something she was soon to forget. But at this moment, she was stuck trying to understand this strange little human. A stiff breeze would knock her over, yet here she was acting like the proverbial Cheshire cat. "Causing pain and misery is what I do dear. Goddess of Death" she said as she struck a pose. "You, you remind me of my father. He too treated existence like one big game. You don't seem to care about anything that mortals tend to care about, and you certainly don't show any fear. I should be quite annoyed, but I find I like you for some reason. You are like, a pet for lack of a better term."

Kate kept her grin as she watched Hela look at her with such confusion on her face.

"At least you like me!" Kate scooted to the other side of the desk to let her legs dangle and dance over the lip of the top while she rested her chin in her hand and her elbows on her knees. "So, what's on your mind? Did you want to do something? My shift doesn't start just yet but I had nowhere else to go at the moment. I do care about things by the way, I just look at everything through a optimists eyes." Kate decided that since she wasn't the reason Hela was on the ship, primarily, the least she could do was try and make friends with her. A sort of 'switzerland of circumstance' where, barring any unforseen events that challenges allegiances, she could at least offer a place to go where the topic wasn't the main reason of stay.

"Goddess of Death, hmm?" Kate looked her over. She kept swinging her legs happily over the edge of the desk in silence before leaning back and holding herself up on her hands and arms as she looked Hela over a bit. "... If there's anything you want to do that doesn't involve me hurting my family on board, I'm up for a little chat anytime you want to drop in, or, we can do the Holodeck. I don't have time right now to catch a movie but I like to do movie nights too, in my quarters. I don't know how the rest of the crew would treat you but you're always welcome with me, 'kay??"

Hela was flabbergasted, truly bamboozled by Kate. Never in all her eons had she encountered any mortal quite like her. "I have things to do" she said softly. "Perhaps I will return." She faded away, trying to comprehend what had just happened.