The Long Game

Posted on Sat Mar 9th, 2024 @ 4:35pm by Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Ensign Kevin Mitchell

Mission: Lost & Found
Location: Jefferies Tubes
Timeline: Shortly after going into the Asteroid Field

The young Ensign pulled his blond hair out of eyes as he craweled quickly down the confined maintenance tunnel. He had taken off his badge as soon as he got off shift. He couldn't believe that little girl was already onto the transmissions that he was sending. His brother on the Calypso was counting on him to pull through and he wasn't about to be caught by that tiny, resourceful intelligence officer. He crawled out into the ladder area that went down near the engine room. The Romulans would want to know about the Washington's latest find, but for now, he had to put his data on hold and let things cool down. That meant disassembling every data analyzer, every cable-tap, and every portable subspace emitter that he had installed throughout the ship and hide it somewhere that Security or the Intelligence department would never find.

He also had to find out exactly how Kate knew that there was someone on the ship sending these transmissions so that he could avoid ever being caught again. For now, Ensign Kono only thought it was one of the kids playing around with the communications systems. It was Kevin's hope that if everything died for a while, she'd lose her interest and go about the rest of her life not knowing that there was anyone sneaking Starfleet Intelligence to the Romulans. His brother would have to be the intelligence provider in the meantime.

Kevin pulled the last of the transmitters from the subspace junctions and placed them in a bag to start crawling out of the tubes with. He thought about where he could hide them in the meantime. He wiped the drops of sweat from his eyes as he opened up a maintenance hatch that he knew nobody would ever be opening any time soon, and dumped the bag into the compartment. He then took a device for getting rid of DNA evidence and ran it into the compartment a few times to avoid being traised. He would take a break for a few months until Kate forgot about the whole situation and start up again. It was the only way to be sure.

It was too bad, really -- he liked Kate. They got along great together and it was fun to have such a playful and happy person to be around in the workplace. If it just wasn't for the fact that she wasn't his type, physically, he would have even tried to date her. But looks mattered and he didn't find any physical attraction to a girl that had no chest, no curves, and no height on her. Kate had said it was 'the curse of being Asian'. Of course, if she really cared about herself, he thought, she'd just go into surgery and fix those problems about her.

That was the problem with society, Kevin thought as he crawled through the tubes. 'With all the medical miracles of modern twenty-fourth century technology, if you don't want to make yourself look good, then you're no good at all.' Kevin nodded to himself as he assured himself with such selfish and shallow thoughts. For now though, there were a few other ensigns he thought he might be able to have a chance with. Of course, it was just a shame they didn't have Kate's fun-loving personality but that kind of trait in a person always took a back seat to physical attraction for him.

The ship rocked a little as the inertial dampers started working overtime while he crawled through the tubes. He hard herd that Shon had gotten kidnapped, or went missing, or dead, or whatever. The fact that the Captain was willing to risk the entire damn crew to save one person told him everything he needed to know about the man. Kevin sneered at the thought as he crawled through the tubes quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was hit his head on something while the ship dove head-first into an Asteroid field in order to find a person that didn't even matter.

Of course, if anyone else asked him, he'd play the part of the bleeding-heart concerned Starfleet Officer. It would help him blend in well amongst the selfless officers that blindly brawl themselves into battles in order to save each other no matter what kind of trouble they got into, all in the name of exploariton. These idiots were all going to get themselves killed one day and he wanted to be nowhere near them when that day happened. Even if it meant having to get close to Kate, having to pretend to love Kate, or even of course, having to kill Kate.

My god, Kevin thought, she'd be so easy for all of that. Of course that meant trying to keep her away from her other love interests. There was that one guy he saw her venture off into some spy-style holodeck adventure. Kevin couldn't think of his name... Not that it mattered to him. Espionage was all about keeping your friends close, and your enemies closer.

In his situation, Kate was both. She had just ruined his operations despite being his friend. He couldn't vaporize her -- it'd set off every alarm in the ship. He could strangle her to death and transport her body somewhere nobody would ever find her... That would require being close though. That's a worst casee scenario though. He wouldn't have to do that if she just laid off after everything went quite the next few months. With any luck, he wouldn't have to kill her. In the meantime, maybe he should actually ask her on a date. If she says she's taken, he would at least do everything he could to spend as much time with her as possible.

Kevin stepped out of the Jefferies Tube and into the main hallway near Engineering and secured the doors to the maintenance entrance. He smiled happily to the passers by and went about his day thinking about living on Risa with his brother after their tasks were finally completed. Enough intelligence and the Romulans would be pleased.

All Kate had done was make his wait for Risa with his brother just that much longer. Damn you, Kate....

Kevin kept moving along the ship with a happy smile on his face, the best mask he could muster under the silent rage.