"Go to the Retarnee Station, they said. It will be fun they said.", Tania mopped around trying to keep the systems running with a station filled with kids from the Troi Institute.
Tania only came over because Vincent agreed to restore her Rear Admiral status if she agreed to look after the systems on the Retarnee Station after the horrible genocide attack on the Retarnee.
She walked up to Station Ops and saw the grey skinned hideous young man who stunk like old laundry tapping on the station console, "Dear god, what the hell is that?"
"That is James Washington.", Lindsay looked at the Borg Disconnect.
"What the hell is a James Washington?", Tania exclaimed.
Lindsay walked over to the console and activated the 3D image hovering over the table. The screen revealed the original of the NA-CH Tanxian and the horrors of extending human life. Tania watched in horror as the astronauts died of a variety of causes but continued to fulfill their duties. Lindsay looked over at James.
"What the hell did they eat?", Tania looked at Lindsay.
"Once the decay began, they drank large storages of blood aboard the Tanxian. When that ran out, they resorted to Cannibalism eating those crew members whose body decay had become so bad that they could not longer perform any function.", Lindsay looked over at James.
"But how the hell did he survive in that pod?", Tania looked at the images from the BAS Black Mamba, the Betazoid Ship that had brought Washington here.
"As near as we can figure, there were at least 8 others who were in the pod when it evacuated from the Tanxian.", Lindsay looked at Tania.
"He ate them?", Tania grabbed her face.
"He is alive isn't he?", Lindsay responded rather bluntly.
"What the hell is he doing in Station Ops?", Tania just could not stop asking questions.
"He is very proficient at operating the consoles. He may be the best tactical operations officer I have ever seen. He knows exactly which button to push when.", Lindsay explained. This was amazing praise coming from Lindsay. She is widely considered one of the great tactical officers in history.
"What are you feeding him?", Tania looked at Lindsay.
"I am feeding him raw human flesh, replicated of course.", Lindsay explained.
"Oh my god!", Tania shook her head.
"The program already existed for organ transplant. We are not creating or condoning cannibalism.", Lindsay remarked.
One of the ships alarms starting going off. One of the students had not added coolant to a secondary reactor. James reached over and grabbed her hand and placed it in the right position. The young lady screamed and ran from Ops. James pressed the button to eliminate the alarm. He went back to task.
Tania walked over. She took a deep breath, "You cannot just force her hand. You have to show her. You have to explain."
"Uhhhhhh.", James grunted. Tania remembered some of the logs from Lindsay's display. These creatures could hardly speak. They had long outgrown the brain power to do so.
James pointed to the button and grunted. Tania knew almost immediately what had happened. The secondary reactor temperature warning had come on. There was no doubt, the guy was smart. He just needed to be able to deliver it.
Tania took James over to the main console. She activated the text to speech software for children. Large words appeared on the screen. They were primarily used to teach the young the language of the Federation. The vocabulary was very limited and mostly from children's books.
James looked at Tania. He looked at the console and tapped hard on the words, "I saw a princess."
"What? Where?", Tania looked puzzled.
James looked at the Borg Disconnect and pointed at her. Tania blushed. This was going to work out just fine.
She walked towards Lindsay as she heard the console speak, "And they lived happily ever after."
Tania covered her face with her hands. Lindsay could see her blushing, "Oh my god, you are blushing."
"No I am not.", Tania headed down to engineering. It was safer down there.
Posted by:
Rear Admiral Tania Branson
Station Operations and Engineer
Retarnee Refuge
King's Fleet
