Posted by Lieutenant Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in side - sim: Social Experimentation at its Finest (Tag Kane)

<snip>

It was less then three minutes for Kane to return. When he walked in, he simply came in and sat down. In the middle of the table, he set a small black pyramid; each face only fifteen or twenty centimeters. He pressed one face, and the top moist point began glowing red. Kane held his finger up for silence before anyone started talking. Seconds passed, then slowly each point began to glow a soft green… one at a time… until finally all were green. Kane leaned back and said “Ok. We’re good.” He looked at Alisson first and said “Ask what you want. But I’m going to tell you… the answers you get will not be all pleasant. And… they can get you both in a great deal of trouble for just knowing it, regardless if you talk about it or not. There are a lot of very paranoid and powerful people who want what you want to know to be kept very quiet. But I’ll answer anything you want to know.”

Kane

With Solomon’s return Frigga had stayed with her but released the pressure against her legs. Alexis stood stock still in the doorway until the lights turned green. Then she returned to her chair beside him, Frigga on her opposite side, boxing her in.

Alisson looked at the strange little piece with total confusion. “Put simply, it blocks transmissions and recordings, mom.”

“I know what it is Nugget.” Alisson swallowed really hard and her father turned in his seat to look at his wife, obvious surprise. “When you were serving on the Hathaway, a man came to the house, asking all kinds of questions about you. He had one of those. He said I would be seeing a lot of him, had a heavy Irish accent.”

“Alisson why didn’t you tell me.” Anthony slipped an arm around her.

“He described in very great detail what would happen to Alexis if I said anything.” She swallowed and looked at Kane. “Your marrying my daughter, I guess I just wanted to get to know you, but I suppose that’s a complicated question. So why don’t we start with why your story needs one of those,” she pointed at the pyramid. “Because ai don’t know where else to start.”

Frigga barked, Alexis saw black, and was going to be very very sick.

Bonner

Kane put an arm around Alexis and said “Easy… you already how all this ended. The past is the past and there is nothing to do but move ahead.”

Alexis set a hand on his leg, and her shoulders rose and fell as she breathed deep. She might feel sick but she was not going to faint. She absolutely did not panic when Soulis was trying to strangle her and drag her off the ship, she didn’t scream when Solomon turned the lights off She was not going to act like a toddler with a nightmare just because Soulis had been in her parents’ home. It was foolish to think he hadn’t. “I’m okay.” Or she would be.

He then looked at Alisson and said “And that brings us to me. So why my story needs that is… well…” and he took a breath.

“I’m around 162 years old, and I am not from this universe or reality.”

Kane

Alisson wasn’t sure what to make of that. “So you really meant you aren’t from around here in the most grandest sense. I suppose I should ask how you got here, but I doubt I would understand it.” She folded her hands and rested her arms on top of the table. Asking him how he got into science and about his family, now seemed like very frivolous questions. “I would ask if you’re alright, but that seems a rather invasive and rude question. And if you weren’t, at least physically, my daughter would be doing something about it.” Maybe she just needed to break the tension, “You look d@mn good for your age.”

Kane smiled slightly. “I was brought here through n accident. A race that doesn’t exist here was experimenting with a new kind of transporter. It… didn’t work as they intended. I got caught in an energy spike and wound up here. Well, not here here… but on a Star Fleet ship. Left my hand behind. I guess my friend that was trying to save me wanted a souvenir.” and he chuckled.

Alexis was quiet but suddenly started to laugh, not loudly, but a thought had just occurred to her. She and Hannah shared a ‘type.’ The thought was so absurd and unlike her her it startled a half laugh out of her. “Sorry.”

Alisson would always be a mother first, “Are you going to leave and take my daughter with you?”

Bonner

Kane laughed. “Oh f÷<k no.” and he laughed again for a second. “Not only do I have no idea how I would manage that, I don’t want to go back. That timeline had… problems. You see there, a Romulan yerrorist destroyed Vulcan. And I mean destroyed… nothing left. No warning.” Kane’s eyes unfocused for a moment. “We lost billions in just a few minutes.” He shook his head and refocused.

Anthony blinked, Vulcan destroyed? By a Romulan terrorist? The implications, the loss, everything would change in their history. Alisson looked stunned, “A…a whole planet?” Did they even have weapons that powerful now? Alexis was still leaned against him and she squeezed his leg gently. The news has shocked her as well.

“Besides, its not like I’d have anything to go back to.”

Kane

“Well, I guess that negates asking about your family.” Alisson knew this was all for her benefit. When she asked earlier she never would have guessed these would be the answers or that she’d be sitting in a room with another one of those devices. “Were..” she sighed, “I suppose…I honestly don’t want to know things I shouldn’t. Cowardly perhaps. Ummm…I guess what do you want to tell us? Other than you hate people because they always disappoint, and you have already planned my husband’s demise, what should we know?”

Bonner