Star Trek: Starbase 777 - comms-stations

One quick clothe change later, he had indeed dressed uhura style, this was after all as much game as learning experience, the ferengi went to sit on a comm's console putting a comm earing in a lobe and adjusting the input sound a bit lower than the preset!!, he spinned in his chair "This is comm hub testing in!, please only strategic data once the simulation starts" Hey who know's how long until his ensign self could be all command track again. "Let's win this with 90% margin!."

The comms consoles were a mess of jumbled transcriptions, though they came with their own headsets too to listen in directly on the communications of different teams. The name of the game was to filter out the chatter from the actually useful intel, and then distribute that among the teams... It wasn't the most exciting job by far, but for the purposes of the game, this was definitely a very important team to be on.

"It's not very busy here, huh?" Devinn said, taking a seat near Vokk and putting on a headset of their own. It seemed that while the comms stations were quiet, Devinn would step in to help. What was their relationship to the game, anyway?

Fine. Vesper's feet took him towards the quietest booth of the bunch— arguably it would be loud once everything filtered through, but he could exist somewhere between all the noise, slip through the cracks. He took a seat, and he put the helmet on.

"Yeah, i guess folk prefere the most straightforward job's, but glad to have you here!!" He waved at both devinn and vesper.

Vesper inclined his head towards Vokk, offering the ensign a ghost of a smile and a shrug. "I'll do my best."

"Okay, we're moving in," Seht's callout rang out, as well as the sound of Jayri being hailed.

A quick scan of the instructions and controls and Vesper tapped in to receive the call, preparing to forward everything to the other pilots.

"And comm tactical, see if they have a plan for us." Ngozi's statement came, alerting that the comms team would need to do something.

"Okay let's patch anything that pilot says trought comms!, wonder why that lieutenant ain't answering comms..." He goes over his console to see which part's are for which channels "I'm Vokk by the way nice meeting ya mister"

"Loads of people panic when confronted with an enemy. Especially if you're not trained specifically on how to react in hostile situations like this, it's hard to react in the most optimal way." Devinn was letting Vokk do the patching, standing by to assist where needed.

"We should prepare to be on the defensive," Jita's voice came through, alongside the chatter from the flight simulators.

"Yeah no judgement here, i'm green around the ears when it comes to hostile training myself hehe" But hey is what these sims we're good for, preparation without mortal risk! "Do you want to announce this one?" He asked Vesper, it was still a game, and he wanted the civilian to enjoy his comm officing for a day opportunity.

"Hey, everyone starts somewhere. At least you're not actually in there, right? You get to go home at the end of the day, so there's no better way to train that sort of stuff." They sounded slightly wistful as they said it, but there was still a smile on their face.

The tactical chatter filtered through, Seht's concerns about being split up being met with a strong rebuttal from Jita.

Rolled his eyes a bit, not at vesper, clearly at tactical... but still he listened...

"Seems like they've decided on a course of action," Devinn prompted Vokk and Vesper.

"Okay dok!...Vesper you can take any call's you want to" But he decided to take this one in the meantime.

"Hmmm, it seems the Gorn are pretty cautious right now, they're not shooting immediately." Devinn was keeping a close eye on the flight sim, not spending too much energy or brainpower on the VR team, though they had a transcript of their conversations running on their screen.

"This games so fun, who designed it?" He turned his chair, waving it side to side still with the high heel's from his uhura set up.

Devinn looked at Vokk, raising the eyebrow that wasn't half burnt off an immobilised by scar tissue. "I— we did," they started, correcting themself as they started talking. "We've got a lot of talented techies on our crew, and decided we should do something with that. Captain Aberi was kind enough to let us use his freighter as a sort of base of operations for our project." Devinn clearly cared a lot about the game and its success.

"Talented team," Vesper mused, doing his best to keep in touch with all the chatter in his ears.

"You must be like crazy smart! if you don't mind would you show me the behind scenes after the sim is over? I'm a dork that way" He smiled and seemed genuinely interested, the game was fun knowing how all the parts came together that be the cherry on top.

"Uh- I don't know about that," Devinn said, uncharacteristically cagey for a split second. However, he brightened back up again. "Although you know what, I'll ask the rest for you, if you all win something big, alright? Think of it like a potential reward for a job well done."

Made a quick note of when the gorn patrol had moved on.. "I get it trade secret's!, this captain Aberi sounds like family and i've never been big into rule of acquisition number 6... i know what prize is would like tho" Smirked at the orion, and let out a playful giggle.

Devinn winked at Vokk again, before tuning back into tactical comms. "Looks like there's trouble," they stated mildly.

"On it." This was a little fun. A little. (edited)

"Seems our friends in ground team engaged the enemy... man i'm kinda envious sounds like their having a blast!" Maybe he'll use the fighting programs later. "You really made those commandos bloodthirsty hehe."

"Oh, the assistance NPCs?" Devinn seemed confused for a second, before they got what Vokk was talking about. "We wanted to use a realistic rebellion scenario."

"Their good, i know some of our engineer's may want to take a look at their coding" Atleast from what he vaguely knew of starbase engineering "I probably shouldn't talk this much if i'm put in charge of real comm's but that's mostly an operations job."

"There's something wrong with Kanna's ship," Devinn said out loud, ignoring Vokk's last comment in favour of yapping himself. His face, normally extremely expressive even with its scar-based immobility, was carefully blank, an expression maintained with a level of precision it was suddenly hard to imagine his cheerfulness as anything other than a careful act, as well.

"Not enough ships in the air to take down the attackers. Tactical is asking about dispatching NPC ships?" Vesper asked Devinn, inclining his head towards him.

Devinn sucked his air in through his teeth, momentarily distracted from the firefight the flight simmers were enduring. "I can try," they said, sounding woefully uncertain for someone who was supposed to be in charge of the game. He hunched over his console as he typed out a rapid message, and sent it without letting anyone read it.

"What, you can't just spawn more?" His lips quirked into a frown. Not usually how this stuff works, man.

"It doesn't quite work that way, no," Devinn just said, gritting his teeth and doing his best.

"Well what would be the fun in it, if it was easy! people love holo-souls for a reason!" He said cheerfully, probably in part because he wasn't the one in the teamfights.

"Uh some folk seem upset over there...mind if i use my normal comms?."

"Of course, go ahead," Devinn said, distracted. They seemed stressed.

"What the hell was that glitch...think you're npc's went a bit awry there Devinn, are you like part of the lore?." For now he dismissed it as a simulation bug, but he was starting to note a pattern.

3

Devinn sucked in air through his teeth again, but didn't answer the question.

"Hey seem's like the ground team is mostly done, unless theres like a boarding event but no spoilers."

"I don't control the NPCs," Devinn pointed out, voice somewhat strained. "I can't tell you what they'll- I mean, I could, but that's not the point. They just- do things."

"Man if you manage to integrate those programs in a holodeck, you will be like crazy loaded" And he guessed it would be cool for everyone else too?.

"It would be something," Devinn agreed, though their heart didn't seem in it.

"...Am i speaking too much?" He asked sincerely, he thought this guy was cool, but maybe he was distracting him from his job "Uh, got it we can do this later over that pizza."

"No, no! You're okay, I'm sorry. I want you to have fun. I just also want everything to go well, you know? I'm just a little-" Devinn searched for the correct word for a solid four seconds before giving up "-stressed."

"Obviously," he answered flatly, listening to everyone chattering away. "it's your big reveal. No wonder you're stressed.*

"Hey breath, i will guilt trip the other's into leaving good reviews if needed" He did start noting stuff but he figured that the orion was mostly worried about todays npc's dialogue glitches.

Devinn was losing their composure, noticeably stiffening at the words "big reveal", although they shook it off quickly. "I'm not worried about reviews. Anything that went wrong we can take back into development with us."

"Hey there's nothing wrong with admitting you're worried, how about you tell us what is making you stressed, if you want to."

"No, no. It really isn't something I should bother you with. And besides, I'd really have to get deep into the mechanics of game design, and I just shouldn't be that distracted. It's a bad look for me, right?" Devinn managed to at least smile in a way that reached their eye, clearly somewhat charmed by Vokk's earnestness.

Gave a smile back, even as he made a mental note to make sure mr totally fine here was actually fine after this, then he returned to the comm's, not like he had ignored them.

Side eyed devinn... surely is another bug...

Vesper paused, listening intently to the VR team as they chattered back and forth. If his finger slipped and clicked the button to broadcast that information to the other teams, surely, it wasn't his fault. It was an accident. Accidents happen.

Well he wasn't actually trained on op's... but they were on the comm's stations maybe he could... eavesdrop into the npc channel being used, if he could figure out what that channel even was, or if it was set to this... or if that button was to listen in or jam comms, may uhura's spirit guide him.

Well, it wasn't not possible... to be clear, there were ways to communicate with the NPCs, but they required administrator permissions that Vokk didn't have. "What are the both of you- what are you doing?" Devinn asked, catching up on both Vesper and Vokk's actions.

"Uh...Nothing.... just playing with the dials, seeing what channel's there are, what do you use NPC comm's for?" He smiled again, just as he had all the times before.

Vesper blinked. "Trying to figure things out while we have a moment to breathe. Testing the controls that were given to me," he answered cooly, easily.

"That's-" Devinn cut themself off, deciding instead to make a note on a personal PADD. "I guess I should have expected people to get creative with their tools..."

"That's what you wanted from a public demo," he mused, a half-smile quirking up his expression, "isn't it?"

Drumming his fingers against his console, he continued; "Where did the inspiration for the simulator come from?"

"Is it not obvious?" Devinn asked right back, "it's not like the Gorn are known to be the galaxy's gentlest masters."

"How did you get around the character's doing a moriarty?, i promise not to share!" He actually seemed genuinely curious.

Vesper shrugged. "I figured, but that's not exactly what I meant." A pause, and a tilt of his head, eyes lingering on the scars across many of the group. "Something important to you, then? I can understand that."

Devinn cringed a little at the assessment that the conflict with the Gorn was important to him, though he didn't deny it. "It's a realistic combat scenario, right? Gorn are known to take prisoners of war, to use as slave labour. A rebellion rises up, trying to grow its numbers and give the Gorn some payback."

"Sure," he said, noting one channel had gone very quiet as the VR crew was taking a break. Now would be his chance, then?.. "That's not just it, though, is it? Just what else is going on here?"

"I don't know, the gorn we have on station is a sweetheart. Also, yeah are the NPC's supposed to adress the players as players?" In fact since when do npc slip over their tongues... (edited)

"The people we have on board are just fine, doesn't take away the pain that the governments have caused." He waved a dismissive hand.

Devinn clicked his tongue. "Not all Gorn are bad, but I'm sure there's a reason they're on the station here instead of in the Gorn fleet." He didn't address any of the other questions, in a clearly deliberate fashion.

Vesper exhaled— a little frustrated, a lot tired, and not at all interested in the whole ordeal, no matter how important it was. "I'd like some answers," he reminded them coolly. "Everyone is idling anyway, besides the pilots. What have you got to lose?"

Devinn hadn't been paying attention to the comms for a while now, but finally they turned to face Vesper fully, their limited facial mobility accentuating a fundamental weariness that overtook them as soon as they stopped smiling. "What answers would you like to receive from me, sir. Please don't expect me to flay myself before you to make sense of something you do not understand. I don't have to."

"Woah hey we're that come from... look is there something you're not saying?, you been less friendly since the first NPC started to pivot" Honesty was, not always the best policy but it was starfleet's. (edited)

"I'm- I'm stressed. I'm stressed, and you're asking me personal questions that are vague and expecting me to simply tell you everything you want to know." They even started sounding tired now.

Seemed worried now like genuinely worried "Hey if theres something you feel you cannot get help with, maybe is a good clue that you may need help with it... i'm just saying you don't seem to be enjoying the sim anymore and you don't seem willing to discuss why."

He inclined his head barely, arching an eyebrow. "It's obvious there's something else behind the scenes here. I have my suspicions—" and not enough evidence to prove it— "but I would like it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. The noise suppression, for example, broken by one of the VR team. That sort of thing isn't tied to an in-game avatar, but it would be tied to something else. You could have been hiding anything from the team at any time, behind the curtain. Anything that gives away the real game, is that it?"

"Just ask me a direct question. If you have your suspicions, be clear about them, don't dance around it with this vagueness. Please." Devinn's head swivelled as more people approached, now, plastering another smile on his face as they came over. It looked almost perfect.

"Why are you're npc's talking and behaving so strange? like is not something they should have coded in...What is all this about sacrifice and not letting us hear, why did one said atleast the players can leave, they seem aware of something" Well he wanted directness.

"Oh, Devinn, darling!" He said as he entered the room, with the sing-sing cadence of someone saying 'honey, I'm home!' "Tell me something: is this real? This 'simulation' , quote-unquote? Asking for several friends."

Devinn fought hard not to flinch, and even if they'd been inclined to answer Vokk's direct questions, with the arrival of new people they clearly stopped themself from doing so. "You'll have to define what you mean by "real" for me, my love. It's very convincing, right?"

Sak entered just after Eshen. And stopped when he saw both Devinn and Eshen. "Ah great, you're here. I suppose you've already been asked the million-dollar-question. So, whats the catch of this game?"

Holly almost collided with him when Sak suddenly stopped walking in front of her, catching herself just in time not to. She frowned slightly as she caught sight of the person seemingly in charge ... Devinn, was it? She glanced from them to Sak, to Eshen and then back to Devinn as she listened to their exchange.

"Try a little too convincing, darling." What? She still remembered that she and Eshen had promised them dinner. They so far had earned the term! "He means: have you just put us to control drones in the middle of an active war operation and called it a game?"

He look's at marze, then at devinn... oh, oh latinum, please don't let it be that.

Well fuck.. maybe she should have had more restraint if THAT was really what was going on. C’Tessa hoped it wasn’t, but the possibility was there and so it was eating at her anyway.

T’Shael was there, here to add some Vulcan stoicism to the chaos, though if what Marze said was true, then chaos was sure to get more extreme. She did not want to be be true, but logically… things were beginning to add up.

Holly suddenly found herself not so envious of those who had started the simulation earlier anymore. She had just gotten away from war, she didn't need to get caught up in another.

Their grin twisted into somewhat of a grimace, though they recovered quickly, keeping up a cheerful façade. "Well, that's a bit of a harsh term, isn't it? The Gorn Hegemony refuses to declare war, no matter how big the movement gets." Which wasn't much of an answer, and yet it was a very clear answer at the same time.

"You lied about what this is, is the point," Holly finally spoke up, Devinn's pretend nonchalance about this making her uneasy to say the least. (edited)

Nausea... he remembered the death civilians and the death guards, and blown up ship... The blood.. his face went orange.. as he hurked, this was just training!, he hadn't even seen an away mission before, his hands trembled as he leaned on the console. "You're... you don't mean..." He tried to push the memories of the firefight from his head.

Oh, so they were playing games here, too! That's fine. He could play. "Need I remind you, Devinn, that you clearly need us more than we need you. Tell me, everyone: aren't you all terribly bored of this dull game? Perhaps we should all quit - and with the others, too?"

“Broken audio, “NPCs” talking about us behind our backs…” They scoffed, “Up your game, dude.”

"War is war, I don't particularly give a fuck how the Gorn Hegemony describes it." Marze shrugged. Despite the high energy in the room, the Klingon-Romulan actually stated that pretty calmly. "I'm just trying to understand what kind of genius plan that would be, I mean... look around, you got civilians playing this 'game'. You got officers doing jobs they never even touched before because they thought no lives were at stake and it was all for fun! If this were to be real, why would you risk a mission allowing unprepared people on it? It would have been stupid to have done so."

They shut their eyes, trying not to think about the ethical ramifications of all of this. They’d killed people under military guise before, why was it getting them now? “No one consented to this bullshit. You can’t say an actual mission is a game and then use real people to kill and risk other people’s lives.”

T’Sheal agreed with Marze, appreciating her calm in the situation. She was still trying to wrap her head around the situation. It was just so illogical. “The Gorn shot by the team wearing the headsets, I take it that those are real people who were killed?”

"OH SHIT RIGHT!!"

2

19:41

He would just go channel by channel if needed.

William, having followed the VR group into the comms station to confront Devinn, had just come to a stark realization. Although he wasn't sure if he had, since the chaos of battle made things difficult to discern, a thought crossed his mind. Had he actually killed someone? For the first time? Was that something he and the team had just done?

Devinn waited out the complaints. And waited. And waited some more. It seemed nobody was satisfied with the real purpose of the game.... hm! That would at least explain why he wasn't just upfront about it. "Yes," they started, confirming everyone's suspicions. When they spoke, the smile left their face, but they didn't allow the weary grief to overtake their features like it had before. Instead, a focussed look graced their features, making them at once look more like a grizzled veteran than a twenty-something year old game developer. "Yes, you operated drones, and yes, we lied to you all about this merely being a game. You killed Gorn for the purpose of liberating slaves. You have been instruments in our fight against an enemy that sees us as subhuman. Do you feel bad about it?"

Looked at devinn, and it wasn't anger, but is not like pity and compassion are always nicer "Just stay... stay still okay..."

He noted and appreciated the change. It seemed Devinn had been putting up quite an act! Listen: everyone else might feel morally opposed and/or conflicted about it, but he couldn't help but admire this kind of manipulation when he saw it, the same way you can acknowledge someone was a skilled fighter even when they were kicking your ass personally, like game respects game sort of thing. Or maybe that was also just him. "I'm just wondering, then - why did you need us to do all this at all? You seem to have a force of your own to deal with this problem."

"Feelings? You want to focus on feelings?" That did it, as Marze looked them straight in the eye, anger inflaming within her. Boiling and green. "I'm not scared of battle, I'm not afraid of the killing, I have killed before and I will likely do it again. But this..." She gestured around. "Wasting valuable resources at the hands of those who don't know better? Trapping people who never signed up for the violence in it? Instruments? You got cadets here, civilians! Get yourself able fighters! I know people who would join you in a heartbeat! It's not just brains that you are lacking, it's honor! Using people, like they have!"

Oh god, now she was conflicted. Like it had been to kill people who owned slaves, but she had been USED for it. People who were not trained, people who were civilians, were used for it. Plenty of people would be happy to volunteer for a mission like that if they actually knew, but they used people who had no idea what they signed up for. “Why.. you could have easily just recruited people who actually know what they’re doing, and you decided to get a bunch of random civilians and officers to pilot drones for you? Even if your cause is noble, you just ruined your chances of doing anything else for those people with this stunt of yours if you get prosecuted.” She said, hands on her hips, but it didn’t really look threatening given she was 4’10.

Holly watched everyone's reactions carefully. She was disgusted at what they had been put through – and the fact that she herself had not done any of the killing didn't make the facts any less real. "I agree that you should have found people able and willing instead of luring civilians under the pretense of a game," she eventually stated, "What even is the point of that?"

"We could be court martialled!, we could be kicked out, not to mention the moral implication's of the hostage situation." (edited)

“I do not believe that will happen, as we could not and have not consented to what happened here. The only people who could get into legal trouble are the people running this game off of false pretenses.” She explained, being a security cadet had given her a pretty solid understanding of the law. She did however give Devinn a traditional Vulcan glare. (edited)

1

Gave a small relieved nod at T'shael's words.

"You didn't agree to kill people, you agreed to play a game," Holly nodded at T'Shael's statement, "Nobody is getting court martialled."

"Wasting resources? Who said anything about wasting resources?" They looked straight back at Marze with that deeply, uncomfortably analytical gaze. "You're a renewable resource. A drone can be patched up. If it gets damaged, you replace the circuitry. If it gets disabled, you simply retrieve it later to repair it. We have that capability. What we don't have is bodies. Even if we liberated every last slave the Gorn keep, they would need months of rehabilitation and food before they were able to fight. And that is to say nothing of their willingness, or their tactical skill. You'd have to spend at least another month training the ones who were willing." Devinn stood up then, rising from his seat to stand nearly nose to nose with Marze, though they came about an inch short. "And all the while, our people would be killed, captured, tortured for information. Our communications are actively being suppressed and blocked outside of Gorn territory, especially to the Federation. Everyone we can reach has already proven the Gorn are a much more useful ally than we are." Devinn's words were pointed, but not angry. They were simply laying out the truth in as plain and simple terms as they knew them.

"Devinn was this Captain Aberi's idea?,"

“By doing this, you shot yourself directly in the foot, you know. Expending some time is still better than getting caught like you’ve been now. You and anyone who were involved in this will be found and investigated, and even if you get out of any punishment for tricking us all into this, you will have lost more time you could have spent fighting that it would have even taken to train willing people. Stupid risk to take, if you ask me.” She glared, as now she was pissed that she’d probably have to take time out of her life for this investigation since she was involved in it now. Time she could have spent playing actual fighting GAMES.

"Shouldn't someone inform the other stations?" Holly suddenly realised, "Make everyone stop participating, so we can get to the bottom of this without digging ourselves in deeper?"

"Oh so you'd rather have unwilling and unskilled people that are not from your people. Brilliant! And if this or another mission had gone south because you got too many unable people by bad luck? Because some player decided to pull out a crazy one cause it was only a game? How many lives would you lose then... And how long did you think this stunt would have hold? Doesn't matter, you already miscalculated that since we clocked your ass." Even if Marze could understand their war and the desperation it probably took to make a move like this, her anger at the dishonesty was too much. "Yes, thank you!" She gestured to C'Tessa. "Our intel agrees!"

“A plan like this can only work once, and it will not stop any of the bad things happening to your people.” T’Shael pointed out, logical as always and maybe just maybe compartmentalizing away the fact that she had taken lives. “What will happen tomorrow, after month from now, a year?”

"Unfortunately his logic is sound, strong drones that are outsourced generate more bodies per gun... is still very insane, and it show's he's acting out of trauma, but eh."

“The logic is stupid, it’s a one-shot gun. The second you’re found out, you’re done for.” She said to Vokk.

He listened to what C'Tessa said, head tilted, arms folded, one finger over his lips, in a thoughtful expression. "...To avoid interfering with the Gorn hegemony up until now, only to break that rule just to arrest a rebellious faction attempting to free themselves from slavery... No, I don't think the Federation will do that, actually. We don't want a war, and we don't want bad ethics or optics. There's a distinct possibility that, in order to avoid conflict with the Hegemony while also not taking sides against the rebels, the Federation will do nothing at all to interfere, while claiming that since they were tricked into helping on this occasion, their hands are clean. In this way, Devinn secures Federation help without ever having to oblige us to pick a side. Am I correct, love?"

T’Shael looked to Vokk, she was no dumbfounded,because she was Vulcan, but if she were not… dumbfounded would be correct. “The plan has very little logic behind it.” She said before turning to Eshen. There was logic behind his words, the federation wished to be seen as doing the right thing, the right thing would be to help with the situation now that they knew of it. However she could not bring herself to believe it was anywhere near a good plan. Many innocents now had blood on their hands…. Herself included. (edited)

"Okay yeah it was doomed to blow up on their faces... i don't know guess desperate people and all that...I'm not saying is not fucked up i'm just saying ragtag freed slaves do fucked up stuff."

"Bullshit," Holly grimaced at Eshen's logic. Although she wished he was ... more wrong, in a way. "You're right, the Federation doesn't want a war, but the Federation also protects its people. To think Devinn and whoever else is behind this will get away with it because the Federation can't be bothered is ... well, bullshit."

"Securing Federation help is a too strong sentence." Marze crossed her arms. "It was a single shot. Federation might not persecute or punish, but Starfleet certainly will be aware of this and take measures so that no more 'games' are hosted and no more officers are fooled. So I hope you start working on rehabilitating those prisoners we might manage to save today, love, cause this was a one time deal." Then it seemed something dawned on her. "Also, terrible to change the subject, the mission isn't over. Is it? Did we escape? Got too distracted by your shenanigans, have the ships escaped?!" She looked at Devinn with an alarmed expression.

"Regardless of wether the rebel's scape now or not we cannot interfere anymore, since we know... i... commander you're the highest rank here" He turned to holly.

"Captain Aberi? No, no." Devinn actually smiled a joyless little smile at the suggestion. "She's just a kind soul who heard our plight and offered up her resources. No, the idea was all mine." In a more fun situation an explosion would have gone off at that moment, or a mic would have been dropped. Unfortunately, this was not a fun situation. "You do realise that we have proof of concept now, right?" It didn't sound gleeful when they said it like this. "The communications connection we established between Captain Aberi's vessel and our own holds up, even in Federation space. We have the blueprints for the consoles, the connections, the drones, everything. Even if you arrest everyone here and hold Captain Aberi grounded here until an investigation has been completed, we can and will repeat our experiment elsewhere. Orions are always fractured enough to not talk to each other, Ferengi love a business opportunity, Romulan Empire loyalists love shooting other species." It was an unsympathetic estimation of other species' general affiliations, but perhaps not an unfair one. There was something sinister about the way Devinn described making use of the Romulan Free State's xenophobia, but then in a war of survival, morality took a backseat to an opportunity to get the upper hand on the enemy. "We engineered ourselves out of the problem. The problem has a solution, and we found it. Implementation was never going to be the issue." (edited)

2

"...But what about you?" He asked, brow furrowed. "I may not believe the Federation will interfere with your organisation as a whole, but it's likely you'll get arrested now that we've caught you. Are you okay with that?" He had a feeling they either were, or they had an escape plan for after this.

Well she was, to say the very least, nauseous. Not at the killing, or the fight, or the violence. She, in fact, wished right now nothing less than to beat Devinn until the last breath left his dishonest lips. "Careful who you choose to fool, Devinn... you might bring yourself more enemies than just the Gorn in the future. Fuck this, and fuck you and your little plan." As of a last action, Marze spat on the ground right next to their feet. The same place she wished she could bury them. And she left, saying no more.

Holly's eyes widened slightly when she was made aware of her status by Vokk. All she had wanted was a little social fun. "Right," she sighed, running a hand over the bottom half of her face as she thought for a moment, "It's not on us to determine punishments. None of us are in the position to do that. What we have to do is inform the people still in the simulations of what's going on – let those who want to stop do so, give the civilians a chance to leave." She watched Marze do just that.

He had been listening, and to say that he was horrified was an understatement. This was worse than anything he had done in his 'training'. He looked at Marze, and he bit his lip, messing with his fingers. The ends justify the means," he whispered, wisdom from Terrh that he tried to ignore. (edited)

Horrified at frankly everything that had been said, Nenn stepped back, watching it all unfold. “This is a fucking… monstrous thing to do.” They exhaled, “You forced civillians to kill actual people. Unknowingly. Does that not bother you?”

Emotional situations did not make T’Shael feel nauseous, but that didn’t mean that T’Shael was just fine with everything. She understood that this was a desperate situation involving harm to many people, but she still did not agree. “At what point will it end?” She asked calmly.

"Sir should i contact security.. or the Captain, or both?."

"Both," Holly nodded at Vokk, *Tell security to get here with a team, tell the Captain there's been ... an issue involving Devinn. Keep it concise, make sure it's marked urgent."

In a way, Devinn had expected this would happen. To expect to keep up a ruse indefinitely is folly, and they were way smarter than that. Had they expected it to fall apart so soon? No, but, well. There was a reason they'd come to the Federation for it. An arrest was a preferable situation to be in over being killed on the spot. In that regard, Devinn had actually been incredibly careful about who they'd chosen to fool. "Arrest is a much safer option than death," they answered Eshen, which could both be a reference to the above, or to the certainty of death that awaited them all at the hands of the Gorn. "The plan was very elaborate, actually," they defended themself. "There was nothing little about it. It took months of planning, of engineering, of building and testing. And as for when it ends... when all my people are free. When the Gorn keep no more slaves. That's when it ends." They looked at Eshen again, their gaze strong and defiant. "I knew what the consequences of it all unravelling were. I made the choice to risk it anyway."

Thank the gods for their helmet, because their lips curled into a grimace large enough to offend. What the hell was Devinn talking about, ending this when enough people died. There was no rightful killing, not to them. Not the slavers, not the slaves— although they found shame in that. Perhaps from having been on the wrong side of this. Somehow, they kept silent, fuming on the spot. How dare they even suggest anything like that, involving civilians.

"Nobody is denying that what the Gorn are doing is cruel and unjust," Holly crossed her arms as she regarded Devinn, "It's the fact that we didn't consent to being made into pawns in your game, being forced to kill without knowledge of it – without you considering the trauma you might be putting untrained civilians and cadets through. You're forcing your beliefs and your actions onto others. That is what's getting you arrested, not the fact that your plan was to free slaves." It was simply an entirely wrong approach altogether.

"We.. we are wasting breath, the type of help he needs for this none of us can give him.." He slouched on the chair, he felt way too silly on this get up now, he should change.

"Nobody would have known this was the case if you hadn't pursued that thread of investigation," Devinn pointed out. "Some people may have had their suspicions, and maybe the realistic nature of the "game" would have freaked some out. But you could have lived in ignorance, and helped everyone else live in ignorance, too. In a way, haven't you done this to yourself?"

"Stop it!!" He couldn't help it that time "I get it, you're hurt, wathever happened to you was unfair, but stop acting like you didn't know this would hurt inoccent people, atleast be honest about it!." He caught himself, and looked anywhere else "S-sorry.. i just.." He still heard the scream's, what are these ears good for. "I, think i need to talk with a councellor."

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Finally he spoke up, his own voice wavering slightly as he tried to come up with the words. "Someone would have found out eventually... someone would have asked questions eventually..."

Holly herself hadn't done shit. She had shown up and tagged along – but Devinn didn't need to know that. "Either way," she sighed, "You're under arrest. It's in your best interest to give in and follow me. Otherwise I'm sure there's more than enough motivation in this room alone to get you to do so by force." (edited)

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"You didn't see me dance around the subject for ages before you all showed up. I could have simply not answered the questions." Devinn rolled his eyes a little, then held out his wrists to mime being handcuffed. "No, I expected this," they just told Holly.

"Is, is fine you're going to a place to get help" He mostly said that to himself.

"Go and take a few moments to yourself, Ensign," Holly told Vokk calmly, noting how distressed he seemed to have become over the past few minutes alone, before she gestured for Devinn to follow her and left the area for the brig.

He nodded at Holly's words and then, taking Devinn's words literally, tied their wrists with something. I will not say what. Use your imagination.

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