Chapter III: Reunited

"Well, even if we don't have anything left of the slug you're trying not to mention," she says, smiling lopsidedly at her engineer, "I have a feeling the Four might have some samples, or could get them pretty easily. If they're testing humanoids for genetic compatibility with specific slugs, they have to be testing against something. I'll contact their captain and see."Cass listens to Zephyr's slightly disappointing but not entirely fruitless report. "At least it sounds like they haven't turned Lt. Felt into a host yet. M1-K3 might be in a bit of trouble, especially if they return him partially disassembled, but it's not like we don't have his specs and maps and whatnot on file." She pretends not to notice the look that passes between Moira and Zephyr as her lack of technical competence is made obvious once again.

She's about to take her leave to go back to the bridge to hail the Four and talk terms of prisoner exchange with the captain when the full impact of what she's proposing really hits her. She's going to try to bring these bastards back to life. Spacefleet is ordering her to bring them back. To reconstitute the slug who'd tried to eat his way into her body, and who had actually succeeded in doing that to Marbo.

This is too much for Spacefleet to ask of her, too much to expect her to ask of her crew - especially of Marbo and Zephyr.

Realizing that she's standing motionless and staring into the middle distance while the the rest of them watch her with wary expressions, Cass puts the mask of command firmly back in place, says "Carry on," and leaves the temporary medbay.

On her way to the bridge, Cass comms Alex and requests her presence on the bridge. When she steps off the turbolift, she tells Darcy, "When Lt. Comm. Lloyd arrives on the bridge, hail the captain of the Four. I need to have a talk with him."

Alex arrives at the bridge promptly. It can’t have been more than a few moments between receiving the message and making her way here.

"Commander," she says and stands ready nearby to await instructions.

Cass nods at Alex. "I'm about to give him a good news, bad news scenario. Feel free to step in if I'm mucking it up."

She turns to the screen when the captain appears. With a nod and a small smile, she says, "Captain, good to see you. Thank you for letting down the shields earlier. I take it you've had no further issues with dissenting crew members."

"Yes," she says, keeping her own poker face. "I've been authorized to continue negotiating with your people for the release of Consortium prisoners in exchange for your people who have been caught in our biofilters. My superiors, however, believe that for the number of your people you're asking us to return, we should be receiving more Consortium people. Perhaps you could tell me how many hosts you have who are within the window of non-permanence currently?"

Cass maintains an icy little smile. "Captain, let's please be accurate in our semantics. If your people can be returned to you alive, we haven't killed them. Whereas the Consortium captives you have forced into being hosts can certainly be said to have been killed. Not that I'm turning down the offer. I just want us to be comparing apples to apples."

She adjusts herself in the captain's chair minutely, just enough to push her left shoulder slightly toward Alex, hoping to signal that she's open to any input the diplomat may want to offer, either on the communication or privately.

Alex makes a small gesture to the commander, requesting a private word. When Cass makes her excuse to the captain of the Four and mutes communications, Alex approaches and says, "My inclination would be to correct the semantics in your reply. Give the correct phrasing -- emphasize it even, if it's an important distinction -- but pointing out differences in semantics makes them the point of negotiation, rather than what you actually want to discuss. You're absolutely right that we haven't killed any of their people if we can return them alive, but..."

She tilts her head with a sudden thought. "This might be completely impossible, but... would there be a way to restore our people that have become hosts in a similar fashion to how we're restoring the parasites?"

Cass stares at Alex for a moment. "You mean... why don't we restore the people who've been taken as hosts from transporter patterns and essentially create clones of them?" When Alex hesitates, Cass clears her throat and says, "I mean, of course you're aware of the ethical regulations that govern the use of transporter patterns and... You know what? Never mind. You're right about the semantics thing. Good note. Thanks. I'll move on."

She gives Alex one last glance, looking a little concerned, and gestures to Darcy to restore the connection. "Captain, we accept the terms you've proposed. Let's move on to discuss the technical details. My chief engineer has been working from the calculations yours sent us, and her results indicate that the restoration of your people is indeed possible, but very tricky. She believes that only one attempt will be possible, and that it might not result in complete success."

"There is one thing that would increase the chance of success - DNA of the people we're trying to restore. Would you be able to provide that?"

Cass isn't ready to commit to any plan for the exchange yet. She's acutely aware that Adm. Hao failed to give instructions regarding the invitation to the parasites' home base. Taking her scout ship alone deep into enemy territory with a comatose captain and so many injured is high on the list of things Cass doesn't want to do.

"First things first, captain. Please do send the bioscan data of your missing people. And if your engineer has any other suggestions or data that might be helpful, we'd welcome the input. Cassano out."

When the connection is broken, she tells Darcy, " Naturally, anything they send should be quarantined and thoroughly scanned for viruses and other contaminations before we do anything with it. "

Alex tilts her head, looking back at Darcy with one eyebrow raised. "By all means," replies Alex. "All crew members’ Spacefleet histories should be available to the commanding officer. I am happy to comply. In fact, I’ll send the Commander my entire service record myself. I have nothing to hide."

Was that a slight emphasis on that last ‘I’? Could be.

Moira gets a "ping" on her datapad, and goes to the nearest terminal to review the data. She wants Marbo's two cents on this.

Oi, Doctor, what do yeh think?