The Madness of Ro' HoD – Sanity regained
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Crewman Recruit UKnown Uknown & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Ne' Michelle "Mike" Young & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene

Previous EntryNext Entry
Post Details

Title   Sanity regained
Mission   The Madness of Ro' HoD
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Crewman Recruit UKnown Uknown & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Ne' Michelle "Mike" Young & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Posted   Fri Dec 11, 2015 @ 12:30am
Location   Starbase 24
Timeline   Three days later
The FHew docked with very little finesse. She touched down with rather more bump than was necessary in Bruce's opinion. He glanced at the rest of the crew assembled in the landing bay. Their faces were a mix of emotions.

The rear hatch lowered slowly and Ro' walked down the plank. As he approached HoS stepped forward.

"We all received a message from you calling us away from the ship. It wasn't until we found May'bel fighting with himself that we realized we had been tricked."

Ro' nodded, "They stole the ship, but I brought it back."

He looked at each of them in turn. Some faces were angry, some concerned, some just confused at what was going on.

"Clones," Ro' said. "An entire crew of clones, made to look and think like us. They even believed they were us, right till the end."

Ro' suddenly looked more tired than any of the crew had seen him before, "I put them down. Each one of them, by my hand. They deserved that much, even as copies of you. We talk idly about honouring the memories of warriors; these things were memories of you. In so many ways they were each of you until the moment they would presumably have been activated by some enemy."

"If that had happened they would have lost their honour, and their actions would have taken it from you as well."

He sat on one of the crates, with a grunt and closed his eyes for a moment. "I spent the last three days cleaning up the mess I left. There is some damage to the ship, but nothing irreparable. Jeeves is already working on some of it."

He opened his eyes and looked at the crew, his crew, who had all entrusted their lives into his hands.

"Ask your questions. I am sure you all have many."

Marie was about to strike him but remembered her place. He could respond with impunity. He could beat her senseless and no-one would lift a finger in her defence.

I wonder if Tell’s clone was attracted to mine? Marie thought. Probably not. Clones are meant to be exact duplicates, aren’t they? Still, they might look the same but they don’t necessarily think the same. I think I read that somewhere.

"Wow I had a clone, that's is so cool," said Tell "Did she look exactly like me? Did she have the scar on my neck and the same haircut? What about her knives? Was she a good engineer like me? I bet she was. I'll bet she was the last one to go down?"

No point in dwelling on that, though. Marie thought with a wistful glance in Tell's direction. That will only lead to despair and renewed, unrequited longing.

The woman stepped up. "I take it I was one of the first to die? I have no memories of anything or anything, so I pretty sure I would of been no help. And.... I take it we can't regain memories from these clones..?"

Ro' shook his head, "You were not the first to die; nor you the last, Tell. You all died well, being who you thought you were to your fullest."

"As for memories, no. I dumped what was left of the bodies into space. They were decaying rapidly and I did not believe you would want to deal with your own rotted corpses. I understand Humans can be... funny about that."

The woman mumbled under her breath "Shame..."

"It's a pity", said the woman, a little annoyed. "If that clone of me has the slightest chance of learning about who I was, then extracting those memories might help me understand who I actually am...."

Marie could agree with Ro' that. She didn’t like dealing with dead bodies at the best of times. Having to look at herself laid out on a table was a vision out of nightmares.

Tag: Any

Ro' took a deep breath and stood straight, "We have our ship back, and I have my crew back. We are on a path to glory and we will not let death deprive us. The Ninth Precept is to Die Standing Up. So let us stand, now each of us has died, and show the universe exactly what it takes to kill Klingons."

That dragged Marie’s thoughts away from the macabre. Rarely did Ro’ include non-Klingons in such a statement.

Ro' gave a sideways glance and added in less impressive tones, "... and associated other races and affiliations."

That’s more like the Ro’ we know and hate, Marie thought. She smiled inwardly. Now I can be certain he’s not a clone!

Hichop pondered for a moment. "Clones! Died well. Wish I was there."

"Yeah" agreed Tell "Would have loved to have seen it, could have given Tell some advice might have got something in return."

"May I ask as to how you stumbled upon myself? and at what time? I am curious to know how much of a fight I actually put up" Mike asked.

"There were no glorious battles," Ro' replied. "It was quick and as painless as I could make it. Now, report to your stations. We have a new mission that is waiting for us."