Editing Reverse Technologies group (section)

====Meeting the Scientists====
''(USS Nimitz - Corridor - Lt(jg) Zach Falthgood - 2045)''

Zach crossed his arms as civilians and Starfleet personnel of all types brushed by him in a small flood. They were all in small groups, being loosely led by a Nimitz crewmember, to find their quarters. 

Of course, given that more then three quarters of them were civilians, that actually meant it was hardly controlled chaos, waves of voices and protests and questions. The usual awe of being aboard a Starship, the usual grousing that someone hadn't gotten enough sleep, or to be careful with this and that bit of equipment, and the usual tall tails about the past and history in general. 

This was the type of crowd he had spent nearly half his working career with, mostly at archaeological digs on old T'Kon worlds, though he also spent time on Verniz to study the newly discovered Ichon society and her technology. One didn't major in Reverse Technology Integration without spending at least some of their career buried in technology that didn't originate within the Federation. 

He smiled as he noticed one of the faces he was looking for, and started moving forward against the tide. It wasn't as easy as it appeared, pushing against dozens of people who were intent on finding their beds or starting discussion groups for whatever had been found. He weaved in and out of people better then his large frame would suggest, until he came face to face with the wizened old man that he had come looking for. "Grandpa, d*mn have you gotten older!"

The man paused in his speaking, to another Doctor that Zach recognized but couldn't place a name to, and turned to face him. "Zach Falthgood? Zach, the guy who never drops his shades and INSISTS on calling me 'Grandpa', Falthgood ?"

The old man's face broke into a grin, and he surged forward to give the 7 foot man a hug. "Its been a long time, pipsqueak!"

Zach nodded, "Yeah, since Pyylarn Eight as I recall, that major T'Kon port site."

"Starfleet never did know what they had there, and you certainly didn't make a point of explaining it to them!" the four and a half foot man said as he reached up to poke Zach in the chest. "You knew as well as any of us just what lay under the surface there!"

Zach put a theatrical finger to his lips. "My report ended up getting most of the project sacked and classified, as it happened. I am, and I quote, "paid to rip their computers apart and plug the components into our Starships, not tell horror stories and fables about doomsday races, machines and endless sources of energy!' "

Zach snorted, "End quote."

The old man put out a hand and turned Zach around with amazing strength both for his size and apparent age. What was little known was the little man wasn't much older then Zach, nor was he human... It was something Zach had found out only by reading the man's file not long after they had first met. As he recalled, the wizened old individual had come blundering into his lab yelling about something while Zach had been dismantling something of particular.. Erm, instability. In short, the loss of concentration had nearly killed them all. 

The old man steered them into a set of quarters, and he breathed a sigh of relief as his form dissolved into something a lot larger. The 'old man' was a Chameloid, a shape shifter, and it was something Zach never got tired of watching. He sat in one of the chairs and leaned back. With care he pushes his shades up on his forehead, then folded his hands together in his lap. "Quite a gathering we have going here, I haven't seen so many of these people in once place in... Ages." he finally said, "In fact, I cant recall ever seeing such a collection together ever before in my life." He cocked his head to the side, "...and I haven't exactly been a stranger to large scale finds when it comes to old technology or advanced civilizations."

'Grandpa' (Zach couldn't remember his real name) looked at him, then sat on the bed. The creature (which was very hairy, something like a nine foot bunny with an apes nose and camels ears, Zach couldn't remember the name of the creature either) sagged on the bed and quivered. "Oh, its exciting, this find. They up and pulled me from that new Ichon site over near the badlands, and we had just found a nearly intact shuttle, complete with some sort of pods, we can only assume what they were for since nothing we have can open them!"

"Alright," Zach said after a moment. "Ill bite, what's this great find?"

"Weeeeeeeelll, I'm not supposed to say."

Falthgood rolled his eyes, "Come now, together we hold more orders to stay silent on what we know of ancient technology, and have our names on more Confidential blacklists, then any five Admirals in the fleet. If they cant trust me to keep a secret, who are they going to trust?"

"How about that redhead you found on Verena, or the blonde on Tyvoln Seven, or..."

"They promptly forgot what they knew," Zach said darkly after a moment. "You know that as well as I do."

"Yes, yes." the beast said without hesitation, "I'm well aware the power you were given in your office at Starfleet, I don't need to be reminded."

NRPG: Get the idea there is more to Zach then just the nut, maybe has a somewhat darker past then his bubbly nature would account for ? No, he aint SFI, Alister has no competition from me  *chuckles*

RPG:
After several seconds of silence, the creature reformed into his 4 foot 'human' guise. "Alright, but keep this quiet." He leaned forward and looked around, as though looking for someone else in the room. 

"A ship..."

"A ship?" Zach said, just as quietly as the Chameloid had whispered. 

"Yess... But not just any ship, a ship and a city and... And... The prospects are marvelous. Far above what we ever studied, far above what we ever could have learned or you could have divined from the rusted technology we have dug up in the past. A pristine, untouched, and completely..."

Grandpa shut up in a second as the doors opened. A woman walked in, and Zach's brow immediately furrowed. "Lockwood." he said in a dark tone. "I wish I could say it was a pleasure." He leaned back in his chair again and pushed down his shades as a somewhat young, but very fierce looking trill came to a stop just in front of the bed that Grandpa was sitting on. "Zach," she said in a sickly sweet tone, "One would think you would have more respect after the whipping I gave you on Verena."

"No worse then the time I brought you up on charges and had you in the brig for six months on Pyylarn." he shot back in reply. "Conduct unbecoming, theft, theory theft and debunking, as I recall."

"Yes, you always were so sweet to me." she purred in reply, "By the way, how is your son doing?"

The color drained from Zach's face, and he stood to his full height in an instant. She looked up at him, that smile never leaving her face, and Grandpa quickly stood to put himself between them. "Enough!" he bellowed, more for Zach's benefit then hers. 

"It will never be enough," he snarled as he started pushed Grandpa aside to reach the Trill scientist. He reached out with one of his huge hands, only to find it covered in a paw at least three times bigger. He looked over, and noticed that Grandpa had changed back into the beast. He looked back, and strained with all his strength (which was considerable) but to no avail. He bit his lip hard enough to bring blood, then turned away. 

After a few moments, he turned back. "I'm out of the loop, I don't have half my powers that I had.. The ones I never liked having. But if you mention him again, you will disappear into the deepest, darkest pit that you can imagine." Gone was the friendly, goofy exterior, replacing it was that of a man only barely holding onto his rage. Zach's son, the one he had treasured, had disappeared from one of the work sites he had been at so many years ago. No trace had been found, but this trill woman had made mention of it so many times afterwards, he had come to the conclusion long ago that she knew something she wasn't telling. She was the one person in this universe that he quite literally hated.

"I only came to tell you how wonderful it would be to be in such close proximity again, it has been far to long since we worked together." she said, with a hint of playful humor about her that Zach just wanted to rip her open for. "Besides, I wanted to catch up on the old times and see if you had any old photo's of the digs we were on."

"Melina, I should have had you killed." Zach said, tonelessly and with a completely strait face.

Her own smile faltered for an instant, then returned with it's full mocking brightness. "But you didn't, live with it." She turned on her heel to exit the quarters, leaving Zach staring after her, his fists clenched and the cords on his muscles bulging. Grandpa, satisfied he wasn't going to go running after her, changed into his older looking form once again. "You cant change her, you know she does that to bait you. Ever since you proved her wrong, ever since you had her public ally discredited and forced her to reachieve each of her degrees..."

"I don't care." Zach said, cutting in. "I mean what I say to her, so you had best take heed of it. Ill be back, when I can concentrate."

He didn't wait for an answer, instead walking out the door and heading for the bridge so he could have a little chat.