Stardate: 60625.0605
Title: 'Possum
Author: Captain Khavok
Time: After "Faking Injury"
Scene: USS Relentless prior to entering System 814a


There are some things that even the luckiest Captain can neither know nor anticipate. It is almost unknowable how someone can let jealousy and bitterness consume him or her to such a point that they become a ready and easy tool for the first person or group that offers them what they covet.

Robbins hated Star Fleet. Well the Star Fleet as it was currently constituted. He was denied access to the Academy because of ethical flaws. Simply put Robbins did not have any qualms of using any means necessary to achieve his goals. He lived by the motto 'you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet'. Robbins' handles found him easy to recruit and even easier to manipulate.

Robbins did not have any of the usual excuses for turning to a life of evil and hatred. He is a fairly attractive man of decent physical prowess and a very skilled special operative. An excellent cryptographer and saboteur he could found himself on some of the very best prime teams Star Fleet had to offer. Robbins' flaw was lack of personal responsibility. Everything was someone else's fault. The universe was out to get him. His kind had no chance of success. People like Khavok were lucky, born with the silver spoon. The list went on.

It was a simple matter for Robbins' recruiter to pick up on these traits and them amplify and direct them. It is less simple to describe how Alexander Khavok came to be the target of such hatred and disgust. It is not uncommon for there to be jealousy in the ranks. Khavok managed to do in a handful of years what most officers will never do in their entire careers. It was easy to generate hate for Khavok and a lot of senior staff found it easy to take umbrage and if not actively participate in the growing conspiracy at least give it a wink and a nod and conveniently look the other way.

Poor Alexander Khavok, he has the dubious honor of being a symbol. Composed, sure of himself and perhaps with a small trace of arrogance he, to borrow a phrase, "boldly goes…" There are those within Star Fleet who would impose their will on the universe, make it their own image and free will be damned. These manipulators found it easy to make Alex the symbol of everything they despised.

It was disgustingly easy for the manipulators to use jealousy to make Khavok a target. They cared nothing for Alex personally he was simply a very effective means to an end. Eliminating Khavok would be satisfying in the fact that they would be removing an upstart and giving a 'finger' to Star Fleet as currently constituted.

In order to use a tool effectively one must know it. The manipulators spared no resource in getting to know their tool. They enormous amounts of time taking apart the Captain of the Relentless' life.

Anywhere there was the slightest suggestion of discontent there they were with salt, acid and poisoned daggers to enlarge and deepen wounds real and imagined. In the shadows they silently worked with a whisper here a leak there. Always listening, always watching, they drew more and more into their web. So it was with Robbins, the manipulators were able to transfer Robbins jealously and hatred of Star Fleet to Captain Khavok.

Robbins did the best he could to play the dutiful engineer. He put Vilmer's enthusiasm about the drop and his comfort with weaponry and his even his very carriage down to youthful energy and lack of experience. Jealousy can be a powerful but unreliable tool. He even was able to ignore the pair of tattoos Kal sported on his right shoulder: the steel colored bird and a strange barcode.

The orbital drop provided Robbins with the opportunity he needed. He gained entry into Relentless' engineer systems with information provided him and put protocols in place to hinder deployment of certain ablative armor generators. He also put things in place to cause faults in other systems at both random and opportune times. The reduction in crew compliment gave him the time and space he needed to gain access to communication systems and beam out critical information to his superiors in System 814a. By the time the security measures set in place detected the breach it would be too late.

A sick smile lit Robbins' face as he completed his task and covered his tracks. He then went to his quarters for some food and to wait. Soon the glory boy would get his and then he would see who is who.


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Captain Alexander Khavok
Commanding Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
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