Chapter Text
When they arrived back at the lobby, Schmidt was waiting for them.
“Neil,” he said, cautiously offering a hand to shake, which Neil pointedly ignored.
“Lew,” he said with a curt nod.
Schmidt returned the nod and awkwardly let his hand fall to his side. He turned to Icheb. “How is she, Lieutenant?”
Before Icheb could reply, it was Neil who answered, with surprising fire for such a seemingly mild-mannered scientist. “Why don’t you go back there and see for yourself how she is?” he demanded. “Or are you afraid to face the consequences of your little experiment?”
Schmidt looked taken aback. For the first time since Icheb had met the man, a look of genuine worry crossed his face. “How bad is she?”
“She looks like absolute shit and her lungs are half-frozen. They nearly had to put her on bypass. They still don’t know if she’ll have lasting brain damage from the oxygen deprivation. How dare you risk a genius like that just for some stupid test? When that poor little girl stumbled into my lab, I thought she was dead for sure. The doctors here don’t even fully understand how she survived.”
For a moment, Schmidt looked subdued, but the effect was fleeting. When he spoke again, his voice took on its usual arrogance. “That ‘poor little girl’ is a Starfleet cadet,” he said. “In four months’ time, she’ll be an officer, giving orders and making decisions that could have interstellar repercussions. If she can’t handle herself in an emergency, she has no business wearing the uniform. It’s my job to find out what these cadets are made of.”
“By trying to kill them?” Neil asked, incredulous. “How dare you play with the lives of children?!” he shouted. “Especially our best and brightest. They deserve your protection, not … whatever this is.”
“Survival of the fittest,” Schmidt said somberly.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it!” Neil was yelling now. “Was it survival of the fittest when you left Caris on that moon to die?!”
Icheb watched both men, feeling stunned. Neil had clearly understated the extent of the “history” between them. A long silence filled the air. When Schmidt spoke again, his voice was quieter, and shaky.
“That was different and you know it, Neil. These tests are performed under controlled conditions –“
“Controlled conditions like -60 windchill? That doesn’t happen naturally on this planet anymore unless we make it happen,” Neil shouted. “You ordered up this cold front. Why? Just to force her to fail? I thought that’s what the Kobayashi Maru was for.”
“O’Connor broke the Kobayashi Maru test,” Schmidt snapped. “She studied the code, found a glitch, and exploited it. I had to bring him in just to lock her out of the escape pod computer so she wouldn’t rig this test in her favor, too,” he added, jerking a thumb toward Icheb. “I never expected her to try to make it here. It was my assumption that she would stay near the pod.”
“Well, she didn’t,” Neil snapped back. “And if she suffers lasting impairment because of it, I will personally find the best lawyer in the Federation and pay her family’s legal expenses when they sue Starfleet. Something’s got to change, Lew. You take your best and brightest and you try to break them. I mean, you forced her goddamn boyfriend to help you orchestrate this shitshow?” he asked, gesturing toward Icheb. “What was that about? Just to prove he could abandon her like you did Caris? To turn him into you?”
Icheb looked at Neil wide-eyed. The man was absolutely correct in his assumption that part of the reason he had been called in was to see if he could put Maren in lethal danger. He didn’t have any idea who Caris was, but he suspected she had played a major role in shaping both of these men into what they were today.
Schmidt glared at Neil for a long moment. “Sometimes difficult choices have to be made.”
“You didn’t have to leave her there to die.” Neil’s voice broke. A single tear escaped one eye, which he wiped away angrily.
A stony silence settled between the two men, and they stared at each other with what appeared to be a lifetime’s worth of mutual resentment in their eyes. Icheb glanced back at the registration desk, where Jessica was sitting wide-eyed, the fingers of one hand pressed to her lips as she stared at the emotional display. She caught Icheb’s glance and gave him a questioning look. All he could do was lightly shrug. He knew exactly as much as she did about whatever had happened between Neil and Schmidt.
Finally, Neil broke eye contact with Schmidt. “Go check on the girl,” he said, shaking his head with disgust. “See for yourself, and just remember, she was lucky. She could have ended up exactly like Caris.”
At that, Schmidt looked almost shaken.
“Come on,” Neil said to Icheb. He turned back to Schmidt. “I’m taking your Lieutenant to stay with me for the night. If you want to stay Earthside, there’s billeting on the west end of town. I’m sure you can also beam back up to the comfort of your quarters at the station, if you prefer.”
Schmidt didn’t argue, so Icheb followed Neil. “Where’s your coat?” Neil asked.
“I didn’t bring one,” he replied. “I wanted to get here as soon as possible. I assumed I could replicate one when I arrived, if necessary.”
Neil shook his head. “You assumed wrongly,” he said, but his voice was sympathetic. “Our access to replicators is somewhat limited here because of the power required just to keep our facilities operational and to run our experiments. All the hospital has is a medical replicator. There’s one replicator in town that can generate winter gear, but it’s in the general store, and that’s closed down for the night. But don’t worry, we keep a few extra coats around just in case.” He walked over to a closet at the side of the lobby. “What are you, about a medium?”
Icheb nodded, feeling grateful. “You’re being very kind to me,” he said. “Thank you.”
Neil handed him a thick, full length coat with built-in mittens and a heavy hood. “Don’t mention it,” he replied, shrugging his own coat on. “It’s the least I could do after what he’s put you through. Now, come on. Let’s go.”