Chapter Thirteen: Becoming Kuznetsov

March 11th, 2027, 9:45 a.m.
Medical Bay, K47 Vessel 08, Indian Ocean

Katia laid down on a hospital bed, waiting for somebody to pull out some type of surgical tool and drill into her skull, or something like that. But instead a few doctors just strapped her down and got a headband with antennae of some kind. The straps didn’t help, but she was sure it’d be fine, and Dr. Enoch was there too, which reassured her even more. “Alright,” he said, “don’t worry, all we’re going to have you do is wear this headset. It will immediately put you into a deep sleep, and then begin it’s work.” Katia looked up at the contraption, “Yeah, but what does it actually do?” Enoch smiled, “What it does is take a language and insert it into the memory of whoever puts it on. So, by the end of this operation, you should be completely familiar to russian, so much so that it would be as if english and russian were both your first language.” She contemplated this and raised an eyebrow, “That’s a pretty powerful headband you’ve got there,” Enoch smiled, “Yes it is, and thank you, I actually designed this myself, and ended up creating an entirely new language by accident while testing. The military actually uses that language now, and it’s taught by the man that tested this contraption. Anyways,” he said, grabbing the thing, and placing it around her head. “Oh,” she said, “one more question, why am I strapped to this bed?” Enoch frowned for a moment, “Well in the development, we did find one flaw, over the course of the operation, the patient experiences mild shaking. For a few days we thought it triggered seizures, which for people that have epilepsy it may, but it was just one of the very few side effects.” He then continued to put the antenna on her temples, “Alright,” he said, clicking a button, “have a nice rest, we’ll see you in an hour or so…” everything instantly went black.

One hour later…

Katia woke up, her head was in a little pain, but nothing major, just fuzzy vision. She didn’t have the headband on, and she wasn’t strapped down any more either. A voice then asked her a question in russian, “Can you understand me?” Katia just rubbed the back of her head and replied in perfect russain, “Who are you?” The man’s voice, only in english now, said “Ah excellent, great work Enoch, she’s understanding me perfectly.” It was another doctor, who could speak both languages, “Where are we right now, have we reached the coast yet?” she asked in english now, still disoriented. The man came around from behind her, “We got off the boat about ten minutes ago, we’re now in the hospital closest to the port. But for now, we would like you to look in the mirror, and tell us what you see.” Katia looked at the large hand mirror the man held in his hand and saw a strange khajiit. She now had green eyes, compared to the original brown, and long hair. “How did you get my hair this long within the time span of an hour?” she asked, fiddling with the newly acquired feature. “That can’t be my real-” the doctor chuckled, “actually it is in fact very real, all we had to do was modify the growth process of your hair, and within twenty minutes you became what you look like now.” This just confused her more than she was already, “That doesn’t completely answer my question,” Enoch looked at her, “Well it would be extremely hard to explain anyway.” Katia didn’t bother with this subject anymore, “Anyway, where’s Foles?” “He’s been waiting for you outside,” the other doctor said, pointing at a door. Katia pulled herself up, she must’ve been shaking like they said she would, because it felt like she had just run a marathon. She staggered up and walked to the door, opening it to see a surprised Foles.

“Wow, Enoch seems to have worked his magic again.” he said, as the door closed behind her, “What do you mean, has something like this been done before?” Foles sighed, “Not exactly, he’s just a very talented man, saved one of my men from a shot to the head once.” They were standing in a long, white-walled hallway, with other patients, nurses, and doctors walking past. “How did you get me in here?” she asked, “It was simple really,” he said, “with the shaking side effect, you looked like you were having a seizure, got you right in as if you were another patient.” Katia stared at him, “You’re telling me you pulled some illegal shit to get me in here?” He stared blankly back, “You really think I actually did that?” he asked, surprised, “I am a Sergeant in the military, that should be enough information for you to piece together. Plus, that wouldn’t technically be illegal anyway.” Katia was unamused, “Why did you need me to be able to speak russian anyway? Being the owner of an extremely wealthy international manufacturing company, you’d think that Turgenev would also be bilingual.” Foles motioned her to walk with him, “Yes, and he is, but if he really is selling mass production to terrorists, you think he’s going to tell you his plans in english? Think of all the American tourists, they are one of the many things we’re famous for you know.” “I guess,” she said, “so… what now?” They walked down the hall toward a set of double doors, “Well first,” he said, “we need to get your stuff back, then get out of here.” Katia looked down at herself, she was still in fact wearing a medical gown. They walked through the doors, and came across the woman at the front desk. Foles and her exchanged a few words, and they were led into a room with Katia’s clothing and personal belongings. She grabbed her clothes and dressed, then came back as Foles signed the paperwork.

They then left the building and got into a black 2024 SUV, the rest of the squad was there as well. “So what now?” she asked, sitting adjusting her seatbelt, “Well we have to head to the airport to fly you to London. We can't fly you directly to Moscow because Turgenev is expecting you to exit a private jet from London, if that’s not what you show up in it will blow your cover.” “And how am I going to get a private jet wasn’t even meant for me?” Foles looked back at her from the passenger seat, “That’s the thing,” he said, “it was meant for you.” She’d almost forgotten about her new identity, it was so weird being somebody else, sure she’d done it before, if she hadn’t she wouldn’t be here, but this time it wasn’t her choice. “Yes, but, won’t the pilot be suspicious of me coming from Africa?” “No,” Foles said, “because the pilot is one of ours as well. Oh,” he said, holding out a small black object that looked similar to a bead, “and put this behind your ear.” Katia did this, “What did it d-” she stopped mid sentence, realizing her own voice had completely changed. “We recorded every sound and vowel that came out of Kuznetsov’s mouth, in both languages, to give you her voice as well.” She stared at him, “That’s just… creepy.” Foles chuckled slightly, “Don’t worry it won’t be for long, just a few days, at least that’s how long this should take. But I should tell you that you will be flying separately from the others. This is because they are able to fly directly to Moscow, so that we can get them into Turgenev’s hotel before you arrive.” Katia nodded, “That makes sense, so that way we can have eyes in on the mission, in case something goes wrong.” “Precisely,” Foles said, “which means, there shouldn’t be anything to get in the way this time. Even if there is something that comes up, we should be able to deal with it quickly and quietly.”

A few hours later…

Katia had already made it to London, Foles and the others had been on their way to Moscow the same time she’d landed. All that was left to do was get into Turgenev’s private jet and hope for the best. It’d take almost three hours to get there, but it was slightly faster than skipping from airport to airport. Just a one way flight, no stopping, no turning back, this was it. Katia had never really acted before, but she was always pretty good at learning things on the fly, that’s another reason she was still alive today. There wasn’t much to do on the jet apart from sitting and waiting, there were a few russain magazines, which she could actually read and understand as well. She was ready, at least she felt ready. Everything was on her now, “Gods, that’s a scary thought,” she said to herself. “It’s true though, but nothing is going to happen. We’re probably pretty close to stopping this whole operation anyway, which is good. At least I can avenge Quill in some way, and the others that were in L39.” She looked up at the screen above the doorway that showed a map, they were about two hours from Moscow. Two hours ‘till showtime.