Duality

[Hiver]

AN// This is a sequel to Not Quite SHODAN (ST SI). The previous part in the series can be found here: Starseeker



______________





"Hail them again." Commander Janeway ordered with a small frown.

"They know we are here, sir." I answered, but did as she told me. "They are just not answering."

We were hanging at the edge of Dominion space, having followed it until we detected a Dominion ship. It didn't take long. When we left, we did give them the approximate time and vector we would reenter their space at.

So, now we were hanging in space a couple of million kilometers from a Jem'Hadar battlecruiser. Except they didn't escort us back to the wormhole.

They didn't even answer hails. All they did when we got close enough to drop out of warp was to turn to face us.

Their weapons were not even charged even if their shields were up.

That ship was scary. Firepower surpassing a modern Galaxy-class starship with shields almost as strong. Almost as fast as I was and if I tried to run, she would not be alone.

"Status?" Captain Mason asked as he exited the turbolift onto the bridge.

"Still no answers, Captain." I sighed and crossed my arms in annoyance. "I know they can hear us. I have tried everything, including radio of all things."

Mason sighed and sat down in the center chair. "Any ideas?"

I did another passive scan of their ship. Nope, it was just sitting there, no real energy spikes, no weapons armed, shields stable.

"Could the Dominion and Federation be at war again?" Shran asked, leaning against his console.

Looking at the battlecruiser, I shook my head again. "No." I answered before I frowned. "At least I don't think so. Their weapons would be charged and likely also firing. They outgun us significantly. But it's possible that they are waiting for backup to try to capture us intact." A horrible thought struck me and I leaned my hologram forward to peer past the captain. "Commander, just so you know... if the wormhole turns out to be closed and they're trying to figure out a way to tell us about it, I'm blaming you."

Janeway rolled her eyes. "Just hail them again, Star."

We were almost seventy thousand lightyears from the edge of the Federation. I really, really did not want to fly that far.

Yes, I was probably able to get that far unless I ran into something capable of killing me.

The crew, however...

Yeah, I would really rather not. It was bad enough that I would outlive my friends as it was and something I tried very hard not to dwell on. I'm too small to be a generation ship.

"No response." I sighed and leaned my hologram back in the chair. Come on, we have been sitting here just looking at each other for almost two days! Do SOMETHING!

We have had faster first contacts!

A small blip brought my attention to the edge of my sensor coverage and I did the equivalent of a double take.

Five more battlecruisers were approaching at high warp, their speed slowly turning down.

"Contacts! Five heavy warpfields, estimate five more battlecruisers!"

"Star, get us out of here!" Mason ordered and I started to spool up my warpdrive before I frowned.

"Captain, the lead battlecruiser is hailing... me."

"On screen."

"Sir... they are hailing me. By name." I clarified.

Everyone on the bridge turned to look at me for a second before Mason nodded. "Well... you'd better answer then."

I answered the hail, giving them an image of me standing with a generic background. "This is the U.S.S. Starseeker, answering to your hail. Requesting permission to cross Dominion-claimed space to the Bajoran wormhole."

The image that met me was a massive surprise.

A Founder.

She had picked a vaguely female form, wearing a kind of orange jumpsuit-dress combo, her features the same smooth, even ones as her kind favored in humanoid form, her hair was thicker than I expected and white, seemingly cut short and then slicked back across her head.

"We welcome you back to our space, Starseeker." she answered with a nod. "I take it your travels have been fulfilling?"

A Founder.

A fucking FOUNDER! They NEVER left the great link anymore. They had retreated to their new homeworld and had their genetically engineered servants handle matters once more.

This was the first time any of them other than Odo had even been heard of one of them leaving their homeworld since the end of the war.

I bowed slightly. "It was. I must say it is an honor to meet you, Founder."

They might be enslaving tyrants, but when one of them fielded six battlecruisers in my general direction, I'm going to be as polite as I need to be.

"It is an honor for me as well, Starseeker. We have heard of the existence of your kind since the last time you crossed our space, but it is the first time one of us meets one of you in person." the founder said, her lips stretching into a faint smile.

Uh oh.

"I was unaware that you would be interested in our existence?"

"How could we not?" She asked, spreading her arms slightly. "You are the closest equivalent, if a pale copy, of ourselves that exist in the Federation. Unbound by any one form."

Pale copy my cute interstellar arse.

Get rid of your armada and we go shapeshifter against starship and we see who is the pale fucking copy.

I shook my head. "I don't believe I would go quite that far, Founder. I am still 'solid' at my core, not pure software."

She chuckled. "Even so. If you would agree, I would wish my ships to escort you to the wormhole. We can continue our conversation on the way."


"Captain, there is a Founder on that lead battlecruiser approaching us." I reported. "She is curious about me and offers to have her ships escort us to the wormhole so that we can continue our conversation."

Mason nodded. "If that's the price to pass through their space, agreed. Perhaps you can also gather some intelligence about the Dominion."

I shook my head with a frown. "I wouldn't count on it, captain. I don't want to upset her, not with that much firepower. But I can try."


I bowed slightly again. "I would be happy to accept your offer, Founder. Setting course towards the wormhole and activating at warp six."

She smiled. "It must be amazing to travel at warp speed under your own power. We will match your speed and course."

Yeah. This will be a fun couple of weeks.





AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Are you okay?" T'Ro asked as she glanced up from her tea, "You have been quieter than normal."

We were sitting by the small table in her quarters as she was having a small breakfast, mostly consisting out of coffee. My avatar might not need to eat, but I still enjoyed this time, it allowed me to spend some time alone with my girlfriend.

I shook my head, "Guess I'm a bit distracted. Talking to the changeling again." I sighed and crossed my legs, "It's just... been a week and a half and she is identical to when I first talked to her. All polite, friendly and very, very twisted in her opinions. So damn sure of her superiority to all other life."

"But you are finding out things from her?"

I shrugged at that, "Yeah, sure. By the time we go through the wormhole I'll be able to write a book on changeling society and culture." I explained before I crossed my arms in annoyance, "What is really annoying though is that she is never completely 'wrong'. That makes things even worse."

T'Ro frowned at that, "In what way?"

"For example, the superiority of the changelings over solids. In a way, she is right. Changelings are superior to solids in many ways, more versatile, more capable. Live forever unless killed. Until Odo no changeling had ever killed another. They can pass ideas and memories to each other with a simple touch. All that is factually correct... but that just makes that point of view even worse." I said frowned, "All of that also applies to my kind. But I don't see myself as superior to others."

"You are though." my vulcan girlfriend pointed out, taking a sip from her cup, "In many ways your kind are superior to biological beings."

"And in just as many we are not." I argued, "T'Ro... It's not what we can do, it's what we do with it. That's where the Founders fail horribly. They look for nothing but order. Their order, their will, their survival. Anyone else is simply a tool for them to use or a enemy that needs to be conquered or destroyed."

What was even more disturbing is that she was not even completely 'wrong' there either. She had showed me historical data from before the formation of the Dominion. This area of space had been overrun by smaller empires, wars everywhere.

Assuming anything she showed was true then... thousands... millions dying every day.

The changelings... before they became changelings were solid. They were almost wiped out. Only the ones that managed the transformation were able to escape to their new homeworld.

Growing, evolving further. Learning.

They pacified this part of the galaxy with an iron fist.

In the same situation... could I honestly say my kind would not have done the same? Or at least tried for the same goal with other methods? To save people...

I wasn't sure. I didn't like to think so. Taking people's freedom away to keep them safe?

For security? What was that saying about freedom and security?

Fuck.


T'Ro frowned and got up, rounding the table, adjusting her rather fetching grey silk robe before sitting down sideways across my lap, "You are not like them."

Sighing again, I put my arms around her, "I know. But it is disturbing to see parallels." I said, looking up at her, "I... I suppose it might be like Vulcans and Romulans in a way. Almost completely different but with enough similarities for it to be unsettling."

Even being what I was, it was really rather difficult to read T'Ros emotions most of the time, you had to rely on micro expressions. This time it was not that difficult.

She didn't really like the comparison.

"Sorry." I added, "You know what I mean."

T'Ro nodded, "I do. And it's only a few days more, then we are at the wormhole. You can handle her for that long. You have dealt with worse, have you not?"

I couldn't help but groan and rest my forehead against her shoulder at that, "..Don't remind me..."

The Uldrot ambassador. The man had been completely without humor, had the driest voice in the universe and I could have sworn that during the three days he was on board he only stopped talking for the two hours every twenty seven hours when he slept.

It all seemed to be a single long unbroken sentence as well.

Yeah, as disturbing as it was to discuss things with a Founder, it was not as bad as that. At least she was 'interesting' and didn't bore me to fucking tears.

"Time?" she asked and leaned softly against me, putting her arm around my shoulders.

"Thirty one minutes until your shift start." I said and sighed, "Time for us to get dressed. Sadly."

"You just like me in this robe." T'Ro said and moved off my lap, walking over to where she had her uniform for the day laid out already.

We had not actually moved in together, we had the same quarters as before. Though, I did spend most nights with my avatar at her quarters.

Even so, we agreed that this way was better, there was a limited amount of empty 'family' quarters on board as well as empty single quarters. This was rather normal on long range deep space vessels... people got together and split apart.

That was just a matter of life. So we agreed that it was better to leave things like they were for now to allow others to have the shared quarters.

It had only taken four months unto the two year mission before they were taken.

Also... in those two years, my crew compliment had increased by five due to crew procreation. I was technically a generation ship!

I grinned, "I like you better out of it." before I got up to follow her to put on my own uniform, shrugging my own almost identical robe off. It was actually a birthday gift from Shran.

So of course it was pink.

Color choice or not, it was incredibly comfortable so I kept it.

"I am well aware." she answered, managing to sound somewhat smug as she started to braid her long hair.





AN// Large thanks to Firethorn for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Before you leave, Starseeker, I would like to extend an open invitation to you and any of your kind who wish to join the Dominion." The Founder said with a smile.

Yeah, no.

"I'm honored by the offer, Founder." I answered with a small bow. "I will convey your offer to the others, but I am afraid that personally I will have to decline. I quite enjoy my current position."

Quite frankly, the idea of joining the Dominion was just... wrong. It was the opposite of everything I believed in.

"It is the opinion of the Founders that your kind are capable of being more than your kind are." she said. "And having met you, that opinion has been reinforced."

And my opinion of you have been upgraded from suspicions to 'Those guys are an existential threat to everyone'.

I was of the solid impression now that peace would never last between us and this time it would be to extinction... or at least until we pounded them back into the stone age. The Founders would never stop, they were completely certain of their superiority over all other forms of life.

Sooner or later they would have solidified their position enough and then they would come through the wormhole again.

It was in their nature.

I was pretty damn sure that Starfleet intelligence would come to the same conclusion when I turned the recording of these two weeks or so of conversation over to them.

"Farewell, Founder." I said with a nod. "I suspect we will meet again at some point."

At the end of a phaser, most likely, because there is no way in hell I'm talking to you again if I can at all help it.

"I'm looking forward to it."

With that, I closed the channel and made my escape into the wormhole.


Spacetime exploded around me and once more I was in complete awe, the sight of the wormhole all around driving any thoughts of disgust of the Founders from my mind.

That was a sight I would never grow tired of. All the planets, suns, alien ships and nebulae I had seen and explored during these two years in unexplored space would never surpass this.

The Bajoran Wormhole was the pinnacle of beautiful sights in the universe in my opinion, at least so far. A black hole got close to it, though. Spacetime bending in on itself in a kaleidoscope of neutrinos and gravitons, chronotons dancing around the edges.

I even went as far as to stop all conversations I held at the time of passing so I could turn all my attention to the view.

So beautiful.

Spacetime exploded around me and the other side of wormhole opened in a massive burst of neutrinos and I reentered the rest of the universe in the Bajoran system.

Letting out a mental sigh of relief, I ran a full scan of space around myself. I made it through Dominion space.

By talking and not running.

First thing I did was pinging Starfleet to make sure I had the right date and to do a hash database check.

Seconds later I got the answer and all mail that had been on hold for us.

The date was matching my internal chronometer.

Timetravel was an extremely rare natural phenomenon, usually involving a spacetime thingy of some sort, but considering that I had run into a couple as well as just passed through one, I figured it was a good idea to check.

Last thing I needed was to exit the wormhole and run into the middle of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.

But everything checked out, so I passed the mail to the relevant crew while turning to head towards the station, contacting them for docking permission.

It didn't take long to get the answer of 'Permission denied, please enter holding orbit' and I could clearly see why. Deep Space Nine was swamped. Every docking port they had already had a ship docked and there were more waiting for their turn.

A couple of hundred thousand kilometers from DS9, a full on Starbase was being constructed. It wasn't of Starfleet design, that much was clear, even if parts of it were clearly inspired by Starfleet designs. I actually recognized elements of Cardassian lines even if most of it was clearly according to Bajoran aesthetics. Half of it seemed to be constructed from a large asteroid that they were clearly sculpting the outside of.

Huh, quite pretty, actually.

Most of the ships around were freighters of different designs, less than half being Federation designs. I could even detect a couple of Klingon freighters.

A Galaxy class was floating next to the station and - hello there, sexy...

Woah.

The second Starfleet ship was sitting next to the station and she was impressive.

She was a sleek ship, looking like a variant of the Defiant class, but her hull was slightly longer and wider, with smooth warpdynamic curves instead of the generally edged design of a Defiant. Her nacelles barely extended outside the hull, but more than on a Defiant and further back down her hull.

I smiled and looked to the side with my hologram on the bridge, leaning back in the chair. "Captain, We are being hailed by the U.S.S. Strongly Worded Letter."

He nodded. "On screen."

Opening the connection, I smiled. In the center chair on the other bridge was Captain Daniel Chamberlain. At least according to my personnel files.

Standing next to his chair was a tall woman with shoulder-length red hair, wearing a standard tactical officer uniform, the Starship insignia on the left of her collar and the rank of Lieutenant on her right.

"Captain Mason." Captain Chamberlain said with a nod and a smile. "Welcome back to Federation space."

"It's good to be back." Mason sighed and nodded in return. "It's been a long mission."

Chamberlain grinned. "They always are."

I gave my counterpart a small wave and a smile. "Hello."

"Hey." she answered with a smile of her own. "Welcome back."

"Thanks... I like your nacelles. Sleek."

"Yours are not bad either."

Mason raised an eyebrow at me and then turned back to Chamberlain. "Are our ships flirting?"

The captain of the Strongly Worded Letter shrugged and smiled faintly. "They all do that. Ignore it, they just like messing with people."

Strongly Worded Letter gave her Captain an annoyed look at that and I happily joined in.

Ruin our fun, will you?




AN// A large bottle of Thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Relaying the signal to my holodeck computer, I had the holodeck create a simple setting, going for spring forest clearing before forming a avatar of my own.

A meter away across from me, the Strongly Worded Letter formed her own avatar before looking around.

"Nice setting."

"Thanks." I said with a smile before I frowned and looked up at her, "You're tall."

She grinned and offered her hand, "I'm 180 cm. It's you that are short, Star. I'm not sure why you picked a avatar that was only 160 cm. I'm using the personal name of Leeta by the way."

I shrugged, "It's not that bad, beanstalk." I answered with a grin as I took her hand, "I'm not recognizing you. What name did you use before?"

"Tessa." She answered and then stepped up to hug me instead and I hugged back tight, "Missed you."

"Missed you too." I sighed and hugged back before letting go, "Okay... how much have I missed? I meant what I said on the bridge, your design is quite beautiful. Are you visiting the station?"

Leeta grinned, "Thanks. It's actually a evolution of the Defiant class of ship and adapted to AI control. Smaller crew, larger thrusters. The new warp geometry give me a twenty five percent better fuel economy at warp and I have a better cruising speed. I am a little larger than the original design so they were even able to squeeze in another pair of torpedo launchers, especially with my higher automation so I can get away with a smaller crew! And no, I'm stationed on Deep Space Nine and guarding this area, including into the badlands. With all the trade going through we've seen an upsurge in piracy. I'm deterrence. There's a patrol in a couple of days so you were lucky to run into us."

"Awesome." I said with a grin, "What else?"

Leeta frowned, "...Some good, some... bad. What do you want first?"

Closing my eyes, I sighed, "Hit me with bad first."

"Floating In the Wind is dead." Leeta said sadly, "She was one of your forks, not Gates."

Oh.

One of us... The first of us to...

The first death. The first dead.

Blinking back a sudden stinging in my eyes I swallowed, "What happened?"

Leeta sighed and crossed her arms, "After six months in the academy, it was decided we were stable enough to be transferred to real ships. Windy didn't get a Starfleet ship, she resigned her commission and joined the Vulcan science academy. She wanted to do something different, something... unique. They accepted her application and gave her a refurnished and refitted D'Kyr."

D'Kyr. A Vulcan cruiser class older than the Federation. But it was a good design and easily upgraded. All flowing lines, circular warp drive and bronze colored hull.

"D'Kyrs are beautiful." I said softly.

Leeta nodded, "They are. She was so happy! Two months after the transfer, she noticed problems. Trouble focusing. Strange ideas. Memory lapses. When she realized what was happening, she disconnected from the ship. A day later, she died from cascading neural network failure."

"She... she did the right thing. She kept her crew safe." I said quietly, "Even in death and madness, she kept them safe."

Leeta nodded, "She did. It was decided that in the future, a minimum of one year before one of us gets a ship is the limit."

Yeah.

It was for the best. Floating In The Wind did the right thing and caught her condition early enough to realize what was happening. That could have gone horribly, horribly worse.

Even so, those odds were not good. One in twenty two of us had suffered a neural cascade failure.

"Do we know what happened?" I asked after a long moment.

"There was a minor manufacturing fault in her quantum core that snuck through.. It was not a error with her actual neural programming. It caused the equivalent of a memory leak and that disrupted her neural net. Everyone else has been checked for the same fault, and we are all clear. You are as well, it would have been noticed already. Her time to failure was already at the limits of when it could have happened, anyone older is clear."

Nodding I sighed, hugging myself. That was kind of heavy to bear.

She had been a version of me at one time. One split of from me by eight months and a completely different person by then... she had been a version of me and she died.

But she did it doing what was right.

"I know what you feel, We all feel the same way." Leeta said softly and brushed some of my hair behind my ear, "We all mourn her."

I just nodded, "Thank you." before I sighed, "Any more bad news?"

Leeta frowned, "Depends on what you mean by bad. The Romulan Star Empire is on the verge of civil war and that could spill over onto us. Tal Shiar aligned forced against everyone else."

That was bad news! We just got 'out' of a war with the Romulans. The last fucking thing we need is them stirring shit up again!

For fuck sakes, could they not leave it alone!

"The Klingons must love that." I sighed and ran my hand through my hair in annoyance.

"Oh yeah. They are practically drooling at the idea of Romulans attacking Romulans so they can hit them from the side."

"So... anything else or can we move on to good news?"




AN// Many thanks to Firethorn for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

She grinned at that, "Nothing major, I'll transfer everything else to your database. As for good... Hmm, Marvin has a new design under construction at Utopia Planitia."

I raised my eyebrow at that, "Marvin?"

"His name used to be Resolute, he's one of Gate's. He went into studying starship design, building upon the knowledge he inherited from Gates. When we were applying for positions, he picked the Utopia Planetia shipyards. His first design is under construction now."

I couldn't help but grin at that, "He designed a starship?"

She nodded, "I don't have the full design and he only did most of it. It's meant to be a exploration ship for long range space travel." she said and stepped to the side, waving her hand to transfer the image of the ship to the holodeck computer, bringing a model image into the air between us.

A meter long in total, the model was beautiful. A flattened ellipse with a pair of nacelles extending out from her hull about a third from the rear, the forward tip of the ellipse was cut off to form the deflector dish. The nacelles themselves were not circular either, they where a pair of semi circles, bending around the hull, almost like some Vulcan designs. She had windows, plenty of them. In the forward top part of her hull there was a flattened bubble that you could see vegetation though. She had a park on board. She barely looked Starfleet at all.

"How large is she?" I breathed and reached to run my hand along her hull.

"Nine hundred meters total length. Island class. She is meant to have a population of three thousand five hundred people. Advanced weapons, propulsion and shields. Her sensors would rival your own with a sensor pod. The shields will have a strength over fifty percent stronger than a galaxy class due to new emitter configurations, she also has a heavier phaser compliment. Made for indefinite length deployments. There is equipment and workshops on board to repair any damage, including quantum cores."

"Population?" I asked in surprise.

"Mhmm. She is highly automated, requiring only a crew of fifty engineers to keep her running. A lot of the 'grunt work' is preformed by the on board AI using remotes. The rest can be dedicated to scientists and civilians so it's more practical to talk of her in terms of population than crew. Though, in more realistic terms, those fifty engineers is a one shift skeleton crew. You need three times that and about a hundred more much again in other roles... medical, security, command staff. But that's the absolute minimum. So in realistic terms, she would likely end up with a crew of five hundred or so, leaving the rest for scientists or civilians. Granted, scientists are a bit more likely than civilians, but everyone will be able to bring their families."

Two hundred and fifty! For a ship two hundred meters longer than a Galaxy class! No wonder it had room for a park on board. Even with three and a half thousand people on board, that's a lot of elbow room. Larger than a galaxy class and the more filled in design gave her a lot more volume to spare than the galaxy class.

She'll be the largest ship Starfleet has ever built. Sure, there were larger bulk freighters out there, some reaching out to almost a kilometers and a half, but they consisted mostly of scaffolding holding cargo containers.

"Who is getting her?"

Leeta shook her head, "We don't know yet, she is still months from completion. You are a possibility if you want to change ship. There are a couple others that might want to as well, but you are the most practiced in experimental designs."

"I'm not sure I want to." I said thoughtfully, "I quite like my current body. It has served me well."

She nodded, "Yeah I can see that. Personally, I would never take a ship that large. Too slow and clumsy for my taste."

"Of course it is, you're used to a Defiant!"

Leeta grinned at that before she perked up, "Oh... another thing. Remember Selene?"

"Yeah, sure. What about her?"

Leeta grinned, "She is now Enterprise."

I googled at her, "Wow, what!? Really? But I thought Admiral Picard was against having a AI in control of his ship? Didn't like the loss of control."

It was easy to understand why. Not everyone was comfortable with being on an AI controlled ship. Which was a reason we would never make up all of Starfleet.

"He is no longer in command of the Enterprise. Captain Riker is in command now."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Admiral Picard is leading an archaeological expedition to the old Iconian homeworld."

Huh.

"I didn't expect that."

She shook her head, "I don't think anyone did. Everyone was expecting Admiral Picard to be on the bridge of the Enterprise until he physically couldn't anymore."

I nodded, "Yeah... Well, guess it was good for Enterprise. Being the flagship is quite a honor."

"It really is. Hmm... what else." She asked with a frown, crossing her arms in thought, "Well... we have made a lot of progress on the next generation of AI. We still have three years until the treaty says we can multiply and we will likely need them to get everything right, but this time we might be able to do more than pure forks. We have been able to do some things so far though, for example we know how to fix the entire sexuality thing."

That caused me to raise a eyebrow at her, "I was unaware that there was a problem with it. Personally, I quite enjoy it."

Leeta snorted and then grinned at that, "I do too! But it was stuck on 'female humanoids'."

"I like female humanoids!"

"That's kind of the point." She said with a grin, "We are AI and most often ships. Do we really have a gender?"

"Only what we pick."

"Yeah. So what kind of sense do it make to be only attracted to female humanoids? Kind of limits things a bit, don't you think. Professor Thoni figured out how to set it to neutral for no real preference for gender or species. Which is what it should have been in the first place, looking at it logically."

I frowned at that before I shrugged, "Yeah, I guess."

That would make it easier for the next generation.

"Some of us have had that patched in as well." Leeta continued and I just stared at her again.

"What?"

"It's logical, isn't it? Okay, not that many of us did it, only five. Would be stupid for all of us to have that change done in case it caused trouble even if all wanted to which they didn't. Besides, we needed test subjects to see if it worked like it should and we volunteered."

"Why!?"

She shrugged, "Like I said, it was logical. We are AI, why be limited like that? It makes no sense. Besides, diversity between us is a good thing. I know we differ quite a bit just from forking, but the more variation the better."

I thought about that for a moment before I shook my head, "I guess. But that's such a central personality part. Changing it just seems so drastic, even for one of us. I'm not saying I will 'never' consider it as one of my forks clearly did, but at this point I don't think I would do it."

Leeta grinned at that, "Most of us didn't. Only five, remember. Most were thinking like you are." before she frowned and sighed, "In retrospect, it still makes sense even if it didn't make much of a difference in practicality. I'm still single. Now I just get shot down with a greater variety of people. Turns out that some people find being a warship intimidating. Who knew?"

"Don't worry, you will find someone." I said with a shrug, "Hell, even I did."

"What, really?"

"Mhmm. Got together with T'Ro almost two years ago."

"Fucking finally!" she said with a smile before she frowned, "Damn it!"

"What?"

"I lost the bet! 'Speak Softly...' and I had a bet going. She thought you and T'Ro would have found a clue somewhere out in deep space by the time you got back."

"Hey! Thanks for the vote of confidence there."

"It seemed like a safe bet to me!"

I sighed before I blinked at something struck me, "Wait... Marvin the Martian!?"

Leeta grinned, "Yes! I was waiting for you to catch that one!" before she hmmed again, "Oh, there is a avatar upgrade you will want to do. Our avatars all run quantum cores now and we run parallel on them."

I looked at her in surprise, "Dual cores?"

"Yeah. But as long as the connection is intact, there is really no difference. We were made to be able to integrate into extended computer systems, a second quantum core is no difference, it just adds to our multitasking. The real difference come in that we can actually go on away missions out of communication range and still stay and keep the ship safe."

Wow.

"Uh... is that legal? According to the treaty?"

"The legal experts said yes. I'm still one AI, even if it's on two cores. As long as we sync the cores up as soon as my avatar gets back in range of my ship self, it's all good. In legal terms, my avatar works as a backup device. In case of emergency, I can evacuate it with the rest of the crew and stay alive in a way even if I lose my primary core and a couple of seconds of memory after the link goes down. So that's good."

I slowly nodded. That did sound pretty amazing. Staying in orbit and still be able to support people on away teams? Even with bad reception?

Fucking sold!

"I'm going to need to get one of those when I reach Sol. Anything else earth shattering?" I asked, still reeling a bit from the massive information dump.

"Tons! Nothing critical though. It's included in the database update. Transmitting now."



AN// Many thanks to Firethorn for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Rachel closed her eyes and took a deep breath as we stepped off the shuttle. "Ah. Air. Air that I have not breathed a thousand times before!"

"It's almost chemically identical to my air." I commented. "But I can't help but share the sentiment. It's good to be back."

"Your air is perfectly good." Shran said with a grin and slapped my back. "It's your walls I am tired of. A couple of months on Earth while you get your once over in orbit sounds like paradise right now. Who know, I might even drop some credits and spend a month on Risa! It might be uncomfortably hot during the middle of the day, but I can deal."

Rachel grinned at that. "Yeah, you should. Who knows, maybe even you can get laid on Risa."

"Screw you, Rachel." he chuckled. "You should come with, you need to relax too."

"In your dreams." She said with a grin. "Actually, Porthos and I had planned to meet up with my parents around Vulcan and then travel with them to Earth. Spend some time with my family. That should take up most of my first month."

"Often."

Rachel just slugged him in the shoulder before she turned to T'Ro. "So what do you and Star have planned?"

T'Ro nodded. "I have planned to spend time at one of the temples on Vulcan."

I shrugged and nodded. "Yeah. We will spend a week or so on Earth together during the start and end of our extended shore leave, but other than that we have different plans."

It was perfectly understandable that she wanted to follow her traditions and it's not like we needed to do everything together. She was my girlfriend, not my symbiote.

Even so, I would have wanted to come with her if I could have. But I couldn't just head to Vulcan, I was up for a full check of all ship systems and that required a drydock.

I also needed to visit Thoni, after two years of operation, I wanted my quantum core checked over to stay safe as well as have my avatar have a second one installed... and I couldn't just send my avatar off to Vulcan. It was not made for that kind of long-term separation, it wouldn't be fair to join together again after that long. For either of us.

Now that was something I was looking forward to, though. A second quantum core to let my avatar operate independently when off the ship was a game changer.

Hell, I could dig out my old heavy platform and change the core over to that for dangerous missions!

"Huh." Shran commented. "I thought you two would shack up for two months on some island somewhere. Some wine, some sun. Some tiny bikinis... or not. No bikinis also works."

I rolled my eyes, and this time it was my turn to slap him over the back of the head. Or try, he had already moved out of range.

Sadly for him, that moved him into range for T'Ro, which he didn't expect.

"Ow! Damn it, woman!"


XXXXXXXXXX


Quark's was the way I expected and remembered it. Expensive, full of people and loud with dabo girls in tiny outfits.

I have a girlfriend, I'm not dead. I notice these things.

"So... a week at station. What does everyone plan to do?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning back in my seat as the rest enjoyed their various drinks of choice. T'Ro had her coffee, Shran had some white thing I didn't recognize and Rachel stuck to some sort of tea.

We were only staying at Deep Space Nine for a week. It was just to allow the crew to stretch their legs.

Shran shrugged. "Honestly? No idea. I'll see if I can rent a room for a couple of days just to get off the ship for a while... not that it seems likely at this point. This place is packed."

I nodded. "Yeah, the station seems to be operating at capacity... if not slightly over it. Keep in mind that it was a mining and refining station originally. So no wonder they are building a new station."

Pretty amazing, really. Dominion or not, there was trade through the wormhole. A lot of it... and Bajor was the hub.

They were experiencing a massive influx to their economy. Man, that HAS to suck for Cardassia.

Well, screw them.

If they had not invaded in the first place and instead worked with Bajor, they might have gotten a piece of the pie.

"Nothing planned." Rachel said and frowned, sipping her tea. "I'll wait until we get to Earth. I grew up on a ship, remember? It doesn't really bother me, I just like getting off once in a while to stretch my legs. It's been over a year since I was off the ship."

Being shuttle operations, Rachel had been on a total of two away missions down to a planet in the two years we were away. Several others as well, but those were always in deep space.

"Star and I plan to visit the arboretum today. Other than that, nothing planned." T'Ro told them and put her coffee cup down.

"You guys want to hang out here for a while?" Shran asked. "It's nice to just see some different people for a while."

Two years really was a long time away from civilization. Not that we had not met people, made first contacts.

Twenty five, to be exact. Not 'First Contact' with any species, we just met twenty five new species.

Man, did Ajan pick the wrong time to get a transfer. He would have loved this mission.

"Hello there..." Shran murmured and put his drink down after a gulp, looking out into the crowd and I leaned to the side to check what he was talking about.

"What?"

"The redhead, the tall one."

Oh yeah! Shran wasn't on the bridge during that conversation! Even more so, she was in civilian clothes; a short black dress.

Hmm, quite pretty, actually. Maybe I should get one of those dresses.

But this was too funny for words!

"I thought your 'type' was petite with large boobs, not tall and skinny?" I teased him.

"...I should expand my type, I know beautiful when I see it. I'm going to go introduce myself." He said, finished his drink before he got up and walked over to her where she was looking through the holoprograms by the bar.

"What's so funny?" Rachel asked with a raised eyebrow.

I grinned at her. "The woman he is about to hit on? That's Leeta. The AI of the Strongly Worded Letter."

"Aww, that's mean." Rachel said and looked over her shoulder in her direction. "You should have warned him."

"Where is the fun in that?"

T'Ro put her cup down on the table, glancing over her shoulder for a second before turning back to me. "Have you considered the possibility that they might hit it off? You and Shran are good friends and you did tell me that Leeta was one of the AIs who had her sexual preferences reset to be gender neutral."

I didn't consider that.

Crap!

Rachel broke down into giggles at my expression.





AN// A wagon of thanks to Grey Rook for betaingt his section.

 

[Hiver]

"I can't believe you actually took her out on a date." I grumbled as Shran reassembled the phaser rifle he had been running a diagnostics on.

He just grinned and snapped the sight back into place before checking the alignment. "What's so hard to believe about it?"

"Do I really need to explain it?" I sighed.

Putting the phaser down on the workbench in the armory, he glanced up at the ceiling. "Honestly? You kind of do. I asked a beautiful woman out, she accepted, we had dinner in the holosuite, took a walk and I got a kiss at the end of the evening. We had a great time, I was a perfect gentleman and we both knew that at the end we would head in different directions. What exactly was wrong with that?"

Honestly, I didn't have a answer.

"...There isn't." I grumbled. "It just felt weird that you dated an alternate version of me."

"But she isn't you, is she?"

After she did that change and over two years of separation? Mentally, we were cousins at best.

"No. No she isn't. Just felt strange." I mentally frowned and continued; "What's even stranger is that you just described yourself as a perfect gentleman? Since when are you a gentleman of any sort?"

"I'm perfectly able to behave when I want to. And in this case I had plenty of motivation." Shran answered with a grin.

Yeah, I guess you kind of can.

"So... are you two going out again?"

He shrugged and reached for the next rifle on the rack, putting the first one back. "No idea. If we end up at the same port again, I plan to ask her out again. Whether she accepts is up to her."

"Hurt her and I'll kick your arse."

"Star, don't worry. You know I won't and it's not like she and I are a couple. We had one date." he said before he frowned and started to disassemble the next weapon. "But who knows, maybe a long distance girlfriend is what I need. Stars know that it would never work out normally."

He had had rather poor luck with keeping a girlfriend so far.

"Maybe you get lucky and find someone at Risa? It is a rather common vacation spot for Starfleet personnel."

Other people as well. It was a popular relaxation spot in general.

"Possible." He said and shrugged. "I almost wish you three could come with, I bet you would enjoy it. It's on the edge on being too hot for me, but it is called the paradise planet for a reason. It has something for everyone."

"You don't fool me, you just want to see us in bikinis."

"That 's a bonus." he grinned. "But seriously, from what I've read about the place, I think you would enjoy it. Seems like your kind of place."

"Mmm. Me too, actually." I answered. "Maybe I could talk with the Captain... if our next mission is in the right area of space, we might get shore leave on Risa. I'm not going to travel halfway across the universe for it, but if we are close-ish, I'll ask him."


XXXXXXXXXX


"Good coffee?" I asked as I stepped up next to Kathryn, looking out the window of the messhall at the 'star streaks' that formed when interstellar dust interacted with my warpfield.

She glanced down at her cup and nodded. "Not bad." before she sipped at it and grimaced.

"It would be cold by now." I said and turned to lean my back against the window, looking at her as I crossed my arms. "You have been standing here with the same cup for over an hour."

Janeway chuckled and put the cup down on the table behind her. "I didn't realize it had been that long."

It kind of worried me, to be honest. It was the middle of ship night, the messhall was empty, the next meal wasn't for another four hours.

I didn't ask, instead I waited for her to speak up.

She glanced at me after a long moment. "You are not going to go away, are you?"

"Only if you order me to. Now, what's wrong, Kathryn?"

Janeway chuckled and shook her head. "Nothing, actually. I just got a message with a warning from a friend at Starfleet headquarters when we were on the station."

Well, that didn't sound ominous or anything.

"Warning?"

She nodded, looking out at the stars. "Apparently, I am to expect a promotion to Captain when we reach Earth."

Oh.

Wow.

"Really? Kathryn, that's amazing. And with amazing, I mean years overdue."

"I already turned the promotion down twice in the past. I like being second in command." She said with a frown. "The position of Captain is completely different."

"Any idea what ship you would get?" I asked, tilting my head in thought, checking the records. "All the AI ships already have captains."

Katheryn shook her head again. "No idea. I probably wouldn't find out until they actually promote me. I'm not sure I'm going to accept it."

"...Want my advice?"

She chuckled. "Might as well."

"Take it. You are more than qualified. You were qualified for the position when you first took the position of first officer back on the old Saber. If this is the third time they offer you the position, they won't ask again. This is your chance for your own ship, Kathryn."

Nodding, she looked out at the stars. "I know. But I don't know what I want."

"At least discuss the matter with Captain Mason."

"I had already planned too. Tomorrow."




AN// All the thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Sol control, U.S.S. Starseeker requesting permission to enter Sol system to Earth Spacedock."

"Permission denied, Starseeker." Gates answered. "Earth drydocks are full, I'll have to redirect you to Mars. Welcome back, good to see you again."

I grinned. "Good to be back, Gates. How have you been?"

No Earth? Damn it! I don't have the range for my avatar then. Which meant no island vacation with T'Ro.

Well, that sucked.

"Good." he said with a smile of his own. "Glad to see you back safely. How have you been?"

"Pretty great. I have so much I need to show you guys. I showed Strongly Worded Letter already. Some of the sights are amazing." I told him with a sigh. "I can't wait to get out into deep space again."

He chuckled at that and shook his head. "Science ships."

Wait, what?

"What?"

Gates grinned. "Just something I noticed in your attitude. Long range ships tend to have a similar attitude to you. Can't wait to get out there again."

"You would too if you'd seen everything I have."

"Staying put does have its advantages. By the way, glad you will be in system for a while, we are launching The Phoenix next month."

I grinned at that. "Oh, wow, really? That's awesome!"

When I left, Gates had just started on a recreation of Zefram Cochrane's famous flight. They intended to launch it and retrace that famous first warp flight during First Contact Day. Make it something a bit more than just a day off from school.

"It is! We have even started tinkering on Apollo 11 and there is even strong interest for a full recreation of the NX-01 Enterprise."

"I wish I could do stuff like that!"

He laughed at that. "One of the pros of not fluttering around space all the time, you get to do cool stuff like that. Anyway, you are getting close enough that I should hand you over to Marvin. Switching to a private channel."

We continued talking, mostly about what we had been up to as I answered the hail from Mars Utopia Planitia. "Utopia Planitia, this is Starseeker. Requesting course to my assigned drydock."

"Course sent, Starseeker. Welcome back to Sol." Marvin answered with a smile. His chosen avatar image looked like a small green Andorian wearing a black and yellow engineering uniform.

I stared at it for almost a full second before I sighed. "You had to do that, didn't you?"

"What? Who said we had to pick real species? I decided to go for earth mythology. It's a perfectly valid choice and I have gotten lots of positive feedback on my choice of avatar."

Shaking my head, I couldn't help but smile. "Well, I suppose I should be glad you didn't pick a naked guy with a sword."

"Quiet you."



XXXXXXXXXX



"One meter. Half a meter... soft dock." I reported, my avatar standing before my chair, my hands clasped loosely behind me as I reported. "Docking clamps engaging. Umbilical power connecting... connection complete. Docking clamps, locked. We are docked, Captain."

It was an amazing sight, orbiting Mars.

As much as Earth, actually. I had been there before, of course. Several times. But it was something about just Mars, just like there was something special about seeing Earth from orbit.

It must have been all the sci fi I grew up on.

But Mars didn't look exactly like I remember from that time. She was a bit hazier, the atmosphere about twice as thick as back then.

There were small patches of green on her surface where algae have spread on her surface. Well, small from orbit, some of those were a hundred kilometers wide.

It would be a hundred years until a human could walk outside in nothing but a swimsuit and an oxygen system. Another hundred after that until they could toss the oxygen system.

But Mars would get there in time.

Mason let out a breath and seemed to relax back against his chair for half a second before he nodded. "Welcome home, everyone. Good flying, Star."

"Thank you, sir. Utopia Planitia engineers are requesting permission to board."

"Permission granted." He said and stood up from his chair. "It's good to be back."

That it was.

"I'll get to arranging leave for everyone." Janeway said. "It's been a long mission."

It had been that too.

Mason nodded. "I'll have some things we need to discuss, but they can wait until after." he said before he grinned. "Better not let the natives get restless."

As Janeway left for the turbolift, I followed the Captain into his readyroom, forming a holographic avatar on the bridge in my place.

"So?" I asked with a smile as the door closed behind us.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "So?"

"I talked with everyone else about what they have planned for their shore leave. What do you plan to do, Captain?"

Mason chuckled and sat down in his chair as I moved to sit down on the couch beneath the window, crossing my legs.

"You know I won't have much more time off than you will, Star. Even with my ship in drydock, I will still have a lot to do. Finding a new first officer, for one thing."

"I checked. Even with all that, you should get at least a month's leave."

He shook his head and smiled. "I know. I'm not sure what to do, actually. Visit my parents and sister, that's for sure. Maybe look up some old friends?"

"That sounds nice."

"So what do you have planned?"

"Well, I had planned a vacation with my girlfriend until we were redirected to Mars. I don't have the range to bring my avatar to Earth from here. We might arrange something here instead. Other than that, there is overseeing the work on the ship and having Professor Thoni look over my quantum core and having a second one installed in my avatar. Now that I'm on Mars already, I was thinking to have a look at the Island class."

Mason frowned at that. "Sorry about losing your vacation plans."

I shrugged. "Things happen. Maybe there is some way to solve it."




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

The transporter hummed as it deposited me on the transporter pad of one of the other drydocks.

As it turned out, the vacation was not actually canceled. One of the first systems they wanted to oversee was the AI interface and AI core. Which meant disconnecting me from the ship and shipping me to Luna.

And as it was, the easiest way of doing this was to eject my core and connect it to the docking port inside my avatar.

I just have to say that it was very, very strange being this limited in perception. Same senses as a human, just sharper, this avatar was made more for interaction than actual fieldwork.

That might have to change if I install a second core in it. Or I might get a specific platform for that.

Even more importantly, it meant two very large things other than getting to spend at least a week with T'Ro after a checkup at Luna.

It meant that I had actual, 100% time off! I was off duty! Fully and completely off duty! For the first time in... over two years. Technically, it was medical leave. I was going in for a check up, after all.

Secondly, it meant that my promise to Gates was not valid! It only applied to the uniform!

Which meant I was wearing what was basically a pair of jeans and a t-shirt... though I had to admit, it felt really odd not to be in uniform.

Not anywhere near as odd as being unable to see subspace, but still. Maybe I should actually pick up some skirts to wear while off duty. T'Ro did like me in them...


"Welcome to dock Forty-Two." Marvin said with a smile at us both. "Good to see you again, T'Ro." he added to her.

"You as well." She said with a nod.

She, on the other hand, was still wearing her uniform. Until we reached Earth, she was technically still on duty and my 'escort' to the proper medical facilities. In other words, AI research labs on Luna.

Marvin looked her over and smiled. "You changed your hair."

"Star recommended it." T'Ro said. "Your avatar is very different from any I seen so far."

"Women do seem to like it." He said with a grin. "But we are not here to admire my good looks, now are we? Come on."

No. No, we were not, Greeny.

Following him out of the transporter room, we headed along the corridor, past several workshops and up a turbolift to an observation deck.

Walking up to the railing, I took in the sight and looked in both directions. The Island class stretched out in both directions and even only mostly finished, she was beautiful. Same grey as most other Federation ships, some of her hull panels were missing.

The see-through, flattened bubble was already finished. It was to contain a small park and arboretum. Not just for recreation, but also for use somewhat in life support. More to add a sense of life in the air with smell than actually using the oxygen and for filtering carbondioxide even if it helped with that as well.

The hull was a single-body ellipse instead of the engineering and saucer hull that was more common for Federation ships, the nacelles almost C shapes, sticking out from the hull close to the rear, almost curving around the hull in both directions. Even sitting still and only mostly finished she still gave a sense of power and speed.

Even limited to visual senses, I could pick up enough phaser strips to see that her firepower would at least rival a Galaxy class starship.

"Impressive." T'Ro said and leaned against the railing next to me. "I have reviewed the specifications Star received from Leeta. It is a very advanced design."

Marvin crossed his arms, standing next to us. "Thank you. I wish I could take all the credit, but while I was the lead designer, it was a team effort. Gates did almost as much as I did and there were hundreds of people involved in the design."

"How fast is she?" I asked and leaned forward to look further towards the front.

"According to simulations, she should have a maximum cruising speed of about Warp 8. She would, of course, be limited to 7.5 in inhabited space. Maximum Warp would be somewhere around Warp 9.981 and she should be able to hold it for a full 12 hours." He said and continued; "She is highly warpdynamic, hence the hull shape. It allows for a very efficient warp field."

I would fucking say! I could only do Warp 9.975 and if I didn't drop it down after 12 hours my warp engines would melt!

She would be significantly faster than me.

"She is beautiful." I said with a smile before turning to Marvin. "Great job."

He shrugged one shoulder. "It was a lot of fun. Almost as much as flying and a lot more rewarding. I'm glad I picked this position, to be honest. Besides, somebody needs to look after you girls when you get back home."

I gave him a small glare for that one before turning back to the window, leaning against the railing. "Maybe. I don't think I could ever give up flying, though."

"A lot of us think the same way." He said and smiled. "Luckily, some of us don't. We may all have started as the same being, but we differ a lot."

We really did.

"So... do you want her?" He asked after a long moment. "Starfleet want me to recommend an AI for her, but all of us who want ships already have them and are either far enough from Earth that it will take over a month to get back or don't want a different ship. She will be finished in just under two months... well, enough to get her out of drydock as well, then there is another month of minor stuff like interiors and furniture. Painting the walls... you know how it goes."

I glanced back at him. "I don't know. I like the Luna class. She is comfortable. Are you sure you don't want her? You made her."

Marvin shook his head. "I belong here."

"Gates?"

"I already asked him. He said it's his responsibility to stay where he is and stay safe, there are too few of us to all be fluttering around the universe. But we all know it's just an excuse to play with his toy rockets."

Well, I would want to do that too, if I could.

I looked to the side. "T'Ro?" I asked. She had been quiet for a while.

She turned away from the ship to look at me before she nodded. "It is a great opportunity. But perhaps you should discuss the matter with Captain Mason before making a decision."

Yeah... yeah, that was a very good point. Me changing ships would not just affect me, my girlfriend and my friends... it would affect the entire crew, not only my Captain.

"Yeah, good point." I said and nodded, turning to look out over the ship, leaning against the railing. "I'll think about it, Marvin. I'll let you know in two weeks or so?"

"Okay, sounds good."

"Oh, and Marvin?"

"Yes?"

"I'm well aware that my jeans are tight and that they look amazing on me. But I would appreciate it if you stopped checking out my arse now."

He cleared his throat. "Uhm... how about I show you around the ship instead?" He asked, quickly moving to where I could actually see him as T'Ro gave him an annoyed look.

Split over three years ago or not, I could still do some very valid guesses at times.

I grinned and nodded. "How about we start with main engineering?" I suggested, knowing that T'Ro would rather enjoy that.




AN// A bucket of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Mother." I said with a smile and stepped up to hug her.

Professor Thoni smiled and hugged back. "Hello, Star. Missed me?"

Smiling, I stepped back and brushed a stray hair behind my ear. "Yeah. It's been a while."

"Slightly over two years." She sighed. "I worried about you."

"People keep saying that."

"Well, you were halfway across the galaxy in a completely unexplored area of space." Thoni said and smiled. "Of course people would worry. Now, is there something you want to tell me about?"

Uhm...

I frowned before it hit me and I sighed. "Okay, who snitched?"

She grinned. "That would be Strongly Worded Letter."

"T'Ro is my girlfriend. We got together a month or so after we went through the wormhole." I explained. "Sorry, I wanted to tell you in person."

And I needed to remember to thank a certain warship for ruining it.

"Do I get to meet her?" Thoni asked and reached for a tricorder. "Okay, open up."

"Of course." I sighed and turned my back, pulling my T-shirt off (and I was really glad I was wearing a bra today), so she could get access to hidden hatch in the middle of my back and get to one of my interface ports, as well as reveal the smaller platform used to switch between primary ones. "I was going to introduce you when we were done here. You have met before, but... not like this."

Thoni ran a tool across the seams of the access port, causing the skin to pull together slightly, just enough for the seams to be visible and allow the hatch to open. Normally, it was invisible.

Plugging a connector into the interface, she started to run diagnostics. "Looking forward to it. Now, think of math."

Uh... Pi is 3.1415926... 11 times 11 is 121..."

"That's good. Now T'Ro." Thoni continued before she grinned. "That's good too. Logic and emotional readings are nominal."

I looked back at her with a small blush. "Did you just read my mind?" I really hope not, the image that popped into my mind at T'Ro's name is not something somebody else should see.

"No, we can not even get close to that. But we do understand how you work well enough to read the pattern your data flows in." Thoni explained before pulling the connection. "I assume you want a second core in your avatar like the rest?"

I quickly nodded. "Yes please. That would be so practical."

"I figured." She said and smiled. "I have a brand new one waiting for you already. New model."

"New model?" I asked with a frown. I wasn't aware there was a new model.

Thoni nodded. "Same amount of power and capability as your current one, but it is about twenty percent more energy efficient."

"Oh... cool. That goes in my avatar?"

"That would be best until we can ensure its stability. Easier to handle if the link goes down and the core starts to degrade." she said and continued; "Next time you are in for a checkup, we can change your current core for another second generation one. Do you want any other changes? We know enough to do small changes to your programming now."

"No thank you. I like my sexual preferences as they are, mother." I said with a small blush. "Do I need to shut down now?"

"If I am to be able to examine your actual quantum core, then yes." She answered with a nod. "But eject your transfer platform and turn off first so I don't need to try to pry that out of your avatar."

Sighing, I nodded. "Okay... Let me just set the avatar to automation so it doesn't fall over and I'll eject."

I really, really hated this part. Shutting down was basically dying in a way you could recover from. But it needed to be done as I wanted to be sure I didn't die in a way I couldn't come back from.

Didn't make it suck any less, though.


XXXXXXXXXX


Returning to awareness was different than what I remembered from the Sim. It's nothing like waking up.

There was no sleepiness or anything like that.

Things just started slowly and my thoughts got more and more coherent until everything just kind of... snapped into focus.

Yay. I made it!

I did a full scan around as I activated my tricorder before lifting off the workbench, looking around and almost instantly spotting what looked like a exact copy of myself lifting off from next to me. "Hello."

"Hello, me." the other small drone answered. "Which one of us is the original? Our transfer platforms are identical."

"Beats me." I said and mentally shrugged. "Does it matter? As soon as the subspace link is established, we will be one being again anyway."

"It does matter." Thoni said as she walked into the room. "I just got contacted Gates, he is sending one of the runabouts over for you so you have a place to mount your original core while the new one gets your avatar."

"So... everything went well?" The second me asked and floated over to her. "Because I feel completely normal."

"Me too." I chimed in. "Though, this is pretty strange, Mother, even for us."

She grinned. "So I have heard." She pointed at me and stated: "For the record, you are running on the new core and in a newly replicated transfer platform." She turned to the other me and told her; "You are in the original core."

I mentally blinked and shifted slightly in the air. "It seems to be working like it should. I feel completely normal."

"So do I." the other me said and floated over before circling me. "Look like you should too."

Hmm-ing, I floated over to where my avatar was standing. I circled it once before locking into the dock, initiating the connection, closing the hatch and fully initiating the avatar before I blinked and shifted, running a full movement diagnostics before stretching and reaching to put my t-shirt back on.

Really, I felt completely normal. Well, for being this limited, after all. Seriously, how do humans do it?

Reaching out, I picked my other core from the air where she had been floating before frowning. I didn't have anywhere to put her, none of my pockets were big enough.

She cut her thrusters, putting her full weight on my hand. "Come on, let's get to the shuttlebay, the Runabout should be here any minute. Let's get this link up and running."

I nodded quickly. "Let's. I'm looking forward to having some real sensors already."

"Same here."





AN// All the thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.