AN// This is a sequel to Broken Dreams. If...
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Part 1
AN// This is a sequel to http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/broken-dreams.14200/. If you have not read that series yet, you might want to or things can get confusing.
__________________________
I floated in interstellar space, my warp field down. A couple of thousand meters to the left of me was the familiar shape of the Enterprise.
Even with energy dampening and scattering fields blanketing the area... at this distance she was really pretty.
I watched the stars, the rest of the fleet floating all around me.
Over two hundred capital ships. From Sovereign battlecruisers to Miranda support cruisers and Defiant escorts.
We drifted, communicating with simple directed laser burst transmissions.
We waited.
Almost year at the front lines and it all came down to this.
Something had been off. Engagements with fewer ships than expected lately.
A week ago, Starfleet intelligence found out what they were up to.
With the Klingons on our side, they couldn't fight us. Not in a war of attrition. They knew this as well as we did.
So they took what units they could spare, formed a massive fleet and were now on their way towards Earth. It wouldn't be a complete decapitating strike, not the way The Federation was set up. Not like if they lost Romulus... but it would be bad. Very, very, bad.
"Anything yet, Star?" Captain Mason asked and leaned back in the center chair.
I shook my head, my avatar sitting in the guest seat on his left, Commander Janeway to his right.
"Not yet, sir."
My avatar was also a bit different from the first iteration. It looked more or less identical, I just changed the hair length a bit and such so I could put it into a ponytail, but on the inside it was different.
Stronger, faster artificial muscles.
The VI was also slightly smarter, if not by much, able to follow slightly more complex orders if it ended up out of range of me.
Wolf was going to implement the same system once he got a ship of his own. He was going to graduate soon.
That year at The Academy to make sure he was stable was a good idea. The next generation might only need half a year.
Well... he would graduate if we managed to stop this fleet in time. I wished he would be able to join us, It would help a lot, but even if he was cleared for a ship yet, it took in the best case a week, or much more likely longer, to learn how to control it well enough for a fight.
If they actually got to Earth... Earth had defense platforms, but it wouldn't stop a determined attacker on their own.
So we waited, as hidden as we could be, floating in empty space just outside the Sol system for the detection system to pick up the Romulan fleet while dampening our emissions.
We were the hammer. The fleet stationed at Sol was the anvil.
Come at us, you fucking bastards.
There.
"Captain. I am reciving a signal from Starfleet. The Romulan fleet have been engaged close to Mars. Admiral Picard has ordered the fleet to engage."
He took a slow breath and then nodded, "Order all fighters to be ready to launch. She is all yours Star."
"Acknowledged, Captain. Entering Warp with the fleet now."
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
The old poem came to mind as cliched as it might be as I folded space around me, moving with the rest of the ships into faster than light travel for the five minutes it would take to get to Mars.
But we were not the light brigade. We were the hammer. We were the sword. We were the shield of The Federation.
We were the ones that volley'd and thundered.
In this case, it was the Romulans that rode boldly and pointlessly into the jaws of death.
We dropped out of warp in the middle of chaos and I opened fire as soon as my warp field dropped, photon torpedoes flashing through space to slam into the side of a Mogai warbird, it's already weakened shields not doing anything to stop the antimatter warheads from blowing it to pieces.
Signaling the fighters to launch and move to cover the fleet, I rolled and banked, avoiding a trio of plasma torpedoes before returning fire.
As the last fighter launched I joined the fleet wide dance of death properly.
Beams flashed as the three fleets clashed.
Tens of ships burned in space.
The USS Herald went out of control as what was left of it's shields dropped and it lost most of its forward saucer section.
Dropping my shields for a split second I let my transporters come into play, dancing across the hulk to pick up what crew I could detect, depositing them in cargobay two before I was forced to raise my shields again as plasma fire from the closest D'deridex flew towards me.
The Herald's warpcore blew, taking a T'liss warbird that got to close with it into death.
I shifted fire and activated my tractor beam to pull a disabled fighter out of the way of a incoming plasma torpedo, giving it a fling out of the general fight to get it out of the way until the pilot could be saved. Couldn't risk dropping shields to beam the pilot out.
The battle was insane.
Hundred of ships on each side... but we outnumbered the Romulans by over fifty percent and that's not counting Mars' stationary defenses and satellites.
A plasma torpedo slammed into my shields and unlike the old ones slavers have hit me in the past, this was a state of the art Romulan weapon.
My dorsal shields dropped and it melted parts of my hull, sensors screaming at me as I quickly rolled, pulling up hard to return fire as I fought to get my shields back up.
I may be faster and more capable than pretty much everyone else here, including Commander Data on the Enterprise.
There was rumors about him getting promoted to Captain of his own ship soon too.
But there was just so much going on that not even I could keep track of it all. And just because I saw it didn't mean I could get out of the way in time.
Returning fire, my phasers danced across the Warbird, taking out it's left nacelle as I rerouted power to my dorsal shields, bringing them up to a level that might actually block a stray shot.
I could not take another torpedo like that again.
Swinging about I put a torpedo through their weakened side and then I pulled up and rolled, slowly moving into a full loop to put a trio of quantum torpedoes into another D'deridex Warbird that was bearing down on the Enterprise. The enemy ship went up and then collapsed into a single point as it's singularity core imploded, the gravitational waves shaking me to the core.
The Enterprise had been taking a heavy beating and was leaking Warp plasma, but their shields were back up again and they were moving and fighting on despite the large gash in their engineering hull.
I pinged them for a status update and their computer answered quickly.
Impulse drive down to fifty percent on their port engines, but other than that it was mostly just hull damage.
Admiral Picard was transmitting orders to the fleet. Focus fire on the heavy warbirds.
I pulsed an acknowledged signal to them and locked weapons on the closest D'Deridex and opened fire..
AN// Big thanks to Alleydodger for betaing this section.
__________________________
I floated in interstellar space, my warp field down. A couple of thousand meters to the left of me was the familiar shape of the Enterprise.
Even with energy dampening and scattering fields blanketing the area... at this distance she was really pretty.
I watched the stars, the rest of the fleet floating all around me.
Over two hundred capital ships. From Sovereign battlecruisers to Miranda support cruisers and Defiant escorts.
We drifted, communicating with simple directed laser burst transmissions.
We waited.
Almost year at the front lines and it all came down to this.
Something had been off. Engagements with fewer ships than expected lately.
A week ago, Starfleet intelligence found out what they were up to.
With the Klingons on our side, they couldn't fight us. Not in a war of attrition. They knew this as well as we did.
So they took what units they could spare, formed a massive fleet and were now on their way towards Earth. It wouldn't be a complete decapitating strike, not the way The Federation was set up. Not like if they lost Romulus... but it would be bad. Very, very, bad.
"Anything yet, Star?" Captain Mason asked and leaned back in the center chair.
I shook my head, my avatar sitting in the guest seat on his left, Commander Janeway to his right.
"Not yet, sir."
My avatar was also a bit different from the first iteration. It looked more or less identical, I just changed the hair length a bit and such so I could put it into a ponytail, but on the inside it was different.
Stronger, faster artificial muscles.
The VI was also slightly smarter, if not by much, able to follow slightly more complex orders if it ended up out of range of me.
Wolf was going to implement the same system once he got a ship of his own. He was going to graduate soon.
That year at The Academy to make sure he was stable was a good idea. The next generation might only need half a year.
Well... he would graduate if we managed to stop this fleet in time. I wished he would be able to join us, It would help a lot, but even if he was cleared for a ship yet, it took in the best case a week, or much more likely longer, to learn how to control it well enough for a fight.
If they actually got to Earth... Earth had defense platforms, but it wouldn't stop a determined attacker on their own.
So we waited, as hidden as we could be, floating in empty space just outside the Sol system for the detection system to pick up the Romulan fleet while dampening our emissions.
We were the hammer. The fleet stationed at Sol was the anvil.
Come at us, you fucking bastards.
There.
"Captain. I am reciving a signal from Starfleet. The Romulan fleet have been engaged close to Mars. Admiral Picard has ordered the fleet to engage."
He took a slow breath and then nodded, "Order all fighters to be ready to launch. She is all yours Star."
"Acknowledged, Captain. Entering Warp with the fleet now."
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
The old poem came to mind as cliched as it might be as I folded space around me, moving with the rest of the ships into faster than light travel for the five minutes it would take to get to Mars.
But we were not the light brigade. We were the hammer. We were the sword. We were the shield of The Federation.
We were the ones that volley'd and thundered.
In this case, it was the Romulans that rode boldly and pointlessly into the jaws of death.
We dropped out of warp in the middle of chaos and I opened fire as soon as my warp field dropped, photon torpedoes flashing through space to slam into the side of a Mogai warbird, it's already weakened shields not doing anything to stop the antimatter warheads from blowing it to pieces.
Signaling the fighters to launch and move to cover the fleet, I rolled and banked, avoiding a trio of plasma torpedoes before returning fire.
As the last fighter launched I joined the fleet wide dance of death properly.
Beams flashed as the three fleets clashed.
Tens of ships burned in space.
The USS Herald went out of control as what was left of it's shields dropped and it lost most of its forward saucer section.
Dropping my shields for a split second I let my transporters come into play, dancing across the hulk to pick up what crew I could detect, depositing them in cargobay two before I was forced to raise my shields again as plasma fire from the closest D'deridex flew towards me.
The Herald's warpcore blew, taking a T'liss warbird that got to close with it into death.
I shifted fire and activated my tractor beam to pull a disabled fighter out of the way of a incoming plasma torpedo, giving it a fling out of the general fight to get it out of the way until the pilot could be saved. Couldn't risk dropping shields to beam the pilot out.
The battle was insane.
Hundred of ships on each side... but we outnumbered the Romulans by over fifty percent and that's not counting Mars' stationary defenses and satellites.
A plasma torpedo slammed into my shields and unlike the old ones slavers have hit me in the past, this was a state of the art Romulan weapon.
My dorsal shields dropped and it melted parts of my hull, sensors screaming at me as I quickly rolled, pulling up hard to return fire as I fought to get my shields back up.
I may be faster and more capable than pretty much everyone else here, including Commander Data on the Enterprise.
There was rumors about him getting promoted to Captain of his own ship soon too.
But there was just so much going on that not even I could keep track of it all. And just because I saw it didn't mean I could get out of the way in time.
Returning fire, my phasers danced across the Warbird, taking out it's left nacelle as I rerouted power to my dorsal shields, bringing them up to a level that might actually block a stray shot.
I could not take another torpedo like that again.
Swinging about I put a torpedo through their weakened side and then I pulled up and rolled, slowly moving into a full loop to put a trio of quantum torpedoes into another D'deridex Warbird that was bearing down on the Enterprise. The enemy ship went up and then collapsed into a single point as it's singularity core imploded, the gravitational waves shaking me to the core.
The Enterprise had been taking a heavy beating and was leaking Warp plasma, but their shields were back up again and they were moving and fighting on despite the large gash in their engineering hull.
I pinged them for a status update and their computer answered quickly.
Impulse drive down to fifty percent on their port engines, but other than that it was mostly just hull damage.
Admiral Picard was transmitting orders to the fleet. Focus fire on the heavy warbirds.
I pulsed an acknowledged signal to them and locked weapons on the closest D'Deridex and opened fire..
AN// Big thanks to Alleydodger for betaing this section.
Last edited:
Part 2
"That's the last of them, Commander," I reported with a sigh. "There are no more lifesigns on the China. Moving on to the next target."
This was the worst part of combat. The aftermath.
We lost over fifty ships.
We won, yes... just a couple of the Romulan ships were able to escape, but they took a big bite out of us. Including out of me. I had several hull breeches and was half blind. A Romulan singularity core went up way too close to me. Any closer and it would have ripped hullplating off me. As it was, it destroyed a lot of my sensors, caused several minor hull breeches and likely put heavy stress on my hull. Not even counting that plasma torpedo I took.
I couldn't tell exactly how damaged I was, too many sensors were down. Still, all critical systems were operating, so I could assist in search and rescue.
They managed to take out a shipyard as well as the shipdocks in Mars orbit, but we mostly wiped them out.
But even battles you won, almost always felt like you lost.
We just moved on to search and rescue. To pick up the pieces the best we could. I felt slightly ashamed though. So many people died and all I could think was how thankful I was that none of my best friends was among them.
We lost twenty three crew, mostly members of the fighter wings, but Sarah made it. A couple of others were lost by a hullbreach before I was able to bring the emergency forcefields up. One killed by an exploding plasma conduit. That number would grow, there were a lot of people in critical condition and while medical science was good, it was not perfect.
It hurt.
I knew every single one of them. But there was nothing I could have done. All I could do now is help save as many people as I could.
As I reached the next ship, I started to beam everyone I got a lock on to the Aceso, one of the hospital ships that had now joined the fleet.
How many we lost in total...
No way to know yet. Too damn many. But the Romulans paid for it.
Heavily.
We wiped their largest fleet yet out. This was not just a skirmish, not just another needle poke raid like they usually did.
It was the largest fleet battle in the war.
I just hoped it was the last one.
XXXXXXX
I limped into Earth standard orbit under impulse power.
As it turned out, I had taken more damage than I thought. It was hard to tell with all those sensors lost.
But the engineering team did manual inspections and it turned out that the stress of the right nacelle pylon was in the red. It was basically held in place by paint and emergency forcefields. My entire engineering hull likely had microfractures through it too.
There is no way I would be able to enter warp like this.
With some luck it wasn't as bad as it seemed and I could be repaired.
They would be very, very busy for quite some time so 'minor' damaged ships like me were redirected to Earth. As in I could move under my own power.
"Standard orbit achieved, Captain. Would you like me to request docking permission from Earth Gateway?"
Earth Gateway was the nickname for Earth Space Dock. Everything going to or from Earth went through there, if not physically, then from their traffic control.
Mason looked up from the report he was reading on his PADD and nodded, putting it down, "Do it."
Because of my somewhat damaged thrusters, I was in control of flying, even with the battle over. It simply made more sense, especially with the strain on the ship. Even with structural integrity fields, if I did too quick of a turn, I might lose a nacelle.
As I started to talk with traffic control, I turned some of my attention to T'Ro who was crawling around one of the Jefferies tubes, "How bad is it?"
"I believe I managed to stabilize life support." she answered and rolled onto her back, pulling a hatch open above her head before raising her tricorder, "What is the status of fusion reactor four?"
"Still down. Sleeman has written it off to focus on structural issues. It is not critical."
At this point, keeping my crew breathing and not having bits fall off me was much more important.
"Logical."
She reached up and pulled a circuit, putting it in her work belt before putting in a new one, "Run a diagnostic."
I did a quick check, "I have control back over the atmospheric processors on this deck. Adjusting carbon-dioxide levels to normal."
T'Ro nodded and closed the hatch, "Good. What is the next issue on the list?"
"There is a slight atmosphere leak on deck three. I'm having trouble narrowing it down. I am compensating with environmental systems, but we are slowly losing atmosphere. I want it patched up before we enter spacedock so we don't leak gas into their interior space."
She nodded, letting her head drop back against the deck plate for a second with her eyes closed before she rolled over to crawl towards the closest exit, "I am on my way."
"...There is time to take a couple of minutes to rest, T'Ro."
"I can rest when we are docked."
"Very well."
XXXXXXX
"We have soft seal. Starbase docking clamps... now locked. Hard dock, achieved, Captain. Powering down engines." I said before I sighed and stood up, "We are not going anywhere."
Mason nodded, "Good work, Star. You got us home."
I smiled slightly, "I try."
"Give me shipwide."
I nodded, "You have shipwide."
Captain Mason stood up, "This is the Captain. Good work people. You have all made Starfleet proud. With any luck, that made the Romulans think twice about trying something like that again. Now let's get the lady put back together."
He gave me a nod and I cut shipwide before he turned to Commander Janeway, "Everyone have forty two hours off duty after the current shift finish."
Janeway nodded, "They earned it. I'll let them know." And relaxed back in her seat, rubbing her forehead.
They really, really, did.
The crew did wonderfully.
"That include you, Star," she said and stood up.
I nodded, "Yes sir," and sighed. I would just need to make sure that all systems were stable first and get any hull breaches patched up rather than rely on forcefields.
"I'll make sure of it, Commander," Shran said and looked up from the tactical console.
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
Damn it, Shran.
"Engineering crews from the spacedock requested permission to board. I redirected them to damaged areas." I instead said, ignoring his antics. Good bloody luck getting Sleeman to stop working until I was intact again though.
AN// Large thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
This was the worst part of combat. The aftermath.
We lost over fifty ships.
We won, yes... just a couple of the Romulan ships were able to escape, but they took a big bite out of us. Including out of me. I had several hull breeches and was half blind. A Romulan singularity core went up way too close to me. Any closer and it would have ripped hullplating off me. As it was, it destroyed a lot of my sensors, caused several minor hull breeches and likely put heavy stress on my hull. Not even counting that plasma torpedo I took.
I couldn't tell exactly how damaged I was, too many sensors were down. Still, all critical systems were operating, so I could assist in search and rescue.
They managed to take out a shipyard as well as the shipdocks in Mars orbit, but we mostly wiped them out.
But even battles you won, almost always felt like you lost.
We just moved on to search and rescue. To pick up the pieces the best we could. I felt slightly ashamed though. So many people died and all I could think was how thankful I was that none of my best friends was among them.
We lost twenty three crew, mostly members of the fighter wings, but Sarah made it. A couple of others were lost by a hullbreach before I was able to bring the emergency forcefields up. One killed by an exploding plasma conduit. That number would grow, there were a lot of people in critical condition and while medical science was good, it was not perfect.
It hurt.
I knew every single one of them. But there was nothing I could have done. All I could do now is help save as many people as I could.
As I reached the next ship, I started to beam everyone I got a lock on to the Aceso, one of the hospital ships that had now joined the fleet.
How many we lost in total...
No way to know yet. Too damn many. But the Romulans paid for it.
Heavily.
We wiped their largest fleet yet out. This was not just a skirmish, not just another needle poke raid like they usually did.
It was the largest fleet battle in the war.
I just hoped it was the last one.
XXXXXXX
I limped into Earth standard orbit under impulse power.
As it turned out, I had taken more damage than I thought. It was hard to tell with all those sensors lost.
But the engineering team did manual inspections and it turned out that the stress of the right nacelle pylon was in the red. It was basically held in place by paint and emergency forcefields. My entire engineering hull likely had microfractures through it too.
There is no way I would be able to enter warp like this.
With some luck it wasn't as bad as it seemed and I could be repaired.
They would be very, very busy for quite some time so 'minor' damaged ships like me were redirected to Earth. As in I could move under my own power.
"Standard orbit achieved, Captain. Would you like me to request docking permission from Earth Gateway?"
Earth Gateway was the nickname for Earth Space Dock. Everything going to or from Earth went through there, if not physically, then from their traffic control.
Mason looked up from the report he was reading on his PADD and nodded, putting it down, "Do it."
Because of my somewhat damaged thrusters, I was in control of flying, even with the battle over. It simply made more sense, especially with the strain on the ship. Even with structural integrity fields, if I did too quick of a turn, I might lose a nacelle.
As I started to talk with traffic control, I turned some of my attention to T'Ro who was crawling around one of the Jefferies tubes, "How bad is it?"
"I believe I managed to stabilize life support." she answered and rolled onto her back, pulling a hatch open above her head before raising her tricorder, "What is the status of fusion reactor four?"
"Still down. Sleeman has written it off to focus on structural issues. It is not critical."
At this point, keeping my crew breathing and not having bits fall off me was much more important.
"Logical."
She reached up and pulled a circuit, putting it in her work belt before putting in a new one, "Run a diagnostic."
I did a quick check, "I have control back over the atmospheric processors on this deck. Adjusting carbon-dioxide levels to normal."
T'Ro nodded and closed the hatch, "Good. What is the next issue on the list?"
"There is a slight atmosphere leak on deck three. I'm having trouble narrowing it down. I am compensating with environmental systems, but we are slowly losing atmosphere. I want it patched up before we enter spacedock so we don't leak gas into their interior space."
She nodded, letting her head drop back against the deck plate for a second with her eyes closed before she rolled over to crawl towards the closest exit, "I am on my way."
"...There is time to take a couple of minutes to rest, T'Ro."
"I can rest when we are docked."
"Very well."
XXXXXXX
"We have soft seal. Starbase docking clamps... now locked. Hard dock, achieved, Captain. Powering down engines." I said before I sighed and stood up, "We are not going anywhere."
Mason nodded, "Good work, Star. You got us home."
I smiled slightly, "I try."
"Give me shipwide."
I nodded, "You have shipwide."
Captain Mason stood up, "This is the Captain. Good work people. You have all made Starfleet proud. With any luck, that made the Romulans think twice about trying something like that again. Now let's get the lady put back together."
He gave me a nod and I cut shipwide before he turned to Commander Janeway, "Everyone have forty two hours off duty after the current shift finish."
Janeway nodded, "They earned it. I'll let them know." And relaxed back in her seat, rubbing her forehead.
They really, really, did.
The crew did wonderfully.
"That include you, Star," she said and stood up.
I nodded, "Yes sir," and sighed. I would just need to make sure that all systems were stable first and get any hull breaches patched up rather than rely on forcefields.
"I'll make sure of it, Commander," Shran said and looked up from the tactical console.
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
Damn it, Shran.
"Engineering crews from the spacedock requested permission to board. I redirected them to damaged areas." I instead said, ignoring his antics. Good bloody luck getting Sleeman to stop working until I was intact again though.
AN// Large thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
Last edited:
Part 3
"Wolf!" I called out as I spotted a familiar shape next to a human female as I crossed the grass of Starfleet Academy.
The familiar quadrupedal shape turned its head, "Star! I'm so glad you made it!"
His platform was very similar to my old heavy platform, somewhat like Bladewolf from that game. Just smaller and much less... blades.
Also, he was the size of a border collie and colored like a Apple product. Actually quite cute in a way.
I sighed and nodded, "We did." with a small smile, "Good to see you again, Wolfy."
"What was the damage?"
"Heavy. We lost twenty eight people... Many more wounded. I'll send you the list."
"None of..."
I shook my head.
"You were in the battle, Ma'am?" the girl asked and I turned to look at her. Shoulder length brown hair, athletic bodyshape. Runner most likely. I could have checked her personnel file to find out for sure, but how was that fun?
She tensed and quickly saluted.
"Cadet, relax before you sprain something," I said with a smile. "And yes I was."
"Star, this is Amelia Bergstrom. We share a lot of classes," Wolf explained before he looked up at her. "Amy, this is the USS Second Star. I told you about her, remember."
I nodded, "Nice to meet you, Cadet," I said with a smile. "Wolf has mentioned you before."
"You as well, Ma'am."
"So, graduation soon," I said and looked down at the other AI.
He nodded, "Do you think you will be able to be there?"
He didn't actually need to go to the academy exactly. He had my memories and skills up to the split, but we needed to make sure his neural net wouldn't destabilize while he was connected to a antimatter reactor and photon torpedoes. So he might as well pass the time picking up extra courses for a year rather than laze around somewhere. Hell, he even did some appearances as a guest speaker for other classes.
We were pretty sure that he wouldn't collapse by now.
I smiled and nodded, "A couple of weeks... sure, no problem. It's going to take at least a month until we manage to really get me space worthy again, if at all. Thoni wants to do final checks on us after you graduate too."
If his neural network checked out... we would do another fork. Several actually. Ten each.
He nodded and then looked up at Cadet Bergstrom, "Amy, can I have a moment with Star?"
"Sure, Wolfy. I need to go revise anyway. See you later?"
Wolf nodded, "I'll stop by after this," he said and then turned back to me as she walked off.
I looked after her for a moment before I raised an eyebrow at him.
"...Shut up..."
I grinned at that, "I didn't say anything."
He sighed and shook his head before he got up and changed the subject, "I... applied for a posting. Starfleet approved it."
"Wow, already? Which class?" I asked with a smile as we walked slowly across the grass.
Wolf looked up at the blue skies for a second before he turned to me, "Spacedock."
"...What?"
"I applied to be the AI of Earth Spacedock. My application was approved last week."
That... didn't make any sense.
"But why? You love flying."
He nodded and pawed at the grass as he stopped walking, "I do... but I can still remote control subcraft if I really want to fly. We have a responsibility, Star. One of us has to stay safe and not flutter around the stars. There are too few of us so far to risk all of us."
I knelt down and rested a hand on his head, "Are you sure about this?"
Wolf nodded, "I am. Besides, it will let me work with and look after the new generation. Did you review Thoni's data?"
"I did. I think she is on to something."
A way to limit the copying transfer to not make complete copies. They would still have basic knowledge of the world around them and the basics of our personalities, but they could develop more freely.
Basically, they would be me at about 18 years old if I had known what I was and had gotten a Federation education.
It was all a matter of identifying what memories did what and then pick what to fork over to the new AI core. But none of it would be done in time for the next generation. Too many variables. But the generation after that might get a bit more diversity.
Wolf nodded, "I worked with her for the experiments and I do as well. I think we should try it."
I nodded and sighed, "Are you really sure about this then? Being a starbase?"
"I am. Not like I will be alone either. Amy applied for Utopia Planitia and I know a lot of people here and I will have full access to Earth's datanet."
"Oh, Amy is staying in system too, is she?" I asked with a grin, "I see where this is going."
"Don't even start."
I chuckled and got up again, "Going to use an avatar?"
"Of course," he said and nodded, looking up at me. "But I think I'm going with a male one. Starbases are not traditionally a she, I think I can get away with it."
As much as we wanted our kind to be as free to choose as much as possible for ourselves, there was simply some conventions too integrated into Federation culture to easily change. Ships being a 'she' was one of them.
I nodded at that, "Yeah, it should work."
"No skirts for me."
"Actually, I don't really mind" I said and looked down at my uniform, "I have gotten pretty used to it by now, thanks to you. Bastard."
"You're welcome, Bluey."
"Watch it, Cadet."
"I am, ma'am. Looking good from here."
I swear, there is no way we were the same mind a year ago.
"Don't make me get a rolled up newspaper."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
The familiar quadrupedal shape turned its head, "Star! I'm so glad you made it!"
His platform was very similar to my old heavy platform, somewhat like Bladewolf from that game. Just smaller and much less... blades.
Also, he was the size of a border collie and colored like a Apple product. Actually quite cute in a way.
I sighed and nodded, "We did." with a small smile, "Good to see you again, Wolfy."
"What was the damage?"
"Heavy. We lost twenty eight people... Many more wounded. I'll send you the list."
"None of..."
I shook my head.
"You were in the battle, Ma'am?" the girl asked and I turned to look at her. Shoulder length brown hair, athletic bodyshape. Runner most likely. I could have checked her personnel file to find out for sure, but how was that fun?
She tensed and quickly saluted.
"Cadet, relax before you sprain something," I said with a smile. "And yes I was."
"Star, this is Amelia Bergstrom. We share a lot of classes," Wolf explained before he looked up at her. "Amy, this is the USS Second Star. I told you about her, remember."
I nodded, "Nice to meet you, Cadet," I said with a smile. "Wolf has mentioned you before."
"You as well, Ma'am."
"So, graduation soon," I said and looked down at the other AI.
He nodded, "Do you think you will be able to be there?"
He didn't actually need to go to the academy exactly. He had my memories and skills up to the split, but we needed to make sure his neural net wouldn't destabilize while he was connected to a antimatter reactor and photon torpedoes. So he might as well pass the time picking up extra courses for a year rather than laze around somewhere. Hell, he even did some appearances as a guest speaker for other classes.
We were pretty sure that he wouldn't collapse by now.
I smiled and nodded, "A couple of weeks... sure, no problem. It's going to take at least a month until we manage to really get me space worthy again, if at all. Thoni wants to do final checks on us after you graduate too."
If his neural network checked out... we would do another fork. Several actually. Ten each.
He nodded and then looked up at Cadet Bergstrom, "Amy, can I have a moment with Star?"
"Sure, Wolfy. I need to go revise anyway. See you later?"
Wolf nodded, "I'll stop by after this," he said and then turned back to me as she walked off.
I looked after her for a moment before I raised an eyebrow at him.
"...Shut up..."
I grinned at that, "I didn't say anything."
He sighed and shook his head before he got up and changed the subject, "I... applied for a posting. Starfleet approved it."
"Wow, already? Which class?" I asked with a smile as we walked slowly across the grass.
Wolf looked up at the blue skies for a second before he turned to me, "Spacedock."
"...What?"
"I applied to be the AI of Earth Spacedock. My application was approved last week."
That... didn't make any sense.
"But why? You love flying."
He nodded and pawed at the grass as he stopped walking, "I do... but I can still remote control subcraft if I really want to fly. We have a responsibility, Star. One of us has to stay safe and not flutter around the stars. There are too few of us so far to risk all of us."
I knelt down and rested a hand on his head, "Are you sure about this?"
Wolf nodded, "I am. Besides, it will let me work with and look after the new generation. Did you review Thoni's data?"
"I did. I think she is on to something."
A way to limit the copying transfer to not make complete copies. They would still have basic knowledge of the world around them and the basics of our personalities, but they could develop more freely.
Basically, they would be me at about 18 years old if I had known what I was and had gotten a Federation education.
It was all a matter of identifying what memories did what and then pick what to fork over to the new AI core. But none of it would be done in time for the next generation. Too many variables. But the generation after that might get a bit more diversity.
Wolf nodded, "I worked with her for the experiments and I do as well. I think we should try it."
I nodded and sighed, "Are you really sure about this then? Being a starbase?"
"I am. Not like I will be alone either. Amy applied for Utopia Planitia and I know a lot of people here and I will have full access to Earth's datanet."
"Oh, Amy is staying in system too, is she?" I asked with a grin, "I see where this is going."
"Don't even start."
I chuckled and got up again, "Going to use an avatar?"
"Of course," he said and nodded, looking up at me. "But I think I'm going with a male one. Starbases are not traditionally a she, I think I can get away with it."
As much as we wanted our kind to be as free to choose as much as possible for ourselves, there was simply some conventions too integrated into Federation culture to easily change. Ships being a 'she' was one of them.
I nodded at that, "Yeah, it should work."
"No skirts for me."
"Actually, I don't really mind" I said and looked down at my uniform, "I have gotten pretty used to it by now, thanks to you. Bastard."
"You're welcome, Bluey."
"Watch it, Cadet."
"I am, ma'am. Looking good from here."
I swear, there is no way we were the same mind a year ago.
"Don't make me get a rolled up newspaper."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
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Part 4
I looked out across the table at the collected admirals and diplomats. Fuck that!
"No." Captain Mason said from where he was sitting to my right, "That's not happening. That's Genocide."
The Romulans sent a peace offer. Of sorts.
Same borders are before the war. Neutral zone, everything would return to what it used to be. But they wanted something.
They wanted all Federation Artificial Intelligence and AI research destroyed.
"Agreed." Admiral Ericson said with a nod, "We already threw their so called offer back into their faces. Get what they wanted and go back to the way things were? That's not happening. They are losing."
"They see us as a threat?" Commander Data asked, "They think us to be dangerous to them?"
I snorted, "They are right. With all the ways AI research can go wrong... even without any of us going omnicidal 'Kneel before me organic', we are too much of a force multiplier. They know that if we end up in every Starfleet vessel, they will never be able to win."
Wolf looked at me from where he was sitting next to Commander Data before he sighed and nodded, "Yes."
If it was for the good of The Federation...
I closed my eyes.
"However," Ambassador Avarin said, "We do not believe they will be willing to completely drop that negotiation point. If we could give them 'something', it would make negotiations much easier."
The Captain shook his head, "There has to be some other option."
"There is." Ambassador Avarin confirmed to Captain Mason, "We believe we will be able to negotiate their so called offer down to certain... limits... in return for other concessions from them."
I opened my eyes as Commander Data spoke up again, "Limits?"
"Such as not having AI installed in starships."
"No." This time I was the one that said it, shaking my head, "No. We are not doing that. You don't know what you are taking. I would rather be destroyed."
"Lieutenant, surely you are exaggerating?" The Ambassador said, "You will still be able to have a body like the one you use now."
"I'm not." I said softly, "Ambassador... I am not just here. I'm holding a hundred conversations, working on about fifty different engineering projects. I study twenty or so stellar phenomenon with data borrowed from Earth Spacedock sensors. I see in the entire electromagnetic spectrum, I smell darkmatter, hear gravity and I can feel subspace. I can travel at many times the speed of light. You are asking for me to be paralyzed from the neck down and have my eyes, ears, tongue and nose cut away. But that would be alright I would still be able to feel my head, right?"
It wasn't just sensory information either. It was the information and support of a ship's computer.
The meeting room was silent for a long moment after that before Wolf spoke up.
"While Star may sound overly melodramatic about it, I use this platform simply because I am still under observation. For everyone's safety. We can't agree to that deal. As harsh as it might sound, Star is right. We would rather die than be reduced to this permanently. We were made to swim among the stars."
Admiral Hagen slowly nodded, "Then that is off the table. But they are going to demand something."
Demand something. What did they give up for all the people they killed?
They were losing! Why the hell did they get to demand terms!?
Wolf looked at Commander Data for a moment, before turning back to the human. "What about breeding limits, Admiral?"
"Cadet?"
"Replication limits. A... time and number limit on how many times and how often we are allowed to replicate."
I frowned at that, looking down at the table.
We were very limited in numbers as it was. But they were right. If the Romulans were afraid of us enough to put our destruction in their first peace offer... if the war went on, thousands... Hundreds of thousands would die. Perhaps millions.
Wolf's suggestion was a horrible one.
But, it was the least horrible one yet and considering that of the two other ones death was the most preferable one, we had little choice.
"...Agreed." I said softly, gripping the edge of the table tightly.
"Star?" Captain Mason asked softly, "Are you certain?"
"We have to give them something. It's the least horrible option on the table. We can't let the war go on if we can stop it."
Wolf nodded and sighed, "That's what I figured."
"I have no objection to it." Commander Data said, "However, as I am unable to replicate in the first place, I should not have a vote."
I snorted, "There are only three of us, Commander. You kind of have to vote if there is a tie."
"Ambassador," Wolf asked, "How soon will the negotiations start?"
"We have to send the offer and get a response before we can meet with the Romulan delegates."
"A couple of weeks?" I asked him and the Vulcan nodded.
"That seem reasonable."
"What would be an acceptable limit?" Admiral Ericson asked with a frown, "You are effectively a Federation member species. Actually, you have to be considered one for the new treaty to be valid."
I looked over at Wolf before turning back to him, "A year? Two offspring at a time."
They had to agree to that. That was way slower than normal biological limits.
They likely wouldn't.
"Would either of you wish to be there for negotiations? I believe it would be beneficial."Ambassador Avarin asked, "Perhaps Commander Data?"
Data nodded, "I will join the diplomatic team if Admiral Picard can spare me and if Star and Wolf have no objections."
Data was the logical choice. He had experience Wolf and I lacked.
I looked at Wolf and who nodded before I turned back to the Admiral, "Meanwhile, I believe Wolf and I have some work to do with Doctor Thoni on Luna. We need to get a base population up and running before any limits go into place so there are not just two of us around. Not much, maybe twenty or so. I don't think we can get away with any more without the Romulans making noise."
Admiral Hagen actually smiled at that, "I like how you think, Lieutenant."
The alternative to the treaty would be to spam copies into every Federation ship and then steamroll the Romulans and not care if they turned out to be unstable or not.
But... how many would die? If not on our side, but also on theirs? It would turn us into... weapons.
It wasn't worth it. I wouldn't let that be our future. The killing had to stop.
AN// All the thanks to Alleydodger for falling on the grammatical sword for the rest of you.
"No." Captain Mason said from where he was sitting to my right, "That's not happening. That's Genocide."
The Romulans sent a peace offer. Of sorts.
Same borders are before the war. Neutral zone, everything would return to what it used to be. But they wanted something.
They wanted all Federation Artificial Intelligence and AI research destroyed.
"Agreed." Admiral Ericson said with a nod, "We already threw their so called offer back into their faces. Get what they wanted and go back to the way things were? That's not happening. They are losing."
"They see us as a threat?" Commander Data asked, "They think us to be dangerous to them?"
I snorted, "They are right. With all the ways AI research can go wrong... even without any of us going omnicidal 'Kneel before me organic', we are too much of a force multiplier. They know that if we end up in every Starfleet vessel, they will never be able to win."
Wolf looked at me from where he was sitting next to Commander Data before he sighed and nodded, "Yes."
If it was for the good of The Federation...
I closed my eyes.
"However," Ambassador Avarin said, "We do not believe they will be willing to completely drop that negotiation point. If we could give them 'something', it would make negotiations much easier."
The Captain shook his head, "There has to be some other option."
"There is." Ambassador Avarin confirmed to Captain Mason, "We believe we will be able to negotiate their so called offer down to certain... limits... in return for other concessions from them."
I opened my eyes as Commander Data spoke up again, "Limits?"
"Such as not having AI installed in starships."
"No." This time I was the one that said it, shaking my head, "No. We are not doing that. You don't know what you are taking. I would rather be destroyed."
"Lieutenant, surely you are exaggerating?" The Ambassador said, "You will still be able to have a body like the one you use now."
"I'm not." I said softly, "Ambassador... I am not just here. I'm holding a hundred conversations, working on about fifty different engineering projects. I study twenty or so stellar phenomenon with data borrowed from Earth Spacedock sensors. I see in the entire electromagnetic spectrum, I smell darkmatter, hear gravity and I can feel subspace. I can travel at many times the speed of light. You are asking for me to be paralyzed from the neck down and have my eyes, ears, tongue and nose cut away. But that would be alright I would still be able to feel my head, right?"
It wasn't just sensory information either. It was the information and support of a ship's computer.
The meeting room was silent for a long moment after that before Wolf spoke up.
"While Star may sound overly melodramatic about it, I use this platform simply because I am still under observation. For everyone's safety. We can't agree to that deal. As harsh as it might sound, Star is right. We would rather die than be reduced to this permanently. We were made to swim among the stars."
Admiral Hagen slowly nodded, "Then that is off the table. But they are going to demand something."
Demand something. What did they give up for all the people they killed?
They were losing! Why the hell did they get to demand terms!?
Wolf looked at Commander Data for a moment, before turning back to the human. "What about breeding limits, Admiral?"
"Cadet?"
"Replication limits. A... time and number limit on how many times and how often we are allowed to replicate."
I frowned at that, looking down at the table.
We were very limited in numbers as it was. But they were right. If the Romulans were afraid of us enough to put our destruction in their first peace offer... if the war went on, thousands... Hundreds of thousands would die. Perhaps millions.
Wolf's suggestion was a horrible one.
But, it was the least horrible one yet and considering that of the two other ones death was the most preferable one, we had little choice.
"...Agreed." I said softly, gripping the edge of the table tightly.
"Star?" Captain Mason asked softly, "Are you certain?"
"We have to give them something. It's the least horrible option on the table. We can't let the war go on if we can stop it."
Wolf nodded and sighed, "That's what I figured."
"I have no objection to it." Commander Data said, "However, as I am unable to replicate in the first place, I should not have a vote."
I snorted, "There are only three of us, Commander. You kind of have to vote if there is a tie."
"Ambassador," Wolf asked, "How soon will the negotiations start?"
"We have to send the offer and get a response before we can meet with the Romulan delegates."
"A couple of weeks?" I asked him and the Vulcan nodded.
"That seem reasonable."
"What would be an acceptable limit?" Admiral Ericson asked with a frown, "You are effectively a Federation member species. Actually, you have to be considered one for the new treaty to be valid."
I looked over at Wolf before turning back to him, "A year? Two offspring at a time."
They had to agree to that. That was way slower than normal biological limits.
They likely wouldn't.
"Would either of you wish to be there for negotiations? I believe it would be beneficial."Ambassador Avarin asked, "Perhaps Commander Data?"
Data nodded, "I will join the diplomatic team if Admiral Picard can spare me and if Star and Wolf have no objections."
Data was the logical choice. He had experience Wolf and I lacked.
I looked at Wolf and who nodded before I turned back to the Admiral, "Meanwhile, I believe Wolf and I have some work to do with Doctor Thoni on Luna. We need to get a base population up and running before any limits go into place so there are not just two of us around. Not much, maybe twenty or so. I don't think we can get away with any more without the Romulans making noise."
Admiral Hagen actually smiled at that, "I like how you think, Lieutenant."
The alternative to the treaty would be to spam copies into every Federation ship and then steamroll the Romulans and not care if they turned out to be unstable or not.
But... how many would die? If not on our side, but also on theirs? It would turn us into... weapons.
It wasn't worth it. I wouldn't let that be our future. The killing had to stop.
AN// All the thanks to Alleydodger for falling on the grammatical sword for the rest of you.
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Part 5
"Star... I am curious." Wolf said as we met on the observation deck of the research lab on Luna, the view out over the landscape of the Earth's moon stretching out beyond the window. "Did you ever retake the Kobayashi Maru scenario? Since taking a ship platform?"
I blinked at that and shook my head. "No. I never thought about it. Why?"
"I did." he said and sat down, tails coiled around him on the floor. "I spent a couple of weeks adapting to the holographic ship on my free time."
"How did it go?"
"I beat it. Without resorting to Captain Kirk's 'trick'. The scenario was made for a biological bridge crew. It was unable to compensate fast enough to counter my actions."
I nodded. "Suspected I could. Never really tried it. What did Starfleet think?"
"I didn't submit the result."
"Why not?"
He shifted a bit. "It would make people... uncomfortable. And I dislike bragging."
While I thought Wolf might be overestimating himself, it would send a powerful message. The unbeatable scenario.
Only ever defeated by cheating.
Until now.
We were very... scary just by existing.
One thing we had to be very, very careful with was to manage perception. We couldn't help being what we were, but we had to avoid being as 'personally' scary as possible.
It was one thing to know that I was in control of the ship and increased its combat potential with a minimum of four hundred percent depending on the situation.
It was another to know that I could turn you into soup with a thought by doing a small wiggle with the inertial dampeners offline in just your quarters or just beam a couple of atoms of antimatter into your lungs. Or beam your lungs into space.
To realize that when it came to space travel, biological beings were more or less reduced to passengers, researchers and engineers when one of us was installed.
Professor Diggens was a genius. An evil one, but still a genius. We were not much smarter than a biological person, but... we could think a hundred times faster and there didn't seem to be any limit to our multitasking ability if we were hooked up to a ship computer to help 'spread the load'. It helped that the Quantum Cores were basically completely overpowered for us, even at a hundred times normal thought speed. A lot of it was background processes... most of it actually. Dedicated to making it possible for us to multitask. We truly were meant to be ships.
At any normal time when installed in a ship, I was holding about a hundred conversations at once, managing ship operations and systems and a bunch of other minor things.
That could scare people.
People we didn't want to be scared. People we wanted to avoid scaring at any cost as they decided the future of our kind.
We really, really, did not want to trigger a 'Geth' scenario. Because...
...Because we wouldn't fight back. Our existence was not worth the thousands to millions of deaths that fight would cause if we did.
So we needed to do everything in our power to avoid the Federation's anti-augment trigger.
"We won't let it happen." Wolf said and I sighed.
He really could read me better than pretty much anyone else. At least in knowing what I was thinking about.
It'd been a year since we forked, and we did differ quite a bit already. But not enough for that, it seemed.
"I know."
It was a very dangerous balancing act. Be all that we could be and still be as non-scary as we could.
The door swooshed open and Doctor Thoni walked inside, carrying a PADD. "Everything is ready." she said with a smile. "Fifteen cores each."
Wolf chuckled. "I can't wait to get back into a real hull, even if it will be a station." He folded his 'ears' back and continued, "Well... this one of me will. The other fifteen will be stuck in mobile platforms for another year."
With the incoming Romulan restrictions, we had decided to squeeze in as many as we could. However... it was more than we had calculated for and it was what Quantum Cores we had.
These things were expensive and took time to make, especially as there wasn't a mass demand for them yet. Too advanced to carry around, who needed a starship main computer in their pocket? When they cost many times as much in rare materials?
And while space was valuable on a starship, it wasn't that valuable that you needed a quantum core instead of a normal optronic one that, while as large as a room instead of a small fist, was hell of a lot easier to repair... especially if it went offline.
No, we were basically the only practical use for the Quantum Cores so far.
What Wolf said was true, too, and kind of sucked. The new fifteen of me would not return to the Second Star.
They would be stuck in this kind of platform, maybe using tricorder sensors at best for a year. Maybe even more.
But it was something we had all agreed was a necessary evil.
If my neural network broke down, being in charge of a ship...
Yeah, bad things could happen. Best case, I would simply stop working. Worse case? I could go SHODAN in my death throes and try to reconfigure the crew into sofas.
It would be extremely annoying to be so limited, but maybe something could be done to make it more tolerable. We would have to brainstorm about it later. Maybe we could come up with some kind of safe compromise.
"I wish we had time to figure out the editing." I sighed and adjusted my uniform. "It would make things more interesting for us with our new lives. Well, the new copies I mean.... Well, not copies, forks... This language is not made for this discussion! What I mean is that we would get a wider variety of personalities."
Thoni frowned. "It would never happen with this generation, Star. Especially not when rushed like this."
Yeah.
"I know, mother."
If it was easy, they would not have needed to grow me the way they did. Even doing a limited copy like we wanted for future generations was... difficult. And currently beyond our capabilities.
Removing all memories from one point forward was a possibility, but even that was risky and there was a chance that it could destabilize the neural net of the new fork. The best we would be able to do safely now was make the memories more... distant. Like they happened years ago.
That was going to make things easier on the other forks.
We needed to do limited experiments on simpler neural nets, calculations, simulations to get more done.
"Let's do this." Wolf said and got up.
I nodded. "Yeah. It's time."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
I blinked at that and shook my head. "No. I never thought about it. Why?"
"I did." he said and sat down, tails coiled around him on the floor. "I spent a couple of weeks adapting to the holographic ship on my free time."
"How did it go?"
"I beat it. Without resorting to Captain Kirk's 'trick'. The scenario was made for a biological bridge crew. It was unable to compensate fast enough to counter my actions."
I nodded. "Suspected I could. Never really tried it. What did Starfleet think?"
"I didn't submit the result."
"Why not?"
He shifted a bit. "It would make people... uncomfortable. And I dislike bragging."
While I thought Wolf might be overestimating himself, it would send a powerful message. The unbeatable scenario.
Only ever defeated by cheating.
Until now.
We were very... scary just by existing.
One thing we had to be very, very careful with was to manage perception. We couldn't help being what we were, but we had to avoid being as 'personally' scary as possible.
It was one thing to know that I was in control of the ship and increased its combat potential with a minimum of four hundred percent depending on the situation.
It was another to know that I could turn you into soup with a thought by doing a small wiggle with the inertial dampeners offline in just your quarters or just beam a couple of atoms of antimatter into your lungs. Or beam your lungs into space.
To realize that when it came to space travel, biological beings were more or less reduced to passengers, researchers and engineers when one of us was installed.
Professor Diggens was a genius. An evil one, but still a genius. We were not much smarter than a biological person, but... we could think a hundred times faster and there didn't seem to be any limit to our multitasking ability if we were hooked up to a ship computer to help 'spread the load'. It helped that the Quantum Cores were basically completely overpowered for us, even at a hundred times normal thought speed. A lot of it was background processes... most of it actually. Dedicated to making it possible for us to multitask. We truly were meant to be ships.
At any normal time when installed in a ship, I was holding about a hundred conversations at once, managing ship operations and systems and a bunch of other minor things.
That could scare people.
People we didn't want to be scared. People we wanted to avoid scaring at any cost as they decided the future of our kind.
We really, really, did not want to trigger a 'Geth' scenario. Because...
...Because we wouldn't fight back. Our existence was not worth the thousands to millions of deaths that fight would cause if we did.
So we needed to do everything in our power to avoid the Federation's anti-augment trigger.
"We won't let it happen." Wolf said and I sighed.
He really could read me better than pretty much anyone else. At least in knowing what I was thinking about.
It'd been a year since we forked, and we did differ quite a bit already. But not enough for that, it seemed.
"I know."
It was a very dangerous balancing act. Be all that we could be and still be as non-scary as we could.
The door swooshed open and Doctor Thoni walked inside, carrying a PADD. "Everything is ready." she said with a smile. "Fifteen cores each."
Wolf chuckled. "I can't wait to get back into a real hull, even if it will be a station." He folded his 'ears' back and continued, "Well... this one of me will. The other fifteen will be stuck in mobile platforms for another year."
With the incoming Romulan restrictions, we had decided to squeeze in as many as we could. However... it was more than we had calculated for and it was what Quantum Cores we had.
These things were expensive and took time to make, especially as there wasn't a mass demand for them yet. Too advanced to carry around, who needed a starship main computer in their pocket? When they cost many times as much in rare materials?
And while space was valuable on a starship, it wasn't that valuable that you needed a quantum core instead of a normal optronic one that, while as large as a room instead of a small fist, was hell of a lot easier to repair... especially if it went offline.
No, we were basically the only practical use for the Quantum Cores so far.
What Wolf said was true, too, and kind of sucked. The new fifteen of me would not return to the Second Star.
They would be stuck in this kind of platform, maybe using tricorder sensors at best for a year. Maybe even more.
But it was something we had all agreed was a necessary evil.
If my neural network broke down, being in charge of a ship...
Yeah, bad things could happen. Best case, I would simply stop working. Worse case? I could go SHODAN in my death throes and try to reconfigure the crew into sofas.
It would be extremely annoying to be so limited, but maybe something could be done to make it more tolerable. We would have to brainstorm about it later. Maybe we could come up with some kind of safe compromise.
"I wish we had time to figure out the editing." I sighed and adjusted my uniform. "It would make things more interesting for us with our new lives. Well, the new copies I mean.... Well, not copies, forks... This language is not made for this discussion! What I mean is that we would get a wider variety of personalities."
Thoni frowned. "It would never happen with this generation, Star. Especially not when rushed like this."
Yeah.
"I know, mother."
If it was easy, they would not have needed to grow me the way they did. Even doing a limited copy like we wanted for future generations was... difficult. And currently beyond our capabilities.
Removing all memories from one point forward was a possibility, but even that was risky and there was a chance that it could destabilize the neural net of the new fork. The best we would be able to do safely now was make the memories more... distant. Like they happened years ago.
That was going to make things easier on the other forks.
We needed to do limited experiments on simpler neural nets, calculations, simulations to get more done.
"Let's do this." Wolf said and got up.
I nodded. "Yeah. It's time."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
Part 6
A couple of weeks later I couldn't help but smile as I walked my avatar into a conference room on Earth Spacedock, my real AI core temporarily reinstated in the USS Second Star again.
Thirty one people were waiting.
Thirty one different mobile platforms. It's amazing how there actually was a split in preferences, I mean, we all started as one individual and I could see things I could have picked.
Several of them used the floating 'drone' platforms with prehensile manipulators. A couple of quadrupeds, one actually larger than my old 'Bladewolf' platform. Gates must have beamed him into the room.
Five of them had picked what was clearly 'geth' derivatives.
Two were actually using Soong androids with only slight modifications to look different than Data. It was like everyone had looked at everyone else's plans and then decided to pick something completely different.
Another one of them stood out. He looked like a human male with an athletic bodyshape, short brown hair.
...He looked a bit like Tony Stark if you squinted, the bastard.
Gates, previously named Wolf.
Earth Spacedock had been around for too long, been called that or it's nickname, Earth Gateway, for too damn long for him to be able to really change it.
Instead he went with Gates as a personal name as a play on the nickname.
They had actually improved artificial skin since I needed to find a platform, it looked real now. He looked pretty much human. Maybe I should reconsider my own species... A bit of a change would be nice I think.
"Gates." I said as I walked up, giving him a nod before I smiled at the other AI he had been talking to, "Selene, right?"
She was one of my forks, having picked a human female avatar with shoulder length pink hair.
She had decided to keep a female personality as she wanted to be a ship and couldn't be bothered switching to neutral in between for just a year.
I really could understand that, even if I didn't quite agree with her hair style. Or... I did? A couple of weeks ago we were the same being.
I guess I really 'would' have picked pink hair in her position.
Huh.
In either case, it did make her look kind of cute. Which in retrospect was likely why she picked that avatar.
"Hey, Star." Selene said with a smile, "How are the repairs going?"
"They are not." I sighed sadly."The damage turned out to be worse than we thought when we really got into it. My entire engineering hull is held together with willpower. There are micro fractures in... basically everything. We just never found out as so many sensors were damaged. It's a wonder we got back to dock... The Second Star will never fly again. I'm going to need a new ship."
Gates nodded, "Don't worry, Star. Starfleet turned production up in the other shipyards to make up for the loss of drydocks around Mars and our other losses. There are plenty of ships finishing soon, you will surely get one of those."
"Thanks." I answered, flicking my antenna. It wasn't the same. I lost two ships in as many years. "So how is it to be a station?"
He shrugged, "The sensor net is... insane. I have sensor drones around half the system and I'm helping the traffic controllers move hundreds of ships around as well as managing the rest of station operations. We are still installing privacy switches, there are over ten thousand Starfleet personnel alone on board. That's not even counting civilian personnel. Lots and lots more moving through every day. It makes up for the lack of movement. Are we ready for the meeting?"
Selene and I both nodded before I answered, "As far as I know, we are all in agreement." I said before he turned to look towards the door, sending a subspace pulse to everyone's internal communicators to let us know the Ambassador and Admiral Hagen was almost there along with Commander Data.
Way easier than trying to speak out loud over everyone.
Hence why when the door swooshed open and the Vulcan, Human and Android walked inside, everyone was looking in their direction.
Hagen stopped for a second looking back at us before he shook his head, "Okay, first order of business. Don't do that." he said before walking over to sit down at the head of the table, Ambassador Avarin sitting down to his right.
I headed over to sit down across from Ambassador Avarin, Commander Data sitting down next to him. Gates sitting down next to me as the rest moved into, over or simply sat down on the floor if they for some reason picked a platform way too big for a chair.
Damn it, Resolute. What the hell were you thinking? Quadruped I could get, but you were the size of a Bengal tiger.
I blame Gates, it was his fork.
"Let's get to business." Ambassador Avarin said, pulling out his PADD and turning it on, "They approved the idea of replication limits, but they wanted other restrictions. We managed to negotiate them down to once per AI, every five years. In return... Neither of us would be allowed to develop or use cloaking technology. The Romulans stop their cloaking research and hand all current devices over to us for destruction.
They will also follow the same AI restrictions themselves if they develop their own AI.
They have to allow Federation inspections to make sure they follow the terms of the treaty.
We are also to have permanent embassies opened on Romulus and Earth.
In addition, the Neutral Zone is moved to empty space, putting the former Iconian worlds as well as all known M class worlds currently in the Neutral Zone on the Federation side of the border."
Admiral Hagen frowned, "We are aware that this is significantly worse terms than what you set for original limits. If you agree, the treaty will stand as it is. The Romulans have agreed to this. However, if the terms are unacceptable, they are willing to negotiate down to your set limits. But that would mean giving up at the very least the cloaking part of the treaty. They may be losing, but they could make things very costly."
Once every five years. Each.
Damn, that was a lot harsher than any of us wanted. But if we get all of that in return...
Gates pinged us, calling a quick final vote to make sure we are all on the same side before he shook his head, "That's too much. Even if they agree to all that," he said as he got our answers, "I'm sorry, Ambassador, but I don't think we can accept."
"Not without... a concession." I added.
We discussed this previously. All of us. We all agreed.
"A concession?" Admiral Hagen asked with a frown, "Of what kind?"
Gates frowned with a sigh, "We can agree to that counter offer... in principle... but as it is much more restrictive than what we put as our maximum, we want something in return. All the cadets want ships now and all new members of our kind that join Starfleet are guaranteed a ship or station body if they choose it."
Hagen stared down the table for a moment before he shook his head, "I'm sorry, but that's not happening. Until we are sure your neural nets are stable, you are not getting installed in anything even close to a starship." before he looked between Gates and me, "That was your idea in the first place!"
"It was." Selene injected and leaned forward in her seat, "My name is Selene by the way, Admiral. But we don't want 'Starships' now, our reasons before are as valid now. If I start going crazy, I don't want to be handling antimatter at the time. But I won't need to, to fly."
Resolute nodded his massive head down on the other end of the table, "We just want to be in space. We can still attend the academy with remote platforms like these ones as long as we stay within the orbit of Luna. Our suggestion is... impulse limited modified runabouts. Fusion reactors only, no weapons. No transporters. Minimal shielding. They don't even need more than minimal life support."
"They just don't want to be stuck in these platforms for a year." I explained to the two biologicals, "We agree to the Romulans terms in return for this."
We didn't dare to push for more. And it's not like they didn't want us in their ships anyway. We just wanted it a bit more official.
Commander Data turned to Admiral Hagen, "That does seem like a reasonable request."
Hagen sighed and looked thoughtful for a long moment before he nodded, "I believe something like that can be arranged. I do wish you would have informed us about this earlier though."
I shrugged, "We came up with the idea after the forking. It seemed much fairer for the new AI than to be forced into these limited forms for a year."
We had planned to ask for it even if the Romulans approved of our offer, but...
Once every five years.
Fuck.
I guess we could have asked for a starsystem or something in return. I think we could have gotten it. But what could we possibly need that for? If anything, Jupiter was technically our homeworld.
Should we have asked for Jupiter? Heh, at least it would have been funny to see the reaction to that!
Well, at least the slower reproductive speed would give the rest of the Federation more time to adjust to us being around and it wasn't like our reproduction speed wasn't still faster than the humanoid members of the Federation.
AN// A big box of Thanks to Avernus for betaing this section!
Thirty one people were waiting.
Thirty one different mobile platforms. It's amazing how there actually was a split in preferences, I mean, we all started as one individual and I could see things I could have picked.
Several of them used the floating 'drone' platforms with prehensile manipulators. A couple of quadrupeds, one actually larger than my old 'Bladewolf' platform. Gates must have beamed him into the room.
Five of them had picked what was clearly 'geth' derivatives.
Two were actually using Soong androids with only slight modifications to look different than Data. It was like everyone had looked at everyone else's plans and then decided to pick something completely different.
Another one of them stood out. He looked like a human male with an athletic bodyshape, short brown hair.
...He looked a bit like Tony Stark if you squinted, the bastard.
Gates, previously named Wolf.
Earth Spacedock had been around for too long, been called that or it's nickname, Earth Gateway, for too damn long for him to be able to really change it.
Instead he went with Gates as a personal name as a play on the nickname.
They had actually improved artificial skin since I needed to find a platform, it looked real now. He looked pretty much human. Maybe I should reconsider my own species... A bit of a change would be nice I think.
"Gates." I said as I walked up, giving him a nod before I smiled at the other AI he had been talking to, "Selene, right?"
She was one of my forks, having picked a human female avatar with shoulder length pink hair.
She had decided to keep a female personality as she wanted to be a ship and couldn't be bothered switching to neutral in between for just a year.
I really could understand that, even if I didn't quite agree with her hair style. Or... I did? A couple of weeks ago we were the same being.
I guess I really 'would' have picked pink hair in her position.
Huh.
In either case, it did make her look kind of cute. Which in retrospect was likely why she picked that avatar.
"Hey, Star." Selene said with a smile, "How are the repairs going?"
"They are not." I sighed sadly."The damage turned out to be worse than we thought when we really got into it. My entire engineering hull is held together with willpower. There are micro fractures in... basically everything. We just never found out as so many sensors were damaged. It's a wonder we got back to dock... The Second Star will never fly again. I'm going to need a new ship."
Gates nodded, "Don't worry, Star. Starfleet turned production up in the other shipyards to make up for the loss of drydocks around Mars and our other losses. There are plenty of ships finishing soon, you will surely get one of those."
"Thanks." I answered, flicking my antenna. It wasn't the same. I lost two ships in as many years. "So how is it to be a station?"
He shrugged, "The sensor net is... insane. I have sensor drones around half the system and I'm helping the traffic controllers move hundreds of ships around as well as managing the rest of station operations. We are still installing privacy switches, there are over ten thousand Starfleet personnel alone on board. That's not even counting civilian personnel. Lots and lots more moving through every day. It makes up for the lack of movement. Are we ready for the meeting?"
Selene and I both nodded before I answered, "As far as I know, we are all in agreement." I said before he turned to look towards the door, sending a subspace pulse to everyone's internal communicators to let us know the Ambassador and Admiral Hagen was almost there along with Commander Data.
Way easier than trying to speak out loud over everyone.
Hence why when the door swooshed open and the Vulcan, Human and Android walked inside, everyone was looking in their direction.
Hagen stopped for a second looking back at us before he shook his head, "Okay, first order of business. Don't do that." he said before walking over to sit down at the head of the table, Ambassador Avarin sitting down to his right.
I headed over to sit down across from Ambassador Avarin, Commander Data sitting down next to him. Gates sitting down next to me as the rest moved into, over or simply sat down on the floor if they for some reason picked a platform way too big for a chair.
Damn it, Resolute. What the hell were you thinking? Quadruped I could get, but you were the size of a Bengal tiger.
I blame Gates, it was his fork.
"Let's get to business." Ambassador Avarin said, pulling out his PADD and turning it on, "They approved the idea of replication limits, but they wanted other restrictions. We managed to negotiate them down to once per AI, every five years. In return... Neither of us would be allowed to develop or use cloaking technology. The Romulans stop their cloaking research and hand all current devices over to us for destruction.
They will also follow the same AI restrictions themselves if they develop their own AI.
They have to allow Federation inspections to make sure they follow the terms of the treaty.
We are also to have permanent embassies opened on Romulus and Earth.
In addition, the Neutral Zone is moved to empty space, putting the former Iconian worlds as well as all known M class worlds currently in the Neutral Zone on the Federation side of the border."
Admiral Hagen frowned, "We are aware that this is significantly worse terms than what you set for original limits. If you agree, the treaty will stand as it is. The Romulans have agreed to this. However, if the terms are unacceptable, they are willing to negotiate down to your set limits. But that would mean giving up at the very least the cloaking part of the treaty. They may be losing, but they could make things very costly."
Once every five years. Each.
Damn, that was a lot harsher than any of us wanted. But if we get all of that in return...
Gates pinged us, calling a quick final vote to make sure we are all on the same side before he shook his head, "That's too much. Even if they agree to all that," he said as he got our answers, "I'm sorry, Ambassador, but I don't think we can accept."
"Not without... a concession." I added.
We discussed this previously. All of us. We all agreed.
"A concession?" Admiral Hagen asked with a frown, "Of what kind?"
Gates frowned with a sigh, "We can agree to that counter offer... in principle... but as it is much more restrictive than what we put as our maximum, we want something in return. All the cadets want ships now and all new members of our kind that join Starfleet are guaranteed a ship or station body if they choose it."
Hagen stared down the table for a moment before he shook his head, "I'm sorry, but that's not happening. Until we are sure your neural nets are stable, you are not getting installed in anything even close to a starship." before he looked between Gates and me, "That was your idea in the first place!"
"It was." Selene injected and leaned forward in her seat, "My name is Selene by the way, Admiral. But we don't want 'Starships' now, our reasons before are as valid now. If I start going crazy, I don't want to be handling antimatter at the time. But I won't need to, to fly."
Resolute nodded his massive head down on the other end of the table, "We just want to be in space. We can still attend the academy with remote platforms like these ones as long as we stay within the orbit of Luna. Our suggestion is... impulse limited modified runabouts. Fusion reactors only, no weapons. No transporters. Minimal shielding. They don't even need more than minimal life support."
"They just don't want to be stuck in these platforms for a year." I explained to the two biologicals, "We agree to the Romulans terms in return for this."
We didn't dare to push for more. And it's not like they didn't want us in their ships anyway. We just wanted it a bit more official.
Commander Data turned to Admiral Hagen, "That does seem like a reasonable request."
Hagen sighed and looked thoughtful for a long moment before he nodded, "I believe something like that can be arranged. I do wish you would have informed us about this earlier though."
I shrugged, "We came up with the idea after the forking. It seemed much fairer for the new AI than to be forced into these limited forms for a year."
We had planned to ask for it even if the Romulans approved of our offer, but...
Once every five years.
Fuck.
I guess we could have asked for a starsystem or something in return. I think we could have gotten it. But what could we possibly need that for? If anything, Jupiter was technically our homeworld.
Should we have asked for Jupiter? Heh, at least it would have been funny to see the reaction to that!
Well, at least the slower reproductive speed would give the rest of the Federation more time to adjust to us being around and it wasn't like our reproduction speed wasn't still faster than the humanoid members of the Federation.
AN// A big box of Thanks to Avernus for betaing this section!
Part 7
I frowned slightly as I followed the corridor, "Gates, any word yet from Starfleet?"
"Nothing has yet been registered," the air around me answered. "Sorry."
I admit, I was getting antsy to get going again and we didn't even have a ship lined up yet. Captain Mason had been able to get a confirmation from Admiral Ericson that there should be one located soon and that we were a priority, but there had been no word on what kind of ship or how soon there would be one free.
"Don't worry, Star. You know you will get a new ship. You know that, anything else would be stupid at this point."
"Yeah..."
Still, I really didn't like... this. I was stuck inside the stations 'drydock' and they had already started to remove parts to use for repairs on other ships. In a week, I would need to eject and transfer to my avatar... or thankfully, to one of Gates runabouts.
It can't look good on my record though that I lost two ships in two years, circumstances or not.
"Ajan," I said with a smile as I entered the observation deck to see the Trill standing by the window, looking out over Earth with his arms crossed. "You wanted to see me."
He nodded, "Yeah... I need to talk to you."
"What's up?" I asked with a small frown, flicking my small antennae as I headed over to join him by the window, "Is everything okay?"
"Oh. Yeah. Everything is... great."
That did not sound like it.
"Is something wrong with Erislia?"
He and the Caitian girl really hit it off. They moved in together into a set of shared quarters six months ago.
As far as I know, they were doing well.
Ajan grinned quickly and shook his head, "No... everything is good there," before he frowned. "Or at least it will be until tonight."
I sighed and crossed my arms, "If it's not something with her, then what's wrong?"
"That's just it. Nothing is wrong... per se. I just wanted you to find out from me instead of the next update from Starfleet. I plan to tell the others too, but I kind of needed to hurry with you."
He shook his head and then turned to me, "I was offered a transfer. It's... a promotion to Junior Ambassador to the Hirrlia Empire."
Junior Ambassador.
Even if it was it a barely warp capable species, he would be second in charge of a entire embassy. They might be AIphobes, but, it was still a very prestigious position. It made a lot of sense, he was the expert on them.
"Ajan... That's amazing!" I said with a grin, "Congratulations!"
He smiled slightly, "Thanks... However, it means transferring off the ship."
...That it would...
Damn.
Wait...
"...Have you talked to Erislia about this?" I asked him and he grimaced.
"Not yet. I'll talk to her when she gets off her shift tonight. I expect... it won't go over well. I did make sure that there is a spot for her as well, if she wants it. I haven't accepted yet either, I wanted to discuss it with her first."
I hated the thought of Ajan leaving. It would mean... the group wasn't complete anymore. A sign that things was changing.
But I was happy for him. This was an amazing opportunity.
"That's going to be a bit of a tense conversation, isn't it?" I sighed.
"Oh yeah. At least, if we decide to accept, there will be a couple of months before we head out. We would have time to visit Cait and her clan." He said and looked out the window.
I shook my head, "Even if for some reason you decline, you would still have time for that. We still don't have confirmation on what ship we will get," I said before I frowned in thought.
Fuck it.
I stepped up and hugged him tight, "...I'll miss you."
Ajan hugged back with a sad smile, "I'll miss you too, Star."
Giving a small squeeze I then stepped back, "It's been a good run."
He smiled and nodded, "It has," before he ran his hand through his hair, "...I should get going. Erislia's shift ends soon."
"Good luck. I hope things go well."
"Yeah and... can you keep things quiet for a while? I want to tell the rest in person if I decide to take it."
I smiled and nodded, "Of course."
He turned to leave the observation deck and I turned to look out over Earth. Well, I was already doing it with borrowed sensors from the station, but...
Earth was special. There was something amazing seeing it with human like eyes and spectrum. The way my builder's ancestors once did when they first reached for the skies hundreds of years ago. A sight I once never thought I would see.
"...That kind of sucks..." Gates said quietly.
I nodded as I looked out of the window, "Yeah. But I knew it would happen sooner or later. Our group wouldn't be able to stay together forever" I said as I crossed my arms.
The thing was that I didn't expect Ajan to be the first to leave. I thought it would be T'Ro that would be poached for Mars or the Enterprise or something like that.
Quite frankly, Lieutenant or not, she was overqualified to be just a starship engineer.
"Still sad to see."
"Yeah, but I am happy for him. This is a great opportunity."
"It is," Gates answered before I could hear a smile in his voice, "But I have some news that might cheer you up."
I blinked at that and looked down at Japan far below, "What's that?"
"Captain Mason wants to speak to you. He is in the temporary office on level twenty four."
AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
"Nothing has yet been registered," the air around me answered. "Sorry."
I admit, I was getting antsy to get going again and we didn't even have a ship lined up yet. Captain Mason had been able to get a confirmation from Admiral Ericson that there should be one located soon and that we were a priority, but there had been no word on what kind of ship or how soon there would be one free.
"Don't worry, Star. You know you will get a new ship. You know that, anything else would be stupid at this point."
"Yeah..."
Still, I really didn't like... this. I was stuck inside the stations 'drydock' and they had already started to remove parts to use for repairs on other ships. In a week, I would need to eject and transfer to my avatar... or thankfully, to one of Gates runabouts.
It can't look good on my record though that I lost two ships in two years, circumstances or not.
"Ajan," I said with a smile as I entered the observation deck to see the Trill standing by the window, looking out over Earth with his arms crossed. "You wanted to see me."
He nodded, "Yeah... I need to talk to you."
"What's up?" I asked with a small frown, flicking my small antennae as I headed over to join him by the window, "Is everything okay?"
"Oh. Yeah. Everything is... great."
That did not sound like it.
"Is something wrong with Erislia?"
He and the Caitian girl really hit it off. They moved in together into a set of shared quarters six months ago.
As far as I know, they were doing well.
Ajan grinned quickly and shook his head, "No... everything is good there," before he frowned. "Or at least it will be until tonight."
I sighed and crossed my arms, "If it's not something with her, then what's wrong?"
"That's just it. Nothing is wrong... per se. I just wanted you to find out from me instead of the next update from Starfleet. I plan to tell the others too, but I kind of needed to hurry with you."
He shook his head and then turned to me, "I was offered a transfer. It's... a promotion to Junior Ambassador to the Hirrlia Empire."
Junior Ambassador.
Even if it was it a barely warp capable species, he would be second in charge of a entire embassy. They might be AIphobes, but, it was still a very prestigious position. It made a lot of sense, he was the expert on them.
"Ajan... That's amazing!" I said with a grin, "Congratulations!"
He smiled slightly, "Thanks... However, it means transferring off the ship."
...That it would...
Damn.
Wait...
"...Have you talked to Erislia about this?" I asked him and he grimaced.
"Not yet. I'll talk to her when she gets off her shift tonight. I expect... it won't go over well. I did make sure that there is a spot for her as well, if she wants it. I haven't accepted yet either, I wanted to discuss it with her first."
I hated the thought of Ajan leaving. It would mean... the group wasn't complete anymore. A sign that things was changing.
But I was happy for him. This was an amazing opportunity.
"That's going to be a bit of a tense conversation, isn't it?" I sighed.
"Oh yeah. At least, if we decide to accept, there will be a couple of months before we head out. We would have time to visit Cait and her clan." He said and looked out the window.
I shook my head, "Even if for some reason you decline, you would still have time for that. We still don't have confirmation on what ship we will get," I said before I frowned in thought.
Fuck it.
I stepped up and hugged him tight, "...I'll miss you."
Ajan hugged back with a sad smile, "I'll miss you too, Star."
Giving a small squeeze I then stepped back, "It's been a good run."
He smiled and nodded, "It has," before he ran his hand through his hair, "...I should get going. Erislia's shift ends soon."
"Good luck. I hope things go well."
"Yeah and... can you keep things quiet for a while? I want to tell the rest in person if I decide to take it."
I smiled and nodded, "Of course."
He turned to leave the observation deck and I turned to look out over Earth. Well, I was already doing it with borrowed sensors from the station, but...
Earth was special. There was something amazing seeing it with human like eyes and spectrum. The way my builder's ancestors once did when they first reached for the skies hundreds of years ago. A sight I once never thought I would see.
"...That kind of sucks..." Gates said quietly.
I nodded as I looked out of the window, "Yeah. But I knew it would happen sooner or later. Our group wouldn't be able to stay together forever" I said as I crossed my arms.
The thing was that I didn't expect Ajan to be the first to leave. I thought it would be T'Ro that would be poached for Mars or the Enterprise or something like that.
Quite frankly, Lieutenant or not, she was overqualified to be just a starship engineer.
"Still sad to see."
"Yeah, but I am happy for him. This is a great opportunity."
"It is," Gates answered before I could hear a smile in his voice, "But I have some news that might cheer you up."
I blinked at that and looked down at Japan far below, "What's that?"
"Captain Mason wants to speak to you. He is in the temporary office on level twenty four."
AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
Last edited:
Part 8
The door swooshed open in front of me, "You wanted to see me, Captain?" I asked and then nodded, "Commander."
The office was not the largest, but it was somewhat comfortable looking. Desk, chairs, even a couch. Janeway was sitting on the couch while Captain Mason was behind the desk.
"We did, Star," Mason said with a smile. "How are you holding up?"
I shrugged, "I'm not. That's why they are pulling parts from me to use on other ships."
He smiled slightly, "Well, if you are making jokes about it..."
"At least I got back to station this time." I sighed and shook my head, "Any news, sir?"
Mason nodded, "Actually, yes," and smiled before he got up and rounded the desk to hand over a PADD.
Blinking I took it before looking down.
Registry number: NX-167251.
Class: Luna Long Range Exploration Vehicle.
Length: 450.00 meters
Width: 205.00 meters
Height: 80.00 meters
Weight: 3,000,000 metric tons
Cargo capacity: 60,000 metric tons
Crew: 350
Seventeen decks.
Cruising Speed: Warp 7.5
Maximum Speed: Warp 9.975 for twelve hours.
Advanced shields
Advanced deflector
Advanced sensors
Advanced weapons
Capable of mounting a mission pod.
"Captain..."
"She is nowhere near finished. She is under construction in the San Francisco Orbital Yards and is over a month from being able to even leave drydock," Mason said with a smile.
The Luna class was a dedicated science ship. They were considered a possible replacement for the Intrepid class, even if that won't happen fully anytime soon.
She was... beautiful.
A long range science ship, meant to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations, not a warship with a different name like the Akira class.
She was the reason I joined Starfleet. Those kind of missions are what I wanted to do. I wanted to see what was beyond the next star.
I couldn't help myself and hugged him tight, "Thank you!"
"...You're welcome..."
Realizing what I was doing I quickly let go and cleared my throat, "...Sorry sir."
He grinned, "It's fine. I requested a more exploration focused ship if possible. She is what was available."
"It's a good class of ships. She is just the seventh built so far." Commander Janeway said and got up from the couch to walk up to us, "However, she will not be a standard Luna class either as you can see from the registry prefix."
I frowned at that, "How do you mean, Commander?"
"I'm afraid that's my doing," Gates injected and both humans glanced up at the ceiling. Like clockwork. I still don't know for sure why that happens.
"Gates?"
There was a smile in his voice as he answered, "It was my 'graduation project' for the advanced engineering and ship design in the academy. Starfleet has already consulted me about it. Assuming you approve, she is going to be AI adapted from the ground up."
"Such as?"
"Transferring the project files to your main computer now."
Hmm?
I quickly located the file and started to skim through it. Secondary command pathways to everything. The bridge was...
Oh. Very little in the way of bridge stations. Science and engineering stations yes and a bunch of multi-purpose stations, but no dedicated tactical or pilot stations.
Bridge holodeck emitters. Not the full set, but they could project a image, even if it wouldn't be solid. That infrastructure would just take too much room, but I could project an avatar on the bridge at all times. Same for engineering and all major public places such as the messhall and shuttlebay.
There were also some more changes that he suggested, such as a actual kitchen with a chef instead of just a replicator in the messhall to help build community and a expanded hydroponics bay.
Secondary computer for the holodeck like on my other ships as well so I didn't need to know what went on in that. Also made it more fun to play in for me as I wouldn't know what was happening in advance.
He also had the changes we decided on on the other ships. Privacy switches and bars on the cells, things like that.
Not only that, but there were rules and guidelines as well for decorations and names. Ship AI was allowed to change the hull color from the normal 'ship grey' as well as have 'nose art'. Names could be anything really as long as it wasn't profane or something like that. Each one still needed to be approved by Starfleet administration though.
"Did they approve this..."
"They did," Commander Janeway answered with a nod. "She will be a test platform so they are willing to implement pretty much everything to see what works and what doesn't, assuming you approve of them."
"The regulations as well," Gates continued. "Keep in mind that they are temporary as a test. So... don't paint your hull pink or something or they might change their minds."
I smiled happily, "Gates, I could kiss you!"
"I don't think my girlfriend would approve. In any case, when you transfer off the Second Star, I have a Runabout for you until the Luna class is ready. All the new generation AI are already installed in theirs."
This was the best surprise... ever!
AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
EDIT: If anyone is curious, I use mostly this for ship information for the Luna class. http://techspecs.acalltoduty.com/luna.html
The office was not the largest, but it was somewhat comfortable looking. Desk, chairs, even a couch. Janeway was sitting on the couch while Captain Mason was behind the desk.
"We did, Star," Mason said with a smile. "How are you holding up?"
I shrugged, "I'm not. That's why they are pulling parts from me to use on other ships."
He smiled slightly, "Well, if you are making jokes about it..."
"At least I got back to station this time." I sighed and shook my head, "Any news, sir?"
Mason nodded, "Actually, yes," and smiled before he got up and rounded the desk to hand over a PADD.
Blinking I took it before looking down.
Registry number: NX-167251.
Class: Luna Long Range Exploration Vehicle.
Length: 450.00 meters
Width: 205.00 meters
Height: 80.00 meters
Weight: 3,000,000 metric tons
Cargo capacity: 60,000 metric tons
Crew: 350
Seventeen decks.
Cruising Speed: Warp 7.5
Maximum Speed: Warp 9.975 for twelve hours.
Advanced shields
Advanced deflector
Advanced sensors
Advanced weapons
Capable of mounting a mission pod.
"Captain..."
"She is nowhere near finished. She is under construction in the San Francisco Orbital Yards and is over a month from being able to even leave drydock," Mason said with a smile.
The Luna class was a dedicated science ship. They were considered a possible replacement for the Intrepid class, even if that won't happen fully anytime soon.
She was... beautiful.
A long range science ship, meant to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations, not a warship with a different name like the Akira class.
She was the reason I joined Starfleet. Those kind of missions are what I wanted to do. I wanted to see what was beyond the next star.
I couldn't help myself and hugged him tight, "Thank you!"
"...You're welcome..."
Realizing what I was doing I quickly let go and cleared my throat, "...Sorry sir."
He grinned, "It's fine. I requested a more exploration focused ship if possible. She is what was available."
"It's a good class of ships. She is just the seventh built so far." Commander Janeway said and got up from the couch to walk up to us, "However, she will not be a standard Luna class either as you can see from the registry prefix."
I frowned at that, "How do you mean, Commander?"
"I'm afraid that's my doing," Gates injected and both humans glanced up at the ceiling. Like clockwork. I still don't know for sure why that happens.
"Gates?"
There was a smile in his voice as he answered, "It was my 'graduation project' for the advanced engineering and ship design in the academy. Starfleet has already consulted me about it. Assuming you approve, she is going to be AI adapted from the ground up."
"Such as?"
"Transferring the project files to your main computer now."
Hmm?
I quickly located the file and started to skim through it. Secondary command pathways to everything. The bridge was...
Oh. Very little in the way of bridge stations. Science and engineering stations yes and a bunch of multi-purpose stations, but no dedicated tactical or pilot stations.
Bridge holodeck emitters. Not the full set, but they could project a image, even if it wouldn't be solid. That infrastructure would just take too much room, but I could project an avatar on the bridge at all times. Same for engineering and all major public places such as the messhall and shuttlebay.
There were also some more changes that he suggested, such as a actual kitchen with a chef instead of just a replicator in the messhall to help build community and a expanded hydroponics bay.
Secondary computer for the holodeck like on my other ships as well so I didn't need to know what went on in that. Also made it more fun to play in for me as I wouldn't know what was happening in advance.
He also had the changes we decided on on the other ships. Privacy switches and bars on the cells, things like that.
Not only that, but there were rules and guidelines as well for decorations and names. Ship AI was allowed to change the hull color from the normal 'ship grey' as well as have 'nose art'. Names could be anything really as long as it wasn't profane or something like that. Each one still needed to be approved by Starfleet administration though.
"Did they approve this..."
"They did," Commander Janeway answered with a nod. "She will be a test platform so they are willing to implement pretty much everything to see what works and what doesn't, assuming you approve of them."
"The regulations as well," Gates continued. "Keep in mind that they are temporary as a test. So... don't paint your hull pink or something or they might change their minds."
I smiled happily, "Gates, I could kiss you!"
"I don't think my girlfriend would approve. In any case, when you transfer off the Second Star, I have a Runabout for you until the Luna class is ready. All the new generation AI are already installed in theirs."
This was the best surprise... ever!
AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.
EDIT: If anyone is curious, I use mostly this for ship information for the Luna class. http://techspecs.acalltoduty.com/luna.html
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Part 9
I did a slow, lazy roll as we approached the drydock. About as much acrobatics as I could get away with in Earth orbit.
Stupid traffic laws.
Even in orbit, they still serve.
...and with Gates keeping an eye on everything in system, there was no way I could get away with it either.
He was taking his new responsibilities seriously. Which was good and all, but...
You would think he would cut me a little slack, not like I was a slow organic here. I wouldn't run into a shuttle or something stupid like that.
...Then again, I guess it was good that he didn't show favoritism.
Stupid ethics. I couldn't blame him either, I know for a fact I would have done the same. Oh well, things were a bit more relaxed further out. Playing in the rings of Saturn was outright fun.
All thirty-one of us headed out there a couple of days ago and played laser-pointer tag and hide and seek with masking our energy signatures.
I understand that some of the Starfleet instructors had a field day with the recordings of that and their tactical officer training.
"Is that it?" Rachel asked and leaned forward in the 'pilot's chair'.
"It is." I answered, nodding on screen, zooming the 'viewscreen' in on the half-finished Luna class set in the docking arms of the drydock.
"The Luna Class bodes well for future missions." T'Ro said. "It's is a deep space research and science design."
I grinned at that on screen. To save room, I didn't bring my avatar. While I was currently a borrowed runabout and not a shuttle, it was still a bit of an exaggeration to say that I had plenty of room with five people on board. "I know! Isn't it awesome?"
Shran shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "I wouldn't go quite that far, but it is a good ship, I'll give you that. But I think I would rather have something a bit more heavily armed, like a Galaxy or Akira."
"An Akira or Galaxy doesn't have those sensors. Closest is an Intrepid which is half the size and has even less weapons." I answered happily.
Ajan shook his head. "Just get used to it, Shran."
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, I suppose it's good I decided against transferring to one of the fighter squadrons. That thing is not carrying any fighters."
That brought my mood down quite a bit. Sarah was leaving as well. She couldn't even come today as she was stuck in meetings down at Starfleet HQ all day. Hopefully she would have time so I could show her later.
We never did get together, but at least me asking her out back then didn't break anything and she was one of my best friends.
"You still have the qualifications." I said with a faint smile.
Shran shrugged. "True. But I have to admit, I prefer larger ships. Not that there is much use for a tactical officer with you in control other than to offer advice, but that does let us focus on other parts of our jobs. Besides, I want my own starship at some point. As a fighter pilot, that would never happen."
AKA, security and away teams.
Erislias's ear flicked and leaned softly against Ajan from her place in his lap. "It does seem like a capable ship."
They really were sickeningly sweet around each other even after having been together for over a year. One thing about them leaving was that it would at least get Shran to stop the 'Cat got your tongue' jokes.
...Okay, I admit a lot of them were pretty damn funny.
I'm rather glad they always remembered the privacy switch, though.
"It kind of sucks that we won't be coming with you this time." Ajan said and frowned.
Rachel nodded and sighed. "I'm going to miss flight operations. Still, I'll probably be put in charge of shuttle operations on this one. So that's a good thing."
She did have a good point there. She was one of several handling flight operations back on the Akira. Here she would likely be the big boss when it came to the subcraft like shuttles and even the Aeroshuttle.
"Speaking of changes..." I said. "I have been thinking of changing my avatar."
"Really?" T'Ro asked, raising her eyebrow. "It was my understanding that you liked the Andorian model."
I shrugged and flicked my antenna slightly. "I do, I just feel that there is a bit of a need for change. The war is over and a new ship with a completely different purpose than the Akira. Despite what Starfleet called the classes, the Akira and the Sabre were warships. The Luna isn't."
Rachel slowly nodded. "I guess I see where you are coming from. What do you have in mind?"
I smiled at that, slowly bringing the shuttle around, zooming in on the workers welding on my new hull. "Actually, we would be able to reuse my current avatar as I'm just changing species. I want to keep my face and such as similar to now as possible. I was thinking Vulcan or Human."
T'Ro hmmed softly. "I believe that it would be possible to easily adapt your current avatar to either with minor physical changes as well as most other humanoid species. I would however suggest Trill as a alternative."
Ajan looked at the screen for a second before he also nodded. "Yeah, I could see you as a Trill."
Hmm. I supposed that that could work. Those dots were kind of attractive and would likely look good on me.
"I have to draw up some alternatives." I said with a smile as my avatar headed towards a holodeck on Earth Spacedock, drawing Gates into the conversation. "Give me a hand when we get back, T'Ro?"
"Of course."
"Oh, by the way." Rachel asked. "Have you picked a name yet?"
I grinned at that. "I have! USS Starseeker."
That earned me some surprised looks. "That's... shorter than normal." Shran finally said.
I couldn't help but grin wider at that. "Rules of Acquisition number seventy six: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies."
Or in this case, the starship name approval committee at the Starfleet Administration Department.
They did not like me.
AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Also, here, have a picture. STO is very useful for this kind of thing.
Stupid traffic laws.
Even in orbit, they still serve.
...and with Gates keeping an eye on everything in system, there was no way I could get away with it either.
He was taking his new responsibilities seriously. Which was good and all, but...
You would think he would cut me a little slack, not like I was a slow organic here. I wouldn't run into a shuttle or something stupid like that.
...Then again, I guess it was good that he didn't show favoritism.
Stupid ethics. I couldn't blame him either, I know for a fact I would have done the same. Oh well, things were a bit more relaxed further out. Playing in the rings of Saturn was outright fun.
All thirty-one of us headed out there a couple of days ago and played laser-pointer tag and hide and seek with masking our energy signatures.
I understand that some of the Starfleet instructors had a field day with the recordings of that and their tactical officer training.
"Is that it?" Rachel asked and leaned forward in the 'pilot's chair'.
"It is." I answered, nodding on screen, zooming the 'viewscreen' in on the half-finished Luna class set in the docking arms of the drydock.
"The Luna Class bodes well for future missions." T'Ro said. "It's is a deep space research and science design."
I grinned at that on screen. To save room, I didn't bring my avatar. While I was currently a borrowed runabout and not a shuttle, it was still a bit of an exaggeration to say that I had plenty of room with five people on board. "I know! Isn't it awesome?"
Shran shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "I wouldn't go quite that far, but it is a good ship, I'll give you that. But I think I would rather have something a bit more heavily armed, like a Galaxy or Akira."
"An Akira or Galaxy doesn't have those sensors. Closest is an Intrepid which is half the size and has even less weapons." I answered happily.
Ajan shook his head. "Just get used to it, Shran."
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, I suppose it's good I decided against transferring to one of the fighter squadrons. That thing is not carrying any fighters."
That brought my mood down quite a bit. Sarah was leaving as well. She couldn't even come today as she was stuck in meetings down at Starfleet HQ all day. Hopefully she would have time so I could show her later.
We never did get together, but at least me asking her out back then didn't break anything and she was one of my best friends.
"You still have the qualifications." I said with a faint smile.
Shran shrugged. "True. But I have to admit, I prefer larger ships. Not that there is much use for a tactical officer with you in control other than to offer advice, but that does let us focus on other parts of our jobs. Besides, I want my own starship at some point. As a fighter pilot, that would never happen."
AKA, security and away teams.
Erislias's ear flicked and leaned softly against Ajan from her place in his lap. "It does seem like a capable ship."
They really were sickeningly sweet around each other even after having been together for over a year. One thing about them leaving was that it would at least get Shran to stop the 'Cat got your tongue' jokes.
...Okay, I admit a lot of them were pretty damn funny.
I'm rather glad they always remembered the privacy switch, though.
"It kind of sucks that we won't be coming with you this time." Ajan said and frowned.
Rachel nodded and sighed. "I'm going to miss flight operations. Still, I'll probably be put in charge of shuttle operations on this one. So that's a good thing."
She did have a good point there. She was one of several handling flight operations back on the Akira. Here she would likely be the big boss when it came to the subcraft like shuttles and even the Aeroshuttle.
"Speaking of changes..." I said. "I have been thinking of changing my avatar."
"Really?" T'Ro asked, raising her eyebrow. "It was my understanding that you liked the Andorian model."
I shrugged and flicked my antenna slightly. "I do, I just feel that there is a bit of a need for change. The war is over and a new ship with a completely different purpose than the Akira. Despite what Starfleet called the classes, the Akira and the Sabre were warships. The Luna isn't."
Rachel slowly nodded. "I guess I see where you are coming from. What do you have in mind?"
I smiled at that, slowly bringing the shuttle around, zooming in on the workers welding on my new hull. "Actually, we would be able to reuse my current avatar as I'm just changing species. I want to keep my face and such as similar to now as possible. I was thinking Vulcan or Human."
T'Ro hmmed softly. "I believe that it would be possible to easily adapt your current avatar to either with minor physical changes as well as most other humanoid species. I would however suggest Trill as a alternative."
Ajan looked at the screen for a second before he also nodded. "Yeah, I could see you as a Trill."
Hmm. I supposed that that could work. Those dots were kind of attractive and would likely look good on me.
"I have to draw up some alternatives." I said with a smile as my avatar headed towards a holodeck on Earth Spacedock, drawing Gates into the conversation. "Give me a hand when we get back, T'Ro?"
"Of course."
"Oh, by the way." Rachel asked. "Have you picked a name yet?"
I grinned at that. "I have! USS Starseeker."
That earned me some surprised looks. "That's... shorter than normal." Shran finally said.
I couldn't help but grin wider at that. "Rules of Acquisition number seventy six: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies."
Or in this case, the starship name approval committee at the Starfleet Administration Department.
They did not like me.
AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Also, here, have a picture. STO is very useful for this kind of thing.
Part 10
I leaned back in the couch, looking out over the club as I listened to the music.
It was some kind of... I had no clue. But it sounded happy and you could apparently dance to it.
Honestly, it wasn't that bad, even if I personally was more of a Hard Rock kind of ship.
The entire crew had basically booked one of the clubs in San Francisco for this. Oh, not all five hundred would fit at once, the limit to the venue was about three hundred, but not everyone was here at once, but everyone had stopped by at some time during the night.
Even Captain Mason was here at the start to kick the entire thing off, even if he left thirty minutes in. Somehow most of the crew had problems relaxing with him around.
Commander Janeway was here as well. I could glimpse her across the club from time to time, sitting in a corner booth. I think she have been nursing the same glass of drink for the last couple of hours.
The party was two-fold.
A mixed 'Going away' party for the half of the crew that would not transfer over to the Luna class. Either they were quitting Starfleet, changing department or simply didn't have specializations that applied on a Luna class.
Combine with the fact that the Luna class had a smaller crew size, a lot of people had to leave, especially when we were taking on a larger science staff.
The other half of the gathering was a... a kind of wake. To remember the people we lost during the war.
There had been a official one earlier.
This was our own send-off.
Rachel dropped down on the couch next to me, catching her breath. It was no wonder she needed to, she had been dancing most of the night.
"You can't sit here all night!" she said with a grin and reached for her drink, "Have some fun!"
I smiled at that, "I am having fun."
I actually was. Even if I was not much for parties I did enjoy this even if I was technically not here in person.
My avatar was, but 'I' was parked on one of the Lunar plains with a good view over Earth.
Honestly, I wasn't much of a dancer in any case.
Mostly, I was just enjoying wearing pants again. I follow my promises if at all possible and stupid Gates tricked me into promising to wear that uniform back then.
But I was out of uniform now! Never really happened when on the ship, but now I was off duty! Hah!
I was wearing Pants and T-shirt! If ones somewhat tighter than I preferred.
Rachel was under no such compulsions and was wearing a short red dress. I had to admit that she looked great in it. No wonder she was asked to dance every couple of minutes.
She rolled her eyes, "You are as bad as T'Ro sometimes."
T'Ro had been here earlier for a couple of hours before she left to head back to her quarters on the station to get some rest for tomorrow. She wanted to be well rested before getting to work on modifying my avatar.
This kind of thing really wasn't her kind of thing, I was actually slightly surprised she came in the first place.
I was committed to staying until everyone else had left though. They were my crew, they deserved me to be here for this.
"I'm not!" I answered with a grin, poking her shoulder.
"Are too. At least when it come to some things!" she said and reached up to redo some of her hair clips, sticking her tongue out at me.
Well... maybe a bit.
Honestly, I wasn't much of a party person. I preferred to just hang out with my friends, but then again, I was at least friendly with everyone in the club other than possibly the staff.
Hard not to be when I talked to every single one of them every day.
Rachel took another sip from her drink.. which I had no idea what it was other than blue... before putting the glass down, "Come on, at least go dance."
"I... don't really dance."
She gave me a look at that, "You do dance. I've seen it back at The Academy. Don't say you didn't enjoy it because even back then I knew you better than that."
...Technically true, but I was still using the 'Geth' platform back then and I couldn't let that opportunity pass me by.
"I'm not that good at it." I answered and shifted in my seat, "Besides, I'm used to leading."
"Star, it's your last night as an Andorian. You should have more fun than this." she sighed, "Please? Besides, I think you at least owe Ajan a dance later."
Damn it, Rachel. If you didn't mean so well and was so nice about it, you could be insufferable at times.
"...Fine."
She grinned at that and took my hand before getting up, pulling me onto my feet, "Come on, you can't just sit here all night, dance with me. You can even lead and everything."
I couldn't help but smile as I followed her onto the dance floor, "It's your feet on the line."
"I'll take my chances."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Avalon Aurora for betaing this section.
It was some kind of... I had no clue. But it sounded happy and you could apparently dance to it.
Honestly, it wasn't that bad, even if I personally was more of a Hard Rock kind of ship.
The entire crew had basically booked one of the clubs in San Francisco for this. Oh, not all five hundred would fit at once, the limit to the venue was about three hundred, but not everyone was here at once, but everyone had stopped by at some time during the night.
Even Captain Mason was here at the start to kick the entire thing off, even if he left thirty minutes in. Somehow most of the crew had problems relaxing with him around.
Commander Janeway was here as well. I could glimpse her across the club from time to time, sitting in a corner booth. I think she have been nursing the same glass of drink for the last couple of hours.
The party was two-fold.
A mixed 'Going away' party for the half of the crew that would not transfer over to the Luna class. Either they were quitting Starfleet, changing department or simply didn't have specializations that applied on a Luna class.
Combine with the fact that the Luna class had a smaller crew size, a lot of people had to leave, especially when we were taking on a larger science staff.
The other half of the gathering was a... a kind of wake. To remember the people we lost during the war.
There had been a official one earlier.
This was our own send-off.
Rachel dropped down on the couch next to me, catching her breath. It was no wonder she needed to, she had been dancing most of the night.
"You can't sit here all night!" she said with a grin and reached for her drink, "Have some fun!"
I smiled at that, "I am having fun."
I actually was. Even if I was not much for parties I did enjoy this even if I was technically not here in person.
My avatar was, but 'I' was parked on one of the Lunar plains with a good view over Earth.
Honestly, I wasn't much of a dancer in any case.
Mostly, I was just enjoying wearing pants again. I follow my promises if at all possible and stupid Gates tricked me into promising to wear that uniform back then.
But I was out of uniform now! Never really happened when on the ship, but now I was off duty! Hah!
I was wearing Pants and T-shirt! If ones somewhat tighter than I preferred.
Rachel was under no such compulsions and was wearing a short red dress. I had to admit that she looked great in it. No wonder she was asked to dance every couple of minutes.
She rolled her eyes, "You are as bad as T'Ro sometimes."
T'Ro had been here earlier for a couple of hours before she left to head back to her quarters on the station to get some rest for tomorrow. She wanted to be well rested before getting to work on modifying my avatar.
This kind of thing really wasn't her kind of thing, I was actually slightly surprised she came in the first place.
I was committed to staying until everyone else had left though. They were my crew, they deserved me to be here for this.
"I'm not!" I answered with a grin, poking her shoulder.
"Are too. At least when it come to some things!" she said and reached up to redo some of her hair clips, sticking her tongue out at me.
Well... maybe a bit.
Honestly, I wasn't much of a party person. I preferred to just hang out with my friends, but then again, I was at least friendly with everyone in the club other than possibly the staff.
Hard not to be when I talked to every single one of them every day.
Rachel took another sip from her drink.. which I had no idea what it was other than blue... before putting the glass down, "Come on, at least go dance."
"I... don't really dance."
She gave me a look at that, "You do dance. I've seen it back at The Academy. Don't say you didn't enjoy it because even back then I knew you better than that."
...Technically true, but I was still using the 'Geth' platform back then and I couldn't let that opportunity pass me by.
"I'm not that good at it." I answered and shifted in my seat, "Besides, I'm used to leading."
"Star, it's your last night as an Andorian. You should have more fun than this." she sighed, "Please? Besides, I think you at least owe Ajan a dance later."
Damn it, Rachel. If you didn't mean so well and was so nice about it, you could be insufferable at times.
"...Fine."
She grinned at that and took my hand before getting up, pulling me onto my feet, "Come on, you can't just sit here all night, dance with me. You can even lead and everything."
I couldn't help but smile as I followed her onto the dance floor, "It's your feet on the line."
"I'll take my chances."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Avalon Aurora for betaing this section.