Ens. Gnai - Tempering Expectations
Lich
((Main Engineering, Deck 15 - USS Artemis))
((OOC: I am so sorry that this has been left hanging for such a while - trying to get all my ducks in a row has been trying me this past while, and I haven’t had the energy to write.))
Engineering was eerily silent, and their voices (at least two of the three, that is) sliced up the stifling stillness. The other engineers tried to pay them no mind as they worked to repair the damage to the ship, but it was going to be a long and arduous task, trying to revert the ship back to her status quo. It seemed that the Borg had done quite a thorough job as well over here on the Artemis.
Lt. Cmdr. Salkath had stood in the middle of it all, presiding over it as he had waited for them to arrive. Gnai wasn’t sure why, but it wasn’t as intimidated by him as it was by some of the other ranking officers. Maybe it was due to the care he had expressed when they had first met, in the strange prison world that CloQ had thrown them into. That had been unexpected - and Gnai had been even more surprised when he held to his offer and inspected Gnai’s suit the following shore leave.
Gnai: ::to both:: ~ The suit wasn’t… able to be recovered from the saucer section of the Kitty Hawk. It was too damaged. ~
Best to leave it at that for now. It wasn’t keen to let it spread how destructive the suit was to the crew of the Kitty Hawk, nor to itself. If there was concern about the danger of the suit, it might not be allowed to recreate it, and that was unacceptable to Gnai. All that needed to be said was that it was destroyed, and that Gnai needed a new one. Nothing more, nothing less.
And Lt. JG. Sadar had asked it to remain silent on anything regarding… her jaw and how it had disarmed the suit. Better for both to just not try and recover the thing. It could rust wherever it had ended up on the Kitty Hawk.
Salkath: You may hand me the ensign and be on your way, Doctor. ::sensing her hesitation, he responded haughtily:: I will take suitable care of it, rest assured. You are dismissed. Unless there are medical concerns?
That was… markedly more blunt than Gnai would have said it, but it was glad that Lt. Cmdr. Salkath could be so blunt. She had other things to do, and would probably be bored out of her mind sitting and watching them work, just as it would be if it had to sit and watch her do her work. But if she hadn’t been so clearly dismissed, Gnai wouldn’t have put it past her to have stayed, out of an obligation to rank. This was good.
Sadar: O-Oh! N-No, none at all, Sir! I-I’ve been monitoring the Ensign’s condition on our journey back to the Artemis, and it’s in perfect health, I assure you. ::brief pause: U-Uhh... W-Well... G-Good luck.
With that, Gnai felt the backpack that she had been holding tightly onto ever since it had been transferred into it be handed over to Lt. Cmdr. Salkath. It was strange, being something that could just be handed between people. But now it was in the hands of someone who could do something about the strange situation it had been left in, and perhaps get it into a far less transferable form.
Gnai: ::to both:: ~ Goodbye, Lieutenant Sadar. ~
Thanking her again seemed overkill.
Sadar: Y-Yes, of course.. ::shuffles slightly:: E-E-Excuse me.
And there she hurried, out of Main Engineering, and off to whatever it was that doctors did during crises like this. Probably Sickbay. There had to be a lot of injured on the Artemis, if it extrapolated from the Kitty Hawk and the state of Main Engineering.
As she shuffled out, Gnai noticed a strange look upon Lt. Cmdr. Salkath’s face as he held the containment backpack, before gently placing it down upon one of the cleaner surfaces. “Eye contact” was always strange with humanoids. There was a bit of a weirdness that came from it not having eyes in the way that they might expect, and as such, not having obvious targets for them to look at. Was this a function of that weirdness, or was there something else on his mind?
Salkath: How would you like to interact with this project? Can you function for any length of time outside an aquatic enclosure, or am I to be your only tool for physical manipulation during this process?
Gnai: ::to Salkath, and all future ones will be just to him:: ~ I ::partial:: would like to help as much as possible. Which may not be much… I ::partial:: can survive for a while outside of water, but it would be useless for this project. ~
Lt. Cmdr. Salkath stroked his chin. A strange affectation, especially considering the rough stubble that his hand passed over. Gnai didn’t have much experience with that aspect of humanoids, but it looked deeply uncomfortable to be continually growing and cutting hair.
Salkath: Power is limited for, well, frivolous use, but we may be able to replicate an environment in the holographic bay here for you to function at your peak potential. I will need all the expertise you can provide for this project, and I would prefer you face as few constraints as we can muster.
It bobbed up and down in its tank. It could try, but it wasn’t sure how much use it would be. What it knew that he didn’t was mostly confined to the Galadoran technology that was within the suit, which they likely could not replicate now aboard the Artemis. It didn’t know how to program the replicators to produce light cells (or the components to create them). So they’d have to improvise, at least until they were back near Galador II.
Gnai: ~ Yes, of course. I ::partial:: can help a little from within the water. If you have files for our ::whole:: manipulators. ~
Those would be far more likely to have been shared outright with the Federation. The simple rods that allowed for crude movement of objects were sufficiently ancient and mostly obsolete that the Galadorans had likely felt fine with sharing the technology with others. They’d be good enough for Gnai to help at least a little bit, and not feel completely useless.
Salkath: Alright. We can make that so. But! Before we start, I want to be very clear that our first attempt will likely be a substandard suit, possibly only a temporary one at first. Resources are scant, and I want to ensure that both our expectations are suitably tempered. Is that fair?
Gnai: ~ Of course. I ::partial:: just want to be able to move around without someone else’s help. It doesn’t need to be perfect. ~
Salkath: Response
Gnai: ~ Oh. And to talk. With speakers. I ::partial:: don’t like to talk in others’ minds who can’t reciprocate. ~
Not like Cmdr. Adea, who it felt more than comfortable with chatting telepathically. But the rest of the crew? It felt almost invasive. Like it wasn’t supposed to be doing that. The feeling had only increased as Frontier Day had progressed, and as it had tried to force others’ hands with its thoughts, and now it longed for the more clunky method of communication, if only so that it could feel less weird about it all.
Salkath: Response
Gnai: ~ I ::partial:: can share what I ::partial:: have on how the suit was set up to allow for speech, but it’s just the mechanical designs. With Galadoran ::whole:: parts that we ::partial:: won’t have. You’ll have to figure out how it all works besides that. ~
There were a few files about specific suit systems that it had saved to the computer system, locked behind its passwords. Only a few systems, and ones that weren’t potentially as dangerous to share with others if the system was compromised. Like how its speakers worked - anything regarding the light cells was removed, of course - and how they interfaced with its telepathy.
Salkath: Response
It was really out of its depth here in engineering, wasn’t it?
Tags/TBC :)
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