Lieutenant Commander Riley Delar: Dominion Improbable [REPOST]
Zeph
The away team had managed to stabilize the alien hologram with the assistance of some micro-reactors and some creative wifi technology. The notion of interrogating a hologram for information wasn’t exactly unknown, but at the same time, the implications behind the locked away secrets it possessed could provide some useful insight into the region. Or at least, Riley hoped so. However, his own interrogation skills hadn’t been polished lately, so he was a bit rusty in this regard.
Riley: How did the Befores accomplish the fusion of technology and stone into such a complicated structure?
Kaelith: As knowledge can be good and bad, used as a weapon or embraced as growth, it’s without barriers that knowledge becomes a danger to many or few. I’m equipped with controls to protect the innocent and access to this information is limited to the Befores and allies.
Arlill: We’ve surely proven we can be allies, right?
Enak: Depends on his programming, and whether or not he trusts anyone that isn’t a “before.”
JoNz: Response
Kaelith: I continue to assess the genuineness of your presence here and will reevaluate as new information becomes available.
Enak: Makes sense to do that. We’d do the same.
JoNz: Response
Arlill: Ok, ok, ::to Kaelith:: what about your existence, how did it begin?
Kaelith: While the answer may be limited beyond my technology—obviously for safety purposes—I can answer your inquiry. My existence began when the Befores activated my technology, but my consciousness began when they first introduced me to knowledge.
Forsyth: Are we sure we want to ask the AI something like that?
Alex’s question may have stemmed from paranoia caused by one too many science fiction movies or books of the Terran persuasion. Self aware holograms or AI typically had problematic endings in those genres, from what Riley recalled. His exposure to such things was admittedly very passive, caused only by his roommates on Earth during his time at the academy.
Enak: That’s a good point.
Kaelith: While the answer may be limited beyond my technology—obviously for safety purposes—I can answer your inquiry. My existence began when the Befores activated my technology, but my consciousness began when they first introduced me to knowledge.
Forsyth: Wait, you were here before the befores?
JoNz: Knowledge is power.
Kaelith: That in itself was another matter altogether. Their existence here, after I was awoken, seved for millennia before the threatening.
Arlill: What threatening?
Enak: Oh, when we were here?
JoNz: Response
Kaelith: I'm unsure—I was secured out of fear the knowledge would be lost to evil beings and brought back online when these archeologists' presence was detected.
JoNz: Response
The giant gap in memories could be explained by the AI’s long slumber, Riley supposed. Though truth be told, how much information it could provide at all would be worthy of mentioning in his AAR (After Action Report) when he returned to the ship. It did, however, remind him of that one story by … he forgot the name, but the primary character’s name was Rip Van Winkle.
Riley: Such a memory gap could be explained by the long deactivation period.
JoNz: That seems a very long time to be dormant.
Forsyth: So you don’t know what happened here?
Enak: I mean, does anyone here?
Riley: Anything you could tell us would be helpful.
Arlill / Kaelith: Response
Forsyth: I see, must be terrible to find out everyone here is gone.
One of the jury-rigged tricorders made a noise of some sort that caught the ensign’s attention, and she wandered over to go check it out.
Enak: Has to be.
Riley was fascinated by what they were being told, and had recalled many long dead civilizations such as the Iconians that were no more. There were still elements of their technology somewhere in the galaxy, he was certain. He’d never seen an Iconian gateway, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist at all. He’d heard about them, at least.
Arlill / Kaelith: Response
JoNz: Mister Kaelith, do you recall anything in your existence known as the, uh, I think it was the Dark Bringer? It was mentioned by one of the angry beings earlier before you were brought back online by us.
It felt strange to Riley to refer to this hologram as a “mister”, but then again it was presumably no different than referring to someone of lower rank, regardless of gender. Despite the fact he’d been in Starfleet a long time, had interacted with gender-specific holograms before, and other such formalities, it still seemed weird. Then again, this was Starfleet & weird was part of the job.
Forsyth: I think it’s Dusk Bringer, but good question.
Enak: Nothing I’ve heard of.
Riley: (quietly, almost to himself) Fascinating…
Arlill / Kaelith / Jonz / Enak: Response
Forsyth: Were they the evil beings mentioned by the befores?
Arlill / Kaelith / Jonz / Enak: Response
Forsyth: What other races do you know, might help narrow it down?
Arlill / Kaelith / Jonz: Response
Enak: It’s possible that the races Kaelith knows have passed on.
Arlill / Kaelith / Riley / Jonz: Response
Enak: Well, that’s good. What else can you tell us?
Arlill / Kaelith / Riley / JoNz / Forsyth: Response
Enak: Well, that’s a good point. Can you tell us what races you’re not allowed to talk about?
Arlill / Kaelith / JoNz / Forsyth: Response
Enak: It was worth a question.
Riley: Interesting, and how long ago did you say that was?
He listened intently as Kaelith explained, though to be quite honest he wasn’t sure how much of the intel would actually be useful or acted upon. Still, it was worth noting for his report, at the very least it’d give him something to read later if he found himself attacked by a round of insomnia as he sometimes was.
Kaelith: Response
Riley: I don’t necessarily agree that it was the Dominion, because the timeline doesn’t seem correct. Admittedly, my knowledge of this particular sector is limited, but none of the major Dominion conflicts in recent memory stretched out this far.
Arlill / Forsyth / Kaelith / Jonz / Enak: Response
Riley: I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened, just that it’s probable that the Dominion wasn’t the culprit.
Arlill / Forsyth / Kaelith / Jonz / Enak: Response