Lt. Kim Stapledon - Getting Back Into It

[John Smith]

(( Corridor - USS Eagle-A ))

There had been something different about things this time.  Frontier Day's sickbay visit had been a blur, a series of half-remembered tasks and mechanically performed actions afterward.  This time around, the mid-action Sickbay trip after almost dying felt more a mixture between relieving and anticlimactic.

Still, Kim knew she would be bothered by what she'd seen on Ondo.  Her brain was still in active analysis mode, trying to imagine how the genesis device had managed to arrange the mutation of the animals.  Looking over mission reports of things so far, it appeared that the red spores had been at least partly responsible.  This got her brain working in overdrive, mapping the situation out as something to be modelled and analyzed, safely from the comfort of an academic perspective while her body and her feelings were kept at arm's length.  

None of that completely removed the unsease she still felt, a part of her still listening for potential threats.  Was the thump in the other room just someone dropping a pillow from one of the biobeds or was it actually a mutated animal about to spring through the door.  The concern flashed through her mind quickly, fading fast in the warm lighting and din of sickbay.  She knew her there was a good chance her mind would 

Just to be safe, Kim had forced herself to duck into the arboretum for five minutes, replicating a copy of the old gaming device the counselor had recommended back on the Chin'toka.  She sat and played the game of falling blocks again -- Tetris, it was called.  Her brain pieced together the patterns, solutioned building the rows.  The game gave her positive feedback as she did so.

A quick visit to the pets centre had helped as well.  Gabrielle and Oreo were getting along well with other animals aboard the ship.  She'd forced herself to make this latter visit both to check in on her own pets but also to keep her mind from putting down any permanent associations between animals and threatening mutations.  Gabrielle and Oreo were her pets.  When they approached her she patted them both on the head.  They were cats.  They acted like cats.  The dogs that were there were just dogs.  She even scratched a few behind the ears, smiling and chatting with their owners.

She remembered how, over the last few weeks, most of the dogs had taken to keeping a healthy distance from Gabrielle.  Kim had remarked on occasion how the Bengal cat carried herself like a larger wild cat on Earth -- almost prowling as she moved.  

(( Science Deck - Deck 14 - USS Eagle-A ))

At last, Kim made her way to the science deck for what she understood was a new assignment concerning the mission.

She found Gnai there already.  She smiled.

Gnai: Hello, sir. ::saluting with its suit’s arm:: This is pleased to make your acquaintance… even if it’s not truly the most pleasant of circumstances.

Stapledon: Hello, Gnai.  Likewise.  Things have been...  Interesting.

It moved over and called up a display with data they have obtained.  Kim winced slightly as the various creations of the AI flashed across the screen like monster designs from a video game.

Gnai: What… what happened to your team?

Kim studied the display, her mind still running in analytical mode, and said,

Stapledon:  Quite a lot.  We encountered hostile modified versions of Earth fauna.

The Alomia doctor arrived and Kim smiled politely.  Finally, Drex arrived.

Drex: Glad to see you all. ::He gave a slight nod toward Iroka.:: Doctor, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m grateful you’ve chosen to continue helping us.

Kim looked over.

Drex: Well, while the Captain works to determine whether the main factions of the Alomian population can agree on a common future for the system, we are in charge of two things. ::He stepped toward the nearest console and activated the holographic projector.:: First, we must stop the autoreplicating drones. We cannot afford to have them running wild and uncontrolled. Second, if the Alomians decide to proceed, we will need to shut down the AI.

The wrinkle of auto-replicating drones was one Kim had only briefly had a chance to acquaint herself with.  She wondered if a variation on her Fleet Swarm exploit from Frontier Day might help.

Gnai: Wait… did the drones come from the moon?

Iroka / Falt / Drex:  Response

Gnai: There’s no way to communicate with the drones and shut them down remotely…?

Stapledon:  I was thinking something similar?  Does anyone -- Federation or Alomian -- have a means of contacting them still?  Maybe we could find a way to send them an instruction?

Iroka / Falt / Drex:  Response

Gnai: Could they be transported away… and simply not be rematerialized?

Kim nodded, deep in thought.

Stapledon:  I suppose if there was a material unique to them -- something that would make them obvious -- we could work out not only their positions but also the logic of their movements.  That'd make a large transport en masse easier.

Iroka/Falt/Drex: Response

--

Lt. Kimberly Stapledon

Chief of Science

USS Eagle-A

I238601KB0

Pronouns:  

Character:  She/Her 

Writer:  He/Him