Ladies in Red

Posted on Tue Sep 17th, 2024 @ 3:51pm by Commander T'Zara & Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass

2,344 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Project EDEN
Location: USS Valiant
Timeline: July 23, 2401

Piraa's first week aboard the Valiant bore two descriptors: packed and boring. There was much to catch up on regarding Project EDEN, the Valiant and how the two would intertwine. The Valiant herself was a newly constructed starship, due to leave drydock in just over a week. This did not give her much time to select a command crew... not that she had many choices in the first place.

Most of the candidates were new to command, having only served as a department head for a year or less. Piraa wished for someone experienced, with at least a couple of years under their belt. "Don't worry about it," Admiral Talas had told her. "You're bound for a shakedown, for testing. Experience isn't necessary."

The Andorian didn't believe him for a second, even though she secretly hoped that he was right.

Piraa entered the transporter room, empty save for her and the Transporter Chief, Any moment now, the next batch of officers would arrive, and that would include her selection from the USS Belgard.

When the waterfall of shimmering transporter effect worse off, what could have been an Andorian with no antenna stood on the transporter pad. She wore the rank pips of a Commander, but her red uniform had neck collar piece, along with a harness with a backpack, and a tactical belt with several pieces of equipment on it.

"Commander T'Zara, requesting permission to come aboard," she said, her Federation Standard clearly learned in a classroom. Cold radiated off of her at around twenty Celsius to anyone that got within a few feet of her.

Though the two women were several feet away, Piraa could feel the low temperature eminating from the new arrival. For a moment, she closed her eyes and was mentally raptured back to the mountains and saves of Andoria. The flashback was short lived, and soon Piraa found her reality restored, however harsh that it was.

"Permission granted," Piraa said with a smile. "Computer, enter into the ship's log that Commander T'Zara has reported aboard as Executive Officer. Activate all clearance and security codes associated with the position."

"Thank you, Captain sh'Zamhlass," T'Zara said as she stepped off the platform and retrieved a small PADD from one of the pouches on her belt and offered it to her. "My orders."

Piraa accepted the device and took a look at the data on the screen. Once she found everything in order, she affixed her thumbprint to the screen to officially complete the transfer. Piraa clicked the screen off, then held the padd with both hands, the screen pointing towards her chest. "I trust your transit from the Belgard was uneventful."

"Quite, but I prefer it that way," T'Zara said. "It gave me time to do some research on what I'm getting into." She paused to look around the transporter room, noting the architecture that seemed standard and took in the distinct smell that all starships seemed to have.

"I find myself envious of your cyrosuit," Piraa admitted, dodging the comment about research for now. The Captain instead took another moment to absorb what she could of the colder temperatures coming from T'Zara's collar. The Andorian had heard of the Menthans discovered in the Gamma Quadrant, and their difficulty adjusting to what most species called room temperature. "If the crew was predominantly Andorian and Rigelian, I'd have the environmental systems adjusted."

T'Zara gave a smile. "I will endeavor not to freeze everyone out when I am on the bridge," she said. "I do not wish people to think me as being...frosty." The hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "However, I do not and will not request special treatment. I can adjust my own environmental controls for my quarters, can I not?"

Piraa nodded with a smile (even though she thought that permission wasn't needed for T'Zara to adjust her quarters to her liking), and said, "Of course." She gestured with her left arm towards the exit. "So, Commander. You mentioned you had time to acquaint yourself with the Valiant and our mission. What are your thoughts?"

"I think it's going to either drive Security absolutely crazy or turn them into Denebian sloths," T'Zara said. "Professionally and from my studies at the Academy, I find it to be an excellent idea and should have been implemented well before now and look forward to testing it thoroughly."

The Captain scoffed as they entered the corridor. EDEN would have been quite useful during Frontier Day, assuming that the Fleet Formation programming hadn't corrupted or overridden the project's algorithms. "I couldn't agree more. EDEN is fully installed and her holoprojectors have been tested. Commander Mariwat's been handling the final diagnostics and checksums before officially bringing EDEN online throughout the ship."

"The capabilities of it seem to cover nearly every potential, but my favorite part of it is the manual override," the new Executive Officer stated. "It's a feature that needed to be implemented for an overwatch program that can do so much. What if it were to go out of our control or against us?"

Piraa could not help but shudder as a flashback invaded her mind. One would have thought it was from Frontier Day just a few weeks prior, but no. The Andorian couldn't help but think of an assignment long ago in her career with a AI gone rogue. This particular AI didn't have an override switch and nearly killed a large amount of the crew. Piraa shook her head, pushing the memory away. "One can imagine," she simply said. "One can imagine..."

"I would not wish that on anyone," T'Zara said. "Even the android, Commander Data, found that a AI could be smarter than him."

"I've already ordered the override be installed on both our command chairs on the bridge," Piraa added, stopping at the turbolift. The car was already in use, so it would be a few moments before it arrived. "Also my own cabin and ready room. I don't want it placed in a lot of places, but I want to make sure that it is accessible. The operations team is also making sure EDEN doesn't cross over into the main computer, so no chance of it assuming total command of the ship without authorization."

"What about verbal confirmation of manual override?" T"Zara asked. "And would it require both of us or just one?"

"That's a great question," Piraa said after a pause. The turbolift doors slid apart, allowing the ladies to enter. "The trouble with both is that we both have to be alive and conscious. What about either of us and a member of the senior staff?"

"The Chief of Security would be the best bet," T'Zara said.

Piraa stepped into the open turbolift and set her destination as the bridge. "And the Chief Engineer or Chief Operations," she suggested. "Both have vital access to resources throughout the ship."

"Perhaps the Chief Engineer, or Commander Mariwat," T'Zara stepped into the turbolift with her, a fresh draft of frozen air coming from her suit.

The Captain, even though she took in a moment of euphoria at the newest burst of cold air, couldn't help but snort. "I think Mariwat already has a backdoor built into this thing. I want to make sure that he can't override it without our say so. No one's hijacking my ship."

"We shall see when we begin to test it," T'Zara said. "The more he rejects, the more we have to test it further. If he shuts it down without our authorization, we shut him out."

The turbolift arrived at the bridge, allowing both women to exit into the nearly vacant deck. "Starfleet bridges these days seem more and more alike," Piraa remarked. The engineer in her actually missed the designs from the 2370s and 2380s, not to mention the carpets that frequented those vessels. "And agreed. Time will tell on it all."

T'Zara stepped out with her and looked around. "There is no distinct personality anymore. I studied many of the older ships, but these are all templates now."

Piraa smiled, finding another reason why she liked her first-ever XO. "I couldn't agree more," she said. "Well, I don't have much else to cover at this point. Starfleet wants us to launch at the end of next week. There's a couple of target regions near the former neutral zone that are ideal testing grounds. Nothing like a shakedown combined with a project testbed. Should be interesting."

"Are we getting crew assigned to us at random, or do you have a say?" T'Zara asked, having been shuffled from ship to ship through her career with barely a by-your-leave.

"I have some say," Piraa replied. "That is to say that I have been given a sampling of available candidates. It's been first-come first serve, and I've been competing with six other ships and Personnel's own semblance of priorities. My top requests are in, and so far, two of my choices have been confirmed. You, and Commander Corwin, who will be our Chief of Security once she reports aboard.

"I thank you for your vote of confidence in picking me as your Executive Officer, Captain." T'Zara said with a smile as another cold draft came from her cryo unit.

Piraa smiled, "You're welcome, Commander. I look forward to serving with you, not to mention, hearing more about your species. I have to admit, I haven't kept up with the Menthians since our last encounter. I'm glad to hear that your planet was accepted into the Federation and that you were among the first to graduate from the Academy at New Bajor."

T'Zara smiled. "Menth is a wonderful planet and when the Federation came, I was there that day." A fond look crossed her face. "We keep much of our world under the surface, leaving it frozen so that we can enjoy the deep cold under it. It was a hard road, but I knew that I wanted to join the people of the stars that day. I never knew that my curiosity would lead me from Science to Command, though."

"And how exactly did that happen?" Piraa took the moment to gesture to the right with her hand, then stepping in that direction to allow the women to walk around the bridge.

The Menthian woman walked with the Andorian Captain around the bridge. "My ability to excel in crisis management," she said. "I try to have a deep understanding of alien cultures from the past and present, and do my best to put myself in their place."

The Andorian shen nodded, appreciating the honesty. "Truth be told, managing crises is why I selected you for this position. EDEN was designed to handle a crisis, and I have my doubts that its designer has the experience necessary to properly program the system. You'll be its most critical judge during the trials."

"I will endeavor to do my best not to be too harsh a critic," T'Zara said, though she hoped to outwit, outthink and out solve anything that the AI could come up with.

"No one will fault you for being harsh," Piraa countered. "While it's true Starfleet needs innovations like these out on the front lines, it would be on our heads should we recommend something like this ready for deployment when it really shouldn't be out there."

"What we really need is advance knowledge of what's out there," T'Zara gestured towards the viewscreen. "But if we had that, we wouldn't be explorers or be responsible for things like the Prime Directive."

The Captain couldn't agree more, which manifested as nothing more than a nod of the head. "What was it someone once said? It's not about the destination, but the journey?"

"If we had a destination, we would not be explorers," T'Zara agreed. "I look forward to the journey."

Their lap of the bridge, however brief, came to an end right behind the command chairs. "As do I, Commander. We're not due to launch for a couple of weeks, so there's plenty of time to settle in. We will be launching with a reduced crew, which is intentional. As we get closer to launch, I'm sure we'll find a good balance for the roster. Before I leave you to get settled, any questions on your mind?"

"Well, the briefing did say that it had emergency holograms for every department, but I would rather handle Command under you or handle it myself, but this is a shakedown for it." T'Zara said with a bit of a sigh as another blast of artic air come from her suit. "I don't think I have any for now, but I will let you know. If you need me, I'm just always a combadge away."

Giving a final, assuring smile, Piraa nodded. "Great. I suppose, for now, that there's nothing left to do except say Welcome aboard, Commander." She extended her right hand, following the engrained human custom of shaking extremities.

T'Zara smiled and shook her hand, mimicking human tradition as well, although she had found that not many liked her cold skin or the coldness around her from the cryo suit. "It has been my pleasure and my hope that it will continue in this manner."

Piraa fought the urge to close her eyes and relish in the thin cold air, and it simply urged her to return to her quarters for a few minutes just to relive those moments of home. Then again, all she had to do was beam down to the nearby planet, whereas T'Zara's home was a lot further away. Snapping back to the present, Piraa kept her smile and let go of the Commander's hand. "Then I'll take my leave, Commander. Carry on." The Captain turned and disappeared into the ready room.

"Aye, aye," T'Zara said with a smile and a fondness for her new assignment that surprised and pleased her, she headed off to familiarize herself with the ship.

 

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