Proceeding...

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 12:49am by Division Admiral Thomas Lasky & Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Commodore Siaxx "Bluemoon" Dvald-Vaxx MD

Mission: Mission 8: Hope Found and then Lost
Location: Various Locations - USS Yorktown
Timeline: 0900Hrs - April 18th, 2389

The night was a quiet one, no one on Gamma Shift reported any issues, and by 0700 hours, K'Temoc was well rested and on the Bridge. As he walked past the food slot, a warm raktijno shimmer in. K'Temoc paused a moment, the picked up the mug and took a sip. He wasn't as fond of Klingon Coffee as his brother, but this morning he was craving a cup. Could the Yorktown not only be 'alive' but also 'clairvoyant' too?

K'Temoc took a seat in the Captain's chair and received a PADD from the Gamma Shift Duty Officer who soon left the Bridge since his shift was over. K'Temoc looked over the PADD, and was happy to see everything had been as quiet as reported.

He took another sip as he waited for the rest of the mission's Senior Staff to arrive for duty.

The aft hatch opened and in came Lieutenant Tomas Lasky or as he preferred to be addressed as Fives. "Morning sir." he greeted K'Temoc as he generaly found the Captain to be likeable, yes he drove his people hard at times but he was honest, fair and generaly laid back with his command style.

For Fives himself that made a rather refreshing change of pace from what he was used to dealing with as he went over to take his station as Lieutenant Siaxx Dvald came in to the bridge through the opposite entrance, she looked rested and in a great mood. "Morning Capt'n." she addressed K'Temoc.

K’Temoc looked up from the PADD, “Good morning to you both.” He replied as the door opened again.

Almost right behind her was Lt Commander Torilla Yamaguchi who nodded to K'Temoc but she looked somewhat preoccupied and considering she had only found out the day before that she was pregnant, it wasn't hard to guess why but she looked tired with bloodshot eyes as she yawned softly. "Mmm Sorry. Hello guys. sir." Yamaguchi addressed everyone. "What's the first order of business sir?" this was a colder side to her then she usualy showed, because she had not been expecting such a surprise.

LTJG Nuala Takabe entered very non discreetly. She sat down and looked around at everybody almost a little embarrassed.

"Good morning. Not to start the day off on a weird note but something odd happened last night. I was having a hard time sleeping. If I didn't know any better I thought the computer piped in a string quartette to put me to sleep. I know, sounds rather silly." Nuala stated sheepishly and appeared to be expecting a verbal ridicule.

"All things considered Lieutenant. That's not a bad thing.... I couldn't sleep either... the computer reset the environmental conditions to remind me of home... which... didn't help me sleep any... " Torilla Yamaguchi explained. "It doesn't help that I'm dealing with a new complication in my life.. I'm pregnant." she came right out with it.

Siaxx nodded her head. "Means no more martial arts for you Commander... or anything else strenuous for that matter."

"I know...I almost went insane before Rachael was born..." Yamaguchi sighed softly. "Did anyone else have anything weird happen to them?"

Fives nodded. "I asked the computer for recent updates on what has been happening on Deneva... it told me exacly what was going on using the voice of my old master to tell me.." he explained. "I used to live among the Highland Monks for about eight years before coming back to Starfleet so this ship is too warm for me." he explained evenly. "the system then let me feel home by resetting my environmental controls back to how they were in the Highland Mountains..." he paused as a smile crossed his lips. "It felt wonderful to feel a little piece of home again..."

Ariel chimmed in as she walked onto the Bridge. "Did anyone else have trouble sleeping last night...like we were being watched?"

Torilla regarded the smaller woman as she nodded. "I too felt it...I thought I was just being paranoid." she sighed softly.

Fives smiled. "I slept great last night."

Just then the com system beeped as Ensign Uldyssian Davis's voice came over the com system. "Engineering is reporting the final set of checks you ordered are complete Chief, but we're still trying to track down that computer issue from yesterday,." the Ensign explained as he sounded almost apologetic

Fives raised an eyebrow. "Nice Work Davis, as for that error... I have an odd feeling you won't find it.."

The response was instant and almost defiant. "Oh I'll find it sir... one way or another... It can't have gone far.."

"Uldyssian.." Fives said his first name quietly as he clearly wanted his attention here and now, not focused on a pointless hunt. "You may be playing with a computer that may or may not be sentient... so be nice to it alright..."

"Of course sir. My apologies."

"Its fine Ensign, go on back to work.. Bridge out." as Fives tapped his combadge, he suddenly felt positively ancient as he closed his eyes before letting out a soft sigh.

Siaxx smiled as she watched and listened, repressing a chuckle behind her hand which she held over her mouth.

Holly being one to quietly observe before speaking sat in on what was going on around her at her station before answering the Captain's rather personal question. She was making an exception as normally she wouldn't respond with anything other than a professional curiosity when asked such a personal question from a commanding officer.

"I was not able to sleep due to not being able to let my guard down like normal. Unforchanitly the computer is into mind picking and I rather it not be picking in there attempting to make me comfortable, sir." Holly was all for symbiotic relationships but being in one with an unknown to her just didn't seem right.

"Apologies for my lateness, I had a slight chair malfunction to deal with. Whats going on?" Natia said as she hovered into the room.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow as she regarded Gillo. "How do you mean.. mind picking?" she inquired.

"The computer system was attempting to probe my thoughts to get a feel for where I lived at and was the most contented at so it could simulate that for me to sleep in. The gesture was meant to be friendly on it's part, but being trained to control what I am when off world I took it as an assault so was up the remainder of the evening shielding myself from the computer system as I doubt another member of the crew was behind it, sir."

"If it was the computer than we really need to find a way to communicate with it. If the computer is sentient ask it to stop probing our minds." Nuala stated.

"If it is a sentient being using the ship as a host then we should find a more suitable vessel for it. If the ship itself is sentient then we have a bigger problem as the ship would no longer belong to Star Fleet." she added.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow as she and Dvald both shared a look. "In all my years in Starfleet.. I've never come across a scenario like this one..." she admitted.

"Sir.. the question we should consider at this point is... are we dealing with an actual intelligence or just exceptionally sophisticated programming?" Fives inquired. "I can't tell the difference at present." he shifted his gaze to everyone on the bridge crew who was present as he sought to make his point clear.

Yamaguchi crossed her arms over her chest. "Well.. Commander Data was judged to be alive and that was even brought to trial, our computer core is designed based off of a positronic brain." she commented softly. "I have to wonder.. are we dealing with both..."

Fives chipped in with a raised eyebrow and a skeptical look to his face. "How do you mean sir?" he crossed his arms over his chest, he looked at the older Halanian female who looked disgruntled about something but since she mentioned she was newly pregnant, he assumed that was it.

"Well... we could be dealing with sophisticated programming that has become alive.." she paused as if making a choice. "Lets face facts here people, this day was inevitable, we all knew it... Starship computers have become alive before and computers have been hovering on the verge of sentience since the beginning of the twenty forth century. There was an incident in which something like this happened to the USS Titan several years ago." she explained. "So.. what we need to decide, here and now... is what exactly are we dealing with and how will we deal with it."

"Whatever it is or not the being is capable of telepathic abilities that indicate it to be strong in that area. It was able to break through the simple shielding I put up to hide myself from probing others and having my mind probed in the process on a daily bases. The only other beings in the universe that I know are able to do that are high functioning telepaths like other Betazoids or Vulcans for that matter. I'm not a nuro-scientist nor close to one, but base on my personal experience that is what I have to offer, sir." Holly was doing her best to react professionally to this but with the lack of sleep her personality was leaking out a bit so she just had to go in the moment and hoped that things would work out.

“Okay,”K’Temoc spoke up, “We’re going to proceed with today’s tests as planned. Right now, while we have some evidence, we don’t have any solid facts proving the Yorktown is ‘alive’ or not, and we’re not going to assume one way or the other. When we return to the Station, the Yard Engineers can run more diagnostics and tests to find out what is happening, but until we have some kind of ‘proof’, we’ll proceed as planned.”

“Miss Gillo, signal the Range’s Operations Center that we are requesting permission to move in and begin weapons testing. Ensign Nechayev ready the weapons, Commander, standby to take us into the range.” K’Temoc ordered.

He still wasn’t convinced the Yorktown was ‘alive’ but he didn’t want to say aloud WHAT he was thinking. He also didn’t believe the ship to be clairvoyant, most likely the computer system was observing and using clues (things people say, their physiology, patterns in their actions and requests) to provide things crewmembers were wanting or even needed. K’Temoc decided to proceed with the tests to see how the ship would respond, maybe it would help the investigation along.

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "Yessir." with that she moved quietly to the conn station, now she had something to think about as she pushed her issue to one side. "I relieve you Ensign?" she commented formaly.

"Of course Commander." the younger woman quickly secured her station and then she rose to her feet as she vacated the station for the alpha shift replacement who sat down as she gently patted the console. "So.. young lady, have you broken in your new shoes yet?" Yamaguchi inquired softly.

"Once we're cleared to enter the range, take us in slow Commander." K'Temoc added as Yamaguchi took her seat.

"Aye Captain, taking us in slow." she responded