An innocent proposal

Posted on Thu Dec 23rd, 2021 @ 8:16am by Lieutenant Myne Redal & Captain Gary Taylor
Edited on on Thu Dec 23rd, 2021 @ 10:34pm

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: XO's Office
Timeline: MD14 0830
2512 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

Myne took a moment as she stood before the door to the Executive Officer's door. The trip to Commander Taylor's office took waaaaay to little time. Not enough to get her thoughts in order. She had so many thoughts and voices, conflicting ideals and advice running in her head, to lie, to deceive, to hide, to manipulate but no matter what, not to tell the truth.

And yet, this was a new life, a new lease, a new chance. Things could not go back to the way they were. This is why Myne was chosen, to carry the torch among the ranks of Starfleet, to try to break the cycle. And she was failing so far, horribly and terribly. Shaking her head Myne brought a had and struck her own temple several times to clear her head.

"Damn it, clear your head stupid girl." Exhaling deeply her shoulders slumped and she allowed the tension in them to flow out. After she finished her usual mask came back on, the cheerful, happy-go-lucky smile and expression. The bubbly, always happy, optimistic Myne. With that she pressed the button and let the chime announce her presence.

Inside the office, Gary was thinking on the upcoming Christmas party. He wasn't even sure there was going to be one. Captain Lovejoy hadn't mentioned it. One was for sure if they did have it, it was going to be far different than previous years. Tayalas and Gallia were gone and no longer would he hear Tayalas's happy squeal of "Sana!" His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door chime. Sitting back and straightening his tunic he called out "Enter!" and waited to see who came through the doors.

As the door opened the Trill officer entered, timidly yet unwavering in her step and smile. Her nervousness however rather clear as she stopped in front of Gary's desk and clicked her heels together. Her left hand held her trusty, ancient, constantly upgraded PaDD, while her right formed into a fist and bumped the left side of her chest. A military salute from some ancient Earth empire.

"Sit! Lieutenant JG Myne Redal, sir! Presenting to make a serious request! Sir!" She honestly did put in the effort to look serious, but she failed and her smile returned with a very nervous tinge instead.

Gary leaned back in his chair as Myne stood before him and rattled off that she was there (which he could see) and that she was making not just a request but a serious request. He couldn't help but smile at her when she smiled. "At ease Lieutenant and take a seat. Would you like anything from the replicator before you present your serious request?" He asked in a light hearted way.

She shook her head vigorously. "No sir. Thank you sir. I am afraid that if I don't blurt this out soon, I might lose my nerve, apologize and make a run for the door." Myne explained helpfully, then failed to actually continue with her request as she took a seat and held tightly onto her PaDD, doing her best to admire the angles on his desk. She was still working on the courage part to actually voice her request out loud.

As Myne spoke, Gary was thinking. *She's a bundle of nerves* but thankfully didn't give voice to those thoughts. He nodded and leaned forward, his eyes on hers. "Then by all means make your request Lieutenant. I don't want you to run for the door. People might wonder what I did." He paused and spoke again. "I'm waiting."

With an audible gulp, Myne spoke without raising her eyes from his desk. "I want to make a copy of certain parts of Avalon's architecture, then reverse engineer them to make an Emergency Medical Hologram. Possibly for one of the roundabouts. Lethe would be suitable, both because of its designation and for its systems, which can house what I have planned. Provided I can minimize the technology to a certain degree in order to make the strain of an EMH bearable to host without interfering with the shuttle's normal operations." The words came out in a flurry, spoken so fast one would think Myne was in some race for the title of faster speaker.

Gary looked at Myne as the words spilled from her mouth in a torrent. "You want to copy parts of Avalon and then reverse engineer it to make a EMH. " He repeated his eyes on the top of her head. "Lieutenant please look at me, I don't want to talk to the top of your head." But he continued to talk. "Why can't you use an existing EMH holo matrix? Wouldn't that be easier and simpler?"

The Trill shook her head vigorously once more before raising her head to stare right into Gary's eyes. *Come on, you can do it Myne. Man up!* "Sorry sir." She apologized first. "And no sir. There would be no point to do what you proposed. I would learn nothing from it, not discover how to improve on Avalon's current architecture. I can already make an AI myself, but of a lesser complexity. I wish to do this to learn and improve myself."

"Learn and improve yourself exactly how Myne? By becoming a better Ops officer? Or is it something bigger than that? Say a better person?" Gary spoke easily to her, "To me, this falls more into an engineering department project. Not one for a single Ops officer." He rose and walked over to the replicator and got a vanilla milkshake. "Want one? They are very good."

No reply came as Myne took in his words and mulled over in her head. "If that is a Earth drink, than no thank you sir." Looking at him she slumped in the chair and finally continued. "I... the becoming a better person is something prohibited to me. But I do collect building blocks and information sir." With those words she placed her custom PaDD on the desk. It looked Starfleet-ish, but it was clearly anything but. "Constantly improving, optimising and adding. Then passing the knowledge gathered and methods of gathering knowledge down to the next host. Then the process repeats."

Looking away again, a bit guiltily, she sighed. "I designed AI's myself, I have several that are of Romulan and Ferengi designs and so on. But non that are of Starfleet design. I don't just want a copy of Avalon's matrix either, I can get that on my own with some effort and time. I wish to understand how it works. Deconstruct it, analyze it, modify it, improve it, discover what it lacks, how it can be used in other ways and so on. This is for me the equivalent of what a First Contact is for you sir."

"Suit yourself Myne however if you will allow it a personal observation. You speak of improving Avalon's matrix but you close yourself off to other wonders of the universe not a way to expand one's knowledge. Let yourself go, try it you just might like it. However back to the issue at hand. Is there any danger to Avalon if you are allowed to tinker with her matrix? Furthermore have you spoken with Avalon about this?"

"Sir..." Myne took a deep breath and stared right into his eyes with an amount of determination she did not think she was capable of. "Work and more work is my way of letting go. Work centers me and keeps me focused. I tried the letting go type you speak off sir, and it ended in a very unpleasant manner." She took a moment to dial down the intensity of her words and stare.

"I actually will not be tinkering with her matrix. What I will be doing is make a copy. Not of everything, the shuttle's systems cannot actually hold the entirety of Avalon's matrix. Hence why I need to work on minimizing the technology behind Avalon first. As for speaking with her, erm, well sir, Avalon doesn't really like me as is. And if I were to talk to her about it, she would tell me to ask you or Captain Super Ga... Captain Lovejoy I mean."

'Alright Myne, I'm not going to force or pressure you though I will say I believe you are doing yourself a disservice by not trying it." He clapped his hands together and sat back down. " He raised an eyebrow at Super Garrett but kept quiet. "So, what your asking, is for me to order Avalon to allow you to make a copy of parts of her matrix. That about cover it Myne?" As he sat there, Gary thought of someone who could be of invaluable assistance to Myne. "Myne, have you thought of asking Dr. McKay to help you in this endeavor?"

"No sir. I would be doing myself a disservice if I did follow your advice. I have done Sup... Captain Lovejoy's homework and studied Earth culture. Not all of your principles apply to others sir. Especially not to Trills. And I do say this respectfully, please don't be upset with me." She replied shying her gaze away once more. Though, that lasted barely a second as curiosity got the better of her.

"Doctor McKay? Who is he?" She asked tilting her head to the side slightly. "Also yes, all I need is authorization to do what you said. Have Avalon give me access to make copies of the relevant parts of her matrix."

"Myne do yourself a favor stop thinking you've upset me or need to apologize. I am not upset and you have nothing to apologize for. I will let you know when you have and when you need to." The last said with a smile. " As to Dr. McKay, it she not he and she has worked with nanites. So, I would think she would be of invaluable assistance to you in making copies of Avalon's matrix." Gary shrugged his shoulders, "Just my opinion though."

"Yes sir, sorry sir. I will try to follow that advice, and apologize less." She nodded, eager to get over that humiliating slipup. "Nanites? Sounds promising. Oh, she and not he, would be invaluable then. I really need to scale down the normal components required to host an AI matrix. So yeah, I can't wait to work with her. Thank you sir!"

Gary smiled at the younger officer. "You can do it Myne. I have confidence in you." He said quietly and moved on. "I would think that what Dr. McKay brings to this project would be invaluable to you. Now, you understand all of Avalon's security protocols will remain in place and you and Dr. McKay are not to even attempt to access her classified components and data."

"Given her field of speciality, I am sure she will be vital and help me shave off possibly weeks or months of work. And yes sir, I do not care of what data Avalon has stored on her drives. I don't want what the cat has in her tummy, so to say. I only want to know how her bones and muscles work!" Myne said visibly more relaxed and actually upbeat and optimistic. She's gotten the go ahead!!

"Just so we understand each other Myne. I'll tell Avalon to make herself available to you and Dr. McKay, so you can access her matrix." Gary replied. "By the way, "Did you approach Captain Lovejoy about this little project of yours?"

"Yes sir. Crystal sir!" Myne nodded and picked up her PaDD, holding it tight and smiling. "Captain Lovejoy? Nope, no no no. If I do that, he will give me homework again. Last time he made me babysit a whole coral, pack, murder of crows of kids? I don't want to do that sir. Please? Pretty please?!"

Gary chuckled at Myne's reaction. "Oh, so you want me to tell him? Alright I will but just remember at some point I'm going to ask you for a favor and you'll be honor bound to do it."

"Yes please, sir. Make sure he doesn't give me indirect homework about Earth indirectly through you!" She smiled a bit wider. "A favor? Ok, those I can do, sure. Will do sir!" She nodded, good thing he did not know that Redal was bad at giving favors back. Maybe Myne would be better at it?

"Relax Myne, I'll make sure Captain Lovejoy doesn't give you any homework on Earth either directly or indirectly. As to the favor, I'm going to hold you to it. So don't make me hunt you down, that won't bode well for you."

"Of thank you sir. Learning Earth stuff was fun, but boy do you Humans have a terribly confusing culture and history. As for hunting me down, no worries sir. I only have four centuries experience at running and hiding. Craaaap, I meant to say I won't run away sir! No worries!" Myne corrected herself and chuckled nervously.

Gary studied her and then very slowly and carefully replied. "Trust me Lieutenant there is no where you could run where I wouldn't find you. No where." He repeated half seriously. Then he smiled, "Though I'm sure I won't have to do that. You don't look like the type to go back on your word."

*Heard that line from the Cardassians and two Federation captains before!* Myne giggled in her thoughts before realizing who was the author of those thoughts and worked really hard to quiet them. Instead she nodded more meekly this time around. "I know sir. Not planning to run. My place is in Starfleet and I don't plan on leaving. I am a Trill of my word, no need to worry."

Gary smiled at her, "I'm glad to hear your place is in Starfleet Myne. You can have a great career. Also exceptionally glad to hear you are a Trill of your word."

"Thank you Sir! I try and I got an awesomely cool service record. Like, aside from people saying I am annoyingly upbeat most of the time, I think they appreciate the workaholic in me. When they don't chase me out of ops during my off-duty hours when I go in to work extra hours that is." She nodded and got up. "If that is all sir, I really really really wanna get started. And go talk to Doctor McKay so she can help me with Avalon!"

"No, nothing else Myne. Go find Dr. McKay and get her to help you. Please keep me posted on your progress," Gary said with a smile.

Getting up Myne hugged her PaDD tightly and nodded feverishly. "Yes sir! I will keep you posted it! I will have a submind ready to remind me periodically to report to you for when I will eventually forget to do! Promise!" With that she turned around and made a quick, well not dash, but close enough, for the door.

//OFF//

Commander Gary Taylor
Executive Officer
USS Elysium

Lieutenant JG Myne Redal
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium