Just a simple indecent proposal, part 1

Posted on Mon Dec 27th, 2021 @ 3:01am by Lieutenant Myne Redal & Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: Season 5: Episode 3: CAPETOWN
Location: Security Department
Timeline: MD14 1500
2051 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

*Alright, sooooo, we should really be done with gathering specialists for this. Need to really really get to work already! But this tip is too good to pass up!* Myne mused to herself, a bit exhilarated from going so out of her comfort zone today. It also helped that she had been following Sudra's advice as well, relaxing and learning to let go.

She even slept a bit better for the past two days and life overall had been filled with a lot more genuine optimism than before. In any case, since she was on a role of going out of her way to do cool stuff, she wanted to nail this one down too. As best as she could. Hence why she was in front of Lt. Commander S'hib's office, pressing the button and hearing the chime announcing her presence.

A heavy sigh left his throat, funneling out his nostrils into an exasperated snort as he stood up from his desk. "One moment!" He shouted as he turned off a large screen that hung on his wall, the open images and files quickly fading to black.

Another quick glance around the office and the overturning of a PADD on his desk later he was at the door. "Ah, Lieutenant... I wasn't expecting anyone, what can I help you with." He asked, towering over the young-looking trill woman with his physically imposing Sequus form.

Entering the office, holding her trusty old PaDD to her stomach, Myne smiled and waves at S'hib. "Wooooow, you're big." She said with genuine surprise as she looked up at her fellow assistant chief. "Now I see why Humans rode you in their ancient times."

Shaking herself after that little bit of loud mumbling to herself, she continued. "Oh yeah, business. I am Lieutenant JG Myne Redal, Assistant Chief Operations! I have permission to put together an EMH for the medical shuttle and rumors here and there have angled me towards you. I hear you have experience in the field and I wanted to pick your brain a little bit."

Somewhat taken aback S'hib didn't really know what to say at first, one moment she was outside his office, the next she was inside, leaving him standing there with a bewildered and confused look of annoyance. "Yes, come inside..." He snorted as he thumped the door controls with the side of a loosely gripped fist, shutting it as he clicked back past Myne and behind his desk.

"Though you may be somewhat disappointed to know my experience is rather limited, he's only a tour guide..." He shrugged as he sat down, the large chair straining under the sudden shift in weight.

"S'hib," He said with a deep nod. "It's nice to meet you, Lieutenant Redal." He added, extending his large hand over the desk towards her. "Please have a seat and tell me more."

"Please call me Myne. I do not go by my symbiont name. Anyways, still, that tour guide is a step more than I know right now. Could you show me how you made him, please? Like his core, architecture, matrix and so on?" She asked after taking a seat and staring at him with wide eyes. "Wow, you are really big by the way! When did you switch from four legged cowboy adventures to space-faring travelers? Was it after the Human Third World War?"

“I do apologize… I'm not very familiar with Trill symbiote relations…but as for the earth horses you are referring too… we aren't related, especially since we come from different planets.” He said with a somewhat finality to his words.

“Anyway…” He said after a short pause, trying to collect his thoughts. “Computer… please transfer the Sequus cultural experience sub program, designation T’our… to my office and activate when ready.” S’hib snorted before turning his Attention to Myne sat across from him, still wide eyed and staring at him.

“Warm sands blessings I am T’our your virtual… Red sands where am I?” T’our sputtered as his naked form materialised behind Myne, rattling off his preprogrammed script before registering his new surroundings.

“Relax T’our… though could you turn on the modesty settings.” S’hib quipped as Myne turned around.

“Ah, yes… one moment.” T’our snorted, shimmering briefly as a long skirt materialised around his waist.

"What? Really? But... how... why... oh damn it. You're from a different planet? Gosh darn it Earth is even more confusing now." She sighed loudly, scratching the back of her head and pouting a little. Clearly upset at something she took as truth and guaranteed knowledge being proven false.

"Oh well, sorry for the mixup. The similarities are... you know... confusing." She apologized and blushed a bit before seeing T'our materialize. Myne turned and watched with fascination as the hologram began talking until S'hib stopped it.

Though T'our might have appeared naked, Myne apparently was so fascinated with the hologram itself that she didn't quite register a certain element of T'our's physique until the skirt actually materialized. That made Myne yelp and turn around to face S'hib while blushing furiously red.

"Is there any reason to add that element to the hologram that is designed to act as a tour guide?!" She asked in a rather high-pitched tone.

“Oh, uh well you see… my people don’t wear clothes… so for an authentic visit, the program is defaulted to that,” He replied, with a smile. “though I did add a modesty subroutine for those who are… not quite as ready to experience my culture…” He added, somewhat rolling his eyes as he did so.

"Oh? Oooooh, like the Ferengi. But where they apply this social norm to women, you Sequus apply it generally. Sweet!" Myne exclaimed rather excited as her blush began to fade. Since now it was a cultural thing, which made it a fun curiosity. Turning back to look at T'our she chuckled. "You can turn the modesty subroutine off, I don't mind! So, what can you tell me about how he works? Parameters and so on! All he can do is talk and offer information?"

T'our snorted at this, as well as crossing his dark chestnut arms."I assure you I can do far more than just talk."

"He's quite sensitive about being compared to the rest of the program and the dumb AI most of the other npcs have..." S'hib remarked, smiling awkwardly up at T'our.

"Really now? What more can you do? Aside from being naked? Come on, details!" Myne prodded ignoring the snort. Turning back towards S'hib she motioned for him to expand on that idea. "What do you mean sensitive? Did you mess something with his programing? Want me to fix it? Can I see his matrix? I can arrange an auto-modesty function that makes him dress up depending on certain parameters." Myne's flurry of words kept flowing out of her as she clearly saw T'our as the best toy she could tinker with at this moment in time.

“Myne, slow down…” S’hib huffed. “T’our doesn't have any programming, not how you’d understand it anyway… his architecture is built on brainscans, all our Integrated Artificial helpers are, he built himself, growing in complexity with every new scan.”

"Whaaat? Really? Brainscans? Well, that does sound amazing but I already have a million questions about that now. Why hasn't he killed you yet? Is he limited only to brainscans? Can he self evolve without brainscans? What else can he do? Please!! Sooo many questions!!" S'hib's attempts at slowing down the hyperactive Trill seemed rather without success. Especially as Myne kept twisting and turning in her char to shower either S'hib or T'our with avalanches of questions.

The two shared a mutual gaze at one another as Myne continued, conveying the same thing to one another without uttering a word, not that they would be able to with the Trill between them vomiting the entirety of the alphabet over S'hibs desk.

"Lieutenant," S'hib snorted firmly as T'our gripped the back of her seat, his Sequus voice booming around the office with unquestionable authority seemingly accentuated by T'our pushing the chair closer to the desk.

"Let's slow down... please, we are already on your umpteenth question and I've barely answered your first..."

The pleading tone, which is how Myne interpreted the booming voice, finally convinced her to calm down. T'our however, closing in and pushing her chair closer to the desk only served in getting Myne's fingers poking at his stomach curiously.

Turning to face S'hib she smiled nervously. "Sorry, I must have gotten carried away for a moment. So, well, erm, why don't you start then with answering my first question then?"

"Certainly..." S'hib smiled before realizing he had forgotten what her first question was, damn, he thought... what was it again? "T'our why don't you explain?"

"My... programming if you can call it that," T'our started, looking down at Myne trailing a pattern through his brown coat with a finger. "Is somewhat limited aboard the Elysium as I have only been allocated thirty-six terabytes of adaptable memory... though my objective aboard this vessel was never to grow in size." He said, finding himself oddly copying the same spiraling patterns Myne had made, tracing his own stubby finger over his chest.

Myne grinned as she glanced up and saw T'our copying her pattern. This made her change and start a new one. Actually, Myne was tracing lines of code on his stomach, curious to see if he would catch up on it. It was a simple, Earth style 'Hello World' piece of code. But she was testing the ability of T'our to receive impulses on his holographic form.

"Thirsty-six terabytes? Not half bad. so T'our, what is the full range of your abilities? What are you programmed to do? Other than talking, tour guiding and flashing tourists?" She asked continuing with her patterns.

"My full architecture is destined to be an AI companion for the embassy on Sequella, where I will assist my creators with any diplomatic needs..." He said while motioning towards S'hib with a free hand, his other still absent-mindedly copying the stimuli being drawn by Myne on his midriff.

"As for abilities I am at this very moment, analysing your body language by visually mapping it with the holoemitters in this room, this is so I acquire a greater understanding of the individual and all your subtle nuances, something which can be lost on my flesh and blood cousins." T'our finished, smiling politely at S'hib who simply shook his head in mild annoyance.

"Very very curious." Myne nodded and stopped, turning to look at S'hib. "What are the chances that I can get the documentation you have on T'our, or even access to look at his code and architecture?" She asked smiling excitedly. "The personality certainly is interesting, though not exactly needed for my purposes. But his adaptiveness certainly is admirable."

"Ask him, he's the one with the clearance..." S'hib remarked, barely lifting his hand off the desk to motion towards T'our.

"If you'd like miss Myne, I could upload myself to your PADD... there does appear to be enough room inside, though I may have to move some of your files I'm afraid."

"Oh heck no!" Myne's reaction was rather intense as she shook her head furiously and held her PaDD suddenly close to her chest. "Not unless you want to get erased. Stay away from my PaDD!" She turned towards S'hib with a very serious look on her face.

"And you need to make sure he understands it. If he so much touches a system on my PaDD I can't promise you'll have anything to salvage." The PaDD Myne held while it resembled a Federation issued one, it was anything but. It looked wrong in many, many ways.

Having been distracted by Myne, staring at the serious look on her face then glancing his eyes down at the PADD, wondering if it was a security threat to the Elysium, S'hib hadn't noticed T'our flicker slightly, his head and arms twitching sporadically for a moment as though the holonet was malfunctioning.

END OF PART 1

//OFF//

Lieutenant Commander S'hib
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Elysium

Lieutenant JG Myne Redal
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium