Spine Tingling

Posted on Fri Feb 22nd, 2019 @ 3:59pm by Captain Akiva ben-Avram & Lieutenant JG Grace Sternwood Ph.D.

1,518 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Season 1 Interlude I (E2.5)
Location: Overwatch Station
Timeline: ID 73

Grace stood in the passageway looking in the direction that another office her had just pointed her. The security protocol seemed a bit laxer than she had suspected knowing just what Memory Theta was from her experience with them as a child. She was having mixed feelings about her assignment to the team excited for the prospect of being part of the unit but concerned with what they did. Grace knew that it would be a challenge given her social issues and inexperience in life beyond the archeological digs her parents toted her around to throughout her childhood.

"This place gives me the creeps," she said, to herself, under her breath as she began to walk in the direction she had been pointed. She was feeling a bit anxious leaving her personal items in the care of others assured she'd eventually find them in her quarters. Grace had never really relied on others to do those things for her and at OCS there was certainly nobody to do it for you.

Eventually, she found herself at the office of the Facility Administrator, whatever that meant, she rang the chime and waited for them to answer. The man she was told to see on her arrival per the communication she received after her orders.

"Enter." The lone word seemed both an invitation and a command.

Grace proceeded into the office and looked around for a moment before approaching his desk. She was sure there was something she was supposed to do but whatever sleep deprived day at OCS taught her that she'd quickly forgotten.

Akiva rose from his desk to meet the young lady. "You must be Ms. Sternwood. Lieutenant Sternwood," he quickly corrected. "Doctor?" He grinned boyishly at his verbal shuffling. "Whichever you prefer, please take a seat."

"Doctor," she said, firmly. "Or Lieutenant I suppose," she added, nervously. "Thank you," she said, before sitting in the seat. "I am here to be a computer specialist?" The inflection was as a question. Grace was certain her orders said she was to be a computer specialist but with all of the other skills she could bring to the table that she knew Memory Theta were aware of she didn't really think she'd be just a computer specialist.

"Correct," Akiva said. "Memory Theta runs on advanced computer automation. When you meet Ferrofax, you will learn just that. In fact, that's what got my foot in the door here." He removed a glass jar from beneath his desk along with two matching cups. "Would you care for a drink?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Grace said, with a smile. "So I will be responsible for maintaining this, Ferrofax?"

Akiva's eyes shot wide. "No, you must not say that," he said with a finger to his lips. "Never say that. You never know when he is listening..."

After he scanned the ceiling and corners of the room for malevolent apparitions and found none, Akiva continued. "No. Our Ferrofax is a true Artificial Intelligence and is afforded certain rights as a sentient being. Of course his governing inhibitors prevent him from taking certain matters into his own hands, but he is permitted a modicum of independence. In fact, he rebuilds damaged virtual intelligence programs that we come across, providing them with literal memory care rather than allowing them to face summary deletion. Our computer specialists provide oversight of those processes when they're not called into the field to collect an identified entry into the archive."

With that said, Akiva began pouring water. "This water was bottled on my homeworld, Hebron Colony. Virtually worthless anywhere else in the galaxy, it holds a special symbolism in the hearts of my people. Water was scarce during the first years of planet-fall, a couple centuries ago. My forefathers built up the colony using the latest 21st century technology, and it was only a generation ago that we reunited with Earth via a Starfleet envoy. Sharing clean water was an a gesture above all others. One of cherished welcome." He set the glass before Grace and sipped from his own. "You are more than a computer specialist. From our own database, your parents were archaeologists, relic hunters even, and were responsible for more than one artifact in the Archives down below."

Setting his glass down, Akiva finished his monologue with a question. "Do you think your archaeology background would alter the way you see computer code... or the products thereof?"

"I'm honored sir," she said, taking a sip of the water before setting down her own glass. "I think that my archaeology background makes me appreciate the reason things are the way they are. I'm sure not everyone likes to think about why the computers are coded how they are, the language they speak and how it was created, how it changed over the years and why? Or even in some cases how it hasn't changed and how amazing that even is. To think that people born hundreds of years ago were able to come up with these things with no existing technology to match and for it to live this long," she said, clearly very passionate as she geeked out about her interests.

Akiva smiled hopefully, perhaps even a bit relieved. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear." He stood up and said. "I want to show you something."

Leading her to the far corner of his office, he removed a drop cloth from the corner to reveal what appeared to be the body of a young girl harnessed to an upright power post. "She went offline this January," Akiva said. "I've been unsure of how to proceed. Offline diagnostics suggest that her power systems could be reactivated, and the quantum subprocessor pings back in functionality. There's just... something missing."

"I would be happy to take a look," Grace said. "Can you tell me a bit more about what is wrong?" she asked, walking to the android and tilting her head like if the girl said something that confused her.

"She died," Akiva said flatly. There was a time when he would have choked back tears saying so, but he was long past that stage. Now he was in his diagnostician mode. "Gave her life to save an entire world. I fear the unique spark that made her who she was stayed behind."

"So the android functions but not with its old personality?" Grace asked. She, of course, had no idea that he thought of this machine as a real person let alone his own daughter.

Akiva bit his lip. "Personality," he said. "You're the first computer tech who's used that word. But, in essence, that's right. I can bring the systems online, but I can't bring her own of diagnostic mode. It's like... catatonia in an organic being."

"I would be happy to take a look at it, sir," she said, with a smile.

"Her," Akiva corrected. "And her name is Biynah. I just... I need to know what got left behind on Bynaus, and if there's any way to restore it."

"Bynaus?" Grace asked, wondering if there was something that could help her.

"The Bynar homeworld," Akiva said. "My path first crossed with Memory Theta there. Biynah was accepted to Starfleet Academy and booked passage with a Bynar vessel to Earth. Something happened en route which rerouted the Bynar vessel back to Bynaus. She was blamed for the death of a Bynar citizen, when in reality it was a scheme by the Black Nagus organization. Using her as a scapegoat, the Black Nagus uploaded a virus to the Bynar computer network and ultimately their Master Computer itself." Akiva trailed off with the painful recollections. "It was a brave thing she did. The whole time... she said that had been her plan. To go to Bynaus and set it right, even at the cost of her own life." Wiping an eye dry with his finger, Akiva said, "But... I have reason to believe she may still be alive. That some part of her survived. I just don't know if she is here... or there."

Grace was confused by his emotions, she loved computers especially the system she built herself but never enough to cry, then again if it corrupted maybe she would cry. She just started at him as she wondered what about this android was so special to him. "We will get to the bottom of it, sir," she said, trying to sound reassuring.

"Thank you," Akiva said with a wan smile. "Now, I'd better enter your arrival into record with the requisite administrative clearance to access the computer systems. The automated security protocols wouldn't recognize you otherwise." He turned back to his desk to do just that. "If you have any issues, just let me know. I used to be a programmer myself once upon a time."

"Thank you," she said, with a smile. "I don't suppose you can tell me where I should go next?"

Akiva shrugged. "You're not scheduled for any duty rosters, so you're free to familiarize yourself with station systems and wait for a Theta alert to be reported."

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