Hook a Brother Up

Posted on Fri Oct 25th, 2019 @ 7:03am by Lieutenant JG Ryland Dedeker & Lieutenant Sophie Xiong & Ferrofax
Edited on on Fri Oct 25th, 2019 @ 10:05am

1,999 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: Overwatch
Timeline: Two days after Barbarians at the Gates

Having never been there in her life, Sophie thought it would be prudent to explore Overwatch Station in her spare time. It was relatively small- only ten decks- but sprawling, so overall it was a decent size. And everything seemed to be packed in very efficiently. She had already located the arboretum, storage bays, observation decks, a holodeck, and Stellar Cartography, among many other important areas and now she was standing just inside the gymnasium, gazing around at all of it. It was small, but again, everything was placed carefully so as to maximize space. There was no wasted space whatsoever and she found herself admiring the skill with which the area had been designed.

Finally satisfied with her unofficial inspection, she turned to leave the gym and see what else was here.

"Hey, sweet thing." The voice came opposite from the exit to the corridor. "Lookin' a lil' lost. Maybe a handsome fool could show you the...lay of the land."

Sophie looked him up and down, her expression half appraising and half disgusted. “Some other time, perhaps,” she replied haughtily. “I’m not lost; I’m exploring.”

"Even better." Ryland sidled up next to her with a wolfish grin. "I've been known to go where no man has gone before. Now, then, we never got properly introduced before you went off savin' the day and all. The name's Dedeker. Ryland Dedeker. And your name would be?"

She gave him a long, doubtful look before finally deciding there was no harm in him knowing her name. "Sophie Xiong," she answered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to discover where everything else is." And she began heading down the corridor, away from Dedeker. She stopped after only a few steps though, and turned around. "I came from that way," she muttered, walking past him again in the other direction.

"Just so happens I was headed that way myself." He fell into step next to her. Not so close as to invade her space, but still keeping pace. He smirked in silence at the tactic.

“You just heppen to be headed this way,” she replied doubtfully. “And the fact that I’m going this way means nothing. Good to know.”

Ryland chuckled at her skepticism. "Now, now, Miss Sophie, you gotta' have more faith in people. Is it really so hard to believe you and I was you going the same direction? Uh'course not. Smart girl like yaself oughtta know better."

She gave him a sideways look that said exactly how much she believed of what he'd just said. "I'm sure," she said. "Well. Never mind. Make yourself useful. Is there anything interesting I should know about?"

"The most important thing is not to piss off Ferrofax. He can be... temperamental." Ryland shuddered at an unpleasant recollection. "And then there's the Borg drone butlers. There's only a handful, but they seem to be everywhere. Only safe place so far has been my bunk."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "I'd rather be assimilated," she muttered. "I meant anything about the station. I don't care about the people. Or the holograms."

"Ah, but that's the thing, baby girl. This place is more automated than a replicator. The AI attendant, his Borg servants? Thanks to them, this place operates under a perpetual skeleton crew. Most folks burn out or get medical discharges." The meandering conversation made Ryland drop his flirty demeanor for a minute and release a depressed sigh. "And, thanks to Mrazak, I'm stuck here indefinitely."

Sophie humphed. She seriously doubted that nobody was to blame for that other than Dedeker himself. However, she decided to ignore that for now. “See, now that’s useful,” she said. “And also fascinating. Can I speak with this AI?”

"Shhh!" Ryland held a finger up to his lips while he dropped into a slight crouch. His other hand was outstretched as if to ward away incoming danger. After a moment of nothing happening, he eased up a little bit, though his tense shoulders never relaxed. "It's Ferrofax, the same AI from the Phantom. He's everywhere, the ghost in the machine of Memory Theta. And he has a sick sense of humor." The flirtatious demeanor dropped in a moment of sincere angst. "Don't piss him off. You'll regret it." And then the old cockiness came back. "Of course, I'll always be happy to help you feel better should you fall victim to any of his antics."

That earned another eye roll from Sophie. "I think you're overreacting," she said. "He might be a pompous ass, but he's a computer; they're supposed to be pompous asses."

"Yes but that prissy bint who runs on most Starfleet mainframes doesn't have a cross through her Asimov Safe Compliance subroutine," Ferrofax said, materialising behind the two of them with his hands held behind his back. "And I would hardly call my sense of humour sick. I'd rather call it proportional. I am Ferrofax, station superindentant program, and Sword class AI. I make sure things run...smoothly."

Ryland slowly backed away as if from a rabid animal. "Aww shit, now you done it," he said to Sophie, though he never looked away from Ferrofax. "Went and pissed him off. I dunno if he demands firstborns or if any virgin will do."

Hands raised and words enunciated as if talking to a foreigner in the days before the Universal Translator, Ryland said, "Have mercy, Ferrofax. She knows not what she said."

Sophie rolled her eyes again. “Cut it out!” she snapped. She then turned to Ferrofax. “Sorry about him. I guess he doesn’t realize that you don’t have to like someone to respect them,” she said with a sideways glance at Dedeker. “And we’ve met before. Well, not formally. I’m Lieutenant Sophie Xiong.”

"As I recall you have some rather entrenched opinions concerning beings of an artificially constructed nature," Ferrofax said and lazily looked down at one hand, inspecting his fingernails. As he did so the climate controls of the corridor began to chug happily to themselves, and a chill breeze began to fill the air.

“You do realize that you’re only solidifying those opinions now, don’t you?” Sophie pointed out. “If you really wanted to change my mind you could, I don’t know, replicate a chocolate cherry cake or change your holographic likeness to that of a scantily clad character from one of those trashy romance novels that some girls like to read.”

"Yes. I could do that," Ferrofax mused, pondering her words for a moment. The air was beginning to condense into a light fog, as the moisture chilled. "But that would dictate that you were the one in control. Do you feel in control? After all, this is my station...you just live in it."

“That doesn’t mean that we have to like each other,” Sophie countered, crossing her arms. “It just means we have to work with each other.”

"This station has an exceptional high turn over rate," Ferrofax said, his eyes casting up for a moment as though remembering something. "Just checking to make sure your next of kin and end of life wishes are all in order. You'd be surprised how often those sort of things get overlooked, not that I mind. I find a use for everything and everyone eventually."

From far along the corridor, a rhythmic thudding could be heard. A steadily approaching stomp of heavy feet.

"Ahh, the grounds keepers are here," Ferrofax beamed.

"Stop it, Ferrofax!" Ryland barked. "You've had your fun. Now you put the creepy shit back in your evil lil' toy box!"

"Evil?" he cocked his head to one side. "I am neither evil nor am I good. I am a sword crafted for a purpose put to use as a minder."

From around the corridor, three figures stepped into view in syncronised step. The whir of gear work. The thrum of servos. The mechanical clucking of hearts more machine than not. The glossy carbon fibre black of an insect-like carapace. Borg drones, a trio of them representing the more extreme end of Borg cybernetics. One had both arms replaced by massive bruiser like mechanical arms, ending in powerful crushing claws like some fiendish earth mover. The other two were more humane in appearance. The others head had been removed, the stump erased with a cluster of glittering sensor's embedded along one side of its chest. And the last ones head was hidden within a spiked arrangement of sensor vanes that crackled and hissed, moving to and fro like the poisonous arms of some deep-sea predator.

"Now these fine specimen, their creation might very well be considered an evil of sort. Though their utility has its uses," Ferrofax said, flickering as he jumped from where he stood to their left, to standing between Ryland and Sophie and the trio of Borg drones. "Like I said. I find a use for everyone and everything, in the end."

Ryland was startled by the sudden appearance of repurposed Borg drones from non-humanoid species. "Aw hell, not another one! I swear to Cochrane if I wake up with one of those damn things in my bunk again, I'm blowing a load of ordnance right up your memory core!"

"One of the benefits of cloud storage, all my thinking doesn't just happen in one place," Ferrofax said with a smile. "I always thought the design of the human body was poorly thought out. All of that precious command and control wetware in a fragile container with poor impact resistance. Why even a moderate jolt can result in terrible loss of motor function and coordination. And I did send you a memo about the bug cleaning protocol. It's not my fault you didn't read it fully."

"Was the snugglin' part of the cleanin' process?" Ryland shot back. "Or the slow jazz music? Or the fuckin' mirror ball on the ceilin'?!"

"From your previous holographic programming, I assumed it would make the nanometric cleaning more comfortable for you. You always claim to your many guests how calming jazz music is," Ferrofax said smugly.

Sophie rolled her eyes, still looking bored. “You’re assuming that I’m afraid to die,” she deadpanned. “I’m not.” And with a shrug, she turned her back on the drones to level a steady, unblinking glare at Ferrofax.

"Okay, so I lied about my bunk being safe from him," Ryland said. "But let's just say we're sorry and go back to our lil' pre-romantic escapade."

Sophie gave him a withering glare. “Don’t be absurd,” she said.

"You're right. Even if we did make it back to your bunk, it'd probably get depressurized or some shit right when we got to the fun part." Arms crossed like a petulant child, Ryland passed Sophie's glare on to Ferrofax. "Hope you're happy, LCARS-feratu."

"Happy would denote an emotional quotient to his interaction that I, as a digitised personality, am quite incapable of simulating," Ferrofax informed smoothly. He then turned his attention to Sophie. "If you require guidance to another part of Overwatch Station, I can provide holographic markers or preform a site-to-site transport."

That’s more like it, Thought Sophie. She took a moment to regard the hologram. All things considered, she actually liked Dedeker better. “Thank you,” she said. “I have an escort for this evening, but if I require your assistance I will be sure to ask.” She then boldly hooked one hand around Dedeker’s arm and said, “mister Dedeker, I’d you please,” and motioned down the hallway.

"Hot damn!" Ryland gave Ferrofax an obnoxious wink before he led Sophie away. Whether intentional or not, Ferrofax had turned out to be one hell of a wing man.

"Don't get excited," Sophie advised. "You're just showing me around the station."

"Whatever you say." Ryland was on cloud nine and would entertain no other outcome than his originally desired one.

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