Now You See Her...

Posted on Tue Nov 5th, 2024 @ 8:42pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Ensign Emilynn Dove & Crewman Thyra Kevensdotter

2,768 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Interlude 1 Gamma Quadrant
Location: USS Firebird
Timeline:

[ON]

Emilynn's PADD chirped at her. She had been assigned to diagnose the failed computer array in DS18's communications lab. Her instructions were to meet her security escort at the starboard access port on deck seven.

It had been an easy morning so far. Emilynn had already taken a run, showered, ate breakfast, and returned some personal communication messages to her mom. The day was off to a great start. She stood waiting on deck seven for the escort she was told she needed.

"Are you Ensign Dove?" a gruff alto voice asked in a no-nonsense tone.

Emilynn looked up from her PADD to observe a young female enlisted crewman wearing an operations colored tunic. The girl was several years younger than Emilynn herself with broad shoulders and a thick core. Her long blond hair was braided into six plaits, two short ones that dangled from her temples and four thicker ones at the side and back of her head. She wasn't fat, but her body lacked the well-curved definition of a smaller female. Even without the phaser clipped to her belt or the handles of two small axes secured behind her back. She looked every inch the security guard.

"Hi, yes. Please call me Emilynn." she replied as she absorbed the crewman's appearance. The axes the woman carried created more questions in Emilynn's mind than they had time for right now. Surely, they were not Starfleet-issued. They were stunningly beautiful, causing her gaze to linger longer than she should have. She wondered how often their beauty had caused the enemy to lose concentration just long enough to tip the battle in the woman's favor.

"So I guess our next stop is the communications lab on the station," Emilynn said stating the obvious to break the silence. "Apparently, it's acting up, so I need to run some diagnostics". she smiled.

"As you wish...Emilynn. I have studied the maps of the station and will be able to lead us there in little time," Thyra responded before asking, "Which is your dominate side?"

Puzzled, Emilynn looked at the crewman. "Uhh my dominate side?"

Thyra sighed. Did none of the Star Fleet officers understand the concept? "Which hand do you most often hold a phaser in?" she asked.

"Oh. Oh, sorry. My right hand." she replied, not really understanding the reason she was being asked.

"Very good," Thyra answered as she positioned herself to Emilynn's left and adjusted her phaser for a clean draw. "The station's communication lab is located on deck 23, close to the computer core. Turbolift access is still periodic throughout the station so we will need to use ladders between decks." The security crewman gestured towards the ship's access port connecting the Firebird to Deep Space 18.

Thyra followed Emilynn through the port, and the two women walked a short way in silence before Thyra said, "So Ensi....Emilynn...What is your story?"

Emi immediately felt her body tense. She ignored it and continued towards the access port. "My story. Not much to tell, really. I grew up in Starfleet. Went to the academy like every other Starfleet kid. And well here I am, doing my job, same as you I suspect."

Emilynn paused only long enough to change the subject. She knew her answer was free of any personal details but she really had no desire to inform her companion she lacked the skills required to develop any friendships. Her time at the academy had resulted in little to no friends; one would say all the people in her life were more of acquaintances, rather than friends.

"Ladders, huh? This should allow me to skip my next workout or even better, maybe I could eat a piece of that chocolate pie I saw someone eating in the mess this morning for breakfast of all meals. Can you believe it?" she chuckled as they neared the first of what she knew would be many ladders.

"You like chocolate pies?" Thyra replied casually, "I prefer a fruit pie, myself. Apple. Or cherry. But you shouldn't skip a workout. Laziness is a bad habit to get into." The girl seemed blissfully unaware of Emilynn's discomfort.

"I workout twice a day. I'm not too worried about laziness honestly. I don't think it's in my DNA. We better get moving I'm going to need time to get these diagnostics done and make any repairs." Emi quickened her pace.

Thyra lengthened her stride to keep up with Emilynn. "What do you do for your workout? I tend to focus on strength and flexibility."

"I run," Emilynn said flatly. Her eyes flicked back over her shoulder making contact with Thyra. "A lot. I sometimes rock climb on the holodeck also. It clears my head after a long day." She noticed how easily the small talk came to Thyra. She seemed to even enjoy it. Emi just couldn't understand it.

Thyra, for her own part, was wondering at the reserve that the operations ensign demonstrated. Getting information from her was like pulling the back teeth of a spemalot. Still, she hadn't ordered her to shut up like some of the other Star Fleet officers had.

After losing count of the number of ladders they had climbed, Emi looked around before asking "It's the next deck, right?"

Thyra stopped at the base of the ladder and looked around her for landmarks. Satisfied with what she found, Thyra called up to Emilynn, "Yes. Then, we make our way to the computer core. What are you supposed to do when we get there?"

"The report states the computer array is malfunctioning. I need to run a diagnostic to determine the reason for the failure and, if possible, repair it." The diagnostic shouldn't be difficult. As for repairs, we shall see what the problem is first."

Wonderful, Thyra thought, another computer malfunction. Odinkus technology used computers, of course, but was much less reliant on interconnections so a failure of one system did not impact others. Drunken technicians were more of a concern.

"I will sweep the lab for enemies while you are running your diagnostic," she told the Ensign. Hopefully that would keep the operations officer from assigning any technical tasks to her.

The door to DS18 computer lab opened to a darkened room. The two women stood at the threshold while their eyes attempted to acclimate to the darkness. 'Problem one' Emilynn thought to herself. It was unusual for the lights in a common work area such as this to not activate when the door was opened. The only light visible was that of the work stations throughout the room and they had a very limited reach.

Emilynn felt the hair on the back of her neck tingle, causing her body to tense up. She was unaccustomed to the station, and the fact she had required a security escort for this job didn't help matters any. Emi took in a slow quiet breath to calm her uneasiness. She thought how the air in the room felt cool and thick, but perhaps it was only her imagination playing tricks on her.

"Computer, lights" Emilynn said just over a whisper, but nothing happened.

Thyra pulled the electric torch from her belt and activated a wide beam setting. The torch illuminated the consoles, monitors, tables and other assorted furnishings in the lab but there was no evidence of humanoid occupation. Thyra was rather disappointed; she had been hoping to find grizzled corpses in various stages of an agonizing demise, but instead, it looked like everyone had stepped out for a snack and would return at any time.

She unclipped her phaser from her belt and said to Emilynn, "You wait here while I clear the room" in a tone a bit more commanding than was proper for a crewman addressing a superior officer.

"Acknowledged," Emi said with trepidation. She slid her hand to her side to rest it upon the phaser she was carrying.

Thyra made a sweep of the outer ring of computer consoles, carefully checking the nooks and crannies with her torch. Finding nothing she proceeded to the center of the lab, checking under the tables and behind consoles before announcing that the area was free of any enemies. The operations officer thought that she detected a note of disappointment in the crewman's voice.

Emilynn approached the nearest console. Her hand swept over it in a deliberate fashion. She entered several commands and reviewed the results of her inquiry. With a perplexed expression, she spoke aloud, "This is odd." Her hand moved up to rest on the side of her face as if it would help her to make sense of the readings.

Thyra cast the beam of light from her torch to further assist the operations officer. "What is odd?" she asked.

"I can't explain it. Main power is completely offline to this room. And if I am reading this correctly, only this room. These terminals are only working on reserve power." Emilynn's hands continued tapping at the console, searching for answers.

"Someone has completely disengaged the EPS conduits leading to this room. In order for me to restore main power, I'll have to reengage the power relays." Emilynn continued tapping at the console and moments later the lights in the room activated. "Well, that's better."

Thyra returned the torch to her belt.

Emi's expression became more perplexed as she delved deeper into the logs in front of her. "Something not right in these logs. I can't tell who disengaged the conduits. The logs and access codes have been deleted. Essentially, there is no record of who, or why, the power was turned off."

"Perhaps the crew was interrupted by an emergency or some such," Thyra suggested, "and they did not have time to make a formal entry into the log."

"No, the computer automatically logs entries as they happen. Someone deliberately deleted them. I'm just not certain why. This is clearly something that needs to be placed in my report to Lieutenant Woodhouse. But right now, let's get this diagnostic started so we can get back to the ship."

Emilynn's hands flew over the console, opening and closing dialog windows while quickly interpreting the data presented. Thyra observed the confidence with which the operations officer worked; her earlier discomfort when talking to Thyra was completely forgotten. This is her realm, the security crewman thought to herself.

"There appear to be several modules disengaged from the computer," Emilynn announced without looking up from the console, "Would you go an reengage them?"

"How would I do that?" Thyra asked, perplexed.

Emilynn looked up at Thyra. "Over in the stacks," she said and pointed toward the exterior ring of computers. "You'll be looking for any electronics trays that are sticking out from the computers. They were probably pulled out for routine maintenance. Just push them back into place."

Okay, Thyra thought, she could do that. "As you command, Ensign," she said as she turned towards the computer stack.

Thyra found the first of several electronics trays protruding from the banks of computers, and she pushed the first one back into place. It took more effort than she had anticipated, and it took a couple of hard shoves to get the tray seated back into the console.

Thyra was troubled by the uncluttered space on the deck around the exposed trays. If the crew had been interrupted in the midst of repairing the computer, she would have expected hand tools and other equipment around.

After several minutes of Thyra pushing trays back into position, Emilynn was rewarded by additional functions lighting up on the computer console. "That's good," she called out to Thyra, "Keep it up." Emilynn began aligning the power flow through the EPS conduits when a computer subroutine came to life.

The restoration of main power had allowed the computer to resume running an experiment of some sort. Emilynn recognized various communication protocols, but the nature of the experiment was unknown to her.

"I have finished reinserting the trays," Thyra announced.

"Good. The computer is running an experiment so we will need to be care..." Emilynn sentence cut short as she noticed Thyra was nowhere to be found. It didn't make sense because it had sounded like she had been standing right next to her.

"Thyra?" Emi questioned, looking around again.

There was a pause, then she heard the security guard's disembodied voice reply, "Yes, Emilynn?"

"Where are you?"

Again another pause. "I am right in front of you," Thyra replied.

"Umm." Emi stood staring at the air in front of her. She could hear Thyra, but her physical form was nonexistent. She reached out and touched the space in front of her. Her hand moved through the air non-obstructed.

"Thyra, I don't want you to panic, but I can't see you. Can you see me?"

"I can see you," Thyra replied with a stoic calm, "and when you tried to touch me, your hand passed into my chest, but I felt nothing."

Emilynn took a few steps back from where she imagined Thyra to be staring at the empty space. She brought her hands to the side of her face again and stood there quietly, contemplating their next move, trying to make sense of what was happening.

"I don't think that I am a ghost," Thyra speculated, "I am unable to pass through inanimate objects like this console."

"Alright, try retracing your steps to see if you reappear. Maybe parts of the station is caught up in a temporal distortion or something."

Thyra acknowledged Emilynn's instructions and began singing an Odinskus drinking song so that the operations officer could keep track of her location. As she followed the reverse of the pathway that had brought her to the console in the center of the room, she wondered what she had done to so offend the Trickster that she would be inclined to perform such a prank on her.

Once she had finished the route, it was apparent that Emilynn could still not see her. "Any other ideas?" Thyra asked.

Emilynn shook her head slightly and placed her fingertips on the bridge of her nose. "Okay, think. Think....." She turned her body to look at the closed door they had entered through. She began mumbling. "We entered, lights were out." she turned to look at the console to her left "I accessed that computer, then that one, found the EPS conduit offline, rerouted power, lights came on...."

"Thyra, maybe I need to turn the power back off. What if the experiment that is running is the cause of this? Maybe it was off for a reason, and I shouldn't have turned it back on."

"It is the first step in any troubleshooting routine," Thyra acknowledged, "Try turning it off and back on again."

It was a crass oversimplification of detailed and highly technical diagnostic procedures but, in the current case
was accurate enough. Emilynn adjusted the controls on the console to interrupt the power flow, and the room was plunged into darkness once again. "Thyra, are you there?" Emilynn asked?

There was nothing for a moment, and then Thyra illuminated Emilynn in the beam of her torch. "It would appear that I am once again in the realm of the living," Thyra stated dryly.

"Yes, it appears so." Emilynn grinned, relieved to see the crewman standing before her. "However, I do not know what, or more importantly, why this happened Thyra. I think perhaps our work here is done for the moment. I really need to update Lieutenant Woodhouse about this so further investigation can be conducted."

"That would be a wise course to chart," Thyra acknowledged. She was relieved that the operations officer didn't have a reckless sense of curiosity. It was bad enough being attacked by aliens and nearly having her face eaten off by furry millipedes but being turned into incorporeal was almost more than a girl could bear. "Examination of this phenomenon is best left to the eggheads in blue."

Emilynn isolated the subroutine that had caused Thyra's disappearance and then restored power to the lights in the lab. It would make any future repairs just a little bit easier. She collected her tools and told Thyra that she was ready to return to the ship.

As they were departing the communications lab, Thyra said, "So, Emilynn. Is it time for a piece of pie?"

[OFF]

Ensign Emilynn Dove
Operations Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298
Crewman Thyra Kevensdotter
Security Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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