The Engineer and the Time Lady - Mystery

4. Mystery

The next day, Alpha returned to Nina's quarters. Nina soon came to the door. “Good morning,” Alpha said cheerfully.

“You're a little early,” Nina said. “I need to get ready.”

Alpha could see that Nina looked dishevelled, with her blonde hair which had been tied back into a high ponytail the day before, being a mess. “I'll be back in thirty minutes.”

Nina smiled and touched the door close button.

When Alpha returned, she saw that Nina had dressed in a Starfleet uniform and styled her hair the way it was the day before. “You're not a member of Starfleet,” she stated.

“Not officially. But I will be assisting you aboard this ship, in returning it to it's home universe,” Nina said with a smile.

“I was going to invite you to help,” Alpha considered. “You'll have to officially join the crew.”

“Of course.”

Nina followed Alpha into the Bridge. There were consoles along the walls with two behind and one in front of the Commander's Chair in the centre. “Efficient layout,” she stated.

“This is the Commander's chair, with the command consoles in the armrests,” Alpha said indicating said chair. She then pointed to the console in front. That is the Conn, also referred to as the Helm, where the ship is flown and the navigation systems accessed. Also the Pilot can engage the engines and choose the speed, Obviously.”

“That's obvious,” Nina said with a sigh. “But these other consoles?”

Alpha turned to the standalone consoles behind the Commander's Chair. “The console to starboard is the Tactical Console.”

“Weapons and defence systems.”

“Yes. Phased Energy weapons, Phasers; and Quantum Torpedoes. Deflector shields to defend against enemy weapons fire. The latter had failed before the crash. They're now fully repaired.”

Nina knew Alpha was holding something back, most likely the status of the torpedo inventory, but didn't ask. “That's good,” she said, regarding the repair status of the shields.

Alpha pointed to the port console. “The Operations Console, where ships systems are monitored and the crew's activities managed.” She then walked back to the rear consoles. “Most of these are Science stations.” She activated one of the stations.

Nina looked. The station was showing information from the sensor scans of the forest. “Very thorough.”

Alpha activated another station. “And this is the Engineering station. It shows the status of all the ship's systems.”

“Cool.”

“But this isn't the reason why I brought you here. We need to be here to officially add you to the crew.”

“Of course,” Nina said.

“Computer, prepare to log a field commission for the visitor identified as Nina.”

“Please enter access code.”

Alpha walked back to the Command Chair and entered the access code on the command console.

“Confirmed.”

Alpha handed a PADD to Nina. “Enter your information here.”

“One problem.”

“Problem?”

“My real name. The Roman Alphabet wouldn't record it right. And I doubt your software would handle the Circular Gallifreyan,” Nina said,

“You can just enter it regardless,” Alpha suggested.

“In the Roman Alphabet, sure. I still would have liked to enter it in Circular Gallifreyan.”

“Oh.”

Nina took the PADD and entered something. “Done.”

“Oneenejpenlumbra?”

“Yes. It's a mouthful. That's why I chose 'Nina' when I left Gallifrey.”

Alpha entered more information (including making up an age), and completed the file.

“Confirmed. Field Commission for Crewman Nina is active,” the computer said.

“Cool,” Nina said, as she sat at the active Science station. “Now we can get to start on how to get back to the right universe.”

“You can look over the logs of the crew's journey, but I'm not sure you would be able to glean much from them that I and the other holograms haven't.”

“Time Lords are known for their intuitive capabilities.”

Alpha considered what Nina had just said. She supposed that being biological gave her an advantage over the logicality of AIs, no matter how advanced they were. She walked back to the Command Chair. “Computer, give access to all crew logs since Stardate 62835.3 to Crewman Nina.”

“Enter command code.”

Alpha entered the command code.

“Confirmed.”

Nina decided to start from the beginning. She directed the computer to show all the logs in chronological order. “That's a lot of logs. But given the mature of the situation, we have plenty of time.”

“That's true,” Alpha said.

“Commander's log. Stardate 62835.3...”