The Engineer and the Time Lady - Investigation v1.0

7. Investigation

Alpha heard a noise. She turned and saw Nina enter the Bridge. She saw that she had rested and smiled. “You are ready for duty?”

“Yes. What happened on that ship shouldn't have happened.”

“It would probably be a while before I'll let you go on another away mission.”

“I was thinking about that,” Nina said as she sat her console. “It would depend on the kind of mission.”

“It would,” Alpha said.

“I was considering travelling forwards to this planet's information age and copying historical data from the worldwide network.”

Alpha was intreagued, but cautious. “So, you'll go forwards, and steal a data storage device with the data on it?”

Nina interuppted. “I'll take a tricorder and use that to copy the data.”

“That would be better,” Alpha conceded.

“I can do it today,” Nina sated.

“Sure,” Alpha was pleased that Nina seemed to have recovered from the previous day's experience, but she was still concerned that she was letting her exuberance get away with her. “But not right away.”

Nina examined more of the data collected by the Baffin crew, specifically that on the version of Tanarexa IV in the first alternate universe they visited. Her conclusion was inconclusive. Whatever, or whoever, was responsible for the displacements on that planet probably wasn't going to help her and the holocrew return the ship to it's home universe. 'But maybe we could try?' It wouldn't be the first time a Time Lord tried to turn a powerful being to their side.

1200 hours. Alpha turned to Nina. “If you want to go on that forward journey, you can.”

“I shall.”

In the shuttlebay, Nina grabbed several tricorders and PADDs. “Are you sure you'll need all those?” Alpha asked.

“The contents of the network may be greater than the storage capacity,” Nina answered.

“That's unlikely, the PADDs have a storage capacity of four gigaquads each. Same with the tricorders.”

“I'll find a use for them.”

“You probably won't be gone that long.”

“Probably not.”

“You might need this,” Alpha said, holding out a phaser by the emitter end.

“No. I don't think I would get into that kind of trouble,” Nina said with a shake of her head.

“Away Mission Personnel shall not go into an unknown area unprepared for the possibility of combat.”

“Is that a regulation?” Nina asked.

“Yes,” Alpha answered.

Nina sighed and took the phaser. “I'll be back as soon as possible.”

Soon, the TARDIS dematerialised, and Alpha left the shuttlebay.

Nina looked over the Console Room as the TARDIS travelled forwards in time. It was still in it's default design. She hadn't changed anything since she had fled Gallifrey. She considered that it was time to make changes. 'Starfleet certainly knows how to design a ship interior that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing,' she thought. She turned back to the console and accessed the Architectural Configuration System. 'Now, the scanner has the Baffin's interior on file.' She then set the ACS to style set the Console Room Theme to Starfleet.

That done, she left the Console Room to find the wardrobe. She suspected that just wearing the Starfleet uniform would draw unwanted attention.

After finding a simple Time Lord robe that matched the colour of the uniform, Nina entered one of the auxiliary console rooms and quickly re-assigned control of the TARDIS to that room. The ship was about to land.

As soon as the ship had landed and she had used the scanner, Nina found that she had indeed landed in the planet's information age. So, she interfaced one of the Tricorders with the Scanner and set it to send the information to one of the PADDs. “OK, copy the information from the planet's network to the PADD,” she said as she set the scanner. The tricorder than began to receive the data from the scanner and transmiting it to the PADD. 'Good!' she thought.

She emerged from the ship to see that she had landed next to a large library, and that the ship had disguised itself as a motor home (with the Baffin's regristry number, translated into the local number system, on the licence plates, and in Circular Gallifreyan on the sides). She also noticed the Starfleet pennants on the roof. 'Great! Is the Chameleon Circuit glitching?' She didn't want to worry about that. Instead, she decided to go into the library.

The library was what she expected. A well organised space, with many people interacting and looking up information, like any library she had seen. She also saw that there were librarian jobs available. 'Not sure how long I'll be staying, even if I could be back at the Baffin within a minute of depature.' She decided to stay at least a day or two. 'And I can work at this library for a day. She took a place at one of the desks and used the PADD to interface with the TARDIS, instructing her ship to create an identity for her.

Half an hour later, she came to the desk and handed over her application.

Name: Nina Lumbra

Age: 27

…

“Nina Lumbra? Sounds foreign,” the librarian said.

“My father was from the North,” Nina responded.

“I see.”

“Everything checks out, you can start tomorrow.”

“That's good.”

The librarian handed Nina a card. “Welcome to the Rladibud Library.”

Alpha waited for Nina to return. Thus she spent another day to herself listening to Klingon Opera and occasionally checking on the marooned ship via the probe.

“Commander's log, Day 1024, Crewman Nina still hasn't returned for over a day... Otherwise the Baffin is still ship shape”.

Alpha finished the log and called up the data on the stranded ship Nina had visited two days before.

She noticed something. She called up the data from two days before. She could see that the wave action against the ship had further compromised it's structural integrity. “Computer, estimate time until structural collapse.”

“Estimated time until structural collapse any time from six to ten days.”

“Right.” She thought for a while. There had to be away she could rescue that crew without violating the Prime Directive. She couldn't go, the 29^th Century technology behind the mobile emitter hadn't yet been reverse engineered. But using probes to repair the ship would almost certainly cause a violation. And simply beaming them off definitely would be a violation. That seemed to lead to one solution. A Synthetic. The schematics for Synthetics, including the positronic brains, were in the Baffin's databases.

Alpha entered Engineering with a PADD showing instructions. “Computer, activate Emergency Engineering Holograms Beta and Gamma.”

“Affirmative.”

“Please state the nature of the Engineering Emergency,” Beta and Gamma said in unision. They then looked at each other in surprise before turning back to Alpha.

Alpha handed Beta the PADD. “Build a Synthetic that can go on away missions, so we can rescue the crew of a sailing ship without violating the Prime Directive?” he asked, once he had read it. He handed the PADD to Gamma.

“Yes,” Alpha answered.

“But, what will you be doing?” Gamma asked, her curiosity showing in her voice.

“I'll be in one of the holodecks, running repair simulations,” Alpha answered.

Both Beta and Gamma nodded, before turning to one of the consoles.

Alpha approached Holodeck 1. “Computer, load scan data of the crashed ship to Holodeck 1.”

“Affirmative.”

Ten seconds later, the computer reported. “Program complete.”

Alpha entered the holodeck onto the virtual ship's deck...

The next day, Nina was ready to start work at the library. She first looked at the progress of the download. “25%” she said. That meant she'd still be there in a few days hence. 'That's not a problem,' she thought. She had been on similar worlds before for extended periods of time. Before setting out she had the TARDIS bring up the local news. She saw that noting particularly notable was occurring, although two medium sized nations were at war over terrorism. She also noted that the island where Baffin had crashed was disputed between the two.

'Interesting,' she thought.

Nina entered the library and saw that one of the other librarians was clearly worried about something as she looked intently through the returned items. “Morning,” she said.

The other librarian turned with a start. “Oh, you gave me a shock,” she said. “You're the new assistant librarian, right?”

“Yes. I'm Nina.”

“I'm Aialah,” the worried librarian said.

“So, what are you looking for?”

“A rare book was loaned out. It is very overdue.”

“Oh,” Nina responded. “Wouldn't something like that not be loaned out?”

“Ordinarily,” Aialah said with anxiety. “But it was the Mayor's son!”

“I see,” Nina said. 'What have I got myself into?”

“Can you help me find it?”

“Of course.”

A short while later, the returns had been flung aside (mainly by Aialah), but the book hadn't been found. “Most likely, he still has it,” Nina stated as Aialah collapsed into a chair with annoyance.

“I'm in big trouble! If they find out that I loaned out a book that I shouldn't have loaned out, I'll be fired!”

“They don't have to find out,” Nina said in a reassuring tone.

“What's that?”

“I'll help you avoid that outcome.”

“But, you might get fired too.”

“We'll find it.”

“I shouldn't have told you.”

“Nonsense, I can help you. If it's not here, the Mayor's son would still have it, right?”

“That's the most likely option,” Aialah said, more nervous than before. “I guess I can call him during lunch.”

The morning went well (other than young children being noisy, as their mother's tried to read to them). However, something else was going on. There was a report of some sort of hostage situation in the city near the library. 'Is that something I'm going to be involved in?' Nina thought. She dismissed the possibility. She may have got involved with many things at other places after leaving Gallifrey, but wouldn't mean it would happen this time.

Aialah saw Nina enter the break room, and give her a supportive look. It was time to call him. She picked up her phone and quickly selected him from her contacts list. “Aialah! Why are you calling now?”

'He's annoyed!' Aialah thought. She felt the determination building inside her. “You know why I'm calling!”

“I forgot. It's at home somewhere.”

“It needs to be returned!” Aialah retorted.

“Calm down. I haven't lost it,” Lanran responded.

“But you know, I could lose my job, right?” Aialah said.

“I know that!”

“So, I would like it to be returned today.”

“Calm down.”

There was something off about his tone. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew something was wrong. “I am calm,” she responded.

“You're not. I will return it when I'm ready to return it.”

That was it! Didn't he see that it would be difficult for her to find another job? “I am calm. And it needs to be returned today,”she said in the tone of voice she reserved for unruly children.

“Look, you can wait, for me, OK.”

Some things connected in Aialah's mind. She then hung up.

Nina saw Aialah begin to tear up as she ended the call. It obviously didn't end well. “I take it, he's not returning it?” she asked, after a few moments.

“No,” Aialah sobbed as she left the break room.

Day 1025. Crewman Nina still hasn't returned. I'm getting more concerned about her. Or maybe the TARDIS isn't as reliable is it should be out of it's home universe. I'm still running the simulations on repairing that ship. The scans show it will break up within two days. It is good that Beta and Gamma have almost completed the Emergency Away Mission Synthetic. He should be able to work on site this afternoon. End log.

Having recorded the log, Alpha left the bridge again, heading back to the Holodeck. She had run many repair scenarios. The probability of success was at 90%. The chance of failure was still too high for her. She hoped the Synth would be as adaptable as she and the other holograms were. Then there was the fact that ship was still exposed to the elements. The sensors were detecting a cold front moving in. A storm decreased the probability of success to 56%. The repair had to be done before one arrived.

She entered Holodeck 1. “Computer, update Alpha Ship Rescue Program with latest sensor data and re-run.”

“Affirmative. You may enter when ready.”

She entered the simulation. As usual she entered into the hold of the ship, where the rents in the hull were growing larger.

She turned to the simulation of the repair materials and tools. It was time to start. “Computer, select speed setting: x20.”

“Affirmative.”

That was the speed at which she could go and still be functioning effectively. She could go faster, but it seemed that was the limit of her efficacy. (Of course, she suspected that Zeta could probably go faster, but she was sure he wouldn't do the simulations as effectively as she would). After the first few attempts she decided not to risk possible overstressing of her algorithms.

An hour later, she had ran another five simulations. The first didn't have a storm. The other four had storms of increasing intensity. The first three had a successful repair, but the other two had the ship break up, with the final simulation leading to the loss of the synth. 'I'm sure there may not be time to build another one,' she thought as she drifted beneath the sea after the ship had broken up in that final simulation. Even with Delta helping Beta and Gamma, it wouldn't really go any faster. The fifth simulation ended, leaving Alpha on the bare hologrid.

“Computer, show weather systems.”

“Affirmative.”

The holosystems then showed a simulation of the region of the planet from orbit. Alpha could see that a storm system associated with that cold front was already over the Baffin and heading towards the stuck ship.

'Another simulation, then I'll check in on Beta and Gamma' she thought. “Computer, restart simulation, decrease storm intensity.”

“Affirmative.”

Beta and Gamma had almost completed the Emergency Away Mission Synthetic. All that was really left was the most difficult part; assembling and installing the positronic brain.

“Ready?” Gamma asked, as she opened the drawer containing the positronic brain components. There were enough there for several Synthetics.

Beta wasn't sure why a ship like the Baffin would have such components stored aboard when it had a full compliment of Emergency Holograms. “Yes,” he answered as Gamma selected a portion of a positronic brainstem. She then placed it in it's place on the rear half of the Synth's skull.

The work proceded well, with hardly any 'hiccups'. Even so, there were 'touch and go' moments. The components were sometimes tricky to fit together. As Gamma placed the cerebellum on the rest of the components Beta found himself admiring the way she worked. He shook his head. That was hardly professional! He looked again at the work, but there was still a distraction in his attention subroutines. There was something, interesting, in the way she moved the nanobonder tool over cerebellum.

He shook his head again. He probably needed to run a diagnostic on his matrix.

“Are you OK?” Gamma was looking at him with concern. He realised that he had missed several sentences she had said.

“I'm fine,” he said, not entirely sure. Gamma still looked at him with concern, but she did repeat the instructions.

The difficulties did recurr as they continued putting the positronic brain together, but he didn't miss what she said again.

Alpha entered Engineering and saw that Beta and Gamma were working closely on the positronic brain. “How does it go?” she asked.

“We're almost done, despite some... difficulties,” Gamma said.

There was an undertone in Gamma's words Alpha wasn't sure of. What were those difficulties? She hoped they wouldn't impair the function of the Synthetic. “Difficulties?” she asked.

“Nothing that counldn't be overcome,” Beta answered.

“Good to hear,” Alpha said. She noticed that the two others were looking at each other in a way that suggested more was going on. 'Whatever that is, it isn't my business. It's unlikely to impair the function of the ship.”

Ten minutes later, the synthetic was complete. “Programming is loaded into the positronic brain,” Beta reported.

“Turn him on,” Alpha ordered.

Gamma pressed the button. “Please state the nature of the Away Mission Emergency,” the Synthetic said.

Nina re-entered the TARDIS. She had spent most of the afternoon ruminating on Aialah and her situation. She had left work early after the confrontation with her partner at lunch. She had asked one of the other librarians about her, but she was told it was none of her business (although she did see that librarian was worried). Was Aialah in an unhealthy relationship? The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

Even so she didn't want to think about it over night, so she decided to distract herself with the Baffin's logs, which she had copied to one of the PADDs. But first she checked the progress of the download. It was at 40.2%. The TARDIS was also indicating that she was picking up unsual patterns within the data. “Unusual how?” she asked. It seemed the TARDIS had picked up on something but wasn't certain what it was. “Something else to be concerned about,” she groused as she picked up the PADD containing the logs.

She then re-accessed the logs made at the beginning of the ship's journey.