Star Trek: Starbase 777 - singularity-core-access

It was a massive, round, green lit area, lined with engineering consoles and computers along the walls and near the walkways and stairs that let down into the center of this room, where the large sphere, it's dark surface littered through with cracks of glowing greenish white, was spinning at a constant speed. It was held up by two giant gears that spun along with it, making the whole construction look like an enormous, glowing armillary sphere. There was a constant hum in this room - not overbearing, yet present. The core pulsed in tandem with the quick, strong heartbeat, something akin to what one could hear in a Vulcan's or Romulan's chest.

6

Allan followed in close behind Alizati, standing there for a moment as he found himself mesmerized by the sheer, well, vibe of the room - and the visual of the core itself. It had held him captivated like this before, and - it seemed to have done so again. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, then closed it again, and then looked across at Juler. "Still just as beautiful, huh?" He said with a small smirk, walking towards one of the consoles and immediately thinking about the safeties and the.. "you warped just fine after the damage," he said quickly, "right? No uh, issues with that?"

Alizati looked around the room, hands behind his back as he towered over the rest of the repair crew. He was hit by a brief flashback of when he had been here initially. The green was nice, he thought. Personification of technology was still odd to him, but whenever he saw a Romulan singularity he felt as if it had a pulse. "Hmm, it looks stable despite the other damage. That is a relief."

Holy hell, she really was a beauty. Five whistled under his breath. Kinaen's heart, painted in shades of green like Vulcanoid blood. Metal as hell.

2

He walked in to the sight of an angel: large, powerful, and, for many who were not engineers, incomprehensible. In fact, since he was more experienced with Warp Cores than Singularity Cores, it still had a little of that mystery for him. "You take one look at that and tell me that's not magic," he said. Somehow, he felt that the beating of his heart was syncing up with the ship.

entering the room, she was mesmerized by the whole room. She had never been here before, and oh man did she want to take this thing apart and know everything about how it works! She wouldn't do that of course, but the thought of doing something like that was fun... Oh she needed to focus, people were talking.

"Is that a challenge because I am fully prepared to tell you how a Romulan singularity works," Alizati turned to Serin and gave him the classic Vulcan expression.

The head of engineering straight up beamed like a proud parent, the green hue of the room glistening off of his metal implants like a gentle caress: "She's strong despite her age! The warp went smoothly, I confirm. So smoothly in fact, you would think she decided to jump all by herself! Not the case of course, but it only shows her hardiness. Her name, "Oath", is not just for show."

5

Copia walked in right at the time the famous 'Veyebrow™️ was raised and right away stopped in her tracks. Looking at Kaylee with an expression that only spelled out, 'we miiiight want to stand back a bit. This might get interesting.'

Kaylee wasn't sure how to feel. It was...intriguing. She was pretty mesmerised by it, but she didn't frequently look at warp cores or singularity cores. So maybe this wasn't that impressive? Or, it was incredibly impressive. That hum reminded her of the soft electrical hum throughout the station. That hum relaxed her. She saw Copia's look and also stood back a bit. She'd help if she had to, but she wasn't going to throw herself in over her head.

1

He returned the eyebrow raise to Alizati. Brow-battle: begin! "I know how it works, mostly, but I would appreciate any insight you can give me. That doesn't mean it isn't magic. All technology is just magic we understand."

3

And a sigh of relief, although a quiet one. That was going to be a fierce brow-battle, Copia had to admit. She looked to Kaylee as if to say, 'that would have gotten to be a fierce brow-battle.' How she communicated that just through a glance was beyond all comprehension. (edited)

3

4

"That is a unique way of thinking about it," Alizati did consider actually explaining the workings of a singularity core but on second thought, they weren't here for Alizati's Warbird Ted Talk. Not now at least.

Allan let out a relieved sigh and a smile when Juler confirmed the warp had gone smoothly. "Great, awesome, that's - I'm so glad to hear that, really, ah-" still, the thought was stuck in his head just a bit, "I guess, just in case, um- it'd be good to check over the safeties to ensure it continues to go smoothly? The inertia dampeners, the emergency shutoffs, the umm," he bit his lip and swallowed, "you know, uh, the like." He stared straight ahead at the core.

"Yeah, sure, let's do that," he nodded, stepping just a little bit closer to inquire a quiet, "You're doing okay though, right? You just... feel a bit nervous or something."

4

"Are you alright to proceed on your own, Allan?" Alizati asked, sensing his ACEO's discomfort. He remembered how Allan was after the rescue, but this time Alizati had the power to assist. He didn't want Allan to ever feel like he did that day again. Not if Alizati was around to do something.

He was definitely going to get that warbird ted talk from Alizati later. Glancing over at Allan, he misread his facial expression entirely and assumed Allan was doing that horny lipbite emoji because he, too, thought the singularity core was very... Sensual. "Ah, I don't think we need to interrogate him on it too much. His feelings are his own."

7

"Yeah, on it, then," he nodded, looking down at the console and then he paused at Juler's inquiry, looking at the floor and then back up at the man, giving him a small, appreciative smile. "Yeah, I'm - just, uh-" he turned to nod at Alizati, "just had some uh.. incidents, with, core safeties... two months back? Something, uh. Something like that. Anyways, I - checking them is - a team effort, no? We ball, we ball," he said, starting to check via the consoles if one, the systems were in place at all - before going to inspect them physically. In case they were replaced by fakes or something crazy like that.

2

3

Well, at least Serin and Kaylee weren't the only ones to be affected by the appearance and overall power of the singularity core. For some reason, Copia was just... drawn to it. She didn't know why. She'd never seen one in real life before. But this one captivated her. The green of the core reflected off the pupils in her eyes as she stood there.

"Sure, let me assist! I know this ship the best out of all of us, after all," it was clearly not a brag, rather, an attempt at reassurance - that a person with a ton of experience with this particularly quirky ship, would make sure that nothing went wrong. "You can talk me through it, if ya'd like."

3

"Can I assist, too? This is almost my specialty." And then he would get a good grade in singularity core, something normal to want and possible to achieve. (edited)

1

"It is alright, Allan. Yes, we ball," Alizati told Allan, not smiling but he gave him a comforting nod. Unlike the others, Alizati felt no such anxiety or apprehension and he hoped his calmness would help the others keep calm as well. "Thank you, it is a beautiful ship. Really. I regret not touring more Republic vessels.* "And yes, we could use all the help we can get."

3

"I wanna help too! I mean, thats kinda why I'm here... my specialty is electrical engineering but I can help with the core too... unless there is already too many working in that spot? Sorry this just, looks really cool and I wanna know everything about it."

Copia was practically mesmerized by the sight of this singularity core that after what seemed like an eternity, Coda's words snapped Copia out of her daze and she pulled out her PADD to document the findings of the mission. Maybe Kaylee would need to keep an eye on her. (edited)

"Yeah! I mean, you're all here, to you know, help out," he said to Serin and Coda, looking at everyone else, "I mean, I had only really worked on singularity cores in like, two holosimulations in the Academy before this one, so like - it's a really cool learning experience, especially with this guy-" he gestured over to Juler with a grin as he knelt down beside the core, pulling one of the panels gently to open it up. "Should be quite a few emergency shutoffs to inspect across the whole thing, if you wanna spread out, right..?" He looked at Juler for confirmation. He'd worked on it once before, sure, but this guy knew everything far better, of course. (edited)

Letting the Engineers do their thing, Dagis stepped to one side as she began pulling up various notes on her PADD, all while really quite enjoying the look of the singularity core. Sure, she wasn't much for tech, but it was quite aesthetically pleasing and impressive to look at, honestly. The hum was nice, too, although how long it'd take to give her a headache she didn't know.

Lapan stuck up his hand from the back. "Uhm, I'm sorry, but I know absolutely nothing about warp cores or singularities, so am I good to start diagnostics on more peripheral systems? I'll check the comms as it's my specialty, but also things like shields, life support, stuff like that. I'd just prefer to not stand around." He waited for confirmation, though his toolbox was raised to his chest and he looked absolutely ready to beeline for the nearest console he could hijack for a bit as he worked.

Thankfully, Lapan's words also kept Copia distracted. If she were to keep herself from being mesmerized by the singularity core again, she'd better keep herself busy. "Lieutenant," Copia said to Lapan. "Is there any way I may assist you so that we may expedite the process?"

"Spreading out will be just fine," he confirmed with a nod, then turning his attention the the specialist demon summoner. "As for you - sure! Need help navigatin'?"

She eagerly began to help making sure all the emergency sequences were running properly, but boy were her hands itching to get inside this whole thing! She had to keep herslef composted as she started to work, becoming too excited would impeed her work, but her smile never left her face. She just couldn't help herself, so far she was having fun fixing all this stuff.

At the confirmation from Juler, Lapan turned to Copia. "Well, do you read Romulan? Diagnostics basically run themselves, you just need to be able to read the readouts, and having a language in common helps." In the meantime, he found an empty console, and started with checking the comms systems... it was what he was most familiar with, after all. The UT seemed fine, though it lacked his beloved updated program that he'd spent the years before he came to 777 helping to develop. There were some damaged relays here and there, and some quarters were out of luck when it came to sending messages to people outside of the ship, but that was more to do with structural damage than with system issues... still, he diverted and fixed what he could, while he was here anyway.

Serin nodded. "A guide would be nice. It would also be nice if you taught me everything you knew, but we don't have time for that." Maybe another time. He could invite this guy to see some of 777's inner workings. Allan could come, too, as well any others. They could visit the fusion reactor of 777, and the Eventide's very own warp core...

Having been practically staring at the core this entire time, it was only as they noticed people starting to work that Sodor once again snapped back into work mode. Moving over and coming to a knelt position on one knee next to Allan, they quickly took a holophoto or two of what he was doing, before next heading over to Coda to take a holophoto of their work, standing behind them. Next, Lapan. The short Ferengi scampered over to take a holophoto of them, from the side this time to show both the console and the officer at work. Now this was what they were here for.

Copia, with a smirk, replied simply: "Sab khut hafeth. Frazhannempal was qailefeth." Seize today, for we know nothing of tomorrow. And then she switched back to standard. "In fact I do know Romulan, lieutenant. I'd be happy to assist you in reading the readouts. I am ready to begin when you are."

She wasn't used to having her picture taken so she felt a little awkward and tried to act natural, which just made her look stiff and uncomfortable in the finished holoimage.

"Wow, showoff," Lapan teased as he set up a secondary console that he connected to his own. He'd set up the diagnostics, and Copia'd be able to read the results while he worked. "Look for anything that says anything other than "nominal", and tell me what it is. I'll use this one to actually fix what I can from here."

3

"Copy that," Copia said, positioning herself so she could read the output of the console as Lapan worked. Not anything came through immediately but once it did, Copia's eyes scanned the whole thing as every line came out. "Let's see, all readouts are normal as of right now."

"That's good to hear, at least." Five shook himself from the hypnotic beat of Kinaen's heart, shaking his head a little. "Is there anything I can assist with?'

Lapan saw the same thing as Copia, but couldn't really believe it. With a ship as damaged as this one, there were bound to be systems that didn't work, right? "Nothing that indicates power surges, either? Like the turbolift earlier?" He asked, but he knew the answer already.

Nope, nothing! The readings seemed to be just fine. Definitely a normal development given what Juler told them... (edited)

7

She double checked the readouts, but there was still nothing to be worried about. "Negative, all readouts are standard and normal."

Maya had definitely been here the entire time, enjoying the sight of the singularity core as she did her scans only to be met with all being fine and dandy which was odd. "Did the Kinaen pass through anything on its routes recently? Any anomalies or any strange encounters when this all happened?" Maya asked Juler, gesturing to pretty much the entirety of the ship. (edited)

"Realistically there should be damage... I don't want to have to do manual diagnostics, but it looks like I'm gonna have to, since the diagnostic program also isn't functioning correctly." Lapan was not looking forward to manually trawling through insane amounts of program files and figuring out where the problems lay, but he would if he needed to. He'd never encountered a diagnostic program that failed as thoroughly as this one, but he knew how to work around it, even if it was horribly time-consuming and could probably take up to a week if he was the only one working on it.

She was still looking through all the emergency sequences to make sure that they are working properly. She enjoyed this type of work, going through and fixing things, but now after calming down from geeking out about the core, she became aware of the tension in the air. "Well, maybe we should sweet talk the ship again? See if it will tell us anything if we are nice to it... or something? I don't usually talk with whatever it is I'm trying to fix."

Lapan looked at Coda, giving her a thoughtful look before turning back to the console and patting it in a friendly way, like one would pat a very big dog. Instead of Federation Standard or Illyrian, which is what he usually spoke, he took the time to formulate his sentences in Romulan, since what if the ship's own UT was down and it couldn't hear? The idea that the ship was listening was a little silly, but he'd go along with it. He'd seen weirder- actually, no he hadn't, that was a lie. "Lady Kinaen, we are trying to get you fixed up, so if perhaps you showed us what was wrong with you we could help you, no?" He didn't have much hope for good results though, and made preparations to actually manually search through the program files for the communications arrays.

A dull shimmer ran through the letters of the readings, the words briefly flickering in and out. Huh. It seemed that there was something hidden behind the front readings that were shown to the officers.

Stood to one side, monitoring the progress of the repairs, Dagis couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing that people were, in fact, trying to talk to the ship. Usually you could only talk to a ship's computer, but the ship itself? She knew some people liked talking to their ships and thought they 'talked' back in their own unique ways, but it was never something to actually be taken seriously. Still, though, stranger things had happened, she supposed.

Maya chuckled a bit as she overheard Lapan's attempt in Warbird Courtship; a probably most delicate art that takes long to master, the engineer thought to herself as she turned back to her tricorder only to see the flickering text. "That's odd... my tricorder's acting up." She said as she gently smacked the side of her tricorder a little bit before moving on to reconfiguring its settings to compensate for it and figure out what's happening "That sweet talk probably worked, Lieutenant."

Copia looked at the words briefly flickering in and out before something hidden made itself known. "Whoa... Lieutenant... The readouts may not be telling the whole story. Take a look at this."

She was surprised that the ship actually responded, she only meant it as a joke and didn't really expect a response... was this thing actually alive? "Holy shit I can't believe that worked."

"Whu-hey! Ensign, you're a genius! Let me poke into the diagnostic program first, see if I can't find what that was." With renewed excitement, Lapan began retrying the diagnostic program, trying to reveal the hidden text that he couldn't see earlier. "Thank you, Lady Kinaen," he whispered to the ship, quiet enough that nobody should be able to hear him except for maybe Copia, who was standing close to him.

Quirking her head sideways upon the apparent success of talking to the ship, the Ferengi moved her way over to peer over (or rather around) Lapan to see just what was going on.

Sodor, on the other hand, was still very busy taking picture, trying to get everyone's good angle, and by good angle they meant action shots, not that there was a whole lot of action going on right now. However, as the ship whispering seemingly allegedly potentially maybe worked they were quick to turn their attention back to Lapan and start taking holophotos of what they were doing.

"You think there might be a pattern? In the words flickering around?" Maya suggested as she joined Lapan and the others whilst scrolling through possible settings to surmise more information from the scans they currently have while waiting for the diagnostic. "Our scans earlier didn't gather much, so it might be possible if the tricorders suddenly decided to act up just now."

The mere concept of a ship understanding just what they were saying.... How was everyone being completely normal about this?? Five's brows furrowed in gentle curiosity. It had to be coincidence, didn't it?

"Perhaps we need to analyse the runes - the code itself, I mean, to truly understand the hidden meaning. Manually, not with a diagnostic tool." They were only looking at the user interface of the console right now, after all. They needed to peel back the layers. Like an onion.

"I don't know if there's a pattern... It was very short. I just think there's a façade of some kind hiding the true readouts, so if I- oh, I'm not a great programmer, but there should be- yeah, exactly, Serin!" Lapan was glad someone was on his wavelength. This was way quicker than going through all the programs manually!

"I can have a look," he said, moving a little closer to Lapan. "Although it feels a little rude to look at her code without asking first. Kinaen, do you mind?"

"Strange. I wouldn't suppose that's normal, even for a Romulan ship." The COO commented idly, glancing over at Sodor briefly, and then Five, both receiving quite the puzzled look.

...and now they were speaking to her, expecting an answer... Five exhaled a soft sigh of disbelief. "I'm sure she appreciates you both being gentlemanly about it." What the fuck. This is awesome.

"Starships have done stranger things in the past." Maya added with a shrug before she looked over to the Kinaen's engineering consoles around them. "Best place to start looking would probably be in the main engineering console. We might get the most answers from it."

"Yes, please Serin, work your magic. I think showing us behind the façade is permission in and of itself, but." Lapan turned away slightly, letting the other engineer work. Instead he turned to Dagis, to address her comment. "I can think of a few uses for such a thing. Depending on what's happening, such a program could be used to hide damage from boarders, to prevent them fixing things without issue. I have no clue what would have triggered it this time, but-" he trailed off, thinking about it. He really didn't know what would have triggered it, since such a program seemed the sort of thing to have to be turned on manually...

Contemplating what exactly was going on, and their assigned task as a whole, it only felt necessary for Dagis to ask one specific question. "Is it your professional opinion that in order to complete your originally assigned tasks you must do what you are about to do, Lieutenants?" Always cover your back. "We are guests aboard this ship."

She leaned back, taking a moment to stretch her muscles as she worked. This was one weird ship... She kind of wanted to know what made it feel so... alive? It was hard to place the feeling that this ship was giving her, but an uncomfortable tension was starting to build in her mind. "What an odd ship..." She muttered to herself as she got back to work.

"Oh, yeah, no doubt about it," Lapan told his superior officer. "You could go through all the programs that need to be checked manually to see where the damage is, but that would no doubt take ages, and that's before the repairs have even begun. Take this one program down, and the diagnostic runs as usual. It's wayyyyy faster, at least in theory. It really depends on if we can get the code to cooperate." In Lapan's opinion, it wasn't even a contest. If they wanted to get the Kinaen up and running as quickly as possible, they needed to get the diagnostic program to do what it was supposed to be doing from the start. (edited)

"Then go right ahead." The COO said with a content gesture for them to do just that. "The sooner we have this ship back up and running the sooner it can return to its normal duties."

During all of this, Juler was just calmly working away somewhere besides Allan, humming under his breath and absolutely unbothered by the going on confusion. As if all of this was normal.

1

The letters quit their flickering, yet the heartbeat-like humming seemed to quicken it's pace, ever so slightly, like the quivering of a particularly anxious bird... As for Sodor, their photography endeavor seemed to be going smoothly, even with the somewhat muted, green light of the singularity core, and the massive shadow looming over them.

"Aye Sir, I'll get started then." Maya said to Dagis with a light smile and a nod before heading over to the work on manually inspecting the status of the singularity core and its components to see if anything seemed out of place. the increased pace of the flickering did not help to soothe her though. (edited)

This place was able to respond when spoken to emotionally right? Could it also pick up the crew anxiety? Is that why it was flickering faster? Just thinking about the possibility made Coda laugh to herself... how insane to think that a ship could respond in such a way.

"I'm unveiling her, then," he said, as he did the star trek console command equivalent of inspect element, allowing him to see the code beneath. (edited)

Taking their photos from various angles without a care in the world, Sodor found the green glow of the singularity core to have both a calming effect, as well as make the images they were capturing look pretty dang cool. It really felt Romulan, ironically enough. It was only as they repositioned that they suddenly realised that something unknown was casting a shadow. Turning to try and see what it was, they all but stopped in their tracks as they saw what was eclipsing them, looking up with slightly wide eyes.

The very tall security officer was staring back at the Ferengi with slight puzzlement in his eyes. "What are you snapping at?" he asked, voice tinted with a subtle metallic note - probably the effect of the metal around his lower jaw and neck.

Practically staring at the security officer for a good couple of seconds, the holodocumenter was quick to snap out of it, overriding their desire to walk in the exact opposite direction, feeling really rather intimidated. "Oh, uhh, I'm just documenting our work!" They replied, trying to not sound nervous and probably failing miserably. "I'm a holodocumenter, see. We go around and document Starfleet's work, such as helping our allies with repairs!" They quickly added, now trying to turn what they were saying from a nervous explanation to almost a sales pitch of sorts, pointing out the positives.

Lapan turned back to Serin, who was working on the code. Whatever was happening with Sodor and the big Romulan was not his problem, and not his responsibility. "You getting anywhere? If you need translating, let me know."

Copia kept on monitoring the readouts in case something else popped up. It was good that Lapan was staying focused, that was helping to keep her focused during all this commotion...

Double checking her work she made sure she properly checked all the safety components and made sure they were all in working order. "Uhm I think all the sequences are in order, any other engineer running into problems with any safeties? They should be alright, but I just wanna cover my bases."

His jaw worked for a bit as he thought over this weird officer's words, which probably did not help the intimidating impression Karrim could cast with envious efficiency - not that he was particularly happy with that... "... I was making sure," he ended up saying, brows still furrowed, making no effort to leave. "I am inclined to believe you. Proceed."

Serin could see the "fake" readings disappear, now showing the true extent of her damage. Now the engineers could get a better idea of what to do...

Five peeked over at the readings, humming idly to himself. "That's it. We're here to help.." ...oh, hell, now he was talking to the ship too. He could've laughed if he wasn't so worried. "Let's get to work, then."

Kaylee had been hanging back, not wanting to get in the way. Still considering why she even came...surely she could be more help elsewhere...but, she supposed she might be the only equipment tech here, and there's always the possibility of broken tools. And, she could maybe help with a few pointers. How different could a singularity core be from a roomba, or a padd? (edited)

"Uhhh, thank ya kindly! I'll make sure to stay out of everyone's way!" Sodor replied to the very intimidating security officer, before turning to continue snapping photos of the work.

Copia also didn't want to intrude or be a roadblock in anyone's way. "Lieutenant Lapan," Copia said to Lapan. "Shall I remain here to assist you or am I needed elsewhere?"

"If you could take note of all the areas of damage, Lieutenant, we can start sending repair crews to all vital areas. I'll get started on the Comms systems, and all our engineers here can pick and choose what they want to do based on what they're good at." Lapan looked at Dagis and Alizati briefly, to see if he wouldn't be contradicted. He didn't technically have the authority to boss people around, especially not those of a similar rank to him, but he did have experience with crisis situations... nope, not thinking about that. He knew what needed to be done though, generally.

Frankly, Dagis was really rather occupied with just simply trying to figure out why the ship had a hidden layer of info beneath false diagnostics, but considering that this was a Romulan ship... She wouldn't be surprised if that was standard. As Lapan looked over at her and the CEO the Ferengi gave a reassuring nod, more than happy for Lapan's course of action to go ahead. "No point trying to make a computer software engineer fix a warp core now, is there?" She said in agreement, a friendly smile spread across her face. The example was very out there, but it wasn't exactly incorrect. People are best at what they specialise in doing.

Copia nodded to Lapan. "Right," Copia nodded respectfully, before standing up and approaching all the areas of damage. This certainly would be need to be documented, so Copia didn't waste any detail, she made sure everything she could see was documented in on her PADD in terms of damage.

Alizati made no move to oppose Lapan. He thought the plan was sound and then looked to Dagis. "Agreed, I can assist if needed or provide consul. I know singularity cores are not common within Federation ships. I unfortunately only have textbook and holodeck knowledge," He stated in his typical calm Vulcan tone. Dzharok didn't have a head for engineering and even if he did have interest, he was an environmental scientist. Alizati was the engineer, but had spent the majority of his life trying to escape anything Romulan. (edited)

"Good shout, Lieutenant." He was used to occasionally keeping up a warp core, but he'd need some sort of manual to help with the singularity core... He frowned a little at the rapid beating of her heart. "If you need an extra hand with any stress damage on her, I'd be happy to assist," Five said, glancing sideways to Juler.

Copia found it so easy to become distracted yet again by the Kinaen's beating heart... She found herself growing mesmerized by it yet again, before she quickly snapped out of it once more. She gave a look over to Kaylee as if to say 'help... I'm not going to get any work done...'

Finally, Lapan's genetic proximity to a parrot was useful for something! He whistled loudly, not too high-pitched so as not to cause headaches, but certainly loud enough to be heard. "Alright, we have a plan! All qualified people are to focus on the singularity core first, under guidance of the Arrain! Everyone else looks at the list of damaged systems and starts fixing whatever is most convenient for them, and if you're getting bored, the lieutenant in the red has a to-do list she's keeping track of. Ayo!" Aaaand mobilise! The quicker they got all this done, the quicker they'd be able to go home and take a nap! Or something.

She was relieved that this just became somewhat slightly easier, given the odd situation. Coda decided she would leave Allen to do the rest of the safety systems since he seemed rather picky about those for whatever reason. Picking up her engineering tools and making sure things are in order, she knew her skills were best put elsewhere for the time being. "Cool, uhm I won't help with the core since it isn't my specialty, which is a shame because it looks rather pretty. I'm an electrical engineer, so is there any specific systems I should focus on first?"

Kaylee also double checked her tools. Made sure she had everything. She took a breath and spoke up. "Same here, I'm...an equipment technician, so how can I help?"

"Uhhh, Ensign, looks like the main sensor arrays need repairing and recalibrating, so you can go do that. Lieutenant, can you take that on with her? It's not your specialisation, but I'm sure you can figure it out together." Woah, Lapan really wasn't made for telling people what to do... "you can figure it out together", really? He wasn't telling his toddler to keep trying to zip up his own jacket... oh well, no taking it back now. He whistled nervously about it, before returning to his own console.

Kaylee stood up a little straighter, as she took the command "Yes sir. I'll get right on it. Ready when you are, Ensign." It made Kaylee feel a little...strange calling people Ensign. She...she had almost forgotten she was promoted. It made her feel sort of...wrong. She'd get used to it though, she'd have to.

1

Copia assumed she was the lieutenant in red Lapan spoke of, given she indeed had a to-do list and kept on ticking off boxes as she went down, keeping track of the damaged systems per Lapan's request, and documenting what she needed to. Copia wasn't in any position able to be fixing anything, so she stepped aside to let the engineers and operations team do their thing!

Now that the true problem was known, he put his effort toward fixing the singularity core. He would, of course, need the guidance of the Arrain as Lapan had said, to fill in the gaps where his knowledge of singularity cores failed him. "Sir?" He said to Juler. "Much of the damage seems to be from stress. How do we best de-stress a singularity core?" Perhaps they should treat it to a spa day.

Copia looked over at Serin first with a look of confusion - but then it turned to giving it a second thought. "You're not wrong! How about some positive affirmations?"

"Take it to a five star hotel?" Five chirped (not literally, he wished he could).

"Alright, well we better get started now rather than later, right Lieutenant?" Coda shifted her focus as she pulled out a tricorder, she didn't exactly know how these type of ship worked so the Tricorder would tell her exactly where she needed to head or what panel to remove... When she located the pathways to the arrays she removed the panel and began to survey the damage that needed repairing. "Uhm, to start you should check the voltage Lieutenant. You don't wanna get shocked. It should be off if it needs repairing, but it's always good to double check things... uhm its better to do that or be shocked, you know?"

Copia thought for a second. "Maybe we tell it dad jokes? We can get it to be happy! Destress that way! Maybe the worst dad jokes that are so bad they're funny?"

Kaylee nodded and was prepared to follow Coda's lead. Of course, Coda probably knew a little more than she did here. "Fantastic, let's make a start then." Kaylee nodded as Coda asked her to check things. She pulled out her own tool, she used for checking for any current and voltage in equipment she'd fix, to determine she wouldn't hurt herself. Hopefully it would work here too. She put the tool close enough to the arrays, and determined it was safe to continue. "There we go. All safe. Carry on Ensign. If you need my help, just tell me how."

1

And Lapan thought he was lame for trying to talk to the Kinaen...

3

Upon hearing himself be addressed by the long-named Vulcan, Juler turned to look at the group - and either the man was expertly bluffing, or the whole situation seemed absolutely normal and mundane to him. "Stress on the core.... ah, I can take care of that while you do the rest," he nodded, seeing as such a Romulan engineering problem would be an easier task for someone who deals with such things on the daily basis, unlike Starfleet. That, and the player just really couldn't bother describing the possible procedure of fixing a contained black hole. Suggestions made by Copia and Fives seemed to confuse him, though: "Huh? Doesn't your warp core also get stress damage?.."

"...I think that was a joke, Lieutenant. There'll be actual physical work to do to de-stress her." Five blinked a few times. "It's not mental stress, it's physical."

Copia shrugged and held out her arms slightly. "Awww come on! No jokes about construction I'm still working on?" She looked left and right. Welp - that was a fail. "Oh well. Worth a shot." (edited)

2

Lapan looked up at Copia with a puzzled look on his face. "I didn't get that one, Lieutenant," he notified her apologetically.

2

Juler blinked, shrugged, muttered something in Rihannsu (which Karrim somehow picked up on and barked out a short laugh), and went on with his procedures.

2

Or was it? "Rest is always good. Sometimes with warp cores, you can reduce their energy output for a while - even turn them off. I don't think we can do that here, though." One does not simply turn off a black hole. "Let me know if you need help with anything, then," he said to Juler.

She examined the damage now that it was safe to do so. She could do this alone really, it was a typical routine to fix things like this, but she wanted Kaylee to be involved somehow. She seemed a little unsure of herself, something that Coda was used to feeling... it was a difficult emotion to get passed "Okay, well the wires are a little damaged here, but our tools can fix that pretty easily. It's nice that we don't have to repair the whole array.. that would take literal hours, days maybe."

Copia looked over to Lapan. "Like you work on stuff during construction? Still working on it? What about this one? What does a cow use to do math? A cow-culator?" Cricket. Cricket. Cricket. "Eh, I'll stick to mission documenting..." And she went back to typing on her PADD like nothing happened. (edited)

1

"But... I'm not in construction and I'm also working on stuff... If you're going to make a joke like that the build up has to be worth it, you know?" Lapan said, with a cheeky smile before looking back at his console. Would it be poor form to give the UT a little update? Probably, huh. He would ask when the repairs were done.

3

4

Copia gave Lapan a playful eye roll before continuing to type. "I need to take notes from Essen on that. She can tell Dad jokes like nobody's business. But I digress. Anyway." Type type type on the PADD.

Five chuckled to himself, kneeling down to poke around at the plasma weapon firing systems — small damages.. Nothing they couldn't take care of! "Groundbreaking work, everyone." Totally wasn't glowing with pride. Totally not.

3

The repairs were finished in a mostly unobstructed manner — occasionally, Kinaen's lights and screens flickered, but everything was tidied up as well as it could be. A gentle rumble shook through the ship, not enough to disrupt anyone or anything, but there nonetheless.

Huh! Copia barely noticed it, but she could feel the rumble beneath her feet. Seemed like the Kinaen let out a sigh of relief or other! At least, that's how she interpreted it. Copia has been wrong before...

"Well, that's opportune timing, isn't it?" he mused in response to his badge chirping, standing up with a small sigh of relief.

"This has been going smoothly actually... I'm kinda impressed with this ship!" She says as her repairs are finished, she packs up her tool kit and examines her exquisite work. It was like an art form... an art form only engineers would care about.

"Kind of? She's gorgeous," Five gushed, a wide smile on his face. "Commander Rei'nak's shown me all of her models of Republic ships, but they hardly hold a candle to the real thing... It's been a while, but it's really good she's in a bit better shape than she was last year."

"I suppose she is quite a nice ship. But, I haven't seen many, so I can't really judge ships." Kaylee spoke, reorganising any tools she had to remove, replacing them so it was neat.

"She is gorgeous. And I've learned much about singularity cores by working with her." They truly did seem arcane. A miniature black hole powering a ship? If he didn't know how it worked already, he'd think it was a work of god. Well, no, not a god. He'd met enough gods (one) to have little faith in them. A powerful and unexplainable force, perhaps.

Despite her players time zone skill issues, Maya had been around the entire time doing what she could to help, mainly focusing on power transfer systems around the singularity core as a Mechanical Engineer. Once all the work had been done, she mostly hung back and watched the singularity core from a safe distance taking in the hum of the singularity core

Five frowned a little as the lights continued to flicker. "I'm not sure just what's still going on with her.. We've fixed all the combat damage, haven't we?" He braced one hand on the wall, glancing back over his shoulder. "Are there any power fluctuations or anything? Connectivity issues..?"

"I mean, there's still structural damage to the hull that needs to be fixed somewhere else, but all systems are as good as back. I don't see anything here..." Lapan looked intently at his console that was still monitoring damages... Shields were as fine as they could be, sensors were back online... and there was nothing he could find that would cause this flickering.

He had been hanging at the back of the group since he had caught up with them, silently taking in the interior of the Romulan starship with great interest. “If we can get even a rough estimate as to where a majority of the structural damage is, I can likely get ‘into the guts’ of the ship, as it were, and perform repairs.”

Copia looked around, making sure she had crossed all her t's. "All damage has been documented and no new damage has been found."

"Hull damage, Lieutenant. Repair stations are far more equipped to deal with that than we would ever be." Lapan motioned at Copia, who would be able to visually show Kvig where the damage actually was.

"I could double check the inertial dampeners, that may explain the rumbling." Maya suggested, as she wrapped up double checking diagnostic readings to find anything missing, to find nothing like the others. "I'm a mechanical engineer... I'm sure there's no harm in checking just in case."

He winced slightly at the two lieutenants calling out his mistake. “Apologies, sirs, it seems I misunderstood the situation. I promise it will not happen again.”

"You're good, dude. Just making sure we're all on the same page." Lapan looked once more at the diagnostic program's readouts, before looking up at Maya. "Couldn't hurt," he said pensively, as his mind was clearly elsewhere.

"You're doing great. Don't worry." Maya softly said to Kvig with a reassuring smile and patted him on the shoulder before going on to investigate the inertial dampeners. A stationary ship docked securely to a starbase should not rumble that much, she thought.

3

She shifted her weight from foot to foot. Despite fixing the things that she could, the fact that the ship was still acting like this made her hands itch. She didn't like not completing work properly. "The core is good... right? It's not gonna like, explode?"

Copia worriedly looked over at Coda. Of course she knew Coda had good intentions, she just needed to ensure that Coda didn't use that word aboard a Romulan vessel. "Er, Ensign, I'd refrain from using that term, out of respect, please."

"Yeah, there's no issues there. Our team did a great job on the core." Lapan didn't know what was wrong with calling explosions what they were, but he whistled nervously anyway.

"Ensign, the core's fine. maybe its something with the other systems... but yeah, choose words carefully." Maya said to Coda as she continued her work double checking the inertial dampeners, and also some other power-related systems just in case, also feeling a sense of worry.

2

"You guys did do a great job, i will be noting your efforts in my work log," Alizati said with a very slight eyebrow raise. "It is something I believe is worthy of formal recognition, especially for those who's job description lies outside Romulan singularity cores," Which was everyone, no one was a singularity core expert. Alizati wasn't either, he just read a lot of books and played through holodeck simulations. "I do not believe there is anything else to be done at the present."

That Copia thought Romulans were so fragile as to not like the word explosion... Was very funny to him. With a small smirk, he remarked, "You're right. We shouldn't say explosions. We should say imorllejedh instead."

With a playful eye roll to Serin, Copia tuned back to the walls of the Kinaen. Under her breath Copia whispered to the Kinaen... "It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. I promise you."

Five blinked twice, tipping his head to the side, though said nothing of the conversation at hand. "I don't understand what else can be causing these power fluctuations. There can't be a leak somewhere we missed?"

She was very embarrassed at her choice of words, and the fact that everyone corrected her as well. "Sorry." Then she moved back to where she was previously working, just to make herself look a little busy

1

"We could say imorlasedh," Alizati also was confused why Copia thought explosions were insensitive? It only occurred to him after a few seconds she was probably talking about a Hobus reference? Alizati saw nothing offensive about Hobus itself, but alas, maybe Copia did? "A leak or perhaps there's some degredation in the hardware itself? So no specific leak but if there are mutliple parts with wear and tear then there may be very small gaps, which would be much harder to address than one larger one," Alizati offered his idea in response to Five.

"Even if we missed something, the diagnostic program wouldn't have. I'm reading all the hull damages and relays that need to be replaced, but nothing that would justify a power surge. I can just see that they're happening, there's no reason for them." It wasn't frequently that the ability to turn off and turn back on a Starfleet ship was useful, but it really would have come in handy to have it right about now.

"On the plus side... I don't think they really 'explode' like our warp cores do if knowledge serves me right..." Maya added before she took in a really deep breath in hopes there isn't actually anything bad they missed or worse... probably not a good factoid to say, but something nonetheless "So far, power-systems look okay... nothings burst or melted... let's hope double checking brings us something we can use."

"Am I pronouncing it right? I have a Vulcan accent whenever I try to speak Rihannsu." And not just any Vulcan accent, but the specific dialect from where all the Vulcans with long surnames came from. "It wouldn't be an explosion. No big boom. More of a big... Suck." Black holes did do that.

5

Copia didn't think the word explosions was offensive to her herself. It was merely a preventative gesture not to have to remind the Romulans aboard the Kinaen about the Hobus... Although, Copia was unaware that it wasn't as bad as she thought it was. Oh, Copia. Always being over-careful. She decided to-- what did Serin just say?! Big suck? "Er... Yes! Let's say big suck!" Before she then realized... "Wait! No! Let's not-- " sigh... She turned to the walls of the Kinaen. "Everything will be okay. Even if there is a big suck."

"I don't think a Romulan would pronounce it that way, but you were perfectly understamdable," Lapan said, which was a little unfair from a literal vocal mimic whose main job was learning obscure or difficult languages to train the UT, but at least it was honest.

"We are not fragile, Lieutenant," the head of security spoke up, who was still here overlooking the process - at least he moved away from the Ferengi photographer to not cause any further heart attacks. He lifted his fist to smack it against his Borg'd neck a couple of times, producing one, two dull "thuds". "We know our history. As for the singularity core - it won't explode like your warp. It's a black hole, so--"

The lights went out just as suddenly as they turned back on, a distant metallic screech echoing in the room like something was slipping away. The two senior staff flinched almost simultaneously, Karrim with a curse and Juler with a muffled sort of yelp, as the head engineer's hand flew up to cover his temple.

6

"In general: We'll be fine, and continue to be fine until we aren--" Maya said calmly as she glanced over to the walls of the Kinaen.. and then that whole description happened. "I spoke too soon."

"You are, there are multiple words for it. I can hardly call myself the Rihannsu expert," Alizati responded to Serin, choosing to ignore his mention of 'the big suck'. He did however, give, Serin an eyebrow raise. "When a singularity core folds in on itself, it takes with it the entire ship. It is rather haunting to see a Romulan ship essentially swallow itself," Alizati stated right before the lights flickered. He remained calm, but there was a slight hint of concern in his voice. "... Does this happen often?"

Copia nodded respectfully to Karrim. "Understood, arrain. Please excuse my--" Before the lights went out. "WAAAGH! FUCK ME! WHAT THE---" Copia nearly jumped out of her metal skin. "Er, I didn't mean to say that..." (edited)

"Are you two alright?" Five was quick to get close to the pair, concern evident in his expression. He didn't reach out to help, but lingered nearby, brows furrowed gently. "We need to figure out just what caused that. If you all don't mind." ... He was still getting used to being ACOO.

"that didn't sound fantastic to hear... uhm..." She didn't have time to really react to the lights, but now she was on alert for anything that could be wrong.

"Ohhhhh, she's not happy, not happy at all..." Still no reasons for the power surges though... This was all getting to be a little frustrating. How do you fix something when you don't know what's wrong?

The sudden shouting from Copia made Alizati rush to cover his ears. He rarely did such action as he was an android and typically could adjust his hearing to suit his environment. It was a rare 'organic moment' for Alizati. "Lieutenant Copia, please be mindful of your voice," He reminded her, his voice much softer than hers, but he did not sound angry in the slightest. He was just startled and also Vulcan-Romulan and with hearing created to mimic the sensitive nature of both his species'.

Copia grasped her chest, looking over to Alizati. "Sorry sir, I've never reacted like that before, I'll be more mindful."

"Thanks. I'm an engineer, not a lingui -" Hearing the commotion, he nonchalantly turned the settings on his hearing aid down. "That's better."

"F-fine," he uttered, making two things clear: Juler lied, and boy was he a bad liar. The Romulan proceeded to blink rapidly, as if to adjust his sight. Or to blink away tears? "However, age and wear are catching up to her, I'm 'fraid..."

"It is important to be mindful with your reactions, many species and individuals are sensitive to loud noises," Alizati blinked a few times and then looked towards Juler to listen to what he had to say. "Is it? Age and wear can indeed be factors, but is there any other information you can give us besides those two things? As in, has this ever happened before?" Alizati could tell the man was lying, but he wasn't going to say it outright. It didn't take a telepath to sense something was not right and there was more beneath the surface here.

Five moved to support if needed. "Do you need a transport to medical? It'd only take a second. I understand you're worried about her, but if you need help.."

Copia was no stranger to embarrassment. As for her reaction in this regard, she'd have to get it checked out. Thankfully, it seemed that the others were no longer focused on her, and neither was she. Copia brought out her PADD the moment she heard that Juler indicated he lied, even through just his voice. Under her breath, barely audible... "Here's... The motherfuckin'... Tea..." Not actually typing that down but muttering it just to herself.

Maya was just frozen in shock for a few brief moments as the metallic screech rang throughout the room which caused her to drop one of her tools out of instinct which had snapped her out of it and moved over to an engineering console to see what's going on. (edited)

"I would like to not think about my mother at a time like this," Alizati said to Copia, briefly unaware of the term motherfuckin' as anything other than the literal meaning of the words.

5

Copia looked horrified at Alizati's response. "Oh! Sir! No, I-- I didn't mean--!" Copia felt even more embarrassed, slinking into the corner, continuing to do her job, nothing more, nothing less, and not saying a word. (edited)

Serin, who hadn't caught what Copia had said but had heard Alizati, furrowed his brow and said, "What exactly about this situation reminded you of your mother? Were you birthed of a ship?" Hot SMILFs (ship milfs) in your area. (edited)

6

Copia could only facepalm. She didn't want to say anything else to make things worse for herself. So she just turned the other way and kept on documenting like she needed to.

"I don't think now is the time," Five said gently, shooting a pointed look to the repair team. "We need to figure out just what's going on."

"Lieutenant said motherfucking and I did not get a good image in my mind. I have not been birthed of a ship but..." Alizati trailed off as he looekd around the room, noticing the Romulan crew had not responded to Copia's outburst, but did flinch when the lights flickered. Perhaps they were just used to shouting but that didn't mean they didn't have sensitive ears. There was something about the ship... "Perhaps the sentience of this ship is... more than just what we can see in the console. Similarly to when you witness your friend in distress, you also feel... distressed. I am unsure if that made sense and I apologise." (edited)

Copia the whole time heard the chain reaction as a result of her oversensitivity to loud noises. Ironic given how she reacted. But she just kept herself doing what she needed to do for her duties. Nothing more, nothing less, to keep attention away from herself.

"It feels like we are stumbling around in the dark here... it's uncomfortable... like we are just waiting for something to break..."

"Their reaction was certainly empathetic. It's like the ship is trying to say something, but I don't know what it is." He put a hand on a console, as though by doing that he could sense some sort of vibe from the ship, like when he brushed against someone's bare hand and got a little jolt of emotion sometimes.

"Trying to figure that out at the moment, Chief. The console's won't tell me anything other than everything is fine." Maya said to Five as she skimmed through the consoles, that is until Alizati gave out the idea that the ship may be experiencing a conscient state of distress, which gave a possible idea. "How many ships are there that are similar to the Kinaen? And where has the Kinaen been before coming here?" (edited)

"You can look at the diagnostic reports, Ensign, but there's really nothing breaking. Power surges are happening every so often, but it's not causing any damage that wasn't already there." Lapan handed Coda a PADD that had the readings in Federation Standard, so everyone would hopefully be able to read it.

"Of this class? The Kinaen is a bit old to still be in service, but it continues to fly on request of the crew," Alizati glanced at the two senior staff. "If the ship is truly sentient I would not be surprised if she has a relationship with her crew, much like sentient beings have friendships with others."

The engineer fell silent, his gaze flickering cautiously towards Karrim - as if searching for support in one of the men who's been with him and this ship through everything that had happened. And whatever he saw in the fellow crew's eyes, seemed to reassure the shorter Romulan. He quit massaging his temples and made an effort to straighten himself out of his slouch: "Medical won't help for as long as she's in pain," he stated, firm but kind, sending Fives a grateful nod and a small, somewhat sad smile. Then his eyes flickered back to Alizati: "This has happen'd before, yes. But not to this degree. This time it's... worse. Like feeling a living being dying..."

"The Republic wants to scrap her," Karrim added gruffly, eyes focused on some invisible spot on the ground. "The ship is old and worn out and outdated, and needs to be replaced with a suitable Republic model."

"Well they don't know anything," Juler snapped in reply, shaking his head with gritted teeth. "This is... unnatural. It can impact our duty. It can impact... us. I don't want to be part of another experiment, or to find out what would happen if they scrapped the sentience that frequently resides on the backburn of my mind!"

"Fuck, dude," Lapan said without thinking, trilling apologetically when he caught himself. This was... way heavier than anything he signed up for this morning, he didn't at all know how to deal with this.

"So you're telling me we need to treat this ship like a living being?" The Ferengi questioned, mental eyebrow raised. The entire situation was really quite confusing to her, but if she knew one thing, it was that stranger things had happened. "I don't think I need to point out the dubious legality of a sentient being, being used as a tool by people, but I think that's a different problem right now. We're essentially ship doctors, so we have to figure out what's wrong."

"With all respect, sir, the Kinaen crew know her better than we do. And I have reason to believe she's alright with them." Five sighed, his eyes softening to Karrim and Juler. "We'll see what we can do. Who knows what'll happen if we don't..."

Oh, wow. So it really DID go that far. "Was she enchanted with - was this done to her, or has she developed this sentience over time?" Androids became sentient, holograms became sentient... But ships? It made sense, but it was still new, in a rare and exciting way, and yet... "Sad, to find out such a marvel exists, only for it to be dying. Except it won't - if we put our heads together. Romulan and Federation engineering can surely help her out, if only we can find out what's wrong." He looked at Juler. "Is there any way to ask her?"

"Oh... poor girl..." Maya said softly as she stepped away from the engineering console after she heard thew news of the Kinaen's potential scrapping by the Republic. Although she can sympathize with the feeling of being attached to one's starship, she is an engineer after all, she never really guessed how vital the Kinaen was to her crew. "The ship is still going to degrade over time, and the Republic would still have an interest in scrapping her anyway. We have to figure out how to convince them to allow her to remain in active service as well, mainly for the crew's sake."

Cogs whirring away in her head, Dagis couldn't help but feel concerned about the Kinaen's wellbeing. The thought of a sentient being, being 'scrapped' was unthinkable to her, if the ship truly was sentient and it wasn't just rogue programming. 'Or the crew are using her against her will' was what the Ferengi wanted to say, but that was her more paranoid side talking, and she needed to see the good in people, even if only for her own sake. "The Republic would be committing a crime against a life if they scrap her." The woman stated firmly, calling the ship 'her' for the first time since the mission began. No harm in being respectful, right? "It'd be murder. But if we want to convince them of her sentience we should probably err on the side of action and do an official sentience test, which would require Medical's help." She suggested. "If Medical can deem her sentient the Republic would have to listen, or, if needed, she could seek asylum in the Federation for her own safety. If she wished to, of course."

"Uhm, sir, I think those are concerns for future Kinaen... If the Arrain is right and the ship's consciousness is dying, we have to do something to save it first before we can afford to think about the legal ramifications." Besides, didn't the Chief Engineer literally just say they were connected somehow? Lapan felt like that was enough of an indication that they were having to work together, whether they liked it or not. Clearly the ship being... in the ship equivalent of pain, affected them negatively, and he could only guess about the other way around.

Now, she knows she's said this a lot, but Kaylee wasn't exactly a ship expert. And now apparently it..no..she had a consciousness. Well that's about the most interesting thing that Kaylee had ever heard. Maybe she'll learn a bit more about ships. Find out if anything like this has ever happened before. But, of course, after they save her, the ship. (edited)

"I feel that's something we should bring up with the Captain first, considering we're dealing with something under the Republic's jurisdiction anyway." Maya said to Dagis, as much as she was all in for protecting the Kinaen's rights to her own personhood, she felt there was still a process to getting there first. "And Lieutenant Lapan's right, we have to prioritize making sure she's still alive and well before we start with anything else since it also effects the welfare of her crew"

He took a calming breath before continuing: "Your concerns are understandable. You need to treat her... with dignity, I'd say. That's how wetreat her, at least. The senior crew, that is. The ones that were... here, on the day the experiment happen'd." "Assimilation" seemed to be a hard word for him. "Both of those assumptions are correct," he nodded towards Serin. "It started out simple, by keepin' everythin' runnin' at minimal settings. Then she knew how to change course and jump us to this station. Can't tell you much, me and the rest were a bit... incapacitated, during all of that..."

"It's the body that is failing her," Karrim spoke, receiving a grateful glance from Juler for picking up where the engineer trailed off. "The assimilation took it's toll on the vessel itself. The core is fine - healthy, you could say - but it's struggling to keep up with the warbird."

Lapan was not trained well enough in engineering to see the bigger picture sometimes, which frequently left him focussing on the things he could understand. However, that also meant that he had greater room for creativity (or foolish optimism) when it came to working on solutions. "So, you basically want to keep the core, and the computer I'm assuming, and replace everything else if possible? So that her... brain, for a lack of a better word, is supported better."

"I think its more complicated than that, Lapan..." Maya said, gesturing towards the borg'd walls and stuff all around them. "We're a Federation space port, if the issue is the wear and tear she's gone through in her hull, I think we are capable of making those repairs ourselves. On the other hand, if we convince the Republic that scrapping her is a horrible idea, which it is, they could probably give her better care than we could." The mechanic suggested, she felt there wasn't many solutions they could come up with that won't jeopardize bigger things in the long run. "If they scrap her, they will essentially be sacrificing the lives of her crew, that's something we could bring up to them, if we can get medical to prove that's the case. I can't imagine there are any alternatives to 'disconnecting' them from her either."

"We can only repair her so many times before she's not able to function," Five pointed out, brows furrowing. "It's why so many starships get switched out so quickly. They need to be in top-notch shape for everyone's safety, and she's dying despite all our efforts here. What can we do...?"

"Can we transfer all her computer systems to a computer core? Transplant her brain and consciousness to a different stationary computer system in Mol'Rihan?" Maya thought, it shouldn't be too different than downloading a starships full database and reuploading it to a different computer elsewhere. "At least it would be easier than already worn down ship running, or putting her in a new ship that will end up the same later on.."

"The core and a couple of other components like computers could be considered her... essence, for the lack of better word," Juler agreed, nodding along to Lapan's words. "The warbird itself... it got hit too hard during the process, I guess. We have one room in the science corridor that we had to lock off, because it was so... corroded."

"I don't know if we'd have time to make it to Mol'Rihan. There's a good chance she wouldn't survive the jump. That process could take days, too," He glanced sideways to Juler to confirm. "Even so, I think a temporary solution would be better than no solution.."

"Oh, just got a message from Riov that another Republic ship has docked," said Karrim, who has been looking down at his PADD for the past few minutes. "If things go to shit, we can at least have a drive home... I guess..."

"Awfully depressing of you," Juler chuckled humorlessly.

4

"What was that room used for?" Maya asked out of curiosity as she turned to Juler. "Maybe that could give us more ideas?"

Well she felt out of her field of experience now. A living ship? The signs were there of course but who could think it would be... that serious? It made her fidget with her fingers as she was deep in thought, but she didn't voice any words, she had no experience to offer here.

Seeing Coda's body language change, evident by the fidgeting of her fingers, Copia felt it good to both check in and at least try and make up for embarrassing Coda earlier. She scooted over towards where Coda was, and remained quiet without intruding in on the main conversation. "You alright, Coda?" She said, using Coda's first name. (edited)

"It's just covered with, well. Borg," he finished inelegantly, shrugging with clear discomfort in his face. Clearly, Not The Best Memories. "Sure we made her look like a normal, healthy ship by cleaning up all the corruption, but clearly it ran too deep..."

"Transplanting her in Mol'Rihan is not an option.. uhh" So many engineering brain cells are being fired up right now *"another Republic ship is now docked here? You say?" Maya asked Karrim, the little inklings of an engineer's idea coming into place. "What model is she... and how much time do we have until everyone has to leave?" *Maya asked again just to be sure. They have a deadline to get to, they want the docked ships to be in and out in a timely fashion, but at the same time, she has dying parts, whilst the other is probably healthier than she currently was. "What if we transplant her essence from this warbird... to that warbird...." (edited)

5

Copia looked over to Maya. Huh! That made sense... Kind of? Sort of? "Sort of like a body swap? If that's what you mean, Maya?"

"Or getting a replacement heart," Serin said. "Or, well, a replacement entire body? A devilish plan indeed."

"We're Ship Doctors, Lieutenant!" Maya says to Copia as the high of 'I'm a fucking genius' that a majority of engineers probably have experienced at some point in the academy have experienced rushed to her brain. "I'm proposing we do Brain Surgery in space!" The mechanic added, along with the quiet beginnings of maniacal laughter

Copia's eyes twitched for a moment, doing the math inside her head. Then, she looked back to Maya. "By my calculations the probability of success as a result of the ship doctor brain surgery in space you are proposing to be approximately 93.72 percent, given all goes well in the duration of the procedure."

"Transplanting a singularity core? That's an amazing idea, Lieutenant, but," Five glanced over at Kinaen's core, then back at the group, "How exactly do you plan on transplanting a small, self-contained black hole??"

"Ship wizards, using arcane knowledge to prolong the lifespan of an unfathomably powerful and intelligent being!" He joined in with Maya's manic laughter, MUA-HA-HA-ing with her. "It's simple - we need to safely remove what contains it." (edited)

5

They were right. Despite Dagis' focus being fixed on the rights of a sentient ship and making sure the Kinaen was safe from being scrapped (or quite literally murdered) they couldn't do shit if she was dead, so they had to figure out what was wrong and how to help her as quickly as possible. This wasn't just the usual 'fix a damaged ship' routine anymore, it was almost identical to what Medical had to deal with when there was someone in a critical condition. They were trying to save a life, so there was no time to waste. Thinking through all of the suggestions being thrown about the place, and briefly blinking in response to Copia's sudden statistics, the COO couldn't help but think that a transfer of sorts was probably going to be the best possible option. "Well, surely it got in here somehow, so if we can find out how the core got installed it should be easy enough to uninstall it and move it. The only issue, though, is that we might have to keep it active, or, well, alive during the transfer." She said, replying to her ACOO.

Copia rather matter-of-factly piped in. "That is precisely the reason behind the 6.28 percent chance of failure given the nature of the singularity core. Although, given the tenure and experience of the team, the operation is more than possible, sir."

"Well, it depends on - Juler, can she survive if we disconnect her from her core temporarily?" He said, looking at the Romulan.

“Perhaps we could temporarily connect her to a matter-antimatter warp core whilst we perform the Singularity transplant? Provided she does not reject the connection.” He piped up with as he leaned on a guardrail staring into the singularity with a thousand-yard gaze.

Maya's words took time to become meaning for him, but as soon as they did, Juler paused - froze up, before taking a breath and uttering out a tentative, "Y-yes. Yes, there is a second warbird docked here..." And the more Starfleet officers spoke, the more Juler dared to feel hope. Karrim, too - judging by how he straightened out his back where he was standing in the corner, how the always there crease between his brows seemed to ease just a little bit. "I am unsure," he replied to Serin, and despite the answer being a negative one, his tone was no longer as hollow as it was before. "Real bodies can be brought back from death if you are quick enough... Lieutenant Junior Grade's suggestion may work? Though sorry for my selfishness, but I am also worried about, well... us. And our Riov especially... He has the, well. The strongest connection."

"You could all go to medbay, or perhaps just your Riov, and be monitored in case something bad happens to you physically. Other than that... Well, it depends on how much you value the ship, because if you want to help her..." He exhaled, feeling a little tired, but still ready to continue on. "You might just have to grit your teeth and bear it." He looked at Kvig. "There might be some complications, given the possible rejection, but if we engineers keep an eye on it - it might work."

"Is it an idea," Lapan started, a whistle under his words that he had to swallow before he could make himself heard, "is it an idea, to download the entire computer to the other ship first? Just make a copy of the whole thing. That way the core has a familiar bed to land on." In his mind, that made sense at least; his systems engineering brain had trouble keeping up with all this talk of core-swapping.

"Oh, I wasn't even suggesting backing down, we're doin' this," Juler nodded. "We do need to get Lhaes here, though, but we can take care of that. I've come to a conclusion that bein' all together makes trials like these more bearable..."

She took a moment to collect herself, placing her hands behind her back respectively and respond to Copia. "Oh, yes I'm fine, I just feel out of place with all this brain surgery suggestion and things. I'm not sure I will be able to help much with it all..."

Looking back at Coda, back and forth between Coda and the others, Copia smiled at Coda. "Well... You never know unless you ask. Why don't you ask Lieutenant Commander tr'Kota or Lieutenant Dagis? They can assign you something. Even if they don't have a specific job for you, this will still give you a learning opportunity, to take all this in and use it to better your skills."

Alizati raised an eyebrow when Copia mentioned asking him for something to do. He then looked at Coda and then to Juler. "Any help is needed, yes, your specialty does not matter too much as I am sure everyone here is able to perform basic engineering tasks, or at the very least, take notes."

Copia smiled at Alizati before looking back to Coda. "See?" She smiled. "Every cog in a system is needed. Every line of code in a program is needed. And you're needed too. Never forget that." She said with a kind smile.

3

Kaylee, after hanging back and trying to make sense of this all, finally stepped forward a little. "Uh, Sir? How can I help?" Kaylee wanted to be helpful. She didn't just want to be someone who stood by the side being unhelpful. She wanted to help in anyway she could.

Lapan decided not to comment on the lines of code part, definitely knowing better than to trample on an emotional reassurance with facts, and instead, started disconnecting his tools. He was sure he could be more useful elsewhere if they were going to do this, than keeping track of damages to the Kinaen. "No computer transfer, then?" he asked quietly, rhetorically, not expecting an answer but still partially convinced of his own genius. (edited)

Copia looked at Kaylee as she spoke up as well, and in a way, felt hypocritical for not following through with her own advice. So, she followed right behind Kaylee. "Myself as well? Despite my different division? I wish to assist in this situation."

"Sure, we could use a lot of help. Kaylee is an equipment technician and Coda is an electrical engineer. I am sure both will be useful when it comes time to perform the transplant," Alizati looked at both Kaylee and Coda. "It may be useful to do a quick search on singularity cores so we know which wires to hook up and of course, we can take proper safety precautions. One wrong move and yes, we could all become... 'big sucked'," Alizati was not good with slang, but he was attempting. "And Lieutenant Copia, perhaps we androids could supervise for now, we have the unique ability to be able to spot irregularities faster than our organic counterparts. On avarege, I hope your response time is quick."

"I don't think any of my skills are going to be of that much use, but I'm more than happy to help everyone else with whatever they need." Dagis replied with a smile. She had basic skills like fixing a replicator, sure. She retained all of her original Operations training, but was she an engineer? Stars no. She didn't know the first thing about any of this, any her main skill in life was organisation and coordination, but she wanted to help either way.

"And I'll take photos of you all looking cool!" Sodor chimed in quickly, before going back to snapping a couple of holophotos here and there.

Copia nodded respectfully, looking back to Alizati. She'd get to help supervise alongside Alizati? Copia hadn't done that in a while. "Aye, sir, understood, sir. My response time is approximately 0.0000012 seconds on average, sir. I shall move for even more instantaneous."

well, at least she wasn't the only one looking for something to do, and to help somehow. "looks like we all want to be able to do something to help get this going as smoothly as possible." She spoke as she did her best to absorb any information she could about this singularity core. The best place, she decided might be one of the consoles around here... it might have some information that will help for the transplant... this will be a lot of work it seems.

3

"Before we do anything, we need to make sure we actually have access to the vessel in question. Can anyone contact the Captain of the other Republic ship, and the Captain of Kinaen?" Five piped up. This was looking hopeful, at least... "Oh-- we should probably let Captain Mephistopheles know as well." (edited)

6

Kaylee also moved towards a console, hoping to find some information. Even something basic about singularity cores. Just so she knew something. She wanted to help. She didn't want to just stand around uselessly. That was one of her biggest fears. Being blamed for not doing something when she literally couldn't do anything. So, she's gonna try.

"Actually, Lieutenant," Alizati looked at the Ferengi who mentioned photos. "Could I bother you for some photos later? My father often asks me about my job often," He asked, hoping that Sodor wouldn't mind sharing the photos taken from the event. "And yes, we can contact them. I can do that," Alizati said in response to Five. Contacting the others to let them know their plans was a good idea and Alizati was available to do just that!

21:03

"I suppose as a Romulan myself, I can contact the other ship's captain, someone else can speak with Captain Mo," Alizati suggested, thinking if anyone was going to speak to a Romulan captain maybe the Romulan in the crew? He was close to Captain Mo, but that would be a fairly straight forward conversation that anyone could have.

"I believe I can get in contact with Captain Mo unless anyone else would rather be the one to contact them." He piped up once more while stepping away from the core and turning back to face the rest of the group, the bright light of the singularity covering him in shadow like he was in a Smash Bros trailer. Pulling his PADD out and pressing a few buttons, Kvig added "My assistant is still outside of the Kinaen and can likely get in contact with the captain faster than I could given the circumstances."

"I mean. We have comm badges. I can do it though, I have a degree in communications systems or something," Lapan added playfully, already half-writing the message he was going to have to relay in his head.

Today was clearly not Kvig's day; two obvious oversights practically in a row in front of his superiors - At this rate he was going to get demoted by Friday if he didn't up his game. "Right, that would certainly be the more efficient option. Apologies for suggesting such a thing."

"You're good. I swear sometimes I'm so far in my head I become completely blind to the obvious answers, so I know how it feels." Lapan tried to reassure Kvig, before going to attempt to contact the Captain.

"The CO of the RRW Kaevra have agreed to the transplant. The CO and chief engineer will be aboard shortly. We will need all hands on deck as they say. This is not a simple task and one wrong move and as I stated earlier, the Big Suck™️," Alizati said, saying the 'tee-em' part aloud as well. He was told that it provided emphasis for something, but unfortunately when Allan told him about it, they were on duty so Alizati couldn't ask for much more usage examples. "Also thank you everyone for your eagerness to help, we will need it." (edited)

Big suck. All Copia could do once more was facepalm... Sigh...

Turning to look at the Commander as he addressed them, Sodor gave Alizati a toothy grin in response to his enquiry about acquiring some photos. "Well sure, Commander! Once the images have been approved by Command I can forward any with yourself in directly to you! Most get put into the public domain, anyway. Command usually only likes to retain a few for press releases, so I'm sure I'd be able to get you some!"

"Okey Dokey! We're all set on doing the greatest surgery in Alliance history. All our fields of expertise will be useful, we just need to work together!" Maya said with a smile as she clasped her hands together, she felt a good amount of hope of giving Kinaen and her crew chance to live another day. The only troubling part was the question of how exactly they are to do this. "Juler mentioned that the core and a couple of other components are considered her 'essence'... The latter would be easy, we could download and transfer that as Lt. Lapan suggested, it's just the former we need a handle on now since singularity cores cannot really be shut off once activated. Otherwise, Big Suck ™️ happens and that basically sucks big time." The mechanic added as her head scrambled for ideas whilst her brain ran dry and ran on spitball'd ideas. "Is the core itself vital for her essence, or is it just necessary to keep all systems constituting her essence online? Because I was going to suggest probably.... stuffing the singularity cores of both ships in a transport buffer, and then swap them around when we re-energize them... it sounds stupid, but bad ideas are still valid in brainstorming."

5

"Sounds like it'll be one hell of a surgery," a cheerful voice chirped; lo and behold, the Kaevra's captain! The Riov clapped her hands twice, clasping them together near her chest. Still blissfully unaware of just what was going on with the Kinaen.. "I have high hopes for you all, and I'll lend a hand however I can."

"Jolan Tru, Sir" The engineer greeted the Kaevra's Riov with a light smile. Her own hands trembled as she paced in a small back and forth line. *"Her core needs to stay alive, to keep her systems alive, so her crew stays alive..." *Maya muttered to herself out loud after she took in a deep breath to center herself, still in a deep semi-manic process of thought. "While core's in buffer, we can do Kvig's idea, and supply Kinaen with power from the station. That bit has actually been done before, so it would work.... though for very limited systems in the recipient starship" (edited)

She took a deep breath. So far this all has been very complicated, but she has been helping as much as she can. Stepping away from the console, she had a new found confidence in all this. "I've read up on as much as I can in the limited amount of time provided... I'm ready to help with whatever plan we choose to go with."

Copia was about to calculate the statistics of Maya's plan when she heard Coda express her limited amount of time to read up. She was happy to hear Coda, more confident in her ability, it sounded like. "Whatever happens I suggest we remain calm. From what Arrain Juler has told us and what Maya has theorized, it is quite possible that us keeping calm may very well help keep Kinaen calm, and hopefully make the transfer process easier for all of us." Copia turned to Hrini. "And Jolan tru sir. Thank you for joining us!" (edited)

"Jolan tru, We appreciate you being here," Alizati said to the captain, bowing his head out of respect. "We shall do our best to support."

"I must say, an alternate for a power source could be the donor ship's core," he spoke up, after giving the Riov a welcoming nod. "While these two are black holes, the force holding them at bay and their generally small size, should keep the whole procedure safe."

Yoop! Suddenly, Meph and Lhaes appeared.

Copia wasn't expecting the YOOP but YOOP it did, thankfully even though she jumped, she kept her reaction quiet. Still, she held her hand over where her heart would be if she were an organic life form, before straightening back up. "Riov. Captain," Copia said. "Thank you for joining us as well."

Kallan, a tall, striking Romulan with vitiligo and heterochromia totalis, had come in with Hrini, but had kept quiet til now. The frown on his face made it clear he was skeptical at best, and deeply unhappy with the situation at worst. However, his professionalism won out, and his captain was on board, so he would have to be, too. "If we introduce the two cores slowly but steadily, and send extra power to the containment field to compensate for the added gravitational force, it should be possible," he noted gruffly, agreeing with Juler.

Keep her systems alive to keep her crew alive? What the hell was this Lieutenant on about...? Hrini glanced sideways at Kallan, sticking close to his side. "It's like they're going on a playdate!" the Riov grinned, waving politely as she was greeted by the others in the room, then to the other captains. How exciting! "A potentially extremely devastating playdate, but that's always a risk with warbirds, no?"

Kallan was also not following the "keeping the crew alive" bits, but like Hrini, did not let it show. "We would have to starve her for a while to monitor her, but we are capable of it. The Kaevra is a strong ship." He was sure of his own capablities, too, and if this chief engineer had kept a piece of... well, if he'd kept this old thing running well for so long, he decided he'd trust the man as well.

"We basically isolate the Kinaen and Kaevra's singularities for transport and-- Oh, hi Captain. Riov.-- and place them in a transport buffer, so that the Kaevra gets the essence of the Kinaen keeping everyone alive, and the Kinaen's physical warbird hull doesnt poof out of reality due to lack of a singularity!" Maya excitedly said, somewhat unphased by the arrival of the two captains due to the sugar high of a eureka moment she's in, but she still gave them a light smile and a nod to be polite. "And after that, it's just the matter of the vital computer systems and components to keep her essence alive, which would be easier. Everyone in the Kinaen's crew lives in the end!" (edited)

Copia turned to Maya, having come across a possible thought that could help the entire operation run smoother. "Maya," Copia said. "If it makes things any easier for you, if you are focused on the operation, I can keep Kinaen calm by talking to her. Explaining to her what's going on. Just so she doesn't get scared or stressed. Offer her reassurance. Like a pre-surgery briefing. Would that help you and the others performing the operation?"

"T-that's for the best. T-thank you..." Maya softly said to Copia as she turned over to her with a smile, her hands somewhat trembling as the engineer calmed herself down from manic laughter haha's. "Quick question though... can our transport buffers safely contain two singularities at the same time? If Big Suck™️ doesn't happen, I don't want Big Blow™️ to happen either if something overloads."

"Wouldn't she be more comfortable with voices she's...ah, actually familiar with? Forgive me if I'm being impolite, Lieutenant, but the crew are quite literally closer to Kinaen than any of the rest of us. This is deeply personal for all of them," Five offered tentatively.

"Her Captain is here. I imagine that will be of much reassurance to 'er." He gave a little wave. "Speaking of Captains being here... Hello, crew." (edited)

Copia nodded respectfully to Five and Mo, understanding that it indeed would be better for the Kinaen's crew to take this on. They knew her, she knew them. She didn't know Copia, Copia didn't know her. "Aye, sirs, forgive me, sirs," Copia responded to Five and Mo, before stepping back into a corner of the room obscured by shadow.

"Hello, sir! I hope my message was clear enough," Lapan said in a chipper voice, happy to have a plan of action. Not that he would be of any help with cores, he was not at all qualified for that... but he could download stuff like nobody else's business!

"Jolan tru!" Hrini replied enthusiastically, flashing a Terran peace sign. "Ah, on the matter — when we go through with the operation, you're welcome to bunk with us, Riov! I'm sure we can find the space.."

"Her crew gets to live!" Maya softly muttered to herself as she felt a sense of victorious triumph. "Both warbirds would need to be hooked up to the station's power before we do anything though, since we're going to remove their singularities."

He was a little confused as to why Copia was being a ninja. "You can come outta the shadows, Lieutenant. I don't think you can help much from over there." He looked at Lapan. "Your message was very clear, thank you. Seems like you've all handled yourselves pretty well so far."

4

Copia did as she was told, returning back to the light. "Aye sir, forgive me, sir," she spoke again, promptly and respectfully. She didn't expect Mo to have her come back out, she figured her usefulness in this operation was over. "Your orders for me in this operation, sir?"

As soon as the two Captains materialized in the core room, Lhaes' stood to his full height in alert - seeing the amount of people in the room, and hearing her, was a bit overwhelming at first. The sight of his own senior staff, as well as hearing that people, indeed, seemed to come up with a plan, made his expression ease somewhat. "Riov t'Dharvanek, I am grateful for your help," he uttered, nodding towards her. "I... owe you an explanation for all of this. I owe one for too many people, really - but first, we need to proceed with the... operation." Why did the thought of Kinaen being operated on make him lightheaded?

5

"Do we want to start connecting her to the station's power supply? I can get started on that while you guys get the cores ready," Lapan offered, wanting to get this done asap. He'd like to be able to call this a job well done, was all! And the anxiety of getting it right was not at all something he could use or was equipped to deal with.

"I will tell my crew to do the same. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can all go home." And wasn't that a wonderful thought? Kallan already couldn't wait to be back on the Kaevra.

"I'm sure everything will need some time to stabilize and be monitored before we fly her again, no? We've still got time to sightsee! It's my first time on a Federation Starbase..!" Ahem. Focusing... Hrini put her serious face on. "Alright, let's prepare the Kaevra for the operation. Anything else we need to know?"

"I will inform Engineering of an increase in demand on our power systems." Dagis said rather simply to Lapan with a slight nod to him, along with the Captains that were now present, before turning away to tap her commbadge so as to not disturb the ongoing planning. Her job was management, after all, so she felt like she was helping, even if only slightly.

"Besides lowering shields to not hinder the transplant process, preparing the Kaevra to recieve station's power, keeping engineering crews posted, and comms open to better coordinate the operation in all ends, I believe we're good to begin preparations to operate, Riov." Maya answered Hrini with a light smile. "Some of the Kinaen's computer systems would also need to be transferred to the Kaevra, so you would have plenty of time to enjoy 777 while that's going on."

Hrini ticked everything off on her fingers with a whispered word under her breath to remember it all. "Alright, then. Good luck, everyone. Let's hope for the best." Her smile was a lot more nervous than before, though clearly not as anxious as the Kinaen's crew. On her way out, she placed a hand on Lhaes' shoulder, giving a brief reassuring squeeze.

He saw Juler typing something out on his PADD - probably a message for Sindari, the head of medical, to come over - and deflated under the reassuring squeeze given to him by the RRW Kaevra's Riov: "Let's hope for the best."

3

And so it began. The procedure was slow and delicate, with the senior crew of Kinaen watching with baited breaths as her core - her heart - began to be moved. They huddled by their Captain, both supporting him and seeking support from the oldest of them - unsure about their own futures as this experimental procedure went on... Through teamwork and communication between the Starfleet officers and the Republic engineers of both ships, slowly yet surely, progress was made. Eventually it was moved out of the old corpse of the D'deridex, the ship somehow immediately feeling emptier without it's singularity or computers. Like Juler predicted, the interaction between two cores went down smoothly - if such word was applicable to black holes held down by the power of a whole station. The ever present heartbeat-like rhythm of Kinaen seemed to calm down and stabilize, which prompted the officers to work quicker, now that the scariest part of the whole procedure was done. It was a relief, to see the core once again in it's place between the giant gears, spinning at a constant pace. There was no occasional whistle or groan to be heard.After the computers were installed, it was decided to leave the ship docked for a couple of days - just to make sure that she was alright. After the operation was finished, Lhaes described silence in his head - but he didn't seem to be too concerned about it. The silence wasn't dead - perhaps she was just resting. After all, even a body of metal and wire needed care.

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