Cracks in the Pillar of Knowledge

Posted on 02 Jun 2012 @ 12:45pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis

3,161 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3/4 - Computer Core
Timeline: M6 1630

Previously,

There were no abnormal changes to the computer core since launch displayed. It was odd for a computer to do something strange unless it was itself malfunctioning. The final thing was to check if someone had deleted access logs from the computer. The reply from the computer made her take a step back as it spoke up, "Requested information is restricted, level seven security clearance required." Since her quiet investigation was now made public to everyone around her. Kiri turned a light shade of pink and cleared the terminal.

"I think," Will replied, stepping off the lift quickly, as if he'd just escaped the very jaws of death, "that you had better tell me everything you know about this malfunction, ensign."

"The systems think they are something else, normally a similar and local system. When I tried to find out more, my security clearance wasn't high enough, I couldn't check to see if computer logs had been deleted."

"I think I had better deal with this with the senior staff," Will said to himself, making a download onto his PADD. "Ensign, if you find out anything more regarding this, let me know."

-----------

Now,

Kiri felt quite at home here. It was quiet, secluded, peaceful and functional. The large central pillar, blue with tiny squares of light that flowed from the ground up two decks to the ceiling. The walls arching inwards at the corners, covered in similar square lights. Every now and then one would flicker, normal as it reset itself. A smile finding it way to her face the young woman walked to the control console that was just slightly over from the door. Opening it up she took a deep breath as she brought up reams and reams of information. First up was correcting the damage. Taking care to put things back the way they should be. As she went she took note on anything else that might indicate the reasoning why there were so many problems. Almost an hour passed where she had mapped out everything she could find, made ready to apply her changes. Only she couldn't, she needed clearance for that as well. She was confident that her work was right, for a moment she stopped and thought. Looking at her reflection in the console. Why was it that she had to intrude on other people just to do her job? Who did she ask? Did she keep asking Operations for clearance at each stage? Maybe it would be best to take the commanders advice, asking for Willis.

Her mind made up she brought up an overlay on the console, looking at the profile on Chief Petty Officer Willis. Where he had been, that he did indeed seem trustworthy. Assuming it was all true. While he was on alpha shift and technically not on duty any more. She felt she had been given clearance to have him come down. Pressing on her combadge she asked, "Computer, were is Chief Petty Officer Willis?" Her voice quiet and singsong, sliding up and down.

"Chief Petty Officer Willis is currently in the Chief Engineer's Office. "

Tapping her combadge again she took a deep breath, "Ensign Cho to Chief Petty Officer Willis, could you assist me in the computer core please?" Her voice a little nervous, the first time she would be requesting someone, sort of giving them an order.

=^= Willis here. I'll be right there Ensign. =^= Willis sighed and looked down at the schematics on the Chief's Console. He turned the interface off and began the trip to the computer core. After a few moments he entered and walked up to stand next to Cho. "Yes ma'am, what can I do for you?"

Even though she had been given a minute to consider the prospect Kiri felt she was woefully under prepared for interacting properly. Then again she was last time she worked with someone and that by and large seemed to be a success. Swallowing the lump in her throat Kiri gave a shy smile, "Thank you," Her voice quiet and almost apologetic, "I have set up a series of corrections to the computer system relating to recent issues in the command communication layout. But I don't have clearance to implement them, " That wasn't the only reason she had asked for the man to come though, "I also need to find out what caused them in the first place, if you would help?"

It was now that she got a good look at the man, he actually reminded her of home. Was he someone else that she could relate to? Maybe, she would have to see. If he was even willing to work with her.

Willis gave a smile and nodded. "Yeah, I think we could have a look at that, ma'am." replied Willis. "I just need to let the Chief know so he doesn't have a fit that someone did something to the computer core without authorization." =^=Willis to Quinn. I'm in the computer core with Ensign Cho. I wanted to get permission to play with the core, sir. =^= Willis gave a sideways smile and winked at Cho. "He hates being called that." he said with a whisper and a silent chuckle."

=^= Dammit Willis, you call me sir one more time, and I swear I wil do to you what we did to that Andorian Pirate at Vegas Maxus-Three! =^= There was silence for a moment. =^= That's fine Willis. Just keep a very detailed log, and let me know before you upload anything. =^=

Kiri didn't really approve of the idea of doing something just because it annoyed someone. That was completely counter to how she liked to act to people and how she felt they liked to be treated. Despite this though, the smile was infectious, forcing her to give a small one in return, looking away embarrassed. Any questions would have to wait until later though as she spoke up, struggling to make eye contact, "I already have an update ready to go, I just need clearance to implement it." She spoke quietly so not to interrupt the other two men too much.

Willis smiled as his com with Quinn ended. "He's a grumpy one. I've known him for almost ten years. Love that guy like a brother." He looked at the core, then back to Cho. "So, can I take a look at what you have, ma'am? I am quite interested in anything computerish"

Slightly reluctant Kiri took a step back from the terminal and motioned that he could do so. Her work was fine, she only wanted him to implement it, still if it would make him happy to look, it was only a minor annoyance. The young Trill remained where she was, standing a little way behind until after a period of silence she asked, "What did you do to the Andorian?" It worried her that he might have done something illegal she would have to report.

Willis scrolled through the information and let out a chuckle to the ensign's query, "That was a fun night on Pacifica. My bachelor party actually. Chief was my best man, so he ordered what he though was a feminine Andorian stripper that would be dressed as a pirate." Willis started to laugh a bit more and wiped the tears from his eyes as he resettled himself to finish the story, "So anyway, we are in this little bar, full of off-worlders, and a few frisky Selkies, when this large Andorian comes into the bar. The place clears out as this guy and his five henchmen enter. Needless to say, it was a scam, and the pirate came to rob us, and do who-knows-what to us. Once we were finished defending ourselves, we used a starship grade epoxy on those guys and pasted them to the walls of the bar." He finished his look-over and turned his attention to Cho. "It turned out that the local officials had been trying for months to get this group, just everyone was too scared to stand up to them. We got a thank-you, and an open tab at the bar anytime we go back. A night out with the Chief is anything but boring"

The prospect of a stripper being involved made Kiri shy away further, worried at the direction the story might take. Though she was learning a lot about the man quite quickly, he was married, he was friends with the Chief Engineer. As the story took a turn against her fears and to one that was actually rather exciting, rather vindictive. While she could agree that it might have been needed to be violent, there would have been have been better ways to restrain them. Then a larger question swept her, burning with paranoia. Her face a bit red from the route she thought it might take she asked with a pause, "I see, but if you were in a bar, relaxing," She used the world with a little disdain, "Why were you carrying starship grade epoxy?" It was hardly a regular tool used in space with spot replicators, to have enough to create several points of contact for six humanoids, struck her as odd. Not that she was accusing him of lying, just that she thought she should be talking. This was the only thing other than work that came to mind.

Willis let out a very hardy laugh "Oh, I forgot about why we had it, rather, why the Chief had it." He composed himself the best he could, "The Chief, and few of the other guys were going to get me so drunk I'd pass out. Then, epoxy me, to a chair, and then epoxy the chair, and a table and an empty bottle to the table, all to the ceiling of the bar." Willis was chuckling some, "Could you imagine waking up, upside down? It was hilarious."

That made sense, it was still extremely weird, not something she would ever consider actually happening. Now she had run out of things to talk about. Kiri felt guilty that she had questioned him and drifted back a little bit. Rather than pester him she should let him work, he would talk to her if he wanted to. The awkwardness seemed to emanate off her presence.

Willis stepped back from the screen. "Wow, you do really good programming work Ensign. Very impressive." he said with a genuine smile. "What about you, ma'am? How did you end up here?"

Kiri smiled that he had praised her work, it was nice for people to recognize them. The question though she didn't know, what did he mean? In life, the ship, this room? Since they were in the room, "I found a problem yesterday and I looked and I found a lot more."

Willis shrugged his shoulders and shook his head as he took another peek at her handy work. "Well, I can tell you this is genius work, ma'am. Very impressive the detailed encryption algorithms you put into this." He smiled at Cho. "Ma'am, I am very glad you requested me, and even happier that you let me look at this program. Thank-you."

This was the first person since the academy to be this nice to her, to give so much praise for so little work. It was lovely, what's more he wasn't a teacher so, it somehow meant more. Her cheeks turning very red she smiled, "Thank you, really it's nothing much." More than anything though, she was happy he was happy. Still there was work to do so with her complexion dimming a little she added, "Do you think we can upload it now?" She still held her distance, not really sure how she should act towards him.

Willis noticed the blushing, but decided not to say anything. "Let me get the okay from the Chief."

=^=Chief, it's your favorite engineer, we are ready to upload Ensign's program.=^=

=^=Peers? I thought Willis was with the Ensign. You sound awful. Get to sickbay after your finished.=^=

Willis rolled his eyes and chuckled. "He really loves me. Don't let his gruff personality fool you, ma'am." He smiled at Kiri. She had a great smile, just didn't show it enough. "If I may make an observation, ma'am, and I by no means intend to step out of my bounds, but I have been in Starfleet for almost ten years. I have worked under Commanders that don't have as natural binary, algorithmic understanding of things as you do as an ensign. You should take a little more credit for yourself. I don't give compliments out easily...." he gave a wink, "especially to officers."

This new positive assault got the same reaction from Kiri as the others. Her face turned extremely red, but she gave a polite smile. Trying to collect herself she walked up to the console and gave the computer orders to apply her changes. Then looking back to Wills she took a deep breath, "Thank you, but it really wasn't very complex." The girl took another breath, "I think the next part would be harder." Fixing the problem was easy, finding the cause could be extremely hard.

Willis just kept his smile up, "Well, let's see just how good you are, and I'll be here to help...umm...ma'am." Willis hooked an ODN cable to the terminal, then to the computer core's interface. "Let's rock 'n roll, ensign."

It wasn't quite protocol but ma'am was allowed by some other officers. Sir was what she would rather though, if he was going to address her that way. It didn't really matter though, there was work to be done. With a few button presses she backed away from the console again, "Would you input your code please?" The entire reason she needed him was because she didn't have clearance. it was also nice to be able to work with someone though, yesterday had taught her that.

Willis started entering his security clearance code into the system. "What is your specialty in the science department, if I may ask?" Willis already liked the shy ensign. He saw a lot of potential in her, she reminded him somewhat of his wife when they first met.

Kiri was watching him without thinking, catching sight of at least part of his access code. It wasn't intentional, mostly and she looked away once when she noticed. When his question came she was off balance that she answered at once, "Mostly it is Astrophysics, Physics with Computer Science and Mathematics as extras."

Willis shook his head some and raised his eyebrows. "Oh, is that all? Thought maybe it was something hard, ensign." Willis let out a playful chuckle. "There, that should do it. Your turn."

While Kiri found it embarrassing to be praised, to have her hard work under valued was even worse. To her the basics weren't hard but the level that it was taken to, it was very advanced. Not as hard as running four miles was for her but hard none the less. Not realizing it was a joke she took her step forwards and engaged the computer. Data started to stream across the screen, she watched, trying to see if anything seemed out of place.

"How does it look, Ensign?" asked Willis. "Everything look in place? I may have more experience at this stuff, but you clearly are more apt at it."

Kiri felt that he kept flattering her, it was weird. It was nice, still weird. She shook her head, "Everything looks fine, but I would like to run as complete a diagnostic as possible with the core still online." The girl smiled at him, not sure if there was that much more he could help her with. The diagnostic would take several hours, once she got his code again, and permission from operations to run it.

"So now what?" asked Willis as he put his feet up on a blank console. "We could sit around and sing kumbi-ya while roasting marshmallows"

Kiri didn't really get the joke, just giving him a slightly confused look. She had sensor readings she could review as well as trying to muse on the reasoning behind the incidents she had just fixed. Speaking softly because it felt like she was almost giving orders she asked, "Was the work I pulled you away from complete?" After all she had forced him to come here, he must have been doing something before.

With a shake of his head, "Not really, nothing that can't wait until later." replied Willis. "So, sir. What made you decide to join Starfleet? Was it adventure, or the though of exploring and new discoveries?"

Not since the academy in her first year had she been asked that, the answer was still the same though. Her voice soft, shy and quiet Kiri returned, "Yes, I wanted to discover new stellar objects, or at least more about them." She left out the fact she couldn't think of anything else to do, or that she liked the uniform. With another nervous pause done with she added, "What about you?" Trying her best to hold a conversation.

"I had to get away from my family. they were driving me nuts." said Willis. "Damn scientist have a way of over analyzing everything. They cared more for their work and experiments than they did for anything else." suddenly his wrist chronometer started to alarm. "Damn, I have to go. I have a date and I can not be late. Never piss off your wife...even if she is on the other side of the galaxy." He stood up and ran for the door, "Thanks for the date night, it was fun. Next time we'll have to meet at my place." he added with a grin before disappearing down the corridor.

Kiri was left looking extremely confused. All of the humour went right over her head and that just left her with a jumble of words that didn't quite match in her head. He had wanted to join Starfleet to get away from his family, not everyone was as nice as her family so that might make sense. That he didn't like scientists either, that applied to her directly. He did indeed have something else to do, and he left. Only before he did so he called their interaction a date and invited her to his, something. Didn't he just say that he had a date with his wife? While Kiri had a sheltered life she did understand that not every race in the galaxy was monogamous, humans tended to be. It made her extremely uncomfortable, he was married!

Alone again she let the door close and took a deep breath. No sense worrying about it, she just called her work terminal up on the console and started to study the readings as she had done for days now. Looking for hints and clues that might come in useful, every now and then checking the progress on the diagnostic.

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