Holograms Aplenty

Posted on 02 Dec 2014 @ 1:51pm by Lieutenant Min Zhao & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Lieutenant Asahi Kita

2,380 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD -02 - 0945 hrs

ON:

Allyndra tapped her desk looking at the screen on the desk. The Galileo it seemed was getting its share of newborns lately and that presented a problem. It had been handed down to her from Command that the crew members needed to keep up on their duties. That meant that either a nursery with someone on staff be a babysitter/nanny which on a tight ship like this meant making new room.

An idea crept into her mind, either that or a mechanical, well specifically a holographic nanny which could actually access several locations nearly at once. That gave her an idea.

"Please activate SHIRLEY" she said. There was no response. Had not the staff agreed to name the EMH Allyndra wondered. Perhaps it had not gotten linked up quite yet so she sighed and said, "Please activate the EMH."

After a moment's delay the holoemitters fired into life and the now rather more curved form of the holographic doctor materialised in the centre of Sickbay.

"You called?" She replied, cocking her head to one side. She wondered how long it would take to realise that the somewhat traditional greeting of the EMH was no longer compulsory in her program.

Allyndra raised her eyebrows at that response as the still unfamiliar form of the EMH shimmered into existence. "I would think something a bit more professional might be in order SHIRLEY. Now then what do you know in your files about maternal care of newborns and infants?"

The hologram raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms at the mention of the name that the organics had tried to attach to her after the upgrading of her program - still it was something she had not accepted for her own application and certainly would not be referring to herself as any time soon.

"Of course - my program includes the collective maternity care and pediatric protocols for 145 different species. Why do you ask?"

"Well if you would access the medical records we have several newborns and I would not be so presumptive as to think we might not have more. Since this is a relatively small compliment, it will be hard to arrange for the parents to tend to their children. We need someone to do that and be able to be in many places at once." Allyndra looked the EMH up and down and nodded, "Considering the new gender form and knowledge base that should be a perfect job for you and keep your emitters working full time."

The hologram's jaw would have hit the deck plate had her program been written in such a way. Here was an organic informing the most advanced piece of medical and holographic technology on board that because too many of the other organics had been unable to keep their biological urges in check, she would have to pick up the parental slack. Perhaps they had known this all along and was the reason a female form had been selected.

"I'm a doctor not a wet nurse! I may have this form but I am not here to act as a walking incubator! Why can't the parents perform their own childcare duties?"

"I expected you to react that way," Allyndra replied. "As I said, they have their own duties which does not allow for covered care. Alright," she held her hands up. "I think we need to get a specialized hologram then. Hopefully you won't mind sharing your pediatric data with a specialized one?"

The hologram was far happier with that option - her program had better things to do than babysit infant organics - a lesser program should be able to handle such duties.

"I don't see a problem with that. My program doesn't need diverting from important work for childcare."

Allyndra nodded and pressed the comm button, =^=Lieutenant Zhao, this is Allyndra, could you please come to sickbay. I have a request and I think it falls more to your department than engineering.=^=

=^=Be there in five.=^=

It was more like eight by the time she got there but with Jared on duty, Min had to bring Lian along for the ride and, as she was discovering, the logistics of moving a baby were all out of proportion to their size.

Entering sickbay, she saw Allyndra standing beside the new EMH. "So this is the new EMH. I like her new avatar."

Allyndra went back to her office for a moment and pressed the comm, "Doctor Mott to sickbay please." She wondered how the new EMH would get along with the Bolian doctor. There had been a sort tension which was almost funny at times with the old one. On second thought she decided that perhaps the input of the entire medical department could be used trying out the best babysitter and nanny programme. "All medical personnel please report to sickbay if you are able," she did not want to make it sound like an emergency. "We have a sickbay problem to discuss."

She returned to the main sickbay and waited for Zhao and Mott and the rest to arrive. The ops officer was first though Allyndra noted a few minutes late then she had estimated. She had no doubt that ops would be quite busy and as the officer entered it did not take much to note that she carried her baby with her. It just reinforced the need for someone or thing to take over those duties.

"Lieutenant, thank you for coming, I see you have your hands full currently. If you can wait a few moments longer I requested Doctor Mott to be here as well, then I can explain my request."

Not long after the call, Naois walked into sickbay, carrying his young daughter on the arm. Two young boys were trailing in after him. "I apologize for bringing my children ma'am," the half-Vulcan medic apologized as he approached, "I could not leave them alone on such an abrupt summons."

"Not at all and actually perfect for what is going on. They will prove to valuable," Allyndra held up her hands, "nothing serious trust me but we are sorting out a new hologram. I'll explain when the rest get here."

Tuula had been thinking about the peculiar announcement on the way over. She was being asked to report "if she was able" and Allyndra had used the word "problem" instead of "medical emergency." It made Tuula wonder what was going on; perhaps they were about to be chewed out again.

"What's going on?" she asked, upon seeing Allyndra as she entered sickbay.

Allyndra's badge buzzed and she heard from Mott that he would be there if needed but if not a medical emergency then was it alright he skip and she said yes.

Min waited while the rest of the medical staff arrived. As each arrived, Min nodded in greeting. Soon enough, it looked like enough people had arrived.

Allydnra looked over at the ops officer and her medical people that had responded and said, "As you know we have recently seemed to have increased our baby and child population. The Galileo is a small ship and hence respective parents cannot be with their children and infants enough and cover their duties. Considering the odd times and holes in the schedules a person would not do, but a hologram could. SHIRLEY," Allyndra waved a hand at the EMH. "Has the knowledge base but is not really designed for and would not like to be basically a baby sitter. Thus I thought that perhaps a special designed holographic baby sitter would work and SHIRLEY has been kind enough to agree to share her infant and pediatric data base with a new one. So...." Allyndra looked the people over. "I need input on the new hologram that Lieutenant Zhao and her department will programme in. Your children Naios as I mentioned earlier will be good to help us mold this new entity."

The Vulcan doctor offered a small smile as he readjusted Laura on his arm. "Then they are at your disposal ma'am, pending their cooperation of course. They are, after all, children." His smile widened ever so slightly. "I would recommend a Human looking hologram, or at least something neutral and based on the history of Earth babysitters, a young female."

Allyndra nodded, "Sounds like a start. Min," Allyndra did not like formality here. "I turn this over to you and since you have a little one should have a good input as well." Allyndra took a step back to let the ops officer have everyone's attention.

Having developed holographic systems before, Min was already somewhat familiar with the process.

"A build like this is going to be complex enough as it is. The easy part is going to be ensuring that the current system allocated to the EMH can be shared with this new EBH. Lt Kita, if you or one of your staff could oversee that."

"The hard part is going to be developing the actual EBH itself. I've built holograms before and even simple characters for a novel are difficult enough. Thankfully we have the EMH for a template to work from, we just need to develop protocols for handling children, and the parents. To do that I'd like the input of any parents aboard ship, or anyone with babysitting experience. Lt Carslisle, could I ask you to work with the parents and children to better understand and help develop the handling routines?"

"Doctor Carlisle, if you would like to start with Delon and Revan, they are right here," Naois offered, nudging the two boys forward. Delon grimaced, his arched eyebrows forrowed in a nearly solid 'V', but Revan smiled as his black eyes settled on the counselor.

"Of course," Delainey replied to Min with a smile. She turned to Delon and Revan and offered warmly, "It would really help us a lot if you could tell us what you'd like or need in someone to hang out with."

"Someone friendly," Revan answered without pause, "a mother." Delon shot his brother a look of loathing and turned his head. The young Romulan wasn't going to play this game. Nuh-uh!

Min paused, facing the EMH, who was standing around off to one side of the group. "Doctor. I'd also like your input as well. Given this EBH hologram is derived from your code, she is in essence your daughter. I would hope that you could assist us in developing her personality." Min knew the risks in asking the EMH to assist, but with recent changes in Federation law regarding holographic lifeforms, the gesture was important.

The EMH cocked her head once again at the idea of having offspring. A very organic thought process. One program would simply share software and firmware similarities with another, combined with similar optronic data pathways in order to form a coherant intelligence.

"I...do not see any problem with that. It would ensure that the program is fully functional and does not suffer from any errors within it's holomatrix compliation. I agree."

"I like that thought," Naois chimed in, "Perhaps we can model the EBH as a younger version of our charming EMH? If not a daughter, perhaps a younger sister instead? Or brother, if that holds the preference."

"Shirley's little sister, that's a great idea!" exclaimed Tuula, twirling a lock of her purple and blue hair around her finger. "Dibs on hair and makeup duty!"

The EMH let out a sigh as once again her crew referred to it''s program with an organic name. Turning to face a computer console, the hologram began to copy it's basic subroutines and databases to a secondary storage location.

"I'm a doctor, not a beauty mannequin."

"Doesn't mean you can't look fabulous," muttered Tuula under her breath.

Allydnra had more or less stepped back to let the rest work on the problem but with the small pause she approached the EMH. "I have no doubt that you have many talents besides being an invaluable medical resource." She hoped that might ease the EMH's emotional circuits. It seemed even through the upgrade that it still was a tiny big touchy.

The hologram smirked as her department head identified her more than impressive capabilities. It was somewhat pleasing when one of the organics understood quite how advanced a hologram she truly was.

"Well...thank you for saying so Doctor. I appreciate your comment."

Asahi wasn't sure what he was doing when he picked up the call, or what the necessity for an 'EBH' was, but he was more than happy to hustle himself down to sickbay. The thought that a hologram program would be tinkered with was like Christmas for the young engineer. He had never had to work on a hologram installation before, and the thought of a new experience was exciting.

As he rounded the corner into sickbay, he caught sight of the others. "I couldn't get anyone else from Engineering to help out." He lied, and he would scold himself for it later, but the big grin on his expression nearly gave him away. "But I don't think overseeing this will be any issue. Just point me to where I'm going!"

Min glanced over at Asahi. For some reason she thought he'd been present before this? "Big thing we'll need from engineering is making sure the holoemitter network can handle the added traffic of more then one hologram. I expect we may want to plan for the EBH having more then one instance running."

The engineer had his PADD out taking notes the moment Min piped up. "Sounds like a good plan to me. I'll mark off good spots in the blueprints. Energy output won't be too difficult, nor should the transmitters-I think this'll be done in a snap!"

[OFF]

---

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Gallileo

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant j.g. Naois Mercy
Medical Officer
Delon Mercy
Revan Mercy
Laura Mercy
USS Galileo
[PNPC's T'Vanna]

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

EMH Mk X-b
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo
PNPC Holliday

LT Delainey Carlisle
Counselor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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