A Meeting of Minds

Posted on 04 Oct 2012 @ 9:20am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Amril & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Edited on on 04 Oct 2012 @ 9:21am

2,180 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Main Engineering
Timeline: MD10 - 1650hrs

[ON]

Quinn walked back into Main Engineering since his accident, for the first time. He was greeted with smiles, and handshakes, but the Chief was hardly in any mood to rejoice in the homecoming. He was trying to figure out how the hell they were going to modify the Sienna Device, to work with Federation Warp Technology. And they didn't have days or weeks to figure it out. They had a few short hours to come up with a plan, and get it working. As he entered into his office, he could see that Peers had been busy. A stack of PADDs on the desk, papers, and all sorts of items of various uses spread across in a manner only an engineer would find useful. So he knew Peers was nearby.

Quinn was hardly in a good mood, and was already irate that the others had not shown up yet, especially Hardaway. He found the scientist to be arrogant, single-minded, and would love to....well, he just didn't care for the man, or how he spoke down to him and others. He wondered if he would face court martial for hitting a civilian scientist?

He winced as his right hand slammed into his combadge harder than anticipated. =^=Quinn to Peers. Get your ass into the office, girl. We have work to do, and no time to do it in.=^=

The old engineer then addressed the ships computer. "Computer, inform Ensign Aria Rice and Doctor Anthony Hardaway to report to my office, now. Or I will begin without them."

Lilou stumbled into Quinn's office fumbling with an additional pile of PADDs, scrolls of transparent ship specs bulging near her elbows, and data drives hanging from cords around her wrists. "I tried to find everything we had on Dominion tech, but there's not much and what we have is pretty vague guestimates. Still." She dumped the research on a side table in the office and started sorting through it. "Is it true, what I heard? They're planning on asking the Vorta how to pull this off? Was there a vote about making suicidal decisions that wasn't open to the rest of us?"

"Yeah, and he doesn't show up pretty damn fast, I'm going to use his ears as a semiconductor to bypass the phase inducers. So, I was thinking why complicate it. Lets just turn all nonessential systems off, then see what we can still run... with in a reasonably safe parameter."

Aria let out a breath as she entered, looking at them. So...first day of many where she was a glorified babysitter. That would show her to actually try and be a decent person. She turned and smiled weakly to the Vorta. "Right...here we are."

The vorta, Amril, walked into the office after Aria. He looked very... vorta. His pale skin, dark hair, and lilac eyes were what one expected. He was wearing a suit of black and dark purple fabric that gave him a touch of elegance and made him look as professional as any Federation civilian working for Starfleet.

"Ah, good day, everyone," he said, all smiles, "I believe I'm to have the pleasure of working with you? I must say this is quite an opportunity, yes, quite an opportunity indeed." He rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation.

Lilou's stomach clenched at the sight of the vorta upright and talking, all pleasantries. She hadn't been in the war, but that didn't mean she didn't understand what part he'd played. Why he was walking around like a guest when he should have been in chains being dragged back to Intelligence for interrogation she couldn't begin to guess. The fact that she'd nearly died because of him and his blasted Dominion ship less than twenty-four hours before didn't help anything. But it wasn't up to her. Her duty was to the ship. And she didn't like the eagerness in the stranger. She didn't know what he was doing here in the first place, nor why he should be remotely interested in helping them, which meant she couldn't trust that he did. So what did he want? What was his plan?

Quinn shook his head slightly at Peers after Amril opened his mouth and let roll out his line of fake sincerity. Qhinn nodded to Aria as he approached the Vorta. Quinn had seen firsthand what the Jem'Hadar could do when let off the leash by those cowardly insects. Quinn stopped just before the prisoner and let out a sneer and his raspy voice spoke soft, and slow. "Look, you are in my world down here. I run Engineering, and you will address me as Chief. Not sir, not anything else but, Chief. I would sooner drop you in a zero-G suit, strap you to the post nacelle, and run at warp five around a neutron star. If you try to screw us over, mislead us, lie to us, or generally piss me off, I will do just what I said."

Quinn then smiled and slapped the vorta on his shoulder. "So, we have an understanding of where we stand, and what we expect from you. Let's get to work. The scientist can catch up whenever he decides to show."

"Of course, chief," the vorta agreed as pleasantly as ever. He even made a clumsy attempt of returning the engineer's shoulder slap. "You can call me Amril, I suppose. But I'm sure you'll find I'm more useful inside."

"Excellent, then.' replied Quinn. "This is Master Warrant Officer Peers. She is my assistant chief engineer."

Lilou smiled tightly as she was introduced, but said nothing.

"So, I have the schematics to the device here, on the screen." Quinn pointed to the large screen on the wall. "What do you think?"

Amril went over to the schematics and studied them, lilac eyes flitting back and forth across the display as his fingers deftly maneuvered the schematic view.

"Ah, quite fascinating," the alien decided after a short while. "The research facility I was assigned to had been working on a similar device, though the technology was completely different." He chuckled, "This thing will never work though."

"I beg to differ."

Even Amril paused when he heard the chilling voice of the doctor. Anthony Hardway strode into the room like a cold force of nature. He gave everyone a withering look, saving the worst of it for the Dominion defector.

"I agreed to work with the ship's crew, not..." Anthony waved his hand up and down to indicate the vorta, "...this." He turned on Quinn as if it were his fault. "What is the Dominion doing here, Mr. Quill?"

"The name is Quinn, kid. Quill is something that is found on a porcupine. As for the Dominion, they are not here. Although, a Vorta is present, and we were given orders to include him, so I have included him." Quinn walked up to face the young scientist. "The way I see it, you have two choices, Doctor. Either work with us, and we find a way to escape and live to see another day, or I drag you out of here kicking and screaming, we still find a way to escape and live another day, and I face a court martial. Just know, at my age, I'm not afraid of a court martial. In fact, a vacation sounds pretty damn good compared to what I've already sacrificed to keep your precious science experiment out of Klingon hands."

"Just because I am young," Anthony said in a superior fashion, "does not mean you can talk down to me. I'll thank you to have more respect for someone of my caliber. As for the vorta, he is the same as everyone else in my opinion, an obstacle. Stay out of my way."

But the implacable vorta was not to be deterred. "Doctor Hardaway?" he asked pleasantly, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Amril."

"I see."

"Your work is quite impressive, for your species..."

Anthony narrowed his eyes, "Excuse me?"

"Well, there are a few errors, not in your design but in your understanding of-"

"Mr. Quirk, why is this vorta here?" Anthony demanded again, turning on Quinn as he interrupted Amril. "How am I supposed to accomplish what you want me to accomplish if he intends to lecture me, of all people, on the equations that my wife and I developed? The Dominion does not have transwarp drive."

"Well, Doctor Hard-on. That Vorta is here, because I was ordered to have him here. I follow orders... usually... and if the XO wants him in my engineering department, then he is welcomed here." Quinn walked up to stand face to face with Hardaway. "Look here, sonny, and listen good. I would rather slam my hammer against your temple than listen to how great and superior you assume you are over all of us. As for your caliber, I don't give two shits about it. Your haughty-taught attitude needs to be put on the back burner for now, before I get really angry and epoxy your cocky-ass to the warp core. Amril says it won't work. Let's listen to his explanation, and consider the possibility that you aren't so infallible after all. Any objections?"

Aria folded her arms, ducking her head to hide her smile. Ah, now here was a bloody pissing contest as much as anything. She'd never understand men and their need to be like this.

Lilou cleared her throat gently and flexed her ears. The last thing they needed was to be showing the vorta their own personnel rifts. He didn't need any more means of manipulating them than he'd already had placed in his grasp.

"Well now," Amril said, poking into the building tension with a particularly happy-looking smile, "why don't we have all these lovely conversations at another time and work on getting the doctor's impressive invention working?"

"Yes. Please..." Aria let out a breath before smiling, shaking her head. "My senses can only take that much testosterone before I feel like curling up under the covers. Shall we?"

Casting an uncertain glance towards the security officer, Lilou felt her world shift again. Wasn't Rice supposed to be there to monitor the situation and control the vorta? Why was she smiling? And undermining Quinn's authority with mockery? Straightening her shoulders, she stepped a little closer to Quinn out of loyalty. "You offered an explanation as to the flaws of Hardaway's design," she said, looking directly at Amril. "Go on, then."

"Ah, of course," Amril said, "You see, doctor, I familiarized myself with your equations. They are quite impressive, and maybe your drive would have still work with a great deal of power. However, with some adjustments to the way you are viewing space-time you can arrive at a simpler solution."

Anthony narrowed his eyes at the vorta. "Show me," he said suspiciously, moving closer.

"Please," added Quinn, eyeing Anthony, "we would all love to see where you think you can make improvements to the doctors design."

As the vorta outlined the changes he would make to Hardaway's design, Lilou began to develop a tension headache behind her eyes. His notes, on their own, were actually very interesting. At least they would have been if they hadn't been coming from... well, a vorta, for the Spirits' sakes. But the constant interruptions from the doctor overlapping those notes was a nuisance. Lilou focused past them, bending over her PADD and taking copious notes on all the relevant points of the discussion for the sake of review later. She imagined Quinn would probably want an unobstructed overview of the new data out of the context of three strong personalities warring for dominance.

The conversation took a good deal of time, over an hour passed before they made any progress. As they went on, the equations got more and more complex, until they got into the equations developed by the Hardaways themselves. By that point, Anthony seemed to have warmed up to the vorta, probably on account of the alien's ability to comprehend with seeming ease the complexities of quantum mechanics and subspace field theory. At last, they reached a consensus and the modifications needed for Sienna's drive were prepared.

Quinn gave a final nod as the he finished reviewing the updated information and suggestions. "I like it, and I really like how you simplify the connection issue from the device to our core. Too damn bad you guys are slaves to the Dominion. Just think how much you could have accomplished working on our side."

"Oh, perhaps so, Mr. Quinn," Amril agreed heartily, "I do have the advantage of being liberated, as it were."

"Good, now let's get to work and save our home, shall we?" Quinn asked as he looked around the room.

[OFF]

Chief Warrant Officer Markum Quinn
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Ensign Aria Rice
Security
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Amril
Vorta Defector
USS Galileo

Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
NPC'd by Amril
Project Sienna

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