Recalibrating Things

Posted on 25 Nov 2024 @ 6:25am by Lieutenant JG Montgomery Vala & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Edited on on 25 Nov 2024 @ 6:25am

4,719 words; about a 24 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: USS Galileo-A Deck 3 - Multi-Purpose Laboratories
Timeline: MD04 - 1600hrs

[ON]

Vala disliked Starfleet design philosophy. It prioritised big open rooms. Space to... he didn't rightly know. Mill around? All at the expense of ramming equipment up against the walls.

A Rihannsu lab would be filled with efficiently laid out benches and clear narrow walkways between them. They would have many times the capacity of the Galileo, even in a smaller room. Starfleet were so decadent.

These ruminations did not just come from anywhere. He had been forced to enter into the area behind the Quantum Resonance Device to do some much needed calibration. It was the kind of space that dreamed it was a Jefferies Tube. A forgotten afterthought slapped onto the room by someone at Advanced Starship Design Bureau who had no conception of the delicate equipment that would require its use.

It was cramped. Vala was a reasonably lithe sort, but all too large for the space. He needed more room to move his arms to conduct the delicate work of his... specialist calibration. This brought up another wave of acerbic thought - Starfleet's "plug in and play" nonsense. Since when did preordained settings ever suffice. A true scientist learns the tweaks and tricks themselves and gets the equipment to do things its designers could barely imagine.

Unfortunately the combination of the cramped space, limited dexterity and unrelentingly stubborn design philosophy precipitated a loud, "Fvadt!" Followed by a clatter as his tricorder hit the wall a few feet away.

He roughly tapped his combadge, galled at his need for help, "Engineering. Send someone to Multi-Purpose Lab two."

--

Sera had just finished her daily reports when her console chimed. She gestured with her hand and the audio message came up on-screen. A key was tapped and the uniquely accented voice of Lieutenant Montgomery Vala played out, filled with a conveyed emotion that Sera posited was anger...no, annoyance." "Engineering. Send someone to Multi-Purpose Lab two."

She stilled as she listened to his terse message. It was distinctly lacking in any useful details other than his emotional state, and it reminded her of the random visions that had been thankfully reducing in frequency and vividness over the last day. His refusal...

She shook her head as if that was all it would take to banish the random hallucination--and the forbidden feelings they engendered--and stood. Throwing her engineering satchel over her shoulder, Sera marked herself out of main engineering, and made her way to multi-purpose lab two to 'save' the big-brained scientists from their engineering deficiencies.

--

Given the size of the ship, it wasn't a long commute to come to the lab in question. Sera entered in her code to the door--something, something 'paper trail'-- and stepped into the space that held numerous scientific devices that were all but technological marvels in their own right.

"Lieutenant?" Sera called out, listening closely to see if she could triangulate his location. "Please state the nature of your engineering emergency." She all but choked once the words were out of her mouth. Slor Surak! why would she have said that?! Perhaps the mind meld--? No. Nope. Not gonna think about that right now.

Vala internally winced. It was Sera. He had been... well... avoiding was not really the appropriate term, but an array of spatiotemporal visual and auditory anomalies, 'hallucinations' as the crew called them, had confirmed some strange encounters between them. He had wished to find out more about this 'other time' before speaking to her too much.

Context was crucial to interpersonal encounters, and these 'hallucinations' did a very good job of stripping that away.

He could still recall her sultry advance and his own brandishing of a needle. Awkward indeed.

He was about to reply but he required a further pause as his mind caught up with the present. Had she just joked?

"Sera," he said, his voice somewhat muffled, "Ensign. I am in the compartment here." He suspected his feet sticking out of the small hatch had probably already given this away.

"I feel I should state before proceeding further that despite your admirable EMH impersonation, I have not broken anything and this is not something you would deem an emergency." He shifted slightly so his voice would carry more easily out of the cramped space, "It is, however, a terrifically frustrating incident of lax Starfleet ship architecture..."

Following his voice, Sera crouched down at his feet at the compartment in question. A joke? She...well, yes, she could extrapolate how her comment could have been construed as such. That's because it was delivered as such.

"I have no control over structural layouts; even less over the various set ups in the labs. If this is process issue, perhaps a strongly worded communique to your Sciences Division would prove more useful then..." Sera paused, brows furrowing as she studied his booted feet, "Why did you ask for engineering, exactly?"

"Oh I have already got the exact wording of a communique burned into my mind," Vala replied, his voice laden with hints that such a message may not be altogether polite.

"But yes indeed, I did not request an engineer simply to complain," though it was a happy benefit of Sera's presence that he had been able to, "I was hoping you could assist me with some... delicate calibration work on the front of this device. It seems I can only achieve so much alone."

He exhaled in frustration, the idiocy of the equipments location once again rising his ire. "You see if I make an adjustment here, it requires a corresponding adjustment on the front panel. However by the time I shuffle out of this elements-damned compartment, it has reset itself for... I don't know... 'safety reasons'." He rolled his eyes.

Sera raised a brow at his request. "I can assist you, but would not one of your colleagues be a better help to you if this is a calibration issue?"

"My colleagues?" Vala's voice had a slight lacing in incredulity to it. "I was the ship's sole physicist until a few days ago. I'm not sure if this thing had been used prior to my arrival." He gave a small snort. "A civilian Bolian lately arrived. Bross." The name dripped with venom.

"So-called-astrophysicist... Idiotic, sensitive type..." He mumbled. "This equipment requires the touch of a professional, so lacking scientists who are familiar I felt an engineer might have some respect for the thing."

Sera raised a brow. That was a rather spurious logic, all things considered, but she wasn't about to say such to Vala. He seemed somewhat...agitated. "You have requested assistance, and I am amenable. What do you require of me?"

Vala shifted around in the compartment a little, trying to give himself a bit more room to maneuver.

"There's a panel above the central resonance chamber. If you remove it you will find a recessed interface." He tapped on a similar panel in front of him.

"It may say something along the lines of 'do not alter values beyond blah blah etcetera'. Just ignore that and input this..." He reached down and threw a scrap of paper covered in his spidery handwriting out of the compartment door into the lab at large, "... this string on my mark."

Sera found the panel in question and removed the cover easily enough. "Yes. The interface is indeed issuing a warning regarding value alterations. Hmm..." The paper held a string of data points which she quickly memorized. "I am ready to proceed, Lieutenant."

Vala grunted in acknowledgement then began tapping on the small console in front of him. The machine began to hum in a low bass.

"OK. One number at a time, slowly." He said, beginning his own sequence. It would take several minutes.

"So, Sera." His voice slightly tinny from the compartment. Small talk was not his forte, but he had an unusual compulsion to speak to the Vulcan. "Ensign. These so-called hallucinations. Have you... had any yourself?"

His question caused a visible shift in her demeanor, which was why it was a 'good' thing that he was inside of the compartment and did not visualize her response. She continued entering in the number string one at a time as she considered how best to answer.

"I have had a number of episodes. I have no definitive proof but they feel more like...memories than an aberrant spontaneous creation of the mind. I am uncertain that I have such a capacity to make up such detailed--and unorthodox--scenes on my own...have you?"

It was neutral enough. Answered his question in an acceptable manner and then pivoted the inquiry back towards him. It also brought the hallucination regarding Montgomery back into the forefront...she still had no idea why such a scene would have played out, nonetheless, his refusal of what she had offered did not sit well. Oh, like what then 'happened' with Lamar sat better?

Vala continued to tap in numbers, his mind drifting to various recollected scenes. "I fear they are memories... I have not quite gathered all of the empirical evidence yet, but it seems increasingly likely that we experienced something altogether different in a time that... no longer exists." A shiver ran down his spine at that acknowledgement.

"If so then we have participated in something truly aberrant. I cannot fathom what might have compelled us to do so..." He exhaled slowly as his fingers tapped the console. "I must admit I do have the impression that some of us became quite unhinged..."

"My postulation aligns with yours. I lack the imaginative capabilities to create such mental figments, and some of these episodes were quite...realistic."

"It is a condition we call sien'temehludet, a loss of time. In the Federation they call it temporal psychosis," he shifted a little uncomfortably.

"It has a wide array of effects. It makes you feel... not yourself, like you are an imposter in your timeline, or that you are missing from it. In extremis you may feel like you are not the correct version of 'you'. We called it 'drifting'. You begin to feel like nothing matters, that... uhm... you should live in the moment as it is all that matters."

Sera jerked as the 'vision' ended, and guiltily peered down at the input screen and saw a long line of the same number had been input from her finger remaining on the 'key.'

"You called it Sien'temehludet..." She said softly while she began backing out the erroneously entered numbers...and there were a lot of them.

Vala watched as an error scrolled over the small screen at the back of the machine. He matched Sera's backtracking without comment, thinking about her words.

"Yes," he said after a time, "I recall. It a terrible affliction. We must have been under great strain." For a moment the only sound he could hear was the light tapping of his finger onto the console panel. "Neither of us were... ourselves. As I recall."

Sera made a small sub-vocal oscillation as began inputting the correct values again. "What a delicate way to describe things, Lieutenant. I fear the scope of what changes we were forced to make will have far reaching consequences, and said changes are impossible to undo as the future in question is no longer in existence." The corner of her mouth tugged ever so slightly.

"It remains difficult to know..." Vala said quietly as he continued inputting the string, "Once this device is properly calibrated I should be able to draw some more empirical conclusions."

He paused for a moment, his mind drifting to the visions of the dark, icy Galileo of the future. A future at least.

"It may be, at least, that we simply visited the future and no great impact has been had on the timeline." He shifted a little in the compartment, "Beyond what we experienced there at least..."

12 67 54 32 0 3 53 1. The numbers became a blur.

"...Sien'temehludet..." He spoke softly, "Did you find it... liberating? Or painful?"

Sera didn't answer immediately. It was an unusual inquiry. "Liberating...perhaps. I could no longer think logically and was unable to meditate. I only wanted to feel...it helped. It was also rather liberating to do so. Why do you ask?"

"Curiousity," Vala's voice returned, the numbers still scrolling onwards on the console, "I have read studies of the phenomena and its impact on Rihannsu but not other Vulcanoids. I suspected it may have interfered with your philosophy of logic."

He stretched out a little in the compartment - a cramp felt like it was around the corner and not far from knocking on his door. "I find these... figments... poisonous," he said after a few moments of console tapping quiet, "To have only arrived on the ship days ago and to have such vivid, context free... pieces of memory floating around. It makes it quite hard to form a proper perspective on the crew. On this ship."

Interfered? More like it had demolished. Her fractured experiences showed a fundamental shift within her during the time that wasn't...had it followed through? It was a most uncomfortable thought.

"Challenge your preconceptions, Montgomery, or they will challenge you. We cannot change what has occurred; all we can do is live with the consequences of our actions. You will simply have to obtain a new perspective." She entered in another line of coding. "Sien'temehludet...has it resolved now that we have returned?"

"You are not wrong, Sera," he said simply, "Do not mistake me - I am able to adapt to such things. It is simply a challenging first foray on a new assignment. As much as I study it I abhor the implications of temporal manipulation..." He carried on tapping through the numbers. It was tedious, but necessary work.

"As to the Sien'temehludet... it is difficult to say. Not much is known of it - as I understand it most people who go through time move in the other direction. The effect of travelling to the past has a much less deleterious impact on the psyche." The back of his left leg began to flare up with cramp. He paused his flow to wince.

"I suspect it may have a longer term impact indeed." He took a measured breath to deal with the dull pain in his leg. "I have encountered those whose mind entirely broke as a result of it, and those who made complete recoveries. It is, as humans say, a wave one must ride to the shore."

"I see..." Sera said in a soft voice. Could her aberrant behavior have a source in the sien'temehludet? She was not looking for something to blame--although that might be quite convenient; she just wanted to understand causation. Sciences were never her strong suit. Weighing whether to continue this line of discussion, she decided to press on. "Are you having any difficulties since returning, aside from the intermittent visions?"

Vala allowed silence for fall for a time as he considered her question. His fingers lightly tapped the console, heading into the final third of the string. The ship hummed below him, the plates beneath him resounding with an oddly satisfying vibration.

"In a manner of speaking," he began, his voice a little tinny in the small compartment, "I am usually at ease with myself but some of the visions lead me to feel..." He trailed off. It was difficult to explain. "... Embarrassed, I suppose? These visions lead me to believe I acted in a way that was... incongruent with my usual self.." He paused for a second. "There is the run in I had with you of course, but I also encountered a pilot and... I recall a tense situation there." He shook his head. "It is somewhat frustrating to not simply know all that occurred."

A pilot? A tense encounter? Sera did not know all of the pilots, but she knew one of them...and Montgomery's vague descriptors fit Lamar rather accurately. The primal part of her--the one that was slowly taking over her well-ordered, rational world--snarled in possessiveness. How dare he?! Again, the wrong number was entered, and she scrambled to back the incorrect data out of the string.

"I struggle with that as well; was I so unwell that I acted in a manner incongruous with myself...or did I act in a manner that was completely in alignment, given that I was no longer shackled with the edicts of 'Logic,' and perhaps, my sanity."

Now what she was really curious about. "Why would you have engaged with one of the pilots? Was it Chief Darius or...Lieutenant Rafe is it?" Stay on point! "Do you recall the subject of the conversation?"

Vala once again ignored the peal of red as an incorrect string was entered on the other side, his mind preoccupied with turning over Sera's words in his head. A Vulcan without their sacred logic? He was sad he could not remember more about what such a thing was like. Would they become more akin to a Rihannsu or... something else entirely?

"It was not Caradec," Vala said lightly, his voice slightly ponderous as he stretched to remember the figments he had experienced. "It was surely the other one. Darius. Yes. That sounds familiar..."

His mind stretched back (or was it forward?) to a red lit corridor, breath misting. He felt... stretched out. Exaggerated. Poorly composed. The human who he was speaking to had seemed small to him at the time but now it was clear they'd been almost the same height. Darius. It was that one, yes. What had he been saying...?

"I believe we spoke of..." Oh... that was it. "...Vulcans. He asked me about mind melds." He combed over the fraction he could recall. "I spoke of the Sien'temehludet..."

Why had he done that? What interest did the pilot have in such esoteric matters? A moment passed and his mind dredged up an answer.

"He... wished to..." Another pause. "You. Yes. I recall now. He was asking about mind melds and if they were dangerous. I got the impression he had some kind of interest in you specifically, Sera. He asked after you. I..." He turned the fragmented scene over in his mind once more. "...I suggested he act honourably then..." He gave a small 'huh' sound as the memory played out, "He challenged me to a duel then... backed down." He shrugged inside the compartment, beginning on the final string. "These figments seem to be stranger than fiction sometimes..."

Sera inwardly cringed. So much of her memories regarding this time was so incredibly fractured, but if Lamar felt the need to seek answers from another than what did that mean? His behavior--in her mind--was possessive. Lamar threatened Montgomery? Did he feel that the Romulan was a potential rival...Sera gasped softly. It was the meld. It had gone so incredibly sideways...they had shared their terrors...fears...

Fvadt." She said softly, not even recognizing that she said the colorful metaphor aloud. Sera had done Lamar a rather significant--and potentially far reaching--disservice. Her fingers began to tremble on the screen, and was a visual representation of just how conflicted she was inside. Her actions, performed while, what...ill? Insane? Unshackled by the bonds of 'Logic,' perhaps? her traitorous mind supplied unhelpfully. "Yes...different." She supplied suddenly, recognizing that in her shock she had failed to acknowledge his answer. She also recognized she was not about to supply Montgomery with anymore data for clarity. It was a private matter.

The small console in front of Vala lit up with a pleasant green to signal that the many strings had been accepted. The device began to hum as it began the work of calibrating to the exact specification it had been fed.

"One moment," he said as he shuffled backwards and slowly emerged, legs first, from the small hatch. His calf was on fire. He groaned slightly when he finally emerged, remaining on the floor to massage this cramped leg.

"Hello again," he gave Sera a small smile punctuated by a wince as he worked on the cramp, "My apologies. That space was... far from ideal."

He looked up at the Vulcan. She seemed... perturbed. More-so than usual anyway. Vala recognised that Vulcans often looked unhappy as the burdens of logic dictated such things.

"My thanks for your assistance," he said softly as he finally got to his feet, "The device will take a little time to parse the strings."

He thought upon his recent recollection for a moment, before cautiously going on, "Its... nothing I should concern myself with then, this Lamar business? Perhaps he too was not in his right mind. Perhaps he has no recollection of these events..."

Sera tilted her head in a gesture to denote uncertainty. Why was Vala asking her such a question. Lamar had never made any mention of such a episode with the science officer. However, what Vala had described was somewhat...alarming. She had no idea how humans generally handled those they considered threats or rivals--if that was what this was...in hindsight, she probably should have paid more attention to human behavior, but in her defense she was trying to 'survive' the academy. Vulcan males, however, could be quite possessive and aggressive to others they felt were threats.

"I do not have any satisfactory answers to current line of questioning, Montgomery. I am not proficient in understanding human behavior, nor do I know all of the details regarding what hallucinations he has experienced." Yet her comment informed that she knew some of the details. Looking at Montgomery, Sera experienced a fleeting sense of melancholy, and the distinct sensation that she had lost something somehow regarding this male standing before her, idly rubbing one of his knees. It was a most disconcerting sensation that did nothing to improve her mood.

"My behavior towards you was...improper. You refused my invitation, which was logical, but I find myself, even here and now, troubled by said abnegation. I recognize now that I desired more than professional camaraderie from you. I can assure you that such and impulse will not arise again. I would find it agreeable if we could continue as...friendly associates. Your Rihannsu perspective is fascinating."

Vala blinked, his face unsure how to form itself in response to Sera's words. They hung between them as several moments passed.

His first, gut reaction, was that of confusion - he did not know the Vulcan well, and indeed had barely formed a full picture of the woman she was through their brief meetings and the fragments of the future that no longer was. For her to go out of her way, at this juncture to take such an assertive handle upon their present and future discourse did not fit within any context of social etiquette he had experienced, in the Star Empire or Federation.

A rising indignation followed, that an event fixed in a time that no longer held sway was suddenly having a tangible, definitive impact on his life here. It was not that he particularly desired the Vulcan, she was pleasing on the eye and had proven to be something of a curiosity in their prior interactions, likable, interesting even (a rarity for their kind), it was that she presumed to so singularly define the course of things to come. It was of course her right to do so, but it felt deeply... aberrant in the moment.

"Call me old fashioned," finally ending the lengthy pause, "But I usually like to take things slower than a Sien'temehludet fueled romp in a temporal anomaly..." His eyes fixed upon hers, keen and focussed. "The figments we’ve shared - whatever their nature - suggest the universe cares little for such careful delineations. If I have offended you by my refusal in those lost moments, then let me say this plainly: it was not out of rejection, but confusion. In that time, I too was not myself."

This version of Montgomery was quite different than memories she had of him. Sera had failed to separate the two--real versus imagined--and had erroneously felt that he should be provided clarity given the rather unusual interactions they had shared. His words appeared to be chosen quite carefully, and his response was unequivocal.

Montgomery preferred to take things...slow. That was bizarrely humorous, somehow, or perhaps more...ironic. Sera did not take things slow at all, apparently. Fascinating. Outwardly she said, "Indeed." The neutral mask was fully back in place. "Do you require any further assistance with this device?"

If Vala could put his finger on one thing he particularly hated about Vulcans, it was their ability to simply internalise something and move swiftly on. He was sure it was a strength in many ways, but elements be damned it was irritating.

He allowed a few moments to pass as he gathered his thoughts, which were still quite divided on Sera's previous, strange, comments.

"I think no," he continued to scrutinise the Vulcan as he spoke, "I am sure you have pressing duties elsewhere. It should operate as I wish now - maybe I can glean some more insight into the nature of the temporal aberration."

He paused again then cocked his head slightly, "Would you care to spend some time with me during shore leave? Regardless of anything else," he gave a small smile, "I remain curious about the Vulcan who can speak Rihannsu."

He...remained 'curious?' Sera raised a brow in an imperious manner. What was she, some sort of peculiarity to be further studied? Consider where the request is coming from, Her inner chorus reminded her 'helpfully.' Montgomery was a scientist and they did not appear to be content unless dissecting something for better understanding.

What would Lamar think about this? Sera shook herself. What did it matter what he thought? Montgomery wasn't asking her to engage in anything further other than satisfying his curiosity. In a way, a rather self-serving request...and yet. She was curious too about Rihannsu culture. What he had told her thus far felt rather familiar to some of customs and rituals of her home life before Starfleet. More research was required. It was 'Logical' to seek further understanding.

"I will consider your offer." She supplied as a compromise. "Did you have an activity in mind, or shall I presume that there are other items you want me to repair?"

Was that a joke? If so Vala found it quite amusing. He was careful not to betray this in case it was just a Vulcanism he had yet to understand. "I would ideally go a few days, at least, without damaging another piece of equipment," he said with a little mirth as he gave the Quantum Resonance Device a slightly theatrical slap, "but you never know. Federation tech can be awfully fragile in my experience."

He paused for a few seconds then addressed her main enquiry, "I have been working on a holodeck program. It is something of a slice of ch'Rihan - given your interest in the 'Rihannsu perspective', perhaps you would care to see it?"

Her curiosity had been piqued. Sera had wondered what the Romulan homeworld had been like, and to hear that he had a program that showcased aspects of a place that no longer existed...well. "I would find it most agreeable to experience this program you speak of."

There was a small chime from the machine, and the voice of the computer proudly announced, "Calibration accepted."

Vala gave a nod to Sera, "I shall arrange a slot for us then," before turning to the humming device, "Thank you for your help, Sera."

"I come to serve." Sera responded automatically, while slinging her tool satchel over her shoulder, and turning to walk out of the lab.

[OFF]

=====

Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

&

Lieutenant (JG) Montgomery Vala
Deputy Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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