JDL ~ Com Ivanova, Capt Diziara, Ens Peters, K-9 ~ "...And Your Little Dog Too"

Posted on Mon May 18th, 2015 @ 12:50am by Ensign Jon Peters & Admiral Rochelle Ivanova & Master Chief Petty Officer Rik Caine

3,088 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Agua Mala

K-9 was striding through the promenade, slightly ahead of Diziara, who was ensuring that Jon kept up and didn’t sneak away to get out of going drinking with the captain and the hologram. K-9 fizzed a little, and tweaked the settings on his mobile emitter, before turning and walking backwards. Looking at Diziara and Jon, making sure they kept up he spoke. "Will you get a move on, that Nausican will beat us to the bar and drink everything if you're not careful… and then we couldn’t test the subroutine." K-9 gave them both a cheeky wink, before turning back around and nearly walked straight into a Caitian trader that was heading in the opposite direction. "Oh! Sorry there… you're looking lovely, soft fur," he crooned as she hurried past shooting him a look as if to say 'who the hell are you?' K-9 shrugged his shoulders, and yelled after her, "call me sometime; it will be magic I promise!" He caught Diziara's eye and grinned wide, flashing those perfect white teeth as he did so. "Can't blame a hologram for trying, right?"

"Well, you have to test that subroutine to," Diziara returned with a laugh. Jon Peters' eyes grew two sizes as he tried to hide behind anything to allow him to escape but was foiled as Diziara had his arm, firmly clamped, in her own. "I thought you southern boys drank? Why are you trying to run away?"

K-9 spun around again, his long military style coat swishing with the motion, proving the holographic physics engine was working perfectly. He couldn’t help but let out a laugh as he witnessed Diziara holding on firmly to Jon's arm to make sure he couldn’t escape their nefarious drinking plans. "Gotta try harder than that, if you wanna get away from her, kiddo."

Jon's mouth fell open, and he tried to gather his thoughts only to be interrupted as Diziara stood up taller and started walking faster; it was all he could do to keep up.

"Rochelle!"

The sound of her first name shouted across the promenade made the five-foot-four Commodore pause and cringe and several others around her to jump in sheer surprise at the volume shift between normal conversation and the roar of an excited, and thankfully friendly, feminine voice. She knew that voice entirely way too well. The person that it belonged to was one of the few that had the testicular fortitude necessary to use 'Rochelle' instead of 'Ivanova' or 'Commodore' or some combination thereof. Her eyes closed as she found momentary repose, tugged on the hem of her tunic, plastered a quick smile on her otherwise tired face, and turned to respond to the hail.

"Diziara." Rochelle greeted with a polite nod as she closed the distance between them and came to rest, dignified as ever, with her hands folded gracefully in front of her. "It's been too long." She admonished the tall redhead, "Long enough to see that you've taken up with a new group of riff raff." The tease rolled easily off her tongue.

"This one I'm borrowing from Captain Dhej," Diziara explained with a grin as she draped an arm around Jon Peters. "He seems a bit reluctant, but I'm hoping some properly applied spirits will correct that. As for this cocky bastard?" Diziara nodded to the other man. "I helped program him, though you can thank Pond's random number generator and fractal programs for turning my programming into a personality for the AI. Don't turn you back on him though, he's learned just as much from Cor has he has from myself. He's part of the holographic pilot project we're working on."

K-9 twitched a little and instinctively moved to tap at his emitter. Once he was sure his program was stable, he frowned. Something didn't feel quite right; it was like being aware of needing to sneeze but nothing really happening. He assumed this was similar, of course, as he had never experienced such things first hand. Something that once was there, however, didn't feel like it quite was currently. He smiled subtly at the Commodore standing in front of him. "My designation is K-9, the emergency pilot hologram, a pleasure to meet you Commodore" he said offering a hand to the woman standing in front of him.

"Dhej seems like a rather upstanding fellow. Don't damage him." Rochelle retorted, offering a wink to the bewildered Peters. In the presence of the taller half Klingon, she was truly unable to harness her tongue fast enough, an easy reminder of just how the unconventional officer could, and would, easily inspire the worst behavior in some. In fact, the young Commodore was about to add something else, likely equally as ribbing, when her attention was directed to the flickering hologram. She studied it for a long time, watching the way the pixels would occasionally shift and prove that the specter wasn't a living, breathing being. "Pleasure," She responded in kind, accepting the shimmering shake. "I assume you've been designed to help pilot fighters back when and if their pilot is incapacitated?" She asked, looking from K-9 to Diziara, and back.

"K-9, are you feeling ok?" Diziara said as she looked at the hologram sidelong she didn't like the fact that he flickered -- he wasn't supposed to do that.

"Amongst other things, providing an emergency assistance protocol is merely one facet. I am fully capable in combat flight operations, flying demonstrations and currently being tested on enterprise as a helm officer, fully integrated into the main computer." K-9 rattled off as if he were a walking, talking advert. He then turned to Diziara, "I'm just fine, feel a little off but I imagine it's just residual programming displacement on transfer to the emitter."

"Can I see your diagnostics?" She asked tilting her head to the side as she continued to look at him.

"Certainly," K-9 said before focusing his attention back on the Commodore. "This shouldn't take a moment," he advised. He thought about the diagnostic panel for a brief second, and a million computer algorithms fired into gear to process the request. A holographic LCARS panel then appeared, displaying from the emitter on his shoulder.

Taking a step back, Rochelle watched as Diziara worked on the hologram's programming, and offered a nod to K-9 when he informed her of the short delay. "I wasn't aware of Starfleet protocols allowing for holograms to work at such capacity. Emergency, yes, but work as tedious as handling ships and flying fighters?" Her lips pursed as she considered the ramifications. "Of course I mean no insult or disrespect, I'm just a bit concerned."

"I helped program this pain in the ass myself," Diziara insisted, puffing up not unlike she were the hologram's mother. "The project was originally only intended for emergency use, but as we did research and read the reports about the long term deployment of the Doctor on Voyager -- a program originally designed for emergency use only -- I couldn't help pushing for a more involved project." She flicked at the diagnostics display, and frowned. "Has someone been messing with your programming other than me? I did set it up so that you had to allow them in unless it was an emergency override from me, Cor, or that crazy Calhoun.

"Calhoun is not crazy, Diz - just moderately eccentric ... at least that's what he told me to say if anyone asked..." the hologram grinned and raised a brow at the Commodore who watched on. "There was a lieutenant, I believe, she said she had orders to add some code to the personality matrix. Is there something wrong?" K-9 asked with a little worry in his voice.

"Are you parroting Calhoun's propaganda of your own free will, or because he programmed it into you?" Diziara's tone was teasing, but there was an undercurrent of concern. "While I'm sure the Commodore is appreciative of you not hitting on her, that's not you... and I don't like that someone put in a subroutine to force you not to, instead of you recognizing when you should reign in your charming personality." She flicked at the diagnostics display a little more. "I'll weed this malware out later, and we'll talk about this Lieutenant who did it then." She turned to Rochelle and flashed a smile as she pressed the display one last time and it disappeared.

Looking between the hologram and the woman, Rochelle genuinely felt lost and rather amiss. "And you said you're running this experiment on the Enterprise?" She asked, reaching to tap her lower lip, "Red and Hark are behind it?"

"We just finished installing the docking station for his mobile emitted in the Bridge helm systems, with the help of Jon here." Diziara indicated the ensign who'd been quietly skulking behind her and the hologram, looking for a chance to make his escape. With attention turning to him, he politely smiled at the commodore.

"Ma'am," Jon Peters said in greeting, his eyes pleading for her salvation from the tall red-headed woman.

"We're looking for somewhere to deploy a wing of fighters, a mix of flesh and photons, as the next stage of testing. We've got a roster together, and the equipment is built, we just need a command team that's open to the idea," Diziara explained.

The Commodore nodded, catching Jon's eye with the faintest of grimaces -- she knew all too well how loud and overwhelming the woman who'd ensnared him could be. "I see." Rochelle responded with a nod and a deep knitted furrow of her brow. "I'm surprised Enterprise is open to it, to be honest. I'd thought a ship like Archer might seeing as they're not a prime target for the large scale drama. Hate to think of this experiment going wrong and a bigger ship being left to the ether like that." Her head shook with a wince, "Again, I mean no offense. I speak purely from the perspective of a tactician and a CO."

"I can assure you, I'm perfectly safe. No one on the team would have programmed anything to jeopardise the project. The concept of phase two is to expand aerospace operations on Federation ships without the need for putting crew in harms way in those sorts of dramatic situations you reference. The concept of holograms working with fleshies is a groundbreaking shift in the dynamic between technology and tradition," K-9 concluded.

"R and D is cool with this?" Rochelle asked, hiking a thumb towards K-9 and eyeballing Diz with earnest interest, "Because I've got an Intel team that would love to prove you wrong with it comes down to remote hacking and turning K-9 here rogue or worse. This is stuff the Romulans would love for us to implement just to beat us over the head with." Her head shook, skepticism bright within the glitter of her eyes, "I'm genuinely surprised Admiral Red and Admiral Hark green lighted this project to go in for real time testing. I can say with certainty that I'd prefer my 'fleshies'," her fingers coiled around the word in the air in quotations as she spoke, "being out there and doing their thing. Then again... We removed fighters from the Vindicator for many reasons. Good luck, though. Seeing as the Vindicator is heading out with Enterprise on this next mission, I'll be sure to keep an eye peeled."

K-9 cleared his throat "I am standing right here, you know. Voyager's EMH proved to Starfleet that holograms have a viable place in Starfleet and are more than just tools. As for implying I could become some form of Romulan spy... well... that's just an insult. My program has state of the art fail-safes you know. No more easily turned than any one of you fleshies." He frowned and huffed a little and walked off, before doubling back to the three officers. "And. One more thing," he said indignantly "R&D developed me in conjunction with the head of the Starfleet Aerospace Corps... the Admiral's who know about me, all very excited in seeing what can be done. Just need a CO with foresight for a major technological advancement... a pioneer, a frontrunner." K-9 huffed again and moved off to lean on a railing overlooking the lower level of the promenade.

"He was our first," Diziara explained to Rochelle with a worried frown. "The first year after he was activated, he almost exclusively interacted with Cor, Calhoun, and myself. His first encounter with a meat bag that didn't recognize him as another sentient life form was a bit of a culture shock." She sighed.

"I see." Rochelle mused, watching the hologram skulk off with no small amount of concern warping the depths of her eyes.

"As for hacking him?" Diziara shrugged, her gaze resting on the hologram's form as he draped himself on the railing. "We've relayed the source code to whoever will give us the time of day, and honestly, the Romulan's are no more likely to be able to take him over or reprogram him, than they are to override the Vindicator's systems, steal helm control, and drop shield in the middle of battle. The only way to stop that, if they're that determined? Disable all networking, and go back to mechanical systems with tubes and clockwork. Social engineering seems to be the only weak point, but that's just as much an issue with people... usually the weakest point in any security system. When the Romulans get it in their head to clone someone, even their loved ones can't tell the difference."

The Commodore's attention snapped back to Diziara with cold hurt rapidly masking the previous concern within the icy depths of her eyes. "You don't say." She replied relatively curtly, all too aware of the jab and point being made by the willowy half-Klingon. "The risks greatly outweigh most of the benefits. A hologram, like an Android, can't act on instinct or emotion and that's been proven time and time again. You know as well as I do that pilots are some of the most radical and extreme sons of bitches ever to be spawned into this universe. Replacing them with a hologram just... Well for the most part it doesn't work. You remember what happened with unpiloted drone technology way back in the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. People didn't trust them, there were glitches, bad things happened. I'm all for progress, but..." Her head shook slowly and she sighed, "I'll watch and see what happens on the Enterprise for now. It's a visionary idea, but I'm just not sure how practical it is for the moment."

K-9 overheard the Commodore's comments and huffed, striding back to where the discussion was taking place. "And yet, you fleshies trust a hologram to perform medical duties when required, automated machines to build your ships and starbases... a computer to make sure the life support is regulated so you can breathe. And you don't think a hologram can pilot a ship? The project's aim is synergy, Commodore. Holograms working alongside regular pilots, learning and adapting from the intuition and instinct combined with the entire Federation library on aviation. Do you know what happens to a pilot in the cockpit of a fighter in the blackness of space when their life support system is hit? They start to grey out; they start to have a transient loss of vision and perception resulting in the lights going out. The hypoxia sets in and they blackout. Unable to save themselves, normally means whoever is attacking kills them and someone like you is explaining to a person's family why that happened. They become a memorial service, another statistic." He paused.

"What if, in that moment a hologram could take over? A hologram who knows how to fly and knows what do, who can get that person to safety, possibly even save a few others with support and backup of fighters where no lives can be jeopardised, because the hologram piloting is safely stored elsewhere. Isn't that worth a trial run? Starfleet is about the acceptance of life, of all kinds, and pushing boundaries to be better. Don't you want Vindicator at the front of that? I mean, if you're... scared... fine, whatever. But the head of Starfleet's Aerospace Corp thought it was an idea worth running with... don't you want to be at the forefront of that?" K-9 huffed again, waving his arms upwards, and stormed off, striding to the railings he had occupied before.

"Not particularly." Rochelle replied flatly, quickly losing her taste for waxing diplomatic in the face of the hologram's ridiculous posturing. "I'll keep an eye on the program while Enterprise is in orbit of Apsha. Send over your reports to me and I can promise to read them and provide insight... That's all I can offer for now." Her eyes flashed in warning as they fell on Diziara's, "Oh... And you may want to tweak on him a bit further. Attempting to bully, coerce, or insult me, or any other skipper, into getting his way..." Her head shook, "Not a good first impression. It's a novel idea, Diziara. I look forward to seeing the results, but I need to head back to the Vindicator and prepare to get underway. If you're heading out on the Enterprise, you'll want to think about doing the same here in short order. Pleasure meeting you, Mr Peters."

"It's likewise not a good first impression for him to have you insulting him, implying he's lesser because he's made of photons instead of flesh and blood. I'll discuss his attitude with him, but I don't know who's ear to whisper in to have them discuss yours with you," Diziara returned. She draped her arms around Ensign Peter's and K-9's shoulders. "Come along boys, I'm buying the first round."

"That would be Admiral Blyx Omegi Red. Office can be found in station's Ops." Rochelle called after Diziara with a shake of her head. It wasn't worth it, she'd long decided, to argue with the brusque redhead. Especially not when there were much more important things to tend to; like playing soothsayer between the Federation and the growing darkness of the Stenellian Ascendancy.

=/\= End Log =/\=

Commodore Rochelle Ivanova
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Captain Diziara
Lead Test Pilot, Fighter Design Team
Co-Lead, Project Torchwood
Utopia Planitia

Emegancy Pilot Hologram "K-9"
Holographic Pilot, Torchwood Project
Assistant Helm Officer, USS Enterprise

Ensign Jon Peters
Engineering Officer
USS Enterprise

 

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