Asdfghjkl, Goes the Translator

Posted on Mon Feb 21st, 2022 @ 9:27pm by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: With Gleaming Eyes
Location: USS Athena, Engineering
Timeline: MD04 - 0810 hrs
1673 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Of all times for the backup to not work, Zade thought as she walked to engineering. In preparation for eventually heading to the surface with the Athena's security team, she had tested her backup translator and found that... well, the speech was garbled. That was no good, but she couldn't just put off repairing the device.

Her steps slowed as she approached the double doors to engineering. A consistent problem so far was not knowing anyone, which bugged her because she had to ask around. She liked knowing who was who. Given the circumstances of her mission to help the Athena, however, it couldn't be helped.

Zade stepped into engineering and looked around, looking for someone who gave off "boss" vibes. She spotted a blonde woman and approached, deciding to ask her. "Excuse me," Zade began, making sure to stay out of the way of anything else happening around them, "could you point me in the direction of the engineering chief?"

Finn whipped around to face the woman, tearing her attention away from the table in front of her. Having processed the question, her first thought was to send the curly-haired trill on a wild goose chase just for fun, but professional ethics dictated otherwise. Besides, it was always good to play nice with others. You never knew when you'd need to borrow personnel or get assistance from another department. "I'm afraid you've found her," a smile crept onto her face as she leaned against the table. "How can I help?"

The speed of the turn definitely surprised Zade a little, the only evidence of it being a blink at the same time and a momentary tensing of her body before she relaxed again. "Lucky guess," she replied with her own small smile. Zade reached into her pocket and pulled out a black object about the size of the palm of her hand. It was rectangular with curved corners, and stood about 3cm tall. "My backup translator is having issues and I'd like to have it looked at, Lieutenant. It's probably some setting that got bumped, but I'm no engineer."

To emphasize her point, she opened the box to reveal a comm badge-sized object nested in shock-resistant foam. She removed it from the case and set it up on the table, then started signing. There was a pause, then the translator started making a garbled noise with some static thrown in. "Obviously, it's not supposed to sound like that," Zade said.

"Oh, you mean you don't normally speak in gurgling noises?" Finn chuckled as she picked up the device. An inquisitive eyebrow raised as she inspected the object. The smooth backing had a release mechanism that one could pop off to view the electronics within. Without hesitation, Finn removed the panel and found nothing that might cause an issue on the inside. "Well, on the plus side, it doesn't look like a hardware problem. Let's take this to my office."

There was a spring in her step as Finn led the way across the room. Troubleshooting and fixing issues were perhaps her favorite way to pass the time. It was at least much preferred to sifting through reports on maintenance tasks. "Pull up a chair," she motioned towards the two standard issued seats within the sparsely decorated office. A few interconnect diagrams hung along the sidewall and a couple of family photos littering the edge of the desk was the only insight into Finn's life within the office that she called her second home.

Zade smiled, signing the word 'funny' to make up for the lack of sound a chuckle would normally make. She pocketed the case and followed the woman into her office. The Trill took a seat, watching Finn for a moment before taking the opportunity to look around. "I'm Zade, by the way," the Trill said, realizing she had yet to introduce herself. Spotting the family photos, she admired them for a moment before adding, "nice family. Are they on board with you?"

"Hmm?" Finn looked up from her screen and glanced at the photo. "Oh, no. My parents are both on the Endeavour." A short pause followed in which Finn looked back at the screen. She had connected the device to an interface and intently scrolled through the parameters. "What about you? Any family on board your ship?"

Zade's expression fell slightly, her eyes on the photo. "Well, I consider those on the Colossal to be my family," she said after a pause. She was trying to avoid killing the mood by choosing her words. "But no relatives, specifically."

"It seems less and less common to be on the same ship as your family these days. Unless you're married or something," Finn replied without having looked up from her screen, missing the downcast expression from the security officer. Her thoughts remained focused on navigating the data displayed. Multiple setting options were presented in the default configuration and the others were all set with valid parameters. The only place left to check was the software coding itself.

Finn's smile slanted into a curious expression as a thought occurred. With a small tool, she adjusted some configurations within the device itself. "Try your sign again," she looked at Zade and awaited the results, hoping that this test would narrow down the root cause of the issue.

Zade adjusted her position in the seat and began signing, and noise came from the translator after a moment. The words were somewhat intelligible, but there was a lot of static. It sounded very similar to communications with another ship with a lot of interference. "I... m si-ing a m-ingles... sen-nce -o see i... tra-sl... -rks." The voice, despite the static, sounded similar to Zade's.

"Some words, that's an improvement," she said aloud with a slight smile. "I haven't really thought about getting married or anything," she added, continuing their conversation, "but I usually tend to see immediate family ass well." The second she heard her implant's little hiccup, Zade's face started turning red. "As well," she corrected herself.

Finn chuckled at the error but quickly moved on as to not embarrass Zade too much. "Well, on the plus side, I think I know what's wrong. You have some redundant systems in here. Namely the data control unit. When one fails, there's a reversion process and the other takes over as the master. When that happens you're running into a timing problem which is then garbling the speech." She looked at the security officer with an accomplished smile. Forgetting, as she often did, that not everyone was as versed in engineering.

Zade blinked at the technical words, then cracked a smile of her own, her cheeks still pink. She was thankful that the engineer didn't bring up the implant flub. "I'm not sure I know what you said, but from your smile it looks like the troubleshooting is over." She could tell that this was what Finn enjoyed doing, not that Finn hid it from her. That smile was proof enough. "I definitely want this thing around when I head down to the surface with the security team."

"Oh, you're going down to the surface?" Finn asked as she made the final adjustments to correct the timing error.

"Yeah," Zade replied, watching Finn work her magic. "I was ordered by my Captain on the Colossal to assist the Athena's security team as needed, and Captain Kane wants me on the surface to help the medical team." Zade remembered the meeting with Kane that morning and shuddered. That was probably the tensest meeting she had ever been involved in, and that was including the scolding she got for not listening to the security chief when she was on the Memoria. She made a mental note to make sure she stayed on his good side.

"Ah, well good luck. It's pretty intense down there." Finn slid the translator closer to Zade. "Give it a try now, should work perfectly."

"So I've been told," Zade said before signing once again.

"I'm signing a meaningless sentence to see if the translator works," the translator repeated a moment later. Now that the interference was cleared up, it sounded just like Zade but with the inflection of the ship's computer.

"Ah, that's what it's supposed to sound like, thanks," Zade said verbally, pulling the storage box out of her pocket. "So it's good to go?"

"Yep! You're all set. If you survive the surface and your ship sticks around for a bit drop back by. You can buy me a drink for fixing it up for you," Finn said in jest with a chuckle, assuming she'd never see the young woman again. "Be careful down there."

Zade picked up the translator and set it back in the case before closing it and returning it to her pocket. "If I survive?? I'm way too stubborn to leave my survival to chance!" She joked with a smile. "But don't worry, I'll be fine. When I get back, drinks are on me." With that, Zade stood to leave, giving Finn a wink. She got to the door before she paused and turned back. "I never got your name, by the way. It would be embarrassing to come back for drinks and not know who to ask for."

"Oh, of course! Sorry. Finnley Quinn Keating the seventh at your service," she waved her hand and bowed slightly in a regal manner. Although Finn loved her family history, being the seventh to bear the name was a little crazy and it was sometimes fun to add a little royal gusto to her own introduction. "You can call me Finn, or Keating."

"I go by Zade," the Trill said, giving a slight bow in return. She then paused, her expression conveying a train of thought in the process. "Finn... nice name. I'll see you later." With that, Zade turned back to the door to head for the security offices.