Interesting Readings

Posted on Thu Jun 16th, 2022 @ 9:58pm by Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Ares Ascending
Location: Tertiary Engineering
1959 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

"Hi, Benedict," Finn announced her presence to the egg as she entered tertiary engineering. "Um, how are you doing?" She asked, feeling kind of silly as she said it. Why am I talking to this thing? She thought as she strolled over to the main control panel.

His levels looked good. Benedict was certainly enjoying the energy they had been providing to him. Though his radiation output was slightly off. Nothing to be concerned with, but slightly different from his normal pattern. "What does this mean?" Finn wondered out loud.

"It means Tey hasn't been keeping an eye on him as he promised he would," Xavier said as he entered the room. "How are you holding up?" He asked his friend, a concerned look crossing his face, He was relieved she had been able to escape the station before the Athena blew it to high hell, just a shame that Lieutenant P'rel wasn't so lucky.

Ugh, Xavier. Another person the real Finn had made friends with, the clone thought. This mission was going to be near impossible if she kept running into these people. "Oh, I'm fine. Just keeping busy with work, but thought I'd stop by and check on our friend here," Finn said with the most genuine smile she could provide. "How are you doing?"

Xavier pretended to look shocked. "You want to get into a discussion about our feelings?" He asked, his hand on his chest, right about his heart, as though this touching moment was causing him physical pain. "You are you and what have you done with the real Keating?"

"I mean, want is a strong term. I thought I was just being polite," Finn chuckled. "Besides I said I was fine, I just asked how you were doing, but if you prefer we can just skip right over that and take care of Benedict here. You know, our child. At least, that's what everyone on the ship is calling him." The clone did her best to channel the real Finn. She had to play a convincing part to get through this time with Xavier.

"Yeah because you named him that," Xavier said with a chuckle. He was about to say something else when he noticed that the readout console that was designed to monitor Benny's vitals was flashing. Xavier stepped past Finn and studied the console. "Curious," he said out loud but mostly to himself. "Have you noticed this? Looks like he's rejecting some of the power feeds, almost as though he's having ... an allergic reaction, for lack of a better analogy."

Finn furrowed a brow. She didn't understand the real Keating's attachment to the egg, but she had to at least act as though she did. "Yea, it's odd. Could it be that he's self-weaning off of it? Or do you think he just doesn't like the way it tastes?"

"I'm not too sure," Xavier said truthfully. He thought that Finn might have sounded a bit more concerned than how she currently was. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something felt a bit off. Maybe, the last few days had affected her more than she was willing to let on, that was very on-brand for Finn. "What were you doing before I came in?" He asked, trying to narrow down the reason for these sudden readings.

"Nothing," Finn held her hands up in confusion. "I only got in here like two minutes before you did. I was just going through all of the reports and readings to see how he was doing." She looked at the console and furrowed a brow. "What if we try changing the output current on the ones he's rejecting? Maybe that'll peak his interest again?"

"That was my first thought too," Xavier said as his fingers danced over the buttons. "It should only take a few moments to make the necessary changes. You have any more thoughts on what we are going to do with him once he hatches? I doubt the Captain wants a full-grown Pilgrim running around on the ship."

No, she didn't, but the real Finn would have. The clone quickly ran through some options in her mind and tried to play it off as though it were a problem she'd been seriously considering for more than a few seconds. "I think the best option is going to be to deliver him to a group of pilgrims. Maybe we can locate his parents if we scan for DNA matching." Before waiting on a reply, Finn tilted her head and looked at Xavier. "I'm actually really in the need of some caffeine. I'm gonna run to the nearest replicator and grab a cup of coffee, do you want one?" She asked. The excuse got her out of the room for a bit and would allow her to think through any other questions the ops officer might ask. Besides that, it would be a relief to not have to put on a show for a few minutes.

"No I'm fine," Xavier said as he watched her leave the room. IT surprised him that she seemed almost eager to be rid of Benny, he had expected more of a fight from the engineer. I bet she just wants her engineering back, he thought to himself as he checked the egg's reading again. He raised an eyebrow as he rechecked. Even though they were only halfway through the new power output configurations, Benedict's readings had completely returned back to normal, in fact, he was now rejecting the new power setup Xavier had spent the last few minutes sorting out. Xavier scratched his chin as his brain tried to solve this riddle.

"Computer, run a level one diagnostic on Benedict's sensor readings," he ordered. A series of bleeps told him the computer was running the request.

"All readings are normal," the computer reported back.

"Run a level one diagnostic on the power transfer systems," he asked. More bleeps and another fine result.

Xavier was just about to try something else when Finn entered the room with her steaming hot drink. "It looks like we have less work to do than we thought, come and take a look at this." As he went to show Finn the new set of readings, he noticed that the panels were flashing again. "What in the hell?"

Finn gasped in mock surprise. "Oh wow, it looks exactly the same as when I left. I had no idea you were such a miracle worker. You must show me your secrets," she chuckled. "Did changing the output current not work?"

"I stopped the procedure," Xavier said sounding extremely uncertain. His brain was trying to comprehend what the system was now saying versus what it had done only moments before. "Must be a glitch in the system, I'll run it again, should only be another few moments." He scratched his head as he tried to work out what was happening, but the truth was they barely knew anything about Benny, maybe this was some sort of pre-hatching sequence?

Meanwhile, Finn ran through a couple of diagnostics herself and couldn't find anything wrong. There seemed to be no discernable reason why Ben would start rejecting power and then suddenly be fine with it again. "You don't think..." A thought came to Finn's mind. "That this thing could be hatching do you? We don't know that much about the species....Then again, maybe it was just a fluke?"

"I had the same thought," Xavier said. "Maybe the gestational scans we took were off. It's a shame that the egg's external is lined with gamma radiation, would be great to get a good look inside, find out what's going on properly. Wait," Xavier's eyes grew wide as an idea occurred to him, "didn't the science lab just get a new ion phase inverter from the Starbase? I think we could use that to bypass the radiation and get a good look at what's going on inside of Benny."

"Good idea. I'll get it," Finn eagerly volunteered once more to remove herself from the current situation. "I'll grab a decompiler while I'm at it. if we have to, we can use it to tie into the plasma distribution manifold for a new power source. Be back in a few!" She grabbed her recently acquired cup of coffee and casually headed towards the science labs.

Xavier nodded, happy that they were finally going to be getting some decent scans of the egg. He went to take a seat, waiting for the power transfer to complete when he noticed that the readings had returned to normal. "What the hell Benny?" He asked as he moved closer to the diagnostic station. "What's going on with you today?" I can't believe I'm talking to this thing, I sound like Finn now he thought to himself.

Xavier went to press his combadge to tell Finn not to worry about getting the equipment when a thought occurred to him. Why did the readings change instantly both times when she left the room? It was only a passing thought, but one that he couldn't shake and one that he was eager to put to the test. He stopped the transfer for the second time but set it up ready to go again the instant she made her way back into the room again.

Xavier waited around ten minutes, not taking his eyes from the readings on the screen. He heard the doors open a second before he saw the screen start to flash red. He started the transfer again and turned to face his colleague. "You got them," he said with a huge smile. "I had to start the transfer again, my calculations were slightly off before," he added. "You okay setting that up? I'll be back in a few moments, nature calls."

"No problem," Finn replied with a plastered smile, an expression the clone was quickly becoming annoyed with having to maintain. She breathed a sigh of relief as Xavier left the room and got started with the ion phase inverter.

"I really don't understand why Finn is so attached to you," the engineer muttered to Benedict. "It's an inefficient use of engineering power resources and I'm sure it consumes some of her time up which could be used for more productive things. I guess we'll never know. I wonder if they've killed her yet. That traitor." Clone Finn mused as she completed the device setup.

Xavier came back a few minutes later, "that's better," he said. "Too much coffee I think. How's our boy looking? Any change in the readings?" He tried to keep his voice as even as possible, but this was the experiment and now it was time for the results.

"It doesn't look like a hatching sequence from what I can tell from these scans. It looks more like he's....agitated? Though I can't place why. Maybe we need to play around more with the calculations. What do you think?" She asked, oblivious to the other experiment he had set up.

"Agreed," Xavier said as he moved closer to the workstation. "Hopefully the ion phase inverter will give us more answers." Though he had already guessed the answer, Benedict was reacting badly to Finn, the question was why? What was the space creature trying to tell him? Or maybe he was shooting the gun a little, maybe he was reacting to Finn being female or blond or human. However, he had never done this before, not to Xavier's knowledge at least. What did it all mean?

"Don't worry boy, we'll figure this out," the Betazoid said as his mind raced with possibilities.