Third order of business...

Posted on Tue Aug 23rd, 2011 @ 2:41am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant Commander Aral Aix & Senior Chief Petty Officer Julia Neral

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Astrometrics Lab, Deck 5, USS Arizona

Commodore Nathan Cowell made the short jaunt from the Main Engineering enclave to the Astrometrics Lab, the destination One had singled out as being the drop off point of the member of the Science Team who had gone with them. It didn't take as long to traverse the corridors as it normally did, given that he was being tailed by a Borg drone. No one on the crew wanted to get in Nathan's way at that moment, not sure what was transpiring that would have caused such an unusual scene. As Nathan entered the lab, he was greeted with the sight of Lieutenant Commander Aix looking over the drone that was standing in the center of the room while Senior Chief Neral occupied herself with uploading the information she'd managed to get from the surface before they were so rudely relocated.

"Miss Neral," Nathan said as he approached the woman, "How was your side trip?"

Julia raised an eyebrow slightly as she looked up from the screen. "Quite fascinating, and quite fruitful. Though it was terminated in a rather startling fashion." She had just been looking at a particularly interesting piece of technology when the sudden transport had occurred, displacing her from the surface and dropping her off here.

Nathan looked back behind him to One, who was standing passively, waiting for Nathan to require her services, "Which drone is he?"

"That unit is designated Nine," the female drone responded promptly.

"Thanks..." Nathan offered up a hint of gratitude before returning his attention to the Senior Chief, "See anything worth while?"

"Oh, quite a few things worthy of further study. And probably a couple more that didn't immediately draw attention, but which the scans picked up." Julia glanced back at the screen before returning her attention to the humanoids in the room. The computer was currently occupied with compiling all the data she had gathered and cross-referencing it with current databases.

"Any specific items of interest?" the Commodore asked as he lowered himself into an adjacent chair.

"A lot of the information is still waiting to be processed." Julia gestured at the computer screen. "But those transporters were definitely interesting. I had my tricorder running when they pulled us off the planet, so that should yield some interesting data." She leaned in to look at a readout for a moment. "And then we have our friends." She gave him a wry half smile and gestured at the drones.

Aral Aix, having recovered from the initial shock of encountering a Borg drone, had spent the previous twenty minutes studying Nine of Seventeen in minute detail both visually and with his tricorder. "What an abomination." He muttered under his breath as he once again circled it with intense interest, "So grotesque it's almost beautiful." He had yet to address the drone verbally, having decided to treat it like an EMH, a vastly intelligent and resourceful tool but probably terrible as an interlocutor.

So deep was Aral's interest in the cybernetic automaton that stood at the center of his astrometrics lab he had barely noticed the Commodore's entrance. Aral Aix poked at his tricorder and then poked the impassive drone in the face with the tricorder. "Now that, that is interesting."

The fact that Aix was engrossed in his study of the drone didn't bother Nathan nearly as much as the fact that he'd ignored the old man entirely. There were just some things that just would not fly, as far as Nathan was concerned, and that was one of them.

"Nine," Nathan suddenly spoke up, "Take that damn tricorder away from him so he'll pay some damn attention to what's around him."

The drone, having been impassive and motionless the entire time he'd been in the astrometrics lab, suddenly lashed out and snatched the device free of Aral's hand. Nine then approached the Commodore and produced the device for him to take at his leisure. Nathan could say what he wanted about how wrong the whole 'Collective' thing was... he had to admit the obedience was a plus.

"Thank you, Nine," Nathan said as he took the tricorder and tossed it on the console next to him, "Now, are you ready to listen, Spots?"

Feeling like an admonished schoolboy for the second time in an hour Aral offered a meek "Sir" in acquiescence.

Perched on a stool she had moved over in front of the console, Julia looked off to the side at her screen and away from both men for a moment to allow herself a small mirthful grin. She had her expression back to normal by the time she looked up again, though her eyes still twinkled slightly.

One screen was currently displaying the results of the comparisons between her tricorder scans and current Borg information, while another more directly in front of her showed various reports in further detail which she was reading and annotating. Still paying attention to the Commodore as she waited, she continued her work.

Nathan looked over at One, who was still standing near him staring obliviously in front of herself, "One, care to elaborate for the egg heads here what Nine's function is while he's with us?"

"Nine is designated as a technological adaptation drone. Given the unit's former occupation as a scientist prior to assimilation, Nine is best suited to explain in detail the pending modifications to this vessel as well as explain upgrades in sensor technology as well as providing your Science collective with updated star charts and navigational information that have been gained by us through exploration and assimilation," the drone reported.

"See there, I've managed to nab you guys an Encyclopedia Borg-tanica... and you don't even have to shell out a couple hundred bucks to get it either. And, as an added bonus, you don't need to clear off a whole book shelf to store him in when you aren't using him. Ain't I just so thoughtful? Anyway, take full advantage of it while he's here and willing to help," Nathan said with a hint of sarcasm.

Aral repressed a shudder as he listened to the less-than corporeal voice of the Commodore's pet drone. "Upgrades, to the Arizona do you have in mind?" The Second Officer asked, carefully keeping his tone as neutral as possible.

"Well where the hell else are we going to put them, up your ass?" the Commodore asked sarcastically.

Aix raised an eyebrow. "Some of us upgrade our 'ass' every seventy years or so without Borg assistance." Realizing he was already far from the Commodore's good books he tried to bring the meeting back round to relevance. "Which ship systems? What changes?"

"Shields and hull upgrades will be the biggest actual changes, but they have offered to give us some hints on how to develop other things. Use the time wisely is all I can say," the old man said.

Aral nodded. "The power distribution systems will need to be enhanced to cope with major changes to the shields and structural integrity fields." The inefficiency in power generation and distribution in the Prometheus class had been a professional obsession of Aral's for years. "I wonder what they could do for the lateral sensor array..."

"I've already talked to Engineering about the power issues," Nathan replied flatly, "But I'm sure that Nine will be happy to help you with your sensors."

"What do you want us working on?" Aral asked after a moment of reflection.

"Work on getting us as many advantages out of this alliance as you can from your end," the Commodore said bluntly, "And keep me posted. We don't have a whole lot of time on this. Once we get what we've traded for, we'll be on our way back to Earth. I want to find out just how bad this whole conflict has been and what it is we're meant to do around here in this crazy timeline so we can expedite our going home. Make it happen, Spots."

Without waiting for a reply, both Nathan and One departed the lab, leaving the two science officers to their work.