Sometimes Good Things Come in Small Packages

Posted on 04/25/2013 @ 5:40am by Fleet Captain Allen Samji & Lt. Commander Kletan Rexil & Lieutenant JG Stephanie Decatur
Edited on on 05/03/2013 @ 1:18pm

Mission: From the Ashes
Location: Lotus Starbase
Timeline: July 3 - July 18, 2410

July 3rd, 2410, 0412 Hours (Stardate 87501.8)

Research Lab 13, Lotus Starbase

 

“Lieutenant Junior Grade Decatur” the voice of her team lead caused the small trill woman to almost jump out of her skin. She had spent the last three hours hunched over a science console in her team’s office aboard Lotus Starbase. She pulled herself away from her work to turn and face the Lieutenant Commander in charge of several science teams, including hers.

“Yes, sir?” She asked genuinely inquisitive. He didn’t show up unannounced often, in fact not since the last time when he had interrupted her team’s work on the nanites about a month ago. He had surprised her and caused her to fumble a set of nanites that took her more than a week to design, replicate, and program. She had dropped them and yelled at him. It was clearly an emotional reaction that happened before she even realized who had interrupted her. He had forgiven her with only a verbal reprimand, but she still felt totally uneasy in his presence; afraid she’d do something else to offend him.

“How’s the work coming?” He asked calmly, “And hasn’t your shift been over for six hours?”

“Yes, sir, it has...” she said shyly. “I…Well, here, look.” She motioned him over and began tapping the console again. She had just finished designing a new group of nanites specifically designed to enhance the functionality of bio-neural circuitry. She had just started the simulation of releasing them into an Vesta Class Starship’s systems.

“What am I looking at, Lieutenant?” He asked as he leaned over the table to look at the display that he found much too short for him. It was the perfect height for her though.

“I designed these based on a set from…well, from a month ago.” She said, feeling idiotic for bringing that up. “Anyway…these might be even better…” She pointed to an area of the display, “Watch the data-flow rate from the ships sensors as they approach maximum capacity.” They stood in silence for several moments as the simulation played out. The simulation had the ships forward sensor array at 110% of maximum gain, enough to cause a slight bottleneck in the system’s analysis and organization of data through the ships bio-neural circuitry before sending it to the bridge. On the display next to it was the identical situation but with her nanites installed directly in the circuitry. The ship with nanites had the information to the bridge almost 30% faster.

“That’s impressive, Lieutenant.” He said calmly and straightened up.

“Commander, Look what happens when it’s even more intensive.” She said calmly, starting another simulation. He looked at her a moment, having listened to the reports of her fellow officers for the last few months had given him the impression she was passionate about her work but somewhat difficult to work with. She had graduated the Academy with honors and it wasn’t disputed by anyone that worked with her that she wasn’t excellent at her job.

She just needed to work on those social skills, he thought with a smirk as he leaned back over to watch the simulation. It progressed as the other one. This time the ship was at Red Alert, and all combat and long range sensors were running. The lateral and forward arrays were running a full, detailed scan running at maximum gain. The side by side was very clear: The ship without nanites was having a major data-flow bottleneck causing the data to run through analysis slowly due to the drain from other systems on processing and flow power through the bio-neural circuits. It was just passing it’s 50% complete mark when the other ship had completed it’s scans and the data was compiled and available for the bridge officers. The increase in speed was nearly 90%.

“The effect seems to be exponential, sir. The more the system is stressed, the better these things do.” She had a silly grin on her face. A month of non-stop work for her was a small price to pay for the breakthrough she just made. Most people overlooked nanites as practical tools because of their size, and the fact that it took tens-of-trillions of them in the simulation to work appropriately, but the gain, to her, seemed worth it.

The Lieutenant Commander chuckled at the way she was almost bouncing with excitement at seeing a scientific breakthrough in her work. “Good job, Lieutenant...now get some sleep. Your shift starts in a few hours, doesn’t it?”

She looked at the console and read the time quickly before nodding, “Yes sir…I guess I just let time get away from me…” her voice trailed off as she turned and shut down the simulation. “Sir?” she said as he turned to leave.

“Yes, Lieutenant?” He asked as he approached the doors and they slid open with a quiet hiss to allow his egress.

“When do you think I can get these live-tested?” She asked hopefully. She pulled an isolinear data-chip with the schematic for the nanites and held it in front of her as if displaying what she wanted to test.

“Good night, Lieutenant Decatur.” He said calmly as he turned and made his way out of the small lab and into the corridor.

She felt her face drop into a pout before turning around and plugging the chip back into the lab console to start tweaking the design to see if she could get any more performance out of her newest invention. “I said, ‘Good night,’ Lieutenant.” Came the commander’s voice through the door.

Making a frustrated sigh she groaned and pulled the chip back out and hurried from the lab, passing the lieutenant commander in the hall she blushed slightly and hurried toward her quarters.

 

 

July 3^rd, 2410, 1030 Hours (Stardate 87502.5)

Lotus Starbase

 

Lieutenant Junior Grade Decatur was grinning ear to ear as she made her way out of the science lab. She’d just gotten permission to run a dedicated run of simulations on one of the stations holodecks. She tapped her combadge, “Decatur to Ensign T’mur.” She said calmly.

“T’mur here, Lieutenant.” Came the calm reply through the comm.

“Meet me in holodeck seven; I just got the go-ahead on our nanite project.” Stephanie said as she almost bounced down the corridor with excitement.

“Aknowledged.” T’mur’s voice came back across the comm. The Vulcan science officer had spent the past few months working with Lieutenant Decatur on her concept of using nanites to increase data flow throughout a starship. Most non-science personnel didn’t see the purpose since most ship systems worked rather well already, but any science officer knew that the delay time in sensor analysis due to processing and data lag was the bane of their existence. Every other station on the bridge was almost instantaneous in every operation, but science still suffered a slight lag during complex analysis. The lag was compounded when the ship’s systems resources were divided, as operations chiefs tended to do.

Several minutes later T’mur entered the large holodeck doors to find Stephanie working very quickly at the control arch to program in the parameters for the first test. Stephanie jumped as the doors opened, “Oh, hi.” She said calmly, “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Lieutenant.” T’mur replied as she approached who she still considered her eccentric superior officer. Stephanie had earned her respect several times over just in her brilliance alone. Although most of the rest of the science team they worked on would rather not be assigned to her projects, T’mur couldn’t find a fault with her. She did notice that Stephanie tended to speak a little out of turn or say things that seemed to offend others, but being a Vulcan, she never took offense to the smaller woman’s failures at social niceties. On the contrary, she found the blatant and unabashed honesty from her comrade to be refreshing on a station with so many other species.

“We’re ready now.” Stephanie said, backing away from the panel. She stood almost shoulder-height to the Vulcan woman who had joined her. “Computer,” she spoke aloud, “Prepare simulation, Decatur Y-1 Test” The holodeck dissolved and was replaced with the interior of a Yellowstone runabout. “Here,” Said the lieutenant as she shoved a small isolinear chip into T’mur’s hand. “Let’s get started.” She led the way to the main engineering console. T’mur spent the next several hours preparing, programming, tweaking, and installing the nanites into the ships modified bio-neural circuitry. To make the test as authentic and viable as possible, they had to manually install the nanites as they would on-board a real ship.

“I believe we are ready.” T’mur’s voice rang out like music to Stephanie’s ears.

“Computer, Begin simulation.” Stephanie said and the consoles suddenly came to life.

“Lieutenant, we appear to be in a small trinary star-system.” T’mur reported as she tapped the console gathering data readings while Stephanie was manning the operations station, monitoring the test data.

“Detailed analysis on all three stars. Let’s see how these nanites hold up.” Stephanie said unable to contain the excitement in her voice.

 

 

July 5^th, 2410, 0830 Hours (Stardate 87507.7)

The office of Lieutenant Commander Rexil, Lotus Starbase

 

After two very long days of running dozens of simulations on the Yellowstone Class runabout, Nova Class science ships, and even one on a Vesta Class vessel Stephanie Decatur found herself standing before the Chief Science Officer on board the Starbase providing a report and petitioning for permission to continue testing her experimental technology.

“All I’m asking for is a chance to test it, sir.” Lieutenant Junior Grade Stephanie Decatur stood beside T’mur in the lieutenant commander’s office somewhat exacerbated. He had denied her request to modify a Yellowstone runabout as a first-phase live-test of her nanite data flow enhancement.

“There is concern that too much can go wrong.” Lieutenant Commander Kletan Rexil responded. He felt some sympathy with what he saw as a somewhat out of place, and much younger joined trill. He knew that it wasn’t just the host that was young; her symbiote was relatively young and inexperienced as well. “The chance of spontaneous sentience, for example.” He added, still reviewing the report they had completed for him on his PADD.

“That is no longer an issue, Commander.” The calm and even voice of the Vulcan junior science officer surprised him, she had been silent and allowing Stephanie take the lead until now. It was obvious that Stephanie was getting exacerbated and frustrated by his delaying her to everyone in the room. “If you’ll read page three of our report, sir,” continued T’mur, “You’ll note that Lieutenant Decatur has programmed in a fail-safe. They are limited in their combined neural connections. It limits the effectiveness of the technology, but it also stops them short of the chance to become self-aware.”

Rexil took a few minutes to look over the section in question. T’mur stood stoically, waiting patiently for him to finish. Stephanie was shifting her weight from foot to foot and fidgeting with her hands., visibly nervous and impatient without really meaning to be. To Stephanie it was an obvious failsafe that she had put in without a second thought, how could anyone think she’d be so stupid as to allow that kind of error to slip through unnoticed?

Stephanie saw T’mur’s sideways glance and arched eyebrow at her, the signal that the Vulcan had developed to tell her that she was doing it again. She clasped her hands together and forced herself to stop moving. It was like there was an expanding energy well inside her threatening to burst out.

“Very well…” Rexil finally spoke, “Decatur, I’m going to assign and engineer to help you make the modifications to the…” he paused and checked the runabout roster, “U.S.S. Bay Tree and get her online. See what kind of gains we’re looking at and make a report. I’ll submit your request for testing aboard a Nova-class. If it goes smoothly we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Stephanie was visibly elated, “Thank you sir!” she almost squeaked before rushing out of the compartment before even being dismissed.

T’mur was her usual stoic self, “Thank you, sir.” She seemed to agree and turned to leave before being stopped by the lieutenant commander.

“Ensign…just a moment.”

“Sir?” T’mur said, turning back around inquisitively.

“I need you to try to keep her in check. Lieutenant Decatur is nothing short of a genius, but she has some other issues that could potentially destroy her career…or worse.” He said calmly. He wondered if T’mur understood what a stigma that would put on the Decatur Symbiote after Stephanie was gone. “Just…try to keep her grounded, Ensign, she seems to respond to your people more than to her own.”

T’mur took a moment to absorb this information. She too had noticed Stephanie’s affinity for Vulcans. She had come to appreciate the company of her quirky friend and knew that, for some reason, Stephanie didn’t seem comfortable when surrounded by the other species on the station. “I believe that she appreciates the logical approach that Vulcans tend to have in all facets of life. She speaks her mind even if it is sometimes not popular and, I will admit, sometimes not necessary. However, as you said, the Lieutenant is intelligent, and capable of caring for herself.” She paused, looking into the eyes of the trill in front of her, “Commander, I will endeavor to keep her from getting into trouble.” She reassured him.

“Thank you, Ensign.” He responded, “dismissed.”

With a nod T’mur turned and left his office tapping her combadge. “Computer, locate Lieutenant Decatur.”

“Lieutenant Decatur is on Deck Seven, Section 12.” The computer responded. She’s going to be heading for the U.S.S. Bay Tree,  She thought.

 

 

July 6^th, 2410, 1720 Hours (Stardate 87511.5)

Lotus Starbase

 

Lieutenant Commander Rexil was in his office finishing the report written by Lieutenant Decatur and Ensign T’mur. Apparently the tests aboard the runabout went well. They only improved analysis time by a marginal 14.8 percent on average aboard the runnabout, but it was a signal that the technology could work.  He was impressed with how fast the two worked as a team. By the time he had finished the very to-the-point report, he began looking over the ship manifests. He had already received clearance to approve a test aboard a Nova Class, now he just had to choose one.

The U.S.S. Aunis had just finished a refit at the Starbase and allowing it’s crew to enjoy some R & R. She was the right ship at the right time.

Stephanie meanwhile was preparing for what she expected would be her second live-test of the performance enhancing nanites she had created. T’mur had left her side briefly to eat dinner after spending almost ten minutes arguing the logical reasons why Stephanie should take a break and eat with her. Defeated by the illogical argument ‘I don’t feel like eating right now’ T’mur had departed alone from their science lab. Stephanie was interrupted in the middle of finishing a batch of nanites and transporting them to a containment case by the com beeping. “Rexil to Decatur.”

“Decatur here, Commander.” She said as if to no-one, still working at the console.

“The U.S.S. Anuis is docked and just finished a refit and repair. I’ve already spoken to Captain Nelson, you’re cleared to begin modifications to the bio-neural circuitry at your convenience, no later than tomorrow morning at 0800. The ship will be departing the station in two days, so you have a limited window of opportunity here.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I’ll get it done.” Stephanie said as she was already programing a site-to-site transport to transport herself and her nanites onto the Anuis directly from the lab. She planned on being done by 0800 tomorrow and ready to begin testing. She had to prove this technology would work, and that meant being prepared for any problems that often plagued live-tests. Time wasn’t on her side.

Minutes later she was materializing on the transporter pad of the U.S.S. Anuis along with her nanites, much to the surprise of the transporter crewman assigned there. She tapped her combadge ignoring the look of shock of the crewman double checking his panel as if to ensure he didn’t just transport someone. “Lieutenant Decatur to Captain Nelson.”

“Nelson here, I’ve been expecting to hear from you Lieutenant.” The voice was gravely but somehow kind, “Commander Rexil tells me you’ve got some enhancements to make to our systems. I believe we’re scheduled to begin by 0800 tomorrow? I’ll have my crew ready for you by then.”

“Actually Captain, I’m aboard now.” She said stepping off the transporter pad, “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to begin tonight.”

“Gamma shift is on a skeleton crew right now due to shore leave, Lieutenant, I’m sure you can appreciate that.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll only need minimal assistance. There should be an Ensign T’mur beaming aboard soon to assist me as well.” She seemed a little worried he’d deny her desire to start early.

“Suit yourself, Lieutenant, let me know if you need anything.” He responded before the channel went dead.

“Crewman, give me a hand.” She said to the bolean standing at transporter controls as she turned and grabbed one of the two large grey cases similar to suitcases. They housed the containment pods full of her nanite creations.

 

 

Twenty minutes later:

Ensign T’mur entered the science lab where she had left Lieutenant Decatur and looked around at the barren room for a moment before tapping her combadge. “Computer, locate Lieutenant Junior Grade Decatur.”

“Lieutenant Decatur is not onboard the station.”

Intriguing, She thought, “Computer, what was the time and manner in which she left the station.”

“Lieutenant Decatur left the station via remote transport at 1722 hours.”

“Her destination?” Inquired T’mur calmly, this wasn’t the first time Stephanie had been too excited to tell her what was happening.

“U.S.S. Aunis, main transporter room” came the computer’s reply again. T’mur approached one of the consoles and opened a communication channel to the ship. She waited for the officer on board the Aunis to respond to the automated Starfleet frequency hail.

“U.S.S. Aunis here.” Came a female voice with a thin English accent.

“This is Ensign T’mur aboard Lotus Starbase. Has a Lieutenant Junior Grade Staphanie Decatur beamed aboard your vessel?” she asked matter-of-factly.

“Yes, Ensign, she said we should be expecting you as well.” The woman on the other end sounded slightly confused

“Indeed. T’mur out.” The Vulcan sighed slightly as she closed the channel before walking back into the corridor toward the transporter room on that deck. Unlike Stephanie, the Vulcan had the patience to walk to a transporter pad instead of programming a remote transport. Besides, it was logical to allow a specialist operate the transporter whenever possible.

She caught up to Stephanie, who was already busy at work aboard the Aunis, about ten minutes later. T’mur entered the Jefferies tube on deck 3 to come face to face with Stephanie. “Ahh, Ensign, glad you’re here. This section is done.” Stephanie was saying, still grinning wildly at the chance to see her nanites in use aboard a starship.

“I expect you intend to pull another ‘all-nighter’ as you call it?” T’mur asked as she moved away from the entrance to allow Stephanie to enter the maintenance shaft.

Stephanie nodded, “Definitely. I want this to be set up by 0800 hours so they can start testing. We only have two days.” She said as she bent down to grab another small cylindrical vial of nanites from the open case. “Take the other case down to deck 4 and start there, I’ll finish this deck.” T’mur only responded by action. She lifted the second large case that Stephanie had gestured to and began down the maintenance shaft ladder. The result of her work, she admitted, would be gratifying.

July 7^th, 0852 Hours (Stardate 87513.3)

USS Aunis, Nova-Class in dry-dock at Lotus Starbase

 

Stephanie crawled out of the Jefferies tube into main engineering. She rested her hands in balled fists behind her

Stephanie crawled out of the Jefferies tube into main engineering. She rested her hands in balled fists on either side of her lower back just above her belt-line before arching her back. More than twelve hours inside the crawlspaces of the Nova-class ship was enough to even make her feel cramped. She straightened herself up and tapped her combadge with a sigh, “Decatur to T’mur.

“T’mur here, Lieutenant.”

“How’s it coming on your end?”

“I am about to finish the last of my assigned access ports.” The Vulcan’s tone was always calm and even, something that always impressed Stephanie in spite of her knowledge of the Vulcan culture.

“Good, Meet me on the bridge when you’re done. We’ll get these little guys online and see what they can do for real.” Stephanie said grinning as she closed the now-empty case that had housed the inert nanites before their installation into the Aunis.

“Acknowledged” T’mur replied. She was always thrown off a little by Stephanie’s insistence to refer to nanites as ‘little guys’ or some variation, as if they were sentient.

Stephanie made her way to the turbolift quickly, she was already behind the timetable she had set for herself, and starting to feel the drag from not working all night. “Bridge” she said as the doors closed behind her. She took a moment and looked down at her uniform as the soft hum of movement and inertial dampeners signaled she would be on the bridge in less than a minute. She cursed herself for not bringing a spare uniform. The ship wasn’t dirty, but her uniform was wrinkled from being in the ships crawl-spaces for so long and had a stain here and burn there along the arms from when she would get too close to a plasma conduit or line. She sighed and ran her hand along the top of her short faux-hawk haircut. At least her hair was in order, even if it barely fit in regulations.

The turbolift doors swished open and she stepped onto the bridge. The small circular room had only four officers in it. The Captain was leaning over one of the engineering consoles, a Lieutenant wearing the a yellow uniform was beside him, and two ensigns at other stations along the back wall of the bridge. All eyes were on her as she stood on the bridge, looking a bit disheveled after such a long night. She couldn’t help but want to turn around and walk back onto the lift and hide. Taking a deep breath she fought the instinct and stepped forward extending a hand to the human captain, “Captain, Stephanie Decatur. I’ve finished the installation and will be ready to activate the nanites in just a few minutes….with your permission sir?”

The captain looked at her and took in her small stature and smirked. “Have you been working all night, Lieutenant?” he asked wondering why he didn’t have a science officer that was so chipper after pulling a 20+ hour shift.

“Yes, sir. On duty since 0800 yesterday morning. If I may…” She was interrupted by the hiss of the turbolift doors opening behind her. She turned to see T’mur step off the lift to step beside her.

“Permission to enter the bridge, sir.” T’mur said calmly.

“Granted. Don’t tell me you’ve been working all night too?”

“Yes, sir.” She answered tersely and elaborated when the Captain raised an eyebrow, “As you are no doubt aware, Vulcan physiology allows my people to maintain a focus for longer periods than humans.”

“That’s not true of Trill from what I know…” He said, looking to the very obviously tired Lietenant Decatur.

“I’ve gotten used to it, sir.” Stephanie said with a small smile. She knew she had worked hard to build her stamina to keep up with her Vulcan friends, and was very proud of the fact that she could focus longer than most non-vulcans, even if she didn’t quite have their stamina yet.

“Well then, I won’t make you wait…but Lieutenant, Ensign…” he said looking between the two, “Make sure you get some sleep today.”

“Aye, sir.” The two women said in unison. Stephanie took the lead to the main engineering console to allow the captain the opportunity to observe her activating and calibrating the nanites remotely. She began the process of getting them all online and optimizing their integration and placement throughout the system.

 

 

July 18^th, 0021 Hours, 2410 (Stardate 87545.2)

Research Lab 13, Lotus Starbase

Stephanie was re-reading her report for what had to be the twelfth time. The captain of the Aunis was now enjoying a very nice thirty-seven percent increase in sensor retrieval and analysis time.  Something that she was hoping would convince Fleet Captain Samji to allow her to proceed. She just had to see if the effects would scale as predicted. A Vesta class ship would see gains of seventy percent or better. Some of the larger cruisers would get more than a 100% increase of sensor and analysis efficiency if the projections proved true.

Lieutenant Decatur had been ordered by Lieutenant Commander Rexil to compile the data gathered from the systems after the launch of the Aunis and analyze the results for this report. She had submitted two other reports to him in the interim which he had deemed insufficient due to the lack of an adequate data sample size.

She tapped the console in front of her and sent the report to Lieutenant Commander Rexil, and a copy to Fleet Captain Samji. She didn’t like going over Rexil’s head, and didn’t feel that she was…after all he would want to be informed on her progress, wouldn’t he? She could only assume that Rexil wasn’t passing the information, and subsequent request to test a larger vessel, along to Samji.

Instantly she regretted sending it to Samji as well. She double checked, Damn! She thought as she closed out the LCARS program, Too late now…

She picked up her PADD from the side of the console and slowly walked out of the lab with a feeling of dread. She was suddenly second guessing herself and wondering what other questionable decisions she’d made in the last few days. She’d gotten so excited about the nanites. She took the turbolift to one of the crew decks and stepped off of it.

She was questioning everything, fighting to reassure herself as she slowly made her way through the quiet corridors toward her quarters.

But that’s because they work, she reminded herself. What if they don’t scale in efficiency like the projections? … Nonsense, I ran the simulations dozens of times … but still, what if the fail-safes don’t work … They could take over the ship they’re on … That’s irrational, I programed them myself … But that’s what they’re afraid of … Maybe they don’t think I’m ready ... That’s ridiculous … … is it?

She groaned as she tapped the lock to enter her small junior officer quarters and entered. The lights automatically increased their illumination and she dropped her pad on the floor as she made her way right to the bed. She collapsed into it and in a barely audible whisper moaned “Computer…lights off.” She hadn’t even removed her uniform and lay there silent and still until sleep took her. She only had a short six-and-a-half hours to sleep before her alarm woke her rudely.

At that moment, Fleet Captain Samji was just sitting down in his office with a strong cup of the Klingon coffee Raktajino, and began his morning routine of reading the various reports of the previous day's activities. In the normal operating procedure only the starbase commander's senior staff would submit reports directly to him. He realized that this day would be an exception, however, and shook his head as he read over the report from Lieutenant Junior Grade Stephanie Decatur about her nanite project.

He, of course, was following the results of the project closely, having been filled in daily by his Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Commander Rexil. He called that very person into his office from the adjoining Operations room of Lotus Starbase.

"Good morning, Fleet Captain," said the Trill science officer with a smile.

"Morning to you, Mister Rexil," Samji responded, as he passed the PADD containing Decatur's report over the desk. "Can you explain why this came directly to me this morning?"

Rexil frowned, causing the small black dots along the side of his forehead to lower, as he read over the report. "It looks like what I received, Captain. Of course, I would have filled you in as I usually do."

He shrugged and placed the PADD down, saying, "It seems we have an overzealous, young Nanotechnologist."

Samji grinned. "Good. I like where this research is going, and it seems like we need to move to field tests, wouldn't you agree?"

"I would say so. The risk at this point is minimal. The data has been thoroughly tested with the proper redundancies and safeguards put in place. I was hard on her as you requested to make sure that there would be no mistakes."

Samji nodded, enthusiastically and replied, "Good to hear. This is untested territory, so we have to tread carefully." His voice turning more serious, he said, "As for the Chain of Command, I'll make sure she's as versed at that as her nanite research. Dismissed."

Rexil nodded and left the office allowing Samji to open a channel directly to Decatur's quarters. "Lieutenant, Fleet Captain Samji here. Please report to my office first thing."

He knew a direct call like that first thing in the morning would likely put the fear in a young officer of being surrounded by a dozen Borg drones, but he felt that every once in a while a Starfleet Officer, especially one as brilliant as Stephanie Decatur, needed to be... what was the expression? brought down to Earth, he thought. Not particularly apt at her current location, but that was the idea

Stephanie had just shut off her alarm and rolled over to lay on her back when the comm beeped and she heard Fleet Captain Samji’s order to report to him. Her eyes shot open and she groggily shouted, “Right away sir!” She looked down at the wrinkled uniform she had slept in and groaned, knowing he wouldn’t want to be kept waiting.

Running to her closet as she pulled her uniform shirt off and was half-hopping out of her pants. She hurriedly donned a fresh uniform wishing desperately that she had time for a quick sonic shower. She raced into her adjoining bathroom and wetted her hands before fixing her mess of short hair into what had become her trademark faux-hawk style. It was still messy, but she knew she was out of time. The resulting Lieutenant that left her quarters was very apparently still groggy, and while her uniform was in order, her appearance was not nearly as neat as she was used to.

She literally ran the length of corridor to the turbolift on her crew deck and shoved a benzite ensign out of the way as she barged past him onto the lift he had just exited. “Command offices.” She said to the turbolift as she straightened her uniform as well as she could. She had instantly regretted CCing a copy of her report to the starbase commander, but now she realized just how big of a mistake she made. Great, Steph, now you’ve done it. She berated herself, This’ll probably go in your permanent record. ‘Stephanie Decatur, breaching the chain of command.’ Dezeroll would be so proud. She thought grimly, remembering her former host, Dezeroll Decatur, who ended his career as a Master Sergeant in the Starfleet Marines. He would have never allowed himself such an indiscretion as she had done less than twelve hours before.

As the lift doors opened she sprinted to the Captain Samji’s office and halted to a walking pace as she pulled the bottom of her shirt down to straighten it. She put her best brave face on and pressed the control panel beside the automatic doors to request entry.

"Enter," came the forceful, authoritative voice of the Fleet Captain through the double doors between the office's anteroom and the office proper.

Stephanie stepped into the office and briskly walked to the front of his desk. She stood at attention behind the two chairs in front of his desk. "You wanted to see me, sir?" She asked as calmly as she could. Her heart was racing.

Samji was standing, his back turned to her as he gazed out the window which had been positioned just right to view parts of both the majestic USS Horizon, and the stalwart USS Phoenix. He turned to respond. "Yes, Lieutenant, please have a seat," he replied in a calm, yet professional tone.

She swallowed hard, knowing that was probably a bad sign, "If it's all right I'll stand, sir." She felt small already and simply didn't want to make it worse by sitting down while he stood.

Samji shrugged, and said, "Suit yourself." As if anticipating her protestation, he himself elected to sit, and leaned back in a casual gesture, even crossing one leg over the other and with both elbows resting on the armrests of the comfortable office chair, he clasped his hands together and looked on to her thoughtfully, as if he was on his own Captain's chair on the bridge.

"You've made quite a bit of progress on your nanite research. Quite impressive," he said, eyebrows raising. He then leaned forward to pick up a PADD from his desk, he held it up while saying,  "Having received your latest report... twice, from Lieutenant Commander Rexil and yourself, I am quite versed on the subject now." He then looked again at the report, and without making direct eye contact with the Nanotechnologist, said, "Is there something in here you felt needed my urgent and immediate attention, Lieutenant?"

She blushed as she listened to him. She mentally kicked herself again for her impulsive mistake. "No sir." She said simply, still trying to put on a brave face. The blue spots on her neck seemed to bring attention to her embarrassment by contrasting the changing color. “It was an error in judgment, sir.”

"Very well," Samji said with a sigh and placed the PADD back on his desk. "You understand that as the commander of this starbase, I have to trust my senior officers, implicitly, with no hesitation. And they need to feel that trust is there. If they become aware of any messages that are not of an extreme, dire emergency coming directly to me from the junior staff, they may feel that my trust in them has been lost for some reason. I can't have that happening."

He frowned, and his voice continued to rise slightly, but not to a point any close to what could be considered shouting. It certainly wasn't a court martial-able offense, after all.

Finally he said, "As a matter of fact, my CSO was forwarding to me every piece of information and submitted request on this project, and the decision to hold off on further tests was mine alone. This will not go on your Starfleet record, but I expect you to follow the proper Chain of Command from now on, is that understood?"

She seemed to visibly sigh with relief when he informed her that she wasn't being officially reprimanded. She waited for him to finish before she answered, "Yes sir. It won't happen again sir." She did seem emotionally deflated despite her attempt to hide her emotions. She felt that this indiscretion would only re-solidify his hesitation to let her continue on live-testing of the nanites. In spite of her emotional roller-coaster, she stood as stoically as she could, intent on weathering the storm before being dismissed.

He looked at her with a softer expression, and said more calmly, "Good to hear, Lieutenant! Now, with that out of the way, tell me about this request to perform further tests on a larger starship. What objectives do you hope will be met by these tests that have not already succeeded on the Aunis?"

Stephanie spoke automatically, “As the report stated, sir, the nanites in every test we’ve done show an exponential improvement with the scale of the system they are imbedded into. The Runabout showed only minimal improvement in computer and network response times, but the Aunis showed marked improvement. The size difference between the vessels is substantial. I’ve run numerous simulations on larger vessels, namely the Vesta Class. All projections lead to almost doubling the network speeds.” She wasn’t hopeful that her case would get her anywhere, despite how fervently she believed in it. He was gracious enough not to put the reprimand in her record, the last thing she wanted to do was get her hopes up. The best she hoped for was a few more weeks of simulations before she’d even get a response.

Samji nodded, as she restated almost word for word what was in her report. He really didn't need to hear it again, but he was impressed at the way she was able to so quickly put emotions aside and "get down to business" as the Earth expression went, after being so harshly dressed down by a senior officer. It was a behavior he looked for when deciding on viable senior officer candidates, because when things happened out on a starship, they happened quickly, and, at times they could be quite emotional. He made a mental note of this for later.

In fact, he had already decided to let the tests be performed on the USS Phoenix, which had arrived at the starbase two weeks earlier. The ship was the second biggest vessel they had available at Lotus Starbase, and her new captain was a Science Officer, so he couldn't think of a better opportunity. The only reason he didn't approve it sooner was because the ship had still been in the stages of receiving a massive overhaul to add additional science components. It was also projected to take at least another week or two to finish them. He did not want an overhaul as well as an experiment to occur at the same time.

He explained all this to Decatur, and said, "Therefore, you will please report to Captain Syntron and wait for his final approval before moving forward on the tests, and only when he is comfortable that it will not interfere with his other upgrades. Until that point, you may continue to do as many simulations as you need to in the Starbase's science lab."

Stephanie’s composure was broken when he began explaining that he had already made the decision to approve her project. She looked at him dumbfounded for a moment before she recovered and he finished explaining the complexities of the situation aboard the Phoenix.



“Aye, sir.” She said numbly as he gave her orders to report to Captain Syntron aboard the Phoenix. “Th- Thank you sir.” She added still a bit frazzled by the entire meeting. She was being handed an ‘even better’ alternative to her request and couldn’t quite believe it.

Samji nodded and then watched, slightly amused as the young officer just stood there awkwardly after stammering a "thank you". The tense pause continued until it was broken by Samji saying, "You're dismissed, Lieutenant."

She blinked rapidly a few times before regaining the position of attention, doing an about-face that gave away her symbiote’s past as a marine and marched back out of the room with a strange awkward feeling overlaying her emotions. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. She had expected the verbal reprimand, possibly a few questions about the product, but to be given the go-ahead. She had a lot to do today…but first, she needed to head back to her quarters for a sonic shower and to get into a new uniform.

 

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