Pilot Episode, Act II

"With all due respect, Lieutenant," says McCurry, "the impediment is a needless emphasis on the letter of the law, rather than the intent of the law. Lieutenant Blakeney was clearly in the process of transferring to his position as the Operations Officer of this starship when the hazardous material paperwork was filed. To jeopardize the timely commencement of our stated mission from Admiral Hamilton on a technicality is unconscionable."

She grips the back of the captain's chair hard enough to turn her knuckles white and stares back at Vreyy's likeness on the screen with burning intensity.

As the captain is addressing Vreyy's image, we hear the sound of the turbolift door opening and closing. Vreyy's mouth is just opening to deliver what promises to be, judging by his expression, a response sure to send McCurry's frustration level even higher when a voice on the bridge says, "Captain, if I may?"

Blakeney steps into view, holding a padd and crossing to stand to the right of the command chair. He smiles amiably at the viewscreen. "Hello, Lieutenant Vreyy! Your attention to detail in matters of regulations and protocol is, as always, beyond reproach."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Blakeney." The words are civil, the tight smile is technically agreeable, but the tone suggests that a different statement ending in "---k you" would be more heartfelt.

"You're quite right that submitting the paperwork as Gaia operations officer was technically against regulation Four-Twenty-One Alpha, Section 122, subsection 3, Article 17a, paragraph 27, and you have every right to insist that I resubmit them as Hodgkin operations officer. This would then require a seventy-two hour delay while the paperwork made its way through the requisite checks and approvals."

"Yes, it would," Vreyy agrees. "I regret the impact to the Hodgkin's departure schedule, of course, but obviously, this could have been avoided by not filing the paperwork too early."

"Of course," Blakeney says cheerfully, "but then, it is common practice in situations like this for departments to accept paperwork from the officer being transferred before the transfer is fully complete. Otherwise, it can cause a lot of delays." His good-natured smile is positively radiant.

"It may be common practice for some departments, Mr. Blakeney, but it is not my practice." Vreyy's smile is not radiant. Curdled would be a more evocative descriptor.

Blakeney makes a placating gesture with the hand not holding the padd. "No, you're absolutely right, Mr. Vreyy. I couldn't ask you to shortchange protocol for my sake, or to ensure that the Hodgkin can leave on time for its scheduled mission. We couldn't expect you not to strictly adhere to the letter of the regulation."

He glances down at the padd, frowning slightly. "Of course, your insistence on strict adherence will require me to resubmit the paperwork for the other fourteen - check that, seventeen - other requests I filed last week while I was still Gaia operations officer. That will mean that all the departments who already approved those requests will be questioning why they have to approve them again. That includes, I'm afraid, Lieutenant Commander Bordeau."

He looks up at the viewscreen, all innocent concern. "She's your direct superior, I believe, isn't she? Now look, she will almost certainly ask why you held up this one request when all your counterparts in twelve other departments approved all my requests without issue. But you stand your ground, Mr. Vreyy. You are clearly within the letter of the regulation on this matter. The fact that Admiral Hamilton will probably contact your commander within the hour demanding an explanation should not influence your conduct in the slightest." Blakeney places the padd over his heart and folds his hands over it with an air of reverence. "After all, without protocol, Starfleet would surely fall into chaos."

Vreyy's reptilian features stare out through the viewscreen. Without much actual change in expression, they somehow manage to convey a fervent negative interest in Blakeney's continued good health. "I do not wish to seem inflexible. If all other departments have agreed to such lax regulatory enforcement, I will not stand as the sole bastion of protocol propriety. The Hodgkin's hazardous substances transport authorization is approved. You have clearance to leave Gaia station."

Blakeney's smile could probably power half the consoles on the bridge. "Thank you, Vreyy! You're the best. Hodgkin out."

When the transmission has ended, Blakeney turns to McCurry. "I'm sorry for taking over like that, captain, but Altok Leya sent me a comm as soon as this whole thing started." He steps closer and says, "Vreyy kind of has this rivalry with me. He wanted the Gaia ops position, and I got it. Then he wanted this position, and I got it. That's the whole reason he tried this stunt."

Zuto smiles. That is, his lips part, the corners stretching outward and more or less upward, the teeth displayed. If you judged the expression solely by the dictionary definition of the word "smile," you'd have to accept it as one, but you'd be very confused about what a smile is supposed to convey.

"You have checked the translator," he says. It sounds like his upper and lower teeth are stuck together. "You've checked it twice already. If the glyphs are the problem, that means we don't have the necessary translation matrix in the database. Checking the translator again isn't going to solve that problem, now is it?"

She returns his "smile," though does a far worse job hiding her frustration.

"You're right." she says in a sharp staccato. Her pitch and intensity ramp up slightly, but clearly, as she speaks. "If only we had someone on the crew who graduated top of her class and could handle code the Federation has never had access to."

Sudden mortification flashes across her face, which she barely controls before forcing her expression back into stoicism. She takes a deep breath.

"I apologize, Lieutenant Hiromaka. I should not take my personal failings out on you. It is....unprofessional, to say the least."

She takes another deep breath.

"What course of action do you suggest?"

As the pitch of her voice rises, Zuto's frustrated expression changes to surprise and he turns to look at her. He watches her face searchingly, and when she apologizes, he looks as though he's about to say something, but stops.He looks thoughtful, clearly considering the question. Instead of answering directly, he says, "Computer. Analyze glyphs not in the translation database and compare to the rest of the glyphs for which the database has matches. Extrapolate from values of the matched glyphs and assign likely values to the unmatched ones."

He flashes a smile and shrugs. "It's worth a shot."

As they wait for the computer to finish the task, he turns back to the console and says, "She always said you were too hard on yourself."

Over Zuto's shoulder, we see Hamilton freeze.

Hamilton sighs.

"Yeah, she told me that a lot. But being hard on myself is how I got to where I am today."

If it were possible for a facial expression to stammer, this would be it.

"I didn't realize you and Calypso were so close."

The camera is facing Zuto as he sits at the console. Pleiades stands just behind and to his left, so she can't see his expression briefly reflecting pain before flattening into neutral professionalism. She can certainly hear that shift in his tone of voice, though, when he says, "Like I said, we had lunch three or four times a week on the Tesla. We also spent a lot of recreational time climbing in the holodeck."

A few seconds pass before he adds, "I gather she never mentioned me."

Before she can respond, the computer interrupts. "Analysis complete."

Zuto punches some buttons and they both survey the results on the screen. "Well, that's more like it," he says.

Hamilton smiles in relief when he confirms success.

"Nice work, Lieutenant."

She taps away at her PADD to get the next system started, but stops suddenly. She sighs and shakes her head, realizing something.

"She never mentioned people by name. But she always talked about her lunch dates. I think....I think they kept her sane."

She taps away again furiously. Apparently something is very interesting.

Zuto smiles. "Cal certainly had a knack for keeping things interesting. And fun. I think I laughed more during my eighteen months on the Tesla than I did in the previous five years put together." He laughs at some memory, but then his smile fades slightly, becomes sadder. "I miss her. A lot."

As if suddenly realizing that he's talking to Cal's sister, he clears his throat and busies himself with the console. "It looks like the algorithm is fully translated. Running a full-scale test for compatibility with the nav system."

As Zuto speaks, Hamilton takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. "Many people miss her, Lieutenant Hiromaka. One does not often receive a posthumous high honor without making a positive impact."

Her eyes blink open and her expression is blank. "Her sacrifice will be remembered by the Federation, and it is our duty to move on and continue our work to the fullest."

She passively scans the computer deck and nods in approval.

The camera captures Zuto's reaction, which is... complicated. We get the feeling that he's moved, offended, and shamed by Pleiades' coolly delivered lecture, all at the same time. He turns away from her, reaches for the console, turns back with his mouth open to say something, but thinks better of it and turns back to the console.

"Loading algorithm into the navigation system." He punches some more buttons. He looks strangely miserable.

As Pleiades starts to move away, he appears to come to a decision and gets up to face her.

"Lieutenant commander, there's something I'd really like to talk to you about. Not now, of course - sometime when we're off duty. Maybe we could grab lunch?"

Hamilton’s face sets like steel.

"You may find a luncheon meeting to be an insufficient replacement for those you experienced with Lieutenant Commander Hamilton." There is only as much venom in "replacement" as she can manage without being unprofessional.

She turns to look at him and her face softens. Maybe now it’s just set like stone.

"But, seeing as I am your commanding officer, you are well within your right to request a meeting. If you still choose to schedule one, I will be in prompt attendance."

Zuto seems both alarmed and bewildered by the accusation, trying - and failing - to stammer a protest in response.Now the alarm is gone, leaving even more room for the bewilderment.

He begins, "Okay, um... Then I guess--"

The doors to the computer lab slide open and Lt. Blakeney enters. "Hi! How's the algorithm coming along? I'm on my way to check on the progress in the engine room and wanted to give Lt. Edison the status."

Zuto grabs onto this opportunity as though it's an escape pod. "Your timing's perfect - we just got it integrated into the nav system."

Blakeney grins. "Perfect! I'll spread the good news."

As Blakeney turns to go, Zuto says to Pleiades, "I should be getting back to my post. It was..." He hesitates. "It was a pleasure working with you, commander."

Nodding to her, he leaves the lab with Blakeney.Fan Mail Awarded: 0
Budget Spent: 0
Budget Added to Pool: 0
Audience Pool: 5

Back in engineering, Lieutenant Avery, Crewman Pyri, and Liaison Officer Oobadek madly tap at displays and PADDs, sometimes in concert.

"I was unable to isolate the cause of the Romulan-Inphir energy incompatibility. Before being reassigned, I was going to catalog the isotopic variations within the feedback circuitry, but that would require disassembling the offending components."

He looks at Pyri. "My superiors were against taking it apart if I couldn't put it back together afterwards." His tendrils waggle jauntilly.

Pyri shows Avery and Oobadek the results of her analysis on J47. "I bypassed the junction and it operates normally with Federation equipment on either side."

"The best I could manage was to program a monitor to reset the feedback circuitry when the resonance exceeded thresholds. I loathe to think what would happen if that occurred during escalating usage."

"Not good enough, we would either need redundancies in place should the monitor fail or something more consistent altogether." Avery pulls her face from the monitor to study Pyri's findings, shaking her head at the results.

"We can't isolate it either, it's likely not going to remain fixed for every occurrence. Say, I bet if the junction was set to a variable frequency depending on the current energy output it would stabilize. Pyri get my the specifications of- never mind just pulled them up."