Clarity

Posted on Sun Jan 16th, 2022 @ 11:05pm by Ensign Noah Balsam & Lieutenant Irynya

Mission: Sojourners of Time
Location: Computer Core Control; Lower Deck
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 2045

[Sojourner]
[Computer Core Control Room, Deck 5]
[2045 Hours]

"They've bumped the wormhole's estimated opening another couple of hours." Lieutenant Diego Costa reported. He breathed out and olive fingers raked his raven pompadour. His sigh deflated his chest and for a long moment, he held his breath. "Index reset the countdown. Add a two-hour delay. Sync with Barzan Watcher Relay 16." He waited for five beats, narrowing his eyes at the air. "What is the estimated time of event horizon aperture?"

"Verteron particle saturation is at 91.1%. Meson count... 0.09 parts per billion. Lepton count.... 0.11 parts per billion. Gravitational fluctuations are thirteen percent above normal. Estimated time of aperture: 2317 hours." The computer's smooth honeyed voice confirmed.

Costa sighed out, reaching back to rub fingers between his shoulder blades. "Alright, I was due off my shift rotation forty-five minutes ago." Diego rubbed his face. "Computer, status of Alpha Primary and Beta Recursive diagnostics?"

"Alpha Primary, Level One Diagnostic. Two hours, twenty-seven minutes. Beta Recursive Level One Diagnostic. Two hours, forty-four minutes."

Thrusting himself onto his feet with a rock of momentum, Diego Costa was up. He stretched and kinked his arm behind his head. Angling himself in a bow to stretch his side, he growled. "I'm going to Debbie's for a late dinner. See you in the Delta Quadrant." Diego glanced down at the young man hunched over his data. He was curly-headed, his face except for his nose tip curtained. "Midshipman? Have you heard a word I've said?"

"Huh?" Noah looked up when Costa tapped his bony shoulder. "Yessir, I heard. Diagnostics. A, um, two-hour delay."

Diego smirked. "Mmm, you got half of it. My shifts over, she's yours," he gestured at the core behind them, a dominant silo of blue mirrored panels, "Until midnight. Chulthuat's on night shift." Diego added, mentioning the Coridanite. "I'm going for food. Do you want anything?" Noah had, meanwhile, returned to squinting at a stream of yellow and blue data which occasionally flashed lines of red code.

"N-no, if I get hungry, I'll get it from the replicator," Noah said. "Good-goodnight Sir."

"Goodnight Midshipman."

Noah may or may not have heard the door whisper open and closed behind him. He rubbed his face and fanned himself with a navy SOJO t-shirt by beating it against his chest. The computer core was always a steamy place- all that computational power and storage capacity generated a lot of thermal energy. Knowing- or sensing- he was alone, Noah fumbled into his pocket for his earpieces and pressed each into his ears. "Computer, resume playback from pause." He leaned on his palm and cupped around his chin as bleary eyes stared at the data before him.

"Computer, cross-reference codeline 835 dash 1176-alpha-718-node-91Mu with Ishikawa Station, Daystrom Institute archives. Reference date, Stardate 45854.2, USS Enterprise, Chief Engineer's Duty Log." The computer chirped while the youth bobbed his head a little, "And you remember the jingles used to go. Oh ohahhohhh. You were the first-" he stopped when he heard the whispering swish of the doors open again.

The lights in the core were lower than the lights in the corridor making the new arrival blink. She had paused just inside the door, scanning the several decks height of the computer core to her right as her irises dilated to take in more light.

Eyes adjusted, Irynya scanned the space ahead of her for her target. She moved towards the far wall slowly, eyes traveling the space around her before landing on a familiar black curly-haired head atop a long pale neck. Noah's thin muscular arms leaned against the console lit by the data scrolling across his screen.

"I've only really been in here once before," Irynya called when she was a few steps away, hoping not to startle her roommate too much by simply appearing in his peripheral vision without a word.

As quickly as the earbuds had gone in, they came out. Noah heard the computer pause his music again. Roused from his attention by more than the mundane of the usual, he twisted to the voice. God when was the last cup of water he'd had? Noah's mouth felt cottony and dry. "Evening Lieutenant," Noah said amiably, rubbing his eyes. His gaze had a wateriness to it, his irises pink from eyestrain. He blinked and rubbed them. "Y-yeah, you're not down here very often."

Noah rose and stretched his arms high over his head, midriffing his t-shirt with a inches tall seam of a pale waist. "They-they delayed the wormhole opening a little longer."

Iry nodded, taking her friend in. Quick eyes noted the bleary gaze before darting down to the strip of bare skin. Eyes back to his face she turned, scanning for the replicator. Settling on it she moved over, producing two glasses of water and then returning to Noah, one hand outstretched.

"I heard," she said, sipping. "And I am not on duty. You can use my name. Care for some company?"

"Oh." Noah nodded first at the permission to be casual, and then at the offer of companionship. "Sure. I-I'm not being that interesting. But sure." He twisted and gestured at his workstation, "I'm designing a Basilisk." He took the water and half of it was gone by the time he righted his head. "Thanks." He set the drink down with a flash of memory- how he'd spilled his last drink all over himself. He nudged it to a safe zone on the station and eyed it.

"Give yourself a little credit, Noah," she chuckled. "If I thought you weren't interesting then I wouldn't be hanging out in the Computer Core." The Risian glanced over the workstation, taking over the free chair and turning to look over the screen of code. "What does a Basilisk do?"

The gentle one settled back into his seat with a tentative air. When he was in this space, some terms were just fish to water- but when other personnel came in, the culture had to shift. He smiled into a cheek and looked about- behind them and above. "You-you know most people think Main Engineering is the sexier place for tech-heads. But I disagree. I love it in here." He smiled.

Irynya chuckled, shaking her head before taking Noah's comment a step further than he intended. "Plenty of corners here for a touch of privacy..."

"Um." His eyes went to his code and then back. They narrowed with a furrow. "Well, it's actually s-sort of a dark thing. A Basilisk is a virus with its own carrier medium. To deploy it I-I don't have to be at a terminal or have to worry about air-gapped security countermeasures." He panned the code and began to gesture at a line of red code. "This is how it can deploy. But I'm working on a multi-vectored infection based on em-bandwidths in the infrared spectrums. But also low-band auditory.. subvocal levels."

The Risian's eyebrows popped at her roommate's description. "And this is for... Fun? Or...?"

Noah grinned toothily wide. "I-I I'm not a supervillain or something," he shook his head and looked at his work. "Um. It's anti-Borg. This one is a Looper. Or will be. When the Basilisk is deh-deployed, it'll infect drones through either infrared or subvocal auditory channels from an emitter. The Borg will receive it like it receives all data." he dashed tongue on his dry lips, brow raised.

Noah gestured at the code with a pinky, running under a line. "This is what makes it a Looper. It attacks the Borg's hive-feeds for adaptation and self-improvement. W-when it gets a signal to adapt, the Looper jams the signal. The Borg's neural interface feeds back and it becomes obsessed with adapting to the most recent adaptation. It thinks its adaptions haven't been deployed. So it keeps trying. It can't adapt to anything else until it can resolve that, um, that problem. The drone panics and calls on resources of the local drones, and infects them as well."

Hazel eyes lit as Noah's explanation began to sink in. "That's really cool, Noah," she said, fixing him with a proud sort of grin. "Is this something for the Academy or is it being sent out to the fleet?" Her expression turned thoughtful, speaking again before he could answer. "Or... Both?"

"Both," Noah admitted. "I-I have to transmit it before we go through the wormhole. If I want to pass my Theorem for Advanced Reflexive Code Modeling 488, anyway." He gestured down and lowered his code. The code fell away like a waterfall. "S-so how has your day been? So far?" He asked. "I mean I guess its almost over but..."

"Oh... Do you need me to leave you alone?" She asked, tone concerned. "I mean if you need to send... I don't want to be singlehandedly responsible for you missing your deadline."

The Midshipman shook his head. “No, no. I just have to send it.” Noah rubbed his hands together, “So, your day?”

The Risian pilot fiddled with the bottom of her uniform jacket. "My day was alright. Still a little weird with the new roommate arrangement, but I'll get used to it."

Noah nodded. He too was a creature of habit and over the last months, he’d become used to the quirky quartet they’d made up. But with Walsh’s ascension, the dynamic had shifted. “It’s new.”

She was stalling, she knew it, but she also enjoyed just sitting and talking with Noah. It was easy with him to just be... to geek out over an Academy assignment or talk about nothing at all. She felt comfortable and safe with him and that had been worrying her the last few days.

“So what-what brings you by?” He asked, noticing that Irynya maybe looked… nervous?

She sighed, blowing out a breath. "Jyl-eel?" she said, the statement coming out sounding like a question. "I... maybe I'm wrong, so tell me if I am... but... I was really glad you invited her to the karaoke thing. She seems great. But I was also sorta kinda surprised you hadn't mentioned her before and..."

Noah’s brown eyes stayed on Irynya, his eyebrows furrowing at his beakish nose’s bridge. He steepled his fingers together, listening.

She was rambling... And she really needed to just get to the point... "People are weird about Risians. We've talked about that... right? They assume a lot. And so... sometimes... it complicates things with other friends I..." Her face fell to her hands. She had begun to tug on her thumb absently as she spoke; an anxious tic. "I don't want to... ever... be in the way... just because we're friends."

Noah’s furrowed brow had turned into wrinkled confusion. “Huh?” He blinked, his bedroom eyes narrowing to try and squint through what she was meaning. “I-I don’t think I get what you mean?” He lilted up his words, genuinely in a state of confusion. “In the way? Complicated… why?”

Irynya shot a quick look at him. This. This was why she liked Noah so much. He just saw her and not the various and sundry things that made people happy to visit Risa for holiday, but hesitant to have Risians as actual friends.

She sighed, debating aborting what felt like a half-formed line of thinking. If it got to what she was actually worried about she would probably know quickly enough. Fast enough to retreat.

Meanwhile, the searching kind eyes of the Systems Engineer looked on, as confused as he ever was.

She chewed the inside of her cheek, eyes looking him over as she debated. "One of the things I appreciate about you, Noah, is that you just seem to like me. For a lot of reasons, there aren't very many Risians in Starfleet. I am certainly not the first, but... when people mention Risa... the first thing most non-Risians associate is sex. And people are known for jumping to conclusions about... our intentions... in our friendships. Particularly friends we love enough to be somewhat familiar with."

Noah’s confusion knit better, bring him to tease the pink of his lip with his teeth. “But I don’t. I don’t think of sex and Risians… I-I mean not right away. I think of… of like… carefree relaxed people who don’t really care about.” His eyebrows knit together again, pressing. “About the politics and-and technology and… just… stuff… around them.”

She held his gaze willing him to figure it out. She didn't want to spell it out. It was confusing enough to her without confusing him.

"Jyl-eel seems really nice..." She said, trailing off.

Noah shrugged, “She… she is. But she’s very different than you too. She’s more like me. But um…”. He shrugged and fidgeted, “Well she likes plants. She’s a Botanist. She, um, didn’t say anything bad about you. She didn’t know anyone really.” Noah’s mouth’s pursed into a pucker. “Are you worried she doesn’t like you? Because I don’t think, um, I don’t think she thinks that.” His eyes rounded, “I-I mean I haven’t asked but…”

"Noah." Irynya said, cutting him off, "I don't ever want anyone you choose to be with now or down the road to misunderstand our relationship. People assume that if you're friends with a Risian you're doing more than normal friends activities with a Risian." She looked at him pointedly eyes widening and eyebrows raising. "Think about what the obvious more is please and thank you."

A sense of dawn- and a troubled one- came over Noah’s eyes. Blinking, he absorbed that. His brows rose almost testily, incredulous, his lips pressing together for a moment. Fingers fidgeted. He opened them to protest, eyes skirting away when all resolve seemed to crawl out of him. He had to regroup.

"In some of my friendships there is more than what most cultures perceive to be normal friend activities. But there's also an understanding of what that means. It's something I'd agree to with you, if you wanted, but will never suggest if you don't. From the outside, though... If it's not clear and not understood..." she shook her head.

“I…” Noah tried. His cheeks puffed and he slowly blew out towards his feet.

"Jyl-eel, or anyone else... I don't want our friendship to create barriers."

Noah sighed. He put up his hands. “She’s just a friend. A-a new friend. I barely know her. I-I met her when I was repairing the Yeoman Pool’s rep-replicator. I don’t-”. He looked down and stared at his thumbnails. His agile thumbs turned circles around one another in jovian twirls. “OK.” he whispered ghostily. He put up his hands. “I-I really don’t think that’s a problem for her or… or me. Or you. Or a-anybody else on this ship.”

Noah shook his head. “I-I think you’re worried about a stereoty-type and people don’t… don’t-don’t really think like that most of the time. I don’t.” He looked down pained, “OK I’m not meaning to talk for most people.” he shook his head and looked at her, “But I really, really don’t think this is a problem.”

Irynya's eyes were back to her hands, thumb and forefinger snagging the pinky of her opposite hand and tugging, rubbing hard down the length to the nail before twisting back, regrouping and repeating. She felt silly and a little mortified. It was a long moment before she spoke, fingers still tugging and not looking up. "Ok," she said quietly. "I'm glad to know what you think."

She lapsed back into silence, repeating the motion with her hands, and floundering at what to do, to say, to recover. She was used to feeling in control of the situation and this one had gone wildly out of her control. "Sorry..." she finally stammered. "It's... it is something I've experienced before. But... I understand. I won't mention it again."

“Hey.” Noah said after long quiet. He’d been mulling his lip with his own worry. Maybe he was naive- just out of Academy and bursting with the idealisms of the Federation. Or maybe it was an Enceladus thing- brains and thoughts and math, logic, the beauty of science mattered. He offered out his long fingers to her. “People shouldn’t do that to you. It’s not fair. It’s- it’s like saying all Tellarites are argumentative. Or all Bajorans are religious. Or all Ferengi are greedy.” He shrugged. “It’s not true.”

His fingers were in her line of sight though she still hadn't looked up while he spoke and her hands stilled. It was a long moment before she took them, settling her hands carefully in his, worry running through her even as she did. "It doesn't have to be true to matter," she finally said. "It doesn't have to be true to hurt people I care about."

“But if they do that, then they’re not your friend,” Noah said. “And if they do that, they’re not my friend.”

She nodded down at their hands, her eyes still fixed there. The thought of looking at him now, after everything she'd said, felt like a lot. She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, murmuring "Thanks," as she did. To acknowledge she heard. To acknowledge that she appreciated what he was saying.

But she still felt silly. Some part of her brain wanted to reel some of the things she'd said back in. Take them back and tuck them away so they weren't out there on display in all of their messy insecurity. It wasn't that anything had happened during their karaoke night to make her think that she needed to back off. It was that she hadn't seen him interact with someone else that way and it suddenly felt really important that she not endanger that, but equally a selfish part of her realized how much she'd come to rely on his friendship. And the thought of it being less than what it was scared her.

She blew out a self-conscious breath, forcing herself to look up. Her eyes were cautious in their looking, tentative and embarrassed. "I'm sorry for bothering you with all of this while you're on duty. I... should have picked a better time. Or... maybe shouldn't have brought it up at all."

“You’re not bothering me,” Noah confirmed. “We-we’re friends. I just… I-I don’t quite understand why… you know? Ensign Tor’s just a friend.” He grinned. “I-I mean, it’s against ship’s regulations to… to date a superior officer anyway. I mean, un-unless you divulge it to a superior-superior officer first.” Noah shrugged. His extreme lankiness stood up and he wrapped arms around her back. “You’re not in the way. Of anything. If someone said you were, then they’re not my friend.”

She hugged him back, head tucked against his chest from where she was still sitting. Selfishly she took that in a moment both annoyed with herself for being relieved by his hug and grateful for it. She was the first to pull away, though.

"No one has said anything," she said. "It's really... It wasn't something anyone said." She tried for a smile the effort coming out only halfway successfully. "You're just important to me. And when Jyl-eel and I sorta ganged up on you... for a moment... I thought maybe I inserted myself somewhere I shouldn't have. It was too late to undo it by the time I thought about it and then... It's just been on my mind and..." Here she spread her arms, palms up, "... here I am... clearly making something of a fool of myself. But doing it because you matter."

Noah smiled, “You mean teaming up with her and-and making sure I would sing. She probably likes you for it. I-I kept telling her I wasn’t really sure what to sing. She wanted to know what Karaoke was.” He shrugged, “Apparently Valt doesn’t have much of a musical culture. Most Valtese are tone-deaf.” He sighed. “Well. You matter too. So… try not to feel too embarrassed.”

This time she did smile. "I'll try."

A Post By:

Lieutenant JG Irynya
Assistant Chief Flight Controller

&

Midshipman Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist