Crossed Wires

Posted on 14 May 2012 @ 11:21am by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren

11,673 words; about a 58 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo- Deck 7/4 - Main Engineering/Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD5 - 1300 hrs

[ON]

So far her day had not gone as planned. After taking a little time out to see if she could make heads or tails of those sensor scans she was expecting to head right to engineering. Instead she found herself doing something surprisingly fun, somehow work seemed to be stacking up on her. Yet this was the way she liked it, giving herself some time to recover from the harrowing experience of yesterday in her own way. With a brisk walk from the science lab down to main engineering she cleared her head of everything other than the task at hand. It shouldn't be too hard, though she wasn't expecting to be taking the lead from the science side, even if she was the expert.

The list of parts and personnel requested was already put forward and passed on. The copy in her hand was more of a checklist for herself.

Replicated- Wide range audio emitters,
Replicated- Wide range audio microphones,
Ships Stores- Static cancelling boosters
Ships Stores- Type 5 Isolinear optical chips
Ships Stores- Small surge/adverse element shields
Ships Stores- Atmospheric sensor modules
Ships Stores- Two Class 4 probes

It was all she considered needed for the four stages she had to go through to make the shuttles ready for the mission ahead. Having been given an outline of her orders Kiri found herself setting about planning for problems before they happened. As it stood the two shuttlecraft were brand new, so they could easily be improved for set missions. Hopefully though, none of what she was doing would be needed, if that was the case though the Galileo wouldn't have the weapons she was learning to use.

There were four stages to her planned upgrades. The first the purely to update the sensors with more range, definition and accuracy. Using parts from both the probes and some spares for the Galileo's array. Then there was installing a sonar system designed to detecting objects inside the local nebulas, should the shuttles need it. Followed by a small local shield for both to protect from the nebulas should they indeed go inside. Finally parts to update the shuttle's computer to with the chips and programming that she was planning to do herself. All this would take around six hours in theory and could be done with as few as two people. The only downside would be stealing some power from the weapons array, but would a shuttle really need that?

It was her second visit to main engineering and the small size still got to her. Even if it had a huge sensor array this ship was much smaller than most others in a lot of areas. There were people around but their department was smaller than hers, they seemed rather busy still. The fact the ship still had some teething problems couldn't be that easy for them. It was possible she might be able to help, but that would just add to the amount she was giving herself to do. Once inside she looked around for who was in charge on this shift. If Chief Quinn wasn't there then Assistant Chief Peers, one of them should be around. Had everything gone to plan then the parts would already be waiting in the shuttle bay, all she had to do was get them signed over. Assuming she could find them.

The young Trill was the only blue uniform among the yellow, looking tentatively for either of the officers that she knew by name only. Trying to pick out rank at a distance. Her dark brown hair folded into a knot and held by a plain black clip, smart as ever and looking a little timid.

Lilou had just finished running the latest of obsessive compulsive diagnostic checks on the new ODN nacelle to Core system, tapping her regulation boot impatiently as the console reassured her for the seventh time since the install that everything was just fine.

"Tsst."

She cocked a brow at Willis as he hissed at her, crossing past her. "What?"

He nodded towards the door and Lilou followed his gaze to the Trill woman who was standing there awkwardly. "Your job, sugar plum."

Lilou scowled at him as he wandered away, whistling, and headed off to fix a malfunction with the kitchen's defrother. Lucky scoundrel. Retying the arms of her coveralls around her waist, she crossed to the science officer. "What do you need?" she asked. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face into a messy ponytail, her Starfleet uniform half-covered by bright orange work coveralls.

Kiri was a little taken aback seeing someone out of standard uniform, even if it was perfectly normal for engineering. Generally when she had to get physical with the sensor array it was a clean and sterile job. Still while she showed a little bit of this, rank was spotted and she could identify who this was. Then another blast of surprise came as she looked the young woman in the face. She was a Trill. Kiri didn't really get much chance to talk to other Trill, it had been at least a year. It made her both excited and extremely uncomfortable. She barely knew the first thing about acting like a Trill, however much she read she felt something was missing. In rather stark surprise she stood stock still for several seconds. Completely forgetting that she should have been called sir by the engineer.

When she finally regained composure the slightly taller Ensign finally replied, "Mu, ma, Master Warrant Officer Peers, plu, please would you allow me to requisition these items from you along with an engineer certified for shuttle craft maintenance?" Eventually it all came out, as she handed over the pad Kiri's cheeks started to turning a little red from embarrassment. Of course there might be Trill on the ship, they were part of the Federation, still, it was a large surprise. After yesterday, she should try an program of outreach with this woman at some point. The entire reason she was here, was starting to take a back seat in her mind.

A mere few seconds after the words had left Lilou's mouth she realized, belatedly, that her distraction over the work and tests she'd been running had completely scattered her. How could she have spoken out of turn like that to an officer? An officer - spirits! She had about a nano second to mentally prepare herself for a dressing down before the woman started to stammer. At first Lilou wondered if it wasn't a reaction of irritation - so pissed off she couldn't even form words - but then she made a choice. She wasn't sure if it was because of the meeting she'd had with the counselor that morning or just some strange kind of personal growth on her part - but she chose to listen instead of going into her head and berating herself. And what she heard startled her. The Ensign was... nervous? Since when had Lilou made anyone nervous? Wasn't that her position? And spirits, was this what it felt like to be on the receiving end of that flushed, uncomfortable look? It was awful. Like she'd done something wrong. And... well, she had, she guessed. Thrown the Ensign when she didn't conform to standard protocols. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she snarled at herself. She cleared her throat, anxiously, and folded her hands behind her back. "I apologize, Ensign. I wasn't... wasn't thinking." She moved her shoulders uncomfortably, taking the PADD from the other Trill woman. "Shuttlecraft maintenance, you said? I'm sorry, sir, we didn't have anything on the docket..." Static canceling boosters, Type 5 Isolinear optical chips, small surge/adverse element shields, atmospheric sensor modules, and two Class 4 probes... "This... is an all out sensor upgrade, sir." Lilou glanced up from the list, "Do you have the approval codes for this from your CO?"

Kiri had filed the request at 2032 the day before, granted that wasn't very long ago but to not have any of it? Did that mean she didn't even have the materials she needed to attempt to do it herself? The officer found herself getting annoyed for the first time since she got here. She had followed procedure as required hadn't she? Everything had been put through and Lieutenant Barel had signed off on it. With a deep breath she relaxed a little and tried to wash those thoughts away, "Yes, they are listed at the bottom." If it wasn't for the fact that her entire day might be ruined and all her planning for nothing Kiri would have said it didn't matter about the rank issue but that had gone out the window. She did pick up on the other's stance and action but again, the more pressing matter was how she was going to solve this, "I am sure I placed a request on the main database. If the materials aren't ready, can I ask they be made available to me right away?"

Lilou thumbed past several pages of useless jargon and nonessential paragraphs until she reached the page with the approval codes. Why couldn't they put all the relevant information at the top? And why did the different forms from the different departments all insist on different assortments and orders of the pages? "Right, here they are." She frowned, flicking through her files on the PADD to look for the requisition order. "I'm sorry, sir, I don't..." Lilou looked up from her PADD, "Let me check the console. If you'd follow me?" She levied up the requisition orders file and found the folder blank. It didn't make any sort of logic that the science officer would try to falsify a requisition order and the PADD that the ensign had showed her did have the right authorization codes. "I don't have anything... let me..." She exhaled slowly, fingers flying over the console as she dragged up and minimized files. If somehow the data had travelled to the wrong place... She stopped, closing her eyes and thinking. In her mind's eye, she followed the ODN from the labs down to main engineering, then steered herself around the routing protocols and the requisition title. Eyes snapping open, she accessed the shuttlebay register and started sorting through the subsystems there. "Sent to the shuttlebay instead of to us," she murmured, drawing up the matching order and cross-checking engineering's stores with the requisition. "Got it. What frequency audio emitters did you need? We can begin replication while I go pull the requisitioned units."

Kiri watched over the other woman's shoulder as she worked. Following her action and she thought, her train of thought. It wasn't like her to send requests to the wrong location, the shuttlebay wasn't something she even touched. Her CO had already organised all of that, so how did it end up there? One of her specialisms was computing, it definitely caught her attention. In reply she answered, "Ideally they need to cover one hundred to forty thousand hertz, focusing on the thirty thousand hertz range." Doing her best to focus on the matter at hand rather than anything else she asked, "While you are doing that, do you mind if I run a short diagnostic of the internal LCARs terminal network?" While she could place the request to the industrial replicator, this might be a better use of her skills. It would only take a minute.

"Be my guest," Lilou said, focusing on specifying the details for the parts replicator.

"Thank you," Kiri had settled into her quiet formal tone for work. Giving a week smile she took the woman's focus on her work a good thing and walked over to an empty terminal. With a flurry of button taps and beeps she started to run a unintrusive diagnostic. All it was to do was list the connections between various locations, sending test data packets to various locations. Most were fine but some non-essential systems seemed to stray slightly. Indeed her lab terminal sent information to the shuttle bay rather than main engineering. A secondary EPS relay was linking to a control panel for a tertiary relay. Any other errors that came up seemed to be even more minor than that, the controls for defrother in the mess hall was sending information from waste disposal. It seemed random but several minor systems seemed to be routing wrongly. With a look to check what the other woman was doing Kiri dug slightly deeper. There were no abnormal changes to the computer core since launch displayed. It was odd for a computer to do something strange unless it was itself malfunctioning. The final thing was to check if someone had deleted access logs from the computer. The reply from the computer made her take a step back as it spoke up, "Requested information is restricted, level seven security clearance required." Since her quiet investigation was now made public to everyone around her. Kiri turned a light shade of pink and cleared the terminal.

With a deep breath she turned back to the other Trill and waited with her hands behind her back. Pondering what to say about the computer, maybe after her current job was finished. It wasn't really her job to look at things like that, but it didn't feel right. She put a lot of faith in other people doing their jobs right. Even if they left early the ship had a lot of problems, falling out of warp a pretty major one. If nothing else it was odd, with a capital O.

Lilou looked up at the computer's announcement. What kind of 'short LCARS diagnostic' required Level 7 clearance? "Problem, sir?" she asked, finalizing her entry and setting the replicator to begin.

Kiri smiled, her face still rather red, "Nothing important, though it might be prudent to scheduled a computer maintenance check when there is time." With all the issues on the ship right now, something she felt was odd wasn't important. For now the shuttles were, it would be hard to move time around to do them on a different day. There was also the matter of attempting social interaction, since she would hopefully be working with someone.

Accepting the ensign's explanation, Lilou nodded. "Right," she checked the manufacture period on the replicator and stood at attention. "Let's go pull your parts from storage. By then, the replicated items should be finished. I programmed them to arrive in the shuttlebay. Shall we?"

"Okay," Kiri was glad that things seemed to be going rather well right now. At the very least she didn't have to change her plans. Letting the other woman lead the way she found herself watching her intently, trying to discern any useful information about how to talk to her in a social manner. Should she say something now?

Lilou pulled the requisitioned parts from storage and loaded them onto a cart. The ensign was silent, which was fine with Lilou. The spirits knew she didn't need another opportunity today to stick her foot in her mouth, no matter how flexible she was. She felt the taller woman's eyes on her, but wasn't sure what to do about it. Had she forgotten something? Or was the ensign still irritated over her earlier breach of protocol? Had she apologized? She couldn't remember. "I'm sorry about earlier, sir," she said quietly. "I was distracted sorting through some diagnostic results and... there's no excuse for my disrespect."

The last thing that Kiri wanted was to make the other woman unhappy, far from in. Shaking her head with a smile she answered, "Don't worry about it. I'm not use to people calling me sir," That wasn't bad, how about something else? "Have you been on the ship long?" Kiri hadn't even been here a week yet but some of the crew like the XO had been here for a while. It didn't matter but talking was important to bonding. When it came to the parts she didn't know what to do with herself, to help or not. All that was left after that though was the probes. Stored near their launch bays it would be best to transport them directly. They were the size of a person and weighed a lot more.

Lilou shook her head. "This ship is on its maiden voyage. I joined it from its Earth deployment." She cleared her throat, "Did you come on at the starbase?" she asked, adding a pair of adaptable hoverlifts to the cart and pushing it towards the turbo lift.

Kiri knew it hadn't been that long, but still that meant the woman had been on the ship since it left Earth. Longer than her, "Yes I did, this ship is my first posting. It has been fun so far, how have you found it?" For Kiri so far everything had been even more than she hoped, it was her dreams come true. Every minute of work was a huge amount of fun for her.

Lilou nodded. She didn't know if she'd call her time here 'fun' exactly. She wasn't sure she remembered exactly what 'fun' was anymore. But she'd had glimpses of what she thought it was in the past few days, definitely moments where she felt genuinely pleased to be there which was more than she could say for the years preceding her transfer. "It's a good place to be," she said quietly. "The Chief's one of the smartest I've ever met-" she stopped speaking, suddenly aware that she was getting a little choked up over the allegiance she felt to her department head. Swallowing, she tried again. "Some... glitches in the design, but we're fixing them." She rolled her shoulder, trying to loosen a knot. "Where did you transfer from?"

Kiri felt she had explained, "From Starfleet academy, this is my first posting. I spent a week reading about the ship on my way to and at Starbase 234. This is the furthest away from Earth I have ever been," She smiled but felt a little scared by that thought. To be so far away from her parents, from her safe bed. Then refocusing to the ship at large she went on, "I like this ship very much, it has everything I ever wanted." Talking wasn't something she normally did, she felt she sounded silly. Already she was trying to make progress though. Having set herself a goal to make new friends, she a lot of work to do, even if she felt silly and uncomfortable.

Yes, but where? Lilou thought, but didn't say. This was part of why she found talking to people so awkward. She was either too specific or too vague, but never quite right. At least it felt like never. Keeping her eyes on the cart, she cleared her throat, "Computer. Take us to deck four." As the lift began to move, Lilou frowned a little, thinking about what Will had said the night before. Did she explore cultures other than her own - other than Trill. As though she should have been an expert by her genetics alone. She knew almost nothing. She'd read folklore and history, she knew the differences between herself and her father and her mother. The curious combination of genetics that combined to make her not quite a part of either world. In a lot of ways, she felt more human than Trill. Considering her exposure to others of her race, that was hardly surprising. She could count on her hands the number of Trill she'd ever had occasion to talk to or interact with. Humans had surrounded her since she was a baby. Maybe it was time to change that. The turbo lift doors opened and Lilou pushed the cart out towards the shuttlebay doors. "Your whole family is on Earth?"

It was a question that should have been harder to answer than it was, "Yes, all my family other than my uncle live in a village on Earth." The fact that they weren't her real parents didn't even occur to her. Becoming a little more nervous she added, "I've never been to Trill Prime," Feeling more awkward as she went, "I don't think I've spoken this much to another Trill before." So far the other woman didn't seem too hostile, did that mean it was working?

"Oh." So much for that, Lilou thought, then frowned a little. "Neither have I. Been, that is. Not... I mean I've spoken to others of course. My father, and Rothgra, and... but not..." She pushed the cart to the launch bay and began attaching the hoverlifts to the side of the cart. "It's a strange feeling. Not having been. For me." Spirits, she sounded like a driveling idiot.

This was new to Kiri, she was finding that she could relate to this woman. In books and the odd film she saw sometimes she would relate, but not normally to a living person. It was starting to feel nice, "It is odd for me as well, still I think I would be odd there as well. Just reading about it doesn't let you understand it," Her face was getting redder now, feeling pretty silly for talking like this with someone. Still from the text she was reading, this was progress. Now she was watching the woman getting ready for more technical things, Kiri tended not to do heavy lifting or any major physical exercise.

"It doesn't," Lilou agreed. "Your parents never wanted to take you either?" Pulling on a pair of modulated gravity field manipulation gloves, Lilou loaded the two Class 4 probes onto the hoverlifts. Then she shoved the gloves into her tool belt and pushed the cart towards the shuttle.

Kiri didn't really know if her parents wanted to take her to Trill or not, the only time they had asked her about it she had said no. Scared of the idea, they hadn't forced the issue. So it was with a strange regret that she answered, "I don't know," It would be worth saying, "My parents aren't Trill, so I don't have any connection to the home world," Or to anything Trill related at all other than her genetics.

Lilou glanced sidelong at the woman beside her. Her parents weren't Trill? Why would they genetically engineer a Trill child? Or was she an orphan? In which case, how had she wound up being adopted on Earth? Where had she come from? What had happened to her real parents? There was a missing step of logic, but it was a step she couldn't deal with. "Oh," she said, unsure what exactly she was supposed to say. The questions in her head weren't ones she could legitimately pose to a rank superior without potentially causing problems for herself. "I hear they have spas," she said awkwardly, stopping by the replicators to pick up the last parts.

"Indeed, though I'd like to see the Academy of Science and some of the galleries," Having not made herself even remotely useful so far Kiri very carefully took the modules from the replicator and placed them on the lower tier of the trolley. Once she had done this she smiled, "I don't know if I'll ever find time to go there though," With a pause she looked extremely sheepish having considered it, "I don't think I could go on my own." There wasn't meant to be an implication there, merely a statement of fact. There it was though, plain as day and Kiri didn't know what to do about it. Other than attempt to change the subject in the quickest way that came to mind, "I've never met anyone in a similar situation to myself."

"I'm not entirely sure I could go. The circumstances of my father's departure and consequential cessation of communication are still... unclear. He doesn't like to talk about it. All I know is... well. I tried to contact the embassy on Earth, when I was there. They wouldn't talk to me." She shrugged. Talking about it was painful, especially because she so thrived on facts and details and neither had been adequately provided when it came to her family history. And that lack of communication meant that the periodic screaming of her body for the solace and wisdom of a symbiont went unheard. Lilou cleared her throat and pushed the cart onward to the shuttles. "Welcome to the club of disenfranchised Trill. I'd get you a tee shirt, but I thought it was a club of one." Her father didn't count as he seemed perfectly happy to have no contact with his people.

That was deep and complicated. Kiri didn't know anything about her history other than her mother was dead, anything else was a complete mystery. No one knew anything, there wasn't even a hint that someone was withholding information from her. She could see the pain as something is also suffered, she wouldn't want to talk about it either. Thinking back to any information she had about clubs she tried to come up with anything, "We could always build a clubhouse." That brought a big, uncontrolled and unreserved smile to Kiri's face. It had been such a very long time since she had used we like that. It was good to talk to people, it wasn't as hard as she'd lead herself to believe.

Lilou snorted. The snort turned into a chuckle, and then an outright laugh. She rolled her eyes, "Right. And a secret handshake. Can't do without one of those." She stopped beside the Waverider and pulled the bottom half of her coveralls up, slipping her arms through the sleeves. "Sensors first?" she asked, zipping up her coveralls.

Kiri had made someone laugh, almost on purpose for once, it felt nice. She nodded her head in answer, "Yes, I just need to run a system diagnostic and take the power grid offline first, it'll just be a moment." It seemed that that she was working with Assistant Chief Peers today, that was fine with her. Kiri disappeared into the shuttlecraft for almost five minutes before coming back out. She didn't want anything to go wrong, for there to be any risks. With it all shut down she clambered up the service ladder to join her companion much more ready to join in and help out now.

Lilou perched on the top of the ladder. Once the tricorder readings had verified the power grid was offline, she'd opened the panel to the lateral array and was already in the process of disconnecting the previous atmospheric sensors. She needed to remove the entirety of the current array, then reroute the ODN lines to make room for the additional array before reinstalling both. When they expected to use the Waverider given their current mission, Lilou had no idea. But orders were orders.

Kiri started to test each of the components that was being removed in turn, checking there was no damage. Each part was laid out in an exact place lined up with the others. The young officer kneeling as she worked through them all with the tricorder. Once that was done the silence was broken only when she stated, "I plan to run additional power from the weapon's power grid, could you check the inter system safeties in case it overloads?" Listening for the reply with a focused look on her face Kiri started to clamber back down. Looking forward to dismantling the probes.

"Roger that," Lilou said, her voice echoing slightly as her head was thrust into the shuttle's hull as she reorganized the ODN lines. She tapped the side of her goggles, taking a scan of the available interior, and finished the circuit, climbing down the ladder after her. "Okay if we finish modeling the increased array before I go open another section of the shuttle?"

The young Ensign was already getting started. The large body of the probe was open, exposing a range on insides. She started removing the systems she needed, the data buffer, the main and secondary array, a hoard of contact wires each laid out in exact places. In her head she could place each of them where they were needed. Building sensor arrays was one of the things she specialised in and enjoyed, "Of course, do you have a laser welder or a spot replicator?" It would take around an hour to set one of these up.

Lilou pulled her laser welder from her thigh holster and placed it on the cart, along with her micro-optic drill. "Don't forget to degauss the system parts before putting them back together again," she added, placing her micro-resonator alongside the other tools. Relaying the scan information from her goggles to her PADD, Lilou pulled up a 3D spacial hologram and set it on one of the hoverlifts, giving them a real time spacial representation of the area available for the new array install.

"The first thing I'll put back in is the magnetic protection field, I plan to use just about everything other than the propulsion, computer, communications and the casing." This was the one thing she very much wanted to do herself, knowing exactly what she wanted to do. The other parts didn't matter quite so much, but Kiri wasn't used to asking for help or even really giving orders, "Would you like to prepare the sensor units hazard shields or start to expand the computers active memory?"

Lilou cocked her head to the side. She wasn't used to working with science officers, but she'd never expected them to try to do their own work on the shuttles. Between herself, Quinn, and Willis, they'd already done about twenty man hours of upgrades and repairs on the Waverider since they'd deployed. The idea of putting the shuttle into the hands of someone outside of the department was... exceedingly uncomfortable. But she was outranked. All Lilou could do was step back. And then make damn sure nothing was wrong with the array before she installed it. "Let me know if you need a hand with anything," she said quietly, before picking up the parts she would need and going to a nearby workstation to prepare the hazard shield generator.

While Kiri had only done basic physical engineering things, building and maintaining sensor arrays was something she did in great detail at the academy. The fact that she also took specialisms in computer science and minor coverage of warp theory left her almost being placed in the Operations Department. While her social skills were barely developed, that time saved and the savage work ethic she had meant she could do a whole lot. The fact she could do a lot meant she rarely even considered asking for help, unless time was a factor. Since coming on board this was the first thing she had done which she had accepted it wasn't acceptable to work alone on. It would take too long.

In complete focused silence Kiri started to put together the sensor array in a new configuration. Most of the modules didn't need any work, some of them like general atmospheric components could be removed. The shuttle already had those. Building from at central core she could see in her head were each part went, their function, which would throw off the others. The magnetic sensor plate couldn't be too close to the field generator or anything that detected particle interference. Like a three dimensional puzzle it started to come together as she planned it. A compact series of boxes, wires, cylinders and tubes. Before anything else she had to test it. Connecting it to the main computer of the probe again she took a tricorder and after setting it to run a full emitter frequency test, placed it at the other end of the shuttle bay. Her steps were quick, her boots making a slight click on the plating. Settling back onto her knees behind her new array she started to run the test. In theory any alterations would be minor enough to be compensated by the computer. Rather than require her to start taking her improved array apart. While the long range sensors were mostly the same, medium range should be able to cut through interference better. In part from improved shielding but mostly from using a parallel system to filter out unwanted readings. In theory she hoped this would give the shuttles the advantage in any confutation. The only known possible hostile in this area were Klingons, they weren't exactly well known for having advanced sensor arrays.

A pad resting on her knees Kiri worked away, completely forgetting for the last fifty minutes she hadn't even realised she wasn't alone. Listing the adjustments that she'd look to make to the computer, this test would be repeated several more times once it was housed in the shuttle. Then they had another one to do, only when the first was completely operational again.

In the hour that had passed, Lilou had completed the hazard shield array and had begun sequencing both the shuttles' computers' active memory cores. As she crossed back to the first Waverider to check on Kiri, she rolled her shoulders and slipped her hands into her pockets. "How are we coming along?" she asked, eyeing the array the ensign was working on. "Time for me to go rework the power structure up there?" She scanned the array with her tricorder and checked the readings, "Looks good to me."

Kiri took a moment to rest her eyes before going on. In part it felt like a long day ahead of them, it was fun though and time was going quickly while she was focused. "I think it is all working. Unless you need my help installing it I'll be working on updating the computer programs. I'll make sure to keep those systems powered down though." This was one of the stages but there was still a lot more to do. At least the hard physical bit for her was done.

"The computers are sequencing at the moment," Lilou said. "I set them to restructure their memory cores according to the parameters in your requisition. Should take about half an hour."

"Oh," Kiri would have done that after her updates, not that it really mattered. Expanding how much thinking space the computer had was just one part though. She also had to teach the computer what to expect and how to think about the new information it was getting. While it was mostly a matter of calibration it was also one of knowing what would be identified as what. That is the main reason as a sensor specialist she was involved in this. Putting on a smaller smile she replied, "That's okay, I can prepare the programs while it finishes." All that was left after that was the installation and testing of the audio arrays, they were external and didn't require much power. They were also easy for the computer to use, they were a very basic system. There was also something else biting at the back of her mind, something band new for her. Just before the young woman disappeared into the shuttle craft again she turned, "Are you busy this evening?"

"This...?" Lilou looked after the ensign, "I don't know. Time?" As far as she knew, she was on duty through 0000, but if the ensign needed her to work later, she'd have to.

Kiri took the chance to double check that the power system was indeed in check before stopping to look at the woman again, "I predicted that I would be finished by nineteen hundred hours," It was longer than her duty shift but that was quite normal for Kiri, "I was wondering," Now she was feeling silly again, "If you would be interested in spending time with me?" This was the first time she had ever reached out to anyone, awkward and stilted as it was.

Confused, Lilou shoved her hands in her pockets. "Ah..." She frowned, not quite sure what was going on. The ensign looked so nervous. Was she asking her out? Or just... Since when had people actually wanted to do things with her without her asking first? Will made sense, at least. He'd left her alone until she'd asked him. And... well, maybe he'd enjoyed their dinner together the night before last, but she'd had to run off so quickly and then everything had fallen apart... And Lamar - well - he'd had a vested interest in understanding the ship he had charge of. But this? "I'm on duty through to the end of the shift, I think." What did the woman want from her? Why did she look so pained about asking for it? "I work doubles," she explained. "So... I'll be around if you need me after we're done here."

Kiri paused to consider what the woman said and sighed internally. It felt like a rejection, it wasn't a yes, even if it wasn't really a no. Failure wasn't something she came across very often so, could she leave it at that? She didn't know what she was doing, what would make the other woman happy. So rather deflated she replied, "I see," Disappearing into the shuttle. She would give herself some time to think about it. The other woman wasn't going anywhere yet. Asking hadn't gotten the reply she wanted, how could she change that? Maybe the woman just didn't like her very much after all.

Lilou watched the other Trill slip back into the shuttle. She didn't completely understand what was going on, but she had a feeling she'd said the wrong thing. She didn't know why. Or what the right thing might have been. Or how she was supposed to know what that was. But irritating those that outranked her was - she knew from experience - a very bad situation. Not that the ensign would try to beat her up, but there were other kinds of wrath a superior officer could incur. It was nerve-wracking; wasn't she only here to upgrade the shuttles for the woman? It should have been a straight-forward assignment. If she'd expected she'd have to tiptoe around talking with a stranger, she'd have made Slak come do the job. Rubbing her temples where an ache was beginning, she climbed the ladder and focused on doing her job to the best of the ability.

Try as she might, thinking about the problem didn't seem to help at all. Kiri carried out the program updates, letting the other woman without word carry out the rest of the installations. Updating the software and carrying out every check she could to make sure it was working. Scanning the inside of the shuttle bay several times. Then in turn she tested the new audio sensors, sending out pulses of ultra sound and reading its return. With everything else turned off it was able to map the room in rough detail, all she could ask for. Should the shuttles somehow end up in the nebula then they would be able to see what was in there with them. Still she would rather send in two sensor probes before the mission started to check them out. It had taken four hours from start to finish for one shuttle. The other one would be a little quicker since she could take the updates and just copy them.

Even when she finished though, Kiri was unsure about exciting the craft, she had to say something. Could she just explain her situation? As a scientist that seemed the logical thing to do. But it was something that she could barely even talk to the ships councillor about, let alone a stranger. No she wasn't brave enough to do that. So on her exit she turned to look up at the woman again, "Sorry for being presumptuous." She thought she had been clear that she hadn't spoken to other Trill, that the woman felt the same as she did about being isolated. Yet that apparently wasn't the case at all, it was a bit heart breaking. Kiri had been getting rather excited at the prospect, but what more could she do? She had no idea that the woman had defences in some places more formidable than her own. Because they were so similar it was that much harder to even get within hailing range. Kiri walked over to the other shuttle, once inside she took the panel off the power unit to check it was off-line, kneeling on the shuttles floor.

Lilou looked down the ladder, utterly lost, and watched as the other woman strode away to the second shuttle. Presumptuous? About what? With a quizzical quirk of her brows, she turned back to the power network. It was unreasonable, this expectation that people had of one another - that everyone was a mindreader. She wasn't. And the only mindreader she did know made a concerted effort not to read minds most of the time. And the ensign was Trill, too. Surely she should have known better that to have assumed that just because Lilou wasn't fully human that she was somehow possessed of otherworldly powers. The only 'genetic gifts' she'd received were cold appendages and a constant ache for a piece of her cultural history she would probably never see, let alone experience. Some gift. Using her duotronic probe, she carefully re-routed the plasma flow through the new section of the power network. It was irritating. Lilou was perfectly capable and even habitually driven to berate herself for her mistakes - whether they were work or socially oriented - but she had to know what they were first. As she closed up the panel and slipped down the ladder, she found herself getting more and more irritated. And though most of that was aimed at herself for her evident failure, the fact that she couldn't identify the failure opened the lens of her frustration to include the ensign. The woman hadn't even introduced herself, for the spirits' sakes. Maybe it wasn't Lilou's fault - this one time - maybe she hadn't actually done anything wrong. But she was certainly being treated as though she had with dark, complicated looks and enigmatic statements thrown in passing. "What did I do?" she asked, standing in the doorway of the shuttle, her arms crossed across her chest.

The shadow from the doorway cast itself over Kiri where she was knelt on the floor. Fear shot across her face as the woman spoke in what she saw a rather threatening way. Blocking off her escape route, it was scary. Things rarely scared Kiri, made her nervous, worried or anxious but rarely scared. This was one of those times though, it made her panic a bit. She had never been in a fight, never even seen one that wasn't training, she had no idea of physical pain, still it scared her. Fingers twitching slight she looked up at the woman, what was inside her showing on her normally restrained face, "I," Her voice was trembling," I just, you." Kiri closed her eyes, blocking out the image did help her, "I assumed you would be interested in spending time with me," She bit her lip, "Because we were the same." Their lives had been similar from what was told, two Trill that little real feeling of what that meant, "But I was wrong, I'm sorry." She had thought she was clear. This was her first time reaching out to someone in a very long time.

Lilou felt sick to her stomach, watching the ensign cowering at the sight of her. Spirits bless her, they were the same. She knew that look, the fear and trembling acceptance of something awful to come; nauseous, Lilou dropped to a squat just inside the door, wrapping her arms around her knees, leaving an exit path open. Exits were important. "I don't know your name," she said quietly. "I'm Lilou."

To Kiri this was the least likely even to happen next, it left her dumbstruck for a few seconds, did that just happen? Apparently it did, wow. She smiled without trying, "My name is Kiri," Culturally outside the academy most people did just call her Cho. This wasn't back home though, regardless what did she say next? Her voice was back to normal now, quiet and singing up and down, "I'm sorry for not being clear before, I didn't mean to annoy you." She made full eye contact for the first time and locked a slightly mournful gaze before breaking away.

"It's not-" Lilou worried her lip, completely out of her comfort zone. "It's just-" she ground her back teeth together, frustrated with herself. "I'm... not good... at people. I can't... I guess I don't... trust? Very easily? Or... understand-" she fumbled for the right words. "... what people want? From me? So..." she cleared her throat. "I know what- what fear is. I know that. I don't... I don't ever want to- make that happen- to anyone else. I was just trying to- I can't allow myself to be- you outrank me. So... maybe I'm- anyway, I just... didn't want to be... bullied." She rolled her shoulders uncomfortably, the muscles in her neck were strung so tight she thought they might spring apart. "I guess I misunderstood."

This woman was worse than she was for a stammer, that was something else that was new for her. It brought out a feeling that was also totally new, she wanted to fix it. Even the content she understood, "That's okay, I'm not very good at it either. I've never bullied anyone, I know what it is like." Kiri had ended up being made fun of when she first started playing with other children. Even when some had blue skin once they saw that she would get quite distraught over comments about her spots, she started to hide them. To retreat from the world at the apex of that. Something for another time though. It seemed that this was a little bit of a heart to heart so she opened up a little more, looking extremely embarrassed, "Yesterday I realised I'm quite lonely, I wanted to see if I could change that." Her face relaxed, while somewhat red still she was able to smile.

She'd realized she was lonely? Yesterday? The statement didn't make any sense to Lilou. How could someone realize they were lonely all of a sudden? It was something she'd lived with basically every waking moment of her life; she'd always felt alone, even when she was with friends. Part of that she blamed on her anatomy; there was quite literally an empty part of her waiting to be filled. She'd done everything in her power to be worthy of becoming whole - she'd worked her mind and body to their limits and continued to do so. For nothing. Sins of the father, she thought tiredly. "I am actually on duty. Alpha and Beta every day. My department's really, really short-handed." She ducked her head, "I try to make it to the holodeck early in the mornings, before they get booked. Would you like to join me sometime?"

Kiri nodded her head, "I'd like that very much," She didn't go to the holodeck for anything other than work, she hadn't used them since leaving the academy. Using them to be part of a story wasn't something she had done at all. That meant that all her social goals she had set herself were complete, a success, it felt good. Pausing for a moment she flashed a set of white teeth, "I work long shifts as well, but if you ever need help, and it's not too technical, I'd be more than happy to." While she wasn't that great of an engineer she could do just about anything with a computer, and had a basic working knowledge of general systems. Along with a fair amount on warp theory, though mostly focusing on the theory. For now, she had forgotten about work. Even though they were well due for a break if they were normal people.

Lilou nodded. "I'll let the Chief know," she said quietly. "Are you... okay?"

Kiri kept her smile going, "I'm fine, very good, are you?" It was nice for someone to ask her that question, even if she was smiling right now. Her eyes flicked to the power unit that still remained open. It was nice to talk to people like this, there was something inside that almost purred at finally being responded to. It was actually a little exciting, on top of being embarrassing and anxious.

She still felt sick; she nodded. "Fine." Rising slowly, she made herself smile. It was impolite to just stare someone else smiling at her. "I'm... just going to-" she pointed up. "Open up the array for you and bring down the parts. Okay?"

Kiri could do it herself, but someone was willing to do something for her, they were being nice, "Thank you," Could she do something in return? Nothing sprang to mind, maybe something the doctor had said, "Would you like something to eat or drink?" It was a few hours after when most people ate, Kiri was a little out of touch with that sort of thing. Touching a few buttons she placed the panel back on the unit. She was ready to carry out the updates on this shuttle. First though she wanted to make sure the other was operational. Regulations meant at least one had to be almost ready to go at any moment.

Lilou lifted a shoulder, felt the pull of the too tight muscles there, and kept her smile in place. "Thank you. I guess..." she checked her PADD. "I guess we're probably due for a break." She didn't relish the idea of not having her escape. "Maybe I'll just load in the altered array first. Run a quick diagnostic. Shouldn't take long."

Kiri nodded her head as she followed the woman out, opening the second probe and starting to dismantle it. She worked quickly, happier now than she had been since she first came onto the ship. That itself made it one of the high points in the last year. It was lovely.

It took another forty-five minutes or so for Lilou to load the reconfigured array Kiri had worked on into the first Type 9 and close the panel. Climbing down, she entered the shuttle and powered it up. The work and break in conversation had substantially relaxed her and she was fairly certain she could attempt another social interaction with the science officer without throwing up or breaking down. When everything looked all right, she leaned out of the doorway. "I'll run the diagnostic now, if you want to be present."

Though she trusted the other woman to carry it out Kiri liked the idea of spending more time with her. Leaving the parts she was working with secured she headed over to take up the invitation. Acting a little shyly still Kiri stood just behind Lilou, watching her work and then in turn watching the diagnostic, "Thank you for your help so far." They had worked well on the project, even if they weren't together for that much of it.

Lilou nodded, watching the readings on the console dive and swoop. "Nice work on that array," she said; she wasn't really sure what she could say to the other woman. She was just terrified she'd do something to make that awful, scared look come back into Kiri's eyes.

Kiri knew her work was always top quality, still it was nice to hear someone say it. Keeping her hands behind her back as she watched she returned, "I couldn't have done it without your help," It wasn't a complete truth but Kiri felt it was true enough. She couldn't have done it in the time allotted without her help. They worked so quickly together that they would likely be finished sooner than expected. Her eyes similarly fixed on the readings she added, "I'd like to test it on a sensor testing buoy before we finish, if we get time." By scanning a box that had examples of most kinds of examples was the best possible test short of a test flight could be carried out. The computer simulations might not always be right.

"Before we input the array on the second shuttle," Lilou agreed. No point risking two faulty sensors. Better to make sure the first was tested to available limits before they went through the process twice. For a couple minutes, she was silent, watching the readings fluctuate. "Did you upgrade the rewritable sensor input processing algorithms from the ship's system index?" she asked, leaning in and tapping the console to retest the last section of the diagnostic. The subspace field readings were allowing for a thirty percent bump in proportional energy over those required to maneuver the shuttle; that was fine for a ship like the Galileo, but the shuttle should have had a better collision-avoidance margin, since its shields and deflectors were weaker. Lilou absently pulled at her ear lobe.

Kiri had done her best to leave the original system intact, slight concerned she answered, "It should be running on a parallel system. The original sensor array should only be more sensitive, the mid range sensors for the interference cutting are secondary and lay over the top. General function should not be effected, if there is an error it also won't take the entire array off line." That also meant there was much less work than rewriting an entire program for a new sensor array without the chance to test it outside. That could have taken a few days and would have required extensive tests. While Kiri would have liked to work in a complete way, there wasn't time. This was something she clearly liked talking about, "It will look slightly odd on the diagnostic, but when both systems are running you shouldn't be able to tell the difference. We can run both in a moment to check." There was a reason she had expanded the computer capacity to deal with two programs and the extra data.

Lilou cocked her head to the side, studying the readings. "It's not that... I'm just wondering if there might be a way to amplify the system's auxiliary power while we're digging around. Give it more juice to work with, so the collision-avoidance margin can get up into the forty percent bracket." She shrugged. "I'll ask the boss. Another time. Thirty percent's average. I just... have a compulsive need to upgrade." She flexed her hands, shoving them in her pockets as the diagnostic continued. "Which Academy did you go to?"

Kiri had to agree with that at least, "I'd like to, if we had time," Eyes still focused on the panel, as for the other question, no one had asked her before. Thinking for a moment, "I spent most of my time in San Francisco, but I also had terms at Tokyo and Marseille as well studying Warp Theory on Mars. That was only in my last year though," There had been the option to go further afield or less really, but Kiri didn't want to go too far from home. Still she wanted the chance to study as much advanced courses as possible. Hands still in place behind her back as she leaned forwards, "Where did you go?"

"San Francisco," Lilou nodded. She wrinkled her nose, watching the diagnostic enter the final phase. "Did you take Bioengineering with Drakenmeyer?"

Kiri didn't need to think about that one, "I'm afraid not, I took Biochemistry, since I took Advanced Sensor Systems Design as my main engineering course." It was a minor part of her education overall. She felt that she shouldn't take subjects that overlapped too much, it would be redundant. Especially as she read around her subjects in such detail. "There is a minor variance in the long range sensors. The additional arrays might be affecting them," Her calibration to count it might not have been enough. Freeing up her hands she pressed quickly on several buttons and adjusted to compensate. Focusing the shuttles eyes, "That should fix it, could you run that segment again?"

She always thought of hardware before software, had been watching the variance wondering how to reroute the ODN and plasma networks to resolve the issue. Taking note of the adjustment Kiri made, Lilou silently reprimanded herself for not seeing the simpler solution and restarted the last section of the diagnostic and eyed the effects of the recalibration.

The rest of the diagnostic seemed to run through without a hitch. In theory that meant their work here was a success. The simple program for the audio sensors and receivers to create a sonar would just need to be uploaded from her pad, they wouldn't take any time to install and there was no problem at all Kiri could see with them. They were such a basic system, they were covered in her first two lessons of ASSD. After that lesson she had actually gone out into the bay and visited an ancient submarine that was now a museum. She could smell the sea air as she thought about. She missed home.

Upright again she feeling a small swell of pride that quashed the homesickness Kiri spoke softly once more, "At this rate we will be finished early," Normally her time planning was pretty spot on, but she hadn't accounted for how skilled her partner had actually been.

"That's what we like to hear," Lilou wiggled her fingers in the pockets of her coveralls. "Do you want to take that break now, or wait til we've finished the sensor test?"

Kiri wasn't really the type to take breaks, any time when she wasn't doing something she felt was useful always made her feel guilty. That was time that could be better spent, shaking her head she replied, "It's up to you, whatever you are happiest with." Meeting the woman's eyes again for a moment.

"I'l get the beacon set up other end of the shuttlebay," Lilou offered. It wasn't that she didn't like the other woman. She didn't know if she did or not. But being around her meant risking any number of terrible, social awkwardness moments and she wasn't sure how to navigate them.

Of the two hedgehogs, Kiri did seem the one more willing to flatten her spines, still both seemed extremely worried at the actual prospect of being close to one another. With the Lilou gone she breathed a sigh of relief, it was hard to trust people. In her later life she didn't have a huge amount of experiences to draw from. Teachers tended to like her and let her be, other students could be avoided as distractions. The ships doctor had confronted and opposed her, an unpleasant interaction. The councillor had brought up bad memories and left her questioning herself. The only good interaction had been with her commanding officer, and even she wasn't problem free. Here was someone else where it appeared to be a problem, yet they seemed to be getting along. Other than a misunderstanding Kiri hadn't wanted to leave, neither had her partner said anything to that effect. So it was going well? What was she doing right here and wrong everywhere else?

Once the device was set up Kiri starting running the scan, knowing the readings by heart she still let the computer check them. Waiting for it to flag up any errors. None seemed to come though, it seemed things were working out well. It only took a few minutes, Kiri watched quietly, puzzling the social questions. Being direct had worked before, alleviate confusion of the situation. Even it counter. Her high school friend Sellen would have said it was the most logical approach. Applying almost scientific working she asked, "Do you see qualities in me that you would value in a friend?" She asked herself the same question of Lilou. She was efficient, similar in aspect and situation, smart from what she could tell. There seemed negatives true but they were hardly the focus.

Lilou blinked twice from where she'd perched to watched the second diagnostic run. The question caught her off guard, seeming to come out of nowhere. She hadn't had much luck with friendships. The longest friendship she'd had was with Kestra, who had stubbornly kept in touch with her over the years through the mail despite lengthy periods when Lilou was distracted by study or work and took a while to get back to her. She didn't consider herself wholly unsocial; she liked people. She just wasn't sure what to do with them most of the time. Her jokes usually didn't land and her skin had been especially thin for the last several years. There had been a time, during Academy, when she'd found herself in groups of engineers and hadn't felt entirely strange, but usually, outside of the people in her particular field, she felt adrift. Then again, that dinner with Will hadn't gone too awfully. She pulled her earlobe subconsciously, thinking. "Me, specifically?" she asked, not trusting that that could possibly be something anyone would care to know, much less ask her.

Kiri flushed slightly, feeling rather sheepish. What she said always sounded much sillier than it did in her head, "I suppose it would be useful for any advice, in this case though," She took a breath, feeling that it was a lot to ask, "I would like to know what you think of me." Though hoping for a nice answer, it wasn't unlikely than it would be a bad one.

That you're too much like me and looking at you makes me think about what it's like to be me, which is not great, she thought, but it wasn't really fair, Lilou reasoned, to take that out on the ensign. How was anyone supposed to answer a question like that? Even if she'd had a better answer - which she didn't - how could she give it? The woman outranked her. Figure out something to say first, she thought, nibbling the inside of her lower lip. But she'd already taken long enough to think and if she didn't say something soon, the woman might get mad and stalk away again which would probably not be the right way to handle the situation. Lilou didn't think she could handle pissing off the other woman twice in a matter of hours. Her gaze flicked down and to the side. "I don't really know you," she equivocated. "You seem... like a person?" she winced at herself. "I mean- I guess- what I mean to say is you're - you know - an ensign and you're clearly intelligent and capable and I guess I don't really understand why you would care what I thought of you, 'cause I'm... well... me." She rocked back on her heels a little, glancing up at the other Trill. "I guess... I think it's nice not to be the only disenfranchised Trill in the club- I'm sorry I talk a lot when I'm nervous; it's a bad habit. Ask me about the ship, I can answer anything you want about the ship. It's just I'm kind of useless people-wise; I wish I weren't. It's something I'm working on."

"Oh," That wasn't really the answers she was expecting at all. It made sense, maybe she was expecting this to move faster, to be easier. That might be wrong, was it too much to work towards it full tilt without pause and find an answer? It wasn't something she wanted to let go though, "I want to work on it as well. I don't know anyone on the ship really, I don't think I can do it on my own. I thought it would be easier because we have things in common, but I don't know." She startled to gabble as worry started to set in, "I don't mind if you talk a lot, people don't talk to me very much so, I like it. And," It was so stupid to say but it came out anyway, "I'd like you to be happy." Kiri wanted everyone to be happy, conflict wasn't something she was able to deal very well with. It also didn't occur to her at all that rank might be a problem in their interaction. Hands clasped tight together as she took her eye of the console for a second.

It was such a simple thing to say. Strange that she'd never heard the sentence before. She was sure that people had wanted her to be happy before. Her parents were certainly invested in her well-being. Kestra had offered to look out for her so she wouldn't be so scared; that was a sign of something similar. But the words. Odd, considering she'd made the other woman cower on the floor of a shuttle only a short while ago. Was that what she was missing in connecting with people? She was supposed to terrify them by asking questions directly? Nope. Asking questions hadn't gotten her that reaction from anyone else and she'd noticed that scaring people really only tended to make them mad at her in general. Maybe Kiri was really as backwards as she was. "I would like for you to be happy too," she said quietly, scuffing her boot lightly on the shuttle bay floor.

With a start Kiri remembered what she was doing and threw her attention back at the data in front of her. Her ears almost twitched when those words washed over her in return, there were few people that she felt she got that from, the first other than her parents to say it. Smiling while looking forward she let the silence lead for a few seconds, "Thank you, that does make me happy. If you would like, another time we could talk about the ship." Since that was the one thing the woman made clear she did like talking about.

Lilou rolled one tight shoulder and nodded towards the console. "Everything looks clear. Shuttle number two?"

Feeling a lot more contented than she had done when this process started, Kiri nodded her head. The upgrades were going ahead faster than expected, she had started to make a new friend as well. Though hopefully it wouldn't make much difference, there was always a chance. This was fun though, she enjoyed it. Work on the second shuttle was indeed over earlier than expected and both were operational. Whatever happened now Kiri knew she had done her best with the time allowed. While there was work that she could be getting on with in the new time open to her she asked, "You wouldn't be free now would you?" She sounded rather hopeful, this was the best relationship she had for four years now.

"On duty," Lilou said, feeling a little uneasy. Hadn't she already told the ensign that? She wasn't used to direct personal questions or people actively trying to spend time with her. Why should they? "Til zero-hundred hours," she added, in case she hadn't been clear enough the other times Kiri had asked. She had a headache forming right behind her ears. If she could find an excuse - any excuse - to crawl into the Warp Core's mainframe and just breathe for a minute... something to clear her head. "And you're an hour into overtime. You should catch some zees, shouldn't you?"

Kiri pinched her lips together with her teeth, her eyes drooping a little. She had hoped, still it couldn't be avoided. Shaking her head she replied, "I have other work to do, and I have a lesson with Lieutenant Commander Holliday at zero thirty hours," Never before had she asked for someone to spend time with her like this. Put herself up to get rejected or hurt in a way that was slightly grazing her right now. Doing her best to keep her public mask intact she added, "Maybe another time then?" Sounding rather hopeful, that somehow she would make time for it.

Lilou ducked her head, pleased and disconcerted at the same time. "All right," she agreed, studying the toes of her boots. "Do you..." she trailed off, thinking her question was pathetically stupid, then screwed her courage up and cleared her throat, "Do you shoot? There's a good range program on the holodeck." She bit the inside of her cheek, "Sorry. Nevermind. Stupid question. No one likes target practice; I don't even know why I do."

Kiri at this point would settle for Klingon Opera if it meant she could spend time with another person. Her face lightening slight she replied, "Phaser practice?" Turning the idea over in her head, it was something she was good at. Physical training, barely a pass, close combat weapons, barely, type two phasers she was surprising skill with. Though she hadn't trained with them since coming to the ship, or two weeks before graduation, "It is geometry, I would try and do some every two weeks before. I suppose its fun," Normally she could train at level thirteen or fourteen which was slightly higher than average for someone well practised. Her smile spread a little, that might be good to do with someone.

"Soon, then," Lilou nodded, glancing up for a second with a quick smile. "I'll... ah... let you get to your work."

Feeling that she wasn't welcome any more Kiri bowed her head, taking what she felt was a hint. her voice very quiet she replied, "Thank you for your help, I will see you another time then." Being both successful and a failure it was complicated. Turning she let herself out, heading back to the sensor suite, there were odds and ends she could be doing. Another time she hoped to be able to get closer to her new maybe friend.

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Ensign Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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