Give Me Your Files! (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 19 Jun 2012 @ 12:06pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D.
Edited on on 19 Jun 2012 @ 12:07pm

2,949 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Starbase 152 - Deck 140, Computer Core
Timeline: MD 07 - 1545 hrs

Previously...

Once her team was successfully scanned Evelyn turned her attention to the path ahead. The remaining doors unlocked and began to slide open. Evelyn entered and her eyes widen almost in awe of the Central Research Chamber. The openness of the chamber's architecture made it appear larger than it should be. Her eyes noticed a man at the center of the working at the circular work station.

She walked down the small ramp to the main level and made her way to the man. As she got glimpses of his face she recognized him as Hardaway from his file. "Doctor Hardaway?" she called out gently as she approached him.

Anthony looked up, frowning slightly. "More Galileo crew?" he asked them in a curt tone.

Kiri looked around the room for a few seconds, finding several things of interest while holding her position relative to the others. Unless she was invited to she wouldn't speak up, she wasn't leading the mission and she didn't have anything to say as it was.

Evelyn nodded, "Yes Doctor. I'm Evelyn Coleman from the Galileo." She gestured towards her team, "Ensign Kiri Cho and CPO Arthur Willis." She turned back to him, "We're evacuating the station of everyone associated with the Project and will need your assistance to transfer the files off the station's Computer core."

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Willis stepped forward, holding the portable core. "I can assure you doctor, that the information will be quite safe."

"I'll assure myself of that," Hardaway declared, holding out his hand towards the core Willis held. "I will see to the downloads myself and I will be keeping them on my person. They will not enter the Galileo's system. Project Sienna has a dedicated computer. You will need to set something up on the Galileo in a similar manner so that I can have secure access to the files."

She wasn't the one he was talking to, she wasn't leading this mission. To Kiri though, he was obstructing them. The captain had sent two computer specialists to make sure the job was done correctly. They hadn't asked for a copy to be made nor for the Starbase staff to carry out the process. Though she didn't know why the project was being moved, those involved didn't seem to be trusted to keep it safe. There was something else as well. Her right hand dropped slowly and slightly, bringing itself to her side, closer to her phaser but the action shouldn't appear too obvious.

Scientists are always such prima donnas. Evelyn thought to herself. "Doctor, my orders are to download the files and transfer them and you back to the Galileo. There were no special requests in those orders." Evelyn said politely, trying to keep her frustrations from surfacing. "If you have your own portable computer cores you feel would better suit your needs, by all means, bring them out and we'll use them for the download."

"I'm not interested in what your orders said," Hardaway told Evelyn in an alarmingly cool tone. One could almost see frosty air coming from his lips as he spoke. Project Sienna's head scientists was far more unnerving when he was calm than when he was raising his voice. "You will have to make adjustments to accommodate the delicate information in our files if you want to complete this mission successfully. You may transfer the files into a computer core, but I still needed a dedicated system on your ship to access them."

Evelyn bit her lip forcing her to choose her words carefully. "Then please, Doctor, by all means," She reached over the took the portable core from Willis and turned back to Hardaway. "Take this and configure it to your specifications. Or have someone on your team talk to one of us and we'll make the necessary adjustments to this," she lifted the core in her hands "And then once we're back on the Galileo, we'll connect it to the console in your guest quarters. Unless of course you have some objection to us trying to accommodate your needs."

Willis looked to the scientist. "Doctor Hardaway, may I be of assistance in the download? I do have extensive use with the core download sequence."

Anthony did not answer Evelyn but focused on Willis. He seemed a singularly focused man, the doctor. He only ever looked at one person, always the one he was talking to, but not always the one talking to him. It was as if only one person could exist for him at a time, the one most useful to him. At the moment, that was Willis. "You may," he said at last, "I will send you my senior technician. You will work with her. Also, a console connected to the Galileo computer will not be sufficient. I need a dedicated system that has no electronics connection to the rest of the Galileo."

Kiri remained still, remained quiet. No one was giving her orders or talking to her. The situation annoyed her, she wasn't the type to speak out. Why was this man making their job hard? He wasn't part of Starfleet, this was a Starfleet Starbase, he had no authority over anyone outside his project. They could just take it.

Evelyn sighed and gave the portable core back to Willis. "He'll take care of all your needs." She said to Hardaway as she turned to the young woman beside her. "You doing ok?" she asked.

Whatever she felt, she couldn't say any of it. Not to a higher officer, not in front of people that could make use of her weakness. Kiri lightly shook her head, "I'm fine, sir." Despite what she said before, calling Eve by her name in public didn't seem right.

Hardaway tapped his foot as he watched the impromptu therapy session. "That's lovely," he declared, "let's make room for people who have work to do, hm? I have a research program to transfer. Lieutenant, if you would clear out any of your..." he looked at Kiri, wondering what she was here for, "unnecessary personnel so that your computer specialist can tell me what he needs."

Rachel watched Anthony's interaction with the Starfleet Officers. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Despite the situation she had no desire to help out. She was so close to getting her prototype built she didn't want to put it off regardless of why.

"That's it." Evelyn muttered walking up to Doctor Hardaway. "Since we've got here you've been nothing but difficult and, to be frank, rude. I would expect someone with your calibre and apparent intelligence would have learned proper manners." Evelyn looked straight into his eyes, "If we have to transfer the data without your help, then so be it, but mind you, if it comes to that, you and your silent colleague over there," she nodded her head towards Rachel, "will not be permitted to access the Project during the entire trip on the Galileo."

Anthony looked unimpressed, and Evelyn would get that superior look from him. How dare a lesser mind like hers lecture him. Of course he knew that they would think him all the more rude if he explained what he really thought of them. He did not deign to answer her accusations about his behaviour. What she thought did not matter to him. His cool eyes met hers evenly and he replied, "You may think your white shoulder pads can get you into anything you want, Lieutenant, but I created the security for Project Sienna myself. The only one with full access to the Project's files are myself and my wife, and that is how the situation will remain. I do not appreciate threats, least of all to the security of our work. Now you and I both have work to do, so I would appreciate it if you were to tell me what you need so I can return to more important matters like how to reinforce the integrity of the particle stream in the manifolds during the spatial phase induction without losing cohesion in the fourth and seventh dimension of the Hardaway sub-quantum field geometry." There were exactly five people in the Federation (and possibly the galaxy) who knew what exactly that meant, and two were on the station. Perhaps he was trying to overawe them with the fact that he'd had such an important phenomenon named after him and his wife, even though he no doubt considered them far too average to understand its significance.

Evelyn didn't hesitate in her response. "You shouldn't be focusing on the integrity of the particle stream. The properties in the Fourth and seventh dimensions behave similarly despite being virtually unrelated. The fact that cohesion is being lost in both of those dimensions signifies the quantum harmonic osculation is being inverted in the Ninth. Reinforcing the integrity of the particle stream will most likely result in a cascading flux compactification effect in the anthropic landscape on the transdimensional plane. I would suggest adjusting the variance of the particle stream." Evelyn responded coolly; feeling a sense of familiarity in the moment. "You remind me of Doctor Eugene Ursuline," she mused. "But not to go off on the tangent, what I need is access to the terminal for us to connect the portable core, and we'll begin the download. As I stated earlier, work with Willis if you have any special conditions that need to be addressed regarding the transfer."

To Kiri, they were both right, sort of, they were also both wrong. From what she understood of the project, it was too dangerous. Folding space time rather than passing through it required massive amounts of energy and where would it all go? Even a warp drive can cause damage to subspace by passing through it, the chaos caused by something like this would be terrible. Beside what she thought though, the dimensions of subspace weren't an issue. If you were passing through them unprotected then yes, they would be and alignment and everything would matter. But almost every space faring ship had something that would protect them from that, a warp core. By producing a warp field the ship shouldn't be affected by subspace at all. If it was a matter of a series of small subspace bubbles, then a mircowarp core could produce one and stabilise a field inversely. She didn't understand what all the fuss was about, maybe she misunderstood something but her knowledge of warp theory was pretty up to date. Were they fixated on a problem that didn't really exist? Or were they trying to make it function without a warp core? Either way, no one was really asking her anything, they just seemed to be being mean to each other.

If Hardaway considered Evelyn's suggestion helpful, he didn't tell her that. Instead he addressed her instructions. "Follow me with your core," he said, turning and heading to the terminal that would grant him access to the project's files. "Why does it take three of you to watch me download my files?"

"CPO Willis was in charge of connecting the core and downloading the files himself. I am here to update on...recent events...that has occurred which I feel you and your team needs to know about. As for Ensign Cho, she's here to assist Willis." Evelyn explained, "After all, we weren't expecting you would hinder us from our mission."

Anthony stopped in front of the terminal and gestured to a port. "Put your core in place," he said to Willis. Once the core was hooked up to the console, he started to examine a long string or programming, frowning at what he saw. "This will not do," he informed them. His hands flew across the console with practiced ease and the Sienna computer began to reconfigure the core the Galileo had brought. He made a point of keeping himself between the LCARS panel where he worked and the team, somewhat obscuring their view of the overwrite.

Willis smiled and looked back at Evelyn, "Lieutenant, too bad the Chief isn't here. He has a unique way of getting people to do just what he wants. Especially scientists that think they are the smartest people in the room."

"I'm sure he does." Evelyn smiled at Willis. Her eyes then shifted to the other Doctor Hardaway. "You two remain here." She said to Cho and Willis, turning back to them. "Willis continue working with him on the transfer. Ensign," she lowered her voice to a whisper as she leaned closer to Kiri's ear. "If he attempts to delay our mission again, feel free to stun him."

Kiri's eyes widened slightly at that, it was the first time she had been ordered to make a hostile action of any kind. It was serious, she would do exactly that if it seemed needed. In a low voice that wouldn't carry rather than a whisper she replied, "Yes sir." Her fingers twitched slight as her eyes became fixed on the man in front of them.

Evelyn walked away from her group and towards Rachel. "Doctor may I have a word with you in private? There are some important information that you should know."

Rachel cocked her brow at the officer in gray that had chosen to speak to her. She let out a little sigh. "Lead the way...uh...Lieutenant." She flashed a smile that she didn't really feel as she pushed off the wall where she was standing. With Anthony manning the transfer of their data she really didn't have much to do other then sulk.

Evelyn lead them away from the others and noticed an open door out of the research center, once they left the room and Evelyn noticed things were cleared she turned to face the Scientist. "Doctor Hardaway, I just would like to share the reason for this transfer."

Rachel was actually looking forward to hearing this answer. She looked over the officer that had taken her to the side, "That would be most appreciated Lieutenant."

"Relationship between the Federation and the Klingon Empire are deteriorating rapidly. The last vessel that was supposed to transport supplies to the Station and your project went missing. We recently discovered the Klingon were responsible." Evelyn said softly. She licked her lips looking to make sure they are still alone. Turning back to her, she revealed. "We believe the Empire knows the Federation is doing an experiment here. I can't be sure if they know about Sienna exactly, but a suspicious Klingon is an angry one."

"Of course they know we are doing an experiment here," Rachel said with a scoff. How dumb did this women think she was? "This is a research station. Which is what was explained to the Empire. " She shook her head slightly. "While most people assume all Klingon's to be a shoot first ask question later species they are far from stupid. So I believe the warning you mean to deliver is that the Klingon Empire is aware that we are attempting to develop a new propulsion drive which would increase the Federations standing above that of the Empire." Her tone revealed her aggravation. "This whole situation is highly inconvenient."

Evelyn shook her head. "To everyone outside this station, Starbase 152 is considered a minor repair and resupply facility, nothing more. The station is equipped with a complex holographic and sensor refraction system. The did not know about this project." Evelyn explained, "Whoever told you that the Empire knew the true purpose of this starbase lied to you. If they already knew, they wouldn't have killed everyone on the USS Petersham."

"No offense Lieutenant..." Rachel started a little on the snippy side. "It is not my husband or my fault that Star Fleet has chosen to lie to the Klingon Empire. Nor is it my responsibility that you or the Federation believed that they would not figure out what we were doing despite the improved technology that was installed on this base." She looked over the officer for a moment, "Now I realized that as the...Gray is Intelligence if I am not mistaken, that you were not the one responsible for this mess that has befallen my beautiful lab and completely stalled the progress of my experiment. None the less you are the one who at the current moment feels that I should trouble myself with your explanation of irrelevant Federation practices while my husband diligently tries to copy our files before we are forced to leave a place we have come accustomed too."

A self sastified smile crossed Rachel's lips before she continued with her adolescent tirade. "While I never savor in the loss of life, I simply only care about my project and I should be getting back to help Dr. Hardaway with the download." With that she turned and headed back towards the lab to offer her assistance.

Evelyn watched her walk off. My god, they are both like Doctor Ursuline even down to their self righteous attitude. Project Sienna may have the same fate as Ursuline's Transwarp Drive. Evelyn chuckled softly to herself as she returned to the group, Would be perfect for the centennial of the failed experiment.

[OFF]

--

Anthony Hardaway, Ph.D.
Project Sienna
played by Chauncey William Remington III

ENS Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Arthur Willis
Computer Systems Specialist
USS Galileo

Rachel Hardaway, Ph.D.
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Tarishiana Barel

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