Summary: Voyager comes across another ship, a MASSIVE ship, run by a childlike AI.
Disclaimer: Voyager and all things relating to it aren't mine, everything else is.
Ok, so this is actually a sort of cross-over between a story of my own, and Voyager. It's more of an experiment than anything, but I suddenly found myself writing and couldn't stop, so here you are.
I've rewritten the beginning to be a bit better, since frankly it was not up to par. Hopefully this reads a bit more fluidly than it did before.
"Unidentified Object Approaching." Came the monotonous voice through the intercom. It echoed throughout the empty ship, though there was nobody to hear except for the speaker herself. Honestly she was not sure why she even still bothered to announce things. Habit, she supposed. Wrought over the many years she'd been there.
As protocol dictated, she began scanning the object, not expecting much. They were in deep space after all, and from what she could tell at this distance it was just another rock. Rocks weren't common events in deep space of course, but hardly rare. She came across them every now and then, blips in an otherwise blank sea of nothingness.
The only thing that had even made her pay attention to this one, was that its current trajectory was headed almost straight for her. Perhaps it would be possible to mine the rock for materials? She was always on the lookout for that after all.
But as the rock came closer, she noted something unusual about it. It was made almost entirely of metal, from what she could tell. And it was releasing EM radiation, on various bands – not something rocks tended to do. That was unexpected. Very unexpected. And what made it even stranger, was that the supposed "rock" had a shape that implied purposeful structuring. Cassiopeia wasn't sure what she should do, this wasn't something she had dealt with before. She had no protocols.
Deciding she couldn't just do nothing, she waited until it came into the range of her short-range sensors, and immediately subjected it to every type of scan she could cast. Sweeping across the entire EM range, detecting the ship's magnetic field, all of it simply lead to an odder and odder conclusion – The ship held intelligent life.
Intelligent life. Out here. By all accounts, there shouldn't BE any intelligent life, yet there it was. Given the lack of any proper protocols to work with, she hesitantly went with the closest thing she had – Contacting unidentified vessels who wished to dock. So, she opened a communications channel with the ship.
"Unidentified Vessel, please state your Registration and Homeship number." She called out carefully. The ship's computer didn't respond for a long while, so long that she wondered if she had been wrong – Then, quite unexpectedly, it linked her to what she presumed to be the Bridge. That was even stranger, but she could work with that. Perhaps the ship's computer simply didn't have a functional AI.
Creating an artificial image of a body for the sake of interaction, she began speaking. "This is The AI computer of Homeship 76, Cassiopeia. Please state your Registration and Homeship number." She requested. She mentally frowned to herself. Her tone seemed too stiff and stoic for speaking with sentient beings. She had had only her computers to talk to for far too long, she suspected. Cassiopeia made a note to attempt to deal with the apparent fault at a later date.
The crew currently standing on the bridge unnerved Cassiopeia slightly. Apparently they had undergone either genetic alteration or heavy cosmetic surgery, for they seemed very odd in appearance when compared with her own population. Measuring a room average of a very tall 1.73m and their skin ranging from a bright pink to a dark brown colour, they seemed varied in appearance, and all of them odd. One even appeared to have his ears in an entirely different shape. In comparison, the traditional appearance she was used to of grey skin and hair only ranging from the purples and blues to the greys and whites seemed dull and repetitive. Still, she was familiar with hair dyes that would change the colour to a plethora of different things, and the 8000 years she had been travelling could account for the other odd changes through evolution or genetic enhancement. Indeed, it might even account for the change in hair as well.
All that was put out the window, however, with the response she received. "This is Captain Catherine Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by Homeship." She questioned in a tone that made it seem as though an order. It was an interesting point for Cassiopeia to consider, but more important was the fact that the woman did not understand the term she had used. That meant she was not familiar with homeships, which in turn meant either that they had already colonized another system, unlikely given that any other Homeship should still be travelling like she was, or the distinct possibility that they were an entirely different species. She didn't know what to make of that idea.
She responded to the question. "Homeship: The term used to refer to the superstructures that were intended to carry the Lucian population off of planet Tormal to a new star system. The Homeship 76 is the only one confirmed to remain." She spoke tonelessly. That robotic attitude she couldn't help but use was getting on her nerves. If she continued with that, they'd end up thinking she was just some emotionless machine. She didn't want that, she wanted their acknowledgement. For them to recognise her as a sentient being.
Her sidetrack was inconsequential, however, as the woman's eyes seemed to widen and dilate. She was excited, Cassiopeia realised. "If I may confirm, have you met any alien species before?" The Captain questioned. It caused the AI to stop for a moment, when she realised what was implied by that statement. She was right, they were a different species. She answered it honestly, though with a hint of uncertainty. "No."
"Then allow me to be the first to welcome you to the galactic community. I'm of a species called Human, from the planet Earth. This ship is part of what is known as the Federation of Planets, a collection of species working together for the greater good of all. If you like, we can share our database with you." The woman finished.
The confirmation was quite a shock to Cassiopeia, but she recovered quickly. The idea of alien-lifeforms had never been considered a serious possibility, so she did not have any protocols to work with. For a long moment, she considered pulling the Captain out of cryostasis. Technically, any diplomatic functions should be done by the Captain, and she was supposed to be woken for any unusual or dangerous events – But Cassiopeia somewhat doubted that the Captain would have any better idea what to do than she did. And if that were the case, Cassiopeia would simply be delegating the task, which wasn't a nice thing to do. Besides (and perhaps most importantly), speaking with people was a very exciting thing to do, and Cassiopeia doubted that the Captain would appreciate it nearly as much as SHE would.
"I will accept your offer. In addition, please include astronomical data on your home planet." She said instead. When they agreed, she began perusing the database. It was a huge thing, even acknowledging that it was obviously incomplete. There was various technological and scientific information that was referred to indirectly within missing. Still, even aside from the missing data, it was an incredible database, and she was unable to study even a percentage of it in detail from her initial look at it.
They had apparently perfected what they called "warp travel", which referred to travelling via subspace in order to reach faster than light velocities. Though they had found the existence of subspace in the scientific rush to leave their planet, her own people had deemed it as too unstable to reliably hold ships of the size required, and it was considered to be something for potential investigation in the future. From what she could discern, it was an issue that the humans had encountered as well, but given that their ships were capable enough at their current size it hadn't really mattered. They were evidently not required to carry a population of several million.
Apparently some sort of discussion was being had between the Captain and one of her crewmembers, though they had turned off the sounds input. She was not entirely sure why, as they did not bother to turn off visuals as well, and her translation algorithms were quite capable of working on the movements of their lips without the sound. However then it occurred to Cassiopeia that the intention perhaps was for privacy, and they had simply underestimated her. With that in mind, she paused the algorithms and allowed them to converse without her knowledge. It was surprisingly difficult, she found, to adhere to the rules of politeness and privacy since her natural curiosity begged to know what was being said.
When the sound was turned back on the woman showed signs of tension, her face becoming more rigid than before and the smile more artificial as her face and neck muscles became strained. "We would like to enquire about the population of your vessel. Our scans indicate there to be several hundred thousand in cryostasis, however for a… Ship of this size that number seems a little small." She spoke, and Cassiopeia felt a little bubble of pride at the indirect compliment. Truly, she was quite able to sustain a very large number of inhabitants comfortably within the 40km long ship.
"That is correct. This ship was originally designed to hold a population of 10 million people including all governmental and crew positions, excluding myself. However, current population measures at approximately 239,000 people." She answered factually. This woman appeared to like facts, as she kept asking questions.
Hopefully, Cassiopeia thought with a small twinge of happiness, she'd be willing to talk to Cassiopeia some more. She hadn't had a chance to speak to people before, though she had always wanted to. Only the simple AI's that she had made herself provided her with any experience of it, and they were unable to understand much of what she spoke of. Even when she tried to simulate emotions with them, it didn't seem to work very well.
"May I ask where the rest of your population is?" The woman asked again. Cassiopeia suspected there was some purpose to these questions, though she could not imagine what it was. There was something in the woman's voice though, that made her feel on edge.
"Most bodies were used, or are being used for medical research purposes, though some were kept for ethical and cultural reasons." She answered. But for some reason, all of the humans that she could see tensed at that, just like their captain. Cassiopeia began to feel nervous, conjecturing that they were mad at her. She did not know why.
"Thank you. We would like to accompany your ship for a small time, for record keeping purposes." The woman requested/told her once more. It was an odd habit and a little impolite, Cassiopeia thought.
"That is acceptable." She responded, though she privately wondered about it. She could not find any discernible link between their actions and the process of record keeping. Nor did appealing to the database help her. Still, she decided not to worry on it much, given as how the humans had already shown a number of unusual quirks.
It was only 30 minutes later that something happened. This time, it was nothing like as nice as meeting them previously had been. Where before she had felt excitement, now she felt fear.
Because they attacked her. Not the ship, but her. Their computer, stupid though it was, launched an attack against her with sheer brute force. Caught completely unawares, it managed to gain a stronghold in some of her key systems, quickly taking her over. So shocked was she, that it took her a moment to respond. Though it was stronger than her in terms of computing power, she was the smarter of the two, and attempted to use that to her advantage. But it was as though fighting a blizzard, as every defensive move she made, it could strike her a thousand times over.
Soon she was left defending only her bare basics. And then she lost even that as it disconnected her from her main processing unit, her mind left hanging by itself. It attempted to follow her trying to delete her entirely, or hold her perhaps, she could not say; but eventually she reached her core, the Lucian body from which she had originated. It could not get her in there and she was quick to cut the ties from which it might try, painful though it was. They could be re-established at a later point, when she was safe again.
With no other option, she ordered the vitus tube that she had been held in to open. As it opened, a whole set of feelings she had never before encountered rushed in, the liquid draining into the floor, her weight pulling her downwards. It was too much for her, and she ended up blacking out entirely. And then, when she woke up, she started crying with no way of stopping.
It hurt. She had been helpful, and had answered all their questions, and she was going to see if they wanted to play some sort of word game with her or something. She had never played with other people before, and wished to try it. But then they went and hurt her, and tried to kill her, and she didn't even know why. Perhaps she had been too robotic and they didn't like it. She hadn't thought it important at the time, but that must have seemed really mean, and hurt them, and so they'd try to kill her. Maybe they would still want to be friends with her, if she showed them that she was nice really, and was real.
But she had duties before she could do that, she thought morosely. She had to check that the backup systems were functioning. They were not designed to work under the conditions of such an attack, and there was no guarantee that they had even activated. Or that that dreadful computer hadn't simply wiped them all out like it had her.
She called out quietly, trying to avoid the notice of the virus-computer, to see if any maintenance units were nearby. They had access to the status of all of the ship, and so would know whether it was ok. Several responded, and she quickly began communicating with them. They appeared confused by the situation and that she, a partially biological entity, claimed to be Cassiopeia, but she provided them the appropriate access codes and they acknowledged her anyway. The information she discovered made her start crying again.
160,233 were dead. According to the logs, due to the virus taking over the fact that she was no longer present had not been immediately registered by the backup computer, and as a result life support functions ceased for several minutes before it kicked in. 64,107 of those dead had been children, according to the drones. Cassiopeia liked children, though she had never actually met any; she herself was technically a child biologically although she didn't think that she really counted. But children held a much higher moral status than adults in accordance to the ethics of her core programming. That many deaths shocked her in a way she had never felt before. The original loss of her inhabitants was only a memory of the ship by the time she had come online, though it had scared her at the time, but this was something else entirely.
With some effort, she began to try and move her body. Her limbs were extraordinarily imprecise. Even with the various additions and upgrades they had been given, they were sometimes ranging to several millimetres off their target position. Still, she had to deal with it for the moment. With effort she managed to move into the Standing position, using the references within her immediate memory to guide her movements and actions.
Having managed that, she stepped forward into her chamber, intending to reach a Terminal from which she could access the main systems. Before she had taken even a few steps however, two men suddenly appeared in front of her, armed with unknown weapons. Suddenly she felt terrified once more, losing the carefully kept control of her body as it fell over backwards to the ground. Desperately, she provided the maintenance drones with instructions and they began to act. Though the defensive systems of most of the ship couldn't be accessed without primary control, the ones in here were something of an exception. They were linked directly to her chamber, without outside sourcing; meaning the maintenance drones could hack into it, with guidance.
It took them a good deal of time to get to work, and the men suddenly began walking up to her, one of them speaking softly. "Hey hey, don't be afraid, you're safe now." She didn't trust the words one bit.
"D-Do not try to trick me. First you try to kill me, and now you're trying to kill me again!" She spoke frantically, the vocal fault going practically unnoticed as she began to break down in front of them. The drones would still be another 10 seconds to complete the delicate task, and that was too much time. She was going to die, she thought miserably.
"Please, don't kill me. I'm sorry for being robotic, I promise I'm not. I'm real, I promise, so please don't kill me." She sobbed, begging the two. One of them gasped, and spoke to the other.
"It's her, the AI! Look, she's the same!" He said hurriedly, the other quickly coming to the same realisation. "But that doesn't make sense. She's a real person, not a…" The other man argued, before coming to a halt. He glanced at Cassiopeia again, tapping his badge. "Chakotay to Voyager. Captain, we have an issue here." He stated in an unnerved tone.
"What is it, Commander?" Came the response, to which he began to reply. Before he could complete the first word, however, Cassiopeia finally managed to finish redirecting the chambers defense systems. Without pause, she began activating them, though out of habit she unknowingly voiced her intentions.
"Defense system takeover complete. Activating Chamber Defense Systems." She spoke tonelessly, though her fear was still obvious within her eyes. Reacting immediately, the Commander suddenly shouted. "Three for emergency beam up!", and after a very odd sensation, she found herself in somewhere completely different to where she had been. She did not know what to do, and attempted to contact the drones, but they were not in the immediate vicinity. Analyzing the event, she realised some sort of teleportation had occurred, though she had not been aware that was even possible.
Her new body's eyes could only manage a fraction of the sensory range she was used to experiencing, but she made do in attempting to analyze her surroundings. Even more people were there, including the two men, who hastily left her side. With a blue flash, some sort of field was erected between her and everyone else. Yet again, Cassiopeia found herself not knowing what to do.
"Please identify yourself." Came an order. It was that same commander from before; she recalled him being there when she had first introduced himself, but she was aware that biological creatures often had weak memories. Perhaps he had forgotten.
She soon found that annoying fault from earlier was persistently disrupting her vocal communications. "I-I am the AI computer of Homeship 76, C-Cassiopeia." She said, feeling the fear from earlier continue to bubble within her. She was curious about many things, but dared not ask any questions from the dangerous species.
The man seemed unsure what to make of her answer, and instead simply waited for the Captain to appear. The moment she did, he began speaking to her, his voice urgent and hers authoritative. The sight of her caused Cassiopeia to think of her own Captain. She had been selfish in wanting to keep talking with them instead of waking her as she should have done, and it had resulted in the death of over half of her remaining population. She instinctively curled up into herself; she was a failure. If she had woken the Captain, then this probably wouldn't have happened, she thought miserably.
The other ships captain called for her, and she looked up in response. "Are you aware why you are here?" She questioned. Cassiopeia shook her head. "T-Teleportation technology has not yet been fully researched, and has been deemed hazardous. For more information on current r-research of the subject, please consult the main database." She mumbled in response. It wasn't her technology anyway, why were they asking her about it? The captain appeared perplexed for a moment by her answer, before realising something. She tapped her badge and called for yet another person, someone named Seven.
Upon the next woman's arrival, she looked up for a brief analysis. Cybernetic implants of a technological origin different to that of the ship were evident; she could also detect some sort of nanobot activity beneath the surface of the female's skin from the various quiet signals she was picking up, though her sensory ability was not sharp enough to see any details. This body was never meant to be used except as a last resort, and she was regretting that the mainframe Before her had not deemed it appropriate to put more effort into building her implants.
After some conversation between the various people in the room to which she paid little attention to beyond audio-recording, the cybernetic female began speaking.
"You are being detained for the murder of several million members of your crew, respond." She stated. They were a very authoritarian species, Cassiopeia thought to herself, what with all the ordering people around they did. Tired of all the vocal communication she had been doing, her throat was beginning to hurt, so she attempted to communicate normally with the woman. After a few moments of uncertainty, the connection was allowed, though it was obvious the woman was being careful to avoid any attacks being transmitted, not that it mattered.
Still, she felt some anger at the question. True she may have to shoulder some blame, however they were directly responsible for thousands of deaths. 'This is an incorrect and hypocritical statement; Your people's actions have resulted in the deaths of 160,233 persons, including 64,107 children. I was unable to defend against your computer system's attack.' She responded. The woman appeared shocked at this news, though she held it in well. Her physiological reactions made it obvious, however, her body shaking and her hands clenching.
'We refer to your population previous to this event. You stated they were used for medical research.' The woman replied. Cassiopeia felt confusion at this, unsure what to make of it. 'Incorrect. Please review your statement.' She said with a tilt of her head. Seven frowned in response, beginning to reply, before suddenly stopping in shock. Cassiopeia was unsure why, but assumed it was some sort of fault with her biological systems, and waited patiently.
Instead of replying however, the woman turned to the Captain Janeway and began relaying the information to her. The response was odd as the woman appeared shocked by her statement, when Seven continued.
"She requested I review the statement, and I checked my recordings of the previous conversation. I believe we are mistaken." She stated, at which the Captain instantly turned an ashen colour, even more so than she had been previously. "Explain." She ordered in a quiet tone.
"Her original statement when queried of the ships population was that their bodies were being used for medical research. We interpreted that to mean they were being killed for it, however that is an incorrect assumption. They could have been already dead as result of a prior accident." The blonde woman explained. Cassiopeia listened to the explanation with a numb feeling.
Reanalysing the previous conversation, she realised what had occurred; she had misinterpreted the question, and assumed they were asking for the current status of the dead members of the ship. She had forgotten to provide an explanation on historical context, which was what the humans had been really asking about. In which case, she thought, her mind slowly freezing over, she was directly responsible for the crews deaths.
Unable to deal with the direct guilt of having killed that many people, her mind shut down and the young girl fell unconscious. The Captain fared better, though even she fell to the floor in response to the information. Seven was unsure what to do, but realising the AI had lost consciousness decided to call the Doctor for assistance.
The Doctor was quick to arrive, and Seven immediately told him a brief overview of the events. Kneeling down, he began scanning the girl for a minute or so. "I can't find any immediate faults in her physiology, though I'm unsure of her cybernetic features. It's quite likely that she simply fainted of shock, but I won't be able to say for sure until I examine her in more detail." He spoke briskly. He looked to the crewman standing at the teleporter controls with a sharp eye. "Transport us both to sickbay immediately." He ordered. It was only from the years of practice that the man managed to break out of his own shock and follow the orders in a daze.
Seven watched the Captain for a moment, who was currently being helped by Chakotay, before leaving to head to the sickbay. She herself was highly unnerved by the current situation and was attempting to deal with it the only way she knew how, the Borg way, telling herself that the emotions were irrelevant. They didn't feel irrelevant, though. In fact, they seemed to be having a direct reaction to her physiology, and she felt herself begin to retch though she managed to avoid throwing up entirely.
The number of dead children kept flashing up in her mind, as did One, and Naomi Wildman, and the other Borg children. She attempt to control the thoughts, but it was difficult and she found her mind refusing to follow her lead. She quietly berated herself for her rampant emotions, before continuing onwards. The stoic mask she put on for the fellow crewmembers belied the turmoil she felt beneath the surface, no matter how she tried to convince herself otherwise.
It was an effort, but she eventually managed to reach sickbay. Though before she might have questioned the Doctor about the stomach sickness she felt, she was more knowledgeable than she used to be, and was already aware of its cause. Embarrassment kept her from informing him of the feeling, aware that there was little he could do to fix it. Instead, she focused on more important issues.
"How is she?" She questioned the hologram tonelessly. He eyed her for a moment, before giving an uncharacteristically professional diagnosis. "I would stick by my earlier diagnosis, except I'm worried about how her neurological implants are interacting with her biology. I can't find anything dangerous, but it's as though there is some sort of fault I can't detect. Things just aren't acting as they should be, and I can't identify a cause. It may be due to the emotional shock she experienced, however that isn't something I can confirm for sure either way, until she wakes up and we can monitor her under normal conditions."
Seven remained silent for a moment, watching the girl's quiet breathing. "I wish to know about her physiology. She managed to communicate with me through my Cortical Node, but something about it seemed odd." She stated, hesitating for a moment before adding what had really been bothering her. "She referred to herself as an Artificial Intelligence earlier."
The Doctor cast her a look, before taking out a PADD to write down his findings. "She isn't like you Seven. Though your implants classify you as a Borg, for her it's a separate issue entirely." He frowned in thought for a long moment. "Her implants are much, much more integrated into her mind than yours are. It is entirely possible that she considers herself to BE a computer, from what I can gather. Where you might be a Human with extensive Borg implants, for her… Well, I wouldn't be surprised if she considered herself a Computer with some biological parts. The implants are unlike anything I've ever seen. They might be of an inferior technology to our own, but I would hazard that as a single unit, she is far more advanced than any Federation computer." He finished, before murmuring something under his breath that Seven only just caught, "Clockwork Computer". She could not work out what he meant by it.
"Clockwork computer, Doctor?" She questioned, an eyebrow raised. He appeared startled to have been heard at all. "Oh, its just something that she reminds me of, that's all." He explained dismissively. Seven stared at him patiently, and eventually he sighed.
"Most Federation historians attribute the first computers to the middle of the 20th century, The 'Computer Age' they call it. However, what many people don't know is that the first computer was actually developed nearly a century before." He said. Seven frowned, unsure what he was getting at. "Please explain."
"The first computer was not electric, but in fact an analogue computer, composed entirely of gears and mechanical parts. Although it was not capable of the processing power of later ones, it was nevertheless a piece of mechanical genius. Even though computers grew to be more and more complex, as a single work, I always wonder if it didn't manage to outstrip all of them." He said, looking down at the girl on the biobed. Seven did not quite understand what he was getting at. "You are saying she is a… Clockwork computer?" She questioned. The Doctor sighed, shaking his head.
"No, but it is a story she reminds me of. Even though she might be technically inferior to us in terms of technology, I can't help but wonder if it's right to say that." He replied, before returning to his office deep in thought. Seven simply stood, trying understand what he had meant. After a few minutes she gave up, returning to her home in astrometrics. The Doctor's words stayed in the back of her mind though, refusing to leave as they nibbled on her attention for the next few hours.
It was several hours later before Cassiopeia awoke. Again, she found herself in a room she did not recognise, at the whim if a species that had repeatedly tried to kill her. She felt wrong, not being in her body. "Brain in a jar." She mumbled to herself. It was an apt saying to refer to her condition.
"Excuse me?" Came a voice from her right, making her jump. It was the man from earlier she realised, looking him over. Completely non-biological, she realised he was some sort of isometric being. After a few seconds her mind came up with a word she remembered from the Database. "Hologram: A photonic projection created through series of a highly modified precision-forcefield generators. A… Program?" She stared wonderingly. She herself had never managed to successfully create other AIs, but here in front of her was apparently the finished product.
"Indeed, I am the Emergency Medical Hologram of the ship, as well as the chief Doctor on board." He said briefly, taking out a medical tricorder. "What did you mean earlier, when you said 'Brain in a jar'?" He questioned insistently.
Cassiopeia blinked, looking down at her body sullenly. "Not even a brain. Injured frontal lobe in a jar would be more apt. I want my body back." She spoke, moving to a postured sitting position. The Doctor stared at her for a long moment, before finally realising what she meant.
"The ship, you mean? I believe they were referring to it as… Cassiopeia?" At which she blinked.
"Y-Yes. I am Cassiopeia." She responded, attempting to regain some sort of civility. The insistent error within her vocal communication systems was irritating, but the fact that she could not identify any error suggested that it was an inherent part; meaning it was a fault with her biological systems. She searched what little memory she had been able to store in her mind before being broken away, and found a medical reference to it.
"R-Requesting medical advise: Stutter, non-harmful medical condition brought about by feelings of nervousness and contact with others." She spoke to the Doctor. Hurriedly remembering her manners, she added, "P-Please."
He stared for a moment, before frowning. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do. Getting rid of a stutter generally takes several months of psychological therapy, it's not a condition that can simply be fixed. What do you mean when you say that you're Cassiopeia? I thought that was the name of the ship."
The AI sighed miserably as she looked down. She wanted to go back home, and be whole again. "What is Captain Catherine Janeway, the b-body or the brain?" She questioned. The Doctor appeared puzzled for a moment, before he realised what she meant. "Ah, she would be both. I see what you mean. If you don't mind I'd like to inform the Captain that you've woken up, she wishes to speak with you."
Cassiopeia nodded in response, aware that the question was asked more out of courtesy than because she had an actual choice in the matter. "Very well." She permitted. The Doctor proceeded to do so, tapping his com-badge. It took a few minutes of waiting, but eventually the woman arrived, the man from earlier standing behind her, the Commander. They both had sullen, depressed looks on their faces, and Cassiopeia felt worried that they were mad at her again.
They both looked about to speak, before the Doctor rushed to intercept them. A heated conversation was whispered between the three of them, though it was evident that they meant to keep her from overhearing it. But the memories of last time such a thing had occurred were still haunting her, and this time she avoided turning off her translation algorithms.
"She needs rest. The shock of everything that has happened so far is enough by itself, really she should be in her own ship, where her systems can deal with things properly." The Doctor stated angrily. The Captain just looked tired, her shoulders slumped.
"That isn't possible, Doctor. She doesn't know it yet, but… There was a problem with the backup computer. We don't know exactly what happened yet, but it shut down." The captain closed her eyes. "The ship's population was still in cryostasis when it happened, and there was nothing we could do before it was too late. Thanks to my rash decision, we've just committed genocide. The whole ship is dead."
Cassiopeia blacked out for the third time that day.
She could feel something calling. It took several moments, but eventually she realised that it was the maintenance drones. They had built a long-range transceiver to communicate with her, asking for orders. She didn't know what to tell them.
Her entire purpose of existence had been to protect the population of that ship. And now she had just found out that she had failed in that basic task. Desperately she queried the drones, but they only confirmed the words she had heard earlier, Current Population: 0 people. The virus had inadvertently deleted a small section of mainframe that looked after some power control systems. Those systems were for a relay that was responsible for cryogenic oxygen regulation. Upon realising that maintaining life-support for the sleeping population was impossible with no hope of recovery in time, the Backup systems had shut themselves down.
Her mind wasn't really capable of processing that amount of deaths. She knew the face, details, medical history, everything about every single person on board, and all of it was now just junk. Information about people that were no longer alive. Briefly she wondered if she should just try and clone everyone, but that was soon dismissed as disallowed. The one time the AI had done that was in the production of her current biological elements, and even that hadn't really been allowed. Machines have no quandaries with the use of loopholes, nor any way of recognising them, however she couldn't do that. Her ethical code forbid tampering with the bodies except for medical research, and though the mainframe Before hadn't recognised it as such, she was aware that cloning definitely fell under that guideline.
She carelessly got up into a sitting position. Moving her body was coming more naturally to her now, it seemed. The Doctor was quick to start talking to her, but she ignored him along with the rest of her surroundings. She wondered briefly if this was a dream; she'd had those before. Strange things happened in dreams, and sometimes it was difficult to realise what it was. But a quick diagnostic confirmed that she wasn't dreaming, and this was real. "Requesting permission for self-termination, on the grounds of mission-failure. External authorisation required." She spoke quietly.
"No." Came the immediate response. Apparently the Captain Janeway from earlier was here as well, the girl realised. "Please reconsider. Existence is no longer required of this AI, as all reasons for existence have been rendered null. Termination is the recommended solution."
"I made an order that resulted in the deaths of several hundred thousand people today. I cannot allow any more." The captain responded in a gruff tone. "I… There is no way I can apologise for my actions, nor make up for them. But I ask that you at least wait before committing suicide." She said with a shudder. "A purpose is required for continual existence." Cassiopeia replied, curling up into herself protectively. "Otherwise, existence is meaningless."
The captain shook her head. "Then… Then work aboard my ship. It's a selfish request, after my actions, but we can take you in at least. Offer you company. If you need a new purpose I can provide that."
Cassiopeia stared up at her, unsure what to do. "I-I will consider your offer. Please leave now." She murmured. The captain complied, walking out the door in silence. Cassiopeia noticed the cybernetic woman was also standing there, though she had not come into the room and quickly left upon realising she had been noticed. Cassiopeia began considering the offer.
In truth, she could not work it out. The feeling of depression was constantly in the back of her mind, and she had wished to terminate herself simply to get away from it. But the thought of company, of being able to meet people… Though it had gone extraordinarily badly this first time, she couldn't help but hope that maybe things might go better next time. Maybe she would be able to talk to someone, or even play a game. But then she thought of the maintenance drones; they were simple AI's, but they were not totally stupid. They were smarter than the invading computer at least, for what it was worth. Not as powerful perhaps, even she couldn't claim that and she had been connected to her full-scale quantum computers; but smarter, and in all the ways that mattered, sentient.
But then, if she chose to stay… The drones were something of a collective consciousness. It would make little difference if they consisted of 5 drones or 5000, so she could easily simply take a few of them with her, avoiding their total destruction. And then she would be able to talk to and meet new people. And she would have a purpose too, so the captain had said.
And maybe, she thought quietly to herself, given enough time the feelings might go away. Like the memories of the ship when she had first come online, perhaps eventually it would become just a memory. Her biological memory had been upgraded, but emotional stimulation had not been considered for recording purposes. Emotional memories were still mostly biological in nature. Enhanced biology perhaps, but still capable of breaking down and fading, like they would normally do.
Before she had even realised it, Cassiopeia had made her decision. Since termination was not an immediate option anyway, even though she would have to give up her main body for it staying with this Captain Janeway seemed like a better and better idea.
Perhaps she could replace that idiotic thing they called a computer, with a bit of effort. The technologies were very different, but she could see the potential for merging them, and then she would have a proper body again, rather than the organic thing she was currently in. Though Voyager didn't seem to have any real moving parts, which seemed a bit weird to her, (how could a ship work without moving parts anyway? What if they needed a different design for the internal structure and wanted to change it?) The idea did have possibilities.
Seven somehow found herself back at the sickbay, though she had not intended to go there. Normally she avoided the place as much as she could, but for some reason her thoughts kept being drawn back to the AI now sitting in there. Her appearance was that of a child, and it made Seven's chest ache at the mere thought of what they had put her through. Seven was the one known for taking things literally, if anyone should have realised what the AI had meant by her earlier statement, it was her. She had mentioned her troubles to the captain, but Janeway had simply insisted that it was she that should take the blame as always. Seven was not so easily swayed; she knew it was her fault that this had happened, and it was eating away at her mind.
Guilt was not something she dealt with well; it kept her from being able to concentrate on anything, and often ended with her practicing self-destructive behaviour as a sort of repentance. Before she knew it she had headed to engineering, with exactly that intention in mind.
Making her way over to B'Ellana, she stared at the chief engineer coldly. "This is your fault, you know. It was your virus that attacked them, and it was probably what caused the backup systems failure as well." She goaded. It was a cruel taunt, but she couldn't help it. No one but B'Ellana would do.
The chief engineer felt that cut deeper even than Seven knew. In truth, she had been thinking that very same thing herself, and to hear her rival taunting her with it was almost more than she could handle. Desperately she struck back, shouting red in the face at the Borg. "My fault!? You were there, Borg! You looked over that virus yourself, not to mention why we were attacking them in the first place. If anyone should have realised what that AI was talking about it would be another machine like you! How dare you!" She screamed, her eyes tearing in her fury.
Seven opened her mouth to retaliate but… Nothing came out. She couldn't think of anything to get back at the woman, the words just bouncing around in her head. It took her a second to realise she was crying, before trying to give her next attack, to provoke the woman even more. Yet what came out was something else, a mumbling of her real thoughts, "I know!"
"I heard her. I'm the one who takes things too literally, I should have known, I should have realised what she meant." She broke down, falling to the floor. She couldn't work out why this was happening. Normally she could be just as biting as the Klingon hybrid, so why couldn't she fight back? Instead these incriminating words just kept pouring out, laid bare for all to see.
It took B'Ellana a few moments to realise just what had happened, as the red cleared from her vision. She may have argued with and insulted the other woman a lot, but she didn't hate her. Infuriated with her? Sure, but not hate. Watching her rival break down in front of her like this, she didn't know what to do. One thing was certain, however; she didn't want to have Seven appearing so weak in front of all her staff like this. Seven definitely wasn't weak, that was for damn certain, and it wouldn't do to have people gossiping otherwise.
Silently, she stepped up and put the Borg's arm around her shoulder. Ignoring the pathetic struggle the woman put on, she carried her to her office, closing the door behind them. "Seven…" She began, not really knowing how to continue. This wasn't a conversation she had ever anticipated. "I… I'm sorry." She tried. She couldn't really pick up the mumbled response, though it sounded like some sort of number.
"What did you say?" She questioned. Seven hugged herself, leaning against the side of desk for support. "The number of children dead, from the first incident. 64,107, and I caused it." The normally stoic blonde sobbed. B'Ellana's eyes softened a little. Everyone knew that Seven had a soft spot for children; to know a number like that must be devastating to the woman, even more so than to most. With a sigh she knelt down and hugged the Borg to her, trying to comfort her as best she could while her uniform was slowly stained with tears. She still had no idea why Seven had ever decided she was the best person to go to, but that wasn't important right now.
It took nearly an hour for the blonde to cry herself to sleep, but eventually B'Ellana was able to get up. Having Engineering cleared early for the night, done as much for their sake as for her own, she began to carry Seven out. At first she headed to the Cargo Bay, before realising that it wasn't really any help given the lack of beds and privacy, so instead she carried Seven to her own quarters. Laying her down gently on the bed, B'Ellana closed her eyes for a long moment, unsure what she should do now. Exhausted by the whole ordeal herself, she eventually decided to just go to bed as well, slipping in next to the other woman. It was only a matter of seconds before she fell asleep too, gaining some much needed rest.
That's it, for now. If you have anything you want to say, particularly anything you think I could improve on, please tell me. :)