The cone of light swiveled around the edge of the doors. They slowly continued to grind open, and seemed all the louder without the usual humdrum of the starship. No background hum of the engines, the tinny vibrations of the overhead lights, not even the sound of distant footfalls. Just the sound of her hitched breathing and the overwhelmingly annoying thud thud thud of her own heartbeat reverberating in her ears.

Saavik finished opening the doors and allowed Castell'uchi to pass by. The Andorian's hair, which had been tightly pulled back on the bridge, now had loose strands falling down. The climb down from the bridge had been arduous for both of them, taking turns lifting debris out of the way, helping other crew, or opening sealed doors together. Still, Castell'uchi kept her spirits up just fine. Saavik's neutrality was being grated by the lack of sensory input, but she managed just fine.

"It's over here," Castell'uchi waved Saavik over, barely visible even a few steps away this deep into the ship, "I'll need your help to get past the faraday cage."

Saavik followed. The artificial gravity still hadn't been restored, which mean she still had to float everywhere. Her core muscles were beginning to ache from having to hold herself in such an awkward half-swimming, half-floating position everywhere. She was eager to complete this task as soon as possible.

There was a faint blue illumination underneath a large box in the center of the room, not enough to light the room but enough that it made it a little easier to get a sense of spatial awareness. Saavik pulled herself down until her feet made contact with the floor, the Andorian simply lowered down so she was stomach-first on the floor. She was puzzling to herself, rubbing her chin with a thumb and forefinger.

"Problem, Lieutenant?"

"Not as such," Castell'uchi responded, "I just wish Commander Scott were here. He's the one who taught me about this sort of stuff back on Enterprise."

"I was not aware the Enterprise had ever been equipped with an automated intelligence system as advanced as the one aboard the Fury."

"We did, just one time," Castell'uchi tapped the bottom of the cage, "Did you ever hear of the M-Five Incident?"

Saavik shook her head, then realized how illogical it was when Castell'uchi could not see her, "No, I have not."

The Andorian clipped her flashlight to her sleeve and reached back to the utility belt she had grabbed on their way down, "Nobody but the crews of the Enterprise and the Lexington does. Well, them and Command anyways," She pulled out a parametric scanner and a miniature RAM-based computer, scanning along the edges of the cage where the light could be seen, "It's grizzly stuff. Back in '67 we were doing some war games exercises, and Command wanted us to try out Doctor Daystrom's new hyper-computer."

Saavik stepped aside as Castell'uchi floated herself around the corner. The palm-sized device in her hand hardly had a backlight to speak of, and Saavik was surprised she could read the green and black images projected on the screen. Then again, Andorians were always a surprising race, much like humans, she mused momentarily.

Castell'uchi kept explaining while she worked, "Daystrom called it the M-5. They fitted it right to the Enterprise, automated every single function. Engines, weapons, life support, you name it. Anyways, long story short, the thing went haywire and believed the simulated attacks were real and acted accordingly. It destroyed a drone ship, crippled the Excalibur, and nearly destroyed the Lexington."

Saavik had an assortment of questions, but the Andorian did not pause long enough for her to politely interject. Castell'uchi continued talking as she replaced the tools on her belt and pulled off a decoupler, "Captain, well, Admiral now I guess. Anyways, Admiral Kirk managed to talk the thing down, and then Commander Scott and the rest of us on his engineering roster had a field day dismantling it. It was hardwired in, and the freakout it had even fused some of the connections together. A real mess."

"I see," Saavik commented, before adding, "I fail to see how this relates to our current task, outside of the fact that both contain automated intelligence."

"Well, c'mere, you green-blooded Vulcan and I'll show you," Castell'uchi beckoned from the other side of the box. Saavik slowly made her way over and knelt down next to the Andorian. She had jammed the decoupler into the floor and was busy waggling a screwdriver up and down like a flimsy crowbar. At the look Saavik gave her, Castell'uchi explained, "With the power off we have to manually upend the faraday cage. Only thing is, when the ship is hit by an EMP the manual release doesn't engage because the cage goes into a failsafe state. So, instead, I'm trying to pry open just a smidge of the cage. If I can do that, then we can use the collector and a micro-resonator to reroute the isolated power core. You'll have to help me though."

"I will assist however I can."

"Great, then give me a second, and, in fact," She reached back and slapped a flux coupler into Saavik's palm, "Hold this."

Saavik stared blankly at the tool.

"Tell me, Lieutenant," Saavik said, before Castell'uchi interrupted her.

"Call me Cas, Ensign. No need to be so formal when we're probably about to blow ourselves up."

"Tell me, Lieutenant," Saavik repeated, "You said that Admiral Kirk 'talked' the M-5 down. It is a machine, how is that possible?"

Castell'uchi smirked, "Y'know, I'd agree if I hadn't seen it. Believe it or not, the Admiral's first solution isn't shoot and blast his way out of a situation. He's more likely to use logic, charm, that sort of thing, before he resorts to so much as a nerve pinch."

"I did not receive that impression from him."

"Most people don't. Though, truth be told, I think the reason is because the Admiral's never really recovered from Pavel's death. A lot of the old crew couldn't, but the Admiral always saw his bridge crew as his children, his family. Anything he couldn't prevent happening to them he took real personally."

Saavik considered that, and then asked, "So he perceives harm to others as failure unto himself?"

"I guess? I can see where he's coming from," She grunted with strain as she forced a section of the faraday cage open further, "I take things pretty personally too sometimes, especially when it happens to my friends."

"This is not logical," Saavik stated, "The role of a ship's captain is to remain detached and focused. Becoming personally affected can compromise one's integrity."

They paused so Saavik could assist with preparing the collector. Castell'uchi fiddled with the micro-resonator and then began running it across a glowing power tube, decreasing the likelihood that they would be electrocuted in the next step. Together, they attached the collector to the power tube and turned it on. Saavik waved the flux coupler in a progressive, one-way, wave motion to encourage the optimal amount of energy to transfer into the collector.

As she did so, Castell'uchi spoke again, half-paying attention to a portable monitor so she could watch for any fluctuations in the power transfer.

"That's one way to look at it, but you have to remember that a ship's captain is also the person who handles all disputes, internal or external," She said, "It's them who has to mediate between crew members, assign promotions or demotions, and inspire trust and confidence on the ship."

Saavik shook her head, "These are ancillary responsibilities that a first officer is expected to manage. If it reaches the ship's commander, then either the first officer has failed in their duties or the ship is being run inefficiently."

Castell'uchi blew a strand of her away from her face, "You're command track, right? You went to the officer's school and all that?"

"I did."

"Well, I was science track. I went to the general staff school, and I majored in ecology and minored in engineering and tactical starship operations," Castell'uchi said, no small amount of pride in her voice before she switched to admonishment, "I don't know what they taught you over there but, from what I learned from the G.S.S. and onboard the Enterprise, a captain is nothing if they don't have the confidence of their crew. Admiral Kirk inspired that by being honest with us and by showing how personally invested he was in everybody's lives and careers. If the lower decks can't trust that the captain is as invested as we are, the whole thing falls apart."

That gave Saavik pause, and she considered Castell'uchi's words at great length.

"So," She said, after a time, "I believe you are saying that, sometimes, one must show vulnerabilities to their subordinates if they are to be trusted."

The Andorian shrugged. Saavik's annoyance piqued at the response but she reigned it in and prevented the feeling from passing onto her expression.

"I guess, if that's what you want to take away from it," The Andorian looked up at Saavik, the kindness in her eyes as evident as it was in the small smile as she added, "It's certainly not a bad lesson."

"I will note this down, thank you, Lieutenant."

"No problem. Oh, hey, here," Castell'uchi replaced the monitor on her belt and pried the collector off. Saavik stopped waving the coupler, and Castell'uchi grabbed it out of her hand. The Andorian attached an extension cord into the coupler and handed it back to Saavik while she held onto the cord. "Hold onto this, when I get over to the far wall I want you to re-attach it to the power tube."

Saavik nodded and watched the Andorian float off into the murky darkness, following her only by the light attached to her wrist. She had given Saavik a good deal to think about indeed. Saavik did not want to base her entire career trajectory off of Admiral Kirk, but, so far, he was the only other active field officer she had for reference. Captain Spock had helped instruct her as best he could, and he appeared to be the complete opposite of Kirk in virtually every distinguishable way. Understanding both of them could go a long way in forming her own captaincy and tendencies. As logical as it sounded to her once she thought it over, Saavik was mildly surprised that she had not considered Castell'uchi's suggestion prior to now.

"Ready?" Castell'uchi called out from the far wall.

Saavik internally shook herself clear of her thoughts, "Affirmative, Lieutenant."

"Great, I'm going to plug this into the primary power system. When I do so, it's going to start draining the power stored in the collector real quick, so you're going to need to smack that sucker back down before we end up blowing out every fuse in that thing."

"Understood." Saavik knelt down, eyes fixed on Castell'uchi.

"On three," The Andorian called out, "One… Two… Three!"

As soon as the extension cord's plug made contact with the ODN-conduit outlet, Saavik set to work re-attaching the collector. The Andorian had not been incorrect in her assessment, as Saavik watched the power gauge rapidly tick down from green into the red within seconds. Thankfully, her Vulcan reflexes and keen mind wasted no time. Once attached, the power levels rose into the green and, this time, stayed there.

The automated engineering system groaned and flickered as the power drained from it completely. Saavik and Castell'uchi, though still floating, remained rooted in their spots as they watched and waited with bated breath. If this did not work, they would ruin the last power source onboard the ship and would, ultimately, blow out the backup systems as well, as the sudden influx and then loss of power would surge through them instantly. Given the lack of power, the safety systems would not be able to kick in either. The odds were very long, if one was bad at mathematics.

Saavik, however, had always excelled at statistical analysis.

Outside the pried open doors, the hallway lights flickered to life, and Saavik heard the familiar hum of the life support systems coming back online. She dropped a few feet to the floor, grateful for the return of the artificial gravity at long last. Castell'uchi was beaming ear to ear and smacked her on the shoulder.

"Now that's a patch job Commander Scott would be proud of, Ensign."

Internally, Saavik felt a sense of pride. Externally, she merely blinked from the impact and nodded in agreement. It was perhaps the highest praise she could have given, and she hoped the Andorian knew that.