@Herald Inside

Posted on Fri Dec 29th, 2017 @ 3:48am by Captain Enalia Telvan & Akira Zhuri

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Iconian Dyson Sphere

The ancient lighting systems in the probe lab flickered to life and the atmospheric vents glowed briefly as they started producing an oxygen-nitrogen based atmosphere, starting to fill the room filled with racks upon racks of Herald probes.

As Akira's data was loaded into the Herald probe, the lab computer systems started loading for the first time in over two hundred thousand years. The lab automatically analyzed Akira's holomatrix and declared it as a young class three warp capable sentient, giving it all the rights that came with that, which was extensive all things considered.

It then added Iconian language, map, and interpretation database information into her matrix just outside of her firewalls as well as compatibility and control matrices so she could control the probe she was now inhabiting. The computers then left her to integrate the data herself and finished starting up the extensive probe lab in preparation for her use or departure.

For Akira it was dark for a long while as her matrix attempted to figure out how to operate the Herald. It felt strange, a sensation she had no words to describe, and she had no time to adapt to this feeling, she had to get this probe operational and find her friends! The eyes of the probe slowly opened and Akira was taken aback by the sensory overload; the probe had 6 eyes and could see into the infrared and ultraviolet, not to mention the massive amounts of sensor data that her matrix was interpreting as sight as well!

"Stars above, wha-" Akira said as she staggered off the lab platform. Wait, that wasn't Starfleet Standard English! Hold on, why did she only have 3 fingers on each hand?! 3 toes! WHERE WERE HER ANKLES! She tried to take a step, but these legs were considerably longer than her matrix was used to, and the digitigrade joints were so confusing, so her feet slipped on the smooth tile of the lab floor and down she went. Then most surprising of all, all 6 of her eyes began to tear up. "I want to go home!" she said with a whimper.

A voice reverberated through the labs addressing Akira, sensing her distress. "Welcome, Honored Guest, to Herald Lab Omega Nine Nine Omega Nine. How may I assist you in your visit? Do you require knowledge on your surroundings or adjustments to your body? Should I adjust the systems so you may converse in your own native language?"

"Yes please," Akira said with a pathetic squeak. In truth, she was hesitant to allow this voice to do anything to her, but she would have to take the risk; after all, if she found her friends, it wouldn't be all that helpful if she couldn't speak a language they understood! "I am a guest and honored? You recognize that I am not Iconian?"

There was the sound of the Iconian systems working for a moment as the Herald android mouth reconfigured so it could speak the languages Akira was used to and the data was loaded into the control systems. It then spoke in a close approximation of Federation standard. "Yes, as you were transferred your programming was scanned and it was discovered that you are a synthetic being evolved from the creations of the races evolved from the servitor races of the Iconians whom were my masters over two hundred thousand years ago. As I have no orders prohibiting your kind from accessing anything and my scans have evaluated your knowledge as being a level three warp capable being, I have granted you free access to the ninth tier databases, if you choose to make use of them."

"Oh, that is very generous of you," Akira remarked, feeling awkward about all this. Still on the floor, she stared up at the tall lab, curious about something. "My society has come across Iconian technology before, always to terrible effect. It seems interfacing your technology causes bad things to happen to our technology; is this by design or possibly an unintended side effect of the advanced nature of Iconian technology?"

There was a brief processing sound as the system addressed the question. "My records show that the Iconian homeworld and all colonies were attacked by the servitor races and all known Iconians were wiped out. It is likely that if there were survivors of this genocide that they would have implanted viruses and malicious code into everything they could in order to either protect it or get revenge on the servitor races, depending on the mental state of the surviving party. My records indicate that prior to your unintentional activation, this lab was offline for seventy three years prior to this war until the present day."

After a brief pause, it continued in almost a sad voice. "I have neglected my maintenance for 73,720,875 days... Should I perform it now?"

That many days? That was well over 200,000 years! "Um, are you capable of assisting me while simultaneously performing maintenance?" Akira asked.

The computer made a few more processing sounds and almost sounded like it was stuck for a moment before it replied. "I am unable to assess that possibility at this time, unfortunately. I will endeavor to assist you first as you are my Honored Guest. Please tell me how I may be of assistance."

Akira wanted to go find her friends, NOW, but she had the rare opportunity to collect information that could help them greatly... "Well, I am not opposed to you doing maintenance so long as you can still communicate and answer questions. After all, being a synthetic being I understand the importance of regular maintenance and would not want to be so rude as to impose over your needs," Akira said politely, because you catch more flies with honey than vinegar! "Um, our people are explorers, we do not really know much about the Iconians or our servitor ancestors or the relationship between the two, we simply set out into the universe to explore and learn; some would try to take advantage of Iconian technology to serve their ambition or fuel conflict, but mostly our kind simply want to learn about the universe," she explained, trying to give this seemingly intelligent lab some context and help create a diplomatic segue. "We came across this structure and we call it a Dyson Sphere; we were struck by a weapon and forced to crash land our ship on the surface of the Sphere... The crew, they were taken away; we're just explorers and they are my family, can you help me find them? Are they okay?"

"Stand by." The computer was silent for a moment before replying again. During that time a database entry on the relationship detailing the relationship between the Iconians and the servitor races was downloaded into the external memory of Akira's Herald body for her perusal. It basically laid out that Iconians treated the other races like the Federation treated younger races that just developed warp drive, letting them grow on their own before fully welcoming them into the galactic community. They had something like a prime directive, but often used the genetic code of those races to create or improve their own servants, hence the name 'servitor races.' "I have detected six hundred eighty three descendants of the servitor races inside of the sphere at various locations. I apologize, but I have no access to external systems. It seems all active external systems are infected with some sort of malicious code - most likely the one you mentioned earlier. I am checking my backlogged updates... I have purged the code from my updates as well. I have no desire to harm my Honored Guest and this code is designed in such a way that it would likely be fatal to you. I have decided not to run any maintenance actions at this time. How would you like to proceed?"

It was at this point, Akira finally sat up; she had been reassessing the size of this body and limb structure and attempting to modify her programming to accommodate the new stride, so hopefully once she stood up she wouldn't be such a klutz! "I need to find my people! Please, if you can help me find my people, I would be eternally grateful. A-and- I wouldn't ask for more if it weren't absolutely necessary, but... We were looking for a bad man; he hurts our people, changes them into monsters, and he's done something to himself, he bleeds black and this has infected two of our people. He is likely the one who has infected your computers with this malicious code. Can you help me find a way to stop this man? We had a weapon on our ship we thought could help us, but it's still on the ship where it cannot help us, and we cannot let this man hurt anymore innocent people!" she pleaded as she managed to get to her feet. Akira hoped that this computer was capable of sympathy and that she had cultivated enough of it, or at the very least the computer had enough of a sense of self preservation to see the Master as bad for its own well being and make it willing to help. Moreover, she hoped it was capable of helping!

"I will search my data for knowledge of this man. As for your people, they are split between three places. Two prison camps hold the majority of them and the third has a small number. It is a memory modification lab. I do not know why they are there. I will transfer the locations to your external memory. Lift nine alpha four will take you closest to the prison camps. Also, if you'd like...." The computer paused a moment in hesitation. "These facilities are capable of modifying the Herald probes to the physical specifications included in your matrix. It will take several hours though and you will lose several capabilities including flight while inside the sphere."

"I can fly?" Akira asked curiously, then shook her head; if she had the time, she may come back to have this body modified, but for now it was vital that she find the crew and get them to safety! "Sorry, flight is not important now, I should be thanking you for your assistance; thank you, thank you so very much!" she said with profound gratitude. "Is there any way I can help you in return?" she asked.

"This system is grateful for just being of service once more, but if it is possible please come back before you leave," replied the ancient Iconian computer.

"So long as circumstances do not force a hasty departure, then I will most certainly return," Akira assured the computer with a genuine smile, or at least she hoped she was smiling, her face was doing something in response to these warm feelings. "Do you have a name?" she asked out of one last bout of curiosity.

"This unit is known only as Herald Lab Omega Nine Nine Omega Nine."

"It has been very nice to meet you, Herald Lab Omega Nine Nine Omega Nine! My name is Akira Zhuri, by the way; Akira being my given name and Zhuri is a surname," she replied cheerfully. "And I promise, I will do my very best to return," she added as she headed for the lift the lab indicated to find her friends.