Mortal Remains

Posted on Fri Apr 26th, 2019 @ 9:45am by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy

Mission: Detours
Location: USS Hera, Deck E, Intel Pod Lab 3
Timeline: 2396

The intel pod was one of the features of the adaptable Nebula class starship, which Captain Telvan had taken full advantage of with the USS Hera. While there were weapons pods that could be mounted, or enormous sensor arrays or shield generators, instead she'd followed the lead provided by the Commodore and sought out the intel pod of the USS Spectre, the Section 31 flagship. It was a wizard's cave of odd and unbelievable technology and artifacts, all catalogued by one Petty Officer Second Class Ila Dedjoy, the Captain's Yeoman.

Or at least, it had been when she was alive.

paradoxically, in a manner not quite like Schroedinger's cat, she was and simultaneously was not alive, in a biological sense. Connecting forced to create a quantum surge that would save the ship, her physical form was disintegrated, transformed into pure energy. But as had Rita Paris before her, Ila Dedjoy maintained her energies and kept them together. She was intangible and imperceptible, but she could still perceive reality, as a ghost. Working her way through the ship upon finding herself in such a state, she found herself at her own wake in 10-Forward, where she tried to comfort Rita Paris with a pat, who reacted.

Rita Paris had been a quantum ghost herself.

Touched by one, her own quantum field reacted, and she perceived the touch of the vibrationally out of synch quantum form of Dedjoy. Experimenting, she had managed to communicate with Ila in the simplest of ways, upon which the brilliant geologist had hugged the anachronistic astronaut, somewhat to her dismay.

In experimentation with the S31 transporter, only so much of Ila's biological pattern could be retrieved. So an android shell was currently housing her biological matter, one lacking arms and legs when it was called into service. Dedjoy had been working on creating one based off Kodria's designs, which had been uploaded to the database by the android girl from the future. Which now proved to be remarkably fortuitous to give Ila Dedjoy a semblance of quality of life.

It had been a few, and events had calmed aboard the Hera. Which meant that Commander Rita Paris had time to visit a recovering crew member. Keeping tabs of reports was fine, but a personal touch was called for in such occasions as this. Giving heroes their due was the right thing to do as a commander. Besides, the Captain had probably alreqady been up here to visit the inform Yeoman, so Rita was likely tardy in her visitation. Tardy or not, she had time now.

Exiting the one special guarded turbolift into the Intel pod, it opened onto the E Deck lounge, with the overhead view of the saucer section of the Hera from above that always took Rita's breath away. Sparing a few seconds to luxuriate in the view, Rita called out to the overhead.

"Lucky, would you be so kind as to ask Miss Dedjoy if she is amenable to a visitor?" the ancient astronaut asked quietly. The artificial intelligence that was Dedjoy's lab assistant was listening, and he knew she was speaking to him, much as the Hera did. There was no need to bark at the sky to get his attention.

The British voiced AI replied calmly. "Good day, Commander. Ila and the Captain are both in the cybernetics lab enjoying each others company now. Shall I inform them of your imminent arrival?"

"Lead the way Lucky, if you'd be so kind?" Rita watched as the corridor lights lit up, indicating where she needed to go, as the hatches opened before her as she walked. "Thank you Lucky- always a gentleman."

"You're very welcome, Commander," replied the AI.

Inside the lab sat Enalia at one work bench, and a much more whole-looking Yeoman Ila Dedjoy at another, now with arms and legs, though still without most of the covering panels or even skin. Still, her face had the ability to create basic facial expressions so there was that at least.

As they both looked up, Ila did her best to smile. "Commander! It's so good to see you again! How are you doing?"

"I'm well, thank you. It certainly is good to see you, Miss Dedjoy. How goes the life cybernetic?" Rita asked as she offered the android a hug. She wasn't sure if Ila could feel it, but when she'd been as ghost, sense of touch was something she craved, as an element of her isolation.

Ila returned the hug as best she could, not quite able to get up as her legs weren't fully active just yet. "Oh, well enough. My arms work at least so I can start doing things for myself. I've been working on the circuitry for my legs, but..."

"The data loss in the control linkages is being a bit of an issue," finished Enalia, when she saw that Ila wasn't going to. "Apparently some of the materials in Kodria's schematics don't exist yet and Ila's having to invent them, which is slowing progress."

"Far better than the alternative," Paris grinned at the android chassis. It was hard to see Dedjoy in there, remembering the woman's doll-like eyes and somehow just odd appearance. But at least she sounded like her old self. "I suspect the process of customizing yourself to make yourself comfortable in your own skin is going to take a little while. Although if you end up attaching yourself to some drider-style walker I think it might scare the crew. But you do have the unique advantage of customization beyond the means of the flesh. Which gives you a lot in common with Lieutenant Clemens, I'd imagine." Hopping up to sit on a bench, the first officer sat down with the captain and her rescued comrade to chat.

Ila looked up at the buxom bombshell with her facial features moving around oddly. "You say that... But I was considering adding a few extra arms... Just to help out with experiments and organization, mind you. There have been quite a few times I wished I had at least two more hands and I think four more armlets would be just enough.

“Given what you’ve been through and the current state of affairs, the least we can do is forgive you a few spare sets of arms,” Paris laughed, only partially joking. “How does progress look on recovering your organics and/or replacing them?”

Ila motioned towards a large glass tube and a privacy screen slid aside to reveal her biological remains... Which weren't much - just her head, torso, and some stumps for arms and legs. Thankfully the EV helmet and body armor part were still mostly intact, leading to the hope that the brain and nervous tissues were still whole. "My brain and spine are the only things that could be technically saved and they're keeping my 'ghost' brain alive right now. I figure I have about two months to come up with a final solution before either my ghost fades too much or my brain is too pickled."

Enalia finally interjected at this point. "But you only need two weeks to test your theory, right? To completely digitize everything?"

"I... wait, what? I thought..." Rita had thought the android shell was housing the biological remains of Dedjoy, and was a bit shocked to see the grisly remains of the quantum connection in the lab. "Okay, did not..." Rita pointed between the android and the bacta tank. "Right. So. Digitize? Pickled? We can't save your biological form? Break it down for the slow kid, if you would please."

As usual, Rita was quick to own up to not being familiar with the technology of the era, but she was always willing to learn.

"When you saved me, you saved my mind and my essence. The very thing that made me who I am. Inside of this cybernetic shell is a hybrid bio-organic android brain that I had been making based on Kodria's designs and I'm in it." Ila tapped the side of her silver head to emphasize her point, a light pinging sound being made as she did so.

She then pointed to the biological remains. "Unfortunately, roughly eighty percent of my memories are still in there. Lucky helped me build a stasis chamber based on a biosample canister and we were able to collect what we could of the rest of me before the quantum realm decomposed too much of my body."

"While separate, I was able to feel both my body here and being broken apart there, which, while guiding the genesis effect was an amazing experience in and of itself..." Ila turned back to Rita. "Those memories are also stored in there. And I would prefer not to lose them. Or the memories of my sister. Or of everyone else aboard this ship. I don't want to forget who I am."

Enalia placed one hand over Ila's and squeezed. "And you won't. We'll make sure of that."

"We didn't pull you out of subspace just to lose you now, Miss Dedjoy. Have you considered bringing in Sonak? While neither of these are fields of expertise for him... I don't think so, at least... he's surprisingly good at out of the box thinking, and he is a quantum physicist. Of that one I'm reasonably certain. And of course whatever resources we have tro bring to bear the captain has no doubt already offered you. At this point all I can really do is cheerlead, but I'm with the Captain." Rita took Ila's other hand.

"We won't let you lose yourself," Rita promised, then straightened a bit as a realization hit her. "We can help you save yourself. Because you are what we call a self-rescuing yeoman, Miss Dedjoy. You are brilliant and canny and brave, and you will find a way. In that I have confidence."

Ila smiled as best she could. "Thank you. Both of you. Right now, I just need time and mobility, neither of which I have much of to spare. I just wish Kodria had given a few hints at how to make a few of these materials. Lucky has been a major help as well." She then took a deep breath and let it out. "We'll get there. One day at a time, right?"

"Per aspera, ad astra, Miss Dedjoy. To the stars through difficulties," the old-school officer invoked. Then Paris turned the subject to another element of Dedjoy's unusual adventure."So I couldn't help but notice it seems you seeded a whole lot of black crystals on the planets in the Dedjoy system...?"

"Well... You know... I just..." If an android could blush without skin, this one would be doing it now as she poked the circuitry she had been working on with one cybernetic finger. "If something happened, I wanted a bit of a legacy. Besides, I had to do something with all that neutronium. Even Genesis can't break it down completely."

"You left something amazing and a string of planets that are going to become extremely relevant in the near future once their natural resources are realized. As I understand the situation, I think the future owes you a debt, Miss Dedjoy. So on behalf of the generations to come who will store data entirely differently than we do today, let me be the first to thank you. Your generosity will live on in the system which bears your name, with a world that is a wonder, once an engine of destruction. No longer, thanks to you."

The light in her cybernetic eyes seemed to gleam brighter as Ila smiled, an idea hitting her. "The crystals... That's how... Why didn't I see it sooner? These materials aren't new, they're old materials with my crystal matrix overlaid through them. I mean, there's a bit more to it than that, but... Lucky, start running quantum fusion overlay simulations with positronics and black crystal matrices."

"Beginning simulation now," replied the British-voiced AI.

"Commander, you are the best accidental genius I have ever met," added Ila with a grin.

"Why... thank you, Miss Dedjoy," Paris smiled, surprised but pleased. "Now that you mention it, Science has samples from all of the planets of the Dedjoy system aboard, so use what you need of those crystals, by all means. We left survey teams behind who are gathering a rather significant cache of geological samples. But we did collect some of the crystals of each world... I thought they might be significant somehow. Score another one for the accidental genius I guess?"

Enalia grinned and winked at Rita. "It's good to see you hard at work again. I thought we'd lost you for good. Without you, we'd have to scour the galaxy for another resident mad scientist and I guarantee none of them would have a heart as big as yours."

"Yeah, my people do have a six cham... Oh you mean caring don't you... Well, I do my best..." Clearly not comfortable being the focus of such praise, Ila busied herself with the circuitry she'd been working on.

"I took the liberty of applying for a second given name for you," Enalia added, which startled Ila as she stared at the chip on the bench. "There's no guarantee that it'll get approved, of course... Especially since so much of the report is redacted..."

“Is that a thing?” Paris asked. She’d hoped to hear more about the crystals, but this wasn’t her conversation, she was just visiting it.

"They almost gave me two names for not only finding the crystals, but finding a way to use them in the first place. This... And finding new uses for them... They might not stop at just giving me a piece of the name of our people," Ila paused and considered something for a moment. "I just realized something... I'll have to ask Mona if she's ever seen the crystals on her world before. Anyway, I think I'll need about twelve kilos of the samples, if we can spare that much. And I'd like to confer with Mona and Sam and Sonak soon. I think I can use them in ways even I haven't imagined."

"The future takes root in the present, as the wise man says. Of course, Miss Dedjoy. Let us most certainly experiment and educate one another, shall we?" Paris paused for a moment, eyeing the android chassis. "How does it... feel... to be inorganic now? Do you lack sensation? Is the mechanical interpretation somehow superior? I'm sorry if it's rude, Ila, but you have boldly gone where no one has gone before, and as an explorer I have to ask... what's it like?"

"Well, I designed a lot of the skin to have over a million sensing points per square centimeter...But as for the endoskeletal parts..." Ila clinked her fingertips together a few times carefully, a bit of a wistful moment coming over her. "In certain areas, there are sensing pads that have about a thousand points of sensory data collection. It's nowhere near what you'd get from even a pinprick, but it's at least keeping me sane. It's a bit like being numb all over and having the sleepy skin feeling in your fingertips when you touch something. I have a lot of new sensor feeds and I have sight and smell and hearing and a semblance of taste... But I miss the feel of things."

"Are your biological parts able to be regenerated, to get your organic body habitable again?" It was rough being the stupid one in the room, but Rita Paris had long ago adapted to it by being the one willing to ask what were probably stupid questions, yet were never evident to the uninitiated. As Dedjoy replied, her voice was similar to what it was, yet somehow still recognizable as a facsimile of her voice, and with the loss of sensation it was the logical question to ask in Rita's mind.

"No. Illarans are not known for our resilience and that... I'm amazed I survived what I did for as long as I did. After all, my sister died instantly after being exposed to the vacuum of space." Ila leaned back in her chair slightly, her first outward sign of relaxation. "After all, our bones are hollow and our eyes are big balls of fluid and..." She shook her head. "No, it would take so much work... I'd have to be mostly prosthetic just to carry around a few bits of organic matter."

“So you’ve made your peace with this?” While she herself would have a significant problem with such a transition, Dedjoy seemed to be unfazed by it all. “I can’t promise you anything like ‘I swear we’ll restore your biological form’ or what have you, given that you would be the one we’d turn to for something like this. But we could get Sonak and Dr. Dael working on it, if you want to go back. Or, if you are committed to moving forward, that’s what we’ll do, and we’ll accommodate your needs as best we can. The important thing here is your quality of life… so you make the choice, we’ll abide by it. And we could always keep your biologicals on ice in case technology advances, and you change your mind.”

"No, there's no changing my mind. My mind is in here now, after all." Ila tapped the side of her silver skull again, making the same plinking sound. "Thank you, but this is how it is and I've accepted it. Besides, how many people can say they've become essentially immortal overnight through the proper application of mad science?"

“Not many,” Paris admitted. “So long as you’re okay with how this worked out… I’m just very glad you are still with us, Miss Dedjoy. I’d miss you far too much for you to just up and leave like that.” In truth, Rita Paris was relieved that Ila Dedjoy was content with her lot in life, electronic though it was, and the fact that she would remain amongst the living was of great relief to her. Plus, with the tribunal preparing to begin, losing her closest ally and reliable Yeoman would not have been good for the Captain. But it seemed all was well that ended well.

“I guess this means I have to resign myself to the fact that you are going to be telling my grandchildren embarrassing stories about when you met their grandmother and she threw up on your shoes…” Rita grinned.

"I'll tell them all the stories they want to hear and more," Ila replied with a semblance of her old grin on her new android face. "But first is getting this new body working."

"Ila, I have those simulations ready for you," interjected Lucky. "They show promising results and I can have the materials prepared in lab reactor chamber three in seven hours."

"Thanks, Lucky!" Ila grinned wider at that news. "It seems I have more work to do. One thing I will admit to missing though, is having to eat. I do so enjoy my feline supplement forty seven."

“I guess this inspires you to figure out how to create a digestive system and taste receptors,” Paris replied cheerfully. “A mad scientist’s work is never done…”