Tiny Brain, Big Body

Posted on Sun Aug 11th, 2019 @ 9:49pm by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Ensign Briaar Gavarus
Edited on on Sun Aug 11th, 2019 @ 11:13pm

Mission: Mudd on the Souls of Mankind
Location: USS Hera, Deck 3, R & D
Timeline: 2396

Another shift was about to end, and the idiosyncratic duo of Fiona O’Dell and Briaar Gavarus had put in a hard day’s work. Morning runs and workouts were extending the amount of time that the tiny test pilot could remain active in the experimental variable mode spacecraft, the prototype of which was still referred to by the developers as the ‘Thunderchicken’. With a cybernetic neural link serving to speed the reaction times between thought and action, the experimental flyer was still racing through qualifications as an uncontested success.

While the interface, and indeed piloting the fighter craft which could convert to a semi-robot form or a full on robot mode were all new and experimental, Ensign O’Dell had emerged as an unlikely candidate to demonstrate the flexible craft’s versatility. At this point, she could literally make the bulky craft dance, and in simulations she could keep at it for over half an hour of activity without becoming physically and mentally overtaxed.

Today they had been working on determining stress points in linkages, so O’Dell had spent a few hours in the cockpit, ordering the mech’s movements to suit the needs of Ensign Gavarus. The brilliantly capable flight engineer, who had initially been assigned to the duty as a form of punishment, was prickly and disagreeable- which was the primary issue holding her back in her career. But when it came to working with O’Dell, the odd couple of the midget Mariposian and the tall Tellarite had become immediate friends. While separately both were ne’er-do-wells whose Starfleet careers were likely headed for an unsuccessful end or perhaps a lifetime spent at the bottom, in each the other had found a gifted and talented partner with whom they could easily work, and with whom their accomplishments were impressive.

Today, by the time the shift ended, Gavarus had to wake O’Dell, as she had grown bored waiting for the next request for an odd pose or position. In addition to the fatigue she often failed to mention as a side-effect of working with the Thunderchicken, boredom was another enemy, and while Gavarus had gone off to fetch a specialty tool, O’Dell had nodded off. Curled up in the cockpit, the wee wingman was sleeping and dreaming, even as the cybernetic link between herself and the robotic flyer she was responsible for testing was still fully active. Which in turn meant that rather than active commands and one-way communication with the starcraft, instead the onboard computer was processing input from her subconscious.

Which would become relevant soon enough.

Reemerging onto the flight deck with the needed tool, Gavarus could hear O'Dell's soft rhythmic snoring, not unlike the purr of a cat- that is, if a cat also randomly muttered random syllables of Gaelic in its sleep.

Walking over to the cockpit which, in its half-robot/half-spacecraft mode dubbed the 'gerwalk' mode by Commander Paris, the mech was crouched down low enough to the ground for the towering Tellarite engineer to just be able to peer into the cockpit if she stretched on the tips of her hooves.

Peeking in at the gently dozing form of Fiona O'Dell, Gavarus rolled her eyes and stepped back over to her command console over to the side of the testing zone of the flight deck. Patching into the Thunderchicken's comm system, Gavarus bypassed the system’s telltale chirp and brought the internal volume up as she whispered.

"Fiona... Fiiiiioooooona." It was as gentle as was possible for the gruff Gavarus as a grin crept across her porcine puss. Taking a breath, she called out at normal volume, slightly amplified by the speakers inside the cockpit: "Top o' th' MORNIN' to ya, Leprechaun!"

The reaction from the pilot was to shriek slightly as she spastically flailed for a few seconds, her arms and legs splaying about as she suddenly arrived at wakefulness. The mechanoid, imitating her actions, promptly fell over, the arms and legs flailing like a turtle on it's back until she was fully awake. At which point she began to right the mech, picking it up off the ground by bracing itself with one hand and scooting the legs beneath it. As moved O’Dell, so moved the craft, and she knew where the balance points were and how to compensate for them. Righting the fighter back in it’s feet, O’Dell began to complain.

“That’s not a vurrah nice way to wake up somebody with a phaser cannon strapped on, ye know,” she posed to her pleased as punch porcine partner in peril. “S’liable to end up not so good for ya, aye? Least ye were smart enough to not be close, or I might ha’ rolled over onto ye.”

"None of the weapons systems are live, AND we got to test the joint stress upon impact. Huzzah!" The crotchety engineer twirled a single, fat finger in the air with a smug smirk.

"That said, I think you need a frickin' coffee in you. We've got more tests to run before end of shift. Break?"

“Aye…. Glad it was joost you and nae the Lieutenant findin’ me asleep at the stick. I forget how much that beastie drains me tiny brain while I’m walkin’ her aboot. Juust sittin there wi’oot budgin an inch and it still tires me oot. Joost means I need more time in the gym I figure, aye?” As she had been speaking, O’Dell’s dexterous digits were dancing across the control surfaces, flipping switches and powering down the various redundancy systems onboard the experimental craft, even as she stifled an irresistible yawn. Which in turn made her forget to shut off the main power cell, thus leaving power to the primary systems and the ship’s computer. But the canopy was already opening, and the sleepy short stuff was already hauling herself out of the cockpit, eyes bleary and movements sluggish.

“Aye… coffee. I swear I got a good night’s sleep last night, I dinna know why she’s takin it oota me s’hard today,” O’Dell complained, trying to shake off the exhaustion that had snuck up on her as she shuffled toward the control podium where Gavarus was working.

"I dunno..." Gavarus commented as she logged out of the workstation and the pair headed off to the R&D lounge for a coffee. "... I think Gonadie needs to readjust the neural thingamabob. It's still putting a lot of strain on your system. Sure, you're lasting way longer without pushing the numbers into the red, but I feel like this whole thing should be getting easier for you. C'mon. Let's get a coffee drip feed started."

“Ach, maybe it’s because me wee tiny brain doesnae make enough electricity, huh?” O’Dell wisecracked as the pair shuffled off to the lounge for a coffee break. “Or maybe it’s just a fitness thing, and I joost need to get in…” O’Dell paused to cover her mouth with the back of her hand for a long, protracted yawn and a headshake, her mop of bright red curls flinging about as she tried to wake up fully. “Oh! Mother Macree, I’m booshed. Maybe gettin in better shape might work, or maybe I joost need a proper night’s sleep? Or joost an afternoon nap?”

As the duo entered the lounge, neither of them noticed the mechanoid, of its own violation, raising a hand up to it’s canopy, as if the experimental craft were stifling a yawn with the back of it’s hand.

Settling into the lounge, Gavarus went to the replicator to grab the pair two big, steaming cups of coffee while O'Dell all but collapsed in a seat. "Yeah. Carrot's busy but you do look like you could use a serious nap. Here."

Putting the coffee in front of her pint-sized pal, Gavarus actually looked a little worried as she pulled her work PaDD out of a back pocket. "Yeah. Your numbers in that last test are all getting high. I'm thinking I might need to make an executive decision here and pull the rest of the tests for today."

As Gavarus spoke, O'Dell had been resting her head on her hand as she began to doze off. Slowly, her ginger-topped head slid down and all but hit the table as O'Dell pulled herself back up with a start.

Her chair scraped loudly along the deck as she did so, obscuring the sound of a similar bang coming from the flight deck.

“Noo noo, tis alreet, I’ll be fine,” the pixie pilot protested, as she was wont to do when it was suggested that she might be unable to do something. “Joost get some coffee in me and I’ll be right as rain, and ready to go agin.”

Despite her successes and assurances to the contrary, the frail fighter jockey lived in perpetual fear that she would be found wanting and be replaced on the project, which had given her an enormous sense of accomplishment and personal pride. Of course, having partnered with the little lass for a few months now, Gavarus knew better.

"Yeaaaah, no." Gavarus said plainly as she slid the coffee cup away from the anxious test pilot. "The ship's on a skeleton crew and if anything were to happen, we'd be trusting the EMH to take care of you. Look, Fee... Gonadie made me assistant chief and I'm pulling rank. You're too exhausted and frankly I'm worried. And I frickin' hate being worried about you, alright?"

While the two would never say it out loud, it had become painfully obvious that they had extremely strong feelings for each other and it tended to make the touchy Tellarite possessive and protective of her Mariposian Partner-in-crime. "It's my ass if anything happens to you, Fee. So I'm canceling the rest of the tests for this afternoon. We'll pick up in the morning after you get two or three assloads of sleep, okay? This is MY call and nobody is going to give you any shit for it, I guarantee it."

While her issues of self-worth were strong, and her anxiety over measuring up perennially haunted her, in this case O’Dell knew that everything Gavarus was saying was correct. If she was covering the reasoning for canceling the rest of the day’s tests, then O’Dell would accept it gracefully. The irritable engineer had her best interests at heart, and would argue her point with anyone who cared to disagree, likely until the other party capitulated through agreement or lack of sleep.

“Alreet, alreet, ye win. I’ll give it a rest fuir today,” the bonny lass of the Bringloidians capitulated. “So does this mean we’ve time to nick out to the pub for a pint before we go sleep it off?”

"Yeah, doing THAT would negate everything I need to put in my report on the day. So, c'mon. Let's get you to bed. Okay?" Gavarus stepped around the table to help her best friend up, who barely looked like she could stand up her own power. The tubby Tellarite was surprisingly gentle with the fragile fighter pilot.

“I’m okay, I’m alreet,” O’Dell protested, but still accepted the assistance her big buddy was offering. In truth, she was more exhausted then she herself realized, and while she managed to toddle alongside Gavarus, it was only because the tall Tellarite was deliberately taking smaller steps so the short-legged pilot could keep up. In the turbolift, O’Dell leaned against the back wall of the car, and nearly fell asleep there. By the time they reached the quarters of the petite pilot whose apt call sign was Leprechaun, Gavarus was practically dragging the little woman. Before her head hit the pillow, Fiona O’Dell was out cold.

Sitting with O'Dell for a few minutes, Gavarus sat on the edge of her partner's bed, watching her drift away. In no time, O'Dell was clearly in a deep sleep, as she twitched a little and muttered incoherently, not unlike a puppy having a dream. When the concerned engineer was comfortable that O'Dell was resting, she quietly tip-toed out of the quarters on her somewhat comically undersized hooves.

"Ugh... guess I better go log our shit for the day." The grumpy engineer muttered under her breath as she began to make her way back to the flight deck. As she walked, she pulled out her PaDD and cricked her eyebrow for a moment as it appeared that the sensors on O'Dell were still running and it looked almost as if the tiny test pilot was still working. Tapping her commbadge in the turbolift, Gavarus grumbled. "Computer. Location of Ensign Fiona O'Dell."

=^=Ensign O'Dell is in her quarters.=^= The computer answered.

"Weird. Must be a glitch. Frickin' wonderful. More to check out when I get... back?" As Gavarus arrived, the blast doors to the flight deck into the corridor were open and there appeared to be some sort of scraping damage to the top of the door frame, as if something had wedged itself into it. "...The hell?"

Running onto the Flight deck, the PaDD fell out of Gavarus' calloused three-fingered hand and hit the deck, as she looked at the spot on the deck where the Thunderchicken had been standing. Emphasis on the word 'had'.

"Ohhhh Shiiiiiiittttttt."



When the report came in to Security, they initially thought it was a joke- Crewman Quextochkil reporting a big robot wandering Deck 3. Which was less funny when they brought up the sensor feeds, and suddenly there it was- a somewhat anthropomorphic mech striding through the halls, waving to passersby. As it reached over to press the button to summon a turbolift, there was considerable confusion as to what the pilot thought they were doing, exactly- if this was a joke, there was no way that thing was going to fit into a turbolift.

Which was when it hovered, and as the legs tucked under and the arms folded themselves into the rear of the craft, it transformed into a small one-man fighter craft. Which was when the report from the bridge came in that there was an unauthorized warp signature on Deck 3 that was moving, and it apparently had no pilot. As the Security team watched, as the turbolift arrived, the craft hovered out of the way to let the disembarking passengers get by. Then the smaller craft eased into the lift, nose up to take advantage of the height of the lifts, and managed to fit itself snugly and securely inside the turbolift.

In her sleep, Fiona O'Dell murmured.

In the lift, the mech stuttered with her voice. "10 10 10-For'd!"

Security teams moved to scramble into position, and evacuate the ship's lounge, as well as a pathway to it from the turbolift. Science was taking detailed readings and analyzing the data, and forcefields were standing by to restrain it. But for now, whoever was on the bridge making the calls was letting this play out.

Meanwhile, on the flight deck, Gavarus was scrambling like a crazy woman wondering where multi-ton flight mech had vanished to. "What the @#$&!!! What the @#$&!! What the absolute frack!!! Where the hell did it go?!?"

"HOW the hell did it go? Is it running a program, what the drek is it doing?!?" Running across the deck, Gavarus was literally looking everywhere that an enormous transforming fighter could possibly be, and a few places that it obviously couldn't.

"Moron! It's not in a frickin' supply closet! Shit!!! The console!" As her brain caught up with her, she all but tripped over her hooves scrambling to the control console. "Okay... Okay... S... S... She's got power. She's still... Wait a minute."

Taping her commbadge hard enough to hurt, Gavarus called up. "COMPUTER!! Where's the Thunderchicken?!"

=^=The Variable Mode prototype fighter is in 10-Forward.=^= the Computer replied flatly.

"Deck 10?! What the frickin'..." Then the Ensign broke out into a run towards the door, Leaving her PaDD on the deck where she dropped it. "SECURITY TO DECK TEN!!!

"Way ahead of you, Ensign," came a voice that managed to sound laconic and sarcastic all at the same time. "That's your R&D project that's turning into a robot in 10-Forward, right? We've cleared the deck and we're watching... are you kidding me?" There was a pause as Gavarus frantically pressed the turbolift button, then the laconic part was definitely overwhelmed by dry humor.

"Yeahhhh, you better get down here, ensign. I cannot wait to hear the explanation for this."

"Your experimental aircraft just sat down at the bar."

After two minutes of the most intense running that the tubby Tellarite had ever managed, Gavarus all but collapsed against the corridor bulkhead at the doorway to Ten-Forward next to the waiting security officers. "What... What.... *Huff*... *Huff*... What the... *Wheeze*... *Huff*... What the hell is.... How is..."

Freezing in place, Gavarus slowly pulled herself up from where she was leaning to catch her breath. In front of her through the open doors of Ten-Forward, leaning over the front of the bar, sitting on top of a crushed barstool, was the robot mode of the Thunderchicken.

Slowly, Gavarus stepped inside. "Uh... Let... let me see... Let me see what's happening?" Gavarus gestured to the security officers.

"Oh, by all means, Ensign." The dry security officer replied flatly, waving Gavarus in.

Stepping around to the front of the bar, Gavarus leaned over to look into the clearly empty cockpit with a confused expression while the turret at the top of the Thunderchicken turned from the back of house, towards the wheezing engineer. It's massive hands crossed on the creaking, cracked bartop.

Then, to the shock of the confused Tellarite, the massive mech suddenly sat up straight and spread it's arms out wide and spoke in a familiar but slightly slurred Irish accent, as if half asleep, yet stuttering like a damaged data file. "B-r-r-rrrrriaar!!"

"What the @#$&!?! F... Fee?!" Gavarus exclaimed as she stumbled back against the bulkhead.

Which was when the surprisingly nimble robot hopped off the barstool, making the deck vibrate slightly- after all, the Thunderchicken wasn't made out of high density materials. As it began to barrel forward, the cockpit unfolded from the chest, the shoulders spread and the cannon slid on it's track, pointing aft and wobbling like a mass of hair. With surprising smoothness and without missing a step, it continued to bound forward as the variable mode fighter adopted O'Dell's preferred variant. The 'urban pacification walker' mode, as she referred to it. The Commander referred to it as 'gerwalk' mode for reasons known only to her.

The more pressing point to Ensign Gavarus was that it was charging her like a playful puppy.

There was a split second where Gavarus simple stood there staring at the sight, but the brief instance of silence from the engineer was broken by an ear piercing squeal that had the security guards clutching their ears. "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

As the unmanned mechanoid reached the ham hock spanner jock, it spun on a dime and the left arm scooped the 166 kilo officer up easily, although the wall behind her didn't fare as well. Scooping her into a one-handed hug, the armored plates of the mech bound her effectively in place. The odd vehicle then paused as the right hand dribbled a bit of beer across the cockpit. This from the seemingly tiny beer mug it had still been balancing all this time in the right hand. It then set the glass down on the bar, shattering it in the process.

The wind has left Gavarus in a rush, squeezed out of her violently as her ribs were pressed almost to the breaking point by the enormous metal arm. Wheezing, the punished pig let out a painful yell and weakly called out, "F... F... Fee! S... S... Stop!"

Suddenly the arm pulled back and the mech rotated to spin Gavarus about, where the hands of the Thunderchicken could grasp her, and so they did, holding her effortlessly aloft as the squealing and squirming built up.

"B-B-B-B-BBBBriar," it stuttered out, like a weak lagging signal. Holding the wiggling ensign up in a most undignified manner, the speakers sounded distant as if down a well. But the next message came through clearer, and considerably more distinctively.

"Yuir soo wee!"

Dangling like a tag doll, Gavarus was sure she felt something give in her chest as there was a wet popping sound accompanied by a stab of intense pain in her ribs. "GYAAAGH!!! A... And you're NOT, Fee! Y... Y... You're h... hurting me! LET ME FRICKIN' DOWN!!!"

With a quickness and surprising gentleness, the mech delivered the squealing and struggling engineer safely back to the deck and scooted back away, as it held out it's hands palms toward the space swine in surrender. retreating from Gavarus. In the process it casually knocked over tables and hi-tops as it drew its arms in tight and wrung it's mechanical hands. Recognizing the body language, it was impressive that the anthropomorphic fighter craft somehow managed to look fretful and guilty exactly like O'Dell would in person. When it spoke, initially it seemed as though it was tuning up, then the words began to run together in a garbled mass, like a microphone too far from the source of the sound. "Uh-h-h-h-mmM sorry! Msorry msorry! Ahdinmeachuahjo-o-o-o-o..."

It was impossible, but to Gavarus in that moment, the Thunderchicken was Fiona O'Dell. The familiar body language, and the knee-jerk fear reaction of hers that hit the engineer like a gut punch every time. But this time, it was fear over what she had done. Gavarus favored her side and winced, realizing that something was definitely broken. But she didn't want whatever this was in front of her to see that, so she put on her best awkward smile. "It's okay, Fee. I'm okay. No harm done. It was just an accident."

Forcing out a pained laugh, Gavarus waved the guards down with a slight hand gesture. "Heh. Just an accident. Like, remember when I got WAY too drunk a few weeks ago after we almost crashed Commander Paris' Cyclone on the pad doing donuts? I got wasted and you were helping me off my stool and I fell right on top of you? That was funny, right? And it was just an accident. Just like now."

The nosecone of the variable fighter bobbed up and down, clearly eager to show agreement even as it turned to look right and left, as if searching for something or someone as one hand raised in the air with the index finger extended. Which was another easily recognizable mannerism to Gavarus- it was exactly how O’Dell tended to summon another round at the bar. Which was also indicative of her usual behavioral patterns- when something was wrong or upset her, she would immediately call for another round.

Then the mech wobbled slightly, scattering another chair in the process as it raised a hand to press against the canopy of the cockpit. The nosecone moved quickly back and forth, as if the mech were shaking its ‘head’ and it righted itself again. More sounds came out, but again, it was like a microphone that was only picking up parts of the conversation, with most of it was lost in the lag, and none of it came out as intelligible, only random intact words and partial syllables. It seemed that while simple words and statements were emerging from the speakers, any complex sentence structures were becoming garbled nonsense.

"Fee, w... what's wrong? You want another pint?" Gavarus tried to stand up straight, but there was a piercing stab of pain that felt wet and cold as she was now quite certain she was seriously hurt. But that wasn't important to her at that moment. Figuring out what was wrong with her best friend was what mattered.

“Mmmmmmm o-o-o-kay for now,” the mech hummed and stuttered as it stepped over, approaching the engineer gingerly. Extending a hand that closed down to a finger, it moved as if to poke Gavarus in the ribs where she was holding herself, and the mech spoke again in that 'down a well' hollow tone. “A-A-A-aaaare ye hurt…?”

Realizing that letting The O'Dell-Chicken know she was hurt could be devastating to it, as it seemed to be operating on the extreme end of the emotional spectrum, Gavarus smiled as best as possible and straightened up with significant difficulty. "Nah..." she lied, "I've still just got a stitch in my side from our workout this morning. You know I'm in crap shape. But I'm fine. Just fat and unhealthy."

"And... uh... the... uh... replicator here is totally hosed. C'mon. We can go back to the R&D lounge on the flight deck and I can set us up, okay?" As she spoke, she shot a glance to the security officers that she hoped would be understood as they were going to need to head back to the Flight Deck without anyone in the way.

"We're just going to go back to the R&D department, check in with Ensign Gonadie and call it a day." Gavarus said a bit louder, clearly directed towards the laconic security officer who was apparently in command of this particular operation, nodded in confirmation and behind her personnel began scrambling to clear the path and make the necessary calls.

“Alreeeeet!” the mech declared cheerfully, and it started strolling along in a bouncy stride that ate ground surprisingly fast. When it got to the exit, the transformed fighter craft paused to look around for Gavarus, its nosecone whipping this way and that as it searched for the Tellarite whose stride was far shorter than the mech’s. Especially with her injuries.

Dragging behind at her top speed while the security ran ahead to clear their path, Gavarus followed behind the O'Dell-Chicken until they reached the turbolift. Watching, the anxious engineer was, in fact, terrified not knowing what had happened. Did the Thunderchicken's neural link manage to somehow copy Fiona's brain? Did it suck her brain in and that was why Fiona was so drained? Was it something even worse? Her imagination raced with nightmare scenarios as the extremely odd couple waited for the turbolift doors open, the mech humming to itself, some tune that was probably a thousand years old that only Fiona knew.

When the doors opened, as Gavarus watched, the O'Dell-Chicken slowly folded itself up into its much smaller fighter mode and hovered on its nose, backing into the relatively cramped lift. The engineer noticed that it was moving a little slower than it had been previously, which only worried her more. Looking into the lift, there was precious little space, but the hovering ship scooched ever so slightly back and a chipper but tired sounding O'Dell spoke through the ship's speakers.

“Zzzzzzzzplenny a room, Briaaaaaar,” the fighter craft droned, with less stutter and more slowing down of speech.

"Uh... yeah... okay." Gavarus sighed with an awkward grin as she began stuffing her ample form into the available space uncomfortably. After a solid twenty seconds of trying, Gavarus finally squeezed in as she winced in pain from her broken rib and or ribs.

"Ow... uh. I mean. Main Flight Deck." She said as the doors hissed closed and the lift began moving, extremely slowly with the added weight.

“D-D-D-D-Deck 3, R an’ D-D-Dee!” The spaceship in the turbolift chirped, correcting the destination. “Mmmmmmmore tests, Briaaaarrrrrrr…? Mmmmkindaa-a-a tired…”

"Just... Just one one test, Fee." Gavarus muttered, beyond concerned now as its speech dragged out longer and seemed to be running down. Which was impossible given the powerplant built into the machine- but not into O’Dell. "Then everything will be okay. I... I promise."

At that, the doors hissed open and Gavarus all but fell out onto Deck 3, catching herself against the corridor bulkhead as the O'Dell-Chicken hovered out and slowly transformed back to its walker mode, letting out an extended yawn as it did.

"Okay, Fee. Let's get back to the office, okay?" The Chicken nodded its nosecone weakly as it followed the slightly limping Tellarite as they crossed the corridor and through the large, slightly damaged double blast doors where the security team was waiting, behind a concerned looking Ensign Mona Gonadie, control PaDD in hand. At which point the mech sidestepped slightly to stand behind Gavarus, as if it could hide its mass behind her- again, a maneuver quite reminiscent of O'Dell.

As the O'Dell-Chicken and Gavarus approached, Mona shook her head as she looked up from the PaDD. "Um... Ensign O'Dell, please wait for me on the flight deck a moment. I need to talk with Ensign Gavarus a moment about the recent tests. I'll be out to speak with you in just a moment. Okay?"

The pilotless mechanoid brought its right arm up in a salute, then edged toward the flight deck, somehow managing to look shy and self-conscious as it edged over to its landing pa. The Security personnel gave it a wide berth, and it settled in place. Then, a few seconds later, it extended one hand behind it and levered itself down to sit on the deck, where the nosecone was bobbing between the wide spread legs, as if the anthropomorphic spacecraft were dozing off.

"So it looks like the neural pattern buffer I installed to take some of the strain off of O'Dell somehow copied part of her unconscious..." Mona began, holding up the stuttering brainwave pattern displayed on her control PaDD so Gavarus could see it. "Which shouldn't be possible, but... Stranger things have happened on this ship."

Now barely restraining her concern, Gavarus begand speaking somewhat rapid fire. "It's a copy? It's... it's acting like it's falling asleep, and Fio... Ensign O'Dell. She fell asleep in the Chicken when I was going to get a spanner. I called off the remaining tests and sent her to bed when she couldn't quite wake up and the bio readings looked like the neural link was putting too much of a strain on her."

Taking a quick breath and talking with her hands, Gavarus continued. "She couldn't stay awake and with Carrot not here, I took her to her quarters and put her to bed. When I was coming back to shut everything down, the readings on my PaDD indicated that the Chicken was still pulling a neural load from her but then the Chicken was already gone and I've been kinda running ever since! Is... is it still connected? Draining her?" Gavarus winced as she gesticulated with her hands, grabbing her damaged insides.

Mona tapped at the control PaDD for a few moments, sparing a concerned glance up at Gavarus as she did so. "The link is active... But it's in a feedback loop. O'Dell is too far away for it to actually connect so it's running in autonomous mo... Shit... It switched itself to autonomous mode on its own because of the feedback loop. The buffer is supposed to clear when the computer is completely shut down though."

"The feedback loop is degrading and will fade in an hour or so, I think..." Mona then tucked her PaDD into a pocket and pulled out her tricorder to scan Gavarus. "And you have six broken ribs and internal hemorrhaging. Let me guess, you got a hug?"

"Huh, yeah! Whatever..." Gavarus winced through the pain. "What about Fiona? What are we gonna do? Is she gonna be alright?" Anxiety and pain had pushed the exhausted Ensign past the point of protocol and she began to raise her voice a little, clearly beyond upset.

The brightly plumed Miradonian pulled her control PaDD back out. "Well, I can remotely shut down the Thunderchicken... And security is checking on the real Ensign O'Dell now. We should be getting word from them shortly. As long as she's fine, I can flip the switch. Unless you have an objection?"

"N...no. If she's okay, that's... that's all that matters. I'm sorry I shouted." Gavarus apologized, somewhat out of character, then turned to look out onto the deck where the Thunderchicken appeared to be almost dozing as it sat there, twitching in the same fashion the real O'Dell did when sleeping. "If... If Fiona's okay... and you turn it off... I'd like to sit with her... with it. When you do. So she's not scared... please."

Mona stared at the PaDD for a moment before looking up at Briaar and nodding. "Okay, but don't get crushed. Doctor Dael can't heal you if you're roadkill."

Nodding, Gavarus slowly limped out over to the dozing O’Dell-Chicken. Gently and softly, she patted the edge of the nosecone as it bobbed up and down. "Fee..." she all but whispered, and the nosecone came up, pointing in the direction of the engineer. "Ensign Gonadie said... said that you did great in your tests today, and you can go... go to sleep now, okay?"

The nosecone bobbed up and down again in a nod, then the unique spacecraft hovered off the ground to tuck its limbs in once more, very slowly transforming into fighter mode before again settling on the deck. O’Dell had a tendency to curl up in her sleep, and this seemed to be the mechanical equivalent for the oddly behaving mech. Once it had finished transforming, it scooted next to the engineer, snuggling next to her. The speaker was slow, and barely recognizable as speech, but Gavarus could still make it out. “Thaaaaaanks Briiiiiaaarrrr. Yrrrrr muh besss friennnnn. I l-l-l-l-love youuuuu…”

With those words spoken, the Thunderchicken powered down.

Leaning up against the side of the experimental fighter, Gavarus whispered as she leaned her head against the cockpit, "I love you too, Fee."

After a moment, she nodded over to Ensign Gonadie from across the room, who had received word that the real Fiona O'Dell was sleeping normally and was perfectly fine in her own quarters.

Mona stepped up beside Briaar and rested a hand on her shoulder as she slipped the PaDD into her pocket, her thumb releasing the shutdown override. "Let's get you to sickbay, Briaar. I think you and Fee will need a few days off to relax and recover."

"Uh... Y... Yeah." Gavarus replied weakly as she continue to lay across the side of the deactivated Thunderchicken. "That said, I don't think I could actually get back up off the floor on my own..."