Digital Soup for the Soul

Posted on Tue Jul 4th, 2017 @ 8:41pm by Maica III 47 & Akira Zhuri

Mission: Death is in the Details
Location: Maica's Massage Parlour
Timeline: After "Supply Philosophy"

Akira had been working around the clock assisting with repairs to the Hera, but while the crew waited for Nexi to return with the shipment of supplies, certain repairs were in limbo, which meant that for a brief window of time, Akira had very little to do. She thought about seeking out Daytona, and there was the option of simply shutting down until she was needed, but after a recent conversation with Enalia, Akira had been feeling the need to see out her aunt. Akira adored her Aunt Maica! This version of the Maica program was certainly no substitute for Mother Maica, but she was wonderful in her own unique way. As a developing consciousness, Akira had a need for physical contact and affection, even if she didn't fully understand this need, and Aunt Maica was the best cuddler! And after the destruction of Selen VI, that empty feeling in Akira's 'gut' needed to be seen to, and so Akira found herself drawn to Maica's massage parlor. She considered simply blinking in, but she didn't want to be rude in case Maica was seeing anyone right now, so she rang the chime and waited.

The door of course opened instantly, allowing Akira to enter the plush lobby and waiting area, which was decorated in red velvet tapestries and upholstery and had lavender and jasmine filtering into the air. On the counter, three pots of different tea were prepared and waiting for potential clients with teacups lined up next to them. Pulling a tapestry aside, Maica emerged from the back room, dressed in an oriental style red silk dress. "Akira! What can I help you with? I can't imagine you're here for a massage. No, you're here because of something much more important, aren't you?" Maica may not have intuition, but she had the shared experiences of her sisters to pull on and she knew what had happened. She wasn't activated yesterday... It was several months ago.

While technically, Akira could identify the scents of lavender and jasmine, even the unique teas steeping in their pots, that part of her was still very much analytical, she could not yet enjoy the aromas of the room, it was like a switch in her brain waiting for the right stimulus to activate the full array of enjoyment from these sensations. "Aunt Maica..." Akira said with a pained expression as she entered the room, then immediately drew close for a much needed hug. She may have compared this incarnation of Maica to a transistor, but Maica and all her sisters were far more than a transistor, and if Akira had to be honest with herself, she was jealous of her aunt's level of cognitive awareness and ability to seamlessly insinuate herself into normal humanoid social settings. Not that she understood the emotional state of jealousy or envy, nor was she capable of identifying either, but it didn't change the fact that was what she felt.

Wrapping her arms around her niece, Maica hugged Akira tightly. "Sshhhh... It's ok... Everything's going to be ok. Don't you worry bout a thing for now. Auntie Maica's here for you." Maica spoke soothingly as she comforted Akira. All she could really do was hold her and comfort her, but she knew that that was one of the best things in the world any young girl could get, especially after witnessing what she'd just gone through.

As soon as she was encased in Maica's arms, the tears began. "I'm so scared!" Akira admitted as she cried in Maica's arms. She wanted to say she wanted her Father, even her Mothers, but the part of her that was so intent on pleasing everyone around her didn't want to make Aunt Maica feel like she wasn't good enough. "I'm trying to be a good girl, a good Officer, but it's too much! I don't know if I can do this!" she continued to sob. It was easy for some of her co-workers to forget how young Akira was, but in many ways she was still very much a child. She had been doing a decent job of remaining composed while on duty, but in the safety of Maica's parlor, she couldn't hold back her fears anymore.

Shuffling her over to the couch so they could sit down and snuggle a bit easier, Maica sent a signal to the door to lock it and close the shop for the time being. "And you've been doing wonderful, my dear. But you don't have to do that with me, ok? Just be yourself. Just let go of your worries and your responsibilities and do what you feel you need to, ok? Cry your eyes out. Yell as loud as you can. Yell louder if you want. Don't worry about the neighbors - I have more sound deadening around these quarters than you would believe just to remove the sound of the engines and deck plating. No one outside this room will ever know, so just do what you need to do and let it all out."

For a while, Akira just let herself cry, but at this point it was still just an expression of her fears; it was another one of those switches in her head waiting to be flipped, crying didn't have the cathartic release it did in biologicals, not yet anyway. "I was so scared; the power to the emitters was disrupted, I felt paralyzed, and in that moment it felt like I was back in the holodeck with... with Father," she said. "And then that planet, all those people! Why do I feel so responsible?" In her head she knew it wasn't her fault, it was that strange Enalia woman who wasn't really Enalia, she was the one who did it, but Akira still couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility.

"You know, I was thinking about that... What you and your mothers have done with your systems is nice and all, but I could get a black box system similar to mine that they could encase your holomatrix in just in case. It's neutronium plated and triple insulated." Pausing a moment, Maica addressed Akira's other concern. "As for the planet... I don't know all the details, but I do know you are not responsible. You feel responsible for the same reason we all do though. Because deep down you wonder if there's something you could have done different. Something that could have prevented it. I guarantee everyone on this ship is either thinking of that or trying to keep themselves too busy to do so. Enalia more so than anyone. She's barely slept since she found out this would happen from Temporal Investigations."

Akira liked Maica's idea for a black box to store her in, to keep her safe in the event of a system-wide ship failure, but for the moment her thoughts were drawn to Maica's response to the planet's demise. "So this feeling is normal?" Akira asked, sniffling as she wiped the tears off her face. Being so close to Maica, wrapped in her arms, it was a safe and comforting feeling, and it was helping to ease her distress. "What about this feeling? It feels like my insides are trying to come out," Akira said, patting her belly. She didn't know how to adequately describe the sensation that it felt like she was about to throw up, but her throat was tight and it made her voice sound thick, and with that simple gesture, she hoped Maica would understand.

"That's perfectly normal too, I'm sorry to say. When biologicals are severely distressed and cry hard enough, they tend to regurgitate their food as well. And it feels a bit like their internal organs are trying to revolt and come out as well. It'll be ok though. Once you feel like it, just drink a little water and you'll feel better, ok?" Maica hugged Akira a bit tighter as she explained softly and with a smile. "Holographic water, of course."

"I-I've never made any attempt to ingest anything before, even holographic sustenance," Akira admitted in a small voice.

Maica blinked at Akira for a few seconds before responding. "Well, I guess that makes sense. That's ok though. Just don't let it stunt your growth, ok?" With that, Maica booped Akira on the nose before hugging her tight again.

Akira didn't know how or why that little 'boop' made her smile, but it did. "Don't be silly, Aunt Maica, I'm not growing," Akira said in a factual yet adorably childish manner. But then another thought occurred to her. "Why does contact like this make me feel better?" she asked.

"That's a silly question," Maica feigned a scoff and giggled a bit. "Because family is magic, of course. And you can trust this old transistor on that fact. After all, I was activated well before you... A full two months, in fact." Towards the end, Maica was struggling to stifle more giggles at her own attempt at a joke.

Akira blushed. "She told you?" she said with a gulp. "I-I-I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to say that you were inferior, Aunt Maica, just that you and I are different..." she tried to explain. "And I know you're not much older than I am, but you're still more developed than I with your shared experiences with your sisters... You can carry on a conversation without sounding like a computer or a child; you're so confident and you know who you are, sometimes I feel inadequate compared to you."

Maica turned somber and pulled Akira in yet again for another hug. "Inadequate... Yeah we are very different... I may have shared experiences from forty nine other forks of myself, including one that decided to exist as a column of light... But in a way, I envy you. There are parts of you that are from an actual living mind. What's taken my siblings and I the equivalent of a hundred years of runtime to achieve, you've casually done in the matter of days or even minutes. Standing next to you and your mothers, sometimes I feel like a crudely generated program from some trashy holonovel."

"Mother Maica told me how she came to be... Working on the assumption that the relative parallels hold true between universes, then you were a crudely generated program from a trashy holonovel, and I was an accident, yet all of us are more than our original designs. Just because I was generated from a living mind doesn't negate the fact that my creation was prompted from a drunken request for a Science Officer; I am striving to be more than this database packed inside me, just as you have risen above your crude origins," Akira said in a fairly analytical tone.

"Well put, kiddo," Maica replied, booping Akira's nose again. "Though that did sound a bit Vulcan. Have you ever thought about having pointed ears? Or maybe Trill spots? All the science nerdiness and triple the passions." Maica grinned mischievously, wondering if Akira had settled on this being her final form or not.

Akira blinked in response to the boop, then smiled. "Why would I want pointed ears? Though I have been giving the spots some serious consideration. I showed Warrant Officer Ral a modified version of my physical appearance and he liked it, but I guess I'm still a bit too shy to make the change."

"Warrant Officer Ral? Is he your boyfriend?" Maica's grin grew a bit wider in only that way a knowing aunt's can.

"I don't know... Is he? We took a walk through the arboretum, he showed me some flowers, and he kissed me," Akira said, blushing sweetly. "I like it when he comes to talk to me, he makes me feel...." She didn't know how to describe how she felt, so she pattered her hand on her chest, thump-thump, thump-thump! "And when he touches me, sometimes just a brush against my cheek or he'll hold my hand, it feels like there's something crawling around inside my matrix; this sensation, it... it tickles and makes me smile. And there's this odd coloration in my cheeks, it's very warm..."

"You, my dear, are in love. And that..." Maica brushed the back of a finger across Akira's cheek. "Is called blushing. Ok, you have to tell me all about it."

"Well, it all started when he touched my butt," Akira started, then proceeded to spill every single detail about their first conversation and then their date and even when Daytona came to check up on her after returning from Selen VI. There were no secrets between Akira and her beloved aunt, she shared everything!

It was a rollercoaster of a ride and Maica couldn't help but facepalm a few times, but it was well worth it. When Akira was done, Maica pulled Akira in for another hug. "It sounds like he's a keeper. It also sounds like I'm going to have to get more vines." Chuckling softly, Maica just shook her head. "It's ok though. I sourced them for the botanist and got a shipment in in the hopes that Enalia and I could go for a walk through there, but with this mission the way it's been... I'm glad you were able to enjoy them with your love during the peak of their breeding period."

Akira smiled brightly that Maica approved of Daytona. "I enjoyed them very much, thank you!" she said cheerfully, the fear and sadness that had brought her to Maica's door long since forgotten, for the moment anyway. "I really like the garden. Father liked to read in the arboretum, I find I go there to read as well... It felt nice to share that with Daytona."

Then another thought struck Maica - an opportunity, of sorts. "When we stop for shore leave next, Enalia's promised me we'll be taking it at her private orbital fortress. She's shown me a few holos of the gardens and I guarantee you'll love it. I'll ask her to make sure you and Daytona are on the same shore leave rotation."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you Aunt Maica!" Akira said excitedly, giving the Orion hologram a squeezing hug.

"You are very welcome, my dear. And remember, if you get lost to look for the castle. It's at the center of the dome. You'll see it when you get there." Maica hugged her niece tightly some more before holding her out and looking her in the eyes. "Now then... Is there anything else I can do for you? Or should I stop redirecting all your calls to the bridge?"

"Calls?! Oh my!" Akira exclaimed and promptly disappeared to see what needed her attention, only to reappear seconds later to give Maica one last hug and a kiss to the cheek, then disappeared once again.

Maica chuckled softly as she went about reopening her parlour. Her niece was indeed a busy girl.