Unconventional Research

Posted on Mon Jan 21st, 2019 @ 4:21pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Hera

Mission: Earthly Visitation
Location: USS Hera, Deck 8, VIP quarters #11
Timeline: 2396 (post Section 31 base)

The request had come through the proper channels, and it had reminded Commander Rita Paris that there was still quite a mystery left unsolved down in Engineering, ad Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi was determined to crack the riddles of the artifacts found secreted away in Hera's temple of Meroset 347 after her defeat. So far it had produced both wonders and horrors, but what else they might yield remained to be seen. Thus the request from the insatiably curious shief engineer to interview Hera, to see what she knew about the artifacts in question and what blanks so could fill in for the investigation.

Personally Rita thought a lot of it could be filed under Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, as in most of the legends of the gods she'd read, all magic came at a price, and the more of those artifacts Thex dug up and reactivated, the higher the price to be paid for them in the long run. But the captain had approved the restoration project and Thex was making headway, so perhaps that uneasy feeling she got every time she thought about it was just nerves.

Perhaps.

Meanwhile, said chief engineer was scheduled to meet Rita on Deck 8 so she could be an escort slash witness to a conversation with Hera. Which was far less daunting a prospect of late- the goddess had mellowed and was trying a new diet based on service and deeds instead of worship and supplication, and she seemed much calmer and more willingly compliant. So perhaps this would be good for both of them- Hera could get a charge out of helping, and Thex might not accidentally unleash Scottish bog monsters in Main Engineering.

A win-win, Rita's favorite outcome.

For now, Paris approached the VIP quarters that were substantially reinforced, where two guards were on duty at all times and her own security protocols insures access to Hera was not easily accomplished. All of these were concessions to the captain, made voluntarily since the woman, while currently seemingly reformed, had also been the brutal tyrant of a world not so long ago. Nodding to the security officers on duty, Rita was surprised to notice that apparently there were no shortage of large, capable-looking security officers who were humanoid females who seemed to end up in rotation on guard duty on Hera's door.

When she had mentioned that she attracted Amazons, Rita hadn't taken her fully serious, but it seemed she was going to have to take a look at the security watch assignments a bit more closely to break it up and put some male guards in the rotation as well. Looked like Hera might not be exercising her power, but patterns still formed about her. Which only worried Paris slightly, as this was another development she would need to report to the Captain.

For the andorian engineer who was making her way through the ship she couldn't help but have butterflies in her stomach. Telling a godess that you had the been repairing some of her artifacts was bad enough, but asking her if it was possible for the Norse god of mischief to have stolen some of them from under her nose was rather terrfying.

She had thought about wearing the armor of Achilles, but given they still had no idea of an effective countermeasure she had decided against it. Last thing they need was for a god wearing that thing.

Stepping out of the turbolift she smiled at Rita and the guards. Like her friend, she noted the two human female security guards. She'd have to make a note about that.

"Hello, Commander Paris." She said calmly as she waited outside the sealed door.

“Lieutenant Commander sh’Zoarhi, good to see you. Computer, please unseal hatch, authorization Paris, R, LTCDR, 867-5309.”

The computer chirruped and replied immediately. =^= What was your rank in 2256? =^=

“I was a lieutenant junior grade,” Paris replied, and the doors unsealed and whooshed open to reveal Hera’s quarters. A few houseplants were recent additions, as it had been judged that having things nearby to nurture was good for the captive goddess. It also helped keep her looking forward to her visits to the ship’s arboretum, which was on the schedule for today.

“Hera, you have a visitor. You remember Ms. sh’Zoarhi from previously? She’s been working on repairing those artifacts you had in the basement of your old place…” Paris alluded to but did not spell out the specifics of Hera’s temple atop Mount Hera on Meroset 347.

"Ah! Of course! Please, come in!" Setting aside her current book, Collected Treatises on the Fallacies of Conflict - A Vulcan Guide to Human Nature, she stood to greet her guests with a bright smile. "It's always a pleasure seeing the both of you. What can I do for you today?"

Thex was feeling rather nervous as she stepped forward. " Nice to see you again Hera. Well, we need your help with something. I've been working on repairing the artifacts you had in the basement of your temple. We tried fixing one, but...." She said trying not to annoy the greek goddess.

" Well instead of the spear what was created was a necklace that started spewing water and a water monster from Celtic mythology. We managed to restrain the beast, but then Flidais appeared claiming it belonged to her sister and it had been stolen by a norse snake."

Hera looked thoughtful as she thought about those artifacts. "Yeah they were all artifacts on Meroset that the Merosians had been trying to restore as well. Most of them I could identify, but a few eluded even me. I was able to figure out most of them at least and since the repair systems were intact and they had some nice enhancement vessels, I just left them as they were."

" So they were there before you go there," Thex said running her fingers through her long white hair. " So loki could have put them there before you arrived on the planet. "

"A couple of his children were occupying my temple when I got there. I had them evicted and sent home. I should have followed up on that..." Hera mused on that fact for a moment. "So what artifacts have you been able to repair?"

Internally the first thing that came to mind was that this was classified information not to be shared with a prisoner. The second thought was that it was pointless to have Hera onboard if she could not be questioned about artifacts found in her temple, as she was the leading authority on such matters. Then of course there was the matter of trust, which Rita still struggled with when it came to Hera- she wanted to trust the woman but feared an eventual betrayal. But in the end, she remained silent, letting this situation play out. If the captain had an objection, Rita would definitely hear of it.

Thex looked over at Rita before back to the goddess. " Only one. After the incident with the last one, we've stopped trying to repair any new ones. We did get the armor working, but it doesn't seem to be working properly." Thex responded to the godess.

"The Achilles Armor? I doubt any of you are willing to pay the price for it. Besides, the power source is still missing." Hera thought on that for a moment. "I suppose you could still use it as is... But It wouldn't be... Hmmm... What about the apple?"

" The price?" Thex said without thinking suddenly getting the desire to go and get a medical checkup that would scan her very atoms for any problems. She looked at Hera not sure if she should mention that the golden apple in the jar was nothing, but a golden sphere in the shape of an apple.

"It takes time off of your life as you use it. If you've worn it, you might want to... Ah... You probably don't have tech like that though..." Hera was a bit concerned at this point. These were all rather dangerous artifacts and she only hoped that this blue woman was treating them as such.

Thex felt suddenly small. A feeling she hadn't felt in a long long time since her family had insulted her for not being good enough during training. It made sense given the armor was made for an effective immortal man. " How much life does it take off?" She said trying to hide the weakness in her voice.

Hera had to think back on that one... "Ah... I think it was a year per use. Enough for a short battle or something. Three to five minutes? It was pretty thirsty..."

"But you are of a long-lived race, aren't you, Thex? And it's not like you've been out playing basketball in it, right?" At that moment, watching the expression on Thex's face, maybe she had. "Have you?"

" No, not that long. Maybe an hour....." The andorian said before her brain brought something back into her mind. The scans of the power source. " Wait go back for one moment. You said it's power source was missing, but when i repaired it it had a miniature sun powering it."

"What?" Hera looked genuinely shocked at that news. "How... You were able to restore it fully? I think I've underestimated you... And you wore it for an hour? Was the actual combat mode active though? Or was it in passive mode? You're not dead, so..." the ship's namesake was deeply concerned over these revelations at this point. These were dangerous artifacts and normally were accompanied with heavy warnings issued by visions of flaming deities...

" I wouldn't know the difference between combat mode and passive mode. I only got it to work by saying the word defender and I somehow got the flight mode activated by thinking about flying. We still have to buff out the hole in the testing room roof." The andorian responded before a thought came into her mind.

" Could your son or someone else have put in a safety feature sometime after it was made? "

"It's possible..." Hera thought on this. "I still recommend getting checked out. I don't suppose there are any other stragglers on board after your last mission that can help with such things? A nymph of life... Lesser deity of healing... Danu... No, I heard she's retired to a new home or something..."

"We... might have someone who could help," Paris piped in. She wasn't about to say just who, how and why, but she suspected that the expert in question would have considerable expertise. "So magic always has a price, eh? I thought I'd read that somewhere..."

"The law of equivalent exchange always applies. My race just applies it in different ways to make it look like it doesn't," Hera confirmed.

" Well will have to remember that when we work on the other ones. Do you have any way to see if the remaining damaged ones are what they claim to be? I'd hate to have a WMD put there by a Norse god of mischief sitting in our cargo hold." The andorian asked the worry still at the back of her mind.

"I already labeled them the best I could. Were the labels not there? I used a... Ah, you wouldn't know to look for a distortion variance tracker, would you?" Hera had some mentoring to do, it seemed. "I don't suppose you could allow me the use of one of your data devices and a pen so I could relay the specifics?"

Tapping at a PaDD, Rita logged herself out of it, locked it down and left the word processing program open. Handing it to Hera, she explained, "You can use your fingertip for the stylus. If it isn't fine point enough for the work you are doing I imagine our resident engineer can likely produce a stylus for you..."

"Ah! Excellent. I'm so used to scrollwork and the like." The disgraced goddess sat down at the nearby table and stared at her fingertip for a moment, using a tiny bit of energy to grow her fingernail to a point so she could use it as a fine tipped stylus, which looked like it tired her out just doing such a small task. She then used it to start writing out the specs and drawing up schematics for a basic detector that shouldn't be too much of a violation of her own people's policies on not sharing tech with less advanced races.

Finished, Hera nodded and handed the PaDD off to Thex. "You might have to invent a few of the components, but I included enough detail that that shouldn't be too hard. After all, you fully restored and apparently improved armor I thought irreparable." She then looked down at her fingernail. "I need to trim that now..."

“Thank you, Hera- it’s much appreciated. I’ll get you a visit from the ship’s cosmetologist for a spa afternoon,” Paris offered, which sounded like a joke but actually was no such thing. Mentally she made a note to send the woman with a bottle of actual wine, as that tended to perk Hera up considerably more than the replicated stuff, and the captain kept quite a supply on hand.

" Yes thank you, Hera. I'll be sure to get this added to the scanners... just as soon as i figure out how to make this all work. " the andorian said looking at the padd. This would be another all-nighter or more likely an all weaker.

"So, does that satisfy your curiosity for now, Chief sh'Zoarhi?" Paris asked, noticing that even a small power expenditure had a significant effect of the reformed tyrant. This looks like a job for the captain's wife...

" Yes that will be all Commander Paris." replied the andorian.

"As you like. Keep up the excellent progress reports. Lieutenant Commander- your paperwork is always efficient and interesting. As for you, young lady," Paris turned to regard the supine goddess. "Thank you for your help. You didn't have to lift a finger," Rita waggled her finger in the direction of the pointed stylus nail. "But you did, and for no reason other than to help a researcher trying to make sense of metascience artifacts. That was pretty selfless of you, I have to say. You okay? You look a little peaked."

Taking a deep breath, Hera nodded with a smile. "Nothing a little rest won't help, I think. I'm just glad to help. Just please promise me you'll all be more careful with those artifacts."

" I will Hera. No more messing around with them until I find a way to get myself checked out." Thex replied calmly.

"Excellent. You should likely expect a visitor shortly, Hera... and thank you for your help." Paris would make the arrangement's for Maica to come work over the captive divine, and to bring a bottle of actual wine with her. That would likely help immeasurably... and if nothing else it helped reinforce that good deeds are their own reward.

Or, at least, that's how she hoped it would work out...

Thex was still thinking so much that she didn't hear Rita unlock the room. As the two of them left the room and were back into the ship's corridor, the blue woman simply walked over to the opposite wall and leaned heavily against it. " Why do I have to keep fucking up my life." She said with a groan running her hands through her hair and over her face.

"Hey hey hey, less talk of that, Miss sh'Zoarhi," the first officer interjected, moving the Andorian engineer down the corridor away from the security personnel guarding the door to Hera's quarters.. "How exactly are you ruining your life, now?"

" Well, I may have lost years of my life from messing around with some god tech just as I was starting to get my life on track. " The andorian responded.

"True. But you have a long lifespan, and you didn't know, and now you do. So you learned something. Not like you turned old overnight, and it isn't because you were just goofing off with it, you were pursuing scientific research. Nothing to beat yourself up over, Thex," Rita kept her voice low, because while there was very little foot traffic on Deck 8, still, no one needed to overhear this particular conversation between the first and second officers.

"Yeah, I guess you’re right. I just need to stop by the Medcenter and get myself checked out. See if anything else has been messed up." The andorian said meekly.

“Hey now,” Paris pivoted and got in front of the smaller woman, hands on her hips, blocking the Andorian engineer’s path. “The inventors of the x-ray didn’t realize they were giving themselves cancer, nor did they realize what they were doing when they installed x-ray machines in shoe stored that were made of wood and you could see your feet inside the shoes. Scientifc advances almost always come with a stumble or two along the way. I’ll not have you beating yourself up for not realizing something that wasn’t readily evident, understand? You’re better than that, Lieutenant Commander.” Paris offered a crooked smile to complement her words, to reinforce to the handy chief that her efforts were not willful self-destruction but accidental side-effects. “You know what you are getting in for now, so you can bear that in mind moving forward, yes?”

The andorian let out a sigh before speaking " Yeah, your right. I'm not going to find an answer for this if I'm constantly kicking myself. I'll get myself checked out and then i need a very strong drink. Don't suppose you want to join me or do you want to have a rummage through the cargo we stole from the orions? " She said a weak grin over her face.

"Happy to join you for a drink, but what cargo from what Orions? Did I miss something?" Paris stepped back out of the way and began moving again, now that the senior staff officer was no longer beating herself up over a percieved failure that was nothing of the sort.

"Oh yeah, you were on the away team. Whilst you were down in the base we came under attack from a few pirates. The orions tried to hurt my girl with a virus which we managed to send back at them and i beamed off all of their cargo in the process. Serves them right for messing with my girl." The andorian responded confidently.

“Well, that’ll teach them. Guess I need to go through that inventory then, insure we don’t have anything dangerous or contraband in there. So, go get checked out, get your workup done and make sure you are all right, and I will go check on your liberated booty and see what’s in there that might be put to good use for the side of the angels, if I come up with any dancer costumes, I’ll let you know.” Paris nudged the shorter blue woman’s shoulder gently, knowing both her fondness for and ability with the dance styles made famous by the dancing girls of the Kolari. "Then just call me and I can meet you for that drink, aye?"

" Deal. Save any orion scanners as well, will you? Their electromagnetic phase matrix are handy spare parts for a few of the ships minor functions. " The andorian said as she made her way down the corridor.

“Ah, sure, deal,” Rita tapped out a note to herself to bring an engineer along with her to inventory the junk in the cargo hold, as she wouldn’t know an Orion scanner if it pinched her butt. “All right Miss sh’Zoarhi, looks like we both have some work to do. I’ll be happy to meet later, just let me know, and meanwhile I’ll be borrowing one of your mechanics in mustard to give Science and I a hand inventorying, and I will definitely let you know if we find anything useful. For now, I have to go arrange for a massage and a bottle of wine delivery to our helpful friendly neighborhood goddess.”

" Make sure to take her some good stuff," Thex said as she turned the corner and disappeared out of eyesight.