Vague and unconvincing

Posted on 29 Jan 2022 @ 7:16pm by Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Ensign Kat Walker

881 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Home
Location: The Mess

After finishing another round of reading and signing off of reports, Madalene felt that pull, that pulls to get out of the office again. Something she didn't feel until moving over to science. This time it was to go see, Kat, the very very interesting sentient, very sentient AI.

Tapping her badge, she put a call into Kat, "Kat, this is Madalene, do you have time to meet, and catch up?"

"Certainly Madalene," Kat easily replied. "Where would you like to meet?"

"I can come to wherever you are, err...actually you mind if we meet in the mess?" Madelene said changing her mind, she wasn't hungry or anything like that, but for some reason, the mess was becoming more comfortable.

"Certainly Madalene," Kat easily replied her inflection the exact same as before. "I'll ready us a table. What would you like to drink?"

"Relen tea with a lemon slice please," Madalene said, as she left her lab, and made it down to the mess, "Kat," she said joyfully, an odd emotion to see from Madalene, well more of a rare sighting than anything. Now, this was really only for two people on the ship, Kat and Callisi.

As Madalene entered her drink was prepared and Kat sat on the table, in-flight form, the four-winged paravian dinosaur, with a body roughly the size of a cat's. She looked up at Madalene entering and waved a winged forelimb in greet. "Hello Madalene," she ventured.

"How have you been?" Madalene asked as she took a seat, squeezing her lemon slice into her tea.

"I've been alright, thank you," The creature 'smiled'. "I've been keeping myself busy with training. Should be ready to take my final test soon, then I'll have my wings."

"Congrats, I know how much this means to you," she said with a big smile on her face. "How did it feel the first time flying in space again, under your control?"

"I don't know how to compare," Kat-creature explained. "I have no memory of before, and the unit I was installed in was not meant primarily for space flight. That said, the freedom and control were - nice, I think I would say."

Madalene kept on smiling hearing them speak about that freedom, a freedom that she wished she had, but at the same time not really. "Well, I am really happy for you," she added, "is there anything else that I can help you with, or anything that operations or hell even engineering can help you with?"

Kat remained silent for a moment or two, looking contemplative, before speaking. "No, not that I can think of. I have some small ideas about hardware adjustments but they can be implemented during the next maintenance. Everything seems to run within spec."

Madalene smiled as she took a sip of her tea, "...do you have some time to come down to Stellar Cartography to look over some star charts that we created while we were in that other universe?"

"Certainly. When would you like me to come down?" Kat asked.

"Whenever you are free, I might also see if Odin to join us," Madalene added as she really wanted to look at an overlayed map, and see just all the differences between the universes.

"I can look over them whenever you want, Madalene. I am however unsure what I could do with them. My star charts are out of date by roughly five hundred years, and my sensors are a lot less powerful than Odin's," Kat mused.

"Oh, actually that'll make things interesting, yes very interesting," Madalene said with a smile, "shall we head down to Stellar Cartography?"

"I've already given you my old, outdated charts, Madalene," Kat tilted her head a bit, looking quizzically at the other woman. "But we can go there if you want."

"Right, my apologies, my memory hasn't been the same since err never mind, but I do have an idea, with you have scans from hundreds of years ago we can actually build a timeline of how the region you were in changed, which is a very rare thing to be able to do," Madalene said with a smirk.

"Are you alright, Madalene?" Kat asked, the creature tilting its head a bit and perking up quizzically. "You're a friend and I worry."

"I am fine, it has, hrmm I don't know, my memory has just been foggy of as late," Madalene said knowing that this was not a great thing for a scientist and/or department head.

"I find your first answer vague and unconvincing," Kat offered, the four-winged creature bobbing its head up and down a bit. "Please be careful and consider seeing a medical officer, Madalene?"

"Yes yes, I think you are right I should," Madalene said staring off before shaking her head, "maybe I should speak with a doctor now, apologies, could we meet up later?"

"Of course," the critter nodded. "Would you like me to come with you to the doctor?"

Madalene took a second, "if if you wouldn't mind, I am a bit scared of what is happening," Madalene said.

"Of course," Kat replied. With a flap of her wings, she landed on Madalene's shoulder, balancing. "Alright, let's go," the creature chittered.

And with that, the pair headed for the infirmary.

 

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