New Faces

Posted on 11 Jun 2023 @ 4:19pm by Odin & Lieutenant Commander Derek Martin

1,414 words; about a 7 minute read

There were new people.

Odin loved new people.

Since she was tied into the computer, it wasn't hard for her to know many things. She purposefully kept her "senses" from reading the more top-secret stuff, but a new chief of medical was hardly a secret so she had no compunction against learning that and capitalizing on it for her own curiosity. Besides, she needed a distraction. She didn't know what was happening with Kat, or the away team, and since she no longer had her Q form, she couldn't just pop out and check like she once could.

Thus, she 'popped' into sickbay and looked around for the new face. Once she found him, she just came out with, "Hi!"

Derek was busy reading up on the manifest and reviewing logged issues with injuries. Dr. Warner knew her job well, and did a wonderful job with the reports. He was going to have to put her in for some sort of medal or something. Did they give medals for writing smart reports and doing it well? Of course they did, that's one thing Starfleet was very good at. He was lost in his thoughts and didn't hear anything until the exuberant little greeting from behind.

"Aggh!" Derek exclaimed with a start and turned, red-faced to stare at the newcomer. Something out of the holodeck?! What? Who was this?! Derek's mind raced and caught up to his animated state. "Who are you?" he asked her, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

"I'm Odin," she replied, smiling apologetically. "I'm sorry that I startled you. I really didn't mean to. You're just new here so I wanted to come and introduce myself."

"Odin? Like... Like the ship?" Derek asked, his memory swirling. Dr. Warner mentioned that they had an AI aboard, and Odin was one of them, but didn't go into further details. Derek reached out toward her curiously, poking a finger toward her shoulder to see if she was a hologram, a projection, or something else entirely.

She watched him coming toward her and poking her in the shoulder. She allowed it, but made a curious expression with one brow raised and lips pursed briefly. "Do you usually go around poking people right after you meet them?"

"I was told it was an AI, but I figured it was a computer algorithm or some such. Not a walking talking person, I guess it's all a bit much," Derek said and shook his head with incredulity. "My apologies," he quickly added.

"How did you come on board? I mean, where did you come from?" He asked curiously.

Odin smiled. "I'm one of two AI aboard the ship, and we both have physical forms." That made her smile falter briefly, though, since she didn't know what was going on with Kat... "I am not your typical AI, though, in almost any sense of the word. I was formed as a sort of...accident." She shrugged. "You'll find it all in the ship's records, I'm sure, about their visit to the alternate timeline."

"I see. Never a dull moment around this ship, is there?" Derek asked, looking a bit reserved as he once again studied Odin from head to toe and back again. "So what should I know about you? What skills do you have? Where are you assigned? What kind of things do you like to do?" he asked curiously, wanting to check out the limits of this AI who seemed more corporeal than code.

"I don't have any assignments," Odin replied with a one-shouldered shrug, this time the shoulder on the side of the all-white eye that--if you looked close enough--seemed to have a pale nebula swirling in it. "I'm tied into the ship so I know most of what's going on with her and when, though I don't have omnipotent focus like I once did. See, I started out as a Q...but I learned that shifting all of reality can take a toll on even us!" She laughed like this didn't really bother her, though. "I sort...melded with the ship in the process, so some things I'm still learning, but I love talking to people on the ship...and meeting new crew!"

"A Q? who melded with the ship? From one continuum to an electronic one, is that something you wanted? Was it something forced on you? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing!" Derek said, fascinated. "I'm sorry, I just, this is all a bit overwhelming for me. Very exciting. Not every day you meet a Q who merged with the ship's computer and they walk up behind you and say 'hello'," he said by way of an apology over his rather excited behavior.

Odin flashed another smile. She liked enthusiasm in others since she was easily excited herself. "It wasn't by choice, no," she said, laughing a little and shaking her head. "I decided to send the ship back to its own time, but in doing so, a big something happened and I became part of the ship. We still haven't figured it all out, my limits and abilities, yet."

"I see. So since you're an AI and you have a real body, do you or have you had physical exams? I assume they've probably poked and prodded you more than I have. Do you know if you're even capable of getting sick? injured? anything like that?" he asked curiously, cocking his head to the side. The implications of what she was telling him were enormous and entirely outside of his experience.

"Well," she began thoughtfully. "I don't actually have a real body like you all do. I seem to achieve solidity perhaps a little more realistically than previous holograms, but there are projectors already as part of the ship for use in different programs and systems. My merging with the system has allowed me to use those to project myself like the EMH can, almost anywhere in the ship. There are some areas I can't access as easily, but I do have some range away from the projectors that is better than the average, but how far I can go is limited."

"Ah ok, so you couldn't say, be wounded, but could have perhaps a program glitch or something impact you, but seems like your personality would otherwise be intact, wouldn't it?" he asked. "Sorry! Sorry I don't mean to pry or poke or prod outside of an examining table, but you do make me curious." He blushed a bit as he looked askance, somewhat embarrassed by his barrage of questions. He wouldn't do this with a new alien species. Why was he doing it with her? Maybe it was the smile. He was sometimes a sucker for a smile.

Odin laughed easily. She enjoyed the curiosity of humans. It was what had made her create the puzzle rooms for the Odin crew in the first place... "It's fine. I know I'm a curiosity. But you have it right, so far as we've learned so far. I am not keen on intensive testing so it's been a bit of a learn as we go with some testing along the way process."

"Well, that sounds like the way to go. We humans tend to go through life that way from the time we can crawl or walk we're busy bouncing into every surface available just to see how well our skin and bones and muscles hold up. We're none too careful with ourselves," he said with a nod. "Though to be fair, I think most races are like that, not just us. We can't be the only idiots in the galaxy," Derek said with a thin smile.

"I tell you what though. If you've a mind to have some dinner sometime, maybe we can chat more?" he suggested.

The AI-Sort-Of-Something-AI-Ish actually visibly perked up that. "I mean, I don't actually eat, but I'd like that!" As one might guess, she didn't get asked to dinner often...maybe because she often just appeared in the mess hall at random times as it was. She deflated a bit when she remembered what was going on. "At least, once my friend is back on board. I still don't think anyone has heard from--"

Suddenly, Odin stopped. Her head snapped to one side like a wild animal that had just heard a predator. "I think there's something wr--"

The avatar winked out of existence before she could finish her statement.

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