A Meeting of Data Banks [Sigma/Mira]

[Starbase Athena - Shuttlebay]

Since the station's emergency security and tactical hologram was still very much a prototype that had been sent to Athena for testing, Admiral Deacon seemed to take some sort of pleasure from assigning Mira to as many random assignments as she could.

That was the reason that Mira was walking into the shuttlebay today, looking around for one of the Engineering crew that she had seen around on occasion, a cybernetically enhanced humanoid by the name of Sigma Nu. The flight crews had already pulled a shuttle out on to the launch pad for them, so she stepped up to the hatch, looking inside.

[Shuttle]

Despite their love of engines, the chance to leave the internal parts of the station to go on an away mission was something Sigma very much liked. Sometimes, seeing something new was more than what they wanted. This time, it was simply a supply run of engineering equipment to a far off system, and Sigma was needed to help install them when they got there.

At the moment, they were more occupied with initiating pre-flight sequences while they waited for their traveling companion, a hologram named Mira. Sigma had seen her around, but have never spoken to her. They recognized the face when it popped into the shuttle. "Hello!" Sigma brightly greeted. "If you're ready, we certainly are ready to go."

Spotting the Deltan already sat at the shuttle's controls, Mira gave them a slight smile and stepped inside the craft, heading for the co-pilot's seat and settling herself in. She didn't bother fastening the safety harness, seeing as she wasn't programmed to feel pain or be hurt. The only thing she needed to protect was her mobile emitter, and that was carefully secured in her boot.

"I am ready to go," she replied, looking to Sigma. "Do you need me to do anything?"

For a few moments, Sigma looked over the consoles, looking increasingly more resigned with each second. This was mostly a dull mission. Likely, the allure of leaving the station would wear off a few light years from the station itself. Sigh. At least they'd have an interesting traveling companion!

"Unfortunately, so much of this trip is on autopilot that there's nothing for me to do except hit this button to launch." Sigma then entered the command in their console, with a bored gesture indicating that they were moving. Well enough, anyway. They didn't have real pilot experience, and to any other more difficult trip, they'd need a pilot with them.

"We've got a long trip ahead. Hope you brought a book!"

Mira watched out of the main viewer as the shuttle manoeuvred itself out of the shuttlebay and out into open space. She wasn't sure why Admiral Deacon had chosen to send her out on this mission given that it was a simple enough transport exercise within Federation space. It wasn't as if there needed to be a security presence at all.

She looked to Sigma again as they seemed to make a joke about bringing a book. Unfortunately, a sense of humour wasn't something that she had been given, since it had seemed somewhat superfluous in a security hologram.

"If you would prefer, I can deactivate myself," she offered, tilting her head to one side.

Deactivate?

Sigma didn't see any reason for her to do that. Then again, they didn't see the reason for a lot of things, which was one of the reasons they always wanted to learn more. Maybe I was a battery issue for Mira? Do holograms run on batteries?

"Why on Delta would I have you do that? You think I want to spend the next several hours alone?" They said incredulously. "It'd be might creepy alone."

Blinking at Sigma for a moment, Mira realised that they had reached a slight misunderstanding between the pair of them. Looking down at the console, she lifted and dropped one shoulder in a shrug.

"Generally, when people have no need of me, I'm deactivated," she replied by way of explanation. "What do you do when you're not needed in Engineering?"

"That's dull," Sigma said bluntly, rarely one for tact. They didn't much like the idea of being shu off when not useful. Just a flip of an off switch and poof, gone? Do I have an off switch? They wondered for a moment. No, don't be ridiculous. You didn't have one of those installed.

"To tell you the truth, I'm almost always needed for something in that engine room. Something breaks, someone needs me to reroue power through some dusty old power coupling... When I'm not on duty, I go back to my quarters and tinker with things."

"That it is," Mira agreed, shrugging again. "I do object to being turned off whenever someone feels like it. One of the operations officers has encouraged me to try to find a hobby, but it's most irritating if you can't do it because one of your colleagues has decided that they do not need you at that time."

It was true that she had tried to find a hobby, even found one that she wanted to continue, but the engineers at Jupiter Station had had to cut back significantly on the EMH program she was based on, and that had included the subroutine that gave her control over her own activation. One day, she was going to have to ask them to put it back in.

That sounded boring and dreadful. No room and time to grow or choose hobbies and interests was an unthinkable thing to a Deltan. Sigma made a deep grunt of disapproval. "Well, you're clearly more than just a coil spanner. You're a person."

And how was person supposed to, well, be a person if they didn't even get the chance?

Sigma stared contemplatively into the outlying starfield, when suddenly their expressions changed from melancholy to mischievous. "Maybe I could do a little reprogramming," they slyly suggested. "Prevent you from being deactivated. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's technology. You'd still have to go help where you were needed, but you could enjoy some free time."