" Mechanical and Engineering Debate "
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"You ask why we should give our ships' computers normal emotions. Do
you really want a ship designed for war and possessing enough firepower to
wipe out an entire civilization to be incapable of loyalty? Or even love?"
- Doctor Edwin Goreab, Cybernetics Researcher and Artificial Intelligence Rights Activist
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Stardate: 60322.1530
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Bridge
It felt strange for the Oltharian to be at the Flight Control station, not because Elan had been such a large individual but because it had been so long since he had held that position. The first time he had taken on the role of a Flight Control Officer had been during his Academy days which had ended with him taking his final test onboard a holographic vessel - not as the pilot but as the Operations Officer.
Casually looking over to the station next to him and the android sitting there, Elan could not help but recall some of the challenges he had faced so many years ago and which Annie had overcome within only seconds. As a long time student of machines, the Oltharian had long ago discovered that inanimate objects, such as a tricorder, a warp core, or even a ship as a whole possessed a life of their own causing them to react in certain situations as would many living creatures. Some would have said that the Engineer had been crazy to believe such folly, but Elan dared them to continue to believe as they did while knowing what he did - and looking at what he saw.
"The ANUBIS is a truly spectacular ship," Annie said, taking a few seconds to contemplate the work that she had accomplished over the last several hours. "The response time of the computer is higher than I had expected, with only a few minor discrepancies. It would be interesting to see the ship perform during a crisis," the mechanoid woman added as a smile actually formed on the perfect artificial recreation of what had been meant to be her lips.
"Although the Scarab-Class was given the external appearance of a Nebula-Class ship," the Oltharian explained always being the engineer at heart," its internal systems, including the bio-neural circuitry linking the computers cores and the various departmental interfaces, are state of the art and far surpass the systems found on most of the ships currently in service." Despite knowing that the woman sitting next to him had been nothing more than an elaborate collections of mechanical parts given humanoid form, Elan spoke to Annie as if she had been an equal - if not in internal physical make-up at least as a fellow shipmate and *living* being.
"Of course," Annie said after having called up the engineering schematics of the ship onto the Operations console. "According to the construction files, the ship was designed to appear unthreatening, which is why the outer shell of the Nebula-Class was selected. Appearing as a large research vessel would permit the ship and its crew to have access to a large array of equipment and resources while performing any number of covert observations without having to rely on more possibly problematic camouflage techniques."
"Or illegal ones," the Oltharian added recalling the Treaty of Algeron, which had been signed by the Romulan Star Empire and the United Federation of Planets. This also caused the subsequent efforts of the Federation to develop cloaking technology despite the peace agreement to surface into the forefront of the engineer's mind. Although the Federation had not been permitted to further their research into that area, the joining of the Klingon Empire into the Federation had opened up an entirely new possibility in the equipping of Starfleet ships with cloaking technology based on the Klingon model. The fall of the Klingon Empire thus gave the Federation the loophole it had been so desperately searching for in order to strike a balance the area of ship invisibility. "Because of the high energy demands of such a camouflage system and the fact that it can be easily detected with the right tools, the Scarab-Class ships were instead equipped with a unique type of energy deflecting Ablative Armour designed to protect the ship and hide it from most visual and electronic detection devices," Elan continued, obviously enjoying the discussion subject - to the Commanding Officer's great dismay who had been sitting behind the pair.
"I feel like I am sitting at the head table of an engineering symposium," Captain Rikar said voicing her objection and reminding those on the bridge, by the tone of her voice, of her dislike and lack of familiarity with all things dealing with the general field of engineering.
"What's wrong with Engineering?" The Chief Engineering Officer asked, knowing all too well that the answer had not been *what* but rather *who*.
"There is nothing wrong with it," the Commanding Officer replied with all due haste, "but there is a place for it and that is why starships have an engineering section. The *Command* deck is meant for *Command* stuff, the *Engineering* section is meant for *Engineering* stuff."
"Please accept our deepest apologies Captain," the Oltharian immediately said giving the sitting woman at the centre of the bridge as much of an apologetic bow as his position and size permitted. "The bridge is no place for such discussions," Elan added while looking at Annie, insuring that the Chief Engineer could not further comment and instructing is would be student that they had err by allowing the conversation to carry on as long as they had. As interesting as the discussion might have been, their focus needed to be on their tasks and the mission at hand, any and all distractions possibly proving costly in time and/or tactical advantage.
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Francois Charette {f_charette@hotmail.com}
Lieutenant Junior Grade Elan Talak Fairborn 2005 post #267
Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA
