Posted by Fleet Captain Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim [Holodeck 3]: Faster Than the Speed of Thought… Maybe
[snip]

“Understood,” V’alura nodded, seeming more determined and focused now that she had her own job to perform. Numbers, she can do. V’alura fired up her console and established a connection with the holodeck and the ship mainframe. “Computer, generate a workstation with several terminal screens. Connect screen one to the deflector array and EPS. Screen two display L’Nel’s biodata-” V’alura tapped her comm, “Med bay, send doctor to the secondary mission housing and bring and advanced biometric scanner capable of tracking brainwave activity from a distance. The team there will explain everything just get there and send the data to holodeck three.

“Screen three display-” And on until V’alura had a visual on every key area connected to the experiment. First V’alura calculated the limits of the deflector array, their containment fields, the buffer in transporter room three, any system that the energy would come in contact with or pass through. Then V’alura began an automatic program that would execute if the energy they took in exceeded those limits beyond their physical hardware capabilities. Once activated, the program would check for crewmembers, then create a safe path for the energy to vent. There was no room for error here, and for the next several minutes all her focus went into creating their emergency failsafe.

Sighing, Caelian turned to Hope and knelt before her. This was perhaps the most difficult part of the entire prospect, and it was one he had not been looking forward to dealing with. A difficult decision lay before her, one that he wasn’t sure she was ready to make. Having only been self-aware for barely a day, thrust into a life she hadn’t asked for and flooded with perceptions and feelings she couldn’t be prepared to deal with, he was going to have to ask her the single most difficult question any sentient being would face.

“Little friend,” he asked more calmly than he felt, “I wish we’d had more time to get to know one another—learn about one another—before we reached this point, but life doesn’t always give us the luxury of time. I’m so very sorry we took you away from the life you knew, even though we never meant to. I know you can’t go back to the way you were, and I understand you’re still confused about what it means to be a sentient being like us. I don’t know what kind of life you will have if we leave you here, or what to expect if you come with us, but you deserve the chance to choose.”

Caelian took a slow, steadying breath and choked back a wave of sorrow. He had been forced to wrestle with the idea of being millions of years from home, with the idea that he’d never see his mother or father ever again. He’d done his best to help his friends and crewmates wrestle with the same notion, poured every ounce of his optimism into conciliatory words to keep up morale. He’d even managed to keep his own spirits up, kept his faith in Starfleet and the crew of the Ark Angel. Now he was faced with asking Hope to endure the same. He could only hope that she would understand the ramifications, that she would forgive him—all of them—for her new life, wherever it led.

“What do you want, little one?” he asked slowly. “Where would you like to spend your life? Whatever you decide, I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

MiniFayth looked to Weir, her expression was thoughtful, confused, anxious, and a myriad of other emotions. Finally after what felt long minutes but in reality was barely a single moment she replied. “..I think I will go along with your ship. I am not one of…” She gestured to the hologram of of outlines of the protomatter aliens, “..what I used to be” She finally said. “..the only way I can think to move ahead is go with you.” She answered then crossing her tiny arms about her tiny chest.

GM CockRoach

He nodded slowly, offered her a tight smile. “Okay, then. Well, since you’re part of the crew now, it’ll be your job to help V’alura here. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

V’alura glanced up from her console, and made eye contact with Caelian, “How much time to we have left?” Her heart was thundering like it were a stampede of horses. She spoke while continuing to type, most of her focus on the screens before her, “I have the failsafe in place.”

Ensign Belmont (Science)

Caelian frowned and closed his eyes, his mind racing along the corridors and byways of the Ark Angel. His eyelids twitched with each twist and turn as he did the math. Jackson had the furthest ground to cover—as did her team—but the woman could hustle when she put her mind to it. Once L’Nel was in place with his team, assembly would take less than fifteen minutes. Assuming he could get the captain behind him, and praying that nothing went wrong, his best estimate for readiness was…

“Twenty-six minutes,” he replied. “Thirty-one if our systems can hold the projected average charge.”

Twenty-six minutes. Nearly half-an-hour. It’ll have to be enough. She nodded.

Snapping his fingers, the engineer tapped his comm badge. =^=Weir to Bridge. Captain, it seems there are protoforms entering the end-stage of their existence not far from our current position. I’ve got my team started on the modifications, but without knowing exactly how long we have until this event I’d like to request additional hands. With everyone’s help, we could be ready to scoop up the energy we need and be on our way within a half-hour.=^=

“V’alura,” he smiled as he strode past the woman on the way to the holodeck door, “I’m headed to Engineering. Once we’ve got the go-ahead, I’ll keep the line open. Things here are in capable hands. Good luck, to us all!”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

=/\= Get who you need Ensign, if though you don’t think you can secure this in time we do got the Slipstream drive at the ready too =/\= Andone said

Drudoc Andone CO

V’alura paused in her work to salute Caelin and offer one last encouraging smile before he slipped out of the holodeck. She looked to Minifayth and offered the young lifeform another smile, one that did not quite reach her eyes. “I won’t lie to you, I’m scared silly right now, but that’s all the more motivation to get this right.” She asked the computer to create a chair next to her that is suitable for Minifayth’s size. “The thing to remember when scared is that I’m not alone. And now, neither are you. Together we’ll forge ahead.”

She stepped back from her console to breathe in, then out, through her nose. She repeated the motion one more time, and muttered an old Vulcan meditation mantra taught to her years ago. “As they say in the entertainment business, the show must go on.” V’alura stepped back to her console and alternated between ironing out her program, various calculations and monitoring her many screens. The programing was easy, she wrote her PhD. thesis on starship automation after all. The calculations less so. She did all she could, estimating the limits of the systems involved and in turn plugging that into her program.

She worked straight until the very last second, then turned her gaze to the terminal screens before her. “Alright, little one. The moment you or I feel like everything’s going to hell in a handbasket we pull the plug and activate the failsafe.”

Ensign Belmont (Science)

As things were as ready here as they were going to be, MiniFayth took her spot on the minichair nodding a bit. She looked back at the readings. “..I do not know for certain but I believe the second of the three is the first to begin going into death and rebirth.” She said. “..We got less then ten of your minutes left.”

GM CockRoach

As if the protoform’s words were somehow prophetic, an alert chimed on V’alura’s console to let her know that the modifications they’d all worked so hard on were ready. It was do-or-die time… hopefully without the latter.
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—