Posted by Fleet Captain Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Starbase 243 - Eve transfers to the USS Ark Angel
[snip]

Then came the message from Andone. Eve scanned the text precisely three-hundred and seventy-six times before accepting it as genuine. But genuine it appeared to be, and Eve, it also appeared, was once more destined to return to her former crew on the USS Ark Angel, not as a housekeeper but as an engineer. If a machine held the capacity for tears then in that moment, Eve had a trace belief that she would have cried enough to fill a thousand oceans. As it was, she simply allowed the corners of her lips to raise two millimeters on each side and then, with more speed than she had cleared any of the tables in the starbase mess hall, packed her bag and made her way to docking bay 6.

Stepping once more onto the massive Mythology-class explorer provoked an unidentified response from the android. It felt…familiar, like…coming home. Within a nanosecond the sensation was replaced by the recurrent fears of how this current crew might once more view a synthetic being placed amongst them. Would she once again be met with suspicion and mistrust? There was, as humans curiously liked to state, only one way to find out. So with that, Eve brought online the vocal module unused for the last eighty-two days and, with volume set to an optimal level, she called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

• Eve (Eng)
  

OOC: I’m going to assume this is at one of the starbases transporter rooms. I’ll tie it into the bridge thread thus…

Eve didnt have a second to process her query when a familiar voice rang out. “..I am here Lieutenant Eve. Apologies for the rushed nature of your transfer but things aboard the Ark Angel in the past day have been anything but normal.” She said striding into the starbase’s transporter room the NE at the controls looked sourly at Eve young as he was in his early 20s probably barely out of the Academy and one of the newest in this generation to feel fear or least distaste to Synthetic life.

The reaction from the transporter operator was observed by Eve but she chose to portray no reaction, although curiously she found herself automatically taking a small step closer to Andone, as if the woman’s presence offered protection.

”..Fleet Captain, uh ma’am…I got the orders for this Synth to—” he began but a sharp piercing gaze by the Romulan CO brought him up short.

”..I’m sorry ENSIGN, would you care to rephrase your tone spoken to TWO superior officers?” She said heatedly obviously having none of the disrespect of race or rank shown to Eve without cause from her to earn it.

And once more, the physical indication of joy - the small rise of synthetic lips into a ‘u’ shape - was displayed on Eve’s own robotic face at the words ‘Senior Officer’.

Swallowing hard the NE tried again. “..Uh yes ma’am. I have Lieutenant Eve’s transfer orders here but I need to remind you ma’am that travel of.....” he began but again Drudoc interrupted.

”..As of 0930 hours today, ENSIGN, I’ve taken over personal observation and care of Lieutenant Eve. This has been confirmed by Admiral Reignheart of Starfleet Command. Such information though is above your pay grade. Now since time is essential for me and my fellow officer, transport us to the Ark Angel without further complaint. Unless you would rather have a mark of unruly conduct put on your record?” She said.

”..N....no ma’am…” He said turning back to the console to bring up the holo interface for beaming.

Drudoc nodded then turned back to Eve. “..Sorry, as I was saying things have been hardly anything but normal. To bring you hastily up to speed, the Ark Angel was attacked by Orion pirates in this region and two of her crew kidnapped. Sadly, Command is refusing to allow my pursuit of these pirates to avoid a diplomatic incident with the Bolay Military District. Once, we’re aboard the Angel you’re to report to your department head Lt Miz’uki..” She said taking her stance on the transport pad.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Eve replied, the smile still fixed across her lips as if it had been hard-coded as their new and permanent configuration - something the android considered might be true for some time once back onboard the Ark Angel.

And then came the transport. Eve possessed no scientific data to confirm it, only the personal reports and opinions of countless humanoid crew members, but it seemed as if, for non-synthetic lifeforms, the act of transportation was concluded painlessly and ‘in the blink of an eye’. Not so for androids. Eve’s own digital consciousness remained aware of every nanosecond of disassembly and reassembly of her atoms, as if she were being stripped down to her core components for essential maintenance, before being hurriedly rebuilt by expert hands. She often wondered if she might re-appear at her destination as someone else. Perhaps one day, she would materialise onto a transporter pad with her molybdenum-cobalt frame replaced by a skeleton of collagen and calcium phosphate, her ocular implants substituted for balls of fibrous and vascular tunics and in place of her primary processor, that most precious possession of all lifeforms, the mass of neurons, glial cells and neural stem cells that made up the brain.

But not today - today, she found herself appearing on the transporter pad of the USS Ark Angel as the same robotic entity she had always been. The synth. The most curious and dangerous and universally despised computer of all.

Once both were aboard Drudoc nodded to the NE who wordlessly engaged the transport cycle beaming both over to Transporter room 1 on the Angel. Once she stepped off the pad she turned to Eve. “..I wish I could spend time to catch up on past events and for the future. But I am needed elsewhere. I trust you can find your way to Main Engineering?” She asked.

Once confirmed Drudoc nodded and strode hard down the hall to the nearest turbolift for the bridge.

Drudoc Andone CO

“I can, Ma’am,” Eve replied, the optimal route to her former workspace already selected and plotted out within her directional program.

For a moment, she remained on the transporter pad and simply observed as her Captain headed towards the door. Then at the last minute, she found her vocal synthesizer activating and words spilling out into the otherwise silent room.
“And Captain…Thank you.”

• Eve (Eng)