You are Never Alone

Posted on Thu Apr 20th, 2023 @ 4:24pm by Ensign Edg'rrr Anisu

2,958 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 115 - Planting for the Future
Location: Starbase 400, Section C-1 Level 2440
Timeline: MD1, 1900
Tags: Edg'rrr, communication array, Never Alone

Edg'rrr held the spanner against the wires praying this strategy works. In the cramped dim Jefferies tube he focused more on just how everything he had seen in this area still worked. Old and very old systems were sprawled all over behind the panels. It didn't matter. Not right now. With this connection surely, he postulated, it should allow data packets to flow at least easier between the processors right? He checked a reading. Still good. He continued making the connection. A little more. A little more. "Okay computer, try that." Said Edg'rrr.

"Working." Said the computer as Edg'rrr held a breath. "Connection cannot be established. Please reconnect the proper lines between each processor." He collapsed rolling onto his back taking his goggles off before rubbing his eyes.

"Coooommmeeee oooonnnn, please!" Said Edg'rrr faintly hearing the words of an old instructor back during the academy.

"A first year cadet could've solved this by now! Don't try something. Do something!" Said the tellarite at the back of his mind.

"Proved you wrong at least." Said Edg'rrr chuckling to himself laying there. "Beat your class even if barely." He closed his eyes banging his head on the floor over and over again. "First year ensign can't even do a simple upgrade job. Pathetic." With a last thump his mind went back to his childhood on the O'Neill cylinder like station he grew up on. He felt the memory surface like a bad tide on a beach. Far into the maintenance zones of the station past some rusty outdated machinery and miles of pipes and computing power a young Edg'rrr was being dragged by three slightly bigger caitians.

"Lemme go!" Said young Edg'rrr trying to flail about as the others joked about something at his attempts.

"I think the coward wants to be let go." Said one of them with a tight squealy voice hold onto an arm.

"Oh, he wants to be let go, to do what? Run to mommy and daddy with a mean drawing of us? What're they gonna do?" Said another with a bit more gruff to there voice holding the other arm. The leader pointed to a door as they stopped.

"Little spit should know the rules of the station by now. Anything in the universe lives by one rule; those who are strong are on top and can torment and play with any punk that tries to defy them until they're far below the bottom. You just got unlucky to be our plaything today I guess." Said the leader as he pulled a lever that opened the door revealing a pitch black void beyond. Edg'rrr's stomach sank and coiled into itself.

"No, no, no! T-this is wrong we can't be down here!" Said Edg'rrr as the leader punched Edg'rrr in the face.

"I do whatever I want! If I want to play, we play." Said the leader punching Edg'rrr again. "If I want to inflict pain!" He punched again. "I inflict pain!" He punched again as the others laughed. "If I say we were far away and you got lost?" He punched Edg'rrr again as his tail caught the squeaky kid's leg. "I say...woah!" The leader's next punch missed as Edg'rrr tripped the squeaky kid and both of the ones holding him feel down. Edg'rrr was free but something instinctual told him to fight and so he hissed and pounced onto the back of the leader biting and clawing over them. "AAAAAHHHHHH GET THE TWERP OFF ME!" The other two got to their senses and did just so getting bit and scratched themselves but eventually restraining Edg'rrr. The leader checked his mouth as a big scratch left one of his eyes temporarily blind. "Oh your dead now." The leader drove a foot straight into Edg'rrr's stomach before pounding with both fists over and over again as Edg'rrr could only allow the tears to fall. It was some time until they stopped. "Toss him in. Let the rodents finish him off. Might as well give him that padd he wanted back so bad too. Useless trash." Said the leader as the two lackeys threw Edg'rrr into the dark and he could only watch in horror as the door shut. Present day Edg'rrr opened his eyes as a tear fell across his cheek onto the floor.

"How many times did I bang on that damn door after that?" He said to himself in an almost hushed tone. "Like now, nobody's going to help me and if I don't get it done before the shift ends. 'The USS Tikhov has gotten sucked into the butthole of the universe. If only Starbase 400's comm array was up to the task could we find out more if they're even safe!'" Said present Edg'rrr chuckling to himself. He looked around sitting up as his mind thought for a moment at the issue at hand. "Connections aren't good between processors so they can't talk to each other. If the they can't talk I can't plug in anything new because they won't talk to the new stuff either." He pressed his back against the wall staring at the issue as the memory returned. Young Edg'rrr's pounding on the door was soft now.

"Help. I'm here. I'm...alone." Said young Edg'rrr wiping his face of both tears and dried blood. He couldn't see anything but knew in his heart no one was going to find him. Not down here, not with anything else they might confuse him for. His eyes however he discovered were starting to slightly adjust to begin making out faint outlines of shapes. At the very least he saw the corridor went somewhere. Perhaps even to an exit, any exit. He held the drawing padd the bullies threw on top of him tightly. Happy he hadn't lost the thing his parents gave him for a birthday present. "I can...be brave. Like Starfleet. Yeah. Nothing scares a Starfleet officer." He said softly to himself making his way forward carefully. It went down he felt. Way down. Making a few twists and turns with pipes and grating in most areas. He held a hand to the wall to keep a balance and some sense of safety until a voice. It was very faint that was more like a muffle of steam or something than anything sensible. He couldn't help it. If anyone was down here that could help he had to try. "H-hello?" He voice had a slight echo down various paths as the muffle went off again as he walked carefully towards it. "I hear you. Can you help me?" The muffle went off again as he thought he could also hear something rattling nearby. "H-hello?" He paused when the voice stopped and a metal hand grabbed his ankle. The scream that came from him almost didn't sound natural. His mind raced as hundreds of horrifying images popped into his mind. He tried to free his foot and run but couldn't. "PLEASE LET GO! PLEASE LET GO!"

"H-help...h-help...system...injured." Said the voice as Edg'rrr didn't want to look but knew he should at least know what did him in before it finished him off. He looked at his ankle and followed where the arm probably was to a blue robotic eye staring at him. Whatever it was attached to was big. However it somehow assured him that it didn't want to eat him. "I-injured. N-n-need repair."

"You're hurt?" Said Edg'rrr trying to summon whatever energy he could to be brave like his imagined Starfleet officer even though his heart wanted to exit his chest still. The hand let go as Edg'rrr walked closer to the form. "You're, a robot? But I can't see much of anything. I don't know what to help with." The machine blinked grabbing Edg'rrr's drawing padd. Edg'rrr recoiled a bit as the machine hesitated too before Edg'rrr thought for a moment and gave it to the machine slowly. Taking it, it set it down on the floor using the arm to open the drawing prompt and draw a rough technical drawing of what it looked like and where it was broken. Parts near its anti-gravity generator were broken off. "You're missing parts. I can help find them if you can get me out?" The machine blinked.

"Out." Said the machine as Edg'rrr walked up and tapped the eye of the robot.

"Do you have a flashlight that could help me find the parts for you?" Said Edg'rrr as the robot blinked and a light came out. It wasn't much but it was enough for Edg'rrr to finally look around. The robot had two large holes in it, one arm ripped clean off, and both an antennae with an eye was also missing. Present Edg'rrr smiled at this. It took time as many of the parts were scattered around. He didn't know if some rodents did this or if it was because the machine ran into trouble at some point but still he searched for the parts at least he could find. Bringing them to the robot it gave some instructions as well as it could to help Edg'rrr fix the problems. Soon the robot steadily lifted off the grating of the floor doing what it could to maintain balance. Edg'rrr for a moment didn't feel scarred as he was proud he actually did something. The robot drifted clumsily toward Edg'rrr before looking around and pointing towards a hallway.

"Out." Said the robot as Edg'rrr picked up his padd smiling and holding on the robot's hand they went off into the corridor. It was some time before Edg'rrr noticed something. Natural light, or at least something that wasn't his new friend's light.

"Hey I see something ahead." Said Edg'rrr as he jogged ahead a bit taking a few pauses waiting for the robot to catch up. Eventually what he saw was open space. Speficially a window looking out into the drydock area of the station where a Constitution class refit ship was resting having its saucer reattached back onto its secondary hull. Edg'rrr was awestruck as the robot moved carefully beside him looking at the sight as well. "Never been this close to one of the ships before. Especially not a Starfleet ship!" A clunk gained the attention of the robot as it looked back at Edg'rrr still be dumbfounded by the sight but grabbing his hand it dashed off towards the sound. "Whoa!" Moving rapidly the robot approached a metal door, much like the one Edg'rrr was tossed behind. He coward a little behind the robot as it turned its head to look at him.

"Safe." Said the robot turning its head back at the door before banging on it with its hand in a rapid succession. Nothing much happened. It tried again. Nothing yet.

"I doubt anyone is down this far to answer. We need to find another way out. Come on." Said Edg'rrr in a defeated tone as the robot looked at him then back at the door before moving to a wall panel and tearing it off it accessed a few wires. Edg'rrr looked back confused. "What are you doing?" The robot looked back at Edg'rrr.

"Out. Safe." Said the robot as it tapped several of the wires to cause the lights to flicker and steam to burst from a pipe nearby.

"Robot, I really hope we don't get into trouble for this!" Said Edg'rrr as an alarm began to blare beyond the door loud enough that Edg'rrr covered his ears. More pipes began to burst as shouts could then be heard beyond the door.

"Wait I got something! Here here here!" Said a male voice on the other side of the door. "Power fluctuations like mad Admiral. Old station or not this area is built to be stable!" Said the one voice.

"Get it open then. Something's causing it and I doubt those on the Yorktown want more issues outside the ship than in it right now." Said the admiral as a few grunts and banging sounds later the door gave way after being pried open. the first person Edg'rrr saw was some human-like Starfleet officer with two sets of eye brows and purple hair who looked very surprised to see Edg'rrr standing before them.

"Uhhh, sir, we have some ah, small company." Said the purple haired man smiling at Edg'rrr before shoving the rest of the door open. An older man with a pointed beard and mustache walked up next to the purple haired man.

"Quite a sight honestly. Alone down here of all places?" Said the human admiral raising an eyebrow at the curious sight before him. "Would you like some food little one?" He tapped his combadge. "Uh, this is Admiral, nevermind, I just need a med and engineering team down here immediately. We have a lost child who probably would want nothing more than to see there family again. Am I right little one?" Edg'rrr nodded slowly clutching his padd as the purple haired man was off by the panel where the robot lay slumped on the floor.

"Heh, it's an old DOT-7. You don't see many of these around anymore. Must've fried nearly every system in its body. Someone fixed what they could, albeit crudely, but it's our cause for the flucuations." Said the purple haired man as Edg'rrr felt scared for his new friend taking a few steps closer. The admiral noticed this looking down at Edg'rrr briefly and recognizing the connection.

"Would this DOT still be owned by Starfleet or the station you think Lieutenant Faul-Ut?" Said the admiral as Faul-Ut looked at Edg'rrr and then the admiral before back at the robot.

"You know, if I get the right team we can have it fixed better than new. Could even be put back into service and continue on whatever mundane maintenance duties it was on before its hero here found it. I'm thinking instead, we can fix it up enough to get it working again but with an admiral's order it could be given a special duty to, say, provide much needed therapy to an individual who has just gone through a tragic experience." Said Faul-Ut winking at Edg'rrr as they both smiled. The admiral took a deep breath and put his hands on his hips.

"Well then Mr. Faul-Ut. I suggest you carry on with that order as this seems to be a Federation issue. This DOT showed a lot of courage bringing this child home. A worthy retirement for a worthy officer. I think we all owe it that much. Don't you think little one?" Said the admiral as Edg'rrr looked up at him smiling and forgetting if briefly his fears or what had transpired. Present day Edg'rrr laughed.

"Stupid robot. First time we meet and he pulls a stunt like that. Courage never looked better today though. Even if it took years to rebuild him." Said present Edg'rrr as an idea clicked in his head. "Computer, I want you to look into yourself for me. How many different programs are trying to talk to each other from the various processors? Er, like, how many operating systems am I dealing with?" The computer gave a chirp. "Must be like fifty people trying to talk at once in a different language with no translator." He said quietly to himself.

"One thousand, seven hundred and thirty three." Said the computer as Edg'rrr finally got giddy with excitement.

"So it isn't a connection issue! It's a speech issue! You're systems are so old people forgot that older stuff has trouble talking to the new stuff so they just patched what they could where they could hoping to make it work. I like a good kitbash but there's a reason we didn't mass produce some of the ships from the Dominion war after the Dominion war." Said Edg'rrr finding his flow again and diving back into the computer systems as his memory of that first adventure came back. His younger self looking at his drawing padd as a simple drawing of a Starfleet vessel was on it. Fighting off a dozen Borg cubes of course. "Yeah, found out later Mom and Dad darn near tore the entire community apart as I went missing for the better part of a week." Edg'rrr thought to himself thinking back. "Life on the station improved. Especially when I heard Starfleet berated the heads of the station for the incident. Civilian station but if a child can find a docking port where a Federation ship was being repaired at so could anything nefarious. Think they installed new doors, lights, and people in the maintenance zones." Edg'rrr paused as he began to chuckle at the thought of what happened to the bullies. "I don't know where they are today but seeing them work the recyclers shows where 'being on top' with a stuck up attitude can get you. Think that admiral was behind there punishment too." He took a breath as the computer readout showed the systems actually talking to each other after he ripped out a few of the older processors, installing a newer one, and rewriting several command codes nearly wiping out a fair chunk of the original operating systems yet everything was starting to flow a lot smoother. "Courage was right about them though. I had to forgive them and moved on. Let the universe handle it. Seems to know the right balance for this stuff. After all, here I am on another space station, in the middle of no one really cares, and probably on the edge of some big huge new adventure like a giant space amoeba or star system eating cloud thing that us Starfleet officers will rise up to the challenge to!"

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