Stardate 52063.9

Elea frowned at the tricorder she was holding with one hand in front of her 
face, in the cramped entrance to the jeffries tube just off the Battle 
Bridge. The attack had caused some damage, and that had caused system wide 
power surges. Surges that didn't like isolinear logic nodes, like the burned 
out one three inches from her nose.

Actually, it was 10.23321 inches, but it seemed closer.

The tricorder beeped angrily, finishing it's assessment of the situation. To 
her, it looked like just the power coupling was damaged, but the tricorder 
could see inside the casing. It told a different story, at least six of the 
ten isolinier control rods inside the sealed unit were fractured. She sighed 
and shifted her weight on her feet, still standing on the Battle Bridge's 
deck.

"Mull?", she called down the tube. A strand of hair fell into her face, and 
she shoved it aside without a second thought.

"Huh? Oh, yes Elea?", he peered into the tube, grinning up at her.

It was odd, she thought, he never grinned like that around others. It kinda 
made him look nervous, but she couldn't fathom why. Maybe he was nervous 
about her, being constructed, not born like he was. Well, that wasn't 
completely true, some of her had been grown. That was similar to being born, 
wasn't it? Anyway, she'd have to figure this out later. She flagged it in 
her short term memory address as a "review" item.

"The node is damaged, we're going to have to replace it."

"Oh. Ok.", Mull's head disappeared and he moved off to report to the Captain. 
At least now they knew why the short range sensors kept reporting collision 
alerts.

Elea focused her attention back on the damaged node. Most of the ship's crew 
that wasn't injured was involved in some sort of repair. The ship was a mass 
of minor malfunctions, most caused by the battle the previous day, some were 
caused earlier and aggravated by it. A lot had happened since she'd left the 
laboratory where she'd been activated. She frowned slightly, not liking that 
word. It seemed cold, sterile, it didn't really explain her being. Neither 
did born either, though, and that troubled her. What was she, why was she, 
what would she become? It was a series of questions that had started 
haunting her, hanging in the back of her consciousness.

"Elea? Hey, Elea?", Mull touched her leg lightly, to get her attention.

"Yeow!", she jumped, startled.

That was really too bad, because cramped jeffries tubes are not places to 
jump. With a resounding clang that echoed the length of the shaft, her head 
smacked into a conduit. She dropped the tricorder and instinctively rubbed 
the top of her head where it had hit.

"Owwww....", she glanced down at Mull, almost glaring until she saw the look 
of utter horror on his face, "What?"

"Are you ok? I didn't mean to startle you like that.", he was starting to 
look more upset than horrified now. This puzzled her even more, but she 
wrote it off as organic overreaction. He couldn't help it. Even though she 
had an organic brain, it was linked into so many computer systems that it 
didn't overreact like that.

"Yes, I think so...", ducking out of the tube she blinked, refocusing her 
eyes in the brighter light. Most of the bridge crew was staring in their 
direction. It was embarrassing, and her emulation programming kicked in, 
causing her to "blush". Mull just stood their wringing his hands and looking 
angry with himself.

"Lieutenant, are you all right?"

She froze, she hadn't heard the Captain enter. Whoops. Straightening she 
turned to face the much taller man, who seemed to radiate authority and 
command. The bridge crew quickly got back to their duties.

"Yes sir, I just bumped my head."

The Captain frowned, "That was more than a bump Lieutenant, I heard it a 
whole deck down", he paused, "go down to Engineering and have Commander Syxx 
give you a quick once over, dismissed."

Elea's mismatched eyes widened slightly, then she nodded affirmative. She 
didn't dislike the chief Engineer, she just didn't like diagnoses. Getting 
plugged into the Equinox's main computer still constituted mental rape, in 
her mind. It didn't really hurt, but it didn't feel good either. The closest 
analogy she had come too was imagining her mind as a sponge, and having 
someone wring all the water out of it.

"Yes sir...", she would have continued, but the Captain had already started 
a conversation with the Tactical officer on duty. With a soft sigh, 
something she had seen others doing and added to her programming, she stepped 
over to the lift, "Engineering deck"

A few moments later the lift stopped. The Battle bridge was a lot closer to 
main engineering. She imagined the ship looked...odd, without the saucer. 
Engineering looked busy too, maybe she wouldn't bother the Chief anyway, 
just get the node she needed to fix the sensors. She stepped out of the lift 
and out of the way of an ensign carrying a stack of PADDs.

"Ah! Lt, good. The Captain told me you'd be coming down. Step into my 
office?", the Bolian smiled agreeably and stepped inside himself.

Elea's hopes sank, it figured that the Captain would call ahead. He was very 
thorough. She sank softly into the chair next to the computer console, and 
across from the Chief, when he gestured to it. He fiddled with a collection 
of cables, and finally leaned forward.

"Ok Lieutenant, open your interface panel."

She hesitated, "I'd rather not sir."

The Bolian looked surprised, "Excuse me?"

After taking a deep breath, something else she'd seen, she continued, "I'd 
rather not, sir. The Equinox's main computer is not... uh, gentle. It takes 
whatever information it wants, by force, sir. I would rather we do this some 
other way."

Syxx blinked, still holding the leads up, "I see... well, you do know that 
this is the fastest way to diagnose your systems, don't you?"

She nodded, and he continued, "Well, I suppose we can use a tricorder, or 
reprogram the diagnosis software, but right now I don't have the time for 
either. So what do you suggest?"

"I didn't get hurt, maybe you could trust me and just give me a replacement 
isolinier logic unit for node Eleven Baker Six?"

Syxx looked at her for a second, before chuckling at her totally frank and 
hopefully innocent expression. Sometimes the little cyberdroid just 
seemed... human. Or bolian, depending on what race you were. He shook his 
head, and set the wires aside.

"All right Lieutenant, you win. When we get back to the starbase though, 
you're going to help me reprogram the diagnostic routines", he held up a 
finger as she opened her mouth to agree, "AND undergo a level one 
diagnostic!"

She blinked at him, her turn to look surprised. A level one diagnostic meant 
a complete check of every single one of her systems. It'd take ten hours, 
minimum. But...

"Yes sir."

"Good, now which node?", he had turned to the engineering replication unit. 
The Equinox stored most of it's spare parts like it did it's food, as 
component molecules to be assembled later. The system had it's flaws, such 
as not working when the replicators were broken, but it did let them carry a 
lot more variety of parts in a small area.

"Eleven Baker Six."

He keyed the computer, and it pulled a diagram of the offending unit up on 
the display. A few keystrokes later, the replicator hummed and deposited a 
new unit on it's pad. He stood up with a flourish, and swiped it off the pad 
to present to her in a bow.

"One Isoliner Logic Node, as mi'lady ordered.", he looked up and winked.

Elea suppressed a giggle, visibly, and took the offered device, "Commander, 
you’re crazy."

Syxx nodded, "Yes, I think that’s what the doctors said. Now get back to the 
bridge, before Mason starts to take interest in your diagnostics."

Elea stood swiftly, "Yes, sir!"

Syxx watched her leave, in her haste she almost bowled over one of his 
junior officers. He chuckled again, Elea reminded him of a little girl a 
lot, it was fun to poke at her like that. He'd read the engineering briefs 
on her, they actually said she required interaction, to learn. She seemed to 
be doing ok, as far as he could tell. It had been a tense first month, but 
everything was straightening out. Still, this bit about the diagnoses
worried him, and he turned to his station to note it in his log. He'd have 
to talk to Mason about it, when they both were off duty.