A quick check in

Posted on 11 Aug 2020 @ 1:31pm by Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari & Lieutenant JG Rosaline Belikov

Mission: Mission 4 - Race against the machine
Location: Aidan's quarters
Timeline: after "ecto what?"
1061 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Walking along the decks of the Andromeda, Rose was using the time to think of what else she could do. every bit of information she had managed to dig up all pointed in a similar direction, it was near impossible to destroy these planet killers. As she went, she came across the quarters of the Chief Science Officer. After a moment she figured who else would be better to throw ideas around with than someone like that. straightening up her uniform, Rose tapped the door chime to see if there was anyone home.

"Come in!" Aidan was walking around the living room, carefully bouncing a crying baby in his arms. Emme was out, having gone back to work too and so he was left with their little girl. Having different shifts did help and Aidan preferred to look after his own child, rather than defer that to the ship's day care. "What is it little one?" he murmured, shifting to place the infant against his chest so that she could hear his heartbeat. "You can't be hungry, mommy fed you only minutes ago."

Stepping inside, Rose was a little surprised to see Aidan with a child on his lap. Although she knew about the child, she thought they would be in child care. Clearing her throat, Rose put on her buisness face and stepped a little further in, "Excuse me Lieutenant, I hope i'm not disturbing you"

"Not at all if you don't mind the little one, come in lieutenant." Aidan smiled, finding the intrusion somewhat welcome even if he was spending time with his little one. "This is Saeri...my daughter. What can I do for you?"

Giving a nod, Rose chose to get right to business, “well, I was hoping to talk to you about our current predicament. I’ve dug up everything I can on this thing and I’m no closer to solving the issue. Do you scientists have any crazy ideas?”

Aidan shook his head. "We're working on theories but so far we're comparing our current situation to the Doomsday machine that the Enterprise once encountered. We did find anomalous readings that we have dubbed 'Ecto' for the sake of giving it a name. It is somewhat...ghostly, for lack of a better term."

“So this machine is different from the one encounter by the Enterprise? Maybe it’s an upper class model. Do you know what’s causing this ‘Ecto’ reading?”

"We think some kind of spiritual posession, much like a ghost taking posession of someone. It was detected when these... beings, for lack of better word, spoke with the captain, and only at those instances. We're now working on a way to better detect it."

Rose looked worried and confused at the same time, “so the machine is haunted? Are you sure this isn’t done form of AI?”

"Oh gosh I dearly hope not," the Trill answered tightly, "as for haunted it is possible. When we were addressed earlier, when the captain spoke to them, that's when we detected this anomaly. How it is established is something we need to figure out."

"well, i'm not sure how but is there any way I can help?" Rose asked

"Well... Maybe you can help Lieutenant Lau? She's going to dive into everything she can find, I'm sure she could use your expertise." Aidan stopped walking, which prompted the baby to cry again. "Shhhh," he soothed, "daddy's right here." Sherlock hooted at them from above. "Yeah you're no help you oaf," Aidan called up, rolling his eyes.

Rose nodded and was about to speak when the child began to cry. Walking over, she held out her hands, “may I hold her?”

Aidan hesitated, not really wanting to hand over his newborn to someone else. Yet at the same time, he remembered the woman had an infant of her own even if the child was probably nearing toddler stage now. He nodded, handing Saeri over to her, earning him an approving twitter from the hovering blue. "She seems to like movement," he offered, "she likes to be walked around."

Gently cradling Saeri in her arms, Rose began to gently sway back and forward while quietly humming a lullaby, “how old is the little one?” She asked in almost a whisper between the verses of her lullaby.

"How old?" Aidan chuckled. "A few hours at best, we're very very new at this... I have no idea what does or doesn't help her yet. She can't be hungry, that's for sure."

Rose smiled, thinking back to her own experience, “I can understand how you feel. Ziva was quite the handful and she still can be” she said, moving back over to Aidan, “here, I think you should take her back”

"How old is Ziva now?" he asked as he took his baby girl back, cradling her to his chest once more, swaying her back and forth quite gently. "And how did you...manage?"

“Ziva is almost 9 months old now and she’s slowly figuring out how to crawl around my quarters” Rose said with a slight smile, “as for his I managed, there wasn’t really any other choice for me. Her father died the day she was born and although the senior staff did what they could, I just had to figure things out as I went”

"I'm sorry to hear that." The Trill's expression saddened and Sherlock swooped down to hover near her, hooting sadly. "But you're alright now, right?" He cradled the baby closer, as if not ever wanting to let her go. "I'd hate for Emme to have to do this alone, I really hope that'll never happen."

Rose smiled, "you'll be fine. I'll make sure to keep the ship as safe as I can."

"We would appreciate that." Aidan smiled then looked down "Well....she's finally quiet... I should put her to bed."

Rose nodded, "sounds like a good idea. If you'll excuse me, i have some more research to do" she whispered gently putting a hand onto Aidan's shoulder, "you'll be fine. Just give it time"

Aidan nodded. "Thank you for stopping by. I'll get on with my research when Emme gets home, or when the little one stays asleep. I'll let you know if I find anything."

"that would be appreciated. Good luck" Rose said, turning and heading out of the room.