<USS Avalon> "Better Late Than Never"

"Better Late Than Never"
Lt. K'etrall
Ensign McGivern 

There was one engineer who was not happy. And  when the Acting chief wasn't 
happy no one was happy. Already they had lost  Ensign Teryn and now Ensign 
McGivern had yet to show up for her shift. This did  not make K'etrall happy at 
all. Especially now that the Avalon-B had been  destroyed.

Victoria didn't have a great night tossing and turning all  night long, and 
forgetting to set the computer to wake her this morning didn't  make for a 
great number in her book either. "K'etrall to Ensign McGivern!" the  stern tone 
in 
her voice which jolted her from what lack of REM sleep she was  already in, 
chilled her too the bone. She flipped the sheets off her bed, and  dove for her 
comm badge. "McGivern here ma'am! I forgot to set my wake up last  night, 
I'll be there as soon as possible!" she said as she literally rolled from  her 
bed and onto the floor. 

"I don't care what your excuse is, you are  late for duty and you will report 
within the next 15 minutes! Have I made myself  clear?"

Muttering to herself K'etrall wondered what kind of people they  were letting 
into Starfleet these days. Whoever they are apparently they had no  sense of 
responsibility. What would happen if I forgot to set my alarm? What the  hell 
am I going to do with this woman? Still muttering to herself she returned  to 
her office and began looking over the specs that would one day become  
Ciarla's new form. If they ever got that far.

It took Victoria a few  moments to collect herself, she knew no response was 
needed to that order, but  she gave one anyhow before closing the channel. 
"Perfectly ma'am!" she raced  across her room, and grabbed a fresh uniform and 
started pulling it on. It only  took her a few moments to get her uniform on, 
and her hair pulled up into what  was considered uniform code. Then she raced 
off for Engineering. This was the  start of a bad day. But she hoped to make 
the 
best of it in the interim.  

Putting down the specs for a moment K'etrall wondered how she could use  
Ensign McGivern on this project. It was going to take more than herself, an  
Exocomp, and one AI to make this.....experiment of sorts happen. McGivern  
knowledge was adequate according to her file, if only she could control her  
temper 
and report to work on time. There was also something else that was  niggling at 
the back of K'etrall's mind in regard to Victoria. Basically she  didn't 
understand as of yet why the woman had passed out. Hopefully in time that  
information would make itself known.

After a brisk stroll through the  ship and a quick turbolift ride, she found 
herself walking into Main  Engineering, and she spotted her boss immediately. 
And by the looks of her, she  was a bit angry with her for being late. 
Victoria knew she deserved this  reaction. "Reporting as ordered!" she said. 

"I see you decided to  finally join us Ensign. How nice of you!" K'etrall 
hoped the sarcasm wasn't lost  on the ensign. "I may have a special project in 
which I may require your  assistance however I need to know that you are going 
to be responsible and show  up on time for your shift. It also may require 
working extra hours. Do you think  that you are up to it?" K'etrall waited 
patiently for an answer.

Victoria  shifted uneasily getting the sense that the Chief was not going to 
let her live  this down anytime soon. But it was her own fault she would have 
to take this one  in stride. "Aye ma'am. I'll do whatever is needed!" she said 
moving a bit closer  to the master situations monitors. "What's the project?" 
she asked glancing over  the boards then back at the chief. 

Sternly looking at Victoria K'etrall  spoke as calmly as she could. "We are 
going to build a 'shell' for Ensign  Erridim's AI. It is going to be very 
complicated and will most likely take some  time. This is along with your other 
duties." Looking at K'etrall she wondered  what was going on in the mind of the 
engineer standing before  her.

Victoria was a bit behind the times, and was unsure what AI K'etrall  was 
referring too but she figured it would present itself in good time. "I think  I 
can handle that. What did you have in mind so far for the construction? I have  
to say I'm not completely familiar with the Ensigns ship or AI. Though I've  
heard some interesting tales about it so far." she shifted uneasy for a 
moment.  "Do we have anything that needs to be taken care of before we can 
start on 
this  project or do we get to dive right in today?" she asked looking over the 
master  situations board, looking for any notations of problems, or alerts. 

At  least she was eager to get started thought K'etrall. That was a good 
sign.  "First you need to go ahead and do your regular duties. Calibrate the  
matter/anti-matter mixture, make sure the dilithium crystals are properly  
aligned, then you can make sure that everything else is working properly. That  
should keep you busy for the majority of the first part of your shift. Once 
that  
is done come find me and I will introduce you to Cialra the AI in  question."

Victoria simply nodded, and moved off towards the Warp Field  Subsystems 
monitoring station, and settled into a chair. She started her usual  routine of 
starting Diagnostics and checking the current flow rates, and field  strengths. 
 



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