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Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Stardate 57674.12
April 26, 2381
0830 HRS

[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

With the USS Theurgy in a holding pattern over Qo’noS, duty at the CONN had become a rather tedious affair. The autopilot kept the large Multivector Assault Dreadnought in a perfect synchronous orbit, and all that was required of a CONN Officer was to periodically double-check Thea’s calculations just to make absolutely sure that she wouldn’t somehow drop out of orbit due to a glitch or other minor malfunction. That, and being on standby in case something would go wrong to the extent that an immediate departure was required; something like the unannounced arrival of a Starfleet ship that could relay their position. Maybe the one thing that made CONN duty somewhat bearable, at least to Ensign Jaya Thorne, was that most of the senior staff was either involved with maintenance somewhere aboard the USS Theurgy or engaged in other affairs somewhere on the planet. As a result, the atmosphere on the Main Bridge mirrored the average graveyard shift, with most people engaged in informal and relatively idle banter while they worked their assigned stations.

It also allowed the brunette a modicum of leeway too. Thanks to some creativity on her part, she managed to extend her day off with an additional day by trading shifts with Ensign Ali Louis; switching her own morning shift for Vanilla Spice’s shift tomorrow afternoon so they would both have two full days off. In fact, knowing Chief Warrant Officer Larrant and his strict adherence to the rules, Jaya knew that there was a big chance of getting an additional day off to compensate for the training exercise which she technically ran on her day off.

And he’d better, given how Jaya dragged herself out of bed at 0730 hours on her day off. It had been thirty minutes since she arrived on Deck 21 and loaded up the holodeck program which was now running simultaneously on Holodeck 04 and Holodeck 05; two identical programs, barring the fact that the program on Holodeck 04 took place on the Battle Bridge of Vector 02 and the program on Holodeck 05 took place on that of Vector 03. While it had taken some tinkering to get it right, the two Holodecks were now linked and synchronized to perfectly mirror the command inputs given to the respective Vector of the other Holodeck.

A small, confident smirk which had become one of Jaya’s signature facial expressions appeared on her face as she casually leaned back into the comfortable seat that was normally only reserved for either the Commanding Officer or the ranking Officer of the Watch. While she did so, her brown eyes were focused on the video that was displayed on the PADD in her right hand; reviewing the training exercise while she waited for Strawberry Shortcake to arrive. It had actually only been five minutes since she’d contacted Ensign Lauren Pierce, a simple message in which she’d only stated ”Thorne to Pierce, please meet me on Holodeck 05.”, but she figured that she might as well review the footage one last time before trying it out. After all, this particular manoeuvre had been tricky enough while piloting a freighter, let alone an enormous Dreadnought outfitted with an AI that was bound to react to practically every safety protocol which they were about to break.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #1 –
Ensign Lauren Pierce | Lauren's Quarters | Junior Officer’s Quarters | Deck 13 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Still in bed after the whole Savi capture situation. She had been shaken for sure and was a wee bit tired still from the altercation. Not to mention, she had to keep it low key since returning to the ship with her hand needing repair, and another physical checkup. Something she hadn't been looking forward to since herself, Amanda and Natalie were in the buff on that mission. The rescue was embarrassing enough. Lauren stared up at the ceiling of her room before turning over and peering out the window.

Decidedly she sat up on her bed, heaving her legs over the side, feeling her chest sway as she repositioned the weight, letting gravity take it's toll on her back as well. Wiping the hair from her face, she finally stood up and headed over to the sonic shower which wasn't too far away from her bed. Stripping down, she tossed the night clothes back into a drawer and climbed in letting the heat from the water run down before washing. She was glad today was an off day. One where responsibility was off the table. But that didn't mean she didn't want to have fun either.

Turning off the shower, she stepped out and toweled off before putting on her bra to help gravity lift the girls even if it were ever so slightly. Martian water she smirked. Stepping out of the bathroom she approached her uniform and put it on despite not really needing it. It was just comfortable and warm, especially since the recent events, she'd take the comfort.

As Lauren was about to step to her console, her communicator chirped causing a slight stir.

"Lauren here." She stated after tapping the badge.

It was Ensign Thorne requesting her presence on the Holodeck. Puzzled she acknowledged and headed out of her room to the corridor, and finally the turbolift. Hoping this wasn't anything too important or distressful, she secretly hoped for something adventurous to do.

Moments Later...

Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]

Pierce finally arrived at the Holodeck and didn't even question it but waltzed right in to be struck by the view of a Battle Bridge. Quizzically she paused and placed her hands on her hips as if to say something when she saw Thorne in the center chair.

"Practicing for the job you want I see." She smirked at the brunette woman who turned in the chair.

"So....what's the play? I can only speculate why I'm here but I have a feeling it's going to be fun yet dangerous." She finished awaiting the game that was about to unfold.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #2 –
[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

As she leaned back into the command chair and burrowed herself deeper into the soft leather, Jaya’s brown eyes were focused on the video displayed on her PADD; studying the manoeuvre which she wanted to practice with Strawberry Shortcake and trying to think not only of possible problems which they might encounter, but also of potential solutions to said problems. When she heard the signature hydraulic hiss of the holodeck doors, the brunette shifted around in the seat and turned her gaze to the doors behind her to see Ensign Pierce walking in.

Strawberry Shortcake’s entrance came with a quip and, in response, Jaya presented Lauren with one of her own signature smirks. ”Please, being in charge is the worst possible job. All they ever do is frown, worrying way too much and overthinking everything.” The tone of her voice only accentuated the sassy smirk on her face and, when the red-haired Martian asked about the play, Jaya turned around and swiped the video on her PADD directly towards the viewscreen. While the video was still paused, the viewscreen showed the separated Vector 02 and Vector 03 in close formation.

”Before I joined Starfleet, I used to haul cargo for Earth Cargo Services for seven years. That was in the period between… 2368 and 2375, give or take a year.” Jaya briefly turned her attention to Lauren for a moment and presented her with the same sassy smirk that hadn’t left her face since the red-haired Ensign entered the holodeck. ”The last two years were pretty hairy, but if there was one thing I learned while hauling freight during the Dominion War it was how to be creative. We always flew in small convoys, no more than two or three freighters at most, and while we thankfully never encountered the Dominion we did run into small Cardassian patrols a couple of times.” What Jaya deliberately left out of the conversation was that, most of those times, the cargo they were hauling wasn’t exactly legal under Cardassian law so they usually had to make a break for it. The Cardassians frowned heavily on the smuggling of relief goods and other essentials to besieged Federation worlds after all and, while some sour people might have called it ‘war profiteering’, those shipments earned Earth Cargo Services (and, in turn, herself) some very good latinum. ”Anyway, I figured that one of my old tricks in particular might come in handy. It allowed old freighters to hold off small patrol ships long enough to escape, so imagine what the effect would be for Theurgy?” With those words, Jaya turned her attention back to the viewscreen and unpaused the video. ”Alright, watch.”

When the video unpaused, it showed Vector 02 and Vector 03 slowly manoeuvring towards each other. The distance between the two Vectors slowly decreased until only thirty or forty meters remained, close enough to fall well outside any sanely programmed collision margin, but in the video the Vectors maintained a perfectly synchronised formation.

”So, the manoeuvre basically required two freighters to maintain such a close proximity that their deflector shields would overlap. It basically allowed them to boost each other’s shield power to the extent that the light weapons of the Cardassian patrol craft either wouldn’t penetrate or only do very minor damage. Earth Cargo Services always picked routes with certain anomalies such as nebulae, asteroid fields or other places for their freighters to hide, and this tactic allowed the freighters enough time to send out a distress signal to the Federation Alliance and run for a safe place to hide and wait out the storm.” As Jaya spoke, she remembered how the distress signal often forced the small Cardassian patrol vessels to call off the search out of fear of being jumped by responding Alliance ships, but she also remembered only too well how some other ECS-freighters were unfortunate enough to encounter stronger Cardassian warships with heavier weapons. Those encounters never ended well.

The video on the viewscreen reached its end and, as it began to play again from the very beginning, Jaya turned around once more and looked at Lauren. ”The reason why I called you here is because I want to practice this manoeuvre with Vectors two and three. If we can stay inside each other’s deflector field, one of us can boost their shields and the other can divert all of their power to overclock the weapon systems. Sword and Shield, if you catch my drift. I just have absolutely no idea how Thea and all the built-in collision protocols will react to this manoeuvre, so it could turn into an interesting morning.” As she spoke, Jaya’s smirk became a little bigger. ”You up for it?”

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #3 –
Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 04 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Lauren took the joke at face value and gained a slight chuckle on the aspect of command crew. She saw the same pattern in her ancestor, Alana as well. But she noticed the wild streaks within those moments. They just turn them off when needed for extreme focus. Turning from Thorne's face to the display, she watched the presentation of the flight plan as her co-CONN comrade explained her own history with varied flights.

"Don't get me started on the Dominion War. Be thankful they never captured you..." She said remembering the brutality she witnessed and felt, clenching her cybernetic prosthetic hand and lower arm before returning to the task at hand.

Taking in the sights of the flight patterns with Vectors 2 and 3 caused some excitement to boil as she realized what her co-pilot was planning. "That's brilliant! So by doing this, we'll give the ship amplified shielding that will cause the enemy fire to either be absorbed or ricochet off the ship back to them! I am totally game for this!" She pumped her fists together as it smacked loudly and she jumped with giddy behavior.

"I'm ready to shake things up. Thea may not like what we're doing, but...she'll have to deal. I am the one who piloted the Allegiant through the exploding Praxis and the tight confines of the bomb in the core of it. I've done crazy before so let's see what she can do. Definitely will get more maneuverability once we're in Vector formation compared to the whole dreadnaught."

Pierce took her leave to the other bridge station in the Holodeck next door. Stepping into the Arch, she exited and walked down the hallway to the other Holodeck running concurrently with Holodeck 5. As the door opened through the arch, she was presented with the other battle bridge of Vector 3.

Tapping her combadge, she spoke to Thorn. "Hey Brownie! So, are we giving the commands to pilot this ourselves or are we using holograms? I'd much prefer to do the piloting myself. Giving the coordinates I can do but I love the sleek feel of the board beneath my fingers as I play my symphonies." She chuckled as she ran to the CONN anyhow on the eerily empty bridge. Hoping secretly she could at least add some holograms to the area to make it seem more lively as she worked her magic.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #4 –
[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

When Lauren left the holodeck, Jaya strode towards the conning station and sat down in her seat. In comparison to the big, comfortable seat of the Commanding Officer, it occurred to the brown-haired Assistant Chief CONN Officer that her own seat wasn’t nearly as comfortable; it missed a headrest, the titanium armrests lacked any padding whatsoever and the seat itself wasn’t nearly as soft. Yet, as she raised her seat so she could better reach the conning console, Ensign Jaya Thorne smirked one of her content grins and knew that she wouldn’t exchange her seat for Captain Ives’ for any given price. While comfortable, that seat came with way too many responsibilities and not nearly enough fun to make it worth the problems.

After only a couple of seconds, which Jaya used to make some final calculations, the chipper voice of Strawberry Shortcake rang out from her combadge. Upon hearing the familiar nickname, the brown-haired Denevan looked up from the calculation program on her PADD and grinned before speaking up as well. ”Well Shortcake, there’s no use running this exercise if we’re not personally going to fly this, now is there?” As she spoke Jaya brushed an errant strand of brown hair behind her ear before turning her brown-eyed attention back to her PADD. ”Okay, I’ve done some calculations and I propose that we start easy. We’ll start on a parallel course, running at one-quarter impulse with 85,000 kilometers between us. If we leave our speed at that and only use manoeuvring thrusters to close the distance, that will leave us with roughly 35,000 kilometers of wiggle room before the collision warnings kick in.” The math behind that was pretty basic; the navigational computer on every starship was programmed to calculate the speed of each object and sound a collision warning once that particular object crossed a preset five-second threshold. That would leave a CONN Officer with five seconds to react and take evasive action. Knowing that Strawberry Shortcake had learned all this at Starfleet Academy, Jaya briefly paused so the redhead could run the calculations in her own head and visualize the plan. ”Let’s close the distance to 50,000 kilometers to trigger the collision warning and go from there in small steps, alright?”

While she waited for a reply, Jaya turned her attention to the computer and spoke up. ”Computer, start training exercise for Holodecks 04 and 05.” The computer replied with two confirming beeps and, with that, the holographic simulation came to life. The brunette Assistant Chief CONN Officer looked at the sensor readings which were looped back to her console from the vacant Operations station to her immediate left and saw that Vector 03, Lauren’s Vector, was indeed roughly 85,000 kilometers below her on a parallel course. ”I see you, Shortcake. Now, communication is key in these exercises. We both have to know exactly what the other is doing, especially once we go beyond the five-second threshold. I’m taking Vector 02 down to 70,000 if you go the other 20K.” With those words, Jaya brought her right hand to the control stick of the manoeuvring thrusters and slowly inched it forwards. She could see the sensor reading and, traveling at one-quarter impulse, the distance between the two large Vectors immediately dropped to 78,000 kilometers just by inching the control stick. Jaya inched the stick forwards once more, just a slight and careful nudge, and noticed that the distance between her and Lauren was now just a mere 72,700 kilometers. Close enough, given that it was better to have a little bit too much distance than not enough. ”I’m holding position at 72,700 Strawberry. Come on and bring it in.”

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #5 –
Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Sitting at her own respective CONN chair, Lauren leaned back, stretched her arms out before folding her fingers and cracking them loudly as her fingers were ready to play. The intense, yet fun stare on the board and the viewscreen were keeping her attention well directed. That was when the chirp overhead told her that Brownie was setting the stage for their coming scenario to play. She took mental note.

'Start slow, check. Parallel course, check... one quarter impulse...check.' She peered at the sensors and the navigational computer as she saw the distance between Vectors. It was gonna be tight, but a lot of fun. "Communication, aye. I've set the starting parameters on my console."

Pulling the control joystick out of the console, she manually navigated the distance without letting the ships collide. The distance closing from 85,000 kilometers to 72,700. Now it was her turn to make the distance. "Coming in gradually. Maneuvering thrusters online." She tapped the console with her left hand as her right steered the ship. The spurts of thrusters pushing the ship upward with each tap of the console drawing them closer.

Leaning her hand upward, she proceeded to lift the 3rd Vector upward closing the distance slowly but precisely. Didn't want to set the alarms off yet anyhow. She grinned how this would be entertaining to Tessa who would likely bash Vectors 2 and 3 together to make a 4th Vector somehow.

"Closing....67,060....60,532...56,700....53,020...and we're on point. Ready Brown leader!" She chuckled as she remembered some old space opera program from the late 1900s. Star Battles? Battlestar? No Star Wars! Except Brown leader could be taken rather badly she thought.

The pre-warning klaxons began to sound on the display, albeit quietly until the time was right to advance further together.

"Okay, we're at 50,000 kilometers. What next?" She stated as the collision warnings came on in full effect with the room changing to a glowing shade of red.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #6 –
[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

The Battle Bridge began to glow a shade of red just as Lauren spoke up to confirm the relative distance between their two vectors. For a brief moment Jaya looked up from her controls and focused her brown eyes on the large viewscreen in front of her; the viewscreen displayed the hulking shape of Vector 03 directly beneath them and, similar to her own console, the bright red words “COLLISION WARNING” were visible across the screen. In a normal situation, when the Battle Bridge wasn’t a holographic simulation and it would be fully staffed, there wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t be aware of their perilous situation they were in right now.

Contrary to the normal reaction that was to be expected of CONN Officers in this particular scenario, Jaya just smirked and spoke up. ”Not bad, Shortcake.” In all fairness, the young Denevan couldn’t help but be somewhat impressed by her Martian counterpart; thus far, the redhead had displayed a remarkable skill in piloting the huge Vector in such tight confines. ”I’m closing to 25,000 kilometres. Once I’m there we’ll hold position for a while. If we can hold position like that you’ll transfer your shield power to weapons and I’ll do the opposite. Once that is complete we’ll slowly execute a barrel roll so there are no blind spots in your weapons fire and no weak spots in my shield.” Of course, only one of them would get the easy part. While one of the Vectors would have to roll across its longitudinal axis, the other Vector would have to roll around its counterpart while maintaining a close formation. Jaya just grinned, assuming that Lauren also know what she had in mind and relishing the challenge. ”Alright, I’m coming in!”

Jaya slowly brought the control stick forward; making sure to give just tiny adjustments to bring Vector 02 down even closer. When the Vector passed the 40,000 kilometres, the computer automatically switched from a collision alert to a red alert and the auditory warning signal began blaring across the Battle Bridge. Jaya disregarded it however and, with now only four seconds of reaction time in case something would go wrong, began to descend even further. When she passed 30,000 kilometres and was left with less than three seconds of reaction time, the control stick began to grow a little more sluggish, almost as if Theurgy was actively resisting her command inputs, and the control stick began to shake in her hand. Surprised, especially because that had never happened when she piloted cargo ships, Jaya spoke up to Lauren once again. ”Shortcake, I’m starting to experience pushback on my inputs. How are things looking on your end?”

While she spoke, Jaya carefully brought her Vector down to 25,000 kilometres. Just as she reached that distance and was about to level out, something completely unexpected happened. With only 2,5 seconds left to respond in case something would go wrong, the ship reacted on its own accord; before Jaya could level out, her Vector suddenly bolted back up and rapidly increased the distance, reacting autonomously to prevent a collision. Jaya cried out in surprise, being caught totally off-guard, and as she spoke up with a shocked ”What the hell?” watched how the distance rapidly increased back to 35,000 and counting. In an attempt to regain control of her Vector, Jaya pushed the control stick forward once more. She had expected a similar sluggish response as before and applied much more pressure than her earlier, more careful inputs. In doing so she immediately overrode the automated collision avoidance and the Vector instantly responded. Guided by Jaya’s surprised and feverish input however, Vector 02 came barrelling down towards Vector 03 and the Denevan watched how the distance rapidly decreased. Before she could do as much as blink, let alone give course corrections, the distance had dropped way beyond the 25,000 kilometres and the two massive Vectors collided into each other.

With that, the program instantly reset and the two Vectors now found itself running at one-quarter impulse at a relatively safe 85,000 kilometres once again. It left Jaya completely dumbfounded for a moment, before she finally spoke up with a somewhat shocked ”Well, that’s new. Let’s… let’s try again?”

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #7 –
[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce

A frustrated Jaya slammed her fist against the armrest of her CONN seat. In the past half hour they had made repeated attempts to get this manoeuvre to work, but every single attempt had ended in failure. To make matters even worse and more infuriating, Jaya was quite sure that most of the failures could be attributed to the USS Theurgy herself and the numerous safety protocols that were written into her hard coding; in one occasion the ship had even locked her out of the CONN station and autonomously broken off the manoeuvre. To say that it was getting the better of the Denevan Assistant Chief CONN Officer was an understatement and she slammed her fist against the metallic armrest of her seat once again before taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.

After what felt like ages but couldn’t have been more than a minute, Jaya’s signature smirk slowly returned to her face and she sighed softly. While it was surely annoying, there was no denying that a state of the art Starfleet dreadnought was different from an old cargo freighter and certain issues were to be expected. Still, it bothered Jaya to know that the ship could override her inputs at any given moment because, at the end of the day, she was still the CONN Officer and she felt like she should have total control over the ship regardless of her choices. ”Hey Shortcake?” As she spoke up, Jaya turned her large auburn-coloured eyes towards the viewscreen; even though the communication channel to Ensign Lauren Pierce was audio only to prevent any unnecessary distractions, it was something she did automatically at this point. ”That’s like, what… seven or eight crashes now?” Despite Jaya’s annoyance, she managed to make her voice sound quite laid back and relaxed; maybe even a little amused. ”Thea is making us look like Flight Cadets at this point, we can’t stand for that right?”

While Jaya talked, she pressed some inputs on her console to restart the simulation yet again. As the simulation restarted and both Vectors once again found themselves at a safe 85,000 kilometres, Jaya briefly looked down at her controls to contemplate on a possible new approach. ”You know, back at the Academy we used to say that you had to take something off for each time you crashed.” When she mentioned that, Jaya recalled how people had to take a certain food off of their menu for every time they messed up in the simulations. It was an innocent, albeit innocent incentive for people to try their very best because good results also resulted in better replicator rations. ”Let’s do that right now, it’s a good incentive if we stand to lose something.” Jaya laughed while she absentmindedly looked at her console. She was so caught up in thinking of a possible solution to their problems that she wasn’t even aware of the double meaning behind her words. ”I curious how much we’ll end up taking off before we get this right.” 

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #8 –
Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 03 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan [Show/Hide]

Lauren yawned as she was still working on the maneuvers that she and Brownie, aka Jaya, were attempting. Her mind was feeling somewhat tired from watching the simulations over and over. She nodded with a start. Must have been a lack of sleep, she thought to herself. Had the ship actually let her do the maneuvers, things would have gone off without a hitch. But with the safeties active, even in the program, she was bored.

She felt glad that the ship had safety features; however, those also hindered experienced pilots from doing the impossible. Someone like her. She smiled warmly, imagining the exercise in her mind going off without a hitch. Especially considering she knew it backwards and forwards. She'd flown the night shift on the Enterprise-E for crying out loud. Things rarely happened, but that didn't stop her from experimenting anyhow.

Hearing the comms activate from the adjacent holosuite, she heard Jaya pipe up. “Yeah Brownie?” She inquired when being spoken to. “Sadly. I know we can pull it off, but this damn computer keeps interfering...and no. We can not let this go. We have to do this...somehow.” She scratched her head and moved a hair from her face as she put her hands back at the CONN, watching the simulation restart yet again.

Lauren chuckled at hearing the strip-CONN situation. “That's funny! We never did that, but it sounds fun.” She contemplated whether Jaya was serious or not.

She figured they'd already botched it several times and that Jaya might be playing too, so she started taking items off one at a time for each time they crashed out. Carefully, she removed her left boot, followed by her right, and then her jacket, which she rested on the back of her chair. Glancing around, she looked at the room which had no other souls in it, albeit her, and she noted she only had four more items left, which meant she had little to go. She slipped out of her duty uniform slacks and placed them at her feet, feeling the cooler air hit her legs, causing a shiver. Then she took off her red turtleneck undershirt for her uniform and placed it on the chair as well. Sitting in her bra and panties was all she had left at this point. Hopefully, she didn't have to be naked.

Hands glistened over the controls as they attempted the maneuver again, as the computer stalled it out and caused her to hit the other vector hard. She felt angry at the systems before she punched the console with her synthetic hand, leaving a slight dent in the holographic control board. She took off her bra next and tossed it aside, letting her bountiful breasts flow freely in the air and on her chest. The cold air caused her nipples to perk up slightly.

Pausing and shaking it off, she attempted to control the ship once more, but due to her punch in the controls, it caused a damaged controller to not activate, which in turn caused yet another crash. “Sorry for that crash Brownie! Controls are damaged. Let me reset my controls here. I punched it last time we crashed.” Looking down at her naked chest, she shrugged and took her panties off, throwing them aside as she sat in the buff in the cool. fabric CONN chair. She wondered how much Jaya had taken off already in the other room...

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #9 –
[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce @Brutus

Jaya couldn’t help but grumble as their simulation came to an end with a crash. Again. As she listened to Lauren’s apology, the Denevan Ensign buried her face in her hands and took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. After several seconds she looked up at the empty viewscreen of the holographic Battle Bridge and forced a smile upon her face. ”That’s alright, Shortcake.” While Jaya spoke, her voice was friendly even though there was a somewhat frustrated undertone to it at the same time. ”I mean, at this point I think we’re pretty even in terms of crashes.”

While it was true that both Assistant Chief CONN Officers had crashed an equal amount of times, Jaya also knew that their skill wasn’t the problem. Granted, they were trying an extremely difficult manoeuvre that definitely wasn’t intended for a ship as large as the USS Theurgy so problems were to be expected, but they were ironing out those problems with each new attempt. As Jaya leaned back in her chair and grumbled annoyedly once more, she knew all too well what the common denominator was to each failed attempt; the one problem they hadn’t been able to iron out.

Thea.

Thus far, most of their attempts had been because the ship basically tried to protect herself from imminent destruction and overrode the input from the CONN console. As Jaya pondered on a new solution to the problem, the one thing that made her smile was the challenge she’d proposed and the hope that Lauren wouldn’t hold her to that challenge; after all, if they had to take one item off the menu for each time they’d crashed by now, Jaya knew that she would be eating noodle cups and dry bread for over a week. Shaking her head and grinning, now at least semi-genuinely, Jaya decided to head over to Lauren’s holodeck once again to discuss their problems in person and pushed herself out from behind her CONN console.

When Jaya arrived at Lauren’s holodeck just a minute later, the very first thing she saw was that Shortcake had rested her jacket on the back of her chair. Not realizing that the Martian CONN Officer was completely naked because her frame was hidden from view by that uniform jacket, Jaya walked up to the Mission Ops console and leaned against it. ”You know what, Shortcake?” While she spoke, Jaya turned her large auburn-coloured eyes towards the console she was resting on; remaining completely oblivious to Lauren’s undress. ”We’ve been trying this for a while now and we’re definitely getting better at it, at least if you stop destroying your CONN console.” Jaya briefly turned her attention to Lauren, who was still hidden from view by the back of her seat, and chuckled. Joking had always been Jaya’s way of dealing with stress and, even now, it still worked. ”The main problem is Theurgy herself. She overruled us at crucial moments, almost as if she doesn’t trust us, and in doing so she caused most of our crashes.” Jaya pondered out loud while inputting data in the Mission Ops console in an attempt to simulate a potential new course of action. Of course, the most obvious one would be to get Thea on their side, but convincing the AI would take more than a fancy smile and smooth talking. It wouldn’t stop Jaya from pitching the idea to Lauren though and, without taking her eyes off the Mission Ops console, she continued talking. ”I think we should discuss the idea with Thea, maybe get her in on these manoeuvres so she’ll start helping us instead of opposing us. It sounds like a logical idea and at this point I don’t think we have anything left to lose.” Without realizing the double meaning behind her words, given how underdressed Lauren Pierce was at this point, Jaya shrugged and spoke up. ”Thea? Can you join us please?” As she spoke, Jaya made an attempt not to sound too annoyed and even half-succeeded while addressing the ship’s AI. 

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #10 –
[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Pierce @Nesota Kynnovan ]
[Show/Hide]

Being the holographic avatar of a starship was certainly an interesting existence. The awareness of so very many things and activities aboard the starship was an ever present sensation in the back of her mind. Though Thea was also experimenting with her own individuality, and where she the ship ended, and she the person began. To call it quite the journey was an understatement. Currently she was answering questions from multiple crew across various points of the vectors, advising Commander Stark on some of the finer details of Klingon Opera as it related to dealing with one of the station masters, and reviewing a video on Terran cuisine.

A light moment, all things considered.

So when she noticed that someone was trying to bypass certain safety protocols, Thea paused her video recording on the screen of her personal computer within her own quarters and devoted a decent portion of her focus to recent logs.

Curious she mused, crossing her arms. The issue came from the holodecks - specially a program running in both holodecks 4 and 5, which in and of itself was an oddity. The holodeck was perfectly capable of creating the illusion of two people being in different locations while being in the same physical holodeck at the same time, barely a meter apart from each other. In her mind it was rather impractical to use two separate holodecks, but then, she was programmed to think more...efficiently than some of her flesh and blood colleagues. She would have to inquire about the logic behind the choice, to add it to her ever expanding catalog of human experience and sentience.

Even as she pondered the mental machinations of her non-photonic companions, Thea stood, and 'smoothed' down her catsuit, taking on the command red tones as she moved her hands over the garment. While off duty she often moved about in real, physical clothing that she could feel against her photons, but as duty was calling she attuned to her more commonplace, holographic attire. Regardless of the reasons for using two suites when one would be sufficient, it was what was being tested that drew her attention. Someone - two specific someones, pilots at that - were trying to execute maneuvers that violated over a score of safety protocols coded into her very being.

Frowning deeply, Thea debated how to handle this. She considered manifesting in both locations simultaneously, but then saw that the two had moved into one deck. The frown deepened. "What is the point of any of that? she asked herself, having triggered her own 'thinking aloud' subroutine that had been crafted some months back, prior to her encounter with the Savi which had helped such routines become literal, second nature. Letting out a sigh, she shook her head and checked duty logs, energy output across the vectors, and a myriad of other reports, logs, subroutines and daemon monitoring software throughout her vectors.

A moment later, she shimmered into existence within the holodeck, at the front of the bridge, facing the two culprits - Ens. Thorne and Pierce. She opened her mouth to tell them off, only to stop in surprise, and tilt her head slightly to one side. She had not actually looked into the specific state of the two ensigns, due to privacy protocols, prior to transferring the majority of her mental presence into the holodeck and calling a copy of herself into creation. Normally she would not be able to do even that without permission from the crew actively using the program, except these two were actively trying to learn to bypass various security settings, which triggered an exception clause in the privacy programming that Thea had been all too happy to exploit.

This had not been needed. For even as she began to appear, Ens Thorne summoned her. The timing was such that Thea would appear to have manifested instantaneously, when in reality she had already transferred her consciousness to the holodeck and was summoning her photonic form even as the request was made. Not that either human woman could process the events in detail enough, or with enough speed, to notice anything other than Thea simply being there the moment Jaya finished speaking.

The fact was, however, that Ens. Pierce was almost entirely naked, and Thea was presented with quite the view of the Ensigns upper chest and torso, as well as her bare legs sticking out beneath the CONN station. Fascinating she thought, mentally comparing the sight with various other memories she had gained since coming online. Aloud, however, she cleared her throat and fixed the two women with what she hoped was a stern look.

"Ensigns, could you please explain what you are up to"?

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #11 –
Ensign Lauren Pierce | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan @Brutus
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Lauren laughed at the comment by Jaya in the other room and her special nickname. It was honestly starting to grow on her the more she thought about it. But at the same time gave her the right to call Jaya, Brownie too.

"Yeah, we're really on point with those crash rates. Better lose another layer!" She laughed again. "Thea is definitely interfering somehow. These should theoretically work flawlessly." She sounded bewildered at the oddity of not being able to pull off the maneuver. She rubbed her temple as she leaned back in her chair. Pretty much all her clothes at a puddle at her feet now other than her jacket on the back of the chair. Thoughts of the maneuver were deep in her mind as she closed her eyes, the cool air brisling across her bare skin.

The holodeck doors swished open and closed as Jaya entered. Lauren grunted a response to Jaya now physically sharing the same holodeck. "Haha" She said sarcastically about the console destruction. She listened to Jaya's response about Thea interfering with the operation. "She's definitely getting in the way...I know we can do this Brownie."

"Well, we don't have much to lose." She said thinking it also meant clothing and not just the flight pattern with Thea. She huffed as she waited for the ship's AI to majestically appear.

Lauren saw the holographic Thea in the flesh as it were appear before her on their facsimile of the bridge. Brownie was in the entry way and lacked the vantagepoint that Thea now witnessed in full visual. Did a hologram see? How did it work? He mind puzzled as she sat there in the buff, her topless bountiful chest nearly resting on the console she still had her hands on as the surprise of the holographic female was staring directly at her in bewilderment. A slight tinge of crimson fell on her face, nearly matching her hair beside it before she shook her head.

"Um, we were attempting to pull off a new multi-vector maneuver in the event we needed it in combat....and in case you were taken offline to prevent the attempt." She smirked lightly before turning her face downward into her lap. "I apologize for my lack of proper uniform Thea. Normally this wouldn't be a thing, but Brow...I mean Ensign Thorne suggested for each failed attempt, we lose an article of clothing...suffice it to say...I'm out." She gave a wry smile before placing her hands in her lap covering her pelvic region.

Turning slightly to the mission ops console, she looked and saw Ensign Thorne, standing still, completely in uniform which only added to the surprise in Lauren's eyes and face as she realized the poking was in jest which she'd wondered slightly. Embarrassment washed over her as her eyes nearly teared up realizing she was the fool here in what was supposed to be a fun exercise. Her arms reaching over her breast as she grabbed her uniform jacket and slid it over her arms and chest, not zipped but enough to wash some of the shame away as her mid-chest was still on display despite being completely lacking elsewhere.

Rolling up her sleeves she gathered the rest of her uniform and held it on her lap to cover her pubic region which still had underwear, but that was it. Her face still red hot. "I'm sorry Thea and Jaya. I di-didn't know..." A single tear pooled in her eye, she was sure it must be confusing to Thea, but to Brownie, it definitely wasn't. She'd been in the buff during the recent Savi ship abduction in the past few weeks, but that was a little different as they all were forced into a similar state. Here, she felt, somewhat alone and didn't realize it was lost on her the jest of the situation. She didn't blame Jaya, but her own gullibleness. Likely something that Tessa managed to rub off on her about. But since her being a POW in the Dominion War, she tended to take things more literally than she used to.

Her head continued to face her lap as she thought of how she felt now. It was fun until this point, but she really hadn't counted on being slightly aroused at the predicament of being seen so vulnerable like this. She knew she was good looking, but to be around these other beauties, she couldn't help but wonder what they thought of her before her abrupt coverup in her seat.

Standing up, her clothes fell again, despite still wearing the jacket, unzipped completely, the rest of her items fell at a pool at her feet as she fumbled it and mouthed, "sorry" to Jaya as her underwear covered ass and long slender legs were on full display for Thea.

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #12 –
[Ensign Jaya Thorne | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Pierce @Brutus

From where she was standing, leaning against the Mission Ops console with her arms folded across her chest, Jaya presented the holographic representation of the ship with a smile when the woman appeared. She listened how Thea cleared her throat and spoke up on a stern tone, which instantly prompted Jaya to unfold her arms and lower them in surprise over being addressed like that. It was completely unwarranted, at least from Jaya’s perspective, and it immediately annoyed her that Thea talked to her like that. Before she could think of a way to reply however, Strawberry Shortcake chose to speak up and explain their reasons for training new combat manoeuvres.

And when Lauren did, Jaya immediately understood why Thea had been so stern. Upon hearing how Ensign Pierce explained that they were supposed to lose an article of clothing for each failed attempt, Jaya realized that there’d been a serious misunderstanding between them. It became even worse when Jaya saw that Lauren turned around ever so slightly in her seat to look at her, and she could clearly see the hurt look of surprise and downright betrayal on Shortcake’s face as the other woman realized the severity of their miscommunication. To Jaya, it was probably that particular look on Lauren’s face that hurt her the most and, now completely at a loss of words, she turned her own attention to the Mission Ops console in front of her while she tried to think of something to say.

By the time Jaya looked up again, her attention drawn by movement coming from Lauren’s CONN station, she still wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about this entire situation, let alone what to say. When she saw how Lauren stood up, allowing most of her clothes to fall to the floor and leaving her standing in just a pair of panties and an unzipped uniform jacket, Jaya knew that she had to say something. Anything.

Clearing her throat and putting on one of her signature smirks, Jaya began to walk away from the Mission Ops console and approached the front of the bridge where Lauren and Thea were currently standing. ”Don’t be sorry, Shortcake!” While she spoke, Jaya’s voice was cheerful as ever and it managed to only further accentuate the smirk on her face while she kneeled down to pick up the clothes that Lauren dropped. ”In all fairness I meant that we’d lose replicator rations for each time that we’d crash, not clothes.” As she stood up, Jaya placed the discarded clothes on top of the adjacent Ops console and grinned as if she’d told a joke. ”Had I meant clothes, I’d probably be just as naked right now.” While she’d addressed both Lauren and Thea, Jaya now turned her attention to the red-haired Martian in particular. Or rather, to the part of Lauren’s large breasts that were on full display. ”And only then would you’ve had any reason to apologize, Shortcake! Those Martian boobs of yours would have completely outcompeted mine.”

As Jaya looked at Lauren’s breasts, she genuinely tried to figure out how every Martian she’d ever known was so incredibly top-heavy. She’d always figured that it had something to do with gravity or just something in the water. Regardless, it wasn’t a bad sight at all; she had known Ensign Pierce -Strawberry Shortcake- to be busty, but now she was confronted with this particular sight Jaya realized that she’d underestimated her fellow CONN Officer. She cleared her throat once again before turning her attention to Thea. ”Shortcake is right though, we were trying to pull off a new multi-vector manoeuvre, something like a backup. It’s not going terrible, at least if we forget about the fact that it cost Shortcake here all of her clothes,” Jaya grinned at Lauren for a moment while she said those words. ”But the safety protocols get confused and always end up making us crash. I figured that we could either fight you on it and keep fighting an uphill battle, or work with you to see if we can solve this problem together.”

Jaya turned her attention to Lauren again, smirking as if this was the most normal situation ever, before turning her attention to Thea once more. ”So, how about it? Do you want to help us with these manoeuvres? If you stick around and we show you what we’ve got, maybe us mere mortals can teach you a thing or two about combat piloting.”
 

Re: Day 08 [0830 hrs.] Can you take me higher?

Reply #13 –
[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854  | Holodeck 05 | Deck 21 | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Pierce @Nesota Kynnovan  ]
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There was much to process in that moment, as Thea devoted more of her consciousness to the task at hand and the scene unfolding before her in the holodeck. A series of regulations floated across her thoughts, subroutines cataloging those that were violated compared to those that were merely exploited and circumvented. Weighing against that was the contrition she saw in the face of one Ensign, and the guilt in the expression of the other. Though even the holographic ships avatar could tell that the latter had far less to do with any breaking or bypassing of rules, however well intended, and more so with the state of the other Ensigns dress and emotional well being.  Nor could the photonic woman ignore the physical aspects of the situation. Ens. Pierce was, by any definition of the word, attractive, and on display. Something that Thea both got to see more than she might personally expect to, but not nearly as much as she might wish to. Physical beauty that is. 

From a perspective of personal growth, as well as a bit of cultural anthropology and socially interactive studies, this moment was utterly fascinating. Thea could feel various logical, physical, emotional, and even hormonal subroutines and responses firing off in nanosecond bursts as she processed the moment, keeping mostly quiet while the two young women pleaded their case and tried to convince Thea into acting in their favor. These subroutines all blended into one another, forming a greater 'reaction' that, unless she focused on the code behind the sensation, did not 'feel' like a programmed response, but genuine expressions. 

Life finds a way, as the old saying went. 

Perhaps a recommendation of consoling for Ens. Pierce, Thea mused softly, noting the emotional distress, and heightened physical and autonomic responses that her programing was able to detect by tapping into the holodeck sensors. And some gentle guidance from the CFCO for both women as to why certain protocols exist? Given the nature of the average pilot, that might need to be taken up by the First or Second officer instead, she mused.

Unable to help herself, Thea's eyes flicked once more to Ens. Pierce's now covered bosom, at the mention of "Martian boobs," a phrase she had heard uttered, often in respect to the ships First Officer. She had devoted some small time to researching the supposed phenomenon, and there did appear to be some evidence to the stereotype.  Not that Thea had been given the opportunity to observe such in person - until now. Still, the statement seemed to toe the wrong side of the line of what was and was not appropriate. Then again, the two were off duty. Somewhat. 

Ens. Thorne is correct though, she would lose that competition with Ens. Pierce. This thought was not stated aloud however. Thea kept her arms crossed over her own bust, her expression neutral as she observed the two interacting with each other, and her. To all of which she initially answered with a long sigh, and a shake of her head (an expression she had witnessed Lt. Frank Arnold employ more than once, and had worked hard to mimic to be employed in just such a moment).

"Those protocols exist for a reason, Ensign," Thea began her response, channeling some of the engineer from before, with a mix of Lt. Cmdr. Cross as well, in her stance, and continued crossed arms. "Did it occur to you that they are causing the crash because that is not a maneuver you should be doing manually?" She recalled a case regarding a team of cadets at the Academy some years back, involving an attempted execution of the infamous Kolvoord Starburst Maneuver. The instances were not exact copies of each other, of course. In this case the ensigns were practicing in the holodeck, and not in actual training fighters. And no one had actually died. Though their simulations had failed to the point that, had she not hastily donned her jacket once more, Ens. Pierce would be in naught but her panties. 

However...as much as she wished to think otherwise, the Martian ensign had brought up one cogent point of order. 

"Reintegration of the hulls, and maneuvers of that level of precision, are not designed to be manually executed. Few species could managed to do such at the speeds the multi-vector assault mode is often engaged in. That is part of my core programing, after all," at some point Thea's hands had moved from under her bust to become planted on her hips, and she had subtly added a few centimeters to her height, to give the affect of looming over both pilots, her countenance stern, held for a long moment of silence, before easing back. 

"Ens. Peirce brings up a point I cannot dismiss, however," she allowed, clasping her hands behind her back now and pacing back and forth in front of the other women. "MAV is not meant to be engaged without assistance from the ships central processor, and with regards to this ship specifically, without me. And there should be no circumstance in which I would not be absent. And yet, that has happened before."

She had been taken from her space-frame, crippling many of the more advanced abilities of the Theurgy when her consciousness, her positronic brain....her soul had been removed. In the end she was so much...more than she had been prior, but that did nothing for the safety of the crew. "There are better ways to have gone about this, instead of trying to bypass the protocols multiple times. And certainly, resources could have been better applied. Did you really need to book two separate holodecks for this endeavor? One would have sufficed," she chided pedantically. That really wasn't the issue and all three knew so. 

She came to a stop and faced both the women, fixing first Lauren, then Jaya, with a firm stare. "For the duration of this...experiment, I will disable the protocols preventing this simulation from executing the maneuvers you are attempting. Should you satisfy me that what you wish to attempt can be repeated, in multiple scenarios, we will take this to the department head of flight operations, and the second officer, for their review. Only after I am satisfied that your intentions will not cause significant harm to my vectors if executed in actuality."

She walked past both of the Ensigns, and allowed her from to shift slightly again, taking on the skirted-variant command uniform in place of the bodysuit she usually wore, and settled herself into the command chair. Not presuming the rank of captain, even in this little game, she allowed herself a trio of golden pips. She might as well have fun after all, and reiterate that the two Ensigns had much to prove to her.

Thea curled her fingers over the control stubs of the armrests of the center seat, and delicately crossed one leg over the other, easing her back into the cushions. Her head tilted sharply at an angle for a moment, then righted itself again. "The protocols causing your initial failures have been temporarily disabled," she informed the two, as a warning flashed across the main viewer, echoing the same. The simulation reset it self around the trio, as subtle shifting within the bridge, and the simulated space displayed ahead on the screen.

Knowing they would not succeed the first attempt at this maneuver - after all those protocols took care of other navigational niceties the two Ensigns would now have to account for on their own, Thea allowed herself a ghost of a smile. "Take your stations, please. Oh, and Ens. Thorne?" She turned to face the woman who had been slightly less repentant in the holograms judgment, "As Ens. Pierce has already suffered noted embarrassment for the failed attempts to this point, I think you are quite over dressed. It is only fair, after all. Unless you would prefer I suggest extra duty shifts instead? I hear operations needs helps with buildup in the plasma conduits." .
 
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