Chapter 27: Martinez

Angie appears on the ready rooms sim window. Her eyes continuously flitting around curiously at the decor.

"Angie?" The Captain says.

As though not hearing him, her wide eyes soak in every inch of the room around her, a small unconscious smile forming on her face.

"Angie? Are you okay?" The Captain asks again.

"Sorry Captain, It's just that... I've never been anywhere else but Kevin's office." She says. "I didn't realize how nice it would be to actually go somewhere else and not just see it. Your office is lovely Captain."

"I'll see what I can do for you about that a little later Angie. But for now, we need to get to work please."

"Yes of course Captain." An image appears to her side and she turns to face it. "These are the interconnections within the communications system. As you can see there are, gaps." Pointing at several dark sections she then turns back to face Captain Martinez. "Some of these should be reacquired as soon as Kyle gets someone to fix the processor. But others, I'm quite certain are simply dead."

"I have open communication with about 27 ships, and through them around 92 ships total right now. How many ships are you still connected to Angie?" He asks.

"My connection to the ships is only secondary right now Captain. Kevin didn't want to activate my primary function until we were on our way. He said that the connection would be too obvious. Not to mention my primary program would have access to every ship, rather than just this one." Another image pops up. "These are the ships I'm currently able to connect to. There are one hundred, sixty seven ships currently showing as active. But I could not tell you their official status unless my primary programme system is activated."

"We'll talk about that later Angie. Right now you understand why I cannot authorize that."

"I understand Captain. Ah the processor has been fixed. Adjusting the emitter array now." Her eyes fix on a distant point for several seconds. Looking back at the Captain, Angie grins. I can now add another Thirty Four ships to our total number Captain. We potentially have two hundred and one ships available for launch."

"Now that, is excellent news Angie. Thank you." Captain Martinez grins back at her.

"Captain, we have a problem." The voice of a crewman sounds from the comm system. "The various ships engineers are coming to verbal blows. Thank god they're not here physically or we'd be sending people to the med bay."

"I'll be right there."

"Thank you sir!" The relief in the crewman's voice evident as he signs off.

"Angie, how's your engineering?"

"If it's been written and published then I know it Captain." She responds.

"Good. I'm authorizing you to use the holo room. Don't appear until I tell you to. Oh and if you could access the audio recordings for that room, for the last oh, two days please." The Captain says as he stands. Palming his old bosuns whistle Captain Martinez strides for the door.

"Yes Captain." Angie responds, a clear look of confusion on her face as she does as asked.

Minutes later Captain Martinez enters the holo room and blows into the bosuns whistle. The loud piercing sound breaks through the wave of angry noise reverberating through the room.

"Captain..."

"Be silent." The Captain shouts as he strides into the room. "Are you grown, responsible adults? Or naughty children I need to punish?" He barks out roughly. The Holographic images stiffen, backs straight and arms tight to their sides in a position of attention. The lone body in the room saluting as Captain Martinez strides around the room with angry jerks of his body. "Grow up! We have an emergency situation here and you're all bickering like idiotic children!"

Finally paying attention to the holographic people around him, he notices their poses. "At ease. But keep your traps shut." Everyone relaxes, a few mouth's start to open as they hear his words and quickly snap them shut. "I've decided that you all need supervision. You've been at this for two days and gotten nowhere." He says as he walks towards one of the holo controlled chairs that was still empty. tapping in the omega1 programme Angie appears. her eyes widening in surprise for a micro second before turning to smile at the Captain. "Hello again Captain."

Turning to take in the room Captain Martinez smiles. "This is Angie. She's been listening to you on my orders. She is now going to take control of this meeting. You will listen and defer to her. Do you understand?"

"But Captain!"

"Who is she?"

"But!"

"SILENCE!" Captain Martinez shouts. "Angie here has comprehensive knowledge of the engineering system and you WILL listen to her when she talks. Have I made myself clear?"

"YES SIR!" Every voice shouts out in unison. Captain Martinez nods before turning back to look at Angie and speaking quietly. "Are you up to speed Angie?"

"Yes Sir. I also believe that some of the issues have already been solved, they're just not listening to each other. Some issues they've been talking about will, however, require some work."

"Very good. I'll leave them in your capable hands Angie." He says out loud. Then, leaning closer, he whispers into her ear. "Answer no personal questions, do not relate any information about yourself. If they ask why, it is on my orders and on a need to know basis. Understand?"

She nods her understanding and smiles. "Of course Captain. Oh and Captain what do you wish to do about our meeting?"

"We can continue later Angie. You've already given me plenty to think about and this." His arm sweeps across the room. "Is more important right now."

Walking to stand at the open door, he turns to face the room. "As you were." He says, and walks out. leaving the room full of dumbstruck engineers to Angie's tender mercies. As he saunters back to his ready room, Captain Martinez chuckles and activates his personal comm wrist unit. "Call Kyle."

"Kyle here." A sleepy voice answers.

"Sorry to wake you Kyle but I thought you might want to see this. Activate your sim window to view the holo room."

"Yes Sir." Silence reigns for a moment until Kyle audibly starts. "What the..."

A full blown laugh bursts from the Captain, startling the few people still working in the walkways.

"Captain? Are you alright? Why is Angie in the holo room with a bunch of, uhm, engineers I assume from what they're talking about. What's going on?"

"They weren't getting along." Captain Martinez chuckles. "So I had to take action, or they'd be fighting until we were vaporized."

"Well, she seems to be getting them organized rather quickly. I just saw two of the holo images disappear. To go fix their issues I assume."

"Good. I'm finding her extremely useful Kyle. This is a little disturbing to be honest, your father made her entirely too well. Once you've completed the shield report I'd like you to take a closer look at her programme. I'd like to know a little more about how she was created. It looks like I may need to rely quite heavily on her to ensure maximum survival, and I'm not quite comfortable trusting her that far yet. I need to know more, and it's becoming self evident that I need to know more." Arriving at his ready room, he lets himself in with a sigh.

"I'd planned to do that anyway Captain. I could probably get a basic idea within a few days, but something in depth is going to take longer than we have I'm afraid. There's years of research in her file alone. Not to mention more years in the holo emitters and comms system." An audible yawn sounds out of the wrist unit and the Captain chuckles again.

"All right Kyle, sorry to disturb you. I'll talk to you once you've had more sleep. I just need to know if I can trust her."

"Have you noticed Captain?"

"Noticed what?"

"We're both talking about her as if she's a real person, even when she's not around us."

"Well I never. We are, aren't we..."