We Were Never Needed – EOS Prospera Is Alive – Star Trek Fanfiction (Red Directive #23)

The tension was still high in Ops as we all worked at our consoles and monitored the station’s systems while discussing our recent findings on EOS Prospera.

Ensign Jaxa looked incredibly frustrated after my last statement. She spoke up again, “So EOS Prospera clearly has a mind of its own. That still doesn’t explain WHY it took the refit crew’s cognitive anchors. Especially if it’s truly been empty as the data suggests. Even though the station is sentient, what would it need the cognitive anchors for?”

Commander T’Varen continued her point, “Like Captain Kelly said, it has a mind of its own. The station must have identified its own need for the cognitive anchors. With no command authority present, there was nothing to stop it.”

Ensign Jaxa sat on that for a moment.

Lieutenant Darak stepped back to the science console and started routing his research to the central Ops display. “That is the next piece to the puzzle.”

His research showed all eight humanoid species of the refit crew on the central display. “I have created a profile for each of the refit crew members. It shows what species they were, when systemic failure reached one hundred percent, and what their cognitive anchor most likely is.”

Everyone started reviewing the refit crew’s profiles.

“Excellent work, Lieutenant,” I exclaimed.

Commander T’Varen was also focused on his research. “With this data, we can isolate each of the refit crew’s cognitive anchors and run targeted diagnostics to determine where they might be in use throughout the station.”

It started to feel like we may be onto something.

Then the central Ops display went blank.

No warning.

No usual flicker.

“Drim, run a full systems diagnostic and see what the hell the station is doing now.”

Now wasn’t the time for EOS Prospera to be pulling its usual annoying tactics. I started to walk to the primary command console, then stopped dead in my tracks.

The anomaly crossed my mind and I immediately turned back to the central display.

Surprisingly, it was still blank.

I noticed Commander T’Varen lifting an eyebrow at me and I immediately continued back to the primary command console.

Thankfully the anomaly didn’t appear on screen in front of the rest of the senior staff. It was bad enough Lieutenant Darak and Commander T’Varen had already witnessed the station’s override of active systems to show me the anomaly.

Me.

Was the station really just trying to show me the anomaly and Darak and T’Varen were just innocent bystanders?

We already determined EOS Prospera had a mind of its own. Exactly what kind of a mind did EOS Prospera have? Forcing the anomaly to override active systems for one person seems outside of everything else we’ve learned about the station so far.

I shook the thought for the millionth time and started working on the primary command console to see if I could get Darak’s research restored to the central display. “Drim, status?”

“I’m working on it, Captain. There’s interference in the internal data relays from the consoles to the main display. I’m overriding it now.”

While I waited, I reviewed the refit crew’s profiles from the primary command console. All eight of the refit crew were different species. Normal Starfleet MO. Especially for a Red Directive mission. Diversity tends to keep things balanced internally.

It might have been a good idea at the time, but with what we know now, the refit crew was apparently ripe for the taking.

Each species possessed its own unique cognitive anchor.

Ensign Jaxa was right though. Why did EOS Prospera need these anchors for itself?

Did it know what the refit crew was doing?

“Captain.” Drim exclaimed and I looked up to see the central Ops display was back on with the refit crew’s profiles.

Lieutenant Darak and Commander T’Varen were already standing in front of it with their PADDs analyzing the data.

How long had it been working again? Was I really that lost in thought?

I walked up to join them both. Ensign Jaxa, Chief Ren, and Kurn were off to the side reading the profiles intently. Drim was still at the comms console and Commander Pelia was at the engineering station.

I decided to break the silence. “Thoughts?”

Commander T’Varen was the first to speak, “I have some theories, Captain, but I will need more time to validate them.”

Lieutenant Darak spoke up next, “If the station is sentient, what if it didn’t want to be colonized?”

We already knew from Starfleet’s data stream that the refit crew had found the station in a partially active state and had experienced the same non-standard system behavior as us.

That was the most sound theory I had heard so far. Thoughts of the earlier “YOU ARE NOT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE” messages ran across my mind.

Was that just a deterrence protocol to get us to leave? To take all of our cognitive anchors as well? With a crew of seven hundred, that was a lot for the taking.

But why would the station need so much?

Commander Pelia popped up right next to me and startled me. “Why would a station like this remain operational if not to be colonized?”

“It has a mind of its own,” Commander T’Varen responded in her usual Vulcan monotone.

Commander Pelia put her hand on her hip and shook her head at T’Varen. “Tell us something we don’t know, Commander.”

“Lieutenant Darak’s theory is intriguing. We will need to run more scans and diagnostics to find these cognitive anchors it stole. I believe when we find that solution, it will answer more questions for us.”

Commander Pelia rolled her eyes and walked back to the engineering station.

I looked over at T’Varen and Darak who were already talking amongst themselves. “Agreed, Commander. I’d like you and Lieutenant Darak to run scans for each species of the refit crew’s cognitive anchor and find out where the station is using it.”

They both nodded and I noticed Chief Ren’s antennae went straight up like he had an idea. “All of their patterns should still be in the transporter pattern buffers. I can get the data for your scans. It should help locate their anchors faster with their specific genetic signatures.”

I nodded in agreement. “Make it so, Chief.”

He also nodded and immediately turned and walked up the stairs to the turbolift. He started to slow at the top and I noticed Ensign Jaxa was starting to follow him. “Ensign Jaxa, once Commander T’Varen and Lieutenant Darak receive the data from Chief Ren, I’d like for you to run it against all shuttle systems, the docking bay, and any other transportation subsystems within the station outside of the transporter systems.”

She stopped mid-step and sighed. “Yes, Captain.”

I could see out of my peripheral Commander Pelia was having herself a good laugh.

I was not subtle.

Not at a time like this.

The last thing I needed is for any of my staff to be distracted by romantic relations. We all know where that leads and it’s not something we had time to deal with.

As Chief Ren stepped into one turbolift and Ensign Jaxa another, I noticed Aura walking out of the turbolift Chief Ren was getting into. I started to prepare myself for a lecture. I knew we were all running on fumes at this point.

She stepped down the stairs staring at me with her yellow eyes the entire time. Commander Pelia and Kurn were the only other ones to notice her. T’Varen and Darak were too wrapped up in analyzing the profiles. “Captain, my sensors indicate there is twenty-three percent of organic life in the Command Center in need of primary nutrients. This percentage has been declining for hours.”

I’m surprised she hadn’t come sooner. “You’re right Aura, we’ve been at this a long time. Crew, why don’t we break for dinner and a good night’s rest so we can start on this fresh first thing in the morning?”

Commander Pelia yawned and stretched back. “Yes, Captain. That sounds like the best assignment you’ve had all night.”

I chuckled a little bit as I watched her and the rest of the crew except Kurn and Aura head for the turbolifts to go to their quarters.

Aura was right there in my face as always. “Captain, this is no laughing matter. The crew should report to the mess hall immediately for proper rations.”

I tapped her shoulder and stepped back to get some space. “I’ll leave that up to the crew Aura. It’s been a long taxing day.”

“This is not proper protocol, Captain.”

It isn’t?

This is the first time I’ve had an android for our mess hall officer. I’m not used to being grilled on when and what to eat. “It won’t happen again, Aura. I promise.”

Her gaze didn’t shift a millimeter. “This is the second record of crew malnutrition due to poor negligence.”

Everyone seemed to pick up their pace to leave to avoid being Aura’s next target. I just shrugged my shoulders at Aura like what do you want me to do here? We’ve all been exposed to a much larger sentient being than herself that’s capable of taking our cognitive anchors from us causing systemic failure. I’m sure proper nutrition was the last thing on everyone’s minds.

“If this happens again, Captain, I am required to send a report to Starfleet.”

“Do as you wish, Aura.”

I gave her an awkward smile. Which was apparently enough for her to leave. I don’t know if it was worse having someone drill you for something like that and be emotionally angry with you or a robot with zero emotion drill you over the same thing.

As soon as I saw she had made her way back into the turbolift, I turned to go back over the refit crew’s profiles before I went up to my quarters.

Then smack.

I face planted right into Kurn’s chest. I completely forgot I noticed he hadn’t left yet. “Captain.” He said in a booming voice.

“My apologies, Kurn.”

I rubbed my face not expecting it to actually feel sore from that minor encounter. I looked up at the Klingon and he looked as if he didn’t even notice the whole incident that just happened. He actually looked eager to say something. “May I speak freely, Captain?”

“You may.”

“We’ve already discussed the possibility of EOS Prospera removing the original colonists from all data. We know for a fact it integrated the synthetics from the refit crew into itself and it took the organics’ cognitive anchors undetected by Starfleet. If it’s sentient, we must come face to face with the reality it most likely did remove all signs of the original colonists and plans to do so with the ones that currently inhabit it. That’s why the cognitive anchors were stolen. We need to plan an attack to secure our own.”

More pieces of this station’s puzzle felt like they really were coming together. Not necessarily in a good way. “The Elionvorel technology is extremely ancient, Kurn. I’m not disagreeing with you, but until we know more, who’s to say there were ever colonists even here? And no attacks necessary. Whatever the station wanted from us was taken at immediate exposure to our arrival. As long as no one leaves, we should be fine from the systemic failure.”

“You know I’m right, Captain!” He said a little too loudly then continued, “Why did you bring me on as your Tactical Officer if you won’t let me do my job?”

“Crewman!”

He straightened up knowing he was out of line. “My apologies, Captain. That android gets me riled up whenever she’s around.”

I laughed inside thinking how silly it seemed that a tiny female mess hall android had a huge Klingon male like himself creeped out. I held a straight face as I responded, “It happens to the best of us, Kurn.”

I gestured for him to head to the turbolift to get him out of Ops. He followed my lead as I spoke, “I’d like for you to keep your tactical duty officers on patrol of the station 24/7 to keep an eye out for anything more out of the ordinary than it already is here. We still don’t know what this station is entirely capable of.”

“Yes, Captain.”

He nodded in agreement and walked up the stairs to the upper level. “Kurn.”

He stopped at the top of the stairs to look at me before turning to the turbolift. “Make sure no one leaves this station. We must keep the colonists and the crew safe until we’ve determined exactly what’s going on and have found a solution.”

“Yes, sir.”

No nod this time. He just turned and stepped into the turbolift. The door slid shut and I wondered if anyone had questioned why I stuck around. I’m surprised Aura didn’t stay with me till she knew I fed myself.

Surprised, but thankful.

I sighed in relief and headed back to the primary command console. I pulled up the refit crew’s profiles again to review them one last time before leaving. I thought about what Kurn had said.

So far everyone’s theories all seemed to be heading in the right direction. We were on an ancient sentient station very technologically advanced built for colonization by an alien species we knew nothing about with no traces of actual colonization. But pure facts that the station integrated the Federation’s synthetics into its own system and caused the systemic failure of the organics.

Without knowing if there was ever a colony on board, it would be hard to determine if anything was ever stolen from them as well. Something as to the real reason why the station wanted the cognitive anchors.

Maybe the Elionvorel never had a chance to colonize it.

What if the integration of our synthetics and the cognitive anchors it stole are going to be used as a defense mechanism against us?

To make us disappear too?

The thought crossed my mind and the primary console immediately flickered and I widened my eyes and the refit crew’s profiles diminished and a new image generated.

The anomaly.

For me, that was the biggest question of all.