It Was Studying Me – I Was the Variable – Star Trek Fanfiction (Red Directive #29)
I decided to join everyone in the mess hall for once.
I also didn’t want to go to my quarters and get sucked into something I wasn’t supposed to be reviewing right now.
I already felt like I was losing the crew.
No one spoke on the turbolift ride to the habitat ring.
Or on the walk through the corridor to the mess hall.
Even as we walked into the mess hall, which was full of movement from the colonists, I still felt a cold shift from the rest of the crew despite all the commotion in the air.
Instead of following the rest of them to the array of replicators that adorned the station’s walls, I walked over to the fresh prep area where Aura was standing.
Her eyes set upon me the moment I entered.
I sighed as I walked up to her. She was really the last thing I wanted to spend my forced lunch break with, but I didn’t want to bring any more distress to the crew.
And I knew if I spent it alone, my mind would wander. Which is exactly what I was trying to avoid.
I stepped up to Aura and she already had a plate full of healthy options sitting at the table with her. Most of which were my favorite.
Of course.
“Captain. I see you decided not to ignore the doctor’s orders.”
“Of course not, Aura,” I awkwardly responded. Then I gestured to the plate of food she had sitting in front of her full of smoked salmon, brown rice, steamed broccoli and peppers.
“Is this what’s on today’s menu?”
“You can have anything you want, captain. However, per my scans of the ship’s records, this is one of your preferred meals. Since it is a highly nutritious option and your body is currently operating below optimal nutritional levels, once I was notified you had left Ops within the designated timeframe for nutritional replenishment, I determined it was my duty to have it prepared upon your arrival.”
I guess her staring wasn’t necessarily as creepy as I had originally thought. I grabbed the plate of food and was about to turn to find a communal table to sit at, when I stopped myself and looked back at Aura. “Would you like to join me, Aura?”
I really didn’t want to eat alone in front of anyone. But was that really any better? Am I making myself even more of an outcast? It was already too late for those questions. I was committed.
“I do not require sustenance, captain.”
Just to make it not seem more awkward than it already was, I pressed on. “What about good conversation?”
She tilted her head like she didn’t understand in her usual android way.
I wasn't sure why I felt awkward.
I gestured for her to lead the way.
Her head tilted up. She nodded and moved from behind the fresh prep station and led me to a nearby communal table and sat down as soon as I did.
I noticed out of the corner of my vision, a few of the senior staff were watching us.
It made me wonder if Commander T’Varen and Lieutenant Darak had discussed more than just their own observations about the anomaly—especially the incidents that only seemed to involve me.
I was staring out the viewport window mulling over these thoughts. Not even acknowledging Aura. She apparently noticed. “Captain, may I ask what good conversation you were referring to?”
I almost choked on my food when she spoke. I took a big gulp of my water. She never ceased to amaze me. “I was actually hoping you would be full of conversational ideas.”
Another head tilt.
“What would you like to discuss, captain? EOS Prospera? Crew morale? Your nutrient deficiencies?”
I cut her off with the last comment. “Why don’t we chat about EOS Prospera?”
“What would you like to know, captain? The station’s full capacity level? How many subsystems it can operate at once? Why it operates beyond standard parameters?”
I cut her off again. “Yes. As you should know, we’re currently trying to find out why that is exactly. If there is anything you’d like to share, please feel free. The station’s trying to rewrite itself, half the crew feels off, and we still don’t know what happened to the Elionvorel.”
I highly doubt she knew anything, but why not.
I sat my silverware down and leaned back in my chair waiting for an answer. I’m not quite sure what I had expected because she was just staring at me as usual with her glowing yellow eyes.
I felt the need to break the tension.
Was it tension though?
Tension within myself, I guess. Androids don’t have emotions. Clearly.
I leaned forward to see if her eyes would shift. Without moving her head, they followed my gaze. “I feel like I’m the only one noticing something more is… missing.”
Aura didn’t respond once again.
I sighed, closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair tilting my head back.
This was starting to seem like a waste of time. I should have just went up to my quarters.
Then suddenly she reached forward with one arm over the table without warning. Enough to jolt me out of my thoughts and force my attention back to her.
I watched as her fingers hovered just above the surface, like she was sensing something that wasn’t there. I raised an eyebrow wondering what she was doing.
“You are not incorrect,” she stated.
My eyes narrowed slightly. “Okay… that sounded way too confident.”
Aura finally tilted her head in my direction making her stare feel slightly less invasive.
“There is a pattern in the station’s cognitive field.”
“…the what?”
“The way the station processes presence,” she clarified. “Crew movement, memory retention, environmental response. It behaves as though it is expecting a stabilizing constant.”
I leaned forward again. “Explain.”
Aura tilted her head back up and nodded once.
“Humans.”
I was expecting more of an explanation. So it took me a second to understand where she was going with this, then it hit me.
Like something in the back of my mind clicked… and then slipped away before I could grab it.
“…what about humans?” I said slowly.
“Is that not what you are looking for currently?”
Her hand continued to hover just above the surface of the table. I stared at it curiously.
Was she referring to the human cognitive anchor?
“What do you—”
“The human cognitive anchor, captain,” Aura interrupted gently. “I have identified a pattern.”
She stood.
Not abruptly. Just… decisively.
I was starting to feel like her positronic brain had more depth to it than she let on.
“You feel isolated,” she continued. “Not because you are alone. But because the station is not resolving around you.”
That hit harder than anything else she’d said.
I looked down at my hands as I thought about the anomaly occurrences throughout the station.
Why was it singling me out?
“…so what does that mean?”
Aura stepped around the table, now standing beside me.
“It means,” she said as she bent over and lowered her face directly in front of me, “Everyone else fits into the station. You don’t.”
Aura’s gaze shifted—not to me, but past me. Toward the mess hall doors. Toward the station itself.
Aura looked at me again—steady, precise.
“The station has begun to adapt.”
I frowned. “We know that already. It’s sentient.”
“Correct,” she said. “However, it is modifying its own processes in response to human stimuli.”
“Okay…”
Aura blinked once during the entire time she was staring at me for a sign of recognition.
“It is demonstrating neuroplastic behavior.”
Things were starting to align differently now.
“It is forming new pathways,” Aura continued. “Altering decision trees. Rewriting responses without prior programming.”
I frowned again. “We already know it doesn’t follow commands too. What does this have to do with isolating me?”
“That is not the same thing,” Aura said.
I kept her gaze waiting...
“It is learning from your attempts to control it… and adjusting accordingly.”
I felt my grip tighten slightly on the edge of the table in frustration. I understood her, but I didn’t understand what it all had to do with me.
“…creative problem-solving…”
“Yes.”
If she wasn’t an android, she may have sounded almost engaged.
I sat in silence for a moment and scanned the mess hall.
It wasn’t empty—never empty—but much quieter than when I first walked in, in a way that felt… intentional. Conversations stayed low. Laughter cut itself short all of a sudden. Even the hum of the station’s systems seemed distant, like it didn’t belong to this room.
It knew we were getting close.
I looked back over at her and she was still right in my face. “And it’s adapting faster than I can,” I said as I lightly pushed her back, reminding her of appropriate conversational distance.
Aura nodded, turned and started to walk away. “The station isn’t just resisting you… it is becoming more efficient at doing so.”
My eyes widened as the realization finally locked into place.
How could I have been so blind?
The anomaly occurrences were not random.
They were targeted.
A controlled diversion.
The station isolating variables.
Isolating me.
And I was feeding directly into it.
Giving it more data.
More patterns to refine.
Using my own species traits against me.
Humans were adaptable.
And I was the only human on the senior staff.
I was the perfect system to learn from.
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