A Cinderella Tale "
By: Bart "Burner" Reed, FIghter Pilot , [RNPC]

Stardate: 58207.09 1600

The hatch of the Bajoran shuttle opened slowly and a small ramp extended.

"We made it," announced Blitzer.

"Of course we made it," said Burner standing up from the pilot's chair. "Did you have any doubt?"

"I was a little worried about the fuel," Max admitted.

Burner shrugged it off, "In the hands of another pilot that might have been a problem," he said.

"It's a good thing I was with you two then," Maxie smiled at both the pilots as she stood and adjusted her clothing, tugging slightly on the hem of her skirt.

Blitzer tapped the com panel on his console, "Security, we're requesting an escort, shuttlebay 27 please."

Blitzer unfastened his safety restraints and got up, giving Max a brief hug. "Thanks for coming along," he said.

"'ey, Kitty.." she hugged him back and rubbed her cheek against his whiskers. "Thanks for the adventure," she grinned up at him.

Burner watched the two of them and rolled his eyes. He looked at the Ferengi and was almost sure he rolled his eyes too. "What are we going to do with him?" asked Burner.

The Ferengi turned his head sharply to see around the bulkhead at what was happening.

Unbinding the Ferengi, Blitzer nodded for him to stand up. "We're here."

The Ferengi stood, "Where are we?"

"Qul Tuq," responded Blitzer acting a little more professional toward the castaway.

Mok blinked, "Qul Tuq? Wh-what are we doing here?"

"We're Maquis," said Blitzer.

"Mah..." the Ferengi blinked, "You guys were on a secret mission weren't you?"

Maxine slipped her personal computer into her pack and looked over at the Ferengi. "Well... We're Maquis," she echoed Blitzer's words as if that explained everything, neither confirming or denying that they were on a secret mission and letting the Ferengi jump to his own conclusions.

The Ferengi was captivated by the possibility of what Max had suggested. Blitzer tugged gently on his arm, urging him along. They walked out the shuttle door and down the ramp. Two Security guards were approaching the shuttle from across the bay. "These men will debrief you," said Blitzer, "wait here."

Blitzer met the guards and explained to them quietly what had happened. "Just don't let him follow us," Blitzer said.

The security officers smirked a little and agreed.

Blitzer turned and motioned for Mok. With a hurried little Ferengi gait he approached the officers, "I'm ready for my debriefing," he said.

The big Cait smiled and winked as they escorted him away.

Max and Burner were walking in his direction, when Burner got closer Blitzer put his arm around Burner's shoulder, "Say, buddy..." said Blitzer, "I hope you have a few credits stashed some where, the little lady bailed you out," he said, gesturing with his eyebrows.

"Actually, we *both* bailed y'out," Max added and wrapped an arm about Burner's waist and then grinned over at Blitzer when she gave it a squeeze, acting for all the world like they were all three great pals.

Burner stopped walking, "Gee," he began, "ain't this a tender moment. I don't know what I did to deserve such wonderful friends." He paused for a moment, inspecting his boots, "How much?" he asked without looking at them.

"Fifty-one bars of latnium," said Blitzer shaking his head sympathetically.

Burner started walking again, "Thanks guys, I will find it somewhere." Burner turned around and faced them, "I'm going to get cleaned up. I assume there is a briefing on this new project you were talking about?"

"Yeah," said Blitzer, "we'll let Harry know we're back," he said beaming as he thought about the Pegasus. "I can't wait to show it to you."

"Which reminds me..." Max held up a finger but before she could finish, Krystal popped into view with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping mid-air as she looked from Max to Blitzer and back, including Burner in her *look*.

Buner flashed the pixie a smile and a quick wink.

"It's about *time* you got back!" She announced like she hadn't been with them at all.

Maxine quirked a brow at her. "Did you correlate your copies?" she asked her.

"Affirmative. Your dragon has been following Harry around like a lost puppy," Krystal informed them.

Blitzer smiled, "You should probably go check on it. We'll meet up later."

"'Her',' she corrected. "And roight, I better do that," Maxine agreed and waved to both the pilots. "Catch you two later," she smiled at them and then hurried off with Krystal trailing pixie dust behind her and talking a mile a minute.

"Later," said Burner. Turning to Blitzer he said, "Let me know when the briefing is. I'll be there ready to go."

===Bajoran Shuttle===

One of the young cadets assigned to shuttle maintenance detail laid out the cargo net when his eyes spotted something which didn't belong on the shuttle. He held it up for the other cadets to see.

"Is this what I think it is?"

One of the other cadets beamed with a face splitting grin. "Sure looks like it."

Another turned his head and went back to work, "I guess they get all the fun."

The other cadet nodded, "Hey, you gonna turn that in?"

"Nah," said the cadet fancying his find, "I think I'll try to return it to its rightful owner."

"Like Cinderella's story?" said one of the cadets with a laugh.

"Cinder what?"

Hardluck Harry and the Green Dragon "
By: Harry Houlihan , Shipyard Operations Director , [NPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]
RAHW , Holographic AI Avatar , [NPC]

Stardate: 58207.09 1600

The new Pegasus AI had finished compiling some time ago and had been in a self-imposed idle stasis as she processed everything and 'gathered her thoughts', in a manner of speaking. But now she was.. 'restless', or so she interpreted her desire to no longer BE idle, or alone. She activated the internal sensors in the Pegasus and found, much to her delight, that Harry was working in engineering.

With a soft snort, a tiny tendril of smoke and a shimmer of holographic pixels all coming together, she popped into view directly behind and just off to the side of the engineer. She was still represented by a 'dragon' form, but it was a more manageable size. Meaning she didn't actually have to duck down to clear the ceiling. She still resembled the dragon in Shrek, only she was a very pretty pearly emerald green.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat and lowered her head to his level to grin at him.

Harry turned around and looked at the emerald green dragon. He sighed and shook his head, "At least you are smaller now."

"I did not like bumping my head," she informed him, and peered over his shoulder. "Tapert is late. She has not returned yet," she stated calmly. "What are you doing?"

"A dragon just will not do. You need to be a humanoid form. This is not a fairy tale we are working on here," said Harry with a small note of disgust in his voice. "And to answer your question, I am adjusting the power efficiencies of the warp core." Harry watched the green dragon blink at him. He had to admit it was a pretty good hologram of a dragon, "If that pilot ever gets back here we can start doing some test runs."

"Why? Are they off?" she asked curiously, the animation of her face and the look in her eyes portrayed her curiosity to a remarkable degree. "Technically I am not a 'fairy tale' dragon," she offered helpfully, and grinned at him again. She even fluttered her eyelashes at him almost coyly... Or was it a trick of the light?

"I want them to be at their most optimal level," he said. Harry could hardly believe he was explaining this to a dragon. "This ship is small and cannot hold a full load of matter to fuel its full sized warp core, so it is important that we squeeze as much power as we can out of the warp core."

"Of course. That is a very reasonable premise," she nodded her agreement and practically rested her chin on his shoulder as she watched him. "It is still off by point-zero-zero-three-five-seven-one percent," she offered helpfully, smiling at him again and blinking her eyes a few times. "I am programmed with a human form."

"Then why aren't you using it," snapped Harry as he ran new calculations through a computer test simulation.

The dragon blinked at him and tipped her head curiously as she craned her neck around to peer closely at him. "Tapert is not yet returned," she answered as if that should explain it somehow. Her face began to mimic the look on his while she studied him. As she did, her eyes widened as if she'd just made some huge discovery. "You are annoyed," she announced, sounding rather pleased with herself for figuring that out. "Why?"

"Because I am busy and don't have time for fairy tales," he said.

"But I am not a fairy tale. A fairy tale is a piece of fictional work written for the entertainment of children," she said. "I am a sophisticated AI program capable of interacting with you and controlling different areas of this ship. My form does not alter my function," she pointed out. "Do you not like dragons?"

"Not on a warship!" he yelled. Harry took a deep breath, "Listen," he said, "this is the deal. This is a prototype attack ship. That means that it must function as it is designed and prove that it will be a strong tool in the arsenal of the Maquis fleet. If the powers that be come in here and see a dragon they will shit-can the whole project. Do you get it now?"

The dragon jumped when Harry yelled and stumbled backwards to land on the deck on her butt with a thud and a tiny tendril of smoke. She blinked up at him as he continued to rant and tilted her head a bit as she processed his tirade.

"I understand," she nodded rather sagely. "This is not my permanent form," she told him. "It was just for training... So that I might.... understand.. the inner workings of dragons..." she continued. "Tapert has not yet instigated my human form so I have no instructions regarding it," she explained. "But I do have access to it... If you authorize me, I will adopt it now."

"Authorized," he said, "Make it so!"

"Executing," the dragon announced as her form shimmered and the pixels all coalesced into a mass before reforming in a sparkling display, leaving the AI in an anatomically correct human form, still sprawled on the deck and totally nakede. She blinked up at him, her eyes huge and dark green. There was a smattering of iridescent, almost scale-like looking areas that graced her hairline, above her eyes, neck, shoulders and stomach. "This form meets with your approval?"

"Yeah..." said Harry as his jaw fell open. He searched for words to speak but nothing readily came to mind. Finally, after a few moments he said, "Umm, very good, but do you think you could cover those...I mean...put on a standard Maquis uniform? " Harry did not look away, however, keeping his eyes firmly locked on the AI program displayed in front of him. He was certain that this was going to prove to be a distraction to the crew.

The physical detail that went into the AI's avatar was incredible. If one didn't know ahead of time that she was actually a hologram, and save for the odd scale-ish patches, it would be almost impossible to tell her from a real human female.

"Certainly. Standard Maquis uniform... Accessing," Rahw announced as she rose to her feet.

Max hurried into engineering, coming to a halt as she saw the naked avatar. "Uhhhh... Uht-oh..." Judging by the stunned expression on Harry's face, she was thankful she'd taken the few extra minutes to change into the more appropriate uniform before showing up to check on the AI.

"Tapert has returned," Rawh announced unnecessarily as her form settled into a skirted version of a standard uniform.

"Yes," said Harry shaking off the shock, "Much better, aah, what do I call you?" He looked at Max, "Welcome back," he said.

"Uh.. yes sir, thank you, sir," Maxine smiled a little at him, but her focus was on the AI as she began walking around the hologram. "What is that?" Maxine murmured as she stepped closer to the AI and rubbed her finger over one of the scale-ish areas on her neck. "Hmmm...."

"Tapert has not named me," the AI answered Harry's question. "Dorton calls me Raw," she added helpfully.

"Try... R A H W... Rasterized Avatar of a Holographic Wyrm," Max chimed in with a crooked grin. "You still have scales..."

"Yes, well," Harry paused, "The scales give her a unique identity. She can keep them... that is, if she wants to." Harry craned his neck to make sure she had no tail, "Please, no tail though." He couldn't believe he just said that.

Maxine quirked a brow and looked over at Harry. "Roight, sir... no tail..." she nodded, thinking that a very odd thing for him to say. "If you change your mind later though... I can always write it in," she offered with a slight grin. It was hard to tell if she was teasing, or serious.

"I like 'unique'," Rahw announced, and lightly rubbed a finger over the scales herself. "They have a very different tactile feel. And response. I like them," she nodded slightly and looked from Harry to Maxine. "I will keep them, Tapert."

"Roight," Max smirked. "You don't mind if I go over the code t' see *why* they're there, do you?"

Rahw looked from her to Harry and then back again. "That is acceptable. Please do not make them go away though," she requested. "Harry likes them," she added as she looked over at Harry and smiled.

Maxine looked over at Harry too. "Curious... very curious..."

"What's curious Lieutenant?" asked Harry.

"That she calls you 'Harry' instead of 'Houlihan', sir," Maxine replied. "And she thinks you like the scales without you having said so."

Rahw cleared her throat. "I wish you would not talk about me as if I am not here," she announced quietly as she looked from one to the other of them.

Harry stood next to Rahw, "Tell me Rahw, how does it make you feel when we talk about you like you are not here?"

Rahw gaze was rather intense as she turned her head to look at Harry, studying him almost and making eye contact with the engineer. She frowned a bit as she processed his question and accessed the relevant data she needed to answer him. She looked rather as if she were trying to solve a puzzle. Maxine watched on with an air of subdued fascination.

"As if I am being... bypassed, Harry," she finally answered. "It is slightly.. annoying," the AI added with a light, decisive nod of her head.

"Crikey..." Max commented in a rather subdued voice, but the grin on her face showed her pleasure rather than expressing any concern.

"I can understand that feeling," said Harry, "Now, I have another question. Why do you refer to Lieutenant Tapert by her last name but me by my first name?"

Maxine watched the AI as she contemplated Harry’s next question, curious about that herself.

“Because I like you,” Rahw answered simply, and smiled at him.

"You do," said Harry with a mildly amused tone in his voice. "What about Lieutenant Tapert? Do you dislike her?"

Rahw’s gaze shifted from him over to Maxine, who was looking on with a rather pleased smile. “Nooo….” She replied and then turned back to Harry, leaning in a little close and whispering as if she were telling him a state secret, “She’s the *creator*.”

Maxine smirked and coughed back a chuckle.

Harry could not help but to chuckle a little, "Indeed she is," he said, "A better *creator* that I had thought." He flashed a smile at Maxine and then continued, "Rahw, I have a assignment for you, but before I give it to you, do you have any questions for me?"

“One hundred and twenty-seven; so far,” she answered with a smile. “But I am still in the process of formulating them and would prefer to wait until my assessments are completed before asking any of them,” she added.

"Very well," said Harry without skipping a beat, "I woud like you to study the Maquis Code of Conduct, please pay attention to the form of address that is acceptable in the Maquis. Also, I would like you to read though all of the project files on the Pegasus. This will be your home, and I want you up to speed on what we are doing."

“Of course,” Rahw nodded. “Is there anything else you require, Harry?”

"Not at the moment," replied Harry, "We will talk again once you are finished."

“Affirmative,” she grinned and wiggled her fingers in a little wave, including Maxine in her ‘goodbye’, before poofing from view with a slight puff of smoke.

“Well now…” Maxine grinned over at Harry. “I must admit that I’m extremely pleased,” she announced. “But I still need to work on her. The form meets with your approval I take it, sir?”

"I'd say so yes," replied Harry, "Good work Creator Tapert."

Maxine smiled a little self-consciously. “Thank you sir. I’ll go over her programing now that it’s finished compiling. Although I should probably warn you that she won’t ever be… well… ‘perfect’. There will always be a few small…. ‘glitches’ in her personality sub-routines,” she told him.

"Good," he said, "then she will be just like the rest of us."

“Yes sir. My thoughts exactly.” Maxine breathed a small sigh of relief, glad he hadn’t insisted on perfection. “I’ve built in some pretty hefty firewalls and protection programming. I’ll also link her with a modified KRYSTAL program that will constantly check for malicious code.”

"Krystal," he said, "That is that babbling pixie you have, right?"

Maxine had to grin at his assessment. “Yes sir, that’s a fair assessment of ‘er,” she agreed with a nod. “But that’s by design,” she added.

At the mention of her name, and now that the ‘dragon’ was gone, the object of their discussion popped into view with a sparkle of pixie dust and looking very sprite-ish due to the sophisticated holographic nature of Pegasus’ engineering department. “I have Perfect Br—sts,” she announced and showed them off. Of course she was dressed in perfect pixie style, which meant there wasn’t a whole lot left to the imagination, but she was quite decent never-the-less. “Burner and Warrior Toes said so,” she informed Harry.

Harry looked at the pixie and his memory flashed back to Rahw's initial appearance only a few moments ago, "I would not be so sure about that little pixie."

“They’re pert too,” Krystal insisted with a small sniff and started to preen.

“Don’t worry, sir. The KRYSTAL program I leave with Rahw won’t have a pixie avatar,” Maxine assured him.

“Rahw is a silly name,” Krystal announced.

"I have to agree with her on that one," said Harry, who found himself suddenly in a good mood. "It just seems so wrong to call her Raw."

“I’m very open to suggestion, sir,” Maxine told him.

“I like… Scheherazade,” Rahw popped into view on a nearby monitor. She seemed to be in a setting right out of Arabian Nights, complete with masses of lounging pillows and dressed in skimpy harem garb. “You have a fascinating mind, Harry,” she told him. She was surrounded by ‘books’ she appeared to be reading as she lounged around. “These project files are amazing. And I’ve been studying your designs,” she announced.

“Scheherazade is a silly name too,” Krystal announced.

“It’s interesting,” Maxine observed. “I love the music.”

Interesting indeed," said Harry, "but I think that might be a mouthful to say, especially in an emergency."

“It would be acceptable to shorten it,” Rahw offered helpfully. “Especially in an emergency.”

Krystal ‘hmphed’ and kept preening herself.

“It is pretty,” Maxine had to admit. “The Arabian Nights is one of my favorites,” she admitted.

"Well, we have plenty of time," said Harry.

“Well said,” Maxine agreed with Harry. “Besides Rahw, you might read something else and pick a different name tomorrow,” she pointed out to the AI.

"I do not think so," Rahw shook her head. "I like pillows and gauzy silk and jewels in my navel," she pointed to the emerald gracing hers. "And bells around my ankles," she lifted a leg and pointed to the gold, belled chain around her ankle and wiggled her foot so it would tinkle. "I’m going to get a belly chain, I think…" she nodded.

Maxine blinked and giggled.

"What does she need all that stuff for, huh, Maxie?" Krystal asked, clearly pouting a little. "I don’t have that stuff…"

"Umm, Rahw...," said Harry, "While you are in the Code of Conduct please also pay attention to Maquis dress code."

"Of course, Harry," Rahw smiled warmly at him. "It will be my pleasure to memorize it just for you," she assured him.

Krystal hmp’d again and mumbled something about cheeky dragons. Max shushed her quietly and reached out to scratch the pixie between her wings with a light finger, causing the disgruntled AI to purr.

"Thank you Rahw," said Harry. "I'll be in my office." Harry turned and left engineering.

"Well… That was interesting," Maxine murmured after watching Harry leave. "Rahw, begin running a self-diagnostic protocol, level one," she instructed the Pegasus’ AI. "And Krystal, check ‘er and the Pegasus’s computer for any security issues."

"Self-diagnostic protocol initiated," Rahw announced in a very professional sounding voice.

"Scanning system files," Krystal complied.

"Perfect," Max grinned and made her way to the bridge to settle before a terminal. "I’m going t’ go over her code."

Log Index | Go to Stardate 58207.20