Dinner with the Captain (Part Two of Two)

The meal was a great success, even if M'eko managed to 'polish' off hers in under five minutes. She'd explained about her bigger throat and stronger digestive muscles, a throwback to when her ancestors walked on four legs.

"Oh, Captain. I meant to tell you that Lieutenant Wright was able to narrow down his list of Dominion activity started in the last six months. He is reviewing that in his quarters tonight." She said as she cut another piece of pork.

"We'll get something out of those reports. Intelligence seems to have a nasty habit of knowing more then the ship's CO does." Aki replied with a pang of annoyance in her voice. "But when they get the right info, it's invaluable. So it evens itself out." She added with a more positive tone.

Aki was very familiar with Starfleet Intelligence and the way they operated. Her XO on the Leviathan was a former Intelligence officer and although she wasn't aware of it also a former member of Section 31. Commander T'Kul was a fine first officer and had been loyal to the crew and it's Captain, if not to the Federation or her former employers. Lieutenant Commander was fully aware of the Commander's dark past, having served with her since her arrival on the Leviathan.

"So I hear that you're going to working with Doctor Zimmermann at Jupiter Station." M'eko said, changing the subject. "Something to do with a Hologram that used to serve on the Leviathan."

"I see Aki's been talking again." Chu replied. "But yes I am. Lewis is getting on now and we've always worked together well. As for Ensign ASHER, well he's an old friend to both of us and if we can decipher the database we recovered from the mirror version of ASHER, we should be able to repair the damage the holo-virus caused."

"You make this Ensign ASHER sound more like a friend than a hologram." M'eko suggested.

"ASHER was far from a hologram." Chu replied, sounding a little hurt. "He was based on a Protector database held in a fragment of datacore that was found on Halkan by the USS Enterprise-E. The core appeared to made up of bio-neural energy and had a biological component. When the datacore was examined in the Enterprise-E's sickbay, it immediately started to download itself into the computer system. They were able to stop the download, but when they examined the results, they found a single file that had somehow been cross-linked with the EMH mark IV primary matrix. When Doctor Crusher activated the EMH programme, the file was downloaded into the EMH's matrix and ASHER was born. He was totally independent of the ship's computer systems and sentient. His only limitation was the fact that he was a hologram and therefore reliant of holo-emitters."

"So he found his way to Jupiter Station and Doctor Zimmermann." M'eko suggested.

"Exactly." Chu replied. "I had just finished my Academy training and been assigned to work with Lewis when the Enterprise brought ASHER to us. After about six months, with ASHER's help we were able to construct a mobile emitter for him, based on the one brought back by Voyager and some Protector technology. That's when things started to go wrong."

"Wrong ?" M'eko said.

"With his new-found freedom, ASHER started to get restless, he wanted to leave the confines of the Lab and Jupiter station it was like he had been pre-programmed to explore. He requested a hearing to determine is status as an individual and got Commander Data to be his avatar. I was against him being given his independence, there were just too many variables, and we didn't know exactly what was driving ASHER to explore or what he was truly capable of. He won his hearing and that was the last I saw of him until he arrived on the Leviathan-A about a year ago."

"So what happened to him ?" M'eko asked.

"He was infected with a holo-virus that had been designed by a version of ASHER from another dimension." Chu replied. "The mirror ASHER was hoping to take control of Ensign ASHER and then the Leviathan. In order to survive, ASHER split his matrices, downloading the Starfleet matrix into the Leviathan-A's database and locking the Protector matrix inside his mobile emitter."

"Do you think you can re-activate ASHER ?" M'eko asked.

"I hope so." Chu replied. "One day."

The conversation had depressed the mood of the evening and the rest of the evening was spent discussing the status of the Taurus and the Slipstream drive onboard the Hellcat.

"I'd love to see the drive." M'eko stated, the engineer in her coming through.

"I'm sure that we can arrange a short visit before the Commander leaves." Aki suggested. "First thing tomorrow, before the briefing."

"That would be great." M'eko said, her jowls almost drooling at the thought.

"Then I think we should call it a night." Aki suggested.

"Glad I got to meet you Chu." M'eko said with a smile. "It even got me to know that Captain a little better." She added with a glance at Aki.

"And me to get to know my XO." Aki replied.

"Well then, I'll see you on shift tomorrow, Captain." She said as she exited and went to her quarters to get to sleep. It had been a tiring day, but now she felt a lot more at ease with their new CO.