Let's Make This Debrief, Part 1

Posted on Sat 8th Nov, 2025 @ 6:55pm by Captain Gordon Francis & Commander Heriah Rex & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Captain Izwyx 'Lo & Alidade (Computer)

3,051 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: From The Ashes
Location: SB109- Francis ready room, Ops
Timeline: After: Greater Expectations

-Start-

Base protocol outlined direct transports to OPS were only for emergencies, so the moment when both Sufai and Captain Izwyx materilaized in the Transport hub adjacent to OPS she barely kept her professionalism in place. Emotionally, it was difficult not to feel fear and anger, but Izzy had called the trial off, and Sufai was furious over that decision.

"You may have just consigned Alidade to a fish tank, Captain. I'd like to understand why."

All the Captain said to her, jaw taut and staring ahead was, "For Alidade's sake, I had to stop it before she gave them anything else to work with. I love her too, you dummy."

Of all the answers, that was not the one she expected and it cut her off from further comment. They separated as they walked in silence, allowing the clamor of the environment to settle into the uncomfortable space between them.

The holo-emitter was already on the desk as Sufai walked into Captain Francis' ready room. Was there to be a private remonstration before Alidade was brought in?

As a matter of fact, yes, there was.

"Before we bring in Ensign Alidade," Francis said, referring to Alidade's current rank and addressing the rest of the group as they finished filing in, "I'd like for Lieutenant Kell to tell us all what happened out there on her end. I want to remind everyone that this is not some sort of trial or tribunal. There will be no form of judgment or wacky punishment, and no one--including Alidade--is in any kind of trouble. We are here to examine facts, not ruin careers."

Francis calmly looked at Sufai. "Give us the skivvy, Lieutenant."

Looking at him, she replied, first swallowing her pride and emotional clamor in an instant, then coldly saying, “Captain, I was prepared to conclude a very successful test of the Thunderchild when I was brought here. I presume this is to do with Alidade's control of the ship? What was the failure, exactly?”

Francis leaned forward and took off his glasses, as if he needed them off to stare a hole into Sufai. "Right now, the failure is your report, Lieutenant," he said sternly, without raising his voice. "Your confrontational attitude is not helping your case, and it isn't helping Alidade's, either. Would you like to amend your answer?"

With an even voice she simply stated, “I am afraid my tone and lack of report is largely due to the haste of how everything has come about. I have not had time to ready any official report. In my opinion, Thunderchild passed its water test, and you all terminated an exercise when you felt the Crewman who was being tested did something wrong. I can’t speak to what you think went wrong, but in, again, my opinion… Alidade was given a highly complex task and performed it well. I am not being coy, I do not know what was done that triggered such a response, sir.”

Captain Izwyx shook her head imperceptibly, “You were a part of the test and I warned you. Alidade disabled protocols designed to keep the crew safe. Overrode the operating system like it wasn’t there. Made her own decisions- I'm sorry, Captain, this is your meeting.”

Francis shrugged. "It's your ship," he remarked. He turned back to Sufai. "Alidade's performance, though ultimately effective, put lives in danger and went past protocol. I personally can't believe you'd be so impassioned over this if Alidade was a tangible, breathing member of the crew."

With the pained expression of someone holding back a torrent of words, Sufai found a grip on the concept she wanted to convey.

“Alidade is not a tangible or breathing crewmember, and holding her to those standards is an impossible test. What is the phrase, “Judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree?” We wanted to see if the Thunderchild passed basic shipworthiness, and then you put in a challenge like she is a captive animal who flips through hoops and are surprised when she not only did it, but did it well. Yes the crew were tossed, but their safety was a factor in her process, and Captains have given orders before to put their crews through the wringer on a high demand maneuver-“

Taking Francis’s blessing to speak for her own ship, “Izzy” appealed to Sufai as a friend, “The challenge was presented more to see what she would do. I should never have to make it clear that Starfleet Regs should be adhered to. If Alidade wanted clarification on the challenge she would have asked, “This maneuver will place a high demand and likely disrupt the crew, I don’t think this is safe. Shall we proceed, Captain? In which case your lines are, ‘Do the best you can, but keep the crew safe.’ You mention judging her on her capability, and that is what I am doing. Commander Data of the Enterpise couldn’t have pulled that off without help from a robust war frame. Alidade shouldn’t have tried to do it, even if it was within her wheelhouse, do you see how the judgement here is in question? What is to stop Alidade from raising shields and firing weapons if she perceives a threat? This ship is a vehicle for the crew, not a body for Alidade in which we are all along for the ride, do you understand?”

Sufai had called it back in the transporter room, her voice was slowly rising and gaining tension. “Yes I understand, I came in here understanding Captain. You intend to keep her in one of the twin Quantum cores, it’s why you ran a parallel system for joint control. You want Alidade trapped inside a computer core slaved to the functions of the ship without autonomy, so do you understand why I am upset? It won’t be punishment, but rather necessity and as such I am certain this will be allowed.”

Captain Francis leaned back in his chair and folded his hands. His voice was still soft and calm. "Alright, no one has said this, but let's address one thing: Alidade shook the Thunderchild around like an irate horse. Several crew yakked up breakfast. How do you man a console with stomach acid and sausage gravy all over it? How about that smell all over the ship? When do you get the chance to change your uniform? How long will it take for maintenance to recover and clean it all up? That drops crew efficiency to nearly zero, and Alidade was just getting started." Francis looked around the room. "Sorry for the imagery folks, but that alone is enough for me."

"And me," Heriah spoke up. "Though the Alidade entity has illustrated itself as more than AI, whether simple or advanced, and its code implies its age to be immeasurable, it has only been within the confines of our 4-dimensional universe for a few weeks, learning our language, our physics, our culture. In short, this entity is only a few weeks old. Vast knowledge, but little in the way of practical experience. It can learn everything about everything from reading tech manuals, but to actually put something into practice is an entirely different experience. I vote in favor of moving the Alidade entity to a separate computer core, removable even. We can transplant it to here, aboard 109. We can study it more. We can even subjugate it our own version of Starfleet Academy. Give it the experience it needs," she added.

Paul nodded, from the seat he had taken at the back of the room. Commander Rex was thinking a lot more rationally now and did not come across to him as filled with hatred as she had seemed earlier.

Sufai shook her head at nearly the same time as Captain Izwyx, but spoke anyway.

“Alidade isn't a program to be transferred, The data transfer methods are inefficient for her immeasurable complexity. There would be degradation of the data, and subsequently of Alidade. We built the Quantum cores around the Thunderchild computer systems, and she built two of them knowing this was where we would end up. Heartless prediction-“

Friends or not, this was out of line, Captain Izwyx had to stand her ground, “Heartless Prediction? How about understanding the materials I’m working with, Sufai? Alidade was imprisoned in the Thunderchild, and building her a home was my first thought, and then, after, as a second thought, it occurred to me that such a system was dangerous to the crew. The parallel systems isn't a prison for Alidade, it’s her quarters on the ship!”

Sufai blinked at that, “She is omnipresent and requires no quarters.”

Izzy was striving to keep it civil and kept a cheerful smile, “Ah, but that’s not how Starfleet vessels are intended to operate. If she is a member of the crew, then she needs to be at her station, or in her quarters, or at the mess hall playing dom-jot, but this, all this wouldn’t have happened if Alidade was a biological crewman, would it have? It was only made possible by her taking over every system simultaneously and kicking the native crew out. So let’s look at the facts here, and admit that Alidade having her own comfy core isn’t prison, it’s just establishing boundaries.”

"If she only had a heart..." Francis mused.

Heriah looked to Francis and nodded, understanding his meaning...and his reference. "Let's not forget that, according to these reports," she looked at her own PADD with the report pulled up, "Alidade wants to stay where it is. It wants to stay in our universe. To learn and grow. Sure, this exercise ended in failure, but..."

'It was doomed to fail from the start. Whatever the parameters you set, the only result would have been failure. Good job.'

"...but this was a learning experience for us all," Heriah said. "Alidade needs to accept input, from the crew, and route everything accordingly. Just as the Computer is supposed to do. The Computer has a new voice, a name apparently, emotions and thoughts whether they are true or programmed, but has to be treated as and accept that it is a member of the crew. It is not the ship itself. Now," Heriah flipped to another report; an order she typed up for Francis to accept or reject, "Being the Computer, it needs a position and a rank. My vote is Ensign of Operations. And, as all Ensigns must accept, Alidade has to fall under an LT." Heriah said that with eyes glued to Sufai. "And that LT is to get to know the Ensign, give it duties to accomplish, get to know it, and report on its growth and progress. I have here an order that names Lt. Sufai Kell as the direct line supervisor to the Alidade entity. There will be no repercussions from today's failed exercise, but, from this moment forth, LT Sufai Kell will be fully responsible for the actions of the Alidade entity as well as overseeing its progress through a scaled-down curriculum of Starfleet Academy with a focus on Operations."

Heriah slid the PADD over to the captain for him to peruse and make a decision or alterations.

Sufai knew when to keep her mouth shut, a superpower in some instances.

Francis read quickly the directive. As usual for his XO, the proposal was well stated. He handed the PADD back to Rex with a nod.

"I think this is a good idea," said the Captain. "But it doesn't address the heart of the issue... where do we put Alidade? I share Lieutenant Kell's concern that a quantum core is no place for a Starfleet officer to live. And Izzy is correct when she says an officer must have a station and quarters. I want to broaden that by saying an officer needs a place to go for recreation as well, and the ability to have friends and relations with their fellow officers. That should be a natural right to every living person. Though non-corporeal, doesn't Alidade deserve all that as well?"

"Yes," Paul said, "and needs that if she or it is to develop normally or learn more about our universe. As was said earlier, you can't get it all from books. The rest of Thunderchild's crew, as well, need to be able to get to know and learn to trust Alidade as a fellow crew member. That can't happen if she stays in the computer core all the time." He glanced at the transponder on the conference table. "I noticed there was a point during the exercise when multitudes of Alidades were running the ship. Do you think she could be content with just one avatar, except in emergencies? She could be assigned normal ensign's quarters, so if she ever wanted to have guests visit, she'd have somewhere to host them, and she'd have a roommate."

Sufai nearly squirmed out of her chair, feeling so strongly these people were talking nonsense, but knowing patience was a virtue.

Francis scoffed. "Mr. Graves, can you multiply yourself in an emergency?"

"No, sir, but Alidade can, and if she is able to do so without breaching regulations, why shouldn't she be able to lend assistance in an emergency if she is requested to? If, for instance, the person who should man a post is injured or killed, and there is no one else to cover the post?"

"At the moment, you are correct," Francis replied with a nod. But then he sat forward. The motion was dramatic enough that it demanded immediate attention to him. He looked around the room and spoke with authority. "Alright people. Let's stop the do-si-do and just spit it. If Alidade wants to be in Starfleet, she needs a real, tangible body. A body in which she cannot leave." He nodded to Sufai. "To her, the body may be a prison at first. But a real body would give her a lot more freedoms she currently doesn't have, and even deeper answers about her new existence she currently cannot understand."

Sufai and Izzy both made deep breaths to speak in opposition, catching themselves on the same side and regaining a temporary alliance, the hesitation let Paul speak reason yet again.

"Do we ask any other sapient species to do that? Paul asked. "Are there any non-corporeal species aside from Alidade?" The only species he could think of were Organians and whatever species the entities Sargon and Thalassa had belonged to.

This conversation had been had already, Sufai couldn’t hold back, “Yes as we determined at our first meetings on this topic, there are several we know of in existence, and some who even serve in Starfleet. The Medusans as a for instance, or the Phavans, Zalkonian transcendents serve in the Federation Council, We can help her to understand boundaries, but to ask her to be bound to a form isn’t right either!

"And let's not forget," Heriah jumped in, "that the Alidade entity has a mobile emitter that it can use to display itself outside of the Thunderchild. Within the ship, there are mobile emitters implanted throughout for the entity to display itself. Just like the EMH can display himself. So, it can have quarters, a roommate, etc. On top of that, the Alidade entity has a code that has taken up the entire partition of the Computer AI. And not just that partition, but the backup as well as the secondary backup, not to mention some of the partition for personal storage. To remove it from the Quantum Core and store it in a separate device that also has the processing power to process that much code all at once, we will need a mobile emitter the size of a proton torpedo. No do-si-do, captain," she said as she turned her attention to Gordon, "but we may have to accept the Alidade entity residing within the Thunderchild for the time being."

'Or remove it from the core and imprison it in a separate core to run tests and study it further.'

"Or remove it from the core and house it in a separate core to run tests and study it further," Heriah added.

“SHE!” Sufai was loud without yelling, firmly announcing a world of personal opinion. “NOT IT. SHE. This is a first contact for what it matters at this point., If she is being charged to my care then I first have to insist on all of us using the same terms. Alidade is Sentient, and has an identity. Alidade has passed every test given, and has shown us to be responsible and caring for the lives of others. Why are we going in a circle on this? It is unethical to even have this discussion without her presence as she should have every right to represent herself. We do not get to decide her form, or how she presents herself, our ship tore her from her home, we have a responsibility to go beyond containment and research.”

Rather than add more, Izzy reinforced her friend with a small continuous nod of the head.

Heriah only looked at Sufai blankly as she spoke.

'This one has fire. She may get fooled by this AI, but she is determined and forthcoming. I disagree with her, but I like her.'

Heriah nodded finally and sat back in her chair.

"Lieutenant Kell is correct, Rex," Francis said, trying to bring the intensity down a few notches. He looked at Izzy and Sufai. "On a lot of things, actually. First and foremost, she does have an identity, and that includes a gender. Let's do our best to respect that. Now, we've determined that Alidade has failed a test due to reckless misjudgment in operating the Thunderchild. We more or less agree she put the crew in great and unnecessary danger. We also agree that the situation as is needs to change. I think it's time to bring Alidade in, so to speak, and hear her side of the story." He glanced at Rex and Sufai. "And let's try to relax."

-To Be Continued-

 

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