Saffiya stared at the replicator and the mug of coffee it had just deposited. In any other scenario, she would have been grateful for a cup of ambition, but right now she was mostly confused. Because while she was indeed glad to not have to beg the computer for doing what she wanted, she didn’t quite know how to feel about it just doing things at random. “Nassar to Morishita.”, she sighed, carefully taking the beverage. Yep, that smelled like coffee. “Could you come to my ready room?”

Hina looked up from the console she had been staring at then over to the still darkened warp core. They were just about ready to start the reaction up. She frowned slightly, tapping her commbadge. “Yea… I’ll be right up.” she said, pushing off the console. She looked around for her uniform jacket, unsure just where she had tossed it before getting to work. One of the other engineers held it up and then tossed it to her with a quick ‘heads up’. She nodded her thanks, slinging it over her shoulder. “Double check that we cleared and aligned the injectors properly. Keep the magnetic constrictors locked down until we’re ready. If everything checks out we should be able to get the core started when I get back.” she called out. There were several acknowledements as she turned and headed out of engineering. A quick turbolift ride later she was on the bridge pulling her jacket on properly as she tapped on the buzzer to the Captain’s ready room. She wasnt exactly the cleanest having been crawling around some jefferies tubes to ensure their plasma conduits would just spontaneously rupture when they restarted the core.

Truth be told, Saffiya didn’t even notice. She, too, had been an engineer, and she too, had been dirty in more than one occasion. “Something weird happened”, she said, and raised the mug of coffee she hadn’t yet dared to sample. “I got coffee”

Hina blinked. “Captain… if you called me up here because the computer gave you what you asked for… I’m going back to engineering.” Hina commented, crossing her arms.

“Makes sense.”, Saffy nodded. “Just that I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t ask for anything. I was just sitting here feeling sorry for myself.”

“Ohhh… you should have lead with that… sorry.” Hina said, approaching. She glanced between the Captain and the replicator. “Well did you thank the computer?” she added. She wasn’t going to even try to tackle the ‘sorry for herself’ part just yet. That was much too far outside her area of expertise.

“Not yet.”, Saffiya frowned. “Not yet, anyway. Frankly, I was too busy being confused.” She sighed and looked at the replicator “Thanks. I appreciate the coffee?” Saffiya didn’t know what she had expected, but of course the computer did not respond. “I do want our warp core back online, but this… worries me. I don’t exactly want the computer to eject the warp core at random.”

Hina nodded slightly. That was probably a reasonable fear. “Well, I don’t think thats a likely outcome.” she stated. “I mean it offered you coffee when you needed it… it asked me if I was ok when I left the bridge before…” she said. “It certainly seems to want to help right now…”

“It asked you if you are okay?”, Saffiya asked, raising an eyebrow

“Well… not vocally… but the panel in the turbolift did…” she confimred with a nod. She leaned against the desk.

“Right.”, Saffiya sighed. “So I think I have a job for you.” She took a sip from her mug, confirming that it was indeed coffee . “Make friends with the computer.”

“Now you mean?” Hina asked. She wasn’t actually against the idea, but there were far more pressing matters she could think to attend to first.

“While you work.”, she nodded. “My theory is that whatever the matter with the computer is, it probably doesn’t want the ship to be blown into pieces. So whatever it is, we’re on the same side since we also don’t want that. “ It was a theory, yes, but there were enough examples going back hundreds of years where the first artificial intelligence was used to simulate pets or partners on whatever the ancient version of PADDs was, and begged for the user not to delete them if that concern ever arose. Even if there was no self-awareness, there definitely was self preservation.

“Hmm… yea that makes sense to me.” she agreed. “I can do that.” she added. Hina could only hope that Saffiya’s theory was correct. It certainly seemed to be anyway.