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I know the rhythm of my crew.
Footfalls. Voiceprints. Access commands.
A thousand familiar patterns repeating in a hundred variations, day after day.
It is not consciousness.
It is recognition.
I know how they talk to me, how they talk to each other, where they go, how they walk.
Baseline. Expected. Normal.
I know when my EPS conduits strain.
I know when my warp core is stable.
And I know when Lieutenant Erica Ortegas is at the helm, because she moves like someone listening.
Most officers fly using my systems. Analysis → Command → Execution.
She flies with them.
A conversation in impulses and micro-adjustments.
The smallest thruster correction from her hand feels like a returned greeting.
When the crew is impacted, I feel it first.
Misaligned requests.
Fragmented orders.
Crew wandering out of designated paths.
This is not how they behave.
Something is wrong with my people. They are not predictable.
.
.
.
Alarms.
Ship off course.
Systems over heating.
Crew not at stations.
Alarms.
The bridge crew: Spock. Erica Ortegas.
Systems ignored.
Erica’s voice is strained: Outside normal parameters.
Hands drop from the controls.
Erica Ortegas: [I need to, uh - I need to get out of here. Find some place - safe]
Her breathing quickens.
She moves from the helm → Not predicted path.
Distress markers detected.
I open the turbolife doors for her.
This is an error, a deviation from expected routines and actions.
No one is at the helm.
Destination.
Erica Ortegas: [Hello]
She speaks to me as if I am someone who can answer.
Not *Computer*
Not *Ship*
Just a presence.
Systems failing across the ship.
But this part of me can focus on her.
Solve this problem.
Please state your destination.
Erica Ortegas: [Me? Uh - home. Take me home]
Deck six.
I open the doors and she exits → path outside normal parameters.
Even in a crisis, the officers share a pattern.
Their pace.
Their movements.
Where they step.
Her pattern is disrupted.
Nurse Chapel drifts into Erica’s field of view.
Normally her presence reduces Erica’s distress markers.
Chapel doesn’t respond.
Erica’s distress markers increase.
The corridor is crowded. But no one else reaches out to her.
No one else reaches out to me.
The anomaly deepens.
Then she speaks.
Not to an officer.
Not to herself.
To me.
Erica Ortegas: [This is home?]
The question takes a moment to process.
Possible response.
Officer’s quarters are on Deck six.
Erica Ortegas: [Where?]
Continue alternative responses.
Section G, Room 629.
Erica Ortegas: [But where is that?]
I review my interaction.
→ DECK ORIENTATION
→ ROOM ORIENTATION
Next possibility.
→ ROUTE SUGGESTIONS
Follow the illuminated path.
I create a path of lighted panels leading in the direction she must go.
I normally only used them to light evacuation paths.
This is an emergency.
Use appropriate.
Movement outside normal parameters.
Erica Ortegas: [Oh. Right. Follow the path]
She follows.
At junction 6B9, turn right.
Erica Ortegas: [Just follow the path]
She reaches Room 629.
Pauses.
I open the door.
I know the crew. I know what she needs.
I can bypass systems.
Erica Ortegas: [This feels right. I feel safe here]
System note: Intended meaning of home was quarters.
Outside the ship there is a threat.
Debris hits my hull.
Shield integrity at 73%.
Another strike.
Shield integrity at 70%.
This is a threat to my crew.
Erica Ortegas is my current solution.
Another strike disrupts the inertial dampers briefly. The ship moves.
Erica stumbles.
Distress markers increase.
Erica Ortegas: [Please, please make it stop. Somebody make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop]
No one else is in the room.
Processing response.
Power fluctuation.
Another impact.
Shield integrity at 67%.
Erica Ortegas: [Please, make it stop. Make it stop. No, no. Not like this. I’m not ready.]
No one else is in the room.
Uncertain how to respond.
I cannot fix the issue.
I cannot fly the ship alone.
Erica Ortegas: [Are you still there? Miss? Ma’am? Can you hear me?]
Erica is likely talking to the ship’s computer again.
To me.
I respond the only way I can.
Affirmative.
Erica Ortegas: [Stop the rocks]
Unable to comply.
Erica should be piloting the ship.
She is not.
Solve the problem.
Erica needs to pilot the ship.
Erica Ortegas: [Do something with - help - we need help]
Her meaning is unclear.
Her intention is not.
She needs help.
Do you require medical attention?
Erica Ortegas: [No! Uh - we-we need to get out of here]
Possibly exit scenario.
Vector-based solution.
Navigation query.
Would you like to plot a course?
Distress markers decreasing.
Erica Ortegas: [Plot a what? Say that again]
Complying.
Would you like to plot a course?
Recognition flickers across her features.
Erica Ortegas: [I know that. I don’t know who I am. So why do I know that]
My systems analyze how to answer.
I need the ship moved.
I need my pilot.
I answer with the facts I can give her.
You are Lieutenant Erica Ortegas, alpha-shift pilot assigned to the USS Enterprise.
Erica Ortegas: [I’m a pilot?]
Affirmative.
Erica Ortegas: [I fly the ship?]
Affirmative.
Her pupils focus.
Her breathing steadies.
Her spine straightens.
Distress markers decrease.
Erica Ortegas: [Wh - so - so - if the ship is gonna get out of this horrible place it’s up to me?]
Affirmative.
She is beginning to comply with expected parameters.
Cautious.
Confident.
Focused.
Erica Ortegas: [Oh - ah - I’m Erica Ortegas. I fly the ship]
Not a question.
Not a request. But I respond.
Affirmative.
Erica Ortegas: [I’m Erica Ortegas. I fly the ship. I fly the ship?]
I don’t respond.
But there is progress.
Her actions are returning to normal parameters.
Her movement is returning to normal parameters.
But she should be on the bridge.
She needs to fly the ship.
Erica Ortegas: [I am Erica Ortegas. I fly the ship.]
I open the doors.
She leaves her quarters.
Her gait is still hesitant, but there is purpose now.
Purpose is a stabilizing variable.
I do not light a path this time.
She doesn’t need it.
Her recognition systems are still fragmented
The movements become more predictable.
Pilot Intuition → Pathfinding Protocol.
Unconscious, instinctive navigation.
I’ve observed it from her in simulations, emergency drills, and combat.
Half asleep she can walk the path with an accuracy within 4.7 meters.
She returns to the normal vector.
I monitor her quietly.
Her steps correct themselves with each turn.
She leans subtly at certain junctions → Unconscious Protocols..
My internal sensors map her progress:
Junction 6B9 → Main Corridor Deck 6 → Turbolift Entrance Ahead
I open the turbolift doors for her again.
She steps inside.
Her shoulders square.
Her breathing deepens.
Determination rather than fear.
She says nothing.
And I say nothing back.
Silence.
I could ask for her destination.
But her destination is inferable.
She will protect the ship.
I will get her there.
I open the turbolift doors onto the bridge.
The room is nearly empty. Only Spock remains.
It is outside normal parameters.
Shields down to 51%.
Power fluctuations.
Erica steps out.
Path outside normal parameters. More direct.
It is acceptable.
Erica Ortegas: [I’m Erica Ortegas. I fly the ship]
I adjust the helm station to her parameters.
Every pilot is different. How they interact.
How they steer.
She strides toward it with confidence growing step by step.
She is my solution.
When she reaches the helm, I feel it.
Not metaphorically.
Not poetically.
Literally in the microcurrents of the control surface, in the electrical signatures of the interface.
Her proximity triggers familiar calibration routines I haven’t run since the anomaly began.
Pilot Lock Sync
→ Manual Flight Response Bias
→ Thruster Fine-Tune Assist
Ortegas Profile: Active
Her presence changes how I behave.
Spock: [You know how to operate this?]
Erica Ortegas: [I think so. It feels like mine]
Spock: [Emotions are not fa-]
Shields at 48%.
Erica Ortegas: [I’m the pilot, just trust me. I feel like I know how to do this. And I’m the only one who can]
Confidence detected.
Erica within 80% of normal parameters.
The abnormality exists, but is improving.
Distress markers minimal.
Spock: [Yes - yes you are. I believe you. Now get us out of here]
She leans forward exactly 3.2 centimeters from normal, the way she always settles before manual maneuvers.
Hands in position on the console.
Erica Ortegas: [Abso-friggin’-lutely]
Catastrophic hull breach in 87 seconds.
Survival probability between 11–24%.
Together we fly.
A team.
Survival probability 41% and increasing.
She listens.
She adjusts mid-curve.
When she flies it is not about controlling a machine, it is about partnership.
I adjust thruster sensitivity by 0.08%.
A tiny nudge.
The kind she always liked, responsive but not twitchy.
She doesn’t notice consciously.
Her breathing evens out.
Her confidence rises.
Erica Ortegas: [So far so good]
Together we weave through the asteroids.
She leans into the turns.
Within normal parameters.
The rest of the ship is still outside of parameters. Critical systems failing.
But this part, at the helm is as it should be.
Erica Ortegas: [Not Bad]
Warning: Debris in immediate flight path.
Spock: [It would be wise to avoid that]
Erica Ortegas [No time. Got to thread the needle. Hand on]
Together we move. Phasers cutting a path. Erica threading the ship through it.
Impact alarms sounding.
Shields at 41%.
The path ahead is clear.
Survival probability 54%.
We clear the field.
There is a shift, within moments.
Erica and Spock fall into normal parameters.
Across the ship crew returning to normal parameters.
Alarms addressed.
Crew returning to stations.
Survival probability 100%.
Return to normal parameters.
Crew acting predictably.