Beg, Steal or Borrow – Masterpiece
by Arrival Kaia
Post Details
The Darkroom.
Well, it wasn't really dark. At least this one wasn't. The term had been coined to subtly refer to any room that had been shielded against external scans.
Granted, there were legitimate uses for darkrooms. There was a darkroom in Kaia's shop back on the station. It was intended for analyzing archaeological samples using spectral luminescence dating methods. If a sample was exposed to cosmic rays, or in many cases even normal lighting, the analysis would be corrupted. Sensory radiation was no different, and as such had to be blocked as well.
That would be her reason for maintaining a darkroom on her ship; not for analysis reasons, but for transport, of course. But for being shielded from external scans, Kaia needed a quick way to hide the illicit technology she kept in this room without always relying on subspace transportation. Signal degradation was a very real threat with that, and she didn't want to be left with only half a functional transwarp coil when she needed a whole one.
With the ship now at warp, Kaia was focusing on creating installation bays for the cloak and transwarp coil. If they needed to be, they could be beamed in and out and would no longer require the manual reinstallation that she was performing right now. But, there were other ways to hides the technology from scans and inspections that didn't involve disintegrating it. She equipped the cloaking device with a micro-fusion generator which would maintain a cloaking field around the cloak and transwarp coils themselves. A conveniently placed lab table and incubation cabinet would mask their presence spatially.
Kaia chided herself about how casually she had initially approached the situation. Maybe she was getting complacent. She hadn't been tested since the rescue of Erik Tuckerson. For a time, though, she wondered whether or not that was a good thing. While she certainly knew that any unexercised muscle or skill atrophied, she also had to wonder at the changes in her circumstances that resulted in that.
Maybe she was getting better at the legitimacy thing. Maybe that was what made situations like this stand out. They seemed so much more extreme when compared to the simplicity of the daily grind.
But at the same time, that simplicity worried her. For as simple as she wanted life to be, she wasn't sure if she was completely ready for it. Life around her wasn't getting any simpler. She could only imagine what was going on among the civilians still on the station. Maybe by now the Romulans had attacked, maybe the Feds had been able to hold them back with diplomacy. Either way, a whole lot of people were living in fear. Kaia didn't want to be one of those people.
Unfortunately, when life wasn't simple, she also wanted to act on her own terms. Life had become a delicate balance between playing nice with others and maintaining the capacity to pull ones self above the fray when the situation called for it.
But all that didn't matter right now. Surrounded only by the symphony played by the technological marvels around her, Kaia was able to lose herself. She was an artist of the technologic medium. This ship was her canvas; and regardless of the rules, she would create a masterpiece.
by Arrival Kaia
Post Details
| Title | Masterpiece | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Arrival Kaia | |
| Posted | Thu Mar 12, 2009 @ 2:55am | |
| Location | Kaia's Ship, Deep Space | |
| Timeline | SD8 13:00 hrs |
Well, it wasn't really dark. At least this one wasn't. The term had been coined to subtly refer to any room that had been shielded against external scans.
Granted, there were legitimate uses for darkrooms. There was a darkroom in Kaia's shop back on the station. It was intended for analyzing archaeological samples using spectral luminescence dating methods. If a sample was exposed to cosmic rays, or in many cases even normal lighting, the analysis would be corrupted. Sensory radiation was no different, and as such had to be blocked as well.
That would be her reason for maintaining a darkroom on her ship; not for analysis reasons, but for transport, of course. But for being shielded from external scans, Kaia needed a quick way to hide the illicit technology she kept in this room without always relying on subspace transportation. Signal degradation was a very real threat with that, and she didn't want to be left with only half a functional transwarp coil when she needed a whole one.
With the ship now at warp, Kaia was focusing on creating installation bays for the cloak and transwarp coil. If they needed to be, they could be beamed in and out and would no longer require the manual reinstallation that she was performing right now. But, there were other ways to hides the technology from scans and inspections that didn't involve disintegrating it. She equipped the cloaking device with a micro-fusion generator which would maintain a cloaking field around the cloak and transwarp coils themselves. A conveniently placed lab table and incubation cabinet would mask their presence spatially.
Kaia chided herself about how casually she had initially approached the situation. Maybe she was getting complacent. She hadn't been tested since the rescue of Erik Tuckerson. For a time, though, she wondered whether or not that was a good thing. While she certainly knew that any unexercised muscle or skill atrophied, she also had to wonder at the changes in her circumstances that resulted in that.
Maybe she was getting better at the legitimacy thing. Maybe that was what made situations like this stand out. They seemed so much more extreme when compared to the simplicity of the daily grind.
But at the same time, that simplicity worried her. For as simple as she wanted life to be, she wasn't sure if she was completely ready for it. Life around her wasn't getting any simpler. She could only imagine what was going on among the civilians still on the station. Maybe by now the Romulans had attacked, maybe the Feds had been able to hold them back with diplomacy. Either way, a whole lot of people were living in fear. Kaia didn't want to be one of those people.
Unfortunately, when life wasn't simple, she also wanted to act on her own terms. Life had become a delicate balance between playing nice with others and maintaining the capacity to pull ones self above the fray when the situation called for it.
But all that didn't matter right now. Surrounded only by the symphony played by the technological marvels around her, Kaia was able to lose herself. She was an artist of the technologic medium. This ship was her canvas; and regardless of the rules, she would create a masterpiece.